Abstract
During the months covered in this chapter, hubris was on the horizon for the Third Reich. The Nazi leaders, Hitler foremost among them, were convinced that nothing could prevent them from achieving their ultimate aim of European, if not global, hegemony. This certainty of future triumphs had significant implications for the running feud between “collaborationists” and “conquerors” in the Nazi establishment. Hitler still refused to give unequivocal backing to either camp, and some “collaborationists” remained convinced that the dictator supported them, but there is little doubt that in these last months before the outbreak of the Second World War the “conquerors” were gaining the upper hand.1 In the spring of 1938 Germany annexed Austria, and eighteen months later the Third Reich attacked Poland and unleashed the Second World War. The brief time span between these two milestones represented the zenith of the Nazis’ self-confidence and the beginning of Hitler’s self-destructive megalomania. The dictator did not hesitate to start a global altercation to achieve his ends; in fact, he eagerly anticipated armed conflict. On November 10, 1938—one day after the Reichskristallnacht pogrom—the Führer delivered an infamous address to a selected group of German newspaper editors admonishing them to prepare their readers for war rather than peace.2
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Notes
Joseph Goebbels, Die Tagebücher von Joseph G oebbels, T eil I.• A ufzeichnungen, 1924–1941 (hereafter: Goebbels, T gb.), ed. Elke Frohlich (Munich, 1987), III:398, 411, and 425–26 (12 Jan., 21 Jan., 1 and 2 Feb. 1938), VI:260 (7 Feb. 1939), and VII:33 (5 July 1939); Welczeck to state secretary, 15 July 1939, PA/AA, Buro StS., Fr. 1938–40, Bd. 1; and Otto Abetz, D as offene P roblem (Cologne, 1951), p. 89. Grimm insisted even after the war that Hitler sympathized with the “collaborationists.” See, Friedrich Grimm, “Betrachtungen zur Zeitgeschichte—Die Verantwortung” (cited hereafter as: “Zeitgeschichte”), p. 23, typescript ms., BAB, NL Grimm II, Nr. 1.
Goebbels called René Hambourger, Goebbels: chef de publicite du IIIe Reich ([Paris, 1939]) “an amusing diatribe (Machwerk) against me.”
Félix Bérard, “Die Hakenkreuzfahne weht uber Prag—Wir verstehen nicht mehr”, Deutsch-Franzosische Monatshefte 6 (1939): 269–72.
William D. Irvine, “Domestic Politics and the Fall of France in 1940,” in The French Defeat of 1940: Reassessments, ed. Joel Blatt (New York, 1998), 85–99.
François Veuillot, La Rocque et son parti comme je les ai vus (Paris,1938), p. 53; Philippe Machefer, “Le Parti social francais,” in La France et les Frangais en 1938–39, ed. Rene Remond and Janine Bourdin, (Paris, 1979), pp. 307–26; Pierre Milza, “L°Ultra-droite des annees trentes,” in Histoire de l’extreme Droite en France, ed. Michel Winock (Paris, 1993), p. 188.
Service des Affaires de Sûreté Generale, “Rapport Confidentiel,” July, 1939, reprinted in: Paul J. Kingston, ed., Anti-Semitism in France during the 1930s (Hull, UK, 1983), pp. 11ff; Yvon Lacaze, L’opinion publique franfaise et la crise de Munich (Bern, 1991), p. 315; Julian Jackson, France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944 (New York, 2001), p. 104ff; and Ralph Schor, L’Antisemitisme en France pendant les années trente (Brussels, 1992), p. 62.
For Rebatet’s view of his work see, Lucien Rebatet, Les Décombres (Paris, 1942), pp. 63–64. On the issues themselves see, Pierre-Marie Dioudonnat, Je suis partout, 1930–1944: Les Maurassiens devant la tentation fasciste (Paris, 1973); and Alice Yaeger Kaplan, Reproductions of Banality: Fascism, Literature, and French Intellectual Life (Minneapolis, 1986), pp. 130–32 and 189 n. 19.
Paul Ferdonnet, La Guerre juive (Paris, 1938), pp. 39 (quotation), 133, 142, and 251.
On Les Sept Couleurs see, Luc Rasson, Littérature etfascisme: Les romans de Robert Brasillach (Paris, 1991), pp. 111ff and 135ff; and Zimmermann, Drieu, pp. 235–36.
Wolfgang Kowalsky, Kulturrevolution? Die Neue Rechte im neuen Frankreich und ihre Vorlaufer (Opladen, 1991), p. 31; and Burrin, Dérive, pp. 237 and 244.
Konrad Kwiet, “Mussert, ‘Mussert-Juden’ und die `Losung der Judenfrage’ in den Niederlanden,” in Vorurteil und Rassenhass: Antisemitismus in denfaschistischen Bewegungen Europas, ed. Hermann Graml, Angelika Konigseder, and Juliane Wetzel (Berlin, 2001), pp. 151–68.
See, Heinz Ballensiefen, Juden in Frankreich (Berlin, 1939); and Karl Heinz Bremer, Der franzosische Nationalismus (Berlin, 1939), pp. 108ff (quotation) and 125–26. For an attempt to portray the pervasive decadence in France see, Herbert Kranz, Hinter den Kulissen der Kabinette und Generalstäbe: Einefranz6sische Zeit- und Sittengeschichte, 1933–1940, mit 161 Bildern (Frankfurt a.M., 1941).
Friedrich Grimm, “Bericht über eine Reise nach Paris, 1. bis 8.1.39,” 13 Jan. 1939, BAB, R 55/20983. (There are a series of these “Berichte"; hereafter they will be cited as"Bericht” with the appropriate date.) See also, Feihl, “Pressebericht,” 17 Jan. 1939, PA/AA, Bot. Paris, 696b, V 9, Bd. 2; and German embassy Paris [Braun] to Foreign Office, 3 April 1939, I Fr. 2, Bd. 36; German embassy Paris to Foreign Office, 14 Sept. 1938 and 23 May 1939, PA/AA, Bot. Paris, V 5, Bd. 12, Paket 692a, and ibid., Presseabt., Fr. 2, Bd. 10.
See, Ebert’s synopsis of Rosenberg’s report, 16 July 1938, in: J. Billig, ed., Alfred Rosenberg dans l’action ideologique politique et administrative du Reich hitlerien... Documents CDJC (Paris, 1963), p. 180 (doc. CXXXIX-8); German consulate Lyon to Foreign Office, 9 Nov. 1938, PA/AA, Bot. Paris, VI 6a, Bd. 1, Paket 706; and, for example, Jean Lommen to Propaganda Ministry, 15 Oct. 1938, PA/AA, Pol. Abt. II, Pol. 29 Ni, Bd. 3.
Hartmann Lauterbacher, Erlebt und mitgestaltet: Kronzeuge einer Epoche, 1923–1945 (Preussisch-Oldendorf, 1984), pp. 105 and 152; and Barbara Lambauer, Otto Abetz et les Franfais - ou l’envers de la collaboration (Paris, 2001), p. 105. See also, RMVP, Presseanw., VI/2:314 (16 and 24 March 1938) and VII/1:17 (5 Jan. 1939).
Friedrich Grimm, ed., Hitler et la France (Paris, 1938); and Diewerge to Hasenöhrl, 17 Nov. 1938, BAB, R 55/20979.
Wolfgang Diewerge, Anschlag gegen den Frieden (Munich, 1939); Paul Ferdonnet, La Guerre juive (Paris, 1939); Faber to Propaganda Ministry, 28 Nov. 1938 and 10 Jan 1939, PA/AA, Rechtsabt. III, Strafr. Nr. 21, Bd. 1 and 2 resp.; Dr. Botch, “Aktennotiz,” 23 May 1939, PA/AA, Bot. Paris, VI 6a, Bd. 1, Paket 706. Attached to this memo is a list of recipients that reads like a Who’s Who of French fascists. See also Diewerge to Hadamowsky, 28 Oct. 1941, BA, R 55/628; and RMVP, Presseanw., VII/1:126 (7 Feb. 1939).
Zech to AA, 17 Jan. 1939, PA/AA, Ges. Den Haag, Pol. 4, Bd. 4. The German minister had made much the same point six months earlier. See, Zech to AA, 14 June 1938, PA/AA, R 27120. See also, Horst Lademacher, Zwei ungleiche Nachbarn: Wege und Wandlungen der deutsch-niederldndischen Beziehungen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Darmstadt, 1990), p. 159.
Gerard Groeneveld, Zwaard van de geest—het bruine boek in Nederland, 1921–1945 (Nijmegen, 2001), pp. 59ff.
Edward Reichel, “Nationalismus, Hedonismus, Faschismus: Der Mythos Jugend in der franzosischen Literatur von 1890 bis 1945,” in: Thomas Koebner et al., eds., “Mit uns zieht die neue Zeit”: Der Mythos Jugend (Franldfurt a.M., 1985), pp. pp. 166–67. Cf. Sternhell, Neither, pp. XX–XXI [sic]; and Jouvenel, Voyageur, pp. 322–23.
Henri Amouroux, La grande Histoire des Franfois sous l’occupation (Paris, 1976–1993), I:39; Carroll, Literary Fascism, pp. 115–16; and Reichel, “Nationalismus,” pp. 150–73.
Alfred Pfeil, “Die franzosische Frontgeneration und der Faschismus: Pierre Drieu la Rochelle als politischer Schriftsteller” (PhD. diss., Universitat Marburg, 1968), p. 156; Pierre-Henri Simon, Proces du héros: Montherlant, Drieu La Rochelle, Jean Prevost (Paris, 1950), p. 160; Zimmermann, Drieu, pp. 223–24; and Solange Leibovici, Le sang et Z’encre: Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, une psychobiographie (Paris, 1994), p. 255.
J. Saint-Paulien [Maurice-Yvan Sicard], Histoire de la C ollaboration (Paris, 1964), pp. 25–27. See also, Schor, L’A ntisemitisme, p. 158; and Andreas Wirsching, “Auf dem Weg zur Kollaborationsideologie: Antibolschewismus, Antisemitismus und Nationalsozialismus im Denken der franzosischen extremen Rechten, 1936–1939,” V iertelahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 41 (Jan. 1993): 54–55.
Paul J. Kingston, ed., Anti-Semitism in France during the 1930s (Hull, UK, 1983), p. 5.
Welczeck to Foreign Office, 17 July 1938, PA/AA, Bot. Paris, I Fr. 2, Bd. 33; Burrin, Derive, p. 231; and Rebatet, Décombres, p. 65.
Quoted in, Victor Barthélemy, D u communisme au fascisme: L’histoire d’un engagement politique (Paris, 1978), pp. 132–33.
Quoted in, Fernand L’Huillier, “Les Francais et l’accord du 6 decembre, 1938” in Dreyfus, ed., Relations, pp. 412–13.
Pierre Drieu de la Rochelle, Fragment de Memoires, 1940–1941 (Paris, 1982), pp. 232–33; and the chapter titled “La semaine de l’abandon,” in Jouvenel, Voyageur, pp. 325ff, esp. p. 338. See also, Jouvenel’s letter to LeRoy Ladurie in, the latter’s Mémoires, 1902–1945, ed. by Anthony Rowley and Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie (Paris, 1997), pp. 140–45.
Goebbels noted after the speech, “the mood in Paris is pretty glacial.” See, Goebbels, Tgb., VI:171 (3 Nov. 1938).
Fernand de Brinon, Mémoires (Paris, 1949), p. 38; and Abetz, Problem, p. 97. On the turmoil in the CFA see, Grimm, “Berichte,” 12–18 March and 20–27 April 1939; German embassy Paris to Foreign Office, 25 May 1939, and German embassy Paris to Reich Foreign Minister, 26 May 1939, PA/AA, Presseabt., Fr. 7, Bd. 7, and ibid., Bot. Paris, Pol. 2, Nr. 7, Paket 1297. Incidentally, Abetz in Problem, p. 95 later claimed that Felix Berard’s article “Die Hakenkreuzfahne weht uber Prag—Wir verstehen nicht mehr,” which Abetz accepted for publication in the Deutsch-Franzosische Monatshefte, was “probably the only criticism [of the occupation of Prague] which appeared in the Third Reich."
P.A. Cousteau, “La Pologne est bien resolue a ne pas prendre son ‘poumon,” JSP, 18 Aug. 1939.
Pierre Gaxotte, “D’Abord 1’ Armée,” and Brasillach, “Au revoir Italie,” jSP, 14 Oct. 1938 and 26 May 1939 resp.; and Hans-Jurgen Heimsoeth, Der Zusammenbruch der franzosischen Republik: Frankreich während der “Drôle de Guerre” 1939/1940 (Bonn, 1990), p. 186.
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© 2009 Dietrich Orlow
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Orlow, D. (2009). “We Don’t Understand Our Friends Anymore”: March 1938–September 1939. In: The Lure of Fascism in Western Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617926_6
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