THE NAZI LEADERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1939, Page 13

THE NAZI LEADERS

TALES OF EXTRAVAGANCE

Stories of the extravagance of Nazi leaders have been compiled by the Ministry of Information from what it describes as a highly authoritative source, said, the London "Daily Telegraph" recently. Some time ago the German public saw a film depicting the home life of Goebbels. Its revelation of the luxury and wealth in which he lived and the retinue of servants by whom he was surrounded, comments the statement, caused those who saw it to reflect on the huge sums necessary to keep up such a state, and to wonder where all the money came from at a time when the country was on a reduced standard of living. The film created such a lamentable impression that it was withdrawn almost immediately.

While British Cabinet Ministers have no official motor-cars, Goering once admitted to a foreign diplomat that he had forty-two for his own use in Berlin and at his country estate at Karinhall. British Ministers received no entertainment allowances, but Goering received, again on his own admission, 500,000 marks —£25,000 at par—solely for entertaining during the famous hunting exhibition of 1937.

A Nazi leader who was host to a party of foreign guests apologised for his inferior table glass. He had, he said, ordered new cut glass ornamented by gold, and when this arrives "the muck, you now see will be taken to the kitchen and smashed with a hammer."

Another leader who was proudly showing his pictures gleefully related how a museum curator had made difficulties about, these being surrendered to him. "I told the curator," he said, "that if the pictures were not dispatched immediately, I should send men to take a great deal more." The pictures arrived without further delay.