Hermann Rauschning, former president of the Danzig Senate and one-time confidant of Chancellor Adolf Hitler, in a new book “The Voice of Destruction” to be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on Feb. 16, declares that Walter Darre, a high Nazi chieftain, in 1932 laid down a policy of systematic depopulation of territories conquered by Germany, and Hitler in 1933 announced a policy of annihilating Christianity in the Reich
The book is cited by Dorothy Thompson in her New York Herald Tribune column today in which she states: “Hitler believes that the world can be conquered and ruled by terror. He believes, as reported in the conversations with Rauschning, that fear is the most potent force that can be used. He has never minded the revelation of atrocities. He believes that they are valuable.”
In a conversation in 1933, Rauschning said Hitler had quite casually told him of his plan to annihilate Christianity in Germany. Hitler described Christianity as a “Jewish swindle,” Rauschning declared, and said: “One is either a German or a Christian. You cannot be both. We need free men who feel that God is in themselves.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.