Page 32 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The British Diplomats 19

as a vulgar, unscrupulous and irresponsible demagogue and his success is in
direct relation to the ignorance and lack of critical faculty of his audience.”
11
at the same time, in his missives to the foreign secretary, rumbold stressed
the Nazi penchant for violence, although he also noted that the Commu-
nists were responsible for even more violence. But he emphasized that the
attacks against Jews in various parts of Prussia outside Berlin were the work
of Hitler’s followers. in east Prussia, a stronghold of the Nazis, they had
perpetrated some of the “most disgraceful outrages.” “the windows of
shops owned by Jews were smashed and their contents looted.” the Na-
zis also firebombed the offices of the “democratic newspapers.” during the
first ten days of august 1932, shootings, stabbings, and arson by means of
“high explosives” had occurred “in almost every part of Germany.” 12
By this time, some officials in london had begun to view developments
in Germany with alarm. On November 26, 1931, the Foreign Office sub-
mitted a “report to Cabinet” that now reads like a prophecy in calling
attention to the enormous impact on world history of a Nazi ascent to
power. the section on Germany, if not the whole document, was almost
certainly drafted by sir robert Vansittart, the permanent undersecretary
of the Foreign Office, who had a special interest in that country, which he
believed was intrinsically drawn to militarism. He became the most vigor-
ous spokesman among foreign policy professionals for a firm stand to keep
Nazi Germany in check. the first sentence of the German section warned,
“People in this country seem to be unaware of the extent to which the fu-
ture of ‘civilisation’ depends on what happens in Germany in the course of
the next six months and of the grave doubt as to whether the upshot will be
peace or war, recovery or collapse.” 13
One of the more interesting reports on conditions in Germany in the im-
mediate pre-Nazi period was drafted by Malcolm Grahame Christie, who
had a second career as a diplomat after a successful stint in the royal Flying
Corps in World War i, during which he attained the rank of group-captain.
after his discharge, he became an intelligence officer in the Foreign Of-
fice and served as air attaché in Berlin from 1927 until 1930. For reasons of
health, he retired in 1930 but continued to visit Germany and other central
european countries to gather information for reports he then submitted
to the Foreign Office. He was fluent in German and had cultivated valu-
able contacts in industry, finance, diplomacy, and the Nazi Party itself. after
1934, he wrote reports for Vansittart.
in his report of May 20, 1932, which Christie called his “impressions,” he
clearly grasped the mood in Germany that had enabled the sudden growth