Spring came to southeastern Europe last week. Adolf Hitler could have put a canoe into a tiny stream in the Black Forest and followed the last chunks of ice down a Danube swollen by the 300 tributaries which interlace his new domain. The sights would be gruesome or inspiring, depending on where he stopped.
Austria. At his beloved Vienna, Hitler would hear from his Gauleiters about "joyous celebrations" on the fourth anniversary of the Anschluss. But if he took a bath in the Imperial Hotel, where he stayed in the spring of 1938, Hitler would have to dry himself with paper towels. Hotel owners can now be hanged as "traitors to the fatherland" unless they surrender all cloth towels. They are needed for bandages on the Russian front.
Czecho-Slovakia. At Bratislava, 40 miles east of Vienna, Hitler would see workmen feverishly camouflaging the mammoth dynamite factory so that its colors would blend with those of the freshly plowed Slovak and Hungarian fields. Authorities feared that the R.A.F. might try to repeat its Paris success in Czechoslovakia. In the newspapers Hitler would read about the desperate drive to increase armament production (in some factories it was down to 20% of capacity), but he would know that longer hours might mean more fuseless bombs, more faulty aircraft.
Hungary. Drifting past the villages near Budapest, Hitler might mistake the laughter of gaily dressed women beating clothes along the banks for a sign that all was well in Hungary. But he could hardly fail to feel the tense atmosphere pervading the old brownstone Government buildings overlooking the Danube. Small, impeccable Nicholas Kallay, who last week became Premier after the attempted suicide of Dr. Laszlo Bardossy, would explain: though Hungary and Rumania are allies against Russia, they are, in effect, fighting each other. Both countries know that the one which helps Germany the most will be rewarded with Transylvania. While Rumanian radio stations shout that Hungary is holding back in Russia in order to attack Rumania later, Hungarian troops are fortifying the Rumanian frontier.
Yugoslavia. Hitler would be tired and fretful after the 500-mile voyage south to Belgrade, but the sight of mile-long food queues along Mihilova Street and the devastation wrought by his bombers a year ago might soothe him. He would not dare to make side trips up rivers like the Bosna or the Drina, because they lead to regions held by General Draja Mihailovich's growing guerrilla army. This band of 145-150,000 Serbs, Greeks and Bulgars is becoming a symbol of freedom to all the silent people of the Balkans. The Germans and Italians have increased their armies in Yugoslavia to 400,000. They have ordered peasants to grow no tall crops within 500 yards of rail lines or main roads. It required five Nazified Bulgarian divisions to reopen the main railway from Nish to Salonika, over which Germany sends small submarines, piecemeal, to the Mediterranean.
Rumania. Passing through the twilight gloom of the Kazan defile, 100 miles east of Belgrade, Hitler would soon reach the historic Iron Gate, separating the Balkan and the Carpathian ranges. There, on the western border of Rumania, he might meet his stooge, General Ion Antonescu. The General's report would be grim: