Brooklyn Eagle (January 31, 1943)
Editorial: Hitler’s days numbered as tragic decade ends
The tenth anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power brings with it the promise of a tragic era’s end. But the end will not come automatically, as a matter of course, with the mere passing of time. It will come as a bright and a welcome consequence of the continued labors and sacrifices of free people everywhere.
This anniversary seems an appropriate time for a contemplation of the tragic history of Hitler’s rule as the master of the German people and as a conqueror determined to achieve world dominion. There is much in the record to convey an adequate conception of all that is involved in the present war and to steel the determination of the American people to play their full part in the attainment of victory.
More than any one man in modern times, Adolf Hitler has labored to effect a reversion to barbarism, attacking ruthlessly the principles of Christianity, the customs of civilization, the foundations of culture and the ordinary amenities of decent behavior among men.
It is futile to deny that he has been effective in his work of destruction. To an appalling degree, he has transformed the natures of the German peoples. He has poisoned the thinking of millions in other lands, including our own. He has, in fact, made greater progress in the advancement of his New Order than it is pleasant to admit.
In doing so he has made a continent run with tears and blood, brought hunger to lands of plenty, slavery to nations with a priceless heritage of freedom and death and destruction to those who, yielding to the impulses of desperate courage, rose against him.
Now that the tide of conquest has been sent into reverse and the future looms dark and doubtful, Hitler has reason for thoughtfulness and it is quite possible that a few ghosts may intrude upon his contemplative moods – the innocent hostages who died before firing squads, the Gestapo’s pitiable victims, those who starved in the ghettos of Warsaw and on the streets of Athens.
After his decade of power and glory and blood, Hitler will soon be alone. When it becomes clear to the hatchet-men who make up his choice company that the Führer’s day is done, that the jig is up, they will scurry to save their own skins, leaving their old master to face the bleak future without a friend at his side.
Now, after 10 years of despair and of horror, Hitler’s enemies are closing in on him. He may continue to struggle on with deepening desperation of spirit for months and even years, but he is fighting a losing fight and his end is only a matter of time.