Hitler's Table Talk

WINTER CLOTHING FOR EASTERN FRONT 185
great upheavals. It will have consequences that we did not
seek—for example, the dismemberment of the British Empire.
Who are the guilty parties? The Jews. What happens to
England is totally indifferent to them. A Hore-Belisha, who
grew up in the ghetto, couldn't have the same reflexes as an
Englishman.
Experience teaches us that after every catastrophe a scapegoat
is found. In England, it will probably be the Jew. But
let them settle that between themselves. It's not our mission
to settle the Jewish question in other people's countries !
97 6th January 1942, evening
GUEST : GENERAL DIETL
Order and cleanliness—Pedantry of the administrative
services.
In peace-time, it's necessary to govern in a spirit of economy.
For that there's one condition, which is that order should prevail.
Another condition, for that matter, is that cleanliness
should prevail.
In every organisation, the art consists in finding a formula
in which the necessary strictness of the rule is tempered by the
generosity called for by the facts. We shall never completely
eliminate from the administrative services the spirit of pedantry
that paralyses all initiative. In important cases, we must
arrange for a third authority to intervene, equipped with the
necessary power of decision.
It's really moving to observe what is happening just now
about the collection of wool for the Russian front. Civilians
deprive themselves of their most precious possessions. But they
must have the conviction that everything is being put through
without the slightest fraud, and that every object will reach its
proper destination. Let anyone beware, therefore, who might
try to interfere with the proper channels and intercept, for
example, such-and-such a sumptuous fur, which will be worn
perhaps by the simplest of our soldiers !