Diminuendo-II

Adolf Hitler issued his fifth New Year's proclamation of the war last week. His recognition of defeat was implicit; implicit also was a plea to Britain to save the Germans from Russia, leave them in a position of European power. With his usual mixture of truth and propaganda, he argued that: 1) Britain's balance-of-power-position in Europe has been lost (which many Britons have also said); 2) European stability requires "the existence of a dominating Continental power" (which nearly all Britons believe to be true--provided that the power is not too dominant, and that it is friendly to Britain).

Having failed to divide the Big Three in war, he wanly hoped to divide them in peace. Said he: "However the war may end, Great Britain's power must, in any case, be weaker. ... So far as Germany is concerned her existence alone guarantees that of Europe."

Who Sups with the Devil. But the proclamation was something more than propaganda: it was a clue to Hitler's strength even in despair, a testimony to his sense of oneness with the German people (always excepting those whom he has confined, abused, murdered). Its awkward rationalizations might seem absurd to free Britons and Americans; they did not seem absurd to Germans who remembered, with Adolf Hitler, the penalties of defeat in World War I, and who now suffered the agonies of defeat in the skies.

Winston Churchill, defending his advocacy of an understanding with Russia, once declared: "I would make a pact with the devil himself if it would save England." Now Hitler twisted this symbolism: "It will not be Great Britain who will tame the Bolshevik devil, but Bolshevik poison will eat up Britain more and more and lead her to ultimate disintegration."

Telling his people that no war lasts forever, Hitler reminded them that after four years of fighting the Reich had not lost "one square kilometer of soil." The year ended had been one of heavy reverses: the Russian offensive, the loss of Africa, the downfall of Il Duce, the rise of Tito; the year beginning, he grimly warned, would see the war's crisis. He said that German preparation to meet the Allied invasion had gone forward on "a scale that will probably surprise our enemies more than their landing will surprise us." The Russian front, he admitted, had been weakened for this preparation.

Heroism & Ruins. The Fuehrer said that Germany was "probably the only country . . . that has increased its coal production and subordinated everything to the demands of war by extreme restriction of private requirements." The homeland had stood up to the bombings so well that it could, he said, now be held up to the fighting forces "as an example of equal heroism and spirit of sacrifice." Indirectly, he testified to the destruction wrought upon Germany by the night-bombers of the R.A.F. the day-bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force. Matter-of-factly, as though there were no point in further denial, he referred to "the ruins of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Kassel" and of "all other towns, great and small," which have been damaged. Said he: "If millions of people no longer possess anything to lose, they can only gain something."

Candidate for Valhalla. As if already choosing his seat in Valhalla, Hitler concluded: "Our one prayer to our Maker will not be that He gives us victory but that He weighs us justly in accordance with our courage, our bravery, our industry and our sacrifices. ... It is our duty to see that we do not weigh too lightly in His eyes, but experience the gracious judgment of victory which means life."

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