The Last Five Years

Abstract

Orwell went to Paris for The Observer on 15 February 1945. He wrote thirteen articles for The Observer (two after his final return on 24 May 1945 — ‘final return’, because, very sadly, he had to return hastily when Eileen died on 29 March), and five for The Manchester Evening News. Orwell wrote from Paris, Cologne (where he was himself so ill that he had to be taken to hospital four days before Eileen died), Nuremberg, Stuttgart, and Austria. His articles discussed such things as the state of Paris newspapers (2627); the political aims of the Resistance (2632); an acrimonious debate about the continuation of state subsidies for Roman Catholic schools, which the Vichy Government, unlike the Third Republic, had paid (2633); the obstacles to Austrian recovery and joint rule of Germany presented by zoning, the four allies having separate areas of influence (2669, 2671); and the belief held by many French people that Britain had undergone ‘an actual social revolution’, leading to a ‘flattering but somewhat exaggerated estimate of British political achievement during the war’ (2637). He was much exercised by the problems facing the millions of displaced persons, how they would be fed and what was to become of them. He also tried hard to get across to British readers how desperately short of food were the Germans. In 1946 British rations were cut to feed the near-starving Germans and displaced persons, even bread being rationed, something that had not been necessary during the war.