Above all, Göring ordered that soldiers were to be permitted to bring home as much as they could carry themselves without interference from customs. Long discussions ensued about whether soldiers should be forbidden from strapping their excess luggage on to a carrying harness in case it prevented them from saluting their superiors. In any case, whatever restrictions were imposed on luggage were routinely disregarded. At the Gare de l’Est in Paris, hordes of German soldiers swarmed across the station concourse, staggering under inordinate amounts of luggage, bound for home.
