The case has some bearing on the subject discussed here, and for that reason I will refer to it briefly.
At the American embassy at Berlin they had put my passport into proper shape, as they thought. A Mr. Harvey was positive that such was the case. But at the border it was found that somebody was mistaken. The Tenth Army, in whose bailiwick I found myself, had changed the passport regulations, and the American embassy at Berlin seemed not to have heard of the change.
A very snappy sergeant of the border survey service wanted to know how I had dared to travel with an imperfectly viséd passport. There was nothing else to say but that I thought the passport was in order.
"Sie haben kein Recht zu denken" ("You have no right to think"), snarled the man.
That remark stunned me. Here was a human being audacious enough to deny another human being the right to think. What next?
The result of some suitable remarks of mine were that presently I was under arrest and off for an interview with the Landrat—the county president at Bentheim.
The Landrat was away, however—hunting, as I remember it. In his stead I found a so-called assessor. I can say for the man that he was the most offensive government official or employee I have ever met. He had not said ten words when that was plain to me.
"Ah! You thought the passport was in order," he mocked. "You thought so! Don't you know that it is dangerous to think?"
There and then my patience took leave of me. I made a few remarks that left no doubt in the mind of the official that I reserved for myself the right to think, whether that was in Germany or in Hades.
Within a fortnight I was back in Berlin. I am not given to making a mountain out of every little molehill I come across, but I deemed it necessary to bring the incident at Bentheim to the attention of the proper authorities.