HITLER’S SEVEN DAYS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20955, 7 November 1939, Page 3

HITLER’S SEVEN DAYS

FOR PEACE OR WAR LONELY MAN MAKES DECISION “For the seven most momentous days in Europe’s modern history (the last week of August) Adolf Hitler did not leave the Reichchancellery in Berlin,” says the European correspondent of an American periodical recently to hand. “Alone in spirit, the man whose word meant peace or war pondered his decision. He slept little, ate little, spoke little. He rose promptly at 7 o’clock each morning, put on his brown uniform, breakfasted on fruit, zwieback, and a glass of milk. Throughout the day he conferred endlessly, stopping for 20-minute meals of vegetables, bread and butter, and his special 1 per cent beer. “For half an hour in the morning and again in the afternoon he strolled through the Chancellery gardens, usually with Goering, Hess or von Ribbentrop. Till far into the night he talked with these closest of his confidants, leaving them for bed at four or five in the morning. Whenever a decision was needed he went off to brood alcne. "His nerves grew taut. When he gave Sir Nevile Henderson his demands for a Polish settlement, he was not able long to endure the presence of others; for hours no one could see him. Word went out to foreign envoys that his patience was becoming exhausted. Haste, haste was the demand behind all his demands. A Polish negotiator must hasten to Berlin. Russia must make haste with its military mission. Danzig must hasten home to the Reich. Adolf Hitler could not wait much longer. Eve Of Polish Invasion “On the Thursday night—the night before the invasion of Poland, the strange man whom no one understood sat alone in his study, a portrait of Bismarck looking down at him from the opposite wall. Outside his lieutenants waited. Neither Goering nor Hess knew what Hitler was going to do. Berlin grew sleepy and went to bed. Before the Chancellery two stiff sentries stood mute. "The night wore on; milk waggons began to rattle through the streets. Through the long french windows leading from the study into the Chancellery garden blew an early morning breeze. Adolf Hitler picked up a pen. At 5.11 o’clock in the morning of September 1 Germany was at war. “Later that morning worn and harried, he stood before the Reichstag. He wore the new uniform which had been made ready for this day. It was of lighter grey than the regular army uniform, and was adorned with gold buttons, the Nazi insignia and the Iron Cross Adolt Hitler won in the last World War. There was no other uniform like it in Germany, and no one in Germany, not even the Kaiser, had ever spoke as Hitler spoke that day. It was the speech of a man persecuted beyond endurance, a man driven by some mystical inner necessity, a man who was alone with his fate. The speech contained 78 ‘l’s’.”