[moscowexile]

Yes, the GRÖFAZ acronym soon become a cynical pejorative used against the Führer and, therefore, to say it aloud in certain company would have been very risky indeed. But I recall reading somewhere that when the term was first coined, Hitler loved it: he was, after all, his own biggest fan. This personality cult thing, this Führerprinzip (leader principle) that Hitler demanded and which Stalin, Mao, and Lenin also made use of, was, I suspect, used by those three latter only for political propoganda; I don't think they really believed in their public image of infallibility and greatness themselves; on the other hand, the GRÖFAZ was, I think, his own number one adulator.

The lickspittle term sprung to mind when I was writing about GRÖFAZ in a previous mailing because I was thinking of General Keitel as I wrote the expression: Keitel, I have read, used that term without cynicism and, therefore, in a lickspittlish way.

Keitel was despised by many offers in the General staff, those officers who were honourable gentlemen, professionals that followed the Prussian code, because he never criticised Hitler's decisions, earning himself the nickname: "Lackeitel", a play on his surname and the German word "Lackei", meaning "lackey" in English.