"Hitler's Table Talk" Study Hour: Episode 19

Published by carolyn on Thu, 2014-07-17 22:27
 
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July 17, 2014

Ray Goodwin and Carolyn Yeager read and comment on the dinner table monologues by the German Leader from Jan. 8-13, 1942, as taken down by trusted legal aide Heinrich Heim. Included in this episode:

  • Hitler reminisces about schoolboy pranks and other youthful experiences;

  • More reminiscences about the dangers of airplane travel, plus campaigning by air vs motor-car in 1931-32, and building autobahns in the East;

  • Japan's sudden wealth, plus Britain's wealth is in India;

  • Discussion of following orders and supply problems on Eastern Front, plus better preparations for foreign conditions in the future;
  • Churchill's policies favor no one but Jews, and how the British rule India.

Click image to enlarge: The schoolboy Adolf Hitler - never a dull moment.

The edition of Hitler's Table Talk being used was translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, published by Enigma Books, New York, and can be found as a pdf here.

Comments

Hitler says in his school days, he played with a pen of Greater Germany's flag colors.
These are Black, Red, Gold, derived from the 1848 Revolution. Especially in Austria, these colors remained true, while in the rest of Germany, they represented the hijacked political system of the Weimar Republic later on that used the flag, without representing Greater Germany. 
The BRD and DDR uses these colors too without representing it's meaning, since the BRD has no ambition of a reunification with Austria. 

Hitler said he would wave pencils of those colors - black, red, yellow I suppose - when he held up his hand to speak.

The biggest lie is to say that Austria and Germany are separate countries and that Austrians are not Germans. That was only true under the Habsburg empire.

The problem started during the Napoleanic conquest of Germany, when Kaiser Franz declared himself Kaiser of Austria, while being Kaiser of Germany in 1804. In 1806, he abdicated the throne of Germany and unconstitutionally dissolved the German Reich.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
In the new 1919 German-Austrian constitution, it stated in article 2: "German-Austria is part of the German Republic". Social-Democratic Chancellor Renner of German-Austria proclaimed on that day: "We are one tribe and one community of the same destiny".
On February 10th, 1919 the German National Assembly declared in the "Law of the provisional Reich-force" "if German-Austria joins the German Reich, it should participate in the states' committee".
The Allies stepped in and forbade the reunification and also barred Austria to call herself German-Austria. 

This HTT series is the best podcast going on these days.
However, when I open the book, I usually skip directly to 1945 because I want Hitler's most recent views, especially since they begin to factor in the catastrophe playing out. I wish he had been around into the 1960s or even 70s to help us understand the postwar world, but asking him to live to see his nation and a lifetime of work destroyed would be asking too much.

steve j:
<blockquote>However, when I open the book, I usually skip directly to 1945...</blockquote>
 
This book only goes as far as November 1944. Another book containing alleged Hitler - Bormann documents for 1945 is a well known fake. 
 

I thought about mentioning to him there is no 1945, but your answer is better.

Hans Baur first met Hitler during the 1932 election campaign. Hitler was a true trend setter because back then commercial flying was still in its infancy and was considered dangerous and exotic. It should also be remembered that many of the onboard instruments taken for granted today were only invented during the course of the war so flying really was seat of the pants stuff as Hitler described.
Recommended reading: I was Hitler's Pilot the memoirs of Hans Baur

Spain and Portugal supplied Germany with much needed tungsten during the war.
Axis history forum:
 
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=163333

I should have been more precise about the book with the fake table talk entries. It is called The Testament of Adolf Hitler and covers 4th February 1945 to 2nd April 1945. There are a couple of versions of the book out there but the one below is the original as far as I know. This garbage could be the cause of some of the rumours which surround the authenticity of genuine table talk manuscript.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Testament-Adolf-Hitler-Craig-Fraser/dp/B00656PHCO/...