Hitler's peace

Stalin had spent the last few minutes doodling wolf heads on a pad with a thick red pencil. He stopped now and, removing the pipe from his mouth, began to speak. “The Red Army,” he said quietly, hardly looking at either Hitler or Roosevelt, “has enjoyed a number of successes this year. But these have had more to do with simple numerical superiority. There are three hundred thirty Russian divisions opposing two hundred sixty Axis divisions. When all that remains of the German forces on the eastern front has been wiped out, there will still be seventy Russian divisions left. But this is the arithmetic of the madhouse. I would hope it does not ever come down to that. Besides, the Germans have achieved some unexpected victories. Nothing is certain save that, like the Germans, we, too, believe that the British and the Americans will be at their most effective by striking at the enemy in France, and nowhere else. From our point of view, the Fuhrer’s assessment of the task facing the British and the Americans is entirely accurate. But surely the Fuhrer has not come all this way to Teheran-and I must take the opportunity now to applaud his very great personal courage in doing so-merely to state that he intends to remain in those countries that he has invaded. Assuming that he is as anxious to put an end to this war as we are, what are his proposals regarding Germany’s occupied territories? Specifically, what are his proposals regarding those parts of Russia and the Ukraine that remain under his control? And then, also Hungary, Romania, the Balkans, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Italy? I should like to hear what he proposes as the basis for a peace that Germany might regard as honorable.”

Hitler nodded and took a deep breath. “My proposal is this, Marshal Stalin. A withdrawal of German troops to pre-1939 borders in the West, and the East. This would leave Russia as the dominant power in Eastern Europe. With a negotiated withdrawal-note, I do not use the word ‘surrender’-the war in Europe would be over by Christmas, perhaps even earlier, thereby permitting America and its allies to concentrate on the defeat of Japan, which I imagine America still sees as its own strategic priority. Under these circumstances, Mr. President, you can hardly fail to win next year’s election. For not only will you have saved two hundred and fifty thousand British and American men from certain death on Europe’s beachheads, but you will also have delivered the Jews of Hungary, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and France from their liquidation.”

Roosevelt looked beyond speech for a moment.

Hitler smiled thinly. “It was my understanding that we should talk frankly,” he said. “Of course, Mr. President, if you do not wish to talk about this particular subject, you do not have to do so. But it is my impression that the fate of three million European Jews would have enormous importance among a very vocal section of your own electorate.”

“Is it your intention to use Europe’s Jews as hostages?” Roosevelt spoke curtly, and for the first time, in German.

“Mr. President,” said Hitler. “My back is against the wall. The German people are facing nothing less than total destruction. You have offered us only unconditional surrender, at least in public. I am merely suggesting the existence of a factor that perhaps you had not considered.”

“As the Fuhrer will recall,” Roosevelt said stiffly, “the use of the phrase ‘unconditional surrender’ was always intended to be only a means of bringing him to the negotiating table.”

“I am here,” said Hitler. “I am negotiating. And one of the chips on this card table, besides the fate of two hundred and fifty thousand Allied soldiers, is the fate of European Jewry. Marshal Stalin has some very similar chips to play himself, such as the fate of Europe’s Cossacks and those White Russians who preferred to fight for Germany rather than the Soviet Union.”

“We have always been in favor of a negotiated surrender,” said Stalin, “and believed that the president’s notion of an unconditional surrender would serve only to unite the German people. But quite frankly, I don’t give a damn about the fate of Europe’s Jews.”

“Well, I sure as hell do,” insisted Roosevelt. “And by the way, I have a few conditions of my own. I might agree to Germany’s withdrawal to her pre-1939 borders if there was also a return to the pre- 1933 German constitution. That means free and fair elections and the Fuhrer’s retirement from German politics.”

“I might concede this,” said Hitler, “if I had the right to nominate my successor as the leader of my party.”

“I don’t see how that would work,” objected Roosevelt.