THE FUEHRER

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 67, 21 March 1938, Page 6

THE FUEHRER

! "The first time T beard the name of Adolf Hitler was shortly after the war, when a man named Franz Xavier Hwber, a veteran who had had a leg shot away before Verdun in 1917, told me atones of a curious fellow who had been in his rejriuient at the front. The thing that had struck him most about 'Private Hitler' was his grandiloquence. He was neither -popular nor the reverse with his fellows; they juet eniiled at him and hi* vague, rambling sneecheK on everything in the world and out of it. He acquired very swiftly the reputation «f being what hi the British Army is called •an old soldier.' That is, he showed distinct talent in avoidin? disagreeable tasks, but be kiiiew on which «ide his bread was buttered. He interested himself particularly in the important question of seeing the officers' washing done or doing it himself. This serured him the good graces of the colonel, who removed him from the more constant dangers of the trenches and appointed him runner between regimental headquarters and the front line. Though he got the Iron Cross of the second claims, no one ever looked upon Hitler as any sort of a hero; indeed, they rath'er admired him for the skill with which he avoided hot corners. The regimental records contain not a Hue concerning an award of the Iron Cross to Hitler, though in latter years he has taken to wearing it prominently on his self-constructed uniform."—"Xew Statesman," 1933.