Top Secret (1954)

BtSfS* The shocking, hitherto unknown story of how a King helped a monster! How the figurehead of the British Empire helped Adolf Hitler! On Oct. 23, 1937, the Duke and Duchess visited Hitler in Berchtesgaden where this photo was taken. How, one year later, the King saved Hitler is told in this sensational expose! By LADISLAS FARAGO TOP SECRET reveals today one of the most sensational chapters in the chain of events which led to World War II. There are only two men alive today who know the full details of this amazing historic episode. One of them is the Duke of Windsor. The other is a German named Fritz Hesse, an eyewitness to this strange incident. The Duke keeps mum. But Hesse is talking. He has now decided to break a silence he had kept for eighteen years. On page 61 of a book called “The Gamble for Germany”, just published by Paul List in Munich, he tells one of the strangest stories of this hectic century. The time was the spring of 1936. Hitler had just sent his troops marching into the Rhineland, even though, under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was not allowed to have a single soldier in the Rhineland. Europe was on the brink of war, since Britain and France seemed determined to oppose Hitler’s move by force if necessary. Then Edward VIII, the King of England stepped in to turn Hitler’s imminent disaster into a triumph. There is not a single word about this fantastic event in the Duke of Windsor’s memoirs, printed in Life magazine and later published in his book entitled “A King’s Story.” Nor is the incident mentioned in the current global bestseller, “Gone With The Windsors.” TOP SECRET’S exclusive story is an authentic footnote to the history of our times. GAMBLING AND BLUFFING It is the story of a bewildered and confused monarch whose passion for peace contributed to the outbreak of the second World War. Historians now agree that had Hitler been stopped in 1936, he would have been stopped for good. Hitler was fully aware of the possible consequences of his adventure when he decided to test the steel of the Allies by ordering his troops into the Rhineland. He was gambling — and bluffing. At the sign of the slightest military opposition on the part of Britain and France, he was ready to pull back his troops and actually commit suicide. In a signed and sealed order, his commanding generals were instructed to withdraw immediately if the Allied armies moved against them. Furthermore, Hitler had his last will and testament written in preparation for this eventuality. It was all or nothing for him. The news of Hitler’s march into the Rhineland hit the people of France with the impact of a sledgehammer. Fearing a revival of the German military power that had dragged France into twd (Continued on Page 45) 9