lin, but Göring decided to rush it over to Hitler despite the
lateness of the hour.
Gaping midnight crowds lined the Wilhelm Strasse as he
arrived. The Reich Chancellery’s iron gates were open, and the
building itself was lit like Coney Island. After hearing Göring,
Hitler sent for Dahlerus it was by now twenty minutes after
midnight and subjected him to an emotional speech, ending
with the words, “However many years the enemy holds out, the
German people will always hold out one year longer.” He re-
peated his offer of an alliance with Britain, provided she help
Germany over Danzig and the Polish Corridor; Göring tore a
page out of an atlas and outlined the areas in pencil to Dahlerus,
as Hitler spelled out an even more tantalizing promise for the
bemused businessman to carry straight back to London. “Ger-
many,” Hitler dictated, “would not support any nation not
even Italy, Japan, or Russia which commenced hostilities
against the British Empire.”
Out at Kurfürst, the Luftwaffe headquarters, Göring called
a further Little Cabinet meeting later that day, August .
Göring informs us [recorded Staatssekretär Herbert
Backe] that Italy wouldn’t play ball and that’s why the
attack [on Poland] was called off. Says that Mussolini
has written a frantic letter to the Führer: “Factors be-
yond our control make it impossible for us to fulfill
our treaty obligation”; says the king refused to sign his
mobilization order. Göring speaks warmly of Musso-
lini and his plight, but adds that a real man would
have toppled the monarchy.At one stage during the day, Dahlerus telephoned from No.
Downing Street to ask whether Henderson might delay his re-
turn to Berlin, with Britain’s formal reply to Hitler’s “offer,”