Hitler's Table Talk

378 PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND RUSSIAN MURDER PLOT
177 3ist March 1942, at dinner
Attempted assassination of Papen at Ankara—Confidence
in the Turks—Distrust of Bulgarians—German eastern
policy—Charlemagne "slayer of Saxons" and Hitler
"slayer of Austrians"—The work of Charlemagne—From
Chancellor to Fuehrer—The First Consul should not
have allowed himself to become an Emperor—Frederick
the Great a greater man than Napoleon—The best man
should be Head of the State—Examples of the Vatican and
the Venetian Republic—The Future German Constitution—Need
of separation of powers.
The conversation turned on the attempted assassination of Papen, at
the time ambassador in Ankara.
This attempted assassination is revealing as it concerns the
mentality of the Russian organisers. With other peoples, supposing
such an attempt was judged necessary for political
reasons, an attempt would be made to save the man who was
given the job of carrying it out. The Russians, on the other
hand, for all their cleverness, arranged the action in such a
way that it should cost the performer his skin. The setting was
well designed. The poor wretch had an apparatus that enabled
him, once the murder was committed, to produce an artificial
fog thanks to which he could try to escape. But what he had not
been told was that, as soon as he set the machine working, he
would himself detonate the explosive charge that was destined
to pulverise him. The only traces of him discovered were one
of his shoes and his revolver! The assassin's accomplices were
so disgusted by their masters' villainy that they decided to
reveal all they knew of the plot.
As Allies, I prefer the Turks to the Bulgarians. That's why
I'm ready to conclude a trade treaty with Turkey, by which
we'd supply her with arms and ammunition. In addition, I'd
be ready to guarantee the inviolability of the Straits and the
integrity of their frontiers, if the Turks had any wish for an
alliance with us.