"HITLER DEAD" TALK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 32, 8 February 1943, Page 3

"HITLER DEAD" TALK

Fuehrer's Recent Silence Causes Surmise. SEQUEL TO STALINGRAD Rec. 11 a.m. NEW YORK, Feb. 7. Mr. Joseph E. Davies, former United States Ambassador to Russia, has 'caused a sensation by suggesting in a broadcast that Adolf Hitler is dead. He says he bases his belief on a series of logical deductions. "The days of mourning in Germany, and Hitler's failure to make a speech on the Nazi anniversary, suggest the possibility that Hitler is dead," said Mr. Davies. "I think it as well to say it, if only to smoke him out. Either the High Command has prevented him from appearing, or it is possible he has shot himself, or the High Command has shot him. Hitler has been out of the public eye for more than a month. Why are there no personal appearances? "It was commonly reported and is generally accepted that when Hitler invaded the Ruhr in 1936. he told the German High Command that if his judgment was wrong he would shoot himself. Both last winter and this winter he encountered strong opposition from the German High Command. He hazarded all on Stalingrad. Knowing Hitler as we do, as a psychopathic and a paranoic with delusions of grandeur and greatness, would he be likely to permit the Stalingrad disaster without taking the leading role and explaining it away?" According to a London report, rumours are sweeping America that Hitler is dead, but they are not circulating in Britain. It is recalled that the Berlin radio announced last Tuesday that Hitler at his headquarters had received Admiral Doenitz on his appointment as head of the German Navy.