Political “Confessions” of Joachim von Ribbentrop

Abstract

I. von Ribbentrop’s letter to W. Churchill with information about his last conversation with Hitler is of some interest not only for historians, but also for the general public, since the problems of the origin and development of the Second World War raised in it are at the center of the ongoing ideological struggle and psychological warfare.

In his letter, I. Ribbentrop tried to present Hitler’s Germany’s policy towards England as friendly, as well as to justify his and Hitler’s non-involvement in the outbreak of World War II. He offered his own version of the origin of this war: as a consequence of the strengthening of communist propaganda in Germany, after the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact with the USSR, which threatened the unity of the German people, which caused the radicalization of National Socialism.. This version made it possible to remove or reduce Germany’s responsibility for the outbreak of World War II. Being stated, it remained unfounded, contradicting the estimates and thoughts of Hitler reported by Ribbentrop himself. Trying to justify himself, Ribbentrop talked about his disagreements with Hitler, about his negative attitude to the repressions that took place in Germany, hoping that this could ease both the situation of the defeated Germany and his own position in the new world.

An analysis of the contents of this document leads to the conclusion: the main thing that could have been positively assessed by W. Churchill in this letter and could have eased Ribbentrop’s situation was the version of the emergence of the Second World War through the fault of communist ideology and the Soviet Union. Therefore, W. Churchill’s acquaintance of I.V. Stalin with I. Ribbentrop’s letter could have some political significance as one of the arguments in favor of the version about the responsibility of the USSR for the complication of its relations with England.

References

(in Russian)