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Author Feuchtwanger accuses the Nazis of hushing up such "unpleasant matters." "In a country of sixty-five million people, it had become possible to slaughter three thousand people, to cripple thirty thousand, and to imprison one hundred thousand without trial and without reason, and yet preserve an outward aspect of peace and order." Though Feuchtwanger rarely refers to Hitler except as "the Leader'' or "the Leader of the barbarians." his foreword will enrage Nazis even more than his book. Explaining that he chose the name "Oppermann'' "because it brings to mind similar, generally Jewish names . . . and at the same time has a German sound," he adds: "A parallel in stance occurs in the name Hitler, which is borne by a Jewish family in Moravia as well as by the Chancellor of the Reich." The Author, a native "Munchener" (born 1884), has always been an out spoken critic of his birthplace. He calls its art "narrow-minded, pompous, academic," its inhabitants "mouldy, stuffy and alcoholic." In 1912 he married, went abroad. The War found him in Tunis, where he was interned as an enemy alien. His wife smuggled him aboard an Italian boat; he got back to Germany in time to serve in the army. During the War his writings were constantly suppressed. Not until 1926. when Power was published, did he become widely known outside Germany. Poetic playwright as well as novelist, he has written Warren Hastings, Vasantasena, Die Kriegsgefangencn (Prisoners of War). Nervous, twitchetty, bespectacled, he has a big nose, prominent mouth, receding chin, looks like a fat-cheeked rat. Exiled from Germany last year. Author Feuchtwanger now lives in Sanary, on the Riviera.
