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    "label": "Memorandum from Joseph Grew to President Harry S. Truman, with Attachments",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum from Joseph Grew to President Harry S. Truman, with Attachments",
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            "logicalDate": "1945-07-02",
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    "ocrText": "-2-\nthe Fuehrer to allow me and my men to join the army of General\nWenk in the battle for the reopening of the encirclement ring or -\nif the relief of Berlin should prove impossible - I asked for\nthe despatch of a \"Storch Airoplane, \" in order that I might be\nable to join the Volkssturm in Berlin and fight this last battle\nat his side. The Fuehrer sent me a message, saying that he\nappreciated my intention, but as he had already expressed his\nopinion on former occasions - he did not want me to take part\nin the fights even now One needed me later and I should therefore\ngo outside the fighting zone and keep myself ready for further\ninstructions. Such instructions did not come any more, as events\nbegan to precipitate. But I know that the Fuehrer in giving that\norder has meant our last conversation for the passing on of which\nI should keep myself prepared.\nIn spite of the diversity of opinion which existed between\nthe Fuehrer and me on foreign politics as well as on questions of\nworld perception (Weltauffassung) I have possessed up to the last\nthe personal confidence of Adolf Hitler. I must attach importance\nto confirm this. In case anybody should say anything to the con-\ntrary it would be false, and there are enough witnesses available\nfor this.\n(2) The German foreign policy was in every phase directed by\nthe Fuehrer himself. Its execution was my task. After my appoint-\nment to the head of the German Foreign Office I have considered\nit my business to help the Fuehrer in attaining the justified\nGerman claims in Europe - as laid down by Hitler - and this by\ndiplomatic means. But at the same time I have considered it just\nas important to help to adjust the dynamics in the national social-\nistic doctrine and its principles of world conception (Weltauffassung)\nwith the necessities and possibilities of foreign politics. My work\nwas accordingly concentrated on the following or better on the\ndouble aim:\n(a) Concentration of the greater part of the Germans in Europe\nwithin the Reich and limitation of the German foreign\npolicy to the fulfilment of this aim and\n(b) Evolution of the principles of world perception (Weltauf-\nfassung) of the party in such a way, that the existence\nor carrying through of such principles would not endanger\nor even make impossible the peaceful living together and\nVATIORAL\ncollaboration of Germany with the other nations. This\nhad to do especially with the question of toleration or\nbetter adjustment in matters of the churches, in the\njewish question, the question of communism, freemasonry,\netc., for which I have always pleaded in my verbal reports,\nmemorandums etc. My work to arrive at these two aims was\nsoon overshadowed by the question of world conception\n(Weltauffassung) Events in Germany, about which I am not\ninformed in detail, because questions of world conception\nwere always treated separately with the party-authorities\nconcerned, caused a sharp reaction against all disinteg-\nrating tendencies in the interior. When after the agree-\nment with Russia 1939, which was due to my influence and\nby which it was possible for me at least to build a bridge\nbe tween national socialism and communism the communistic\npropaganda restarted in Germany, the party took the point\nof view, that against the totalitarian claim of radical\ncommunism only a national socialism just as radical could\nhold its own. Consequently matters of world perception\n(Weltauffassung) gained an ever increasing influence on\nthe affairs of state and subsequently also a preponderance\nto and in questions of foreign policy. In comparison with\nthe question of the maintenance of the unity of the German\npeople, all other considerations became gradually of no\nmore weight. After the outbreak of the war the same\ninfluence/-"
}