On 12 February 1933, Great Ayton would have been its usual quiet self on that Sunday morning. Most of the villagers would have been dutifully attending church, the weather was dreary, and the temperature was barely above freezing. A drizzle added to the general cheerlessness. After church, families would have eaten their Sunday dinners, perhaps visited neighbours, go for a walk in Waterfall Park or just settled by the fire with the Sunday papers. The majority would have remained blissfully unconcerned of events unfolding on the other side of Europe.
That day, the Sunday Express carried an “Exclusive Interview” with Hitler by the war hero Colonel P. T. Etherton, grandly titled ‘Hitler Speaks At Last — Europe’s Future: A Message To Britain’. Supposedly, this was the answer to the question that had been tormenting the world, or at least the politicians: what exactly did the newly appointed German Chancellor plan to do with the power he had spent a decade chasing? They speculated wildly. “If he does this—,” they mused. “If he does that—,” they pondered. But no one had any real idea what he intended. The interview set out to clarify the matter, presenting Hitler’s own programme for British readers.
To the average villager, who had likely never heard of Mein Kampf, let alone read it, Hitler’s demands might have seemed not too unreasonable. He called for: (1) Revision of the Treaty of Versailles, (2) Close monitoring of French military build-up, (3) Restoration of the Polish Corridor, (4) No return of the Kaiser, and (5) A new German colonial empire. What he failed to mention, for instance, was his long-term plan for a racial war to secure “Lebensraum” for the German people—something best left unsaid while Germany was still militarily weak.
Contrary to later myths, Hitler had not seized power on 30 January 1933. His appointment as Chancellor was entirely legal, granted by President Hindenburg on the advice of a narrow clique of conservative advisers who foolishly believed he could be controlled. There was no dramatic revolution as in Russia in 1917 or France in 1789.
Hitler, displaying a rare moment of what one might loosely call ‘gesunder Menschenverstand‘, realised that transforming Germany into a fully Nazi state would take time, likely decades. In the short term, he needed both national and international support, which is why propaganda was so essential. His devoted Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, had taken swift control of the press, radio, and cultural life to shape public opinion. The Sunday Express interview could be seen as an early step in Hitler’s attempt to court Britain as a potential ally—an effort that, in time, would prove futile.
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