A secret report, previously unknown to historians, has given readers insight regarding the mental state of Adolf Hitler. According to the report, which was published in the British Guardian Newspaper on Friday, in 1942, British intelligence officers were tracking Adolf Hitler's "messiah complex" and his belief that he was leading a crusade against Jewish people.
The analysis of Hitler's mental state, was uncovered by a Cambridge University researcher, Scott Anthony. He found a report commissioned by the social scientist Mark Abrams, who worked in the psychological warfare division of the allied expeditionary force during the Second World War.
The report was written by an academic called Joseph McCurdy who studied radio speeches Hitler gave in 1942. His analysis was written as the war was starting to move in the allies' favor, and shows that British officers had started noticing signs of developing paranoia in Hitler's speechmaking and a growing preoccupation with what he called "the Jewish poison."
Anthony said: "At the time that it was written, the tide was starting to turn against Germany. In response, Hitler began to focus his attentions to the German home front. This document shows that British intelligence sensed this happening."
The report's author recognized that faced with external failure, the Nazi leader was focusing on a perceived "enemy within" instead – namely the Jews.
According to the report's opening lines which were published in Guardian Newspaper, the aim was "to reconstruct, if possible, what was in Hitler's mind." McCurdy concluded that Hitler had a tendency to lose heart when things were not going his way.
When analyzing one of Hitler's speeches, McCurdy pointed out that the speech betrayed "a man who is seriously contemplating the possibility of utter defeat."
However, according to the report, Hitler's growing paranoia was most alarming. McCurdy suggested Hitler had a "messiah complex," believing he was leading a chosen people on a crusade against an evil incarnate in the Jews. The paper notes an extension of the "Jew phobia" and says that Hitler now saw them not just as a threat to Germany, but as a "universal diabolical agency."