My Years with Ludwig von Mises.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

time. He never believed in the "tausendjaehrige Reich." Lu's judgment
about France's moral and combat strength was the only politicalerror
I ever knew him to make. His other judgments-in politics
or economics-always proved to be correct.
But his trust in France was wrong. The famous Maginot Line,
the construction of which was started in 1930 and finished in 1935,
was considered by the French to be impregnable. But great errors
were made. One was that the line ended at the Belgian frontier, so
the way into Belgium was open. The second was that too many
soldiers were behind the lines for defense and too few outside for
battle. This was a weak and critical point, which, from the beginning,
Hitler had taken into consideration. When Poland was conquered,
Hitler ordered that no action whatsoever should be taken
alongthe Western front. "The responsibility to open.the fight must
rest solely with England or France," he declared. All winter long
there was neither war nor peace, hardly any hostilities, no battles.
This situation greatly weakened the morale of the French troops,
and the mood of France became the mood of Switzerland.
One night in October or November, 1939, I do not remember the
exact date, all Geneva was peacefully asleep, when suddenly a
terrible uproar awoke everyone. Sirens were screaming, fire engines
were shrieking. We rushed to the window, carefully lifted a
bit of the curtain, and saw the darkness of the night pierced by
searchlights. Shortly afterward, squadrons of Swiss fighters were
in the air.
What had happened? The Royal Air Force apparently had made
a geographical error. They were supposed to bomb Hitler's retreat
in Bavaria, and they mistook Lake Geneva for the Koenigssee near
Berchtesgaden. I doubt that this will be found in any history book.
It was December 9, a cold, bleak winter day; the streets were full
of snow. Lu had his seminar and I had to do some errands. When I
came home and went as usual to his studio to greet him,he sat very
quietly at his desk and did not get up·tokiss me as he usually did. I
looked at him and saw immediately that something was wrong. He
was very pale and just sat there, neither reading nor writing.
"What's wrong, darling?" I asked him. And then he told methat in
the morning, on his way to the institute, he had slipped on the icy
snow and fallen and hurt himself. I asked, "Where?" He showed
me his right hand, the joint of which was terribly swollen. "Have
you seen the doctor?" I asked. "No," he said, "I went to the institute,
delivered my lecture and directed the discussion afterwards. I
had no time for the doctor." I was shocked. He must have experienced
terrible pain, to judge by the swelling of the hand. I suspected
a fracture, called a taxi, and went with him to the hospital,
53