able donation... Bimb. had told H. that he wanted
nothing more to do with the party, and that this sum
was for Hitler personally! In addition Bimb. is said to
have complained a lot about you, saying you had
written him “harsh letters” and he had sent you over
four thousand... Hitler is expecting the money any
moment and he has promised me positively, time af-
ter time, that he will let me know immediately when
the money is there.In the rest of this letter from Bavaria, Carin gave her exiled hus-
band advice on how to approach Hitler with his idea of transfer-
ring operations to Sweden, which people in the party might well
find hard to swallow. He should write the Führer a concise letter
(“because he has so very much to do”), and above all gloss over
the failure in Italy. “Please,” she cajoled him, “don’t be too pes-
simistic about Italy and his plans there.”
“At our first meeting here before Christmas [Carin wrote],
I told Hitler about your talks with the gentlemen in Rome. He
knows also that the transactions were about an alliance, about the
two million lire, and about the South Tyrol question.”
If, she continued, Hermann now admitted to Hitler that
Mussolini’s men were refusing even to see him anymore, Hitler
would surely dismiss her as “muddle-headed.” She had men-
tioned the negotiations only so that Hitler could see how hard
her husband had slaved for him “So that he wouldn’t think
you were incompetent,” she told Hermann candidly, adding
hastily, “I adhered strictly to the truth just as you told me.”
Thus Hermann’s letter to Hitler should explain that while at the
time the loan had seemed feasible, the fact that the Nazi party
had recently suffered an electoral setback suggested that there
was nothing to be gained from any kind of deal with the Fascists.