Berlin Diary (11 page)

B
ERLIN
,
March
8

Hitler has got away with it! France is not marching. Instead it is appealing to the League! No wonder the faces of Hitler and Göring and Blomberg and Fritsch were all smiles this noon as they sat in the
royal box at the State Opera and for the second time in two years celebrated in a most military fashion Heroes Memorial Day, which is supposed to mark the memory of the two million Germans slain in the last war.

Oh, the stupidity (or is it paralysis?) of the French! I learned today on absolute authority that the German troops which marched into the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland yesterday had strict orders to beat a hasty retreat if the French army opposed them in any way. They were not prepared or equipped to fight a regular army. That probably explains Blomberg’s white face yesterday. Apparently Fritsch (commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr) and most of the generals opposed the move, but Blomberg, who has a blind faith in the Führer and his judgment, talked them into it. It may be that Fritsch, who loves neither Hitler nor the Nazi regime, consented to go along on the theory that if the coup failed, that would be the end of Hitler; if it succeeded, then one of his main military problems was solved.

Another weird story today. The French Embassy says—and I believe it—that Poncet called on Hitler a few days ago and asked him to propose his terms for a Franco-German rapprochement. The Führer asked for a few days to think it over. This seemed reasonable enough to the Ambassador, but he was puzzled at Hitler’s insistence that no word leak out to the public of this visit. He is no longer puzzled. It would have spoiled Hitler’s excuse that France was to blame for his tearing up the Locarno Treaty if the world had known that France, which after all had not yet ratified the Soviet pact, was willing to negotiate with him—indeed, had asked to negotiate.

The memorial services at the Opera this noon were
conducted in a Wagnerian setting (Wagner’s influence on Nazism, on Hitler, has never been grasped abroad), the flood-lit stage full of steel-helmeted soldiers bearing war flags against a background of evergreen and a huge silver and black Iron Cross. The lower floor and balconies dotted with the old Imperial army uniforms and spiked helmets. Hitler sitting proudly in the Imperial box surrounded by Germany
’s war leaders, past and present: Field-Marshal von Mackensen in his Death-Head Hussars uniform, Göring in a resplendent scarlet and blue uniform of an air-force general, General von Seekt, creator of the Reichswehr, General von Fritsch, its present leader, Admiral von Raeder, chief of the rapidly growing navy, and General von Krausz in the uniform of the old Austro-Hungarian army, his face adorned with vast side-whiskers
à la
Franz Josef. Absent only was Ludendorff, who declines to make his peace with his former corporal and who has turned down an offer of a field-marshalship; and the Crown Prince.

General von Blomberg delivered the address, a curious mixture of bluff, defiance, and glorification of militarism. “We do not want an offensive war,” he said, “but we do not fear a defensive war.” Though everyone here—if not in Paris or London—knows that he does, and that yesterday he was terrified that it might come off. Blomberg, obviously on Hitler’s orders, went out of his way in a most unsoldierly way to silence rumours that the Reichswehr generals opposed the Rhineland occupation and have little sympathy for Nazism. I could almost see Fritsch wince when his chief denounced the “whispers in the outside world about relations between the Nazi Party and the army.” Said the general with some emphasis: “We in the army are National Socialists. The party and the army are now
closer together.” He went on to tell why. “The National Socialist revolution instead of destroying the old army, as other revolutions have always done, has re-created it. The National Socialist state places at our disposal its entire economic strength, its people, its entire male youth.” And then a hint of the future: “An enormous responsibility rests upon our shoulders. It is all the more heavy because
we may be placed before new tasks
.”

As Blomberg spoke, Goebbels had his spotlights and movie cameras grinding away, first at the stage, then at the box where the Leader sat. After the “service” he usual military parade, but I had had enough and was hungry and went off to Habel’s excellent little wine shop down the Linden and had lunch washed down by some Deidesheimer.

L
ATER.—
Dosch-Fleurot had an interesting story tonight from the Rhineland, where he’s been watching the German occupation. He reports that Catholic priests met the German troops at the Rhine bridges and conferred blessings on them. In Cologne Cathedral Cardinal Schulte, he says, praised Hitler for “sending back our army.” Quickly forgotten is the Nazi persecution of the church. Dosch says the Rhine wine is flowing freely down there tonight.

And the French are appealing to Geneva! I called our London office to see what the British are going to do. They laughed, and read me a few extracts from the Sunday press. Garvin’s Sunday
Observer
and Rother-mere’s
Sunday Dispatch
are
delighted
at Hitler’s move. The British are now busy restraining the French! The Foreign Office here, which kept open tonight to watch the reaction from Paris and London, is in high spirits. No wonder!

K
ARLSRUHE
,
March
13

Here, within artillery range of the Maginot Line, Hitler made his first “election” speech tonight. Special trains poured in all day from surrounding towns, bringing the faithful and those ordered to come. The meeting was held in a huge tent and the atmosphere was so suffocating that I left before Hitler arrived, returning to my hotel, where over a good dinner and a bottle of wine, with most of the other correspondents, I listened to the speech by radio. Nothing new in it, though he drummed away nicely about his desire for friendship with France. Certainly these Rhinelanders don’t want another war with France, but this reoccupation by German troops has inculcated them with the Nazi bug. They’re as hysterical as the rest of the Germans. Later went out to a
Kneipe
with a taxi-driver who had driven me around during the day and had a few
Schnaps
. He turned out to be a Communist, waxed bitter about the Nazis, and predicted their early collapse. It was a relief to find one German here against the regime. He said there are a lot of others, but I sometimes wonder.

March
29

A fine early spring day for the “election” and according to Goebbels’s figures ninety-five per cent of the German people have approved the reoccupation of the Rhineland. Some of the correspondents who visited the polling-booths today reported irregularities. But there’s no doubt, I think, that a substantial majority of the people applaud the Rhineland coup regardless of whether they’re Nazis or not. It’s also true that few dare to vote against Hitler for fear of being found
out. Learned tonight that in Neukölln and Wedding, former Communist strongholds in Berlin, the “No” vote ran as high as twenty per cent and that the people there are going to catch it in the next few days.

The new Zeppelin—to be called the
Hindenburg—
soared gracefully over our office yesterday. I was down to Friedrichshafen the other day to inspect it and it’s a marvel of German engineering genius. Yesterday it was doing “election” propaganda, dropping leaflets exhorting the populace to vote “
Ja
.” Dr. Hugo Eckener, who is getting it ready for its maiden flight to Brazil, strenuously objected to putting it in the air this week-end on the ground it was not yet fully tested, but Dr. Goebbels insisted. Eckener, no friend of the regime, refused to take it up himself, though he allowed Captain Lehmann to. The
Doktor
is reported howling mad and determined to get Eckener.

B
ERLIN
,
April
(
undated
)

An amusing lunch today at the Dodds’. Eckener, who is off to America soon to ask Roosevelt personally for enough helium to fill his new balloon (there seems to be some opposition to this at home), was the guest of honour. He told one joke after another on Goebbels, for whom he has nothing but contempt. Someone asked him about the balloting on the
Hindenburg
, which was taken while it was still aloft. “Goebbels hung up a new record,” he fired back. “There were forty persons on the
Hindenburg
. Forty-two
Ja
votes were counted.” Goebbels has forbidden the press to mention Eckener’s name.

B
ERLIN
,
May
2

The Italians entered Addis Ababa today. The Negus has fled. Mussolini has triumphed—largely with mustard gas. That’s how he’s beaten the Ethiopians. He’s also triumphed over the League, by bluff. That’s how he kept off oil sanctions, which might have stopped him. We picked up a broadcast of him shouting from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. Much boloney about thirty centuries of history, Roman civilization, and triumph over barbarism. Whose barbarism?

R
AGUSA
, Y
UGOSLAVIA
,
June
18

Having a glorious Dalmatian holiday. This place has everything: sea, sun, mountains, flowers, good wine, good food, pleasant people. The Knickerbockers, back from Addis Ababa, vacationing with us. Agnes to have a baby in a few months. Knick full of weird tales of how the correspondents scrapped and fought each other in Addis; of how poor Bill Barbour of the Chicago
Tribune
died and was buried there; of the bombing of Dessye; of a nightmarish disorderly house full of lepers in Jibouti, and so on. We loaf and swim and chatter and read all day, going down to the café in the old port in the evening for drink, food, and dancing. Finished Thomas Mann’s
Magic Mountain
, a tremendous novel; and a book of Chekov’s plays, which I much liked, as I do his short stories.