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Dvr H.Adler
PAL/30765
650, G.T.Coy R.A.S.C
“B” Platoon
C.M.F

18 May 1945

I am now in one of the most beautiful corner of Italy, on Lake Como, two steps from Switzerland. And strange as that may seem I’m not here for a rest but on service- nothing could be more agreeable. Two, three hours a day, some insignificant journeys and for the rest the good life.

Since our last decisive offensive and even after victory we of transport have a lot to do. Each day I drove hundreds of kilometres.  We advanced at lightning speed. It was very, very hard. Tiring. But now at last I’m attached with three comrades to a “rest-camp”(Eng) and my service is much more like “rest” (Eng) than “duty”(Eng). The surroundings here are so beautiful and picturesque that I often have trouble in believing that they are real. It’s like a fairytale. Imagine, darling, a lake surrounded by high mountains covered with green trees and multicoloured flowers. But the green dominates absolutely. It’s a rhapsody in green… In the height of the mountains there are only villas bathed in gardens, each more beautiful, more fantastic than the other. I often go into these luxurious palaces and in them always see reflected all the misery of the low town of Naples. In all my life I was never in such close contact with the interior life of millionaires as I am now. This is a very famous place. And if I were not in the service of HM I would never have had occasion to see with my own eyes the riot of luxury hiding the perversity and the rottenness of the ruling classes….

The war did not come this way. One would say that there was a tacit understanding to save the sensitive women from the infernal noise of bombardment. Or rather you could say that there is a natural law by which the bomb, in a spirit of social hygiene prefers to destroy the lane with its hovels and avoid the avenues with the splendid palaces. I don’t know. But the fact is that there is no trace of war here. There are only people who have taken refuge here. The rich. The kids tanned by the sun and by the successful speculations of their fathers. Refugees. Brothers of those in the caves filled with rats and phthisis in Naples. There was a typhus epidemic during my time in Naples. A result of the ruins, of hunger, of promiscuity. It was fought with “louse powder”. There are no lice here. What a shame for the stock of powder the Army still has.

In the villa where I am living there are so many bedrooms and drawing rooms, that I have not managed to count them. “Luxury, calm, order and beauty” – I begin to dislike Baudelaire. I walk for hours in this villa and every time I discover a new room. And the furniture and floors “polished by the years”. Up till now I have found 5 bathrooms. And I discovered something else about this palace. In the enormous garden lived a family of three: the gentleman, the lady and the child. A Jewish family.  The lice are lost in this vast space….

I have learnt that it will be possible to get demobilised where you are, if you can show that the country where you want to stay is ready to accept you. In our case, your presence in France would make my situation easier and I could come to France without going through Palestine. That would mean some trouble and some steps on your part as soon as you arrive in France. You said to me once that it’s probable you will leave in June. That would be wonderful.

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