“The journalist concerns himself with facts,” writes Dr. Anne Frank Koestler in 1964. “The seeking out and careful recreation of each fact is of vital concern to him. But the arrangement of the facts into a more than two-dimensional reproduction is not his concern. This is because he is a maker of accurate twodimensional reproductions, and in this respect . . . journalism is his craft.
On the other hand, the arrangement of brushstrokes into patterns that express . . . and communicate special meaning, this is art. And it is art that is the business, not of the journalist, but of the historian. For the historian (the true historian) is an artist; his brushstrokes, made from the pigments of life, create specially meaningful pictures of human affairs. What is most remarkable is that few, if any, truly understand that history is art, that the underlying craft of the historian to be in his own way. ‘accurate’ has nothing to do with the particular meaning he attempts not to find, but to create. Finally, of course, the corollary insinuates itself into our minds. If history is art, then in what way is art a kind of history? And further, in what sense might it also be, sotospeak, ‘truer’”
Thirty years earlier, in 1934, the newspaper accounts of Nazi murder and mayhem in Munich and Berlin were exactly what Frank Koestler has called “accurate reproductions.” The American daily, The New York Times which Albert’s brother read in New York on the morning of July 1st was journalism at is craftsmanlike best. The meaning of the events, the symbolism and themes for the world, none of these were developed. The headlines and the story reported only the twodimensional essence. Photos of Hitler, Rohem, and Lisel Ganz appeared from left to right.
HITLER KILLED A DAY AFTER CRUSHING
NAZI RADICAL REVOLT: ROEHM A SUICIDE:
VON PAPEN, VON BLOMBERG RESTORE ORDER
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SHOT TO DEATH BY SOLDIER’S GIRLFRIEND
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Triumph Turns to Disaster in Chancellery Garden
STORM TROOPS CHIEF DIES
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HINDENBURG APPROVES VON PAPEN
Wireless to the New York Times.
BERLIN. July 1. Only a day after the violent purging of rebels in the Stormtroops and reactionaries throughout Germany, Chancellor Adolf Hilter was shot to death by a young German woman, identified as artists’ model Lisel Ganz, girlfriend of a young SS officer. The loss of the Nazi’s supreme commander coupled with the purge of Storm Troop leadership must profoundly affect Germany’s future.
Ironically, the purge of the Storm Troops, climaxed by the suicide today of their leader, Ernst Roehm, had been an action ordered yesterday by Chancellor Hitler to head off revolution, coup d’etat, or counterrevolution in Germany… Government leadership has passed to ViceChancellor Colonel Franz von Papen… President Hindenburg… has reported his approval.
The Official Version
The assasination today of Chancellor Hitler was preceded only by hours by the executions, suicides, and shootings that were explained in an official version Saturday as reaction to “a foreign power” threatening Germany with new national bolshevism.
The Beautiful Assassin
The motives of the artists’ model Lisel Ganz remain a mystery. Whether she was acting alone or as an accomplice… raises questions about internal warfare, espionage, and revenge within Nazi ranks. A housecleaning of the Nazi innercircle by the German Army is expected. Any connections Lisel Ganz may have had with communist or Catholic groups will also undergo investigation.
Stable Leadership Assured
ViceChancellor von Papen in Berlin… issued immediate assurances today…