In Their Lives 11-1-30: Early Warning

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Welcome to a new series!! If you can stand the shock, this is NOT about music! (Well, some music might show up, I don’t know.). November is “birthday month” in my family, and in honor of my brother, niece, best friend, and late father (not to mention two uncles and a cousin), I’m searching through old newspapers (via an online subscription service) to see what happened in their lives....specifically, the years they were born. So let’s see what the newspaper said on this date, ninety years ago (the year my dad was born). 11/1/30: Early Warnings About Adolf Hitler A Scripps syndicated article, written by Louisville native Milton Bronner (who was head of the Newspaper Enterprise Association when he retired in 1942), sounded warning bells about what was happening in Germany. His three-part series, which began appearing in newspapers across the country on November 1, 1930, explained the dangers right up front: Seventeen years ago Adolf Hitler swung his legs from a ladder and dabbled paint on houses in little villages of Austria. Today he ranks as one of the most potent political leaders in Germany — a nightmare to the old-established political and parliamentary maters, a bogey-man to the financiers, a menace to the German republic and the peace of Europe. The article went on to point out that Hitler wasn’t a German citizen but Austrian; and, as such, he was not eligible to hold political office in Germany. Bonner clearly warned that Hitler was a threat to Jews, reporting that Hitler’s stance was crystal clear: German Jews are to be deprived of their rights of citizenship, with no vote and no ability to hold office. Those who have come into the country since 1914 [the start of World War I] are to be booted out. They are not to own, write, or edit German newspapers. Jewish finance, whatever that may mean, is to be expropriated. The warning signs were obviously there, considering this appeared in 1930. Unfortunately, the world was in the grips of the early days of the Great Depression, and most people were far more worried about their next meal than the rantings of a rabble-rouser half a world away. If only someone had paid attention..... Here’s a very popular song from 1930 (which most people today still know, thanks to Taco or Young Frankenstein):