THE POLITICAL
TESTAMENT
OF
ADOLF HITLER
(February - April 1945)
French
Engl.
Germ.
Italian
Span.
Norsk
EDITOR'S NOTE A document, known as Die Bormann Vermerke, was published in a number of countries during 1952 and 1953. (In France by Flammarion under the title of Libres Propos sur la Guerre et la Paix (two volumes), and in England by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Hitler's Table Talks.)
The document contains the views expressed by Hitler on a variety of subjects between the 5th July 1941 and the 30th November 1944. They were taken down verbatim at the time they were expressed by subordinates of Martin Bormann, who then read, annotated and classified them. From the beginning until 7th September 1942 there is a note for nearly every day of the period; but after that date they become few and far between. We know that Bormann attached great importance to this document, which he considered would be 'of capital interest to the future'.
These new pages, which have only just come to light, form part of Die Bormann Vermerke. They cover but a brief period, but one of exceptional interest. They consist, unfortunately, of only eighteen notes. The first seventeen cover the period between the 4th February and 26th February 1945 with all but day-to-day regularity. The eighteenth and last note is dated 2nd April 1945.
They differ from their predecessors in that all eighteen were taken down directly by Bormann himself. (In previous years, he had delegated the task of taking down, except on the rarest of occasions, to a secretary.) The explanation is twofold. Firstly, conditions in the Chancellery 'Bunker' in 1945 were certainly not of a kind in which the presence of subordinate personnel could be tolerated. Secondly, taking into consideration the nature of the subjects broached, it is probable that the Führer was speaking 'off the cuff', as it were, in the presence of only the most privileged of his intimates and perhaps even in the presence of Bormann alone.
Furthermore, it must not be forgotten that a few weeks later Hitler nominated Bormann as his successor as Head of the Party and as executor of his Will. It is, then, reasonable to suppose that Bormann on his own initiative decided to preserve for posterity these final thoughts of his Führer, on events that had occurred, on the state of the world a few weeks before the end of the war and on the future of Germany. It is, however, more than probable that the actual taking down of the notes by Bormann was done on the instructions of Hitler himself. For in these all too fragmentary notes there is apparent an obvious desire to place on record clear-cut opinions on a number of subjects, to which hitherto no allusion has even been made. The Führer, obviously, is anxious to commit to paper certain thoughts which, until a few months, indeed, a few weeks before, he had deliberately kept to himself, in rigid adherence, perhaps, to certain convictions which he held, and also perhaps actuated by the desire to keep alive in his intimate entourage their belief in a number of cherished myths.
Be that as it may, to label these thoughts his 'Political Testament' is to give them a title which is certainly both appropriate and the one which Hitler himself, by implication, intended them to bear. It seems certain that in acting as they did both Hitler and Bormann gave clear evidence of their wish to leave behind, in extremis, a message to survive the defeat, which they themselves knew must come within a matter of weeks, but which they were still unprepared to admit in the presence of others. It is equally certain that, alone with Bormann, the last, the staunchest and the most intimate of all his adherents, Hitler felt that he could speak with complete freedom.
A characteristic feature of these last notes, in sharp contrast to those of the preceding years, is the absence of any frills or digressions. They go straight to the point. That Bormann had no illusions about the inevitability and the completeness of the defeat that was imminent is shown in a letter to his wife, dated 4th February 1945, in which he wrote:
. . . 'But to you I can write quite frankly, and tell you how very unpleasant-indeed, if I am completely honest, how desperate the situation is' . . . Bormann Letters (p. 170).
And all Bormann's thoughts were, as we know, always a faithful reflection of the thoughts of his Führer, to whom he had dedicated himself body and soul. As far as can be ascertained, it was about 2nd February that Bormann moved into the Chancellery, in which a room was put at his disposal. It is therefore not surprising to find the first of these notes dated 4th February. But why did they cease on 26th February? Why was there a break of thirty-five days between the seventeenth and the eighteenth and final note? Why, after a whole month of silence, is there just that last, solitary note, dated 2nd April and then no more?
No wholly satisfactory explanation is available. The growing burden of the day-to-day routine, the rapid deterioration of the situation, the feeling, perhaps, that the Führer had already given him all that was essential of his ideas on subjects of capital interest? Or perhaps, overtaken by the rush of events during the last desperate, few days, Bormann had no chance of putting in a place of safety any further notes which he may have taken? These are conjecture and questions to which, it is felt, the answers will never be known.
FRANÇOIS GENOUD
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