MEMOIRS

by Franz von Papen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 17, 1953

Here is an unregenerate representative of the conservative German aristocracy in a brilliant- and thoroughly readable -- apologia. With his part- though a minor one- on the General Staff- von Papen builds a case for the military; he sees Germany an innocent dupe of the powers- World War I as an unnecessary blunder which need never have been. His diplomatic posts,- Mexico, where he was instructed not to enter the political arena, Washington, which was too social -- and which had been planned as a step to London, Turkey, where he played innocent -- all add up to a portrait of a misunderstood, maligned man. Many of the stories associated with von Papen, many of the crimes attributed to him, many- even- of the achievements with which he has been credited, he sidesteps. Then- with the post-war years, he sees Germany as wrongly burdened with guilt; he denies complicity in the fall of the Republic, he feels that he served Germany better by acting as a brake on Hitler than if he had stood apart- on his principles. The disaster of Anschluss was Germany's death knell. It proved to the world, says von Papen, that he knew that aggression was the road to ruin. But somehow or other he continued to play his part throughout. The evidence he presented at Nuremberg is, of course, the basis of his story here. The whole adds up to a great denial. Even the fact that he accepted a Military Order of Merit from his Fuehrer as late as 1944 placed him in an unenviable position before the eyes of history. There's a sense of a complete rewriting of history with von Papen at its core, and it has an eerie fascination.

Pub Date: Aug. 17, 1953

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1953

Categories: NONFICTION