Hitler's Table Talk

226 THE CASE AGAINST DUELS
views. Next day two hobbledehoys come to see Hess and ask
him to explain the insult to their comrade! I forbade Hess to
become involved in this ridiculous affair, and asked him to
send me the two seconds. I said to them: "You're trying to
pick a quarrel with a man who fought against the enemy for
four years. Aren't you ashamed?"
Our friend Holzschuh er was involved in an affair that might
have ended in a duel. The pretext was grotesque. I said to the
people concerned : "I know some Communist hide-outs where,
for any of our chaps, the mere fact of showing oneself is to risk
one's life. If any of us is tired of living, let him go and make a
trip round those places!"
I've never known a single case of a duel that deserved to be
taken seriously.
We had an irreparable loss in Strunk—our only journalist in
the international class. His wife was insulted—he was killed.
Where's the logic?
In 1923, Dietrich Eckart was simultaneously challenged to a
duel by sixteen or seventeen flabby adolescents. I intervened,
and put the whole affair in good order. In my presence, nobody
turned a hair.
Obviously there are cases in which two individuals have a
conflict that no tribunal could settle. Let's assume they
quarrel over a woman. A solution must be found. One of the
two has got to disappear.
But in time of war there's no question of condoning affairs of
that kind. The country can't afford such superfluous deaths.
For peasants' brawls, I'm inclined to be extremely indulgent.
The young man whose honour is in question can no longer
show himself in the village unless he has fought for his sweetheart.
There's nothing tragic in affairs of that sort.
It sometimes happens that a court finds a man guilty of
murder when he's really only a culpable homicide. It's sufficient
if the accused has once, in bravado, threatened to kill the
other man. Then at once people wish to interpret the act as
the execution of a well-considered plan. What would happen
if all those who have offered threats of this sort, in the country
areas, were regarded as murderers? In such cases, and when
I see that the accused is a decent lad, I wink an eye. The penalty