June 4, 1942. Dining in the train wagon: Adolf Hitler (left), Finnish Prime Minister Jukka Rangell, President Risto Ryti (back toward the camera), Finnish military commander, Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim (right).
The only known 11 min of unscripted recoding of Hitler occurred at that table. The background:
“On June 4, 1942, Hitler made a surprise visit to Finland in honour of Mannerheim’s 75th birthday. It was less pleasing to Mannerheim and caused some embarrassment. Mannerheim did not want to meet him in his HQ in Mikkeli or in Helsinki, as it would have seemed like an official state visit. The meeting took place near Imatra, in south-eastern Finland, and was arranged in secrecy.
During the visit, an engineer of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE succeeded in recording secretly the first 11 minutes of Hitler’s and Mannerheim’s conversation in the train wagon, before being interrupted by SS bodyguards. It’s the only known recording of Hitler speaking unofficially.” (via ww2incolor)
This recording is simply sensational, available on YouTube with English translation.
Vladimir Rezun writes under the name Viktor Suvorov, he published a book about the history of the WWII called ‘Icebreaker’. Some people consider that book the most important history book about the last century, conversely the book is dismissed by many in the academia (figures…). This recording should add credence to Viktor Suvorov’s thesis. In short Viktor Suvorov writes that Hitler never intended to attack Russia. He was only interested in the “German lands” up to the Baltics. Conversely Stalin only viewed the Nazi invasion in Europe as an “Iceberaker” that opens the way for the Soviet expansion.
This recording seems to confirm Viktor Suvorov’s thesis. Hitler tells Mannerheim that he gathered from talking to Molotov that the Soviet attack was imminent, especially the conquest of the oil fields in Romania and only then Hitler attacked CCCP to preempt the superior, more winter worthy army.
Hitler, Mannerheim and Risto Ryti (President of the Republic of Finland) in Finland 4th June 1942.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I believe Mannerheim although an ally of H. did not adopt any discriminatory acts agaisnt Finnland’s tiny Jewish community.
There were even Jewish soldiers in the Finnish army fighting aginst the Red Army as allies of Germany.
Good work = Ben
You are right. I had a Jewish relative, the soldier in the Red Army who became a POW at Finnish front in 1942. He was treated well, in accordance with Geneva Convention (nothing similar to mass killings of Soviet POWs, especially Jews, in German camps). After Finland and the USSR signed an armistice in 1944 he was returned to Russia.