"Hitler's Table Talk" Study Hour: Episode 44

Jan. 29, 2015

Ernst Hanfstaengl, foreign press chief (on left) with Hitler and Göring discussing some party business in the early days.

Ray Goodwin and Carolyn Yeager read and comment on the July 7-9, 1942 lunch and dinner table monologues by the German Leader, as taken down in shorthand by aide Henry Picker. 1h23m. Included in this episode:

• Unflattering stories told about Hitler's Foreign Press Chief Ernst Hanfstaengl's miserliness;
• The annual Party Rally at Nuremberg is on a scale that has no comparison anywhere in the world;
• German pre-Christian culture was not advanced - Nuremberg only 7 centuries old;
• Political situation in Spain: Franco, Serrano Suner and the Church - Spanish Reds - General Munoz Grande & the Blue Division;
• Blondi becoming more vegetarian;
• Germans hope for higher rations from a good Ukrainian harvest, but transportation is a problem;
• Events in Egypt - Rommel's name becoming hallowed - Suez Canal;
• Roads in the Eastern territories - Germans must not impose their own ideas and customs on local inhabitants.

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