Tapping Hitler's Generals

(re newspaper article on the war situation) It’s obviously pretty bad,if the FÜHRER is no longer convinced of the efficacy of his ideas, or rather of his ideas on defence. That an order to evacuate the BALTIC STATES wasn’t issued long ago is obviously due to political reasons, because they argue that in that case FINLAND would break away at once.[58] Those are all symptoms of a pending collapse. It’s no use kidding ourselves.

Admiral VOSS[58a] once appeared and went for one of us, saying: ‘What do you mean by it? Things are going brilliantly in RUSSIA.’ That was one of those gentlemen from the FÜHRER’s HQ! We were all left speechless. How can the prospects be brilliant when we’ve just given up the UKRAINE? After all the talk about the UKRAINE in numberless newspaper articles; that this third year of her occupation was to bring the first real harvest, which would ensure our supplies for all time; the prospects can’t very well be brilliant when we’ve just given up the UKRAINE. It’s all nonsense; it’s just as if they were wearing blinkers! It is a crime against the German people–I am really becoming convinced of it. And on top of that, when, as I heard yesterday, that man actually said on the occasion of a small celebration to distribute decorations to Party members; ‘German National Socialism and the National Socialist REICH are invincible,’ well, it just makes you laugh. That just isn’t sane any more. The trouble is that people believe it, just as we ourselves used to believe similar stories; I believed ROMMEL. This deceiving of the troops, too, is frightful; one doesn’t know where to hide one’s face. MONTGELAS,[59] a very sincere fellow, once said to me: ‘I can’t associate myself with that;’ I never repeated it. Above all he was very frank in his attitude to the Party and said: ‘I have experience of life and of the world and I can see that the whole thing has feet of clay. I cannot have things told to my men in that way; I should consider myself false and dishonourable.’ I should like to know what RAEDER[60] and people like him are thinking nowadays; they all share the blame. They were the people who should have taken a firm stand; they should have got together and told the FÜHRER quite plainly: ‘Things can’t go on like this.’ As Service people they should have been able to realise it. They shouldn’t have been afraid of his attacks of rage, even if it had meant death for them–