Page 257 - The Chief Culprit

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Words and Deeds

hen trying to put together a clear picture of Hitler’s National Socialism and
Stalin’s international socialism, we find surprising similarities not only in slo-
W gans, songs, and ideologies, but also in events. In the history of German National
Socialism there was a moment very similar in spirit and meaning to the TASS Announcement
of June 13, 1941. A year before, on May 8, 1940, German radio announced that the talk of
two German armies being transferred to the border with Holland was a “ridiculous rumor,”
being circulated by “British inciters of war.” After this, the German armies crushed and oc-
cupied Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg, and the greater part of France. e German radio an-
nouncement of May 8, 1940, and the TASS announcement of June 13, 1941, match almost
word for word. Hitler did not believe Stalin’s TASS announcement because he had himself
disguised the preparations for a sudden attack using the same exact tricks.
e TASS announcement of June 13, 1941, was meant to stop rumors of imminent
war between the USSR and Germany. Stalin decisively fought these rumors. e same prob-
lem stood before Hitler at the same time. Preparations for war are difficult to hide. People see
them and express all sorts of hypotheses. On April 24, the German naval attaché in Moscow
sent a warning report to Berlin, stating that he was combating “obviously ridiculous rumors
of an impending German-Soviet war.” On May 2, Ambassador Schulenburg reported that
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he was also fighting rumors, but “everybody who comes to Moscow from Germany brings
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not just these rumors, but can even support them with evidence.” On May 24, the head of
the foreign press department of the Ministry of Propaganda in Germany, Karl Bemer, in a
drunken state said something undesirable about relations with the Soviet Union. He was ar-
rested immediately. Hitler personally took care of this case and, according to Goebbels, gave
this event “too much consideration.” On June 13, 1941, on the day of the TASS announce-
ment stating that there would be no war, Karl Bemer stood trial before the People’s Court and
said that his speech had been a drunken mistake: of course, there would be no war between
Germany and the Soviet Union!
Just to make sure no doubts about this remained at home or abroad, on June 15, 1941,
Ribbentrop, the German minister of foreign affairs, sent top secret telegrams to his ambas-

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