English Translation

8 Karlovy Vary, 4 January 1944. I/3a Nx.34/44 B (I/5) 5260 Secret! L a g e b e r i c h t for the month J a n u a r 1944. - - I. Political part. 1.) Political situation in general, mood of the population. All signs indicate that in the coming months the huge struggle is striving for its culmination and pushing for a decision. The very serious struggles currently raging in the desert and the attacks in Italy are only to be regarded as the foreplay for the forthcoming decision-making struggle, for which the attempts to invade and the measures of the German side threaten. In anticipation of the coming events, the German people are in a state of strongest tension and excitement, with burning uncertainty, but not without confidence, it looks forward to further development. It knows what this struggle is all about. The extradition of Europe to Moscow by the United States and England has convinced even the simplest of peoples what fate awaits him in the event of a victory of the enemy powers and that only the unbroken defense of the German Wehrmacht and a strong and loose home front can force the onslaught of the enemies down. Therefore, in its healthy parts, it will continue to be able to meet the highest requirements and prove itself as it has been in the past, and the visual mood, which must be expressed openly, can by no means be described as good. The slowing down of the mood, however, is less due to the general hardships and pressures which the war entails and which naturally oppress each individual, but essentially to the fact that the German people are disappointed over the course of the war in recent months. Setbacks in the ups and downs of war may well be borne by a people conscious of their strength and hardened in war like the German, but dissatisfaction and in some circles also a certain uncertainty has caused it, that for many months the enemy bomb terror can race uninhibitedly over Germany, that one flourishing city after another sinks into rubble and ashes, without the retribution so often announced. In view of the general increase in the situation, it is therefore also primarily the question of the retribution which the people are moving to the highest extent, since the effect of the weapon of retaliation after the announcements made promises the decision of the war. The extent to which the German people deal with this question and to what extent the scine aroused imagination rises in anticipation of the retribution strike may be seen from the fact that, according to the reports of nine Landrats and Lord Mayors, there were indeed people who believed to be able to see an announcement of the reprisals in the image action "Grey shadows with question marks" initiated a few weeks ago. As the district council of Karlovy Vary reports, the shadow image under the motto