The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

gathered as usually happens when big events occur. Few people bothered to
buy the noon papers which carried the news.’
In his personal diary, he noted that the memorandum issued from the
Propaganda Ministry justifying the invasion of the Low Countries set up ‘a
new record, I think, for cynicism and downright impudence’. He was also
struck over the ensuing days by the apathy shown by Berliners for the
offensive. Most Germans he had talked to were sunk deep in depression at
the news. ‘The question is,’ he noted, ‘how many Germans support this
final, desperate gamble that Hitler has taken?’ Discussing it with fellow
correspondents at the Adlon, they agreed that most did, yet that did not
mean they had to like it.
Of course, Shirer, as an educated middle-class, democratically raised
American, would find the totalitarian Nazis offensive. Yet despite the
undoubted gloom within Germany about the war, Hitler’s approval rating
and popularity were still massive. He had brought employment, prosperity
and pride. The turn-around in such a short period of time was truly
astonishing. And he had started to make Germans feel secure once more.
Without a shot fired, he had built up her armed forces, and expanded the
Reich, bringing former German peoples back into the nation. Most
Germans thought the claims on the Danzig corridor, which would link the
Baltic outpost of East Prussia to the eastern border and make Germany
whole once more, were entirely justified – after all, it was mainly German
people living there anyway.
There was also another benefit from absorbing the eastern half of
Poland: it created a buffer against the westward expansion of the Soviet
Union. Bolshevism was painted as an evil and Stalin a bloody tyrant in
much the same way that Nazism and Hitler were perceived in Britain and
the West.
Else Wendel’s attitude was typical of many Germans. Raised in
Charlottenburg, an affluent part of Berlin, she was an educated and
intelligent young mother, but with little interest in politics. Although not a
Party member, her ex-husband, Richard, was, and indeed, when he fell in
love with the lead violinist of the Brandenburg City Orchestra, of which he
was conductor, the Nazi ideology that denigrated church and religion made
a divorce from Else far easier and more acceptable than it would have been
before Hitler had come to power. Nor did he make any further financial
contribution to either Else or their children, which was also acceptable