The Crimson Bookshelf

While most of the opposition to Herr Hitler has concentrated on the publication of anti-Nazi propaganda, Miss Strachey and Mr. Werner have found a new way to attack Der Fuehror. Their method is quite simple: they simply present in significant juxtaposition statements made by Nazi officials.

Working on this basis, which is simply the theory that nothing is so striking as evidence turned against the testifier, the two editors have complied a volume of 135 pages of quotations from Nazi publications and speeches. Hitler's own book, "Mein Kampi", has been sliced up into endless short paragraphs. These, which contain some of The Loader's most warlike statements, have been placed side by side with excerpts from Hitler's Peace Speech of October 14, 1933. Now since the latter was delivered in an effort to allay the fears of Europe that was aroused by Germany's announced intention to rearm, inconsistencies between the autobiography and the speech leap at the reader.

This is a fair example of the book's method. The Jews, the nationalization of banks, and the standing of the Storm Troopers are taken up in a like manner. All of this evidence is used to create a single impression: that the Nazis are consistent only in that they never tell the truth. Though no flag of warning is displayed, there can be no doubt about the editors' propagandist intentions. They, like many another writer of late, are busily grinding their axe in the hope that some day it may fall on the neck of Der Fuehrer. The book's merit lies entirely in the originality of the idea on which it is based.