﻿ Deutsche diplomatisch-politische Korrespondenz German Propaganda Archive Calvin College



Background: Deutsche diplomatisch-politische Korrespondenz was essentially the press releases of the German Foreign Ministry. It was issued at not quite daily intervals, with issues usually running three to five typed pages. It was intended for distribution to the international press. I here translate the contents of three issues. The first appeared at a time when the Germans were confident Russia was about to collapse (although Goebbels was unhappy with the announcement, since he preferred not to announce victories before they were victories). The second deals with British politics. The third appeared after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but before the German declaration of war on the United States.

The source: Deutsche diplomatisch-politische Korrespondenz, Nrs. 164, 165, and 201 from 1941.

German Perspectives on International Diplomacy

Nr. 164:   10 October 1941

9 October will go down in the history of this war as a date important for both military and political reasons. From the military perspective, the campaign in the East entered its final decisive phase. Bolshevism’s army, the numerically largest army in the world, is defeated or surrounded. The Soviet Union is no longer a military opponent. Germany’s back is secure and all forces can now be focused on Great Britain. Besides this military development, a new German-Turkish commercial treaty that has considerable political impact was signed on the same day. In it, Turkey announces that it wishes to be part of the new large economic territory that is developing today in Europe under Germany’s leadership. The German-Turkish agreement is long-term and significant expansion of previous agreements. That  shows the confidence in the stability of the new European order on the part of a country that England has always seen as an ally.

The response to this double success on the part of the German war leadership on the enemy side is very strong.  In a striking way, the English-American press does not attempt to question the reliability of German statements on the situation on the Eastern Front.

The communiqués from Moscow certainly contribute to that. They are entirely unlike former Soviet tactics, and display a grim picture of the situation on all fronts. Even Pravda writes that the Soviets face the most powerful concentration of troops in history, and that the crisis on the Eastern Front has reached its peak. For the first time since the beginning of the war, Pravda also admires German tactics, which reject successes for reasons of prestige and prefers to destroy one Soviet army after another rather than settling for capturing large Soviet cities.

London radio’s military spokesman, Major Allan Murray, has similar thoughts. He describes the current German offensive as one whose force and strength is unequalled in any previous war. Despite almost insurmountable problems of supply and transportation, the Germans are able to organize and carry out this attack. There is nothing with which to compare it in military history. Yesterday for the first time at a press conference in Washington, the possibility of moving the American embassy from Moscow to Stalingrad was discussed.  Although one knows that Churchill foresaw this development and warned Roosevelt in good time, working out cold-bloodedly British-American policy toward Soviet Russia, it is clear that this will come as a total surprise to the broad masses in Great Britain and the United States. For too long, the British people was deceived by its government into believing that the Soviets would win the war for England, for too long the American public believed the illusion that Churchill’s plan that Germany and the Soviet Union would destroy each other was functioning like clockwork. With the collapse of the Soviet state, the last and greatest source of democratic cannon fodder is used up. For the Anglo-Saxons, this means that they must risk their own necks if they intend to continue their opposition to a new and just world order.

Nr. 165: 11 October 1941

The military collapse of the Soviet Union has brought about signs of a domestic political crisis in Great Britain. As in similar situations in the past, the press asked after the news from the East whether the British government could do anything to hinder the catastrophe facing its Soviet comrades. Many commentators asked why there had been no attempt to relieve the situation in Eastern Europe by a British invasion on the west side of the continent. Such observations, which often border on self-reproach, are not unusual in England. There were similar comments after the end of the campaigns in Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, Greece, and Crete, as well as after General Wavell’s retreat from Libya. The British government usually answers that things had to turn out as they did, and that the government had done its best. And in fact, the British War Office made a modest statement that responsible offices and thought about it and made plans to implement it.

It would hardly be necessary to pay attention to this English conversation if things had not taken an unusual turn in the last twenty-four hours. The News Chronicle and Daily Herald, the two most important labor papers, launched sharp attacks on the British ambassador to Washington, Lord Halifax, with respect to the cabinet’s policy on Russia. He was accused of telling the Americans, and thereby Hitler as well, that Great Britain for one reason or another was not in a position to carry out the invasion in Western Europe that its critics call for. This itself innocent matter was used by the newspapers to accuse Halifax of being “an offspring of Chamberlain’s worldview,” and to be half guilty of treason.  The personal sharpness of such polemics is far stronger than what is normal for the English press.  

If one remembers that the attacks on Halifax that led to his removal from the cabinet and his transfer to Washington came from the same newspapers, one is probably not wrong in presuming the same forces is behind it as before.  That can be no one other than Churchill himself.  Through his friendship with Bevin, the Prime Minister has proven himself as a particularly dangerous tactician when it comes to increasing his own power. As soon as Churchill sees some sort of front within his own party directed against himself, he has them attacked by Bevin’s labor press. This allows him to silence his critics within the Conservative Party by referring to the national unity nature of his war cabinet. Back then Halifax had to go to Washington, since Churchill could tell the Conservatives that his position in the Foreign Office was unacceptable for the Labor Party. The attacks by the Labor Press are apparently the prelude to the expected recall of Halifax from Washington, and his exclusion from office for as long as Churchill remains prime minister.

It is not hard to understand why Halifax has to go. Churchill needs to justify the lack of support for the Soviet Union to the broad masses of the British people. He cannot surrender his real goal — the mutual destruction of Germany and the Soviet Union — particularly since it has completely failed in light of tremendous German victories. Churchill is thus unable to tell the English why he had no intention of helping the Bolshevists. His mention of technical difficulties is not enough to eliminate the distrust of the British masses. The prime minister has to find a target for this mistrust. That is why he has chosen Halifax, whom he envies and hates personally and politically for the standing he has both within the Conservative Party and among the British people. Halifax is one of the few who threatens Churchill’s personal power in England.  His recent brief visit to London confirmed this once again. Within a few weeks of his return, Halifax’s influence was so clear that Churchill ordered him to end his vacation. The tensions between the two men have probably increased as a result of the shamelessness with which Churchill tried to establish brotherhood between Great Britain and Bolshevism. Additionally, Halifax’s influence in the United States has been unpleasant to Churchill for a long time.  On the one hand, his has been unable to win the enthusiasm of the American masses for England, as Lord Lothian knew how to do. On the other hand, in some leading circles in the USA the impression has developed that Churchill is a passing figure in British politics, while figures like Halifax represent the real England. Recently, influential Americans have paid more attention to the ambassador than to the prime minister. It seems that even Roosevelt is uncertain about the peculiar duality of Churchill and Halifax in contemporary English political life. Churchill apparently wants to establish clarity.  His envy and mistrust against his competitor, who still has a strong following among the Conservatives, has increased to the point that he does not want to postpone the opportunity of being rid of Halifax. Who will follow Halifax remains an open question.  The most promising candidates seem to be Eden and Beaverbrook. [The Nazi analysis was wildly inaccurate: Lord Halifax remained British Ambassador to the United States until 1946.]

Nr. 201: 8 December 1941

The arrival of war between Japan on the one side and the United States and Great Britain on the other side comes as no surprise to those who have attentively followed developments around the Pacific. The opening of hostilities is only the last link of a chain of provocations that the Anglo-Saxon powers have used for many months to incite Japan to war. Just as the ring around Germany was tightened before the beginning of the European war, the Anglo-Saxon encirclement of Japan had reached a point that left no doubts as to the final goals of the cabinets in Washington and London. Just as the war against Germany was decided at the moment Germany when  was reunited with Austria, the intention of the United States and Great Britain to go to war with Japan was sealed on the day that the Japanese-French agreement on Indochina went into effect. Just as English and French officers held meetings in Warsaw and Moscow, in Paris, Brussels, and Den Haag, American, British, Dutch East Indian, Australian, Tschunking, and Canadian military personnel met increasingly often to work out a common military plan against Japan. The press in the United States and Great Britain carried extensive reports, and their commentaries have already made clear to history who is responsible for the ever-growing tensions in the Pacific, and for the outbreak of hostilities.  There is no possible doubt that Roosevelt and Churchill wanted war against Japan at any price.  The travels of Wavell, Sir Brocke Pophams, and Duff Cooper, Churchill’s statements and the related announcements by the governments of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, the sending of Canadian troops to Hong Kong, the arrival of the newest British battleship, the Prince of Wales, and other units in Singapore, and the demand that Portugal surrender the Timor Islands all prove that, as well as the order given weeks ago for American citizens to leave East Asia, the various speeches by Roosevelt, Sumner Welles, Hull and Knox, the American oil and steel embargoes, and many, many other measures. Anyone who was inclined to underestimate the seriousness of Naval Secretary Knox’s notorious threat to destroy the Japanese fleet within three months perhaps learned otherwise from the Chicago Tribune two days ago. At the moment when Japanese negotiators in Washington were still working for peace, when the Japanese press was showing almost superhuman patience and restraint, this newspaper published the full details of the American war plan. That lifted the curtain on the negotiations the Americans were  conducting in Washington. These negotiations were never intended to maintain peace, as Roosevelt’s unbelievable demand to the Emperor to withdraw Japanese troops from Indochina proved. Roosevelt and his people simply wanted to gain time. They were playing the same game that Chamberlain had played in Munich. They wanted to hold back their victim until they felt strong enough to destroy him.  The Americans did not begin their negotiations with Kurusu and Nomura to maintain peace and establish justice over the long term, but rather only so that they could determine the time at which the canons should be let loose.  Roosevelt demanded nothing else but that Japan should wait until the United States came closer to realizing its program for a two-ocean navy. He thought he could use the same tactics against Japan that had failed Stalin against Germany.

The Soviet Union, too, was willing to have peace in Europe until it was ready for its divisions to march across Germany’s borders. Just as Stalin had leveled the Russian revolver against Germany, waiting only for a suitable moment to pull the trigger, so Roosevelt had had the American revolver ready for a long time. Whether Roosevelt was ready for the canons to go off at this moment is another question. Stalin, too, would have preferred that his plans had not been discovered on 22 June 1941. From the political standpoint, that is unimportant. What is important is that Roosevelt now has the shooting war that he had sought using all the methods of demagogy and all the support of his international Jewish allies available to him. Roosevelt now has the war that he wanted, planed for, and prepared for. It is just as clear that British policy, which wanted the extension of the wear, has succeeded. If anyone besides Roosevelt is guilty for the outbreak of this conflict, it is Churchill.  He has met his goal of setting Russia against Germany and America against Japan, a new example of the classic British strategy, used throughout the world, of a balance of power.  The consequences of the schemes forged by these two men, however, will have to be borne by an innocent people. As of today, the United States follows the same tragic path as the peoples of Poland, Norway, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Russia. To serve the greatest example of warmongering in history, it must sacrifice its own sons.  Their bodies will be laid not on the altar of the American fatherland, but rather the result will be that gruesome pile of corpses that Jewish Mammon and the closely allied spirit of Anglo-Saxon imperialism have erected as the gravestone of so many peoples.



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