Hitler's Table Talk

1 Hitler's Table TALK,1941-1944 His Private ConversationsHITLER'S Table TALK1941-1944 His Private ConversationsTranslated byNorman Cameron and StevensIntroduced and with a new Preface Trevor-RoperenigmabooksNEW YORK CITYH itler's Table Talk 1941-1944 Introduction and Preface by Hugh Trevor-RoperCopyright Enigma Books 2000 First published in Great Britainby Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, Londona division of the Orion Publishing CompanyIntroductory Essay 'The Mind of Hitler'and Preface 2000 by Trevor-RoperEnglish translation copyright 1953by Weidenfeld and NicolsonThe moral right of Trevor-Roper to be identifiedas the author of the introductory essay 'The Mind of Hitler'and the Preface has been asserted by him in accordance withthe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act rights reserved under Internationaland Pan-American Copyright in the United States by Enigma Books, Eighth Avenue, New York, NY PrintingPrinted and bound in CanadaISBN 1-929631-05-7 CONTENTSINTRODUCTION BY H.

2 R. TREVOR-ROPERP reface to third edition viiThe Mind of Adolf Hitler xiPART ONE1941 5th July 31st December iPART TWO1942 1st January 5th February 161 PART THREE1942 6th February 7th September 297 PART FOUR1943 13th June 24th June 701 PART FIVE1944 13th March 29th-30th November 713 INDEX 723 PART ONE19415th July 31st DecemberI Saturday, 5th July 1941 Aryans and Russians Necessity of the mailed fist inRussia Deterioration of we need is a collective view of people's wish to live andmanner of must distinguish between the Fascist popular movementand the popular movement in Russia.

3 The Fascist movement isa spontaneous return to the traditions of ancient Rome. TheRussian movement has an essential tendency towards instinct, the Russian does not incline towards a higherform of society. Certain peoples can live in such a way thatwith them a collection of family units does not make a whole;and although Russia has set up a social system which, judgedby Western standards, qualifies for the designation " State ", itis not, in fact, a system which is either congenial or natural to is true that, in a sense, every product of human culture,every work gifted with beauty can be born only of the effect ofthe constraint which we call Aryan peoples are peoples who are particularly man like Kr mel works from morning to night; such-and-such another person never stops thinking.

4 In the same way, theItalian is as diligent as an ant (bienenfleissig). In the eyes of theRussian, the principal support of civilisation is vodka. His idealconsists in never doing anything but the indispensable. Our con-ception of work (work, and then more of it!) is one that he sub-mits to as if it were a real is doubtful whether anything at all can be done in Russiawithout the help of the Orthodox priest. It's the priest who hasbeen able to reconcile the Russian to the fatal necessity of work by promising him more happiness in another Russian will never make up his mind to work exceptunder compulsion from outside, for he is incapable of organisinghimself. And if, despite everything, he is apt to have organisa-tion thrust upon him, that is thanks to the drop of Aryan bloodin his veins.

5 It's only because of this drop that the Russianpeople has created something and possesses an organised State,It takes energy to rule Russia. The corollary is that, the34 COAL AND PETROLEUM RESERVES tougher a country's r gime, the more appropriate it is thatequity and justice should be practised there. The horse that isnot kept constantly under control forgets in the wink of an eyethe rudiments of training that have been inculcated into it. Inthe same way, with the Russian, there is an instinctive force thatinvariably leads him back to the state of nature. People some-times quote the case of the horses that escaped from a ranch inAmerica, and by some ten years later had formed huge herds ofwild horses. It is so easy for an animal to go back to its origins !

6 For the Russian, the return to the state of nature is a return toprimitive forms of life. The family exists, the female looks afterher children, like the female of the hare, with all the feelingsof a mother. But the Russian doesn't want anything more. Hisreaction against the constraint of the organised State (which isalways a constraint, since it limits the liberty of the individual) isbrutal and savage, like all feminine reactions. When he collapsesand should yield, the Russian bursts into lamentations. This willto return to the state of nature is exhibited in his the Russian, the typical form of revolution is think there's still petroleum in thousands of places. As forcoal, we know we're reducing the natural reserves, and that inso doing we are creating gaps in the sub-soil.

7 But as forpetroleum, it may be that the lakes from which we are drawingare constantly renewed from invisible doubt, man is the most dangerous microbe imagin-able. He exploits the ground beneath his feet without everasking whether he is disposing thus of products that would per-haps be indispensable to the life of other regions. If oneexamined the problem closely, one would probably find herethe origin of the catastrophes that occur periodically in theearth's Night of 5th-6th July 1941, shortening of space by roads The frontier of theUrals Moscow must disappear The treasures of beauties of the Crimea, which we shall make accessibleby means of an autobahn for us Germans, that will be ourHOLIDAYS IN THE NEW EUROPE 5 Riviera.

8 Crete is scorching and dry. Cyprus would be lovely,but we can reach the Crimea by road. Along that road liesKiev! And Croatia, too, a tourists' paradise for us. I expectthat after the war there will be a great upsurge of than the railway, which has something impersonalabout it, it's the road that will bring peoples together. Whatprogress in the direction of the New Europe! Just as the auto-bahn has caused the inner frontiers of Germany to disappear,so it will abolish the frontiers of the countries of those who ask me whether it will be enough to reach theUrals as a frontier, I reply that for the present it is enough forthe frontier to be drawn back as far as that. What matters isthat Bolshevism must be exterminated.

9 In case of necessity, weshall renew our advance wherever a new centre of resistance isformed. Moscow, as the centre of the doctrine, must disappearfrom the earth's surface, as soon as its riches have been broughtto shelter. There's no question of our collaborating with theMuscovite proletariat. Anyhow, St. Petersburg, as a city, isincomparably more beautiful than the treasures of the Hermitage have not beenstored at the Kremlin, as they were during the first World War,but in the country-houses unless they've been shifted to thecities east of Moscow, or still further by Night of 11 th-12 th July 1941 The natural piety of man Russian atheists know how todie No atheistical think the man who contemplates the universe with his eyeswide open is the man with the greatest amount of natural piety.

10 Not in the religious sense, but in the sense of an intimateharmony with the end of the last century the progress of science andtechnique led liberalism astray into proclaiming man's masteryof nature, and announcing that he would soon have dominionover space. But a simple storm is enough and everythingcollapses like a pack of cards!In any case, we shall learn to become familiar with the lawsby which life is governed, and acquaintance with the laws ofTHE NATURE OF GODnature will guide us on the path of progress. As for the why ofthese laws, we shall never know anything about it. A thing is so,and our understanding cannot conceive of other has discovered in nature the wonderful notion of thatall-mighty being whose law he in everyone there is the feeling for this all-mighty, which we call God (that is to say, the dominion ofnatural laws throughout the whole universe).