Aug. 10, 1939
How completely isolated a world the German people live in. A
glance at the newspapers yesterday and today reminds you of
it. Whereas the rest of the world considers that the peace
is about to be broken by Germany, that it is Germany that is
threatening to attack Poland over Danzig, here in Germany,
in the world the local newspapers create, the very reverse
is being maintained. (Not that it surprises me, but when you
go a way for a while, you forget.) What the Nazi papers are
proclaiming is this: that it is Poland which is disturbing
the peace of Europe; Poland which is threatening Germany with
armed invasion, and so forth. This is the Germany of last
September when the steam was turned on in Czechoslovakia.
"POLAND? LOOK OUT!" warns the B.Z. headline, adding: "ANSWER
to POLAND, THE RUNNER-AMOK (AMOKLAUFER) AGAINST PEACE AND RIGHT IN
EUROPE!"
Or the headline in Der Fuhrer, daily paper of Karlsruhe, which I
bought on the train: "WARSAW THREATENS BOMBARDMENT OF DANZIG -
UNBELIEVABLE AGITATION OF THE POLISH ARCH-MADNESS (POLNISCHEN
GROSSENWAHNS)!"
For perverse perversion of the truth, this is good. You ask: But
the German people can't possibly believe these lies? Then you
talk to them. So many do.
Sep. 11, 1939
Classic headling in the D.A.Z. tonight: "POLES BOMBARD
WARSAW!" The press full of the most fantastic lies. Latest is
that two British secret service agents organized the slaying of
Germans at Bromberg. When I kidded by military censor, a decent
fellow, he blushed.
Oct. 24, 1939
The German people who have been hoping for peace until the bitter
end were finally told tonight by Ribbentrop in a speech at Danzig
that the war will now have to be fought to a finish. I suppose
every government that has ever gone to war has tried to convince
its people of three things: (1) that right is on their side;
(2) that it is fighting purely in defence of the nation; (3) that
it is sure to win. The Nazis are certainly trying to pound these
three points into the skins of the people. Modern propaganda
technique, especially the radio, certainly helps them.
Nov. 9, 1939
Twelve minutes after Hitler and all the big party leaders left the
Burgerbrau Keller in Munich last night, at nine minutes after
nine o'clock, a bomb explosion wrecked the hall, killed seven,
wounded sixty-three. The bomb had been placed in a pillar directly
behind the rostrum from which Hitler had been speaking. Had he
remained twelve minutes and one second longer he surely would have
been killed. The spot on which he stood was covered with six feet
of debris.
No one yet knows who did it. The Nazi press screams that it was
the English, the British secret service! It even blames Chamberlin
for the deed. Most of us think it smells of another Reichstag fire.
In other years Hitler and all the other bigwigs have remained after
the speech to talk over old times with the comrades of the Putsch
and guzzle beer. Last night they fairly scampered out of the
building leaving the rank and file of the comrades to guzzle among
themselves. The attempted "assassination" undoubtedly will buck
up public opinion behind Hitler and stir up hatred of England.
Curious that the official Nazi paper, the Volkische Beobachter, was
the only morning paper today to carry the story. A friend called
me with the news just as I had finished broadcasting at midnight
last night, but all the German radio officials and the censors
denied it. They said is was a silly rumour.
Nov. 18, 1939
Yesterday nine young Czech students at the University of Prague were
lined up before a German firing squad and executed. At the press
conference this noon we asked the authorities why and they replied
that the students had staged anti-German demonstrations in Prague
on October 23 and November 15. "There can be no joking in
war-time," said our spokesman, a little bored by our question.
Nov. 21, 1939
Gestapo cheif Himmler claimed today that he has found the man who
planted the bomb that so narrowly missed blowing Hitler to bits at
Munich a fortnight ago. His name is given as Georg Elser, thirty-six,
and behind him, says Himmler, was the British Intelligence Service and
Otto Strasser, a former Nazi leader and now a bitter enemy of Hitler,
who lives in France. Himmler's account of how Elser did it sounds
fishy indeed. As one German put it to me today after reading the
account: "Now I'm sure Himmler planted that bomb."
...
A writer in the Volkische Beobachter will say tomorrow that after
seeing Elser "you almost forget you are in the presence of a satanic
monster. His eyes are intelligent and the face rather soft."
What Himmler and his gang are up to, obviously, is to convince the
gullible German people that the British government tried to win the
war by murdering Hitler and his chief aides. The censor today cut
out all reference in my script to the Reichstag fire.
Dec. 21, 1939
Eleven admitted executions here in the last two days. About
half for espionage and the rest for "damaging the interests
of the people in war-time" - the sentences in all but one case
being passed by the "People's Court" whose proceedings are
never published. One of the eleven was sentenced by the court
to fifteen years' imprisonment for "damaging the peoples'
interests," but Himmler wasn't satisfied with the sentence,
so he simply had the poor fellow shot. "Shot while offering
resistance to state authority," Himmler says.
Jan. 24, 1940
I think Percival W., a retired American businessman of German
parentage who has spent most of his life in this country, sees
something I've been trying to get straight. I had never met
him before, but he dropped up to my room this morning for a
chat. We discussed the German conception of ethics, honour,
conduct. Said he: "For Germans a thing is right, ethical,
honourable, if it squares with the tradition of what a German
thinks a German should do; or if it advances the interests of
Germanism or Germany. But the Germans have no abstract idea
of ethics, or honour, or right conduct." He gave a pretty
illustration. A German friend said to him: "Isn't it terrible
what the Finns are doing, taking on Russia? It's utterly wrong."
When Mr. W. remonstrated that, after all, the Finns were only
doing what you would expect all decent Germans to do if they
got in the same fix - namely, defending their liberty and
independence against wanton aggression - his friend retorted:
"But Russia is Germany's friend."
In other words, for a German to defend his country's liberty
and independence is right. For a Finn to do the same is
wrong, because it disturbs Germany's relations with Russia.
The abstract idea there is missing in the German mentality.
That probably explains the Germans' complete lack of regard
or sympathy for the plight of the Poles or Czechs. What the
Germans are doing to these people - murdering them, for one
thing - is right because the Germans are doing it, and the
victims, in the German view, are an inferior race who must think
right whatever the Germans please to do to them. As Dr. Ley
puts it: "Right is what the Fuhrer does." All this confirms
an idea I got years ago: that the German conception of
"honour", about which Germans never cease to talk, is nonsense.
Mar. 30, 1940
The Nazis launched last night what they thought would be
a bombshell in America. Today it looks more like a boomerang.
And a fine example of clumsy German diplomatic blundering.
The Foreign Office released a new White Book containing what
is purported to be sixteen documents discovered by the Germans
in the Warsaw Foreign Office. Ribbentrop says they are secret
reportsof various Polish envoys. The most important are from
the Polish ambassadors in London, Paris, and Washington. They
"implicate" American ambassadors Kennedy, Bullitt, and Biddle,
and the point of them is that these diplomats, backed by
Roosevelt, were leading conspirators in forcing this war on
Germany!
Though is seems incredible that even the Germans could be so
stupid, my friends in the Foreign Office says that Ribbentrop
actually thought these "revelations" would make Roosevelt's
position so untenablethat his defeat in the next election - or
the defeat of his candidate, should he not run - would be
assured. Having got wind of the strong sentiment in America
to stay out of war, Ribbentrop thought these "documents" would
greatly strengthen the hand of the American isolationists by
convincing the American people that Roosevelt and his
personally appointed ambassadors had not only had a hand in
starting the war but had done everything to get us in. Happily,
first American reactions are good and the New York press is
suggesting the documents are fakes. They may not be faked;
probably only doctored.
Apr. 9, 1940
Ribbentrop sprang up, snake-like, and said: "Gentlemen,
yesterday's Allied invasion of Norwegian territorial waters
represents the most flagrant violation of the rights of
a neutral country. It compares with the British bombardment
of Copenhagen in 1807. However" - showing his teeth in a
smug grin - "it did not take Germany by surprise...It was
the British intention to create a base in Scandanavia from
which Germany's flank could be attacked. We are in possession,
gentlemen, of incontestable proof. The plan included the
occupation of all Scandinavia - Denmark, Norway, Sweden.
The German government has the proofs that French and British
General Staff officers were already on Scandinavian soil,
preparing the way for an Allied landing.
"The whole world can now see," he went on, somehow reminding
you of a worm, "the cynicism and brutality with which the
Allies tried to create a new theatre of war. A new
international law has now been proclaimed which gives one
belligerent the right to take unlawful action in answer
to the unlawful action of the other belligerent. Germany has
availed itself of that right. The Fuhrer has given his
answer...Germany has occupied Danish and Norwegian soil
in order to protect those countries from the Allies, and
will defend their true neutrality until the end of the
war. Thus an honoured part of Europe has been saved from
certain downfall."
...
The Nazi press has some rare bits tonight: The Angriff:
"The young German army has hoisted new glory to its
banners...It is one of the most brilliant feats of all
time." A feat it is, of course. The Borsen Zeitung:
"England goes coldbloodedly over the dead bodies of the
small peoples. Germany protects the weak states from
the English highway robbers...Norway ought to see the
righteousness of Germany's action, which was taken to
ensure the freedom of the Norwegian people."
May 6, 1940
Berhard Rust, Nazi Minister of Education, in a broadcast
to schoolchildren today, sums up pretty well the German
mentality in this year of 1940. He says: "God created
the world as a place for work and battle. Whoever doesn't
understand the laws of life's battles will be counted out,
as in the boxing ring. All the good things on this earth
are trophy cups. The strong win them. The weak lose
them...The German people under Hitler did not take to arms
to break into foreign lands and make other people serve
them. They were forced to take arms by states which blocked
their way to bread and union."
May 7, 1940
Amusing to read the headlines today: "CHAMBERLIN, THE
AGGRESSOR. ALLIED PLANS FOR NEW AGGRESSION!" If the
German people were not so intellectually drunk themselves,
or so stupid, they might see the humour in it.
May 10, 1940
The German memorandum "justifying" this latest aggression
of Hitler's was handed to the ministers of Holland and
Belgium at six a.m., about an hour and a half after German
troops had violated their neutral soil. It sets up a new
record, I think, for cynicism and downright impudence - even
for Hitler. It requests the two governments to issue orders
that no resistance be made to German troops. "Should the
German forces encounter resistance in Belgium or Holland,"
it goes on, "it will be crushed with every means. The
Belgian and Dutch governments alone would bear the responsibility
for the consequences and for the bloodshed which would then
become unavoidable."
...
War on civilians started too. The other side reported
German planes had killed many. Tonight the Germans claimed
three Allied planes dropped bombs in the middle of Freiburg,
killing twenty-four civilians.
...
Goebbel's propaganda machine, shifting into high gear,
discovers today, twenty-four hours after the official
announcement that twenty-four persons had been killed by
the bombing at Freiburg, that thirteen of the twenty-four
were children who were peacefully frolicking on the
municipal playground. What were a lot of children doing
on a playground in the midst of an air raid? This particularmusing to read the
headlines today: "CHAMBERLIN, THE
AGGRESSOR. ALLIED PLANS FOR NEW AGGRESSION!" If the
German people were not so intellectually
Goebbels fake is probably produced to justify German killings
of civilians on the other side.
May 16, 1940
I just saw two uncensored news-reels at our press conference
in the Propaganda Ministry. Pictures of the German army
smashing through Belgium and Holland. Some of the more
destructive work of German bombs and shells was shown.
Towns laid waste, dead soldiers and horses lying around,
and the earth and mortar flying when a shell or bomb hit.
Yelled the German announcer: "And thus do we deal death
and destruction on our enemies!" The film, in a way,
summed up the German poeple to me.
