Office of the Historian

862.2222/33: Telegram

The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Secretary of State

Berlin, September 11, 1936—4 p.m.
[Received September 11—1:47 p.m.]

278. My 276, September 10, 7 p.m.19 Yesterday’s meeting of the party rally at Nuremberg and devoted almost entirely to attacks on Bolshevism with which Jewry was definitely identified, carried on the theme inaugurated by the implications of Hitler’s proclamation and his “kultur” speech of September 9.20

The extraordinarily sharp and searching statements by Goebbels and Rosenberg21 in combination with Wednesday’s speeches afford an excellent basis for Hitler to develop his position along the several following associated lines and as a justification for any action he may take thereafter respecting rearmament, anti-Bolshevism, anti-Semitism, further “sacrifices” by the Germans in pursuing the new four years’ plan, et cetera. Defense of Europe against Bolshevism consorts [Page 149] readily with the consolidation of Eastern Europe under German leadership (see second paragraph, page 5 of Embassy’s despatch No. 3019 of September 3.22)

Certain observers feel that the particular vehemence of the two speeches yesterday was especially directed toward enlightenment of French public opinion in particular concerning the Bolshevik menace with a view to undermining the Franco-Soviet alliance.23

As has been frequently expressed to us this morning, it would seem difficult for the Soviet Embassy to remain in Berlin with any dignity after the violent frankness of Goebbel’s polemics and Rosenberg’s statistics on the Jewish make-up of the Bolshevik regime and the pitiless revelation of the tie-up between the Comintern and the Soviet Government.

Copies to London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Moscow.

Dodd
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. See Royal Institute of International Affairs, Documents on International Affairs, 1936, pp. 290 ff.↩
  3. Alfred Rosenberg, editor of Voelkischer Beobachter.↩
  4. Vol. i, p. 337, paragraph beginning “Curiously enough, the German situation …”↩
  5. Treaty of Mutual Assistance Between France and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, signed May 2, 1935; League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. clxvii, p. 395.↩