Page 142 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The French Diplomats 129

to the historian ian Kershaw, unverified rumors circulated that Hitler was
so upset by this news of racial defilement and by his having kissed the hand
of the minister’s new wife that he bathed himself seven times in one day to
wash away the stain. 77
a few days after this shock, on January 24, Hitler learned of another
scandal, this one involving Colonel-General Werner Freiherr von Fritsch,
commander in chief of the army, also an admirer and loyal follower of the
Führer. Fritsch, it was charged, had been involved in 1936 in a homosexual
relationship with a young man. the evidence was skimpy at best, but Hit-
ler and his leading lieutenants were deadly afraid that as a result of the two
scandals the government would become a laughingstock and lose popular
support. On January 27, Hitler dismissed Blomberg and eight days later
fired Fritsch.
in a dispatch of February 10, François-Poncet drew two conclusions
from the dismissals: they proved that there were still deep ideological dif-
ferences and conflicts between the conservatives in the military leadership
and the extremists in the Nazi Party; and they represented a continuation of
a trend initiated after the bloodbath of June 30, 1934, that is, the increase in
Hitler’s power over the military. the correctness of the second conclusion
quickly became evident. Hitler assumed the title of “supreme Commander
of the armed Forces” (Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht), which marked
a major shift of power from the traditional army leadership to the National
socialist Party. 78
François-Poncet’s interpretation of the conflict between the army and
the Nazi Party was rather complicated and not altogether convincing. He
pointed out, correctly, that a fairly large number of the army’s leaders, who
were traditional conservatives, opposed Hitler’s economic and social poli-
cies, as well as his campaign against the Jews and Christianity. But he went
on to assert that this dichotomy proved that “behind the façade of totali-
tarian regimes . . . the same strife, the same political conflicts are waged
as in other regimes,” and thus one could not be certain of the outcome
in Germany. the future, he insisted, was “problematic and covered with
clouds.” François-Poncet seems to have forgotten his own descriptions of
79
Hitler’s unchallengeable hold on power and his ruthlessness in exercising
it. such charismatic and unprincipled leaders do not often rise to the top in
all societies, especially not in democratic countries.
On February 16, six days after raising doubts about the dangerous con-
sequences of Hitler’s dominance over the army, the ambassador changed
his mind: he now believed that one result of the dismissal of Blomberg and