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From another source I learned that the organization formerly called
the Notgemeinschaft, and which now bears another name more in keeping with 
Nazi pride, has been given more money to be used in aid of research this 
year than previously. These I think are small but not negligible signs of 
betterment.
 
 
 The reports about the recruiting of young men as scholars and men 
of science were uniformly bad or at all events expressed deep depression. 
I was told by many that in general the able, intelligent, energetic young 
men are going either into the army or into industry and that there are very 
few who are taking up university careers, even in the favored physical and 
biological sciences, and I think this is entirely trustworthy information. 
The result of this and of the events of the past 25 years may be briefly 
sketched as follows: There was no great destruction of life during the war 
among university men who are now more than 55 years old, for many of them 
were already in positions which tended to protect them from risk. On the 
other hand, this group has been decimated through the treatment of the Jews 
and of certain others who proved either irreconcilable or unable to take 
care of themselves. The group between the ages of 40 and 55 is small because 
probably a majority of those who would have become professors were either 
killed in the war or in some way or other deflected from what would have
been their course. Younger men have been through the evil times and have
chosen a university career less often than would have been the case in a
happier period. And now the supply of good young men is still dwindling.
 
 
 The upshot of all this may be expressed in the form of a very rough
estimate, as follows: Among the professors and dozenten of the German
universities there are less than half as many able men as there were before