‍ON FEBRUARY 29, 1936, the Daily Mirror splashed on a story that shocked Britain and Europe.

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‍Its reporter wrote: “Passionately, fervently, in the plain words of a man of the people, Adolf Hitler, leader and master of Germany, in an exclusive interview, pleaded with the world: “Let’s Be Friends!”

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‍The paper carried a talk with Hitler by the French intellectual and Nazi apologist Bertrand de Jouvenel.

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‍“Simply dressed, sitting at his desk, Hitler unburdened to me his heart, his hopes and his fears,” he said.

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‍Under the splash headline: ‘Hitler’s ‘Let’s Be Friends’ Plea to World’ Hitler assured de Jouvenel that, just as he had successfully persuaded the German people that the notorious notion of class war was an absurdity, so he would advise his people of the necessity of maintaining peace with France.

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‍And in its editorial the same day, the Daily Mirror declared that Hitler’s answers “throw a glow of spring sunshine upon the wintry scene of European confusion”.

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‍What a lot of old bollocks, as Drone columnist Dick Dismore would say.

‍But Hitler’s words brought cheery satisfaction to many politicians and members of the public who were convinced diplomatic appeasement with Germany was the way forward

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‍Two days later a Daily Mirror headline even boasted “Europe Hails Hitler’s Peace Plea – Effect of Mirror Talk,” with its diplomatic correspondent commenting that “in diplomatic circles, I am told Herr Hitler’s appeal to reason is regarded as something much more than an empty formula. It means that he is sincerely desirous of peace!”

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‍How wrong could they be?

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‍The following Saturday, March 7, Hitler ordered German troops to march into the demilitarised Rhineland in flagrant violation of the Versailles Treaty. But some in the Press still did not think that this was a taste of what was to come.

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‍The Yorkshire Post saw no cause for alarm noting that “London received the news with unruffled calm,” and that there “were no hurried cabinet meetings”.

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‍There was a constant stream of tributes to Hitler by numerous British visitors, who either claimed to have met him or had heard nothing but good about him from their German hosts.

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‍The War Minister, Lord Mottistone, returned from a meeting with the Fuhrer, and gave his unqualified praise to the murderous dictator, informing parliament: “All of us who have seen this remarkable man are agreed that he is absolutely truthful, sincere and unselfish.”

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‍Just in case the public felt unduly concerned, the Daily Express carried an editorial with its own appeal: ‘Britain! Keep Calm!’ asking: “Where should we Stand?” The paper’s own headline answer was: ‘We Should Stand Aside. There is no need whatever, no BRITISH NEED, to take a part. No interest of ours will be challenged.”

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‍But probably the most appeasing article to mark Hitler’s rise to power was written by the Express’s former Berlin correspondent, Sefton Delmer. He recalled how, from the first moment, he had been impressed by Hitler’s “absolute and profound honesty.” This was no demagogue bent on winning masses of followers for his personal enrichment, power and ambition, he told readers and added: “I never had the impression that Hitler enjoyed being a public hero. He struck me as reserved and shy by nature.”

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‍On Sunday 3 September 1939, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany two days after Hitler’s tanks blasted their way across Poland. France also declared war on Germany later the same day. The rest, as they say, is history.

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‍TERRIFYING DEATH OF PRETTY PAUPER

‍MARY, 9, TRAPPED IN A MILL MACHINE

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‍THIS incredible and tragic book ‘Horrors of a Cotton-Mill’ was written by journalist John Brown in 1832 and tells the heartbreaking story of the children as young as four sent to work in dangerous conditions in the early 19th century.

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‍It is taken from the notes and memories of a seven-year-old boy named Robert Blincoe who lived in a London workhouse and worked in factories in the early 1800s. It paints a chilling picture of life for the young who worked 12 to 14 hours a day under Victoria’s reign.

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‍No talking was allowed; windows were kept shut and punishments for wrongdoing were harsh. Some had their ears nailed to tabletops.

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‍One case witnessed by young Robert was the death of Mary Richards, nine years old, who was “remarkably pretty” according to people at the workhouse where she lived.

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‍She worked at a drawing frame in a textile mill. The giant frame took loose ropes of cotton or wool fibres, called slivers, and stretched, straightened and blended them together to spin into a yarn.

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‍Below the machine, and about a foot from the floor, was a horizontal shaft where the frames turned. The book tells how one evening Mary’s apron was caught in the shaft.

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‍“In an instant Mary was drawn by an irresistible force and dashed on the floor. She uttered the most heart-rending shrieks! The floor manager ran towards her, an agonised and helpless beholder of a scene of horror.

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‍“He saw her whirled around with the shaft and heard the bones of her arms, legs, and thighs successively snap asunder, crushed to atoms, as the machinery whirled on and drew gradually tighter.

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‍“Her body was within the works, her blood was scattered over the frame and streamed upon the floor, her head was dashed to pieces.

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‍“Then at last, she was jammed in so fast, between the shafts and the floor, that the wheels came off the gears and the machine stopped.

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‍“When she was pulled out, every bone was broken — her head dreadfully crushed. The poor girl was carried off quite lifeless.”

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‍This was just one of so many deaths among the young workforce. Finally, the age of working was raised from four to nine.

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‍SAILOR WHO WAS DRIVEN UP THE POLE

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‍IN THE 1920s Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly, was an American pole sitter who achieved newspaper fame sitting for days at a time on elevated perches. Pictures showed him brushing his teeth and shaving hundreds of feet in the air.

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‍Kelly, an American orphan, ran away to sea at the age of 13. When he left the Navy, after surviving five shipwrecks, he took up flagpole climbing as a living and became famous when he sat on a flagpole for 13 hours 13 minutes to advertise a movie. He boasted he lived on cigarettes and coffee.

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‍He broke records at home until he set a world record by sitting on a flagpole on top of the steel pier in Atlantic City 225ft high, for 49 days and one hour. He toured 28 cities, charging admission to see his performances.

‍When he died of a heart attack, aged 59 in October 1952, Kelly had become a “grizzled old man” – penniless and forgotten. A bag packed with ropes and flagpole-sitting gear was found in his room, “in case any fresh jobs came along”.

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‍A TASTE OF HIS OWN MEDICINE

‍William Burke and William Hare were serial killers in Edinburgh who made front page news between 1827 and 1828 selling their victims’ bodies to the anatomist Robert Knox who dissected the victims as part of his lectures.

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‍But did you know what happened to them after they were caught?

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‍On February 1, 1829, Burke’s body was publicly dissected by surgeon Alexander Monro at the University’s anatomy theatre. His skin was later turned into a notebook and Monro used Burke’s blood to write: “This is written with the blood of William Burke, who was hanged at Edinburgh. This blood was taken from his head!”

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‍Hare’s testimony at Burke’s trial gave him immunity from prosecution and he was released from custody. He disappeared and police believe he fled to London and lived on the streets as a blind beggar.

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‍MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

‍In the 1890s, scores of regional newspapers across America reported that local doctors and businessmen were driving their ‘new-fangled motor cars’ into their houses and barns destroying walls, because they were so used to the horse and carriage that they yanked back their steering wheels and screamed “Whoa! Whoa!” instead of applying the brake when in trouble. – ‘The Horseless Age’ automobile journal, 1895. One farmer drove into a cess pit and sank.

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‍VATICAN LINK TO BILLIONS OF STOLEN ARTS

‍More than 100,000 pieces of Nazi stolen art worth billions of pounds are still missing since the Second World War, The Commission for Looted Art in Europe reports.

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‍Much of it was smuggled to Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Austria using ‘Rat Lines’ aided by highly-placed Vatican insiders utilising Church resources, safe houses, and diplomatic status to protect war criminals.

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‍The Simon Wiesenthal Centre continues to track down the financial trails and descendants of the Nazi escapees to secure restitution for Holocaust survivors and their heirs.

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‍The Nazi regime systematically plundered one-fifth of all the world’s art treasures, totalling the equivalent of ten billion dollars today.

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‍The day they toasted an octopus

‍During the filming of King Kong vs. Godzilla in 1962, special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya used four live octopuses to attack a native village, blowing hot air on them to get them moving.

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‍Once the shooting was finished, three of the octopuses were safely released into the ocean. The crew cooked and ate the fourth one for dinner to celebrate their successful scene.

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‍TERRY MANNERS

‍28 September 2026