Klemperer – Aug. 1934

“I do not know whether history is racing ahead or standing still.

On the last day of June, the St. Bartholomew’s Eve [the Night of the Long Knives], at the end of July, the Austrian affair, the murder of Dollfuss, Italy’s complete break with Germany … It is not my intention here to register individual historical facts. Only the feeling of holding one’s breath: ‘Will the bull collapse this time — at the second terrible blow to the brow?’ Again he does not collapse. And now this bulletin yesterday: Hindenburg’s condition giving cause for concern. Surely the decision must come now. If the next few days do not see Hitler’s fall, he will make himself President, i.e., he will let himself be chosen in a ‘free’ vote by the unshakable love of his people. What I want to note is again only one point: ‘Language of the 3rd Reich’. Yesterday’s newspapers appeared with banner headlines across the front page: Execution of the Dollfuss Murderers. Underneath there were headlines about this and that. But the name Hindenburg was not to be found in any prominent position. The bulletin only came further down, amid the three or four column divisions, and no bolder than much else — and bold type is so common nowadays that it does not stand out at all.”

— Aug. 1, 1934

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