Uncle Adolf’s table talk, 142

 
28th June 1942, midday

The Danube is a river that runs deep into the heart of the Continent, and for this reason must, in a new Europe fashioned by us, be regarded as a German stream and be controlled by Germany. The organisation of the whole East-West traffic in this great territory depends on whether the Danube is or is not to be a German waterway. Any canal construction would be superfluous, indeed stupid, if we did not hold unrestricted control of this main channel.

The generations which follow us will no doubt accept without comment the unification of Europe which we are about to accomplish, in the same way as the majority of our contemporaries regard the foundation of the Bismarckian Empire as a simple fact of history. The immense labour involved in the welding of northern, western, central and eastern Europe into one entity will be quickly forgotten.