Hitler's Table Talk

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
66l
The touchiness of the Italians comes from an inferiority complex;
it is the touchiness of a people with a guilty conscience.
Geographically, we shall never dominate the Mediterranean.
But the French will certainly never be given the chance to do
so—particularly after the peace treaty which we shall impose on
them. It is to be hoped that one day we shall achieve complete
hegemony in Europe.
As for the Swedish vermin, they must be swept away like the
Danish vermin in 1848!
We must not take everything on our own shoulders; if we did,
our successors would have nothing to do but to sleep. We must
leave them some problems to solve, and the means with which
to solve them—namely, a mighty Army and a mighty Air Force ;
and the Army must be taught that, if some cowardly crew of
politicians should come to power, then it is the Army's duty to
intervene—as the Army in Japan did.
As a general principle, I think that a peace which lasts for
more than twenty-five years is harmful to a nation. Peoples, like
individuals, sometimes need regenerating by a little bloodletting.
Our ancestors fought duels. Next came the barber and
his bleeding-cups—and now we have the safety razor !
Nobody in the Middle Ages suffered from high blood-pressure
—their constant brawls were ample safeguard against it; and
in Upper Bavaria they practised the custom of Sunday bloodletting.
Now, thanks to the safety razor, the world's bloodpressure
is rising. It fills me with shame when I think that I
have lost more blood shaving than on the field of battle.
If Stalin had been given another ten or fifteen years, Russia
would have become the mightiest State in the world, and two
or three centuries would have been required to bring about a
change. It is a unique phenomenon! He has raised the
standard of living—of that there is no doubt; no one in Russia
goes hungry any more. They have built factories where a
couple of years ago only unknown villages existed—and
factories, mark you, as big as the Hermann Goring Works.
They have built railways that are not yet even on our maps.
In Germany we start quarrelling about fares before we start
building the line ! I have read a book on Stalin ; I must admit,
he is a tremendous personality, an ascetic who took the whole