LESLIE EPSTEIN
121
"I want to make it absolutely clear that you have been allowed into
this room solely as a favor to Herr Lindbergh."
"We are grateful for his assistance."
Here Goebbels turned the old man toward the table and its docu–
ments. "There is no reason for delay. If you will sit we can sign the
contracts."
But Granite would not be budged. He kept his gaze upon the Fuhrer.
"Just one minute. I'm sure you can wait that long, since you are going to
get our holdings at such a reasonable price."
"Do you think that is of the least concern to our nation? A reason–
able price? The Third Reich does not haggle in the bazaar."
"The total sum," Goebbels interjected, "has been set at three thousand
marks."
From ten feet away, Goering laughed. "Tonight the Kino Horst
Wessel will take in three times that amount!"
"The board of Grani te Films is aware that we are offering the Third
Reich a gift."
"And what choice have you?" Herr Hitler asked. "If you resist we
shall seize all the theaters. It is our moral duty to do so. We cannot allow
the good German people to be subjected to filth and lying propaganda. An
entire generation has grown up with sirens and seductresses. With
Chicago gangsters. With Negro music. We do not permit sexual relations
between the races in the Third Reich. How then could we turn our eyes
away from a more insidious kind of miscegenation? Through these images
and sounds Africa and the Orient penetrate the mind of the folk. We can
deal with degeneracy when we see it in our streets. But the soul, when it
is polluted with foreign ideas, is harder to cleanse."
Goebbels: "The German film industry now corresponds to the same
ideals one sees in all German art. The screen images spring from the soil
and from the deepest yearnings of the folk."
To my horror, I heard myself saying, "I saw that tonight with my own
eyes.
LIebe mif dell Ersten
Blick,
with Mezaray and Jannings."
"If I am not mistaken you intend a certain mockery," Goebbels
responded. "Our people are at war. You are now aware they have just won
a victory that will turn back the Asiatic tide. If each day they willingly
shoulder such heroic burdens, we cannot deny their wish for relaxation
and diversion at night."
Goering: "Herr Loewenstein does not mention that we also drove by
Der Volkspalast. Did he not see what is playing there? If not I can tell him
that it is a film that has brought enlightenment to the people in every city
of the Reich. It is a useful corrective to the false notions spread by the
Hollywood product. It is a new version of
Jell!
Suss."
