Page 140 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The French Diplomats 127

traordinary meeting they had on september 2, 1936, in Berchtesgaden,
which began with a free-wheeling discussion of international affairs. the
ambassador repeated his country’s eagerness for amicable relations with
Germany, urged Hitler not to intervene in the spanish Civil War, and
then voiced his concern about tensions in europe. in his response, Hitler
claimed that the situation was more critical than his guest realized and con-
tended that Western statesmen failed to understand what was causing the
tensions. “europe,” Hitler declared, “has been eaten away by Bolshevism.
distributing endless sums of money, the soviets have so far undermined
Poland, Czechoslovakia, romania, [and] France.” He warned that a terri-
ble upheaval, organized by the Comintern (the Communist international),
could break out at any moment. “Only two men were determined to defend
civilization and the traditions of [the european] continent: he himself, Hit-
ler, and with him Mussolini. they might perhaps perish [in the endeavor].
But history will honor their memory as the two courageous champions of
a great humane cause.” Hitler then boasted that he was a better european
than was generally realized.
that did not end his comments on the current situation in europe. He
also launched into what François-Poncet called a “tirade” on Germany’s
economic needs. Both France and Britain could rely on colonies to supply
them with needed goods. those countries must understand that Germany,
too, could not do without an adequate supply of raw materials. as the leader
of that country, he had to make good on his promise to its sixty-seven mil-
lion people that he would find work for them as well as an adequate supply
of food. “Germany,” he said, “demands” that other powers freely and in a
friendly manner make it possible for it to acquire the necessary products.
“Otherwise, it will procure them in other ways.” But, as usual, Hitler added
that he wished for nothing but peace. 74

the end of françois-poncet’s
tenure in berlin

the dispatches to Paris that François-Poncet composed during his last
twenty-two months in Berlin, roughly from January 1937 until late October
1938, tended to be more consistently critical of Hitler and Nazism than those
of previous years; yet they still held out hope that the West could somehow
reach an agreement with Germany and that war could be avoided. On the
one hand, on March 17, 1937, he told Yvon delbos, the foreign minister,