The official German news agency stayed open all night. The official Nazi paper, Volkischer Beobachter, appeared for the first time in history in red ink with headlines seven inches high. It carried the biggest news story in its career: announcement of the German-Russian non-aggression pact.
The official agency stayed open so startled Germans could find out how the rest of the world reacted to Germany's biggest news. In Budapest, it was called a bombshell; in Moscow, a thunderbolt; in London, startling, astounding, shocking, and calculated to create "stunned surprise." Newsgatherers in Budapest, hastily quizzing Hungarian, Rumanian, Bulgarian and Yugoslavian officials by telephone,...
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