Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

768 DER FUEHRERmedals, and reported to Goring's headquarters in Prinz Albrecht Street.It took some effort on his part to get through all the guards, but he wasstubborn and finally reached his old comrade-in-arms whom he wantedto thank warmly for his release.Goring received him surrounded by his staff. He approached Gehrt,tore off his 'Pour le Merite' decoration, tore off his other medals, andsaid to the people around him: 'I gave orders that this filthy pig bebrought here because he once belonged to my squadron. Take himaway!'Gehrt was taken back to the coal cellar. After that, our informant tellsus, he collapsed, allegedly the only man who did not keep up his nerve.He had to be pushed to the wall.Most of those who fell during this slaughter were little known to theworld. Very few people outside the S.A. had ever heard of GroupLeader Georg von Detten or his life; but whatever could be said of him,good or bad, during his lifetime, in the hour of his death he made anextraordinary impression on his comrades in the cellar. He delivered afarewell speech which opened — as our report puts it — a gate into aworld they had never known. The path that they had taken, he said, wasfalse. What must and would come about had a significance far greaterthan Germany's fate alone; a league of the thousand best men of allnations, classes, and creeds, who would take the fate of the world intotheir hands and give peace to the earth. To our informant his wordsseemed great, but so new and strange that it occurred to him that Dettenmust have secretly been a Freemason. Actually his words contained afaint reminiscence of 'Aryans of all nations, unite!' But Hitler had noroom in Detten's last thoughts; he referred to the Fuhrer as a disappointmentand spoke of him 'with contempt.' This did not prevent hislisteners from being thrilled by his speech. The account tells of a solemnmood, which descended upon the men and made death easier to bear formany.Our informant insists that almost all the victims went to their deathcalm and dignified. Goebbels maintained the opposite: in a confidentialcommunication to the S.A. he said that the 'rebels' were led to the wallpale and trembling. Our account indignantly attacks this assertion. But,according to it, the nerves of the S.S. firing