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Category: Table talks

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Heinrich Himmler Pedagogy Table talks Third Reich

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 110

the-real-hitler
 
5th April 1942, evening

Shall we try to Germanise the French?—Example of Austria—Germanisation of Holland—Fusion of all Germanic races—But no excess Germanisation—Distrust of the Poles.

During dinner, the Reichsfuehrer SS declared that, in his view, the best way of settling the French problem would be to carry off every year a certain number of racially healthy children, chosen amongst France’s Germanic population. It would be necessary to try to settle these children, while still very young, in German boarding-schools, to train them away from their French nationality, which was due to chance, to make them aware of their Germanic blood and thus inculcate into them the notion of their membership of the great group of Germanic peoples. The Fuehrer replied:

“Sinister theory!” For my part, all these attempts at Germanisation don’t mean much to me—in so far, at least, as no successful attempt is made to found them on an appropriate conception of the world. As regards France, one must not forget that the military reputation of that country is not due to the people’s moral worth, but essentially to the fact that, on the Continent, the French were able to exploit certain military combinations of circumstance that were favourable to them (during the Thirty Years’ War, for example). Every time they were confronted by a Germany that was aware of herself, they got a thrashing—under Frederick the Great, for example, in 1940, etc. The fact that they won victories of universal significance under the leadership of that unique military genius, the Corsican Napoleon, makes no difference at all. The mass of the French people has petit bourgeois spiritual inclinations, so much so that it would be a triumph to succeed in removing the elements of Germanic origin from the grasp of the country’s ruling class.

Austria, too, her own history—secular five times over—a history that truly is not devoid of highlights? Obviously, in discussing these problems one must remain very careful, when confronted by Dutch and Norwegians. One must never forget that in 1871 Bavaria would never have agreed to become part of Prussia. Bismarck persuaded her only to agree to become part of a great association linked by kinship—that is to say, Germany. Nor did I, in 1938, tell the Austrians that I wanted to incorporate them in Germany, but I insisted on the fact that Germany and Austria ought to unite to form the Greater German Reich. Similarly, when speaking to the Germanics of the North-west and North, one must always make it plain that what we’re building is the Germanic Reich, or simply the Reich, with Germany constituting merely her most powerful source of strength, as much from the ideological as from the military point of view.

The Reichsfuehrer SS then spoke of the creation in Holland of boarding-schools for the political education of the young, two for boys and one for girls, to be called “Reich Schools”—a title approved by the Fuehrer. A third of the pupils would be Dutch and two-thirds German. After a certain period, the Dutch pupils would have to visit in turn a similar school in Germany. The Reichsfuehrer SS explained that, to guarantee that instruction would be given in accordance with the purposes of the Germanic Reich, he had refused a financial contribution from Holland and had asked Schwarz to set aside a specific sum exclusively for the financing of these schools. There was a project for the creation of similar schools in Norway. They, too, would be financed solely by the Reich Party treasurer. “If we want to prevent Germanic blood from penetrating into the ruling class of the peoples whom we dominate, and subsequently turning against us, we shall have gradually to subject all the precious Germanic elements to the influence of this instruction.” The Fuehrer approved of this point of view.

One mustn’t forget that, unless he is convinced of his racial membership of the Germanic Reich, the foreign legionary is bound to feel that he’s betraying his country. The fall of the Habsburg monarch clearly shows the full size of this danger.

It’s not possible to unite the Germanic peoples under the folds of the black-white-and-red flag of the old German Empire—for the same reason as prevented the Bavarians from entering the German Reich, in 1871, under the flag of Prussia. It’s the reason why I began by giving the National Socialist Party, as a symbol of the union of all Germanics, a new rallying-sign which was valid also inside our own national community—the swastika flag.

Let’s avoid attempting the Germanisation of our vital space on too great a scale. Let’s be cautious, especially with the Czechs and the Poles. According to Himmler, history proves that the Poles have their nationality tattooed oh their bodies.

It’s very important for the future that the Germans don’t mingle with the Poles, so that the new Germanic blood may not be transmitted to the Polish ruling class. Himmler is right when he says that the Polish generals who genuinely put up a serious resistance in 1939 were, so to speak, exclusively of German descent. It’s an accepted fact that it’s precisely the best elements of our race who, as they lose awareness of their origin, add themselves to the ruling class of the country that has welcomed them. As for the elements of less value, they retain the characteristics of their ethnic group and remain faithful to their Germanic origin. The same caution is necessary towards the Czechs. They’re skilled at not awakening the distrust of their occupiers, and are wonderful at playing the rôle of subjects.

We shall not win the peace, on the racial level, unless the Reich knows how to maintain a certain stature. Confronted with the United States, whose population is scarcely greater than ours, our strength lies in the fact that four-fifths of our people are of Germanic race.

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Catholic Church Martin Luther Table talks Third Reich

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 111

the-real-hitler 
7th April 1942, at dinner

If the slightest attempt at a riot were to break out at this moment anywhere in the whole Reich, I’d take immediate measures against it. Here’s what I’d do: (a) on the same day, all the leaders of the opposition, including the leaders of the Catholic party, would be arrested and executed; (b) all the occupants of the concentration camps would be shot within three days; (c) all the criminals on our lists—and it would make little difference whether they were in prison or at liberty—would be shot within the same period.

The extermination of these few hundreds or thousands of men would make other measures superfluous, for the riot would be aborted for lack of ringleaders and accomplices. As for the justification of these summary executions, I’ve only to think of the German idealists who are risking their lives in front of the enemy or showing their devotion in a war factory, whatever their job may be, and employing all their efforts for the victory of the fatherland.

It’s a real scandal that we must give the German Churches such extraordinarily high subsidies. It isn’t like that anywhere else, even in the most fundamentally Catholic countries, with the exception of Spain. Unless I’m mistaken, our Churches are still at present receiving nine hundred million marks a year. Now, the priests’ chief activity consists in undermining National Socialist policy. The habit of exploiting the State goes back a long way. In periods of national tension, the Catholic Church always tried to occupy positions of temporal power, and always at the expense of the German community.

The difficulties of our emperors never provided the priests with a chance to prove their German feelings. On the contrary, it’s a tradition amongst them to profit by every circumstance to indulge in their egoistic activities. Thus one can never regret too much that such a powerful personality as Luther found only feeble successors.

Otherwise it would never have been possible, in Germany, to restore the Catholic Church on a sufficiently solid foundation to enable it to last until the present.

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Conservatism Table talks Women

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 112

the-real-hitler

8th April 1942, midday

Cowardice of the middle classes—The Nazi Party wins over the workers—Nuremberg, the citadel of Marxism—German workers and their Jewish masters.

 

Since the beginning of my political activity, I have made it a rule not to curry favour with the bourgeoisie. The political attitude of that class is marked by the sign of cowardice. It concerns itself exclusively with order and tranquillity, and we know in what sense to understand that. I aimed, instead, to awaken the enthusiasm of the working-class world for my ideas.

The first years of my struggle were therefore concentrated on the object: win over the worker to the National Socialist Party. Here’s how I set about it:

  1. I followed the example of the Marxist parties by putting up posters in the most striking red.
  1. I used propaganda trucks that were literally carpeted with posters of a flaming red, equipped with equally red flags and occupied by thundering loud-speakers.
  1. I saw to it that all the initiates of the movement came to meetings without stiff collars and without ties, adopting the free-and-easy style so as to get the workers into their confidence.
  1. As for the bourgeois elements who, without being real fanatics, wanted to join the ranks of the National Socialist Party, I did everything to put them off—resorting to bawled- out propaganda, dishevelled clothes, etc. My object was to rid myself right from the beginning of the revolutionaries in rabbit’s pelts.
  1. I ordered our protective service to treat our opponents roughly and chuck them out of our meetings with so little mildness that the enemy press—which otherwise would have ignored our gatherings—used to make much of the blows and wounds they give rise to, and thus called attention to them.

I dealt with the women from the Marxist camp who took part in the discussions by making them look ridiculous, by drawing attention either to the holes in their stockings or to the fact that their children were filthy. To convince women by reasoned argument is always impossible; to have had them roughly handled by the ushers of the meeting would have aroused public indignation, and so our best plan was to have recourse to ridicule, and this produced excellent results.

Julius Streicher rendered particularly valuable service in our struggle to gain the support of the working classes. And now it is he whom we must thank for the capture of Nuremberg, that one-time stronghold of Marxism. The population of that city—in so far as they were interested in any way in politics, and with the exception of the Jewish colony—was made up of working men who were members either of the Socialist Party or of the Communist Party.

By his unrelenting attacks on the Jews, Streicher succeeded in alienating the workmen from their Jewish masters. Even so, the workers of Nuremberg, engaged for the most part in the metal trades, were by no means an unintelligent lot, and they were most stubborn adherents of Marxism. Streicher’s success, then, is all the more meritorious, and he showed himself to be a master of tactics in the handling of a meeting. Not only did he annihilate the shop stewards with a torrent of ridicule, but he deprived them of any means of retaliation, and made use of their discomfiture as an additional weapon with which to convince the workers.

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Huns Table talks

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 113

the-real-hitler 
9th April 1942, midday

The criteria by which a politician should be judged are, firstly, the positive virtues he possesses, and, secondly, the actual services he has rendered to his country.

In politics facts alone are of value, and any juggling with possible hypotheses is quite futile. It is, for example, perfectly true, but of no importance, to say that had the Romans been defeated by the Huns on the Gatalaunian Fields the growth of western culture would have been impossible and the civilisation of the time would have been destroyed—as indeed our own civilisation to-day will be destroyed if the Soviets are victorious in this war.

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Catholic Church Christendom Table talks

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 114

the-real-hitler

 

9th April 1942, at dinner

The unhealthy character of Christianity—Superstition— Brutality of the Catholic Church.
 

The Christians… honour the Saints, that is to say, a man who succeeds in standing on one leg for years at a time, or one who prefers to lie on a bed of thorns rather than to respond to the smiles of inviting maidens. There is something very unhealthy about Christianity.

Another peculiarity of the Christian faith, as it is taught by the Catholic Church, is that it is a school of pessimism rather than of optimism. The Japanese religion, on the contrary, rouses men to enthusiasm by the promise it holds of the rewards in the Hereafter, while the unfortunate Christian has no prospect before him but the torments of Hell. Such pessimism has a marked effect…

It is no less difficult to eradicate these childish inhibitions than it is to free the human soul of that haunting terror of Hell which the Catholic Church impresses on it with such vigour during its most tender years.

A man possessed of a minimum of intelligence who takes the trouble to ponder over these questions has no difficulty in realising how nonsensical these doctrines of the Church are. And what nonsense it is to aspire to a Heaven to which, according to the Church’s own teaching, only those have entry who have made a complete failure of life on earth! It won’t be much fun, surely, to have to meet again there all those whose stupidity, in spite of the biblical tag “blessed are the humble of heart”, has already infuriated one beyond endurance on this earth!

When one examines the Catholic religion closely, one cannot fail to realise that it is an almost incredibly cunning mixture of hypocrisy and business acumen, which trades with consummate skill on the deeply engrained affection of mankind for the beliefs and superstitions he holds…

They believe that man requires some species of brake on his activities and that, in spite of its many shortcomings, the Church represents the best deterrent that at present exists. The pity is that people who reason in this manner appear to forget that the Church does not strive to propagate its teaching by reason and gentle persuasion, but by force and threat. This is certainly not my idea of education. It is moreover obvious that, had the Church followed solely the laws of Love, and had she preached Love alone as the means of instilling her moral precepts, she would not have survived for very long.

She has therefore always remained faithful to the ancient maxim that the right hand must not know what the left hand does, and has bowed to the necessity of imposing her moral principles by means of the utmost brutality, not hesitating even to burn in their thousands men and women of merit and virtue.

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Table talks

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 115

the-real-hitler 
11th April 1942, at dinner

I must insist that Rosenberg’s The Myth of the Twentieth Century is not to be regarded as an expression of the official doctrine of the Party. The moment the book appeared, I deliberately refrained from recognising it as any such thing… It is in any case written in much too abstruse a style, in my opinion.

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Individualism Quotable quotes Table talks

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 116

the-real-hitler 
11th April 1942, at dinner

If men were given complete liberty of action, they would immediately behave like apes. Slacken the reins of authority, give more liberty to the individual, and you are driving the people along the road to decadence.

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Table talks

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 117

the-real-hitler 
12th April 1942, midday
 
Particularly in the case of this war, one must never forget that if we lose it, we lose everything.

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Music Table talks

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 118

the-real-hitler

 

22nd April 1942, midday

The Metropolitan Opera House in New York closes its doors—The Americans have no great artistes.

It is reported that the Metropolitan Opera House in New York is to be closed; but the reasons given for its closing are certainly false. The Americans do not lack money; what they lack is the artistes required to maintain the activities of the greatest of their lyrical theatres.

One requires but little knowledge to know that the most famous operas are all of either German, Italian or French origin, and that among the artistes who perform them the Germans and the Italians are the most celebrated. Deprived of the services of the artistes from these two countries, the management has preferred to close its doors rather than expose the inadequacy of American artistes.

Our newspapers must not miss this opportunity! Copious comment should be made on this illuminating pointer to the cultural standard of the United States.

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Catholic Church Heinrich Himmler Schutzstaffel (SS) Table talks

Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 119

the-real-hitler

 

23rd April 1942, midday

How to refresh the blood-stream of effete peoples—The rôle of the SS—Build bonny babies.
 

Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler mentioned the order he had given two years ago on the duty of healthy members of the SS to perpetuate their species. In view of the heavy losses suffered in this war by the SS, particularly among the younger and unmarried members, Himmler was very pleased now that he had given the order when he did. The fie blood of these men who were gone would not be wholly lost, but was being perpetuated in their children. The Fuehrer expressed himself as follows: At Berchtesgaden we owe a great deal to the infusion of SS blood, for the local population there was of specially poor and mixed stock. I noticed this particularly while the Berghof was being built, and I was most anxious to do something to improve it.

To-day, thanks to the presence of a regiment of the Leibstandarte, the countryside is abounding with jolly and healthy young children. It is a practice which must be followed; to those districts in which a tendency towards degeneracy is apparent we must send a body of élite troops, and in ten or twenty years time the bloodstock will be improved out of all recognition.

I rejoice to know, therefore, that our soldiers regard it as a duty to their country to persuade the young women to bear healthy children. Especially at this moment, when the most precious of our blood is being shed in such quantities, the maintenance of our race is of vital importance.

This implies both privileges and obligations, the obligation of submitting to a most rigorous upbringing and the privilege of the healthy enjoyment of life. If a German soldier is expected to be ready to sacrifice his life without demur, then he is entitled to love freely and without restriction. In life, battle and love go hand in hand, and the inhibited little bourgeois must be content with the crumbs which remain. But if the warrior is to be kept in fighting trim, he must not be pestered with religious precepts which ordain abstinence of the flesh. A healthy-minded man simply smiles when a saint of the Catholic Church like St. Anthony bids him eschew the greatest joy that life has to give, and offers him the solace of self-mortification and castigation in its place.