Saul K. Padover is an ethnologist of the German catastrophe. His report was influential and is still worth reading today: American President Eisenhower based some of his actions on this early plea for a forward-looking German policy. As an unarmed officer in the psychological warfare division, Saul K. Padover interviewed the German population in 1944/45 to understand their mood and situation, and to know what was going on in the minds of the defeated. The aim of these conversations was to gather important political and military information. Padover conducted his interviews with representatives from all walks of life: from the farmer's daughter to the industrialist, from the bishop to the forced laborer, from the Nazi bigwig to the communist worker, everyone had a voice. The responses reflect courage and collective depression.