Saturday, 15 April
Yesterday, J. J., who publishes an economic magazine, came to Zdenek and said that he would sooner eat roots than write according to the German dictate. He believes he'll somehow make it through.
He also told Zdenek that there was plenty of money for the Maffia across the border, but that over here there was a shortage because all the rich people who stayed here supported the Germans rather than the resistance. Zdenek offered to help as much as he could. We’d both be happy if we could contribute, even in the slightest possible way. Personally, I've always wanted to be involved in such activities in some way. I suspect that reality is far less romantic than I imagined.

Jan Masaryk is already returning from America to London.
We listened to Roosevelt's speech last night. The French stations broadcast the original transmission from America, which, after a few opening sentences, was weakened and replaced by a prominent, probably somewhat abbreviated French translation. That’s what I call modern technology, and that’s what modern artistic technology should be.
“The heroine stood utterly bereft of words. She felt a tumult of vague emotions stir within her heart.” This is the style of an age that delivered messages by couriers, letters, and railways, and later, somewhat incongruously, by the first telegraph and telephone. You’d better believe that artistic style is not just something aesthetic! I can tell by the books you read what your politics are. For example: Mr. Anthony Eden is said to like Proust; this corresponds to a politically progressive persuasion. Mr Chamberlain simply cannot like Proust, there is no doubt about it.
But it seems we have drifted too far from Roosevelt’s speech, which is a true embodiment of the modern spirit. It promotes the idea of a global community of nations, symbolizing the unity of human society founded on the principles of

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Rousseau, a son of France, created the Social Contract, while another Frenchman, Briand, conceived the League of Nations. This idea, often ridiculed and regrettably betrayed, is not dead. It has been pushed to the sidelines by transient events and those who have not risen to its level. Just as the kings and ministers of absolutism returned to the throne only temporarily after the Great French Revolution, so also the noble idea of the League of Nations temporarily stepped aside. Roosevelt's speech is proof of this. We may have different opinions about the world of Americans. But we must acknowledge one advantage they have: they are more open to new ideas than we are because they are not as burdened by the past. If Europeans have a more robust emotional sensibility and a more complex intellectual structuring, Americans have greater strength and willingness to realize new assumptions. While Europe, “venalis et mature peritura, si emptorem invenerit”, has abandoned Briand’s idea, America is beginning to grasp its evelopmental necessity. In Europe, a reaction has set in, indulging the remnants of spiritual and emotional conservatism. But this reaction is only temporary, and we already perceive the first signs of its decline.
And now, let me present to you a little example of reactionism:
The Czechoslovak Press Agency reports: State President Dr. Emil Hácha has received an invitation to the Berlin celebrations of the 50th birthday of the Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, on 20th April. President Hácha will depart from Prague to Berlin on Tuesday, 19th April, in the company of Minister Dr. Jiří Havelka. During his visit, he will present the Fuhrer with a gift — an original work by the renowned 19th-century painter Spitzweg.

Tell me who you walk with and I will tell you who you are.
Tell me what book you are reading and I will tell you who you are.
Tell me what books and paintings you give as gifts, and I will tell you who you are.
But since not all of you necessarily know what kind of painter Spitzweg is, and to avoid any potential accusations of bias, let us open Woermann’s Geschichte der Kunst together on page 208, volume 6, and read what it says about Spitzweg: