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BOUMAN, John A.
[Personal Reminiscences of Hitler and the Leading Nazis.]
John Anthony Bouman was born in Middelburg, Holland in 1873. At the age of 20 he joined the London staff of the United Press, remaining with their successors, Laffan News Bureau and New York Sun, London Office, writing regularly for the Sun's Sunday edition. He ran the first daily cable service from London to Buenos Aires, El Diario, and contributed regularly to La Nacion in Argentina. During World War I he was Associated Press correspondent to The Hague and Amsterdam, covering major events for the American public, concluding with the Kaiser's flight into Holland. He transferred to the Paris Bureau for Versailles, and to Berlin in 1920 to cover the Kapp Putsch. His association with Germany continued through the 20s and it was from there that he made the trip to join the Norwegian Government's Relief Expedition to Amundsen in Spitsbergen; "Braving tremendous hazards at the age of 52... he eventually caught up with Amundsen at King's Way Bay after a stormy passage in icy seas in an old leaking sloop chartered at Green Harbour." (Hartwell Ink & Images ) In 1930 he was with Hindenburg in the "liberated" Rhineland, and throughout the 30s he "reported numerous events connected with the Nazi rise to power, meeting Hitler, Goering, Goebbels and others... [he] was on duty on June 30th, 1934, the "Night of the Long Knives"... and was present when, in 1935, Goering announced to the world the existence of a German Air Force in contravention of the terms of the Versailles Treaty..." He retired to London in 1939, where he died in 1958. The present notes were made for a public address at the time of the Nuremberg Trials; "L[adies] & G[entlemen]" - I have been asked to give you a short talk about the German War Criminals who are now facing their trial at Nuremberg. Several of them I have met face to face at one time or another during my twelve years residence in Berlin..." Bouman recounts his meetings with Robert Ley, head of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront, the Nazi Labour Organization, and organizer of the Kraft durch Freude [Strength through Joy] movement, "popularly known as "Drunken Ley;" Goebbels, Goering and, of course, Hitler. Goebbels was for Bouman "Hitler's ablest henchman in the propagation of his ideas.... an undersized , club footed, mannikin [with] a brilliant brain and a rapier-like tongue [who] understood his job as Nazi propagandist to perfection." Cleverly concealing his "supreme contempt" for Foreign Correspondents, by extending "facilities not generally accessible to Germans [and] official trips arranged and conducted in a first class manner." Bouman grudgingly concedes that "to hear Goebbels speak was an experience that was worth while to anybody who appreciates good oratory and fine elocution." Goering, on the other hand, made him think "that if he had lived in some earlier century would have made an ideal pirate captain, a roystering, devil-may-care swashbuckler with an enormous appetite and a flamboyant taste in ribbons and medals." He recounts being at Goering's wedding to Emmy Sonnemann in 1935, "a terrific affair" with 25,000 applications for tickets to the church, a motorcade of 500 vehicles carrying the Nazi leadership to the reception at the Kaiserhof Hotel, and a huge collection of exotic and valuable gifts culled from the national museums. He also attended the press reception at the Adlon Hotel when after greeting "affable and primping" the assembled journalists, instead of delivering "one of those propaganda speeches with which we were all bored stiff," Goering "launched into a detailed description of his new Luftwaffe... more than a match for any other power... the first time that these particulars were stated officially and publicly, and by such an authority. Out came our notebooks and presently there was a general scramble for the telephone boxes." His reminiscences of Hitler go back to the late 20s, when Bouman confesses that he "was one of the many correspondents who refused to take the Nazi movement seriously... what was one to think of a fellow who carried on crazily & fired revolver shots into the ceiling of a beer cellar when he thought he could not attract sufficient attention?" His first meeting with Hitler in 1929 did little to change his view, "He certainly didn't look like a superman... a passport would probably describe him as eyes; ordinary, nose; ordinary, ears; ordinary. Special marks - none." Having encountered him by chance at the Elephant Hotel in Weimar Bouman's attempts to secure an interview met with failure, largely because, unlike an American colleague, he had failed to offer "$500 to the Nazi party chest, which could always do with some bolstering up." In later years he saw Hitler speak frequently at the Sports Palast in Berlin, "I still see myself, seated at the press table on the platform, facing this huge audience, a sea of tense, white faces... the band would blare the Badenweiler March, Hitler's favourite,... the signal that the great I AM was about to appear, spotlights flooded, ten thousand arms shot up, and thunderous shouts of Sieg Heil rent the air." Not a "polished orator" like Goebbels, Hitler was rather "a spellbinder of the first class... His contorted face, his extravagant gestures, his beating the air with his fists, make people here laugh. But the German people took all this in deadly earnest." He recalls having covered an occasion "in the early days" when Hitler appeared at the Moabit Court accused of "seditious activities" and "was allowed to reverse the roles of prosecutor and defendant.. [he] subjected the judges of the court to a grilling which to say the least was highly improper... He roared and ranted, while the chief prosecutor interposed now and then with a mild "Aber Herr Hitler" only to be overwhelmed by more oratorical fireworks." Equally of interest are Bouman's more general observations on German society at the time, the impact and acceptance of propaganda, the fanaticism and the atmosphere of violence which stood behind it all ; "The Nazi party would never have gained the upper hand, were it not for its ruthless fanaticism... Know what you want, and go for it with complete disregard of laws human or divine... that is the Nazi doctrine. Carried out to its last logical consequences it explains concentration camps, gas chambers, ill treatment and spoliation of all kinds.... On one occasion [Hitler] roared "Germany is the freest country on the face of the earth" This was later improved upon by Goebbels when he said in my hearing, "We are gentlemen and we want to be treated as gentlemen" But Robert Ley capped it all when telling an audience that "Germany was a paradise and all Germans were angels." It is easy to laugh at such outbursts, but his hearers took it all as gospel truth... we did not think a time would come when frenzied 16 year olds would hurl themselves into our machine gun fire yelling, "I want to die for Hitler." Curious how this idea of death is always present at the back of the German mind. There is a popular lament set to music by Bach beginning "Komm süssen Tod..."" A fascinating, unpublished, first-hand account of the Nazi regime and its leaders.
c.30pp. MS on 26ll., quarto., lined paper extracted from a note-book, largely on rectos only, but on occasion extending onto versos. Numerous interlineal additions and revisions. Light browning, some inner edges a little ragged, rust-marks from paper-clips to the outside leaves, else very good.
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