PERSECUTION MANIA

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20990, 18 December 1939, Page 13

PERSECUTION MANIA

THE FUEHRER'S OBSESSION S One wants to understand Hitler if it is possible, for to understand him would be to avoid many risks (says “ Scrutator,” writing in the Sunday 1 Times). Can it be, as large tracts [ in Hitler’s speeches suggest, that, 3 despite his truculent show, he is the ’ j victim of persecution mania? That might explain the strange tangents ' | at which his actions fly off from his words. He often gives the impres--1 sion of seeing the better way, ancf J i approving it, but invariably he takes £ j the worse, and apparently his excuse J j is that those nations with whom he j j has to deal are either (like Poles and 1 Czechs) cursed with an abnormal 5 | depravity or (and this is his charge ‘ j against Britain) with an incurable ’ j malignity which prevents him from j doing what his better instincts i would otherwise persuade him to do. ’ j The normal man when he gets cross | with the world and things go hard L j with him begins to wonder whether s ! after all the fault may not lie with ' himself. But the victim of persecu--3 tion mania finds in opposition only ’ a further proof of his own wisdom ' and goodness. 3