LÜDECKE,Kurt G. W. I Knew Hitler. The Story of a Nazi Who escaped The Blood Purge. London: Jarrolds. [1938].
8vo. Original cloth with dust-wrappers; pp. 713, [4, publisher's catalogue]; spine of wrappers faded, wrappers a bit dusty and with small marginal tear; a rather attractive copy.
First UK edition. Lüdecke had been an ardent supporter of Hitler and promoted Nazism in the US. Due to his association with Ernst Röhm Hitler became suspicious of him, and he was marked to be killed during The Night of the Long Knives. Lüdecke escaped to Czechoslovakia and then to America, where he arrived on the day many of his former associates were assassinated. Assisted by the American writer and journalist Paul Mooney he wrote the present book, published first by Scribners in 1937. It is an early study of the German Führer, however biased.
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