German to English translation of a remark by Hitler about Halder on 24 July 1944

[Linden Lyons]

Hitler had always been suspicious of Franz Halder, chief of the general staff of the army from 1938 until 1942, and had him arrested following the assassination attempt of 20 July 1944. On 24 July, Hitler remarked: 'Das ist ja auch nicht verwunderlich. Wenn jemand wie Halder viele Monate [frei] verkehrt, dann haben wir die Sache abgewischt [verdrängt].' Could someone please provide a translation of this remark? Thanks!

[GregSingh]

It's not 100% accurate translation, but close to:
It's not a surprise. When Halder was wrong we just swept things under the carpet.

[Carl33]

'Das ist ja auch nicht verwunderlich. Wenn jemand wie Halder viele Monate [frei] verkehrt,

Well, that isn't surprising. When someone like Halder is wandering around (freely) for several months ...

dann haben wir die Sache abgewischt [verdrängt].

.. then we suppressed the whole thing.

I realise that the second part of the sentence doesn't tie in with the first and this makes the full statement nonsensical but I translated it anyway. Are you absolutely sure that this is what Hitler said, Linden Lyons?

[Heimatschuss]

Hello,

I too tried my luck with this sentence yesterday but even for a native German speaker like me it doesn't make any sense, especially without the bracketed inserts. Hitler seems to be jumping between two or even more ideas. In itself the sentence is meaningless, unintelligable. It may be some sense can be brought into it from surrounding parts but in itself - no way. Rather a document of Hitler's erratic mind at the time (late July 1944) than anything else.

The line is from an official Third Reich document though quoted verbatim by Hartmann (1991, p.13, footnote 11) this way, with reference BA [Bundesarchiv] NS 6/24. Seems to be from the shorthand protocols Hitler had recorded of his frequent monologues etc.

A fine example how NOT to quote in a scientific work. This way it just leaves the interested reader totally befuddled.

References:

Hartmann, Christian
Halder. Generalstabschef Hitlers 1938-1942.
F. Schoeningh Verlag; Paderborn; 1991

Best wishes for Christmas and New Years's Day
Torsten