Night of the Long Knives by Paul Maracin

Author:Paul Maracin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781461749226
Publisher: Lyons Press

Bella Fromm had become one of the most informed and well-known journalists in Berlin. She wrote an American-style society column for two dailies, Vossische Zeitung and Berliner Zeitung, both published by the influential House of Ullstein, a major media firm. In actuality, however, she was much more than a society writer. Over the years, she had developed an eclectic network of contacts in Berlin’s social, political, and diplomatic circles, and she made it a practice to keep her ear to the ground. The so-called Editors’ Law of October 1933—which excluded non-Aryans from the field of journalism—forced her employers to dismiss her because of her Jewishness, but she still maintained her many sources of information. As the month of June 1934 drew to a close, she perceived that a portentous uneasiness prevailed. Something was about to happen, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Bella counted among her trusted friends former chancellor von Schleicher and his new bride, Elizabeth. On June 22 she invited them to her residence for dinner, along with another old friend, General Ferdinand von Bredow, who had been a former assistant to von Schleicher in the Defense Ministry. She tried to convey her apprehension to von Schleicher, and warned him to be careful, but he dismissed her concern, saying, “They won’t dare to touch me.” She wasn’t convinced. Von Schleicher made an attempt to reassure her: “The same old Bella. Alarmist as usual. Good Lord, I’ve been out of politics and am happy to be out of the dirty mess. So why should I fear?” In little more than one week Bella Fromm’s dinner guests would learn the true meaning of Hitlerism.

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