Hitler's Table Talk

WEHRMACHT RELEASE OF AN ARTISTE 689
312 4th September 1942, midday
Intelligence and a knowledge of foreign languages—Confession
is good for the soul—Folk-dancing—An acrobatic
danseuse—People travelling—Crock's grotesque house—
Some architectural peculiarities.
The speaking of several languages is not necessarily a proof of
intelligence. For a child to speak two or three languages as the
result of having had an English or a French nurse is an everyday
occurrence.
Spanish women, even though they speak several languages,
are outstandingly stupid. Franco's wife, for instance, goes to
church every day of her life. I admit confession has its uses;
the woman has the satisfaction of absolution and permission to
carry on with her little games, and the parson has the pleasure
of hearing all about it! But, of course, it must all be paid
for!
These Hungarian girls have a terrific temperament! The
Tabody is a devil incarnate, and the very devil of a baggage !
The Hungarian Csardas is a fine dance, comparable to our
Schuhplattler, and worthy of any man. Our ballroom dancing,
on the other hand, is, in my opinion, the essence of effeminacy.
Some years ago I was visited in the Chancellery by one of our
youngest artistes, the little Endres, who, at the time, was still a
little girl. She came to see me about something—a request for a
reduction in the costs of transporting her baggage, I think. And
now, I hear, she is the foremost tight-rope actress in Germany.
Recently she petitioned for the release from the Army of her
brother, whom she wished to have as her partner in a tour she
was undertaking of Wehrmacht units. She had been unable to
find any other suitable partner, and it seems to me that he would
give us more value entertaining the troops than fighting at the
front. When I saw her before the war she was an angular, awkward
little maid, but even then a great future was being predicted
for her as an artiste.
I read recently that a whole family of acrobats had fallen to
their deaths, and I therefore immediately ordered that no
dangerous acrobatic turns should be permitted without a
safety-net. It is not right that some brilliant artiste should fall to