Facts under fire
Sir: It was in fact my father, R.H.C. Steed, then Sefton Delmer's Berlin assistant, who telephoned the news of the Reichstag fire to the Daily Express office in London (Media studies, 2 August). He often told of how the London rewrite man was interest- ed only in the number of fire engines.
Ronald Spark (Letters, 9 August) says Delmer told him he encountered G6ring, not Hitler, at the scene of the fire. Yet in his autobiography, Trail Sinister, Delmer says it was Sepp Dietrich who allowed him into the burning Reichstag. Delmer says Goring was about to throw him out when Hitler said, 'Evening, Herr Delmer,' thus allowing him to stay.
Delmer says he stood listening next to Goebbels as Goring made his report to Hitler. Later, as he was walking through the smouldering ruins, he says Hitler joined him and said, 'God grant that this be the work of the communists. You are now wit- nessing the beginning of a great new epoch of German history, Herr Delmer . . . By six months — what am I saying? — two months, the whole continent will be aflame like this building.'
Is Delmer to be believed? Perhaps that's another story.
Nicholas Steed
Suite 1002, 1132 Bay Street, Toronto, Canada
Previous page
