o 3b3e7475144cf77c

people the story of that dreadful Saturday of blood and terror. Juppchen had been traveling

about the Rheinland with the Führer, dutifully inspecting labor-camps, and he now went into

details, in that spirit of melodrama combined with religious adoration which it was his job to

instill into the German people. Said crooked little Juppchen:

"I still see the picture of our Führer standing at midnight on Friday evening on the terrace of

the Rhein Hotel in Godesberg and in the open square a band of the Western German Labor

Service playing. The Führer looks seriously and meditatively into the dark sky that has

followed a refreshing thunderstorm. With raised hand he returns the enthusiastic greetings of

the people of the Rheinland . . . In this hour he is more than ever admired by us. Not a quiver

in his face reveals the slightest sign of what is going on within him. Yet we few people who stand

by him in all difficult hours know how deeply he is grieved and also how determined to deal

mercilessly in stamping out the reactionary rebels who are trying to plunge the country into

chaos, and breaking their oath of loyalty to him under the slogan of carrying out a 'Second

Revolution.'"

Dispatches come from Berlin and Munich which convince the Führer that it is necessary to

act instantly; he telephones orders for the putting down of the rebels, and so: "Half an hour

later a heavy tri-motored Junkers plane leaves the aviation field near Bonn and disappears into

the foggy night. The clock has just struck two. The Führer sits silently in the front seat of the

cabin and gazes fixedly into the great expanse of darkness."

Arriving in Munich at four in the morning they find that the traitorous leaders have already

been apprehended. "In two brisk sentences of indignation and contempt Herr Hitler throws

their whole shame into their fearful and perplexed faces. He then steps to one of them and rips

the insignia of rank from his uniform. A very hard but deserved fate awaits them in the

afternoon."

The center of the conspiracy is known to be in the mountains, and so a troop of loyal S.S.

men have been assembled, and, narrates Dr. Juppchen, "at a terrific rate the trip to Wiessee is

begun." He gives a thrilling account of the wild night ride, by which, at six in the morning

"without any resistance we are able to enter the house and surprise the conspirators, who are

still sleeping, and we arouse them immediately. The Führer himself makes the arrest with a

courage that has no equal . . . I may be spared a description of the disgusting scene that lay

before us. A simple S.S. man, with an air of indignation, expresses our thoughts, saying: 'I only

wish that the walls would fall down now, so that the whole German people could be a

witness to this act.'"

The radio orator went on to tell what had been happening in Berlin. "Our party comrade,

General Göring, has not hesitated. With a firm hand he has cleared up a nest of reactionaries and

their incorrigible supporters. He has taken steps that were hard but necessary in order to save the

country from immeasurable disaster."

There followed two newspaper columns of denunciation in which the Reichsminister of Popular

Enlightenment and Propaganda used many adjectives to praise the nobility and heroism of his

Führer, "who has again shown in this critical situation that he is a Real Man." A quite different

set of adjectives was required for the "small clique of professional saboteurs," the "boils, seats

of corruption, the symptoms of disease and moral deterioration that show themselves in

public life," and that now have been "burned out to the flesh."

"The Reich is there," concluded Juppchen, "and above all our Führer."

III

Such was the story told to the German people. Lanny noticed the curious fact that not once

did the little dwarf name one of the victims of the purge; he didn't even say directly that

anybody had been killed! As a specimen of popular fiction there was something to be said for

his effusion, but as history it wouldn't rank high. Lanny could nail one falsehood, for he knew

that Hugo Behr had been shot at a few minutes after nine on Friday evening, which was at

least three hours before the Führer had given his orders, according to the Goebbels account.

The jail buzzed with stories of other persons who had been killed or arrested before

midnight; in fact some had been brought to this very place. Evidently somebody had given the

fatal order while the Führer was still inspecting labor camps.

It was well known that Göring had flown to the Rheinland with his master, and had then

flown back to Berlin. Hermann was the killer, the man of action, who took the "steps that were

hard but necessary," while Adi was still hesitating and arguing, screaming at his followers,

threatening to commit suicide if they didn't obey him, falling down on the floor and biting the

carpet in a hysteria of bewilderment or rage. Lanny became clear in his mind that this was the

true story of the "Blood Purge." Göring had sat at Hitler's ear in the plane and terrified him