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Page:Ambassador Morgenthau's Story.djvu/472

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AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY

with Dr. Alexander and his wife at their home. I had been there about fifteen minutes when Zimmermann was announced! He was a different kind of man from Von Jagow. He impressed me as much stronger, mentally and physically. He was tall, even stately in his bearing, masterful in his manner, direct and searching in his questions, but extremely pleasing and insinuating. Zimmermann, discussing the German-American situation, began with a statement which I presume he thought would be gratifying to me. He told me how splendidly the Jews had behaved in Germany during the war and how deeply under obligations the Germans felt to them.

"After the war," he said, "they are going to be much better treated in Germany than they have been."

Zimmermann told me that Von Jagow had told him about our talk and asked me to repeat part of it. He was particularly interested, he said, in my statements about the German-Americans, and he wished to learn from me himself the facts upon which I based my conclusions. Like most Germans, he regarded the Germanic elements in our population as almost a part of Germany.

"Are you sure that the mass of German-Americans would be loyal to the United States in case of war?" he asked. "Aren't their feelings for the Fatherland really dominant?"

"You evidently regard those German-Americans as a distinct part of the population," I replied, "living apart from the rest of the people and having very little to do with American life as a whole. You could not make a greater mistake. You can purchase a few here and there, who will make a big noise and shout for,