Hitler's Table Talk

NATIONALITY PROBLEM IN THE LOW COUNTRIES 537
prisoners to be liberated. It goes without saying that those who
are risking their lives for the Europe of to-morrow have prior
claim to a sympathetic hearing in Germany. Let me add that I
think we have acted far too leniently towards the Belgian reactionaries.
It was a mistake not to have made King Leopold a
prisoner, and, out of consideration for his Italian friends who
pleaded for him, to have allowed him to live in Belgium. For
while this Belgian King is no intellectual luminary, he has an
infinite capacity for intrigue and is the centre of attraction for all
reactionaries.
As a counter-weight to these reactionary elements we have
the magnificent conduct of the Flemish on the Eastern front.
The Flamands have indeed shown themselves on the Eastern
front to be more pro-German and more ruthless than the
Dutch legionaries. This is certainly due to the fact that the
Flemish have for centuries been oppressed by the Walloons. The
lack of harmony between the Flamands and the Walloons has
not escaped the notice of the Duce. When he speaks of the
Europe of the future, he is wont to group the Flemish and the
Dutch on one side, and the Walloons and the French on the
other.
As regards the status of the Walloons, I am inclined to think
that the Duce is not quite correct in his appreciation of the
problem of North-western Europe. The solution which he is
inclined to dangle before the eyes of the small minority of
Walloons is hardly practicable within the framework of the
Greater Germanic State (Das Grossgermanische Reich}. I am
pleased, therefore, that there exists neither in Holland nor in
Belgium, any Government with which we should have to
negotiate. This will enable us to impose whatever we feel is
politically expedient and obviously useful. I propose solving
the problems of these small States by means of brief and decisive
declarations.
The beginnings of every civilisation express themselves in
terms of road construction. Under the direction of Caesar, and
during the first two centuries of the Germanic era, it was by
means of the construction of roads and tracks that the Romans
reclaimed the marshlands and blazed trails through the forests