Nazi aide’s warning over ‘mad’ Hitler

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

New research shows that a former chief aide to Adolf Hitler - the man who recommended him for the Iron Cross and who became a father figure to the future dictator - urged British intelligence to topple him when he was at the height of his power.
Dr Thomas Weber, a professor at the University of Aberdeen, says Fritz Wiedemann risked death for his betrayal as he urged Britain “to strike as hard as possible” against the “madman” Hitler after he defeated France in 1940.
Peace was impossible without the removal of Hitler, claimed Wiedemann.
“The fact that Wiedemann was entirely against Hitler is, up until now, unknown,” Dr Weber told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine yesterday.

Captain Fritz Wiedemann posed beside a portrait of Adolf Hitler in 1939, when the he arrived in New York on the S.S Hamburg

In 1935 Wiedemann, who was a senior officer in the List Regiment in which Hitler served as a messenger in France and Belgium during WW1, and who put the Austrian corporal’s name forward for the Iron Cross First Class for bravery, was appointed as his adjutant.
Wiedemann was a fervent supporter of Hitler in the early years following defeat in 1918 but grew disillusioned with Nazism as time went on.

In 1939 Hitler sent him to San Francisco as consul general - an exile seen as punishment for his increasing criticism of the party’s lust for world domination and his fears of a new global conflict.

Dr Weber says that his research shows that while there he met British intelligence’s U.S. head Sir William Wiseman after the outbreak of war in September 1939.

 

Dr Weber has found the records of Wiedemann’s talks with him in 1940 in which Wiedemann openly warned against Hitler: he said he had a “split personality and numbered among the most cruel people in the world, saw himself better than Napoleon and that peace with him was impossible.”

Adolf Hitler, pictured in 1944, was described as a 'madman' by his chief aide who had previously been unwavering supporter

He told Wiseman of the Fuhrer’s plans to attack and conquer the UK and “recommended strongly” that the British themselves strike as quickly and as “hard as possible” against him.
In addition, he told Wiseman that the morale of the German population and the support of Hitler were lower than generally believed.
Wiedemann also offered to publicly denounce the German regime, but the White House at that time had no interest in such an offer as it was not at war with Germany and wanted to keep out of the conflict.
Dr Weber said that Wiedemann also claimed to Wiseman that he used his influence to protect former Jewish members of the List Regiment from the Gestapo.
This comes a month after research in Germany showed that Hitler did indeed spare the life of his company commander Ernst Hess, a Jew, after Wiedemann pleaded with him to keep the Gestapo from arresting him.
Dr Weber also said that Wiedemann’s “treason,” had Hitler learned of it, would have earned him the death pentalty.

But after Germany declared war on America in December 1941, Wiedemann was dismissed from America and moved to China where he saw out the conflict.
He testified at Nuremberg against several of the Nazi elite and became a farmer after 1945, dying aged 81 in 1970.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2190763/Chief-aide-s-warning-mad-Hitler-Official-urged-British-intelligence-topple-dictator-peace-impossible.html#ixzz28YuaisUE