LUDECKE, Kurt G.W. I Knew Hitler, the Story of a Nazi Who Escaped the Blood Purge. London: Jarrolds, 1938. First U.K. edition, 8vo (212 x 129mm.) Portrait frontispiece, photographic illustrations. (Toning.) Original black cloth (lightly bumped spine ends), dust-jacket (chipping to top of spine, minor soiling to upper panel, slight fading to spine panel). Note: loosely inserted is a publisher's advertisement for the third impression of Gerhard Schacher's 'Germany Pushes South-East', [1938]. Aside from Goebbels's diaries, there are very few insider accounts of Hitler's rise to power. Ludecke had joined the Nazi party in 1922. His book has been described by 'Horizon Chasers' as a work that reaches 'high levels of sociological contemplation, and in its studious portraits of various Nazi leaders, of Tacitean éclat'.