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

78 DER FUEHRERHess and the orderly looked one another in the eye, two survivors of thegreat hecatomb. How could they have suspected the adventurous future?The ordexly's name was Hitler.In the world of peace Hitler had been a foreigner. In the world of warhe felt at home. Later he recalled that he never received presents fromhome. This is not literally true; half-strangers sometimes sent himsomething out of sheer pity and then complained that he was slow inthanking them; he once answered with the lame excuse — the postcardstill exists — that his letter 'probably got lost.' But it is true that he hadno real friend; no sweetheart. When the war came to an end, he tells us,he wept for the first time since the death of his mother. Now this is anoutright lie — tears came easy to him; but it is true that, since the deathof his mother, he had loved only one thing, war. How he loved it, weshall see from a letter addressed to a near-stranger, a tailor from whomhe had rented a room in Munich. It is a lively letter, effusive and oftenpassionate; it describes — one might almost say it rejoices in — theterrible slaughter of the List Regiment:Honored Sir ... I am glad that you received my last card and hasten tothank you heartily for the kind letter you wrote in answer. I should havewritten you a long letter before, but will now try to catch up. First of all,I must tell you that on December 2, I received the Iron Cross. ThankGod there was plenty of opportunity. Our regiment was not, as we hadexpected, assigned to the reserve. Early in the morning of October 29we were sent into battle; since then we have been in those fellows' hairwithout interruption; if not as attackers, as defenders.The letter describes the journey to the front, the unloading of thetroop near Lille, and goes on:. . . We passed the night in the courtyard of the stock exchange. Apretentious building, not yet completed. We had to lie down with fullpacks — prepared for an alarm — I couldn't get a wink of sleep. Nextday we changed our quarters. . . . During the day we drilled some, tooka look at the city. We were filled with admiration for the tremendousarmy apparatus which has put its imprint on all Lille, and rolled beforeour amazed eyes in its gigantic forms. At night there was singing, formany it must have been