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27th February 1933: ‘Work at home in the evening.
The Leader [Hitler] comes to dine at 21h00. We have some music and
talk. Suddenly a phone call from Dr.
Hanfstaengl: “The Reichstag
is on fire!” I take this as a bit of wild fantasy and refuse to
report it to the Leader. I ask for news wherever possible and at
last obtain the dreadful confirmation: it is true! The great dome
is all ablaze. Incendiarism! I immediately inform the Leader, and
we hasten at top speed down the Charlottenburg road to the
Reichstag. The whole building is aflame… Goering meets us on the
way…There is no doubt that communism has made a last attempt to
cause disorder by means of fire and terror, in order to grasp the
power during the general panic… Goering at once suppresses the
entire Communist and Social Democratic Press. Officials of the
Communist Party are arrested during the night.’
Joseph Goebbels – My Part in Germany’s Fight, 1935
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