out the whole Hitler document.
Germany [Hitler had dictated in it] is now and always
has been the fulcrum of the West’s defense against
Bolshevist aggression. A victory by Bolshevism over
Germany would lead not just to a new Versailles but
to the final annihilation, nay extermination of the
German people.Now, he argued, they must subordinate all else to the expansion
of Germany’s armed forces. Only the conquest of Lebensraum
would solve their shortage of foodstuffs and raw materials. “I
therefore ordain as follows,” the Hitler document proclaimed:
(i) the German army must be ready for action in
four years;
(ii) the Germany economy must be ready for war
in four years.Characteristically, as he finished reading out the document,
Göring added to his Little Cabinet orally what Hitler had not:
The Führer, he said, was making him exclusively responsible for
the new economic program.
There was no discussion, nor would there be in the future.
The rift between the pro-Göring and anti-Göring factions
was wide open. The ministers who had witnessed the meeting
immediately contacted those who had not. “Today,” wrote Paul
Körner triumphantly to the absent Herbert Backe, “we wit-
nessed the most beautiful day in our economic history. Göring
came back from the Obersalzberg bringing the latest guidelines
for our work for the next years.” Dr. Hermann Reischle phoned
Darré in identical language the minister, he exclaimed, had
missed the most beautiful day of his life. “Göring,” reported Re-
ischle, “read out a devastating letter [sic] of the Führer’s about