The Hitler Conspiracies by Richard J. Evans

Author:Richard J. Evans [Evans, Richard J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241413470
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2021-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

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Murphy’s theory disappeared from view almost as soon as he had propounded it. Others, however, were more influential, and more persistent. This was particularly the case with conspiracy theories emanating from the Kremlin, where Stalin had long harboured suspicions about the intentions of the British. They were capitalists, so were the Germans: it was obviously in their interests to conclude a separate peace. From early on in the war, the international Communist movement, acting under Stalin’s orders, had dismissed the conflict as a quarrel between two capitalist nations in which international Communism had to remain neutral. The policy had changed, however, following the defeat of France in June 1940, after which Stalin had urged the formation of a ‘people’s government’ in Britain to carry on the struggle against Fascism.85 Any kind of movement towards a separate peace between Britain and Germany would be evidence in Stalin’s suspicious mind of a joint plan of the capitalist nations to turn on the Soviet Union and had to be stopped.

Such were the considerations governing the reaction of international Communism to the Hess flight. Leading figures in the Communist Party of Great Britain, notably Harry Pollitt, rushed into print alleging that Hamilton had known Hess well and was a Nazi sympathizer. Aircraft production minister Max Beaverbrook endorsed this view when he told the Soviet ambassador shortly after the flight: ‘Oh, Hess, of course, is Hitler’s emissary.’ But the proofs he adduced to back up this theory were far from convincing: he asserted (falsely) that Hamilton was a ‘Quisling’, part of a ‘peace party’ that wanted to accede to Hitler’s undoubted (in fact, however, non-existent) desire to conclude peace with the United Kingdom.86 Allegations in the Communist Party organ World News that Hamilton was a ‘Quisling’ prompted the duke to sue the paper for libel, and since it presented no evidence in support of the allegation, the defendants were obliged to withdraw it and print an apology.87 But the Communists did not abandon their suspicions. The German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 then prompted the ever-suspicious Stalin to claim that the British were in cahoots with the Germans and that Hess had flown to Scotland with their connivance – else why had he not been immediately shot, or at least put on trial?

The Party newspaper Pravda (Truth) even claimed on 19 October 1942 that Hess’s wife had been brought to London to join him, suggesting that Hess might indeed be representing the Nazi government in Britain. A few days later, to back this up, it printed a photograph of her playing the piano in London – but this was in fact Myra Hess, a popular British concert pianist of the day and no relation to any of the other parties involved.88 Undeterred, Stalin repeated the suggestion to Churchill at a Kremlin dinner on 18 October 1944, when, despite the British Prime Minister’s detailed exposition of the affair, he raised his glass in a toast to British Intelligence, which had ‘inveigled Hess into coming to Britain’.

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