My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyMy two interviews with Hitler in April 1935 and October 1936 were easy, becausethere was no clash of interest. He seemed to me a calm, cool customer, certainlyruthless, but in no way neurotic. I remember remarking afterwards: if it be true hebites the carpet, he knows to a millimetre how far his tooth is going. I understand hesometimes flew into considerable rages, apparently to impress those around him andto get things done; a process of dynamism. I prefer the opposite technique in history,which can be exercised when such devotion has been inspired by leadership that aCaesar has only to look sad, and address his old companions as citizens instead ofsoldiers, in order to reduce a mutiny to tears. These things are questions not only oftaste but of method inherent in character.Hitler impressed me at that time as in no way insane, and this view was reinforced byhis private appearance in small parties he gave when Diana and her sister were present.She described him as an extraordinarily gifted mimic, who could mime as well as anyactor before a discreet audience. Imitating himself in the days when he used to smoke,rolling cigarettes, licking the sticky paper in all the busy paraphenalia of the old-timecontinental smoker, he stopped short saying, you cannot do that sort of thing if youare supposed to be a dictator. It is a small point, but paranoiacs do not make fun ofthemselves. On another occasion he imitated Mussolini being presented with a swordby the Arabs, flashing it out of the scabbard and brandishing it to heaven; then he said:'I am no good at all that, I would just say to my adjutant, "Here, Schaub, hang on tothis" '.Such private occasions with relatively few people present revealed unexpectedqualities, particularly if Goebbels was there as well. Diana was very fond of FrauGoebbels, who, with her husband, was often at dinner with Hitler. Goebbels,distinguished in public by his qualities as an orator and master of mass propaganda,had in private life an almost exaggerated sense of humour which, surprisingly, Hitlershared; it was one of the bonds between them. They also had in common a love ofmusic.Hitler was a great talker, and lost a good deal of time in nocturnal discussions, sittingup late after supper talking to his staff or to guests, who found his conversationenthralling; in this respect at least he resembled Churchill. The habit apparently beganwhen he could not sleep after speeches, and it no doubt contributed to his ultimate andpremature exhaustion. Nothing is harder for an orator than to relax and sleep aftersuch an occasion. Without the use of drugs, or alcohol, to which Hitler was averse, itrequires not only a conscious act of will but an endocrine system capable of brakingas well as accelerating, which he apparently did not possess. At interviews,conferences or on these occasions, he must have met most of the elite of Germany,but the only conspicuous absentees from these encounters appear to have been theGerman scientists who were working on various aspects of nuclear fission; anincredible omission which may well have changed the destiny of the world, for hefailed to grasp that the first duty of statesmen in the modern age is to discover, knowwell, understand and support the men of science.Diana used to stay sometimes with her sister who had taken a flat in Munich, withencouragement from me as I was naturally interested to hear more of developments inthat country and of these personalities. When she was in Munich or in Berlin Hitlerwould always invite them to luncheon or dinner, and they were introduced to his307 of 424