French spies saw Hitler danger in 1924, document shows

Hitler in 1924

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
At the same time when British intelligence was employing Benito Mussolini, and US diplomats were describing segments of the German Nazi party as “moderate [with] appeal to all civilized and reasonable people”, French intelligence reports were identifying Adolf Hitler as a “fascist […] demagogue” and “the German Mussolini”. This emerges from a 1924 report by an anonymous French intelligence operative, which is due to be declassified along with thousands of similar documents currently stored in the French National Archives, according to French newspaper Le Monde. The report, which points out that the future German dictator was involved with vigilante groups “of the fascist type”, is among countless written messages filed from Germany by French spies, who were stationed on German soil during the French occupation of parts of Germany in the years after the end of World War I. The reports were initially stored in French military outposts throughout Germany, but were later transported to Paris, where they managed to survive the German occupation of France during World War II in the labyrinthine basement shelves of France’s  Archives Nationales.