Page 44 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The British Diplomats 31

to honour it.” at the very least, such an agreement, which would have to
be acceptable to Britain, France, and italy, “might calm all Germany for
a while,” and the result might be years of peace. in the meantime, Hitler
“might grow old” and “there’ll be no problems and present ones will not be
so pressing.” 37
according to Phipps’s diary, published in 2008, he continued to be baf-
fled by what he saw in Germany well into 1934. early in July of that year, he
noted that he could not fathom the behavior of Nazi leaders. He concluded
that “one thing only is certain and that is the general uncertainty. the ac-
tors are too unstable, the factors too numerous and too shifting to allow a
prophecy for more than a few weeks, which should bring a lull. to indulge
in a guessing game on a rainy day in a country house might be amusing.
to attempt any reasoned prognostication of the future course of events
in Germany would be the height of unreason.” the diary was compiled
38
in 1940, three years after Phipps left his post in Berlin. it is not known
whether he informed the Foreign Office that he was that confused by the
Nazis’ conduct of affairs. He was not always consistent in his policy recom-
mendations, but the burden of his message to london tended to be sharply
critical of the Nazi regime.
Certainly he was as unsparing in his assessments of Hitler’s character
and policies as his predecessor in Berlin. if his dispatches over the next few
years lacked the historical depth, political insight, and sense of outrage of
rumbold’s analyses, they were nevertheless of high quality and colorful;
and they demonstrated an understanding of Hitler’s psychological make-
up that was shrewd as well as penetrating. His portrait of Hitler the man,
sprinkled with humorous asides, still stands up as thoroughly convincing.
Given Hitler’s growing power and the cult of Hitlerism, which was evolv-
ing rapidly in Germany, such a portrait of his psychology was potentially
very useful to the officials in london who shaped Britain’s foreign policy.
in his first meeting with the chancellor, on October 24, 1933, Phipps was
taken aback by Hitler’s unexpected and passionate outburst on his willing-
ness to die for his people rather than “sign away their honour” by failing
to press for an end to foreign intervention in German affairs. “i could see
him,” Phipps wrote, poking fun at Hitler, “as he spoke, advancing, un-
armed and Mahdi like, clutching his swastika flag, to meet death from a
French machine gun. a trace of healthy, human fear of death would have

according to an ancient prophecy, the Mahdi (Guided One) referred to here was to be
the redeemer of islam who would transform the world into a perfect islamic society before
the “day of resurrection.”