How German is Alsace-Lorraine?
from a French romantic novelette – love and betrayal in war-time Alsace The state of affairs in Alsace-Lorraine is one of Germany’s most carefully hidden secrets. In the first months of the war I heard so much talk in Germany talk based upon articles in the Press of how the Alsatians, like the rest of the Kaiser’s subjects, “rushed to the defence of the Fatherland,” that I was filled with curiosity to go and see for myself if they had suddenly changed. I could hardly believe that they had, for I had studied conditions in the “lost provinces ” before the war. Still, the Wilhelmstrasse propaganda was convincing millions that the Alsatians received the French very coldly when they invaded the province to Mulhouse, and that they greeted the German troops most heartily when they drove back the invader. Indeed, Alsatian fathers were depicted as rushing into the streets to cheer the German colours, while their wives and daughters “were so beside themselves with joy that they hung upon the nec
