Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler’s life is put in peril when newspaper publish reports of his whereabouts, editors of Nazi gazettes in and around Frankfort have just been lectured.
This is reported by Wallace R. Deuel, correspondent of the Chicago Daily News in Berlin, in a dispatch to his paper.
“When you tell your readers just where Der Fuehrer is going to be at a given hour, you give the ‘bad elements’ information with which they might do great harm,” Deuel radios that Dr. Muller-Soheld, a representative of the Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, told the gathering of journalists.
“The difficulties of protecting the life of a dictator—always greater than those involved in protecting other chief magistrates—were further illustrated in an order issued against the throwing of flowers into the automobile of Der Fuehrer,” the correspondent continues.
“The new order was inspired by the Chancellor’s intended visit to Buckeberg for Nazi thanks-giving ceremonies. Flowers themselves are entirely acceptable, but the trouble is that brickbats and even bombs could be concealed in a bouquet and tossed into Der Fuehrer’s car.
“In this connection a Berlin housewife learned this week that it may be a serious inconvenience to have an uncle with the same first name as Der Fuehrer.
“The housewife was speaking to a cousin over the telephone and asked how her Uncle Adolf was.
” ‘Very bad, indeed,’ replied the cousin; ‘we do not expect him to last out the winter.’
“Within ten minutes a secret police agent and a brown shirt storm trooper called and demanded an explanation of the housewife’s references to ‘Uncle Adolf.’
“They were satisfied only after interviewing the sick uncle and convincing themselves that Adolf actually was his name and that he was really sick and might not last out the winter.”
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.
