Tapping Hitler's Generals

(?) SATTLER: What was it he said about six months ago at an adjutants’ conference at the OKH? An adjutant who was present there told me that he said: ‘The worst people are the Generals; if they are not promoted or given accelerated promotion and awarded the Knight’s Cross, they are discontented.’ What do you think of that, that’s what SCHMUNDT says.

THOMA: Well, it’s a terrible business. HITLER has so much weighing on his mind that he simply doesn’t know where to turn. His whole outlook breeds fear in him. I know what his cars were like, they had bullet-proof glass as thick as this. They were armour-plated all over and then he always used to drive like mad in order to avoid any chance of being hit. HIMMLER said to me: ‘The KAISER’–although he was very nervous too–‘didn’t have a third as many people to protect him as HITLER has.’ The OBERSALZBERG is covered with huge fences… a perimeter of 15 km.[365]

HENNECKE: Well, that’s the beginning of the end.

KRUG: That may… revolution in GERMANY, but in HITLER’s hands.

HENNECKE: Yes, that’s obvious.

KRUG: How could GUDERIAN allow himself to be made HIMMLER’s Chief of Staff?

HENNECKE: They’re playing their last card, that’s obvious.

KÖHN: But imagine the effect that will have on the front? The thing is finished.

KRUG: Well, you gentlemen know me, don’t you? I mean you know what I think. Let’s admit we’d rather bring about an end today than tomorrow.

HENNECKE: Yes, I’ve said that for a long time. General von THOMA (PW) said: ‘There’s no longer any point in it; they’re wiping out our towns.’ And one’s seen it, too. MUNICH has vanished from the face of the earth.[366] It’s senseless, and we shall lose in any case. I’m firmly convinced of that.

KRUG: How can GUDERIAN become HIMMLER’S Chief of Staff–HIMMLER who has killed so many Generals!

KÖHN: He happens to be a vain man!

HENNECKE: GUDERIAN, the man who has been treated so badly himself!

KRUG: Undoubtedly!

KÖHN: Ambition, you see, is man’s greatest driving force–it’s terrible, terrible!

HENNECKE: The dreadful thing is that these gentlemen are gloating over the news and aren’t considering the tragedy of it all; that’s the most terrible thing about it. They think things will be all right now. On the contrary: it’s the Russians that have got the advantage and only the Russians, not the others. They won’t get there in time and will also be out of EUROPE again as quickly as possible, because they want to avoid their own Bolshevisation.

KRUG: It was because I’m so depressed I came here and not to… anti-National Socialist–

HENNECKE: Oh, Heaven forbid.

KRUG: Well, I wouldn’t like to appear as though I were suddenly a turncoat. I am not. I deny that most definitely.

KÖHN: There’s no doubt whatever that in its ideals National Socialism was the only salvation.

KRUG: Yes, that’s perfectly true.

KÖHN: Only unfortunately human shortcomings made it work out differently. It was too idealistic in its conception. There’s no doubt in my mind, either, that HITLER was the great man, who simply foundered on his own idealism.

KRUG: And also on the people who grovelled around him. I said to THOMA: ‘I quite agree, as things are at present, but the chief blame does not lie with HITLER; 90 per cent of the blame attaches to those around him, from HITLER down to our German Generals.’

HENNECKE: Just the same as with the KAISER.

KRUG: It’s those people who’ve driven him crazy. Why does he behave crazily? Because they’ve encouraged him; because they’ve led him to it.

HENNECKE: It’s easy enough to say: ‘There will never be another 1918!’ You bet!

REIMANN: It says in the paper that HITLER made a long speech–‘Providence has once more saved him’–so thanks to providence, we’re going even deeper into the mire.

BROICH: At any rate it’s started!

REIMANN: Yes, it’s the beginning of the end.

BROICH: The people might have breathed again. Everyone in GERMANY says: ‘Only the Army can save us!’

REIMANN: It’s the beginning of the end. Are the people–the officers–simply going to allow themselves to be taken into custody and killed?

KRUG: The radio said: ‘It’s presumed’–they presume in GERMANY–‘that Generals von BRAUCHITSCH, BECK and HALDER were also involved.’[367]

REIMANN: Things will reach the stage when the Russians, Americans and English will be hailed as liberators.

BROICH: I’m convinced of it. But STAUFFENBERG, always had the idea–

REIMANN: A fine, decent fellow, that man.

BROICH: An upright man.

REIMANN: The pattern of a decent, clever General Staff Officer and a man who cared for his troops.

BROICH: You couldn’t think of a cleverer and better General Staff Officer than he was.

REIMANN: It really used to be a pleasure to work with a man like that.

BROICH:… had at least come off!

REIMANN: Yes, if only it had come off! The massacre will go on now. They’ll overrun everyone now!

BROICH: Incidentally, I believe that even if it had come off HIMMLER would still have taken over.

REIMANN: Yes, undoubtedly. He’ll do so next time, too.