Krupp and friends
From Sara Moore
Sir: Frank Johnson’s delightful review of my book How Hitler Came to Power (Books, 17 June) contained two inaccuracies. First, it was Krupp and friends who were actively giving Stalin help with the modernisation of his armaments in 1932 (not the Nazis). Second, although the pan-German newspaper magnate and politician Alfred Hugenberg may have given Hitler cash, there is little evidence that others gave him large sums.
In 1928 Hugenberg maintained that people could be persuaded to vote for a dictatorship akin to Mussolini’s ‘if the condition of the country seems to warrant it’. My book asserts that the rich and powerful panGerman leadership did its best to create the sort of abject economic conditions which persuaded the people to vote for Hitler. Krupp’s deal with Stalin, under which the German communists always voted for the Right instead of the Social Democrats in those desperate times, also helped.
Sara Moore By email
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