Paul Schmidt, one of the most influential press secretaries of the Third Reich, became a chronicler after the war and wrote a series of books on the Eastern Front. The works of the German diplomat, although they provoked conflicting opinions, were successful and reprinted several times. One way or another, but the opinion of a person whose activities for several decades has been associated with the Social Democratic Party is interesting to many.
"To the East"
Hitler Goes East is the first volume of the Eastern Front series of books. From the very first lines Paul Karel tries to explain the war with the Soviet Union as a necessary and sure step against Bolshevism. The author asks if the German Wehrmacht was just the “fighting force” of the army, can their actions be called “cruel and fanatical”?
Paul Karel’s book, Hitler Goes East, was published in 1963, at the height of the Cold War, which contributed to its popularity. This work immediately provoked conflicting reviews. But the opinion of the man who fought "on the other side" was interesting to everyone. The basis of this work was documents, memoirs of German generals, soldiers, officers, it contains many photos from Karel's personal album.
The book was reprinted 8 times with a total circulation of about 500,000 copies, was translated into all European languages, but in the USSR it was available only to specialists, although it is not a scientific document on the history of the Second World War.
Barbarossa
Paul Karel began working on the Eastern Front cycle at a time when many archives were classified and inaccessible to researchers, and the documents of the Wehrmacht were studied by the Allies. Describing those events, the author took many interviews with eyewitnesses, relied on diary entries, excerpts from documents and books about the war. Of course, the events of those terrible years are reflected from the point of view of Nazi soldiers and officers, but the author managed to reflect all their tragedy.
It seems that he felt the doom of Hitler's adventure. To give his work more objectivity, the author used the evidence and works of Soviet historians in it, but he failed to create a truly objective work. It interspersed with the true, realistic events of that war and the stereotypes created by the Nazis themselves: "communist fanatics", "Mongolian divisions" and much more.
Paul Karel sees the reason for the defeat not in the heroism of the people opposing Nazism, but in bad roads, severe frosts, Hitler’s defective plans and “lack of the last battalion”. Therefore, military operations appear before the reader not in the sequence accepted by Soviet historians, but in the opposite view of the war - this determines the structure of the book.
On the other side
Biographies of Soviet military and government figures, geographical and statistical data are at odds with Soviet data, but you should not be critical of them, but you should take into account the time of writing the book, the views of the author and eyewitnesses of the events whose evidence he cites.
Actually, Paul Karel himself in the preface writes that he faces a difficult task - not only to convey the events of the war, which was lost and known in history as a criminal act of aggression, but also to draw a complete picture of what is happening, to tell about the circumstances of Hitler’s Barbarossa campaign .
“Forced war”
In the first part of this series, Hitler Goes East, Paul Karel analyzes events from June 1941 to January 1943. He does not always adhere to the opinion of Soviet authors, but some of the revelations made by him are quite interesting. For example, he admits that the capture of many officers of the Red Army in the first weeks of the campaign played a bad joke with Hitler.
Flattered by the first victories, he continued to pose overwhelming tasks to the German army even when there was not enough strength and money to do this. He scattered resources in many areas and goals, and he did not have enough strength for decisive success. Behind the words of the author lies something more - it turns out that this war was imposed on Hitler and the Wehrmacht, since they saved Europe from the Bolsheviks.
Those who took part in hostilities behaved decently, with dignity and heroically. Massacres are not discussed in the work of Paul Karel. As follows from his book, most of the officers carried out the orders of the commanders, without thinking about what the consequences of these orders were. In the actions of the Nazi army there was only heroism and patriotism, but there were no massacres and crimes.
"Scorched earth"
The first volume ends with the battle of Stalingrad, when the victorious offensive of the Nazi forces began. The second book begins with their defeat - the Battle of Kursk. Here, the author also shows the war from the point of view of Nazi soldiers and officers. This decisive battle involved new weapons, skill and determination. The FĂĽhrer put everything at stake and hoped that Operation Citadel would be able to change position. The book ends with the retreat of German troops and the expulsion from the USSR.
Books are written, rather, in the spirit of diary entries and contain various situations. But, despite the fact that the events are fragmented, they are read easily. It is no accident that they are popular: a lively language, many details from the everyday everyday life of German soldiers. Of course, the author’s works in no way can serve as a source for studying the history of the Second World War, but, as readers write, for those who are interested in the events of those distant years, Karel’s works will be interesting.
about the author
Paul Schmidt was born in November 1911 in the small town of Kelbra. He grew up in the house of his grandfather, a wealthy shoemaker, received a good education - he graduated from Kiel University, where he studied psychology, philosophy, economics. He joined the NSDAP, while still a gymnasium student, in 1931 and headed the anti-Semitic committee. Paul actively participated in the activities of the organization and since 1935 held various positions in the Student Union, was one of the ideological inspirers of the burning of "non-Aryan" books.
In 1936 he received his doctorate and was considered an expert in propaganda. In 1938 he joined the SS and got a job in the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he headed the department until 1940. A 28-year-old guy, he was already an SS Obersturmbannführer, which corresponds to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Wehrmacht. Schmidt’s department was responsible for reporting in the domestic and foreign press, which influenced foreign policy. According to historian W. Benz, it was Schmidt who invented the “language rules” and was the most significant press officer of the Third Reich.
Paul Karel promptly advanced on a career ladder. In 1940, he became the “envoy of the 1st class” at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1941, he became the Secretary of the Minister. His functions included organizing press conferences at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Under his leadership, the propaganda magazine Signal was published, and in 1945 more than 200 employees worked in his department. His influence in the propaganda system was only competing with the first press secretary of A. Hitler, Otto Dietrich.
After the war
In May 1945, Paul was arrested and spent two years in prison awaiting trial. He participated in the Nuremberg trials as a witness against O. Dietrich. Schmidt was to comment on his proposals for the deportation of Hungarian Jews in May 1944. Schmidt’s documents and correspondence about the “Jewish action in Budapest” were presented in court, where he gave advice on how to justify the deportation and murder of Jews.
So that their opponents do not shout about the "hunt for people", it is necessary to imagine everything as if they were forced measures, and not national persecution. Explosives, subversion plans, and raids on police officers were found in Jewish clubs and synagogues. As an excuse in court, Schmidt said that he was only a “representative of the press” and his signature should have been under this document.
The case against Schmidt was dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence for the prosecution. His recommendations were not implemented in 1944, and the note is not considered an official document. The investigation regarded these actions as a “failed attempted murder.” The trial against him was suspended, and Schmidt was released. The investigation was conducted from 1965 to 1971.
Writing career
After his release, Schmidt moved to Chessel. The career of an official or a diplomat was out of the question. Schmidt took up journalism and published articles about the war in many publications under various pseudonyms. In his works, the author relied on the anti-Bolshevism of the Third Reich, which during the years of the Cold War played into his hands. Since the 50s he has been writing for Kristall magazine, one of the publications has led to a big scandal.
At Kristall, under the pseudonym Paul Carell, chapters of his book from the Eastern Front cycle, Scorched Earth, were published. In the 70s, Paul Karel wrote under the name Vocator for the newspapers Welt and Zeit. In the magazine Spiegel, he actually became an adviser to the security manager. From 1958 to 1979, Springer regularly published articles on the Russian campaign about how it really was.
The works of P. Schmidt
The name of Karel became widely known after the publication of books about the Second World War:
- in 1960 the book "They Come!" about the allied forces in Normandy;
- in 1963 Hitler goes to the East;
- in 1964, the works Desert Fox and Scorched Earth were published;
- in 1980, a book by Die Gefangenen about the fate of German prisoners of war in the USSR;
- in 1983 the illustrated book “Russian War” was published;
- in 1992 - “Stalingrad”.
In 1992, Paul Karel said that after the Battle of Stalingrad, the outcome of the war was not a foregone conclusion. Errors of A. Hitler led to the defeat of Germany, while prominent strategists served in the Wehrmacht. Towards the end of his life, Schmidt denied the Nazi crimes against the civilian population, and said that an attack on the Soviet Union was a preemptive strike on the attack by the Red Army. In 2009, the use of Schmidt's texts was banned in all educational institutions and military units.
Paul Karel died in June 1997 in Rottach-Egern in Bavaria.