10 FEBRUARY 1996, Page 16

Fifty years ago

A NEUTRAL friend well placed to fol- low the trend of opinion in Germany gives me a depressing picture of the general frame of mind. Even what may be termed from an international point of view the best Germans are quite frankly expressing regret not that they made the war but that they lost the war. So far from execrating Hitler as the cause of all their misery, they look back to the Hitler regime as the brightest period in German history, when the country was feared and therefore respected, when unemployment van- ished and the average German lived in comfort.

The Spectator 8 February 1946