How to determine the possibility of interviewing a future genocide? Was it a source of pride for a Polish journalist or, on the contrary, an experience that made him a disgrace forever?
Smogorzewski appeared in Berlin as a reporter at the end of 1933. His journalistic career, however, began earlier, when he was associated with such titles as "Gazeta Warszawska" and "Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny". In the 1930s, he started working with the pro-government daily Gazeta Polska.
As a correspondent in the German capital, Smogorzewski replaced Florian Sokołów. The latter saw with his own eyes the Nazis taking power in Germany. It is not known why the journalist was dismissed, but the most likely reason was his Jewish origin. Sokolow found a new place in London.
Smogorzewski wrote for "Gazeta Polska" about the Third Reich until the beginning of the war. It was from his articles that the average Pole could form an opinion about Nazi Germany. In the magazine, the journalist outlined, inter alia, the profiles of the most important members of the NSDAP. In Berlin, he made contacts with personalities from the Nazi elite. Among them was the head of the press department, Otto Dietrich, and the diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Conversation with the Fuhrer
It was the beginning of 1935. Polish-German relations - despite being strengthened by the mutual signing of the "Declaration on Non-violence" - were increasingly tense. Doubts arose in Warsaw about Hitler's true attitude towards Poland and what he intended towards the neighboring country.
During his stay as a Polish correspondent in Berlin, Smogorzewski got to know the Nazi elite. In the photo on the right Otto Dietrich (in the back) in the photo with Hitler in 1938, on the right - Joachim von Ribbentrop with the Fuhrer around 1940.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed Smogorzewski to use his contacts and conduct an interview with the chancellor, which will be published in the pro-government press. The Fuhrer's positive statements about Poland were ultimately intended to allay all fears.
The interview was published in the journal on January 26, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the "Declaration". The conversation took place at the Reich Chancellery. Smogorzewski wrote:
For fear of forgetting something I listened carefully to Chancellor Hitler's response to my questions. (...) I watched my outstanding interlocutor all the time. He answered my questions with great courtesy and quite freely .
The journalist was addressing the chancellor per " Your Excellency ” . The interview contained numerous diplomatic phrases and courtesies. Hitler spoke about internal politics and the system of the Reich. There were also harsher phrases such as:"We will ruthlessly eradicate all phenomena that arose in the most sad times of dynastic egoism " .
The chancellor also spoke a lot about the difficulties in relations with the League of Nations, saying that Germany would not belong to any international union in which it could have been deprived of " equality ” . He emphasized several times that the Reich did not intend to deny the existence of any of the neighboring countries. At the end of the conversation, Hitler made something like a statement to the Polish people:
I am very pleased that now, after a year of newly forming German-Polish relations, I can look back at the fruitfulness of this development. (...) We corrected the erroneous opinion that there was a hostile state between the two nations permanently and forever as a kind of heredity. I suppose it's just the opposite (...). The National Socialist system in Germany will not abandon anything that could contribute to the development of this cooperation and to slowly transform it into a lasting friendship. Today especially makes me believe that our desire will be realized.
The League of Nations, which Hitler talked about with Smogorzewski, was founded on the initiative of US President Woodrow Wilson (its statute was adopted on June 28, 1919). The aim of the League was to maintain peace and cooperation in the world, and the impetus for its creation was the great bloodshed during the First World War. It was formally dissolved in 1946, but it practically ceased to function during World War II ... The Pedigree of the League of Nations is shown.
The interview with Adolf Hitler was widely publicized in Poland. The left-wing press expressed an objection, in which it was written that the journalist was too kind to the Führer and " he fell flat in front of the leader of German fascism ” . Smogorzewski in his later years did not return to the question of the interview at all. It was not until several decades later that he agreed to reveal the additional backstage of his first meeting with Hitler.
In Nuremberg and Berchtesgaden
Since he arrived in Berlin, Smogorzewski was present at all NSDAP Parteitages in Nuremberg. He remembered, above all, the party congress of 1936. It was then that he was awarded by the Nazis. The journalist wrote in his later report for Gazeta Polska:
Dr. Dietrich, head of the NSDAP press, invited me and some other colleagues from abroad to drive right behind the chancellor's car, to be an eyewitness to its incredible popularity.
A reporter watching the crowd later recalled:
(...) heard only one long scream; I saw crowded squares, balconies and windows of houses; the faces of old or young, men and women flashed in my eyes, but faces always happy and laughing .
Meeting of NSDAP members in 1930. Later conventions were often accompanied by crowds cheering for Hitler and the party.
Immediately after completing the designated route, the journalist was invited to a meeting with Hitler. The conversation was not long - it was the Führer who mainly spoke. Above all, he warned against the threat that, according to him, was communism in the Soviet version.
Smogorzewski saw Hitler for the last time at his villa in Berchtesgaden in February 1937. The meeting included talks with veterans and journalists from several countries. During the conversation with the Polish reporter, the Fuhrer expressed his admiration for Marshal Piłsudski. Finally, all the guests captured their visit to the Nazi leader with a shared photo.
From "Free Europe" to cooperation with the PRL intelligence
In 1939, Polish-German relations deteriorated more and more. In April, Adolf Hitler denounced the non-violence accord; in May, Józef Beck gave a speech criticizing the aggressive policy of Germany. The guarantees of Great Britain and France for Poland in the event of a war with the Reich only added fuel to the fire. Following the disturbing events, Smogorzewski's contacts with the Nazis were strained and the journalist had to leave Berlin.
Nationalist propaganda poster depicting the "betrayal" of the left during World War I. The Nazis not only warned against Soviet communism, but often portrayed communists as Jews.
Smogorzewski spent the war period in exile. In London, he edited the biweekly "Free Europe". In its pages he wrote about the need for European integration. After the end of the war, he stayed in England and joined the prestigious group of editors of "Encyclopaedia Brittanica".
However, not only the interview with Hitler became a stain on his biography. Another one turned out to be the journalist's cooperation with the PRL intelligence service. Although the information he was passing on " they did not represent - according to the agents - any operational value ”, it was Smogorzewski himself who took money for the cooperation and made efforts to soften the image of People's Poland in the eyes of emigrants .
The truth about the interview with Hitler
In his publications, Smogorzewski never touched upon the question of the interview. After the war, public opinion quickly forgot about him. Only a few years before his death, Leszek Konarski, the journalist of Przegląd, asked about the backstage of the meeting with Hitler.
Józef Beck, making a speech in the Sejm on May 5, 1939, during which the Prime Minister spoke the following words:"We in Poland do not know the concept of peace at any cost."
Smogorzewski reluctantly, but answered his colleague. It differed significantly from what he described the meeting in "Gazeta Polska". He said that he carried out the interview on the recommendation of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He wrote a letter to Joachim von Ribbentrop to help organize the interview. He agreed, but on condition that the Führer received the questions in writing in advance. The meeting with Hitler was described by Smogorzewski as follows:
Hitler received me very pleasantly, although I sensed that he was not looking into my eyes, but somewhere above. He said he answered all my questions and handed me a few typescript. He asked how I felt in Germany, what I thought about the economic situation in the world. After a while, he invited me to an adjoining room and offered me champagne. We talked about very general things, nothing about an interview, nothing about Polish-German relations. It was evident that he was very careful not to say something that could be used in the newspaper. I didn't even take out my pen and notebook. I didn't make a note of anything. We broke up in a very nice atmosphere.
As it turned out after the war, Smogorzewski may have got to know Hitler, but he did not interview him. So he could not see with his own eyes the game of the Nazi leader. Hitler posing for the camera in 1930 is shown.
After receiving the written responses, the journalist transferred their content to Warsaw. The text published in "Gazeta Polska" contained fictitious descriptions of the alleged conversation between the Polish reporter and Hitler .
Kazimierz Smogorzewski remained in exile until the end of his life. He went down in history as one of the most outstanding journalists of interwar Poland. He died on November 4, 1992 in Shepperton near London. He was 96 years old. A year after his death, his ashes were buried in the Powązki Cemetery.