Image - Heinrich Hoffmann Cigarette Card Album
Today, April 20, is the 130th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler. In 1930s Germany he could do no wrong. He was worshipped by millions of everyday citizens who hailed him as a national saviour in gigantic stadium rallies.
Baroness Ella de Heemstra, the mother of film star Audrey Hepburn, visited Germany in 1935 to witness the military pageantry of the 1935 Nuremberg Rally.
Upon her return, Ella, who was a member of the British Union of Fascists, wrote an editorial in their newspaper, The Blackshirt, extolling Hitler’s virtues.
The article is called At Nuremberg.
Film footage captures Lloyd George with Hitler at a dinner party. He's seen laying a wreath at a war memorial in Munich and Nazi and United Kingdom flags are seen hanging together on a German building.
Lloyd George was impressed by Germany’s public works programmes which he saw first hand.
Following the visit, Lloyd George, in a newspaper interview, said:
“Hitler is a most remarkable personality, one of the greatest I have ever met in the whole of my life, and I have met some very great men.Hitler's autobiographical book, Mein Kampf, written in 1925, outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany.
“Affection is a quite inadequate word to describe the attitude of the German people towards Hitler. It amounts almost to worship.
“I have never seen anything like it. Some men I met who are not Nazis told me that they did not know what the country would have done without him.
“They are inclined to blame Hitler’s supporters for some of the things which they do not approve, but there is no whisper of criticism of Hitler.
“It is just like our motto, ‘The King can do no wrong.’”
Warning - The following video has strong racial and anti-Semitic content and may be offensive to some audiences.
Mein Kampf, Chapter 11, Race and Nation
