Figure 1.--Andre Frangois‐Poncet was France's Ambassador in Berlin during Hitler and the NAZI rise to power. He noted that Hitler gaining power was the 'the victory of the Huns over the Germans'. He was a keen observer of Hitler and the NAZIs. An American journalist descrined him as 'the best informed ambassador in Berlin'. {Shirer] He reported not only on rearmamanent, but on Hitler's intentions. Hitler was persionallyn aware of Frangois‐Poncet's accurate reporting and tried to involve him in a conspiracy to justify the Night of the Long Knives purge (1934). Frangois‐Poncet warned repeatedly and and in great detail, but futilely. This is the Frangois‐Poncet at about the time he was appointed ambassador to Germany..

Andre Frangois‐Poncet was France's Ambassador in Berlin during Hitler and the NAZI rise to power. Frangois‐Poncet was born in Provins, southeast of Paris (1887). His father was a senior civil servant--a counselor of the Court of Appeals in Paris. He pursued journalism German studies at Paris's prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure, becoming a professor of German. He fought In World War I as an infantry lieutenant. He was ordered to the French Embassy in Bern, Switzerland as an attaché, a dramatic change in circumstance beginning his diplomatic career (1917). He entered politics and was elected to Parliament (1924). He rose quickly and was appointed under secretary of state (late 1920s). He served as a delegate to the League of Nations. Prime Minister Pierre Laval appointed him him Ambassador to Berlin where he witnessed Hitler's rise to power. He was not a German hater and indeed was what might be called a 'Germanist' and had a deep admiration of Germany and German culture. This set him apart from the other major ambassadors in Berlin. He dscribed Hitler's gaining power was the 'the victory of the Huns over the Germans'. He was a keen observer of Hitler and the NAZIs. They lived on Unter den Linden and the children saw all the parades day and night and the Reichstag going up in flames. Their father reported in detail how how easily German demiocracy was wept aside by the Machtergreifung (1932-33). Frangois‐Poncet himself was an unimposing man with a pefectly maintained Hercule Poirot mustache. One gets the idea that he may have been Agatha Cristi's iunspiration. An American journalist described him, however, as 'the best informed ambassador in Berlin'. 【Shirer】 He reported not only on rearmament, but on Hitler's intentions. When he met with Hitler, he spoke flawless German. Hitler was personally aware of Frangois‐Poncet's accurate reporting and tried to involve him in a conspiracy to justify the Night of the Long Knives purge (1934). 【Larson, Ch. 51.】 Frangois‐Poncet warned repeatedly and and in great detail, but futilely. One of several ambassadors who did the same. It is easy to blame what Baldwin and Chamberlain for appeasement, but they faced an electorate that was fundamentally opposed to another war or real opposition to the NAZIs that was seen as threatening war. Frangois‐Poncet was one of several ambassadors who warned about the NAZIs, including the American William Dodd and the British Eric Phipps. They could not, however, change the fervent public aversion to war in the democracies. Frangois‐Poncet after the Munich Conference asked to be transferred out of Berlin (1938). He watched the fall of France from Rome. He then joined the Vichy Administration (1940). The Gestapo arrested him for anti-German activities (1943), but he survived the War and played a role in the post-War era.

Sources

Larson, Erik. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin (Crown, 2011), 488p.

Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (New York: 1960), 1249p.

Created: 5:35 AM 2/5/2023
Last updated: 5:35 AM 2/5/2023