Irving writes on page 49:
One of the most important surveillance weapons in Hitler’s police state was controlled by Hermann Göring, not Himmler. This was the Forschungsamt, or ‘Research Office,’ set up in April 1933 with a monopoly of wiretapping operations.How ironic that today we pay for the privilege of having a device in our homes that listens to everything we say.
Four days after coming to power Hitler makes a speech to the generals. Several interesting insights can be gleamed from this speech.
Germany must recapture complete freedom of decisionHe refers to the restrictions placed on Germany by the Versailles treaty.
Democracy is an Utopia. It is impossible. You won’t find it in either industry or the armed forces, so it’s not likely to be of much use in such a complicated institution as a state. Democracy is the worst of all possible evilsCan't day I disagree. However, his proposed alternative is dictatorship. I would only agree if the dictator was Jesus himself.
His pitch to the generals is to build up the Wehrmacht secretly in order to provide Germany the power to guarantee its self determination.
Our target is the restoration of German might. That’s what I’m fighting for with every means. To restore our might we’ll need the Wehrmacht, the armed forces. . .What I find most interesting is his reasoning concerning the Navy.
Hitler told [Commander in Chief, Admiral] Raeder it would be the tentpole of his future foreign policy to coexist peacefully with Britain, and he proposed to give practical expression to this by trying to sign a Naval Agreement with her. He would like to keep the German navy relatively small, as he wanted to recognise Britain’s right to naval supremacy on account of her status as a world power. He proposed to recommend the balance of forces accordingly.Here we find his attitude toward Britain was conciliatory and one of respect. Apparently that attitude subsequently changed drammatically
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