The Voice of Destruction: Conversations With Hitler

The Voice ofDestruction:

ConversationsWith Hitler

1940

Hermann Rauschning

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COPYRIGHT, 1940, BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, mustnot be reproduced in any form without permission.

Third Impression

Designed by Robert josephyMANUFACTURED IN THE USITED STATES OP AMERICA

AT THE DINNER TABLE

and culture as a preliminary step towards incorporating theUnited States in the German world empire.

MEXICO, GERMAN VIRGIN SOIL

(SUMMER OF 1934, AFTER THE JUNE "PURGE")

This brings me to Mexico, which was actually mentionedin a much later conversation of Hitler's in 1934. Mexicoplayed a special part in Hitler's American plans, which were,however, nothing like Papen's notorious intrigues during thelast war to push Mexico into war against the United States.This policy Hitler regarded as sheer stupidity. Here, too, hewas prepared to initiate farsighted schemes and enterprises,the end of which he could not expect to see. His plans presup-posed much longer periods of time than his European schemes,and his impatience towards European problems will be under-stood only if it is seen against the background of his greaterplans, for which his European policy was to provide the powerbasis.

One man has evidently greatly influenced his conceptionsconcerning Mexico, a man who was a curious mixture of thegreat industrialist and the eccentric: Sir Henry Deterding ofthe Royal Dutch. I have made his acquaintance myself. It wasin East Prussia, where he was the guest of a friend of mine.He went shooting and pulled some not entirely invisible wires.A very agreeable man, incidentally, most stimulating in non-business intercourse. He shared Hitler's interest in the Cau-casian oil of the Russians, and was one of the promoters ofcertain plans for a further partition of Russia. He was inter-ested in the erection of an independent Georgia, a state which,by the way, was once a member of the League of Nations-still is, for all I know. In such hopes, which included the

66 THE VOICE OF DESTR UCTION

separation of the Russian Ukraine and the establishment ofa Volga republic, he was in great sympathy with Hitler. Hisinterest in the establishment of a silver currency was no doubtless of an attraction to the Fiihrer.

Directly or indirectly, Deterding convinced Hitler thatMexico was the best and richest country in the world withthe laziest and most dissipated population under the sun.Only the most capable and industrious people in the world,namely, the Germans, would be able to make something of it.This notion fell on very fruitful soil in Hitler's mind. On one ofmy last visits (it was after the 30th June, [934, when I sawhim to give him a report on Danzig conditions), he spoke ofMexico along these lines. It was at this time that the economicdifficulties of the Reich commenced, as did also those ofDanzig, the breakdown of whose currency system was thenimminent. Hitler's mood fluctuated between blackest depres-sion and uncontrollable rage. On every hand his opponentsseemed to be getting the better of him. The Reichsbank,which was playing up pessimism for demagogical reasons,claimed that the whole of rearmament was endangered. TheForeign Department was putting restraints on Hitler's tem-perament at every turn, and working in the old-fashionedstyle, with no thought of changing either its ideas or its tempo.It created a special circle of its own, and Hitler felt hamperedon every side. After the terrible blood-bath of june, he wasnot even sure of his own party. He had to make a great effortnot to be completely outmaneuvered.

Among intimate friends, Hitler let himself go. I often heardhim shout and stamp his feet. The slightest contradictionthrew him into a rage. This was the beginning of the tech-nique by which he would throw his entourage into confusionby well-timed fits of rage, and thus make them more submis-

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