Very well, we won’t argue about it. We shall never agree on these points nor on a good many others. I know what I know; and I stick to it.
Otto
I also know what I know; and history will judge between us.... Let us try rather to get back to the feeling that united us before this cataclysm, for which we are not responsible.
The Burgomaster
It’s a good thing that you at least do not hold us to be responsible for the disaster which your people have brought on us. I thank you for that.
Otto
Why do you say such things to me? I have absolutely nothing to do with what has happened. Like the rest of us, I am compelled to obey an authority which no one can resist. I am a wheel in the machine. I cannot act otherwise than I do. But my feelings, my affections are just the same as they were before the war! I persuaded my superiors to send me here, so that I might prove how grateful I am to you....
The Burgomaster
And because you know the country so well!
Otto