Hitler's Table Talk

536 INHERITED ABILITY
post, I have adopted a system of transfer applicable to those
Gauleiters who have not of their own efforts succeeded in
winning over their Gau to National Socialism. For example, I
have transferred the Gauleiter of Salzburg to Syria, and have
replaced him in Salzburg by a member of the Party who up till
now had been doing work of a totally different kind. On the
other hand, I would never send to a town like Vienna a man of
whom I have high expectations later on in other spheres of
activity. In short, there will never be any question of son
succeeding father. Can you see me appointing some youngster
of seventeen as Chief of the General Staff!
Bormann interposed that normally the son of a mathematics professor
was not inclined to follow in father's footsteps.
The Fuehrer concluded:
Well, that is not surprising. As a general rule a son inherits
the characteristics of his mother, and not those of his father. I
know of the son of an industrialist who refused at any price to
go into his father's business. Having inherited the idealism of
his mother (who had been divorced and remarried), he decided
to become a soldier, and a parachutist into the bargain.
241 27th June 1942, at dinner
Degrelle asserts—Magnificent behaviour of the Flamands—
The three phases of the 'fate of Belgium and Holland—
Roman roads and viaducts—Our road net-work in the
East—Tobruk: a happy omen—Churchill and Roosevelt
confer—Britain in the toils.
The Reich Press Chief, Dr. Dietrich, invited the attention of the
Fuehrer to a complaint made by Degrelle, the Belgian royalist leader
(at present serving as a legionary on the Eastern front), to the effect that
in the recent exchanges of prisoners of war there were never any Rexists
among the Belgians so exchanged. The Belgian members of the
Exchange Committee were, Degrelle maintained, out-and-out reactionaries,
who persistently ignored the existence of the Rexists. The
Fuehrer replied:
I direct that steps be immediately taken to ensure that
Degrelle has the decisive vote in the selection of Belgian