Output details
33 - Theology and Religious Studies
University of Manchester
“’… und dann wählen sie Männer wie Hitler zum Werkzeug ihrer Katastrophe aus’. Die Berichterstattung Bortschafter André François-Poncets und der französischen Konsuln aus dem Deutschen Reich bis 1939”
This essay contributes to a Hamburg University research project on the ways foreign diplomats reported information about the Third Reich to their governments. This first analysis of the diplomatic messages sent to France by André François-Poncet, French ambassador in Berlin, augments in a fundamental way previous studies that have relied almost exclusively on François-Poncet’s own books and newspaper contributions. The essay argues that despite his profound insight into circumstances in Germany, François-Poncet found it difficult to articulate specific instances of Nazi terror; this helps to explain why the French government underestimated the severity of the German threat.
