ABSTRACT
The main phases of the war 1 were of course the subject of comment in the form of unofficial satirical anecdotes and jokes by a wide range of contemporaries from both sides.
[1] One of the earliest incidents in the war to evoke such comment was the mysterious death of General von Fritsch, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Army from 1936–8, when, like his predecessor, von Blomberg, he was shamefully dismissed by Hitler. 2 On 22 September 1939 von Fritsch, wearing his uniform as a General, was killed while accompanying a forward patrol near Warsaw. 3 Very soon it was rumoured that the General had been murdered by the SS, a view reflected in the remark, ‘Von Fritsch has become a victim of the Himmlersche Heerscharen’. 4 The fact that Hitler did not attend the funeral of his former Commander-in-Chief naturally lent credit to such rumours at the time, 5 although they were never substantiated.
