I stumbled across on YouTube what is apparently the only private voice recordingof Adolf Hitler in existence. It was supposedly made in June, 1942 and in it Hitler talks frankly to a high ranking Finnish official about fighting a two front war, problems with having Italy as an ally, the fact that German armaments were not designed for winter, his belief that the soviets were planning to take over Europe, and a myriad of other topics related to why Germany was struggling to win the war. This appears to be legit, if you can believe Wikipedia
“During the visit, an engineer of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE, Thor Damen, succeeded in recording the first 11 minutes of Hitler’s and Mannerheim’s private conversation. This had to be done secretly, as Hitler never allowed others to record him off-guard. Damen was given the assignment to record the official birthday speeches and Mannerheim’s responses and following those orders added microphones to certain railway cars. Unfortunately, Mannerheim and his guests chose to go to a car that didn’t have a microphone in it. Damen acted quickly, pushing a microphone through one of the car windows to a netshelf just above where Hitler and Mannerheim were sitting. After 11 minutes of Hitler’s and Mannerheim’s private conversation, Hitler’s SS bodyguards spotted the cords coming out of the window and realized that the Finnish engineer was recording the conversation. They gestured to him to stop recording immediately, and he complied. The SS bodyguards demanded that the tape be immediately destroyed, but YLE was allowed to keep the reel, after promising to keep it in a sealed container. It was given to the head of the state censors’ office Kustaa Vilkuna and in 1957 returned to YLE. It was made available to the public a few years later. It is the only known recording of Hitler speaking in an unofficial tone.”
While Hitler’s voice doesn’t sound quite right, if this is legitimate then it gives us some insight into what he was thinking halfway through the war. It shows how the fighting in France made it difficult for Germany to fully engage Russia when it wanted to, and how that delay had a decisive impact on Germany’s ability to win the war.
Listening to this recoding changes my belief that Hitler was a madman who attacked Western Europe and Russia without realizing the consequences. Quite the contrary, he understood the challenges Germany faced, the fact that he had completely underestimated Russia’s capabilities, and that once he had committed to his strategy he really had no choice but to fight until the end. At no point did he mention giving up, although he does talk about negotiations with Russia and why they broke down.
Is this recording generally believed to be authentic, and if it is why haven’t I heard about it before?
Tape? I thought the Germans had tape, but the rest of the world was still using wire recording at that time. The Allies didn’t find out about tape recording until they invaded Berlin.
While not a Nazi sympathizer, Mannerheim apparently had a cordial relationship with Hitler during the war, presumably because of their mutial mistrust of Russia.
Hitler aided Finland (covertly) during the “Winter War”-when 1 milion Russian troops invaded the territory adjacent to Karelia. Hitler allowed Italian weapons to be transshipped through Germany to Finland.
As for why Stalin attacked Finland? He had already tried to get the Finns to give up territory, so as to increase the buffer zone around St. Petersburg. The Finns refused.
Stalin also tried to get a Finnish Communist (Otto Kuusinnen) elected prime minister of Finland-didn’t work.
The Finns were able to mobilize an army of about 100,000 men, who fought the Red Army to a standstill (initially)-when the Russians moved in heavy tanks, they were done for.
Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany, but the Finnish Army never advanced beyond their original borders. Stalin remembered this, and left Finland alone after the war was over.
Marshall Mannerheim was a very honest, ethical “old soldier”-he wanted no part of the Nazis (he refused to deport the small Finnish Jewish comunity, and even gave orders to his army to protect them.)
One odd fact-the Finnish airforce used the swastica as their identification markings on their aircraft.
Are you saying that Stalin ‘rewarded’, or at least acknowledged, the Finns’ lack of aggression by leaving them alone after WWII? I would submit it was because he had no appetite to fight them again - sure, he’d eventually win; but he knew from the Winter War that it could only come at a huge cost.
Compared to what? His speeches are the only thing to compare it to, since no other private recordings are known to exist. It would sorta be like trying to determine what Howard Dean sounded like when the only other recording was him doing that “YAHHHHHHHHH” speech that was parodied so much.
Um - he did fight them again. Finland sided with the Axis when Hitler invaded the USSR, considering it the Continuation War. They did in fact advance beyond Finland’s original (pre-winter war) borders, taking East Karelia, Ladoga Karelia, and the Karelian Istmus. What they wouldn’t do is participate in an attack on Leningrad. In September 1944 they conceded defeat again and signed the Moscow Armistice which ceded the territories lost to the USSR in the Winter War, added war reparations and compelled Finland to disarm or drive all German forces from Finland, leading to the Lapland War with thier former ally Germany.
Finland had been part of the Soviet Union. It broke away in 1917 and declared independence. So the Soviets figured they were just taking back some land in 1939 that should have really been theirs anyway while generously allowing most of Finland to remain independent.
I guess if all I’ve heard is Hitler’s speech voice then perhaps his private voice might sound lower to me, or perhaps the method of recording his voice in both cases was different. Since I never spoke to him personally I am not in any position to judge… :smack:
A few years ago I saw a program (probably on The History Channel) about Hitler’s voice. Specifically, it was about a group of “scientists” who had developed a way of recording and analysing someone’s jaw, face, cheek, etc., movements and, from those, deducing what the person was saying. In other words, it was an extension of ‘lip reading’ but instead of just looking at the lips, any moving part of the head and neck area was used to determine what was being said. What made this so amazing was that except for views of the back of the head 180 degrees straight on, you could figure out what was being said even by looking at, say, how the ears and jaw were moving (as seen from behind and a bit off to the side) - you didn’t need to see the lips at all! As you can imagine, and as I seem to recall, the technique depended on computer analysis of said movements.
They then proceeded to analyze various recordings of Hitler such as Eva’s home movies. Once they had figured out what he had said, they dubbed it in German using a voice based on the one recorded in the Mannerheim conversations. At the end of the day, it was a very impressive. and very interesting achievement and seemed to be valid.
Does anyone know to what I am referring? More to the point, does anyone have a relevant link? I’m having a lot of time finding any. I’d be very grateful.
