Evening star., 1945-05-02
HitIer's Possinq

Under Hitler the colossal lie has
been so much an instrument. of
German policy that the Hamburg
announcement of his death must
be received with some measure of
reservation. He has had doubles,
and this may be a ruSe designed to
help him escape Allied justice. Or
If he has really passed on, the form
OF his passing may have been far
less heroic than that described by
the Nazis-the white-plumed cru
sader falling valiantly in battle to
live on in the history of his people
as kind of demigod.
Yet, though prudence demands
that we give due weight to such
possibilities as these until the evil
dence is more direct and certain,
the probability Of Hitler's death
seems very strong Certainly, his
"thouSand-year" Reich, his infamous
'monolithic" state, is gasping it's
last, and it is in the logic of events
| that he should gasp his last, too.
His navy has ceased to be a navy
worthy OF the name; his Luftwaffe
has been converted into a vast
| wreckage; all that remains of his
once mighty Wehrmacht has been
smashed into futilely writhing frag-
ments, and his greatest field mar
| shals-the latest Won Rundstedt-
are falling one by. one into our
/ hands. 4 ~~
In the circumstances, as the
master of these forces, as the leader
whom Germany followed to Ats
present catastrophe, it is beEevable
that Hitler, with the whole of his
power collapsed upon him, is dead.
In any event, it is clear that he has
ceased to exist as the head of the
German state. The Hamburg an
nouncement has left no room for
doubt on that score, nor has Grand
Admiral Doenitz. Doenitz is the
new Fuehrer, pledged, despite the
hopelesSneSs of the situation, to
carry on the war, and naively
attempting, like other Nazis before
him, to split Britain and America
from Russia in this last flaming hour
when the whole of the Reich crashes
down into a defeat such as no
nation has suffered since Carthage
was destroyed
1t is significant that Doenitz and
not Himmler, is Hitler's successor.
Just within the past week it was
the Gestapo chief who seemed to
be emerging as the Fuehrer, but
perhaps the grand admiral, even
though he now speaks of fighting on,
was found to be man more likely
to be accepted by the Allies as the
bearer of surrender offers. Specula-
ton on this point must remain
uninformed at the moment, however,
and we shall have to wait for the
hours and days Immediately ahead
to disclose precisely what this
momentous change portends. All
we can be sure of now is that
Hitler himself has passed from the
picture-as the chief of state, at
least, II not as living human being.
Whether he is dead or alive, in
other words-and the chances are
he is dead-the towering fact is that
this man no longer holds the reins
in Germany. Once he could look
out the great window of his chalet
at Berchtesgaden and feel almost
as formidable and enduring as the
mountains and valleys stretched be-
fore him. Once, after he had laid
waste most of Europe and brought
agony and death to millions, this
twisted genius could delight in
sense of power such as few men in
history have ever felt, not excepting
even Alexander the Great or Napo-
leon. Once, letting his mind run
deliciously wild through the dark
forests Of megalomania, he could
dream of new worlds to conquer,
dream of Russia, dream of America,
and at length, exulting in his
strength, attack them.
Today, dead or alive, this man
of monumental evils, who just
few short years ago could make half
the world tremble, is gone from the
seat of his dark greatness. How
art thou fallen from heaven, o
Lucifer, son of the morning! How
art thou cut down to the ground!"