Before the Nazis seized control of Germany, American journalist Dorothy Thompson described Adolf Hitler as a “little man.” She said he was impossible to talk to because he spoke as if he was addressing a crowd. “… a hysterical note creeps into his voice, which rises sometimes almost to a scream.”
Hitler did not forget Thompson’s portrayal when he became chancellor of Germany in January 1933. He personally ordered her removal from the country the next time she visited. Within days of Thompson’s arrival in August 1934, the German Secret Police, the Gestapo, presented her with an expulsion order to leave within 24 hours.
“My offence was to think that Hitler is just an ordinary man, after all,” Thompson said later. “That is a crime in the reigning cult in Germany, which says Mr Hitler is a messiah sent of God to save the German people.”
After leaving Germany, Thompson travelled to France, where she gave a speech about the importance of freedom of the press. She railed against the treatment of foreign correspondents in Germany and said that the domestic press was only allowed to publish news “in support of the present regime.”
“It’s the business of journalism to report everything that happens regardless of whether it’s to the glory or not of one regime or another …”
Photo: USHMM, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, source Holocaust Museum.
Julan62 
Frederick Smart
August 29, 2022 at 1:49 pm
Hitler, as in Putin, and is Pol Pot and in Trump, et al nasty little narcissists that should never have got into power!
Tina Kung
August 29, 2022 at 6:59 pm
I quite agree, sadly the list is long!
Murdo
August 30, 2022 at 11:04 am
Political scientist Barbara Geddes describes three types of dictatorship. Military dictatorships are controlled by military officers, single-party dictatorships are controlled by the members of a political party, and personalist dictatorships are controlled by a single individual.
Jenny
August 30, 2022 at 11:08 am
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then assuming the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934.
Sage Bennet
August 31, 2022 at 10:39 am
If the world was full of kind and respectful people, there would be no wars, no dictators.
J Patel
August 31, 2022 at 10:41 am
Our lives are always governed by the greedy and the evil.
Laura Burton
September 23, 2022 at 9:40 am
And we now have a little man called Putin!
Julan62
September 23, 2022 at 9:50 am
indeedy
Cee Cee
October 5, 2022 at 7:05 pm
True
Jennifer A
October 5, 2022 at 7:01 pm
Cool blog Julie 😎
Mimi Farrow
November 12, 2022 at 8:31 pm
Way to go girl!
Jack B
April 11, 2023 at 5:29 pm
Extremely important blog! 👏 well done.
Nina De Van Tarde
May 3, 2023 at 8:00 pm
Men fear strong women! Always The oppression of women only goes to prove that..
Julan62
May 4, 2023 at 9:06 am
indubitably!