Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

Chapter ITHE PROTOCOLS OF THE WISEMEN OF ZIONONE DAY IN THE SUMMER OF 1917 A STUDENT was reading inhis room in Moscow. A stranger entered, laid a book on the table, andsilently vanished. The cover of the book bore in Russian the words fromthe twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew: 'He is near, he is hard by thedoor.'The student sensed the masterful irony of higher powers in thisstrange happening. They had sent him a silent message. He opened thebook, and the voice of a demon spoke to him.It was a message concerning the Antichrist, who would come at theend of days. The Antichrist is no mythical being, no monkish medievalfantasy. It is the portrait of a type of man who comes to the fore whenan epoch is dying. He is a man with a white skin, in everyday clothes,dangerously contemporary, and a mighty demagogue. He will talk withthe masses, and at his word the masses will rise up and turn a culture toashes, a culture which has deserved no better, since it has borne theAntichrist in its own image and for its own destruction. The greatRussian philosopher Sol-oviev described him. The Antichrist 'does notlook like what he is,' and therein precisely lies the danger. He is a youngman with a strong personality and seductive power of speech andwriting. He is an ascetic and a vegetarian. He will win fame first by abook in which 'respect of the ancient traditions and symbols stands sideby