Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

FRANCE IS TO BLAME 687psychosis,' he said in a radio speech on the night of October 15, a dayafter his withdrawal from the League of Nations. He called on the worldto witness, by the example of the London counter-trial, what NationalSocialism had saved the world from: 'By saving the world from thismenacing catastrophe' — the Red incendiary torch — 'the NationalSocialist Movement has not only saved the German people, it has alsorendered an historic service to the rest of Europe.'And now incendiary Communism was busy stirring up a warlikemood in Europe; but Adolf Hitler — or so he himself said — opposed itand offered Europe peace. He had, according to his speech, left theLeague of Nations and the Disarmament Conference in order thatGermany might seek understanding with her former adversaries,between nation and nation, in a way far better than had been possiblebeside the Swiss lakes. Daladier had spoken his cautious, reassuringwords. 'I take it as a sign of a noble sense of justice,' said Hitler, 'that theFrench Premier in his last speech has found words in the spirit ofconciliatory understanding, and for this innumerable millions ofGermans are grateful to him.' Hitler made more of Daladier's words thanthe speaker presumably intended; he spoke to the French with a mixtureof pride and warmth of which Stresemann had not been capable:With hopeful emotion we take notice of the assurance that the Frenchgovernment, under its new leader, does not intend to trample andhumiliate the German people. We are moved by the reference to theunfortunate sad truth that these two great nations have so often inhistory sacrificed the blood of their best youth on the battlefields. Ispeak in the name of the whole German people when I assure you thatwe are all filled with the sincere desire to do away with a hostility thevictims of which are out of all proportion to its possible gain. TheGerman people is convinced that its military honor has remaineduntarnished through a thousand battles and contests of arms, just as inthe French soldier we see only our old but glorious adversary. . . .Only a few years earlier, Hitler had publicly said that Germany mustforcibly retake Alsace-Lorraine from France. This he now solemnlycontradicted. There was only one relatively unimportant