Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781936274932
Publisher: Enigma Books

178.

2 April 1942, midday

In praise of the Tsar Ferdinand—Boris the Fox of Bulgaria—Political plots—Wisdom of Kemal Ataturk.

In my view, King Boris is a somebody. There’s nothing surprising about that, for he has been to a good school with his father, the Tsar Ferdinand, the most intelligent monarch I’ve known.

If one can reproach the Tsar Ferdinand with having been more rapacious than a Jew in money-matters, one must nevertheless acknowledge that he was admirable as regards his audacity and decisive spirit. If we’d had him on the Imperial throne of Germany instead of William II, we’d certainly not have waited until 1914 before unleashing the first World War. We’d have acted as long ago as 1905. Just as the cunning fox succeeded, after the collapse in 1918, in preserving the throne for his son, in the same way I think he’d have found some way for Germany to save herself from the disaster. Moreover, he was an extremely cultivated man, very much above the average in all fields of knowledge. For years on end, for example, he was seen regularly at the Bayreuth Festival.

Unlike what other monarchs usually do, the Tsar Ferdinand gave his son Boris a severe education, driving him on at the study of all that had to do with political and military matters. Under the rod of the old fox, son Boris himself became a young fox, who was able to work his way out of the complicated tangle of Balkan affairs.

In 1919 Boris kept his throne by marching on Sofia at the head of a division. And it was always by behaving like a true soldier that he overcame the political crisis of 1934. While we’re on the subject, he himself has told the story of how one night the lights in the barracks at Sofia, which had been put out at ten o’clock, were suddenly relit at eleven o’clock, and were still burning at midnight. From this he concluded that there was a conspiracy against his life. It’s a fact that, until then, when an assassination was attempted in the Balkans, the assassins regularly arranged to find the politician who was to be struck at—in his nightshirt. Boris therefore at once put on his uniform again, and waited for the conspirators sword in hand. He greeted their ringleader with the words: “You want to kill me! What have you against me? Do you think you can do any better than I can?” Thereupon the conspirators, who were completely put out of countenance, asked leave to retire to their barracks to deliberate. Boris kept their leader behind, then he told him that he was about to appoint him President of the Council of Ministers, to give him an opportunity of proving his abilities as a politician. It took less than a year, of course, for the experiment to end in the man’s failure.

As an end to this story, Boris made a very intelligent remark, to the effect that, in a case of this sort, the worst mistake was to warn the police.

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