###rnst, Berlin storm troop ###ood against a wall, look-### the muzzles of his execu-###rifles, and shouted "Heil ###### he died in a shower of
### seeming show of bravado ###n a new, an amazing, an ###ignificance in the light of ###s in yesterday’s newspapers ### really lay behind the purg-###lood bath of Hitler’s "second ###n."
### now comes to light that ###s convinced he was being ### rebellious "reactionaries" ### turned against Hitler and ###exterminating Der Fuehrer’s ###t and most faithful lieu-lieu-###ts!###s was no mere cry of outraged ###cence. There seems little ### for doubt, now, that Ernst ### in complete ignorance of ###sations which branded him as ###aitor to his leader’s cause.
###arl Ernst died in the honest ###ef—if honesty can be said to ###e been a part of his make-up— ### loyalty to his Chancellor was ###crime for which he was paying ### his life.
### There is reason to believe that ###ist, despite his ignorance of Hit- ###s perfidy, was more nearly cor-###t in his conclusions than is gen###lly realized.
###vidence which is as nearly con-###sive as evidence can be in the ###ss-gagged Reich points to Gen-###l Hermann Wilhelm Goering, ###e fiend, clothes horse and in-###iable thirster after blood and ###er, as the real deus ex machina ###e engineered the wholesale exe ###ions of that sanguinary week-###d.
###ittle Adolf Hitler stands re-###led as a pitiful and ineffectual ###re, torn between the grim ###hlessness of Goering’s exhorta###ns on the one hand and the de-###e to shield the men who cata###lted him into power on the ###ner.
The morphine addict’s iron fist ###s too much for him. He at-###pted to procrastinate, by send###g Ernst Roehm, chief of staff, ###d the entire body of storm ###oops on vacation. He promised ### investigate Goering’s allega-###ns that a plot of rebellion was ###ewing. He tried weakly and ###erulously to put off the day of ###al reckoning.
Goering said no. Goering said ###amediate action was imperative ###oering won.
Karl Ernst died in the belief that ###e was being killed by enemies of ###itler. How many of those others ###rent to their deaths with the same ###onviction in their minds never will be known.
There is one man who has not ###et died, however, who might well ###ave entertained similar sus-###icions.
That man is Adolf Hitler.
The newspapers of a few days ###go described Der Fuehrer’s ###screams on the night when he ###wooped down on Roehm and ###eines at the storm troop leader’s ###easide home.
When a person is convinced he ###s striking a blow for God and for country, he does not scream. It is only when his mind and his con###cience are assailed with doubt ### he finds it necessary to whip ###imself up into a fury of righteous ###ndignation.
Little Adolf Hitler was only an ###ctor that night. Hermann Goer###ng was the producer, the director ###nd above all the reaper of whatever profits accrued from that grim ###heatrical coup.
Goering had his reasons for demanding this grand scale extermination. There is no doubt that these reasons presently will bob to the surface, like a bloated corpse which has been too long in the ### and in a war of rodents the sharp teeth which strike first carry the victory and devour the loot.
Today the "second revolution" has all the aspects of the notorious Valentine Day wholesale gang slaying in Chicago some years ago, when a band of thugs, masquerading as policemen, lined up a small army of fellow mobsters against a concrete garage wall and mowed them down with machine gun bullets.
Yesterday’s New York Times, in an account "purporting to present the side of the executed storm troop captains" and obviously given by someone in whom the fire of resentment has not been quenched, contains the following significant paragraph:
"But," says the account, "we underestimated Goering’s lack of inhibition and learned of the impending events a few minutes too late to defend ourselves."
The implications here are obvious. It was too late to save the lives of those whom the dope fiend had doomed. It was not too late, however, to plan a counter-attack.
Every newspaper possesses what in some circles is known as a "morgue" and what in more effete journalistic parlance is referred to as a library. The reference file contains masses of material relative to persons whose names are frequently in the news.
When one of these front-page figures seems likely to die soon, members of the staff are set to work preparing an obituary story about him, so that it will be ready to set up in type when the short and incomplete account of his death reaches the news rooms.
The Jewish Daily Bulletin is arming itself against the near future. Biographical material describing the lives and works of Adolf Hitler, Hermann Wilhelm Goering, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels and others high in Nazi councils are now in course of preparation.
—A.J.B.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
