Page 131 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

118 The French Diplomats

lution to a close. Now that Hitler had eliminated röhm and could count
on the support of the armed forces (reichswehr), the chancellor fully sided
with the “conservatives” in the Nazi Party. He understood that the terror
that had swept over the country for the first fifteen days of July had taken
a terrible toll, and therefore wanted to reestablish order and “bring about
a [period of] calm that the country had never known since the accession
[to power] of the [Nazi] regime.” Having made this optimistic prediction,
arnal adopted the stance of his superior, the ambassador. He concluded by
warning that Germany was so volatile and Hitler so impetuous that no one
could speak with much confidence about the future course of events. 49

germany as a military threat

in the midst of the growing signs of Nazi ruthlessness and brutality at
home, the French military attaché, General Gaston renondeau, a major
source of French intelligence on Germany, found disturbing evidence that
Hitler’s government was making extensive preparations for a long military
conflict. the general based his report to Paris on data collected by a British
official considered thoroughly reliable. the data indicated that Germany
had launched a major program to obtain large quantities of raw materi-
als, most notably fuels. several firms—among them i. G. Farben and the
Braunkohle Zwangsgemeinschaft—had made arrangements to acquire in-
dustrial equipment by January 1937 that would make possible the produc-
tion of two million tons of fuel. Other industrial firms were to produce
three hundred thousand tons of synthetic fuels by hydrogenating carbon.
in addition, the German authorities had set a high priority on discovering
new processes for manufacturing synthetic rubber. General renondeau con-
cluded with a clear warning that “Germany has formally decided to replace
all the raw materials that are not found on its soil and that are indispensable
during war with synthetic products manufactured in its country. the proj-
ects, carefully examined, are now on the verge of being realized.” 50
a few days after François-Poncet had forwarded the general’s report to
Paris, he himself sent a dispatch on rearmament based on intelligence he
had received from a person simply identified as a well-placed and reliable
“informer,” who had revealed that members of the sa and ss were receiv-
ing six and eight weeks of military instruction from lower-ranking officers
of the regular army. in addition, many young men were sent to camps on
the pretext that they would work on the land but instead spent most of