THE HILTER VIRUS PROBED CLINICALLY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000300040117-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 10, 2003
• Sequence Number: 117
• Publication Date: January 28, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON POST ii~~ Rg
AND TIMES I *k6ad For Release '20N3 l Z/0 64 lA-RDP'
The Hitler V irits
Probed Clinically
FOIAB3B
On that point h
e's right." -Gisevius re
"y ?iwLerL n. rlstabrook according to Gisevius, is that neither
ST
Germ
LEGIER
i
S
.
,
w
an. nor world opposition to him.,
tzerland-Within the '
next few months will occur several an. could unite in time. There was an op.
niversaries of unusual interest to ) ity in 1934. The army detested
per. Hitler itler but was seduced by his offer to'
sons concerned with understanding the let it displace the rowdy brownshirts of
Nazi phenomenon in Germany. June 30 Ernst Roehm. After Hitler used Roehm's;?
will be the $Oth anniversary of the dis- alleged plot against him to catapults
CPYRGHTtorted putsch that helped put Adolf himself into the presidency, army off!
Hitler (who would have been 75 cer
w
sev who was the contact in Germane secret he joined the secret police and gradual.
intelligence with Allen -Dulles and the ly became a confidant of the intelligence;
!. chief, Admiral. Canaris.
American Office of Stratcnin Co,..;.
years
ere manacled by their oath of
': old this April 20) Into virtually absolute allegiance which many 'followed with
power. July 20 will be the 20th anniver- absurd obedience to the ghastly finale.
sary of the last attempt of the German Gisevius himself is as fascinating a
generals to redeem their honor in the study as. his book. He completed his
unsuccessful plot against Hitler. education just as Hitler was consolidat.
A man uniquely qualified to relate army or the secret police could over-
these events is Hans-Bernd Gisevius, throw Hitler, he explains, he decided
.who has just published a monumental ;.to combat the evil from the inside. So'
definitive biography of Hitler G
during World War II, claims to be the
sole surviving witness of both the 1934 A GREAT hulk of a man nearly 6.
and 1944 plots from the Inside. Now 59, feet 5, Gisevius understood that dis-
he lives here quietly with his wife. guise was impossible in his double-
So Mewhat to t#lsevius' surpri?e, the agent's role. So he deliberately eultivat?
biography has been an instant success ed the reputation of ,being a bit of an,
in Germany, with many favorable re- ? oddball with unorthodox views. His
views. Seemingly it enables some read.!: pose as a secret Gestapo protege of;
ers for the first time to look at the Heinrich Himmler helped him to estab-,
Fuehrer and the Nazi nightmare with lish contact with Dulles in Switzerland
detachment-possibly because earlier ;.in 1941.
',works such as those by William L. . After the .1944 plot against Hitler
Shirer and J. W. Wheeler-Bennett were ; Gisevius was in extreme danger. He hid
of foreign origin. The book is to be 1 for six months in Berlin, escaping finally.
published In England shortly and in the to Switzerland with a forged passport`
United States later this year. which OSS helped him obtain. Later he
c.w was a witness at the Nuremburg trials,,
wrote a Bitter d, and
WHAT Gisevius aimed to do was to I s
pent somebook timeo inthe the United En
States
let Hitler tell his own story, and thereby ,' before returning to Berlin.
break down the mythology about super- For 10 years, Gisevius says, he lived
human attributes. He shows Hitler as a in a sort of purgatory because many
master opportunist, by no means an - Germans doubted his role and resented
ignoramus in science and allied fields, his giving so much information in his
but principally a genius at creating tur- i, post-war book and at Nuremburg. Thus.
bulence. Hitler then capitalized on the acclaim of the Hitler biography is
chaos, often without predetermined doubly satisfying to him because It is
strategy but with strange intuition. a personal vindication as well as evi-,
Part of the reason why Hitler was dence that the Nazi disease can be,
able to hypnotize the German people,' discussed' clinically.
c.Gisevius says, was that he wrapped : The lesson,. certainly, .is the old one
every evil project in an apparently good ?; of the cancerous effect of mere passive;
explanation. Thus persons who other. response to evil. Potenial Hitlers still+
wise might have contested him 'would. infest the world, and the German ex-'
remark of Hitler's condemnation of the perience with the. virus is 'instructive,
Versailles Tr eaty oxsonie such gesture; for others. Perhaps the book also will
help provide a release for those. Ger
mans whose efforts to become. good:
f democrats have been haunted by guilt.
l.about,the, past,
'i
k1- 1,
Approved For Release 2003/12/02 : CIA-RDP70-00058R000300040117-5