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“Stop!” Amalie said. “You will not make my decisions for me. I believe in what Tom is doing, and I support him. That should be your only concern.”

At that moment, the doorbell rang, a chime echoing through the house. The three of them stewed in silence as the housekeeper answered the door.

A moment later, she entered the living room. “Herr Tom, a man is here to see you.”

“To see me? Here?” Bauer awkwardly removed himself from the room, following the housekeeper to the front door.

Fritz Gerlich was standing there in his overcoat, fedora in his hand.

“How did you even find me, Fritzie?”

“You said you’d be here. I’m a reporter.” He let out a deep sigh.

“Okay, well, you’re here. What’s going on?”

“I just talked to my correspondent in Berlin,” he said. “Von Schleicher is out.”

“Out? But he only became chancellor six weeks ago.”

Gerlich bowed his head. “The Nazis cut a deal, Tom. Tomorrow, the president will be appointing Adolf Hitler chancellor.”

Part Three

“Hindenburg has tasked Hitler as chancellor. There is trouble brewing. Poverty cannot be abolished, but freedom can. Hardship cannot be banned, but the press can. Hunger cannot be exiled, but the Jews can. The constitution still prevents the gravest abuse of power but, to quote Goebbels, its bonds have worn paper thin.”

—January 30, 1933, editorial, Vossische Zeitung, Berlin

64

February 10, 1933

Sportpalast

Berlin

JOSEPH GOEBBELS, IN HIS immaculate double-breasted suit, stood on the podium of the indoor arena holding fourteen thousand people. It was lined on all sides with SA and SS troops, the seats filled with the party faithful, National Socialists bubbling with energy, giddy with celebration before the first speech delivered by their leader, their Führer, in his new role as Reichskanzler.

“This evening,” Goebbels said into the standing microphone, “you are eyewitnesses to a mass occurrence, which in this size in Germany, and probably throughout the world, has never before taken place. I do not think it is saying too much to claim that tonight, at least twenty million people, in Germany and across the German frontier, will be listening to the speech of Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.”

The crowd rose to its feet, men and women, uniformed SA and SS troops, their arms outstretched in the Nazi salute.

“When the Jewish press complains how the National Socialist movement is being allowed to speak on all German radio stations because of its chancellor, then we can answer that we are just doing what you have done in the past.”

Goebbels paused as laughter rippled through the arena.

“And if the Jewish press today believes that it can make veiled threats against the National Socialist movement, and if they believe they can get around our defensive measures, they shouldn’t keep lying!” Goebbels wagged a finger. “For, one day, our patience will reach its end, and we will shut these Jews’ insolent, lying mouths!”

At his father-in-law’s home, Bauer hovered near the radio, listening to the announcer prepare the audience for Hitler’s speech:

“We are here in the Sportpalast as witnesses, both eyes and ears, of this wonderful, unique mass event, the like of which has probably never been seen before on such a scale in Germany. I believe we are not exaggerating when we say that at least twenty million people in Germany are witnessing this unique event.”

“That’s the same thing Goebbels claimed, but it can’t be true,” said Selig, in his cardigan sweater, lighting the tobacco in his pipe. “There aren’t enough radios in Germany for that to be true. How many times will they repeat the same lie?”

“Over and over again,” said Bauer. “Remember the Nazi philosophy. It doesn’t have to be true. Just keep repeating it, and people will start believing it.”

“Our eyes are presented with the imposing sight of a ravishing, unique, large mass rally, a people’s rally in the truest sense of the word—men and women, workers, citizens, students, all around them SA and SS men. The whole crowd is filled with an intense, feverish excitement, and a vibrating expectation—the same intense, feverish excitement and expectation that has settled over the entire city of Berlin this evening.”

“That’s a lot of feverish excitement.” Bauer closed his eyes. “This guy is no reporter. He’s reading a script Goebbels wrote for him.”