Germans and friends of his earlier days. They had two children, and Adi was playing some
sort of parlor game with them when the visitors were brought in. He kept the little ones for a
while, talking to them and about them part of the time; his fondness for children was his
better side, and Lanny would have been pleased if he had not had to see any other.
The Führer wore a plain business suit, and presented the aspect of a simple, unassuming
person. He shook hands with his Franco-American guest, patted Heinrich on the back, and
called for fruit juice and cookies for all of them. He asked Lanny about his boyhood on the
Riviera, and the children listened with open eyes to stories about hauling the seine and bringing
in cuttlefish and small sharks; about digging in one's garden and finding ancient Roman coins;
about the "little Septentrion child" who had danced and pleased in the arena of Antibes a
couple of thousand years ago. Adi Schicklgruber's own childhood had been unhappy and he
didn't talk about it.
Presently he asked where Lanny had met Kurt Meissner, and the visitor told about the Dalcroze
school at Hellerau. His host took this as a manifestation of German culture, and Lanny forbore
to mention that Jaques-Dalcroze was a Swiss of French descent. It was true that the school
had been built and endowed by a German patron. Said Hitler: "That kind of thing will be the
glory of our National Socialist administration; there will be such an outburst of artistic and
musical genius as will astound the world." Lanny noted that in all the conversation he took it
for granted that the N.S.D.A.P. would soon be in control of Germany; he never said "if," he said
"when"—and this was one of the subjects on which the visitor was surely not going to contradict
him.
They talked about Kurt and his music, which was pure "Aryan," so the Führer declared;
nothing meretricious, no corrupt foreign influences; life in France for so many years had
apparently not affected the composer in the slightest. Lanny explained that Kurt had kept
almost entirely to himself, and had seldom gone out unless one dragged him. He told about his life
at Bienvenu, and the Führer agreed that it was the ideal way for an artist. "It is the sort of life I
would have chosen; but, alas, I was born under a different star." Lanny had heard that he
believed in astrology, and hoped he wouldn't get onto that subject.
VIII
What the Führer of all the Nazis planned was for this elegant and extremely wealthy young
foreigner to go out to the world as a convert to the National Socialist ideas. To that end he laid
himself out to be charming, for which he had no small endowment. He had evidently inquired
as to Lanny's point of view, for everything he said was subtly directed to meeting that. Lanny
was a Socialist, and Hitler, too, was a Socialist, the only true, practical kind of Socialist. Out of
the chaos of competitive capitalism a new order was about to arise; an order that would
endure, because it would be founded upon real understanding and guided by scientists. Not the
evil, degenerate Socialism of the Marxists, which repudiated all that was most precious in human
beings; not a Socialism poisoned with the delusion of internationalism, but one founded upon
recognition of the great racial qualities which alone made such a task conceivable.
Patiently and kindly the Führer explained that his ideas of race were not German in the
narrow sense. Lanny, too, was an "Aryan," and so were the cultured classes in America; theirs
was a truly "Aryan" civilization, and so was the British. "I want nothing in the world so much
as understanding and peace between my country and Britain, and I think there has been no
tragedy in modern times so great as the war they fought. Why can we not understand one
another and get together in friendship for our common task? The world is big enough, and it is
full of mongrel tribes whom we dare not permit to gain power, because they are incapable of
making any intelligent use of it."
Hitler talked for a while about these mongrels. He felt quite safe in telling a young Franco-
American what he thought about the Japanese, a sort of hairless yellow monkeys. Then he came
to the Russians, who were by nature lazy, incompetent, and bloodthirsty, and had fallen into
the hands of gutter-rats and degenerates. He talked about the French, and was careful of what
he said; he wanted no enmity between France and Germany; they could make a treaty of peace
that would last for a thousand years, if only the French would give up their imbecile idea of
encircling Germany and keeping her ringed with foes. "It is the Polish alliance and the Little
Entente which keep enmity between our peoples; for we do not intend to let those peoples go
on ruling Germans, and we have an iron determination to right the wrongs which were
committed at Versailles. You must know something about that, Mr. Budd, for you have been to
Stubendorf, and doubtless have seen with your own eyes what it means for Germans to be
governed by Poles."
