NOSTRADAMUS, ASTROLOGY AND THE BIBLE
SUBSTUDY "WORLD WAR II"
Sma nai gonosu 1940? Odgovara nam cuveni fransuski astrolog Nostradamus u svome depu "Les vrayes Centuries et Propheties" (Belgrado, 1940)
- T.W.M. van Berkel -

Index WORLD WAR II

In a note, probably written around the end of June, 1940, dr. Werner Wilmanns, head of the IV Inf department of the German Foreign Office and involved in the production of national-socialist propaganda, based upon the Centuries and/or Century-comments, referred to a Nostradamus-brochure which had been brought into circulation shortly before he wrote this note. One of the enclosures of this note was a copy of this brochure. On this website, it is assumed that this was a copy of the brochure Sma nai gonosu 1940? Odgovara nam cuveni fransuski astrolog Nostradamus u svome depu "Les vrayes Centuries et Propheties".[1] This brochure was the Serbian version of a national-socialist text about Nostradamus, written in November - December 1939 by Hans Wolfgang Herwarth von Bittenfeld, prof. dr. Karl Bömer and Leopold Gutterer, managers, working at the Ministry of Propaganda.[2] 
According to a report by dr. Ernst Brauweiler, head of the Foreign department of the Ministry of Propaganda, on the activities of his department in the period January 1 - August 31, 1940, the number of copies of a Serbian version of a Nostradamus-writing which was published in eight languages, was 10.000; the total circulation number of all of the eight versions was 83.0000. On this website, it is assumed that with the Serbian version the brochure Sma nai gonosu 1940? is meant. In Brauweiler's report, one can also read that the number of printed Croatian copies was 25.000 and the number of printed Rumanian copies was 5.000. In other words: for the Slavonic part of Europe, the total number of copies in the period January 1 - August 31, 1940, was 40.000, almost half of the circulation.[3] 

Design and composition
Sma nai gonosu 1940? (tr.: What will 1940 bring?) is designed as a brochure in octo-format, with its pages stitched. Sma nai gonosu 1940? consists of 16 pages. There are no illustrations. 
On the cover page of Sma nai gonosu 1940?, the publisher's name Mecunarodna kljizarnica. This company was seated in Belgrade. On the back of the cover page, the printer's company name Napredak was mentioned. This printer was seated in Panchevo, a city, north-east of Belgrade. Nobody is mentioned as being the author.[4] 
The full title of Sma nai gonosu 1940? contains the title Les vrayes centuries et propheties. This is, as is written in Hoe zal deze oorlog eindigen?, the Dutch version of this brochure, a reference to the photocopy of the 1668-Amsterdam-edition, made by the Frenchman P.V. Piobb in 1927. From this photocopy, Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s. copied French quatrain texts in order to raise the impression that they had translated and studied these quatrain texts.[5]
The text of Sma nai gonosu 1940? is divided in seven chapters. The titles of the first six chapters and the distribution of the text corresponds with the titles of the corresponding chapters and the distribution of the text in these chapters in Que se passera-t-il entre le printemps 1940 et le printemps 1941?, the French version of this brochure. There are also correspondences with the chapter titles and the distribution of the text in these chapters in Le profezie del Maestro Michele Nostradamus anno 1558, the Italian version of this brochure. This means that Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s. divided the German source text in chapters, but this was not maintained in all translations.
The next table contains a short description of the contents of the chapters in Sma nai gonosu 1940?, and the corresponding texts in Hoe zal deze oorlog eindigen? ("Pasteur"), Le profezie del Maestro Michele Nostradamus anno 1558 ("Genoa"), Nostradamus spådomar om kriget ("Norab"-1940a), What will happen in the near future? ("Norab"-1940b) and Que se passera-t-il entre le printemps 1940 et le printemps 1941? ("Rossier"). The Serbian chapter titles are translated into English.

Quatrain texts
Sma nai gonosu 1940? contains 12 French quatrain texts, printed in Latin script. These are the texts of the quatrains 01-35, 01-36, 10-100, 03-57, 02-100, 08-37, 02-78, 03-32, 03-71, 08-97, 02-85 and 03-58. In the German source text, the French texts of the quatrains 01-35, 01-36, 03-57 and 03-58 were copied from the 1927-Piobb-copy; the French texts of the other French quatrains in Sma nai gonosu 1940? were copied from De Fontbrunes Les propheties de Maistre Michel Nostradamus. Expliquees et commentees (Sarlat, 1939 [1938], fifth edition; on p.11 of Sma nai gonosu 1940?, the title of this book is mentioned). It is quite conceavable that these French quatrain texts were inserted in order to raise the impression that Sma nai gonosu 1940? is not just a brochure, but a thorough Century-comment. The text of the quatrains 01-01 and 01-02, legendary quatrains one might say which are linked to Nostradamus' methods, are only printed in Serb, not in French. The Serb translation of these quatrains is the translation of Winkler's free translation in Nostradamus und seine Prophezeiungen für das zwanzigste Jahrhundert (Görlitz, 1939 [1938]), which Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s. had copied in their source text.

The propaganda message 
Sma nai gonosu 1940? had to show the readers that the fall of England was at hand and that her leading role in the world would be taken over by Germany, something which many centuries ago was predicted by Nostradamus. The description of predictions by Nostradamus which already were fulfilled, had to show the credibility of this message. In contrast with Nostradamus spådomar om kriget, the Swedish version of the text by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s., no attention is given in Sma nai gonosu 1940? to specific matters regarding the area in which this brochure had to be spread. 
The question is why in the Slavonic region propaganda material was spread which was connected in one way or another to the Westfeldzug, which was not directed against the Slavonic region, but against Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Perhaps, the spread of the Nostradamus-brochure among the Serbs have to be related to the problems of the Germans who lived in Serbia and who after World War I had a hard time. 

De Meern, the Netherlands, March 3, 2007
T.W.M. van Berkel

© Politischen Archiv Auswärtigen Amt, Berlin
In connection with this article, photocopies have been studied of the brochures Que se passera-t-il entre le printemps 1940 et le printemps 1941? (Geneva, 1940, on this website indicated with "Rossier"-1940b) and its Serbian pendant (Sma nai gonosu 1940?, Belgrade, 1940, on this website indicated with "Belgrade"). 
The original documents are owned by the Politischen Archiv Auswärtigen Amt (ref: PA AA R 66658). 
Every copy, print, multiplification or other use of parts of the contents of these brochures, published on www.nostradamusresearch.org, requires a written permission of the Politischen Archiv Auswärtigen Amt, D-11013 Berlin.