Hitler's Table Talk

A GERMAN INLAND SEA 401
officers to whom I awarded the Oak Leaves was saying recently,
famine has already reduced the population of Leningrad to two
millions. If one thinks that, according to the report of the
Turkish Ambassador in Russia, the city of the diplomats itelf
no longer offers anything decent to eat; and if one knows, too,
that the Russians are continuing to eat the meat of brokendown
horses, it's not difficult to imagine that the population of
Leningrad will rapidly diminish. The bombs and artillery fire
have contributed their share to the city's destruction. In future
the Neva will have to serve as the frontier between Finland and
ourselves. May the ports and naval dockyards of Leningrad
decay in their turn ! As a matter of fact, there can be only one
master in the Baltic, which must be an inland sea of Germany's.
That's why we must see to it there's no room for an important
port on the periphery of our Reich. The development of our
own ports and those of the Baltic countries will amply suffice to
cover our maritime needs, so that we shall be well able to dispense
with the port of Leningrad, which in any case is blocked
by ice for half the year.
182 5th April 1942, evening
Shall we try to Germanise the French?—The claims of
Mussert—Very limited autonomy in the Great German
Reich—Example of Austria—Himmler on the Frisians—
Germanisation of Holland—The foreign legions on the
Eastern front—Fusion of all Germanic races—But no excess
Germanisation—Distrust of the Poles—Traitors within—
Spontaneous treachery—How Germany should have shown
her resistance spirit in 1918—Admiral Darlan's conjuring
trick—France will pay for the errors of Versailles.
During dinner, the Reichsfuehrer SS declared that, in his view, the best
way of settling the French problem would be to carry off every year a
certain number of racially healthy children, chosen amongst France's
Germanic population. It would be necessary to try to settle these children,
while stillvery young, in German boarding-schools, to train them away from
their French nationality, which was due to chance, to make them aware
of their Germanic blood and thus inculcate into them the notion of their
membership of the great group of Germanic peoples.* The Fuehrer replied:
1 "Sinister theory!" (MS. note by Bormann.)