Was Hitler a Riddle?: Western Democracies and National Socialism

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Was Hitler a Riddle?: Western Democracies and National Socialism

Abraham Ascher

Language: English

Pages: 256

ISBN: 080478356X

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Was Hitler A Riddle? is the first comparative study of how British, French, and American diplomats serving in Germany assessed Hitler and the Nazi movement. These assessments provided the governments in London, Paris, and Washington with ample information about the ruthlessness of the authorities in Germany and of their determination to conquer vast stretches of Europe. Had the British, French, and American leaders acted on this information and taken measures to rein in Hitler, the history of the twentieth century would have been far less bloody: the second world war might well have been avoided, the Soviet Union would not have expanded into central and eastern Europe, and the world would have been spared the Cold War.

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Czechoslovakia; expansion in eastern Europe; and recovery of colonies lost at the end of World War I. But even after Germany had achieved these goals, the appetite of Nazi leaders would probably not be satiated. “To-day Germany is strong, the achievements of the last four years are stupendous and there seems no reason to set a limit to German ambitions.” In the course of a private conversation with the British military attaché, an officer of the German General Staff had recently offered his.

In his diary about several members of his family and a successful politician, none of whom was still alive: “I believe dear mother and father and Max and Bell are near and about me and Sir Wilfrid as well. Their spirits will guide and protect me.” During the campaign, he also consulted a fortune-teller.168 King decided on a trip to Germany in the late spring of 1937 because he believed he could contribute to preventing an outbreak of hostilities. Hitler agreed to meet him on June 19, 1937, and.

Ignored by the cabinet; the ministers raised no objection to Hitler’s plan to act as both president and chancellor, making him the “master” of one of the great countries of Europe. The political elite and the public remained passive as these events unfolded. Seventeen days after Hindenburg’s death, a plebiscite was held on Hitler’s assumption of his new position; over 90 percent of the eligible voters went to the polls and of these, 89.9 percent supported the “constitutional” transfer to Hitler.

Held discussions—in apparent violation of Gordon’s strictures—with Goebbels, Göring, and Hanfstaengl, three close adherents of Hitler, and had concluded that although the “present course of events in Germany is somewhat disquieting,” the outlook might not be as bleak as many feared. He was certain that the Nazis “have become more and more moderate.” Wiley noted that he had been assured that “the Nazi idea is not to harm a hair of any Jewish head, but to treat them as foreigners; to tax them, but.

Out—in December 1933—that the opposition to the German Christians was not necessarily directed against Nazism per se. Quite a few pastors who joined the opposition, initially including Niemöller, were in fact sympathetic to many of Hitler’s aims. They were passionately patriotic, and Niemöller was always proud of his service as an officer on a U-boat during World War I. When war broke out in 1939, he was in a concentration camp, and yet he offered to return to duty on a U-boat, only to be turned.

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