The World of Yesterday but hated politics and shunned political engagement. His autobiography shows some reluctance to analyse Nazism as a political ideology; he tended simply to regard it as the rule of one particularly evil man, Hitler. Zweig was struck that the "Berghof", Hitler's mountain residence in Berchtesgaden, was just across the valley from his own house outside Salzburg. Berchtesgaden was an area of early Nazi activity. Zweig believed strongly in Europeanism against nationalism. Zweig also describes his passion for collecting manuscripts, mostly literary and musical. Zweig collaborated in the early 1930s with composer Richard Strauss on the opera "Die schweigsame Frau", which
Fortified Sector of Maubeuge German forces reduced the defenses the individual battalions were compelled to retreat. The first battalion was captured at Blarégnies on 22 and 23 May. The remaining units made their way to Dunkerque where they were evacuated to England in the Dunkirk evacuation. Four years later the unit returned as part of the French 54th Infantry Regiment, which was captured by German forces in the Falaise area on 17 and 18 June 1944. The 87th Fortress Infantry Regiment manned the Hainaut sub-sector. Attacked from 17 May, the regiment began to fall back to Erguennes on 20 May, while the fortified positions