Hitler is No Fool : The Menace of the Man and His Program

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Author: Karl Billinger (Paul Wilhelm Massing)

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the menace of the

man and

'.>'

his

program

^

t.^

byTtarlBilUnger earing

away

the veils of inarticulate mysticism

which fog the pages of ^fflem Kampf* the German author of this book lays bare the grim purposes of

the well-known Austrian paper-hanger.

/

The Book and When

became apparent that Mein Kampf was to be

it

Hitler's

taken seriously, there was in various countries to

book

a rush

make

this

available in completely unex-

purgated form

to readers through-

out the civilized world.

the Author

Jews, democracies, war, peace, racial

theories,

how

learn

why

anti-Semitism

an inevitable

It is,

however, an entirely

and

faithful description of

zenship papers.

Mein

of

real

not told in

his book.

Kampf.

translation

is

We

to power,

and why the

part of fascism,

accurate

another

came

Hitler

The author is now taking out

be

and arranging

etc.,

these topics in an orderly form.

facts of Hitler's life are

This book does not purport to

^^^~-?:>^A^^

young German, American citi-

a

his

He

opposed Hitler

origi-

during the early Nazi days and

Mein Kampf is an extremely long book, and that is not its most

concentration camp, which he de-

formidable feature from the stand-

scribed in his

point of the reader. Hitler's style

Fatherland. This present volume

Hitler's

world program. The

nal

notoriously bad even in

and the organization of

makes

it

extremely

is

German, book

his

difificult

for the

reader to acquire a clear picture of his thesis. Hitler Is rects this fault

No

Fool

of gathering together the scattered

cor-

by the simple process widely

Hiderian views on the

spent

many

terrible

months

famous

first

in

book. is

great

further proof of his really ability as a writer.

a

The book

pre-

sents a most penetrating analysis of

Hider and

his

policies,

conclusively that the

man

proving is

not to

be taken lighdy and that continued attempts to laugh

him

o£F will play

direcdy into his hands.

Hitler

Is

No Fool

BY KARL BILLINGER AUTHOR

OF

MODERN AGE BOOKS

^'FATHERLAND"

•

INC

•

NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT 1939 BY KARL BILLINGER

PUBLISHED BY MODERN AGE BOOKS, INC.

All rights in this boof^ are reserved,

and

it

may

not

be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the holder 0/ these

rights.

address

For information

the

publishers.

60

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

3 1262

08645 472 4

Contents

vii

Preface

1

Who

2

Hitler's

3

How Did Hitler Come To Power ?

4

How

5

Will Hitler

Is

Hitler?

Program

Does Hitler Carry Out His Program?

Footnotes

Win?

i

29 88

132 169

195

Preface

Today,

after

more than

a mystery to the

is still

Third Reich appears

upon

built

six years of feverish activities,

terror

man

as a

and

To him

in the streets of America.

one-man

fear

Nazi Germany

and

shovi^.

He

indignant

is

the

resents a social order

when he

reads about

Jewish pogroms, threats of invasion, and conquests of weak coun-

But he

tries.

at

is

an

utter loss to explain the miraculous career of

He

the "Austrian housepainter."

might, perhaps, pity the

German

"madman,"

But the longer he sees them more will his pity change into contempt, the more will his feeHng grow that the Germans, after all, deserve a Government ruled by a "fool" or a

people.

the

which they apparendy are For

this

man

nc^t

wilHng

able or even

in the street the present

book

him with

his ideas

and plans and, moreover, with the

The

way

best

of doing

it

might

authoritative source, Hitler's

been spared

much

own

work

it

from a

The world would have

taken the trouble to study the

to

seldom offered the oppor-

dictator himself his

before he has been able to carry

But how are we

fascism, with

he represents.

be to go back to the most

book.

carefully. History has

tunity of learning

forces

guessing about the essence and aims of the

National SociaUst regime had Fuehrer's

still

written. It wants to

German

acquaint

the chief exponent of

is

to overthrow.

know

that

most guarded designs

them out. Hider who has

told so

many

broken so many promises, and violated so many solemn did not veil and distort the truth in his book.? Even a vii

Ues,

treaties

liar will tell

Vm

PREFACE

the truth

if it is

more advantageous than

There was

lying.

a time

when nothing but frankness would help his career. Let us for a moment return to the years when Mein Kampj was written. In November, 1923, in Munich Hitler led his first violent assault upon the Weimar Republic. However, the insurrection proved a fiasco. The Army upon whose support Hider had counted in Hitler's life

did not follow him, and the police turned their guns upon the

even though the famous General Ludendorfl, the brain of

traitors,

the

German Armies

War, marched

in the

in the front rank.

eve of the insurrection Hitler, revolver in hand,

vow, "Either a dead

I

am

victorious by

man!" Under

himself for the

made

On

the

the solemn

tomorrow afternoon, or L

shall

be

the bullets of the poHce he chose to preserve

German

people and fled to the Bavarian mountains,

to the family of his friend

Hanfstaengl.

Shortly after the insurrection he was taken into custody and

brought before a People's Court which sentenced him to "honorable imprisonment," the

five years'

minimum punishment

for

high

treason.

The Nazi movement had Hitler Party

and

suffered

was outlawed and began

industrial backers

withdrew

its

major defeat. The

first

to disintegrate.

their support.

Army

Hitler

officers

had com-

promised himself too greatly.

At

the

same time

stabilization of the currency

and the

made the German economic situation The inflation with its fantastic rise of

gold loan hopeful.

lower middle

class especially hard. It

and had driven

it

into the

arms of

had robbed

first

look a

political reaction.

of

more

had

hit the

all its

savings

prices it

foreign

little

Now, however,

with the prospect of better times ahead, the small shopkeepers, artisans, peasants derived

to the reactionaries' attack

new hope and were upon

less

ready to

listen

the Republic.

The end of the year 1923 marked a turning point German revolutionary movement. It became clear by

also for the

then that

its

IX

PREFACE most

influential body, the

Communist

Party,

had not been

able to

mobilize for the establishment of a sociaUst order the radical senti-

ments which the

War had

among the workers. profits made during War and

created

Big Business consoUdated the tion and did not feel any immediate necessity for playing

infla-

witii

counter-revolution.

democratic Government, to

The

victorious

and

seemed

an end.

at

During most

this

who had

its

Hitler's

poUtical

period of general decomposition of his

who had remained left

appearances, had emerged

authority.

question for Hitler was

vital

followers

established

all

him

career

movement

the

to justify himself to those of his

faithful

and

to

prove anew to those

his indispensabiUty for the future.

prison fortress of the small Bavarian

town

Thus

in the

of Landsberg, where he

had begun to serve his sentence on April i, 1924, he started to write his book. Mein Kampf is the continuation of Hitler's political fight. Nobody will dierefore expect objective truth from the man for

whom

objectivity in poUtics

writing its

made him

is

a "poison." But the purpose of his

write his truth—the book

tells

the truth about

author.

a strange hodgepodge of autobiographical notes, political discussions, and personal philosophy of life. It is at one and the same It is

time a document of self-defense and a program for a

ImperiaHsm. but there

is

Its

new German

content superabounds in pseudo-scientific argument,

always a political point even in the most abstruse

digression.

two complete Ameribeen censored by not have which can editions of Mein Kampf Hitler. But not many of the readers to whom the present book is There are now

available for the first time

addressed will have the time and patience to plow through the Fuehrer's voluminous and obscure work. In extracting kernel and

its

rational

exhibiting the inner logic in Hider's seemingly senseless

PREFACE theories

and

assertions, I

have

tried to give

them an

under-

easily

standable "lead" through the Leader.

In the presentation of Hitler's program sible Hitler's

own

ture of the personality, character,

the

man who,

I

an almost

and

unknown

intellectual composition of

figure ten years ago,

The

keeping the woi;ld in breathless suspense.

from the German edition of 1938 which, various

German

is

now

quotations are taken

like all the

hundreds of

few changes

editions, corresponds but for a

original version of sesses the

follow as closely as pos-

words. Nothing else would give as faithful a pic-

Mein Kampf. The American

reader

to the

who

pos-

English translation of 1933 should not try to find the

there. They have been omitted for the most part. The story of Adolf Hider is, of course, not the whole story of German fascism. The details of an individual Hfe, the accidents of

quoted passages

from searching

a political career should not divert us roots of National Socialism.

The

Fuehrer's character illuminates

only the character of the social forces which find in expression.

I

therefore did not confine myself to a

Mein Kampf, but tried Socialism and the various

of

for the social

to describe the relations strata of the

German

him

their ideal

mere summary

between National

people as well.

The

role of fascism manifests itself in these relations.

The

historic

background of the

rise

of Hitler

—the

economic,

Weimar RepubHc — were unique, and history will not repeat them exactly the same way in any other country. But once the nature of German fascism is understood, it should not be difficult for the man in the streets of America to

social,

and

detect the

the

political

problems of the

American brand and

German

version of a fight

to realize that

now

Hitlerism

is

only

being waged throughout the

world. R.B.

Hitler Is

No

Fool

ONE

Who

"Today

I consider

it

Braunau-on-the-Inn as

upon the border

Is Hitler?

my good fortune that Fate assigned me my birth place; for this Uttle town lies two German

of those

appears to us younger men, at fulfilled

This

Hitler sentence.

with one of his

aim he

whose reunion life

to be

by any means whatsoever."

the opening sentence of

is

teristic

states

a task of our

least, as

He

Mein Kampf.

It is

a quite charac-

combines a statement concerning his

political aims.

will stop at nothing

He makes

and

that he

it

is

life

clear that to attain the

imbued with an

historic

mission.

From

the explanation of the necessity for annexing Austria, Hitler

upon intricate and obscure, but never warning at the Conclusion:

takes the reader to the prophetic

A

state

which

cultivation of

its

aimless, paths

in the period of racial poisoning dedicates itself to the

must some day become the master movement must not forget, if that the sacrifice is too great in com-

best racial elements,

of the world. This the followers of our

they should ever be led to fear

parison with the attainable results.

The union

of

Germany and

of the world the

end of

Austria

Hitler's

is

the beginning; the conquest

program. I

HITLER

2

The man who mortal.

he a

Is

draw

he

has

strength,

his

is

he mad?

NO FOOL

is

no ordinary

From what

sources does

such an aim for himself

set

superman? Or

IS

and what circumstances have made

his

meteoric career possible?

Although he

our contemporary, there

is

is

a veil of mystery

and of the supernatural about him. Legends have seized person, even during his lifetime. cial

and

scribes.

unofficial

And

They

The

absolute monarch.

ruler

spun by

are eagerly

not without reason.

belongs to the self-made leader as the Grace of

must appear

upon

God

his

his offi-

The

legend

belongs to the

to his subjects as the

chosen instrument of Providence. In his book Hider has laid the of his

—in

life.

describing his venture into

War,

there

is

intentionally,

The

groundwork

for the mystification

In picturing his parental home, his family, and his youth life,

his service

during and after the

hardly a single clear statement of fact.

much

Much

blurred

is

has been proved beyond doubt to be imaginary.

omission of circumstances and experiences which in any other

man's

would be

life

Hitler's

irrelevant takes

proud

special significance.

Home

Hider was born on April customs

on a

official.

to

20, 1889, the son of a

His father stricdy regimented

have worked

his

way up from

minor Austrian

his household.

He

was

a shoemaker's apprentice to

and he wanted his son to Adolf, however, felt irresistibly drawn to the

the position of an Imperial civil servant,

become an Arts.

He

wanted father

official too.

thought with horror of a

to

become

and the

a painter.

life

The

spent sitting in an

conflict

office.

He

between the tyrannical

willful son pervaded the boy's early youth.

When

hardly eleven years old, so he says, he decided to thwart his father's plans by

means of

passive resistance.

on a quiet and stubborn

would renounce

He

no longer

strike at school, in the

his cherished

studied, but

hope that

wish of some day seeing

went

his father his son in

WHO

IS

HITLER r

3

With his father's death, when Adolf was thirteen came to an end. The boy had no dijfficulty with his mother. She spoiled him and allowed him to follow his inclinations without restraint. On his insistence she consented to take him out of the secondary school he hated so much and promised to send him to the Academy of Arts

a government

job.

years old, the struggle

in Vienna.

But

she,

too,

died soon afterward.

What

Hitler did

during the time between his father's and mother's deaths, he does not say.

He

is

strangely reticent

days" of his childhood.

how "my

long

We

when speaking

of those "happiest

do not even know from

this carefree period lasted.

"Two

his statements

years later," he writes,

mother's death brought these beautiful plans to an abrupt end."

The "two years later" can refer only to the time of his father's death. Thus the reader gets the impression that Adolf Hitler was an orphan at the age of fifteen, alone in the world,

and

sisters.

provincial

He

town

how

tells

of Linz,

he packed

where

his

his

without solicitous brothers

bundle and

mother had

left

the small

last lived, for

Vienna,

to try his luck in the metropolis of the

Hapsburg Monarchy. All

he possessed besides some underwear,

clothes,

ings in his bag,

was "an unshakable

and a

that

stack of

draw-

will in his heart" to

make

something of himself.

For the popularization of the Fuehrer, Nazi propaganda

made good

later

use of the picture of the boy standing alone and for-

saken in the hubbub of Vienna.

It is

not

difficult,

however, to point

out a few inconsistencies which have escaped the autobiographer.

Between the death

of his father in January, 1903,

mother in December, at

1908, fully six years elapsed

home, without any serious occupation,

and that of

his

which Adolf spent

as a spoiled darling of his

mother. These are years which are of the greatest importance for the future development of any

man Thus

human

being. In the picture of the

with an iron will they would, to be sure, have had no place. Hitler passes over

them with

light strokes.

HITLER

^

Not

boy of

a

fifteen,

but a nearly mature young

man

IS

NO FOOL

of nineteen

was left alone at his mother's death. No, that also is not quite true. For even though Hitler docs not mention his sisters and brothers

anywhere with so much For

a

man who

has

made

decisive factors in the

ing his like

own

origin

life

word, they were nevertheless there.

as a

racial ancestry

of blood the

of his subjects, the great reserve in describ-

somewhat

is

and pureness

Heiden and Olden we

To

surprising.

critical

biographers

are indebted for noteworthy disclosures

about the Hitler family. In the

first

place there

boy's development

Hider's father, whose influence on the

he was

bore until

Adolf's mother.

The name

and there seems

to be

Alois

great.

Hider was the

whose family name,

of a peasant girl,

illegitimate child

gruber, he

is

was undoubtedly

Schickl-

when he married Klara

forty,

of Klara Poelzl's

some foundation

Poelzl,

mother had been Hitler,

for the

assumpdon

that Alois

Schicklgruber, on his mother-in-law's insistence, changed his

name

to Hitler.

Klara Poelzl was Alois Schicklgruber's third wife. riage

had ended

born of

this

The

mar-

first

in divorce. Hitler's eldest half-brother, Alois,

marriage. After Adolf's

phenomenal

success

was

Alois,

waiter by trade, settled in Berlin and opened a cafe-restaurant at the

Wittenberg Platz.

He now

intimate and gemiitlich sign

One month

who

Munich and

passing burgher with the

after the death of his first wife Hitler's father

a second time.

Angela,

invites the

"ALOIS."

Two

months

afterwards was

later

was born

a daughter

The

father's

second marriage ended

Ten months

a year later with the death of the second wife.

now

forty,

of this marriage are living: a boy, is

known about

either of

there-

married a third time— this time

a girl of seventeen, Adolf Hitler's mother-to-be.

Litde

to him,

to take care of Hitler's household in

in Berchtesgaden.

after Alois Schicklgruber,

married

Two

Edmund, and

them.

other children

a daughter, Paula.

WHO At

IS

HITLER?

5

the age of fifty-six Hitler's father retired, unusually early for

a state

official.

settled

down

Of

this

all

Three times he changed

his residence, before

he

finally

near Linz.

nothing

is

said in Hider's autobiography.

There he

draws a picture of a family of three, living in modest but strictly regulated conditions.

He likes

among

address in favor

to call his father alter

student fraternities at

Herr, a form of

German

universities.

which was in no way unusual, becomes in triumph of an iron will. The little house and the Hider's description garden which Alois Hitler-Schicklgruber had acquired toward the His

career,

father's

end of

his life has in

Mein Kampf grown

to the size of a country

estate.

Poverty

no

is

ment from

The same groups who got no end about the first President of the Weimar

disgrace.

jokes

of amuse-

Republic,

"the red saddler" Ebert, and his wife, have, on the other hand,

how

known

well

origin.

That he came from

to exploit for

dous help to Hitler in

But

"common" people was of tremenwinning over the German lower middle class.

be able to preside over a bourgeois Germany, the Fuehrer

to

must be the It

propaganda purposes Hitler's humble

the

child of a respectable family.

becomes

a

little

difficult to fit this

Poor but

clean.

father—forever migrating,

with an inclination for alcohol, married three times, himself an

ille-

gitimate child and father of a daughter born two months after his

marriage

—into

aristocracy.

Hence

The longing is

the Third Reich's conception of "blood his picture in

Mein Kampf

for bourgeois respectability

is

and

soil"

heavily retouched.

and

social

recognition

even more noticeable in Hider's descriptions of his "Viennese

years of learning

and

suffering."

Vienna

The

four or five years which Adolf Hitler spent in Vienna after

the death of his mother formed his character in

all

its

important

HITLER

O

They were

traits.

He came

terrible years.

to

NO FOOL

IS

Vienna with "the proud

Academy

confidence" that he would be accepted in the

of Arts.

He

failed in his entrance examination.

His drawings were returned success that the

news

of

my

of the blue," he writes. typical for

him.

The

But he

Academy as

revealed surprising architectural talent. "That

with a remark

assured

far I

like a bolt out

as

him

that the

painting goes,

had attended neither

had had any instruction in architecture

a School of Architecture nor

my

came

closes the matter

Director of the

drawings he had shown, although bad

amazed Thus

was so sure of

as unsatisfactory. "I

not being accepted

examiners."

the defeat which the would-be painter had suffered

is

dis-

creetly transformed into professional recognition of his natural abilities

as

an

And

architect.

Adolf,

who had

just

Academy

the

left

building "in the greatest depression," was convinced in a very short

time that he "would some day become an architect." entrance to the Architectural School of the

Still,

Academy

in

Vienna required a completed formal preparatory training which Hitler did not have.

"What

was now

its

ness,

he

felt,

to take

the fulfillment of his

possible.

had missed

I

bitter revenge."

dream

of

his father,

make

all

ordinary standards,

becoming an

was not

artist

Seemingly insurmountable obstacles confronted him. But

obstacles are there only to be overcome!

to

in school out of stubborn-

By

who had

his

risen

from cobbler

The

picture in his

to state

official,

way in the world in spite of everything. The make up for the wasted years, he does not

his attempt to

the very beginning of the second chapter of his

mind of him

inspired

details of relate.

At

book the thread of

the description of his further schooling or specialized studies breaks off. It closes

with a dramatic declaration of thanks to fateful neces-

sity "for tearing

me away from

for pushing Mother's

Care

boy out of

for a foster-mother; for

smug life, and and giving him Dame

the hollowness of a his soft nest

throwing the reluctant one into the

WHO

IS

HITLER r

world of misery and poverty, thus allowing him to meet those for

whom

he was

the plan

later to fight."

and the

will

from

quietly dropped

jump

the Fuehrer takes a big

The

The

to

become an

have been

architect

Hitler's autobiography. In the next

which we expect

of his story, in

Marxists."

Except for a few scattered comments

some day

transition

is

to hear

more

paragraph

of his development,

to his favorite topic, the "J^ws

interrupted school period, the lost years of his youth, the

collapse of his favorite plan, have left

deep marks on Hitler's char-

Even at the height of his power the shades of his must haunt him. In his book, he breaks out with

acter.

and

most sudden!

failures

ment: "So-called

'Intelligence' looks

down

with

infinite

earlier

resent-

condescen-

upon anyone who has not been dragged through the obligatory schools and thus had the necessary knowledge pumped into him." sion

But he architects.

avenged himself on school,

later

science,

His contempt for "book-learning,"

his

and professional condemnation of

the school as a place of spiritual culture, his love of Caesarian buildings the plans for which he

the failures of his youth.

now

draws, betray the lasting effect of

Nothing

gives

him more

satisfaction,

besides military parades, than to guide admiring visitors through the

splendor of his

made good

new Reich

Chancellery in BerUn.

recently ordered

where he had heard of the building

The Fuehrer which he has

is

an Opera House

The

local

boy who

to be erected in

Linz

his first opera. Needless to say the architecture

inspired by himself.

never forgets a defeat.

failed!

And woe

Woe

to the institutions in

to the country in

which

for years

he

suffered the greatest personal humiliation!

The

Chauvinist

In Vienna, the city which "even today can awaken only gloomy thoughts" in

ment

him and which

of incest," Hitler

in retrospect seems to

became a

him

the "embodi-

fanatical Nationalist, a fanatical

IS

NO FOOL

and a

fanatical

HITLER

8 hater of "Marxism," that

is,

of organized labor,

anti-Semite.

He

brought from home an inclination to chauvinism.

course in the Linz secondary school had already

The

history

awakened "a

little

him and the social and political conditions of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy were fertile soil for its growth.

national fanaticism" in the

The German-Austrian middle

class

sion of nationalities in old Austria

ism

as a

—which represented an economi-

and poHtically privileged minority within the confu-

cally, socially,

weapon

—developed

in the struggle for

its

its

German nationalThe old rivalry

position.

between Austria and Prussia had been decided in favor of the Prussians with, the victory of their

The

victorious

war

of

Germany

at

Koeniggraetz in 1866.

against France,

founding of the Reich and

the

1870-71,

army

its

which followed

in

powerful industrial

upsurge quite naturally had a strong attraction for the neighboring

German-Austria. Hitler's contempt for the House of Hapsburg and for the entire

Austro-Hungarian Dual-Monarchy, and on the other

hand

his ardent admiration for everything

with

many

his

Reich-German, he shared

advocates of a Greater Germany.

youth are tinged with pain and envy

The

descriptions of

being excluded from the

at

glory and power of the Bismarckian Reich.

Why is Why not rest of

the

first

it

war

that Austria did not fight in this

Father and

all

them? Don't we time to torment

the others too? Are all

not

Germans

like the

my litde brain. With suppressed envy I had to my cautious question —that not every German

answer

possesses the

good fortune to belong

not understand

[against the French]?

belong together? This problem began for

listen to the

to

we

to the

Reich of Bismarck.

I

could

this.

In Vienna, he later compared "with proud admiration the rise of the Reich with the slow death of the Austrian state." for Austria

and adoration

reasons which

moved him

to leave

Contempt

Germany were among the Vienna for Munich. At the begin-

for Imperial

WHO

IS

hitler:

ning of the

War

9

he offered himself

rather than the Austrian

suffered in It is

Army.

Vienna were one day

Bavarian

as a volunteer in the

But the humiliations which he had to

be avenged.

by no means a coincidence that among the Fuehrer's

associates

in

One might name

foreign-born Germans.

the Baltic-German, Alfred

Rosenberg, theorist and philosopher of National SociaUsm, probably influenced Hitler's views more than anyone berg's hatred for the Russian Revolution, the echo of

berated loud enough in the Baltic border

landed gentry of their privileges, policy of

German National

is

closest

numerous

the most responsible positions there are

who

else.

which

states to strip the

has

Rosenrever-

German

reflected clearly in the foreign

Socialism.

There

is

also the "Peasant-

Leader" and Minister of Agriculture, Walter Darre, born in Argentina, "an outpost of struggUng Gcrmandom in South America," as the Nazis put to

it.

The

recognition which the Argentinians failed

show him he arranged

for himself in

Germany. In the

first

year

Third Reich he presided over the unveiling of his own memorial, which "his grateful peasants" had erected in his honor in the Rhineland. Rudolf Hess, too, Private Secretary and personal of the

lieutenant of the Fuehrer, andria.

was born outside of Germany

The thwarted NationaUsm

—in Alex-

of the "Egyptian" can

now

find

compensation in an unrepressed authority. Hitler

and the Workers

The second

of his outstanding

of organized labor, the custom

traits, his

official's

contempt for and fear

son also inherited from his

family environment. In his attempts to interest his son in a govern-

ment

job, Alois Hitler

probably more than once spoke of the misery

from which he had managed to rescue himself. "The environment of my youth was composed of groups of petty bourgeois, that is, of a world which has very Htde connection with the real manual laborer," Hitler writes. He then adds an and

dirt of the laborer's life,

— HITLER

10

IS

NO FOOL

observation that proves his famiUarity with the feeHngs of the lower

middle

struggle for

As

own

its

strange as

which

is

often deeper than one

enmity risen

at first glance, the abyss existing

would think. The reason

class,

The

or at least that

may

it

middle

fear of the lower

—

for this

Hitler's

During

powerful

it

may

sink back into the old,

class,

When

it.

threatened with being dis-

was

later to

ally.

his first year in

skilled laborer.

shall I say

be regarded as belonging to

still

possessed and pushed into the ranks of the workers,

become

between

which has but a short time ago

from the ranks of the workers, that

scorned

its

by no means well situated, and the workers,

in the fear of a social group,

lies

refuses to unite

it

existence with theirs.

may seem

it

this social class, is

the workers, so long as

for

class

Vienna, Hitler made a living

he for the

as

an un-

time experienced the actual

first

of a worker, the heavens split wide open on the

life

young man who,

well taken care of by his mother's pension, had heretofore abandoned

himself to happy day-dreaming. the heroic past of the

German

To

an

revel in

artist's

nation had surely been

career or in

more pleasant

than carrying mortar on a scaffolding.

But

it

was not alone the physical hardship of the work that

depressed him.

more

The

upon

heavily

feeling that he

the officiars son.

ness" of his fellow workers culture."

him with

The

lost caste

weighed even

detested the "moral coarse-

and the "low

level

of their spiritual

miserable existence of the working-class family filled

The

horror.

these depths

had

He

very thought of having to spend his Hfe in

was unbearable

to

him. Not for a

moment would he

consider joining his fellows in their fight for better living conditions.

Nothing

characterizes

describes his

My

first

clothing

him

better than his

own words when he

contact with them:

was

personality reticent.

still I

fairly orderly,

was

still

so

much

my

language cultivated, and

absorbed in myself and

my

my fate

WHO

IS

that I

had very

HITLER r

II

time to worry about

little

my

environment.

only looked

I

work to keep from starving and to make possible my further education, no matter how gradual. Probably I would not have bothered about for

my new

environment

at all, if

My

join the union. nil. I

to a decision.

was asked

I

knowledge of union organization was

its

was

existence. Since I

gave the reason that

I

out at once.

me

told that

did not understand

my

into anything. Perhaps because of

me

me

as

to

time

at that

should have been able to prove neither the necessity nor the super-

fluousness of I

an incident had not occurred as early

which forced

the third or fourth day,

to

compel

A

fortnight later

to convert

no longer could have

I

and no power

better

in the

first

days

was

I

nearest pubs, while the others remained

had

I

know my environment have moved me to join an in such

an unfavorable

At noon some went

on the construction

They were

ate their usually miserable lunches.

though

joined, even

had seen

I

irritated.

few days or

in a

got to

world could

organization whose representatives

During the

I

me

were thoroughly mistaken.

to give in. In either case, they

otherwise been willing. In this fortnight

join, I refused.

reason they did not throw

first

They may have hoped

must

I

and would not be forced

it,

lot

light.

to the

and there

the married men, whose

wives brought them their soup. I

drank

my

bottle of

my

my piece of bread somewhere off my new surroundings or pondered over

milk and ate

by myself, and studied carefully miserable condition.

The

"terror" at the job,

by the way, doesn't seem

quite so terrible. For not only did the workers

let

him

to

have been

stay

on with-

out joining the union, but they were even patient enough to

not able to listen quietly

workers talk

At

I

when

others spoke.

politics, his self-control

was

at

When

he heard the

an end.

keep quiet. Finally, however,

I

could bear

began to take a stand, began to argue. But

I

was forced

first I

longer.

listen

with which he blessed them. Even then Hitler was

to the talks

tried to

realization that this

arm myself with

was completely

definite

futile, as

long as

I

knowledge on the disputed

it

no

to the

did not at least points.

So

I

set

HITLER

12

IS

NO FOOL

out to get acquainted with the sources of their would-be wisdom. Book after book,

pamphlet

Which books

after

year 1919-20.

Not

until

nowhere informs

and digest any of the

Marxism becomes evident from

of

took their turn.

the Fuehrer actually read, he

certainly did not read

That he

now

pamphlet,

scientific

works

a later passage referring to the

he heard a lecture by Gottfried Feder, he

Marxist economics suddenly become clear to him.

says, did

us.

How-

ever, he did not have a very competent teacher in Feder, who, under

the pressure of questions put to

him by

opponents, once

political

admitted that he had never read Das Kapital of Marx, which he

was

any

discussing. In

sentence

—spoken

case. Hitler

written

or

has never with so

—shown

signs

much

as a

of possessing even

a

smattering of the scientific findings of Marxism, whose destruction

he has

made

which he

the task of his

fights,

life.

Considering the weapons with

know Marxism

he need not

to be able to "refute"

it.

would have us

Hitler

believe that the Social Democratic

were greatly disturbed by the "I argued,

my

than

little

own knowledge

each day better informed about their

opponents themselves."

masons

hero's heated discussions.

A

nineteen-year-old against an

crew of Reds! The scene vividly reminds us of the National Socialist legend which tells how Hitler during the War captured, entire

single-handed, an entire platoon of Frenchmen.

warded

his alleged

heroism with the Iron Cross,

records seem to have been

rewarded him

A at

finally

lost.)

a

new

futile, I

experience.

(The

But the unappreciative workers

few of the opposition leaders forced

seemed

Military re-

first class.

by chasing him from the building.

me

either to leave the building

once or to be thrown from the scaffolding. Since

resistance

by

The

I

was alone and

preferred to follow the former advice, enriched

WHO

HITLER?

IS

I3

But none must think that the Fuehrer ever took a defeat lying

down. I left filled

with disgust, but at the same time so upset that

my

not possibly turn

my

revolt,

persistence

was confirmed had

to return,

again, only to

At

won

my

in

and

out,

decision by

arms, for in a few weeks

pitiless I

back on the matter. No,

whether

end

I

after the first

I

could

upheaval of

decided to go back to the job.

I

I

Want, who embraced me with her had eaten up my small savings. Now

I liked it or not.

And

game began once

the

as before.

Are

that time I reasoned with myself:

these

human

beings, worthy

of being part of a great nation?

A

painful question, for

if

the answer were "y^^/' ^^^^ the struggle for

German people is not worthy of the sacrifices which the best would have to make for such scum; but if the answer were "no," then our nation is poor in human beings. a pure united

Himself one of these

"best," the

young man, whose main accom-

plishment consisted of wasted school years,

and

work and

for all to take the

sacrifice

He

save the "scum" of the nation.

"yes"

and "no." The

How

won

He

left his

mother in December, until the

beginning of 1909.

fortunes changed.

He

companion of

in August, 1909.

scum must be

Thus

is

home

shoulders to

destroyed; only

He

after the

to

Vienna

us that in the year 1909-10 his

tells

no longer had as a

death of his

came

unfikely that he

to

eke out

an, existence as a

minor draftsman and aquarel-

these times has told that this period Hitler's life as a

gether half a year at the most. There it

own

back.

parental

1908. It

day laborer, but worked "then

A

his

long Adolf Hitler worked as a laborer can be determined

rather accurately.

hst."

upon

the decision once

found a compromise between

leaders of the

then can part of the scum be

made

is

working

man

began

lasted alto-

every reason to assume that

was not half a year of uninterrupted steady work.

forever this famous, much-praised episode of his

And

life.

thus ended

HITLER

14

Today

the Fuehrer

bol of the trial

German

celebrated in official

is

When

worker.

masses to understand the

NO FOOL

IS

Germany

as the

sym-

he commands the German indus-

vital necessities of his

new

imperial-

ism, he speaks as one of them.

The Poorhouse But what did he do

Why

in the

remaining three or four years he spent

such painful memories connected with

in

Vienna?

A

"painter in water colors

who

man

studied for pleasure," a twenty-year-old, healthy

and

with such

many-sided

interests in the theater, art,

young

even in Hmited and modest circumstances.

life

secret,

which remains

raphy,

is

The

politics

and hidden

carefully veiled

man

the wretched existence of a

real dregs of society.

this city?

painted to earn his bread and

could enjoy his

The dark

in his autobiog-

among

the

Asylum

for

early stranded

picture of years spent in the

the Poor and Homeless, fed as a beggar with charity-soups in the

monastery courts

—the picture

of millions cannot be passed

of Hfe

on

among

the derelicts in a city

to his contemporaries.

Ernst Roehm, one of Hitler's fighting companions, had the cour-

age to say of himself that the path of his Hfe had sometimes led

him

into depths the sight of

which would make a Babbitt shudder.

Hitler did not possess Roehm*s courage.

His language becomes general and vague whenever he alludes to the "five years of misery

What Not

until

much

later

and

grief" he

he dare not

their nature was,

He

too

had come

to

Vienna

relate

the bed assigned

to

"On

me

a

the very

details

of his

in 1909. In a flophouse

spent the night he met Hitler for the scene in these words:

in Vienna.

did his companion of those Viennese days,

the draftsman Reinhold Hanisch, Hitler.

went through

say.

first

first

I

with

where he

He

describes the

found

sitting beside

time.

day

man who wore

life

nothing but an old pair

WHO

IS

HITLER?

I5

of trousers, torn to shreds—Hitler. His clothes were being deloused,

because for days he had wandered about aimlessly without a roof

over his head, and he was in a dreadfully neglected condition."

"My

were

clothes

describing his

first

tion does not

sound

fairly

still

orderly," Hitler

had written in

days at the construction job. Hanisch's presentaincredible.

Months have passed

mean-

in the

time. "I asked

him what he was Hving on and he

hinted that for

had depended upon begging in the streets for his food. His hunger was so apparent that I was moved to share all I had with him a quarter of a loaf of bread. Gratefully he accepted several days he

—

the gift

and admitted

that

he had not eaten

^

day."

all

Hanisch and Hitler go into business together. Hitler paints which Hanisch tries to find customers. They divide

cards, for

income.

The

business feeds

plined worker.

He

them meagerly. Hider

prefers reading

is

not a

posttheir disci-

newspapers or going to the

When

Parliament to Hsten to the speeches.

he returns he can talk

and he doesn't care in the least whether or not flophouse companions Hsten to him. He hates the politicians,

politics for hours,

his

who

the ignoramuses

Hapsburgs,

who

try

get

good pay

to

gain favor

and suppress the German elements. unions.

He

hates his environment.

expressing pleasure in Hving single suggestion that

is

among

absolutely alone. to get the price

now

He

hates the subjects

He hates workers and their He hates. Not a single word

to be

found in

which reaches

cheeks framed with a beard, his hair

—hanging

their

his writing.

he had a friend or ever loved a

in a shabby black frock coat

that time

He

Slavic

for their nonsense.

down

girl.

to his knees, his

—in the bohemian

his neck, the artist starves

breaks with Hanisch, too,

he expected for a picture.

He

when

Not

a

Dressed

hollow

fashion of

through

life

the latter fails

hates everyone.

And

he finds the object on which to concentrate: The Jews. In

HITLER

l6

hating the Jews, he hates

all

the unpleasantness of his ruined exis-

One day he

will take a horrible

for all his suffering

and disappointment.

tence.

NO FOOL

IS

vengeance upon the Jews

The Anti-Semite "Today it is difficult, if not impossible, for me to tell just when the word Jew first gave me occasion for special thought," he writes, preparatory to his telling how he became an anti-Semite. His father was not

anti-Semitic,

and even

He whom

with hatred for the Jews.

was

a Jewish

boy of

in school

he had not been imbued

says he recalls that in school there

he was always wary. But

was

ascribes solely to the fact that the Jewish pupil

this

he

a tattletale. In

Linz the difference between Jews and Gentiles had not yet become apparent to him, because the few Jews

who

had

lived there

"occi-

dentalized their external appearance in the course of the centuries."

Their features were too "human" for him to differentiate. Even in

Vienna

it

the Jews

had taken him considerable time to be able to distinguish the thronging crowds, though it was not difficult

among

to tell the

orthodox Eastern Jew by his clothes.

Anti-Semitism thrived in the

social peculiarities of the

Hapsburg

Empire. The nearness of Poland and Rumania with their large Jewish populations, the emigration of Galician Jews to the Danubian capital,

where there were

the sharp

always

middle even

within the Hapsburg Monarchy had

national battles

favored class.

more

better possibilities for earning a Uvelihood,

anti-Semitic

currents

German-Austrian

the

in

Georg von Schoenerer's Pan-German Party influential

Christian-Social

Party

^

of

~

the

and the Viennese

Burgomaster Karl Lueger were both anti-Semitic. Schoenerer and

Lueger—especially Lueger— were leaders.

To them he

Hitler's

prototypes

dedicates dozens of pages in

of

popular

Mein Kampf

in

admiring acknowledgment. If

we

are to beHeve his

own

story,

it

was

his hate of the

Haps-

WHO

HITLER?

IS

V]

burgs and his nationalistic fervor for

on the road

to anti-Semitism.

The

Germany which

intriguing

set

great Viennese press for favor at the Court of the cursed repelled him.

That

their sympathies should

him

first

on the part of the

Hapsburg

be more with France

and French culture than with the admired Reich of Bismarck, aroused his indignation. His original leaning toward liberal democracy

had

for this reason cooled off.

Now

and then he would reach

Deutsche Vol\shlatt, the organ of the Christian-Socialists,

for the

but the violent anti-Semitism which

it

advocated did not yet find

favor with him.

His

own

"study" of another side of cosmopolitan Hfe revealed to

—

he discovered that in Vienna the Here for the first time in his book we come upon expressions which throw some light upon Hitler's sex life. It may be interesting for the psychiatrist that Mein Kampf

him

the Jewish danger in full

Jews had a monopoly of

sin.

speaks of sexual matters almost exclusively in connection with anti-

Semitism.

When

in the evening I

walked through the

and alleys of Lcowas made the unwilling

streets

poldstadt [the poor Jewish district of Vienna], I

witness of scenes which remained hidden to the great majority of the

German

people until the

War

gave the soldiers on the Eastern Front the

opportunity to sec similar sights, or

more

accurately, forced

them

to see

them.

What hypocrisy from the mouth of a man in whose proximity and with whose knowledge countless boys were being prostituted by Nazi

officers!

And,

quite aside

from the infamous

lie

that

more

Jews than others were professional prostitutes in Vienna, did not

German troops at the Western Front, with whom know the German Army brothels in the occupied

the

Belgium and France responsible

German

.f^

Hitler served, territories

of

Even Hitler could not very well unmask the

officials as

Jews.

HITLER

l8

,

But more than

in the truth of his assertions,

interested in the nature of the

we may

NO FOOL

IS

we are at the moment man who advanced them. One thing

His "study" of prostitution in Vienna

say with certainty:

made him

gave him the decisive push which

a convinced

and

active

anti-Semite.

When

for the first

time

this revolting trade of the efficient

and

exploded.

I

I

thus recognized in the Jew the manager of

metropoHs' scum, as cold as he was shamelessly

businesslike,

ran

a shiver

down my

no longer evaded the Jewish problem.

His alleged observations seem

to

whom

he poisons with

from her people." Then again he thousands of

girls

faced

I

it.

"The dark-haired Jew-

boy lurks in ambush for hours, satanic joy upon girl,

I

have impressed him deeply. The

rape scene, especially, has caught his fancy.

unsuspecting

But then

spine.

Now

his face, for the

his blood, thus stealing her

of the "rape of hundreds of

tells

And

by bow-legged repulsive Jew-bastards."

an-

other time: "These dark parasites on our people deliberately rape

our inexperienced young blond

which cannot be replaced Another noteworthy

girls

and thus destroy something

in this world."

detail

should not be overlooked in the search

Not

until

throw the

anti-

for the sources of Hitler's passionate, obsessed Jew-hatred.

the Social Democratic

masons had threatened

to

union day laborer, Adolf Hitler, from the construction scaffolding

and thrash him soundly, did the its

import

Social

dawn upon him. At

Democracy and

anti-social role of the

that

moment he

Jew

in all

discovered that

the labor unions were entirely dominated by

Jews and forever thereafter "Jews" and "Marxists" are identical for him.

Thus

the function of the

Jew

in Hitler's life

obvious: Hitler wanted to be an

artist

becomes simple and

but failed.

He

then found

out that the Arts are dominated and polluted by the Jew. Hitler

wanted

to convert the

workers

to nationalism

and

failed.

He saw

:

WHO

IS

them

in the grip o£ the international Jew. Hitler spent his youth

HITLER?

I9

without friends, without love. Naturally, love has been commer-

by the Jew. This dirty and ugly though more successful competitor takes unfair advantages over the noble and restrained cialized

Aryan.

The

now

philosopher has found the touchstone of

erect a logical structure of the world that has

Wisdom. He can no contradictions

Jew furnishes all the necessary explanation and justification. "Thus a long inner struggle came to an end." From the "weak cosmopolitan" who had come to Vienna he had

the

grown

into "a fanatical anti-Semite."

The Bachelor Concerning Hitler's sexual predispositions many rumors are in circulation.

those

who

Almost really

all

know

of

them

will not or can

he

said with certainty either that tent,

are without foundation, because

although he undoubtedly

is

is

no longer

tell. It

cannot be

homosexual or that he

sufEering

from sexual

is

impo-

repressions.

HomosexuaHty thrived in Hitler's immediate environment for many years. Roehm and Heines, two of his highest SA officers, have never made a secret of their homosexuality. The orgies which they held almost publicly more than once aroused storms of protest

within the Nazi

movement

itself.

Count Helldorf's homosexual

relations

with the adventurer Hanussen,

not cost

him

his post as Chief of the

only Hanussen's

life.

As

Steinschneider, did

alias

BerUn

police forces. It cost

early as 1927 a delegation

commissioned

by Ludendorff requested Hitler to dismiss from the party certain

SA

officers

ization.

who had

Heiden*

been abusing boys in the Hitler Youth Organ-

reports Hitler's answer: "I

whether they followers as long as

don't give a hoot

from the front or die back!" he believed he was sure of

That Roehm and Heines were shot

in

He

protected his

their faithfulness.

1934 because of their

HITLER

20

abnormal

NO FOOL

IS

even a Goebbels was not able to convince

inclinations,

the world. In spite o£ these

there

facts,

assumption that Hitler himself

is

no known

is

homosexual

basis for the

—or ever has indulged

in homosexuality.

On

the other hand,

it is

had not a few

a fact that he

relationships

with women, which, however, always came to an abrupt end.

most

tragic of these

was with

his niece,

The

of his half-sister Angela.

girl,

The

Crete Raubal, the daughter

who had worshiped

her Uncle

Munich apartment.

Adolf, shot herself in 1930 in his

many women have been close to him; with him. From time to time, the Fuehrer thinks it

has been rumored that

It

none has stayed opportune

demonstrate his interest in the other

to

appear in public with a beautiful

form before

The

a select gathering.

woman

But the

act

is all

Third Reich,

celebrated bachelor of the

He

sex.

will then

or invite a dancer to pertoo obviously staged.

to

whom

millions of

hearts are turned in hysterical ecstasy, has fundamentally remained as

lonesome

as the

vagabond

in the

Viennese flophouse.

There has been much speculation

much

devoting so

Germany

attention in his

of not having

made

to the reason for Hitler's

as

book

to syphilis.

He

accuses old

the struggle against this disease the

central task, "the task of the nation."

By

the use of any available means, a complete picture of

caused by this

all

the

damage

most horrible disease should have been pounded into the

people until they became convinced that everything depended upon the solution of this question

—new

life

Page upon page he dedicates

or decay.

to the past failings

of the State to exterminate this plague. That in the

hand of

the

expected. But

unusually

Jew who in

his

is

out to ruin the

presentation there

and future duties

German is

also

spread he sees

its

race,

to

be

was

to

be

heard an

mild and understanding note of compassion for the

endangered and the

sick.

Even

a boy of foiurtcen

must be shielded

WHO

IS

from

his sensual lust.

hitler:

21

"He

has no right to waste these years in use-

loafing about." Otherwise, Hitler

lessly

one should not be

says,

surprised "that at this age syphilis already begins to look for

its

victims."

His words are

pathos

full o£

when he

speaks of the sick and their

The State must see to it that only the healthy "He who is not healthy and worthy physically and

duties to the race.

beget children.

may

metitally,

The

State

that

it is

not perpetuate his sorrow in the body of his child."

must further "by means of education teach the individual

no disgrace

tune, but that

it is

to

be

dishonorable through one's

human

There

beings."

spite of one's

own

and weak, only a

ill

a crime and a disgrace to

is

illness.

own

egoism, by passing

this

it

on

misfortune to

innocent

only one disgrace: to beget children in

But

it is

a high

honor

one" renounces parenthood. "Conversely,

sick

regrettable misfor-

make

it

if

the "innocently

must be considered

reprehensible to withhold healthy children from the nation." the childless Hitler then to be honored for renunciation or

Is

he behaving reprehensibly against the

vital interests of the

is

Aryan

Race and the National State?

The War Hitler writes that he

left

Vienna

for

Munich

in the spring of 1912.

In the beloved Reich he hoped to find what the hated Hapsburg

Monarchy had denied him. At that time he was twenty-three. Only terrible memories united him with his home and Vienna. "It made

me

sick merely to think of this

The final

entire structure of his

form.

details

He

Babylon of

view of

life

races."

was already erected

its

notes with satisfaction that in his further Hfe "only

needed to be added."

Whether

or not there

is

more than

a mistake behind the error in

Germany The terrible

time has so far not been proved. Actually he did not go to until

in

1913, as

is

apparent from police registration.

[

HITLER

22

NO FOOL

IS

poverty of the years in Vienna does not seem to have haunted

went

so fiercely after he

not distinguish

unknown

whom

painters, of

there

were many in Munich, the

of the Arts. But the reality of the Second Reich

from

his

him

his Hfe there did

any way from that of other poor and

in

itself

Munich, even though

to

was

^

city

vastly different

dreams, and no one will therefore be surprised to see him

soon exposing the internal weaknesses of Germany. Into the prosaic course of an unsatisfying It

found Hitler ready

Even

as a

to

life

World War

the

throw himself jubilantly into

the Franco-Prussian

War

inner experience" to him.

I

of 1870

soldiers."

A book

about

had been "the most profound

The Boer War had appeared

like "sheet

:

was happy

to be able to witness this heroic batde,

were only from a distance. The Russo-Japanese considerably

failed.

War

tells

of himself that

The long

if

it

me

all efforts to

make him

been born a hundred years

of fate."

"Why

earlier, say, at the

could one not have

time of the

when a man did not have to possess appreciated!" The World War therefore came as Liberation,

the dreams of his youth existence.

a pacifist

period of peace which had seemed ahead was

him an "undeserved meanness

humdrum

even

already found

more mature.

Proudly he

to

arms.

waited impatiendy for the daily news and devoured news flashes and

reports; I

had

its

boy of ten he had been enthusiastic about "everything

which had any connection with war or with

lightning"

struck like Hghtning.

—and as

With

feelings in those tragic days

Wars

of

a business to be a fulfillment of

an escape from the misery of

his

the following words he describes his

when

the breath of the entire civilized

world was held back with horror:

To me

my

those hours

youth. Even today

came I

am

like a salvation

not

ashamed

from the

to say that

I,

bitter feelings of

overcome with a

WHO

HITLER?

IS

23

Storm of enthusiasm, sank upon

an overflowing heart for having

He

my knees and thanked Heaven me Hve in this age.

enUsted as a private in the Bavarian

the entire civil life

campaign

followed

Army and

participated in

Western Front. The loneUness of

on. the

him

from

let

He never

into the army, too.

a letter by field-post; he received no packages

his

wrote or received

from home. His com-

him queer. He would sit brooding for hours in some corner away from them, staring into space, and then suddenly condemn with wild accusations Germany's invisible enemies who were working for its downfall. Of course he meant the Jews and Marxists. As far as discipline and obedience to his officers were rades considered

concerned, he was a model soldier. In 1916 he received a slight

wound

shrapnel injury. After the

again for service at the Front. strangely first

healed, he immediately reported

He

received several citations, but

enough he never got beyond the rank of

sub-corporal, the

rank above a private in the German Army.

A

hot argument has started over the Iron Cross,

Hitler later pinned to his

he have received relates

Nazi

no

less

sources.

SA

The

it ?

uniform.

which what could contradictory. Olden ^

When

information

is

than seven different versions,

One

is

that

all

first class,

for

having issued from

he captured twelve Frenchmen in a dug-

out; another that he surprised a French officer

a cellar

and

and disarmed them; yet another

and twenty men

relates

that

it

in

was an

English tank that he tricked into a grenade-crater, where the crew

drowned. The time,

too, of the heroic

from the Autumn of 1915 the award is once given as August versions

October

4.

According

deed ranges in the various

to October, 1918; the date of 4,

191 8,

was given some time between October, It

has never been proved

officially.

The

1916,

and October,

as

award 1918.

history of his regiment, to

be sure, informs us that Hitler belonged to tion of his bravery.

and another time

to the Angriff, Goebbels' organ, the

it,

but there

is

no men-

HITLER

24

NO FOOL

IS

Revolution and Counter-Revolution

The Revolution this time, as

a

month

of 191 8 found

him

in the hospital once

the illness seems to have been completely cured. After the

military defeat, Hitler,

now

thirty, faced a void.

Germany's

the War was a terrible blow to him. All sacrifices And why? The same enemies who had crushed all his life

were here

resistance of the

with.

Not

at

work,

German

too.

for nothing!

Jews and Marxists had broken the

people from within.

They must be

wiped out can the struggle

until they are

war, even is

the

if

him beyond

future he will devote "I decided to

the

an

architect.

Death

mined

life.

His

to the

Gone

are

all his

entire future life

way

easy-going, cordial city of there

on

the

this

sentence Hitler

he begins a new

plans of becoming an artist or

is

to

be devoted to revenge. all

those

who

are deter-

of Germany's imperiaUst rebirth, at

home or abroad! The city of Munich, where he now

ist

With

this sentence

Jews and Marxists! Death to

to stand in the

when he went

shadow of a doubt. In

politician."

ends a chapter in his book; with chapter in his

world

new world

strength to this one goal.

all his

become a

for

dealt

and military preparation should take

political

clear to

loss of

the hopes of

domination be resumed. That Germany must fight a

decades,

more;

he writes, bHnded from poison gas. In the course of

goes,

is

no longer the

pre-War times. Even

pleasant,

in the year 1916,

leave after his injury, the depressed, defeat-

attitude of the Bavarians and their hatred for BerHn had shocked

him.

Then

He

had traced

it

the Revolution

back to the undermining work of the Jews.

had come. The Bavarians had

first

of

all

chased out their "venerable Royal House" of Wittelsbach, as Hitler reverently puts it. The democratic Republic was followed by a

and the Soviet Republic was crushed in a bloody by the Freikorps,*^ armed and financed with the help of the

Soviet Republic, fight

WHO

IS

HITLER?

25

Government

Social Democratic

The

in Berlin.

had

era of Reaction

begun. Hitler lived in at that

Munich during

time he nowhere

the Soviet Republic.

He

tells.

What

he did

only mentions in one place that

the Central Committee o£ the revolutionary

Government wanted

have him

"its

because he had earned

jailed

disapproval."

to

Eye-

witnesses of that time have reported that Hitler spoke at mass-

meetings in favor of Social Democrats as opposed to the radicals.

A

few days

after the freeing of

Munich,

mission investigating revolutionary

my

Regiment. This was

Behind tion in little

this

some

first

more or

I

was appointed

activities less

to the

com-

Second Infantry

purely political activity.

apparently innocent sentence

of the

the

in

hidden

is

his co-opera-

most dastardly deeds of those bloody days. In a

biography, which a Hitlerite wrote in 1923 with the consent

of the Fuehrer,

the following: "Ordered to testify before the

is

investigating commission, his accusatory

documents bring ruthless

clarity into the shamelessness of the military betrayals of the

dictatorship during the Soviet period in

Jew-

Munich."^ This can

all

be said more simply. Hitler betrayed his comrades to the counterrevolutionary execution squad. Informer and diers

with

whom

In his biography of Hitler, Heiden has

account of the

hangman

—these were his

he had lived

work

racks where Hitler

first

of the sol-

poHtical offices.

a detailed

eye-witness

of the "investigating commission." In the bar-

was

living with a

number

of

"Red

soldiers,"

•apparently in complete harmony, the "Whites" one day appeared.

Every tenth shot. Hitler

man

of the "Reds" was stood against the wall and

had been separated from the rest before the executions taking good care of their informer.

The "Whites" were His chance came when

began.

a few reactionary Reichswehr

officers

discovered his talent as a speaker. In one of the courses organized

by the Reichswehr for the purpose of "inculcating the troops with

HITLER

26 nationalism," that

is,

IS

NO FOOL

undermining the Weimar RepubUc,

of

a soldier

had opposed Jew-baiting. This stimulated

me

to reply.

The overwhelming majority of the men The result of the matter, however, was

taking the course agreed with me. that a

few days

later

was appointed

I

so-called educational ofi&cer in a

Munich regiment. His job now was

bring the soldiers, whose discipline at that

to

time was "rather weak," back into the fold of reaction.

The Nazi Party In his capacity as informer for the Reichswehr he also became

acquainted with the political party out of which the

NSDAP

—National-Sociali

{National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei

German Workers'

Party) grew.

to look into a political ers'

group which

Party. Certainly the

and no right But

tion.

of his officers

at that

called itself the

time a

German Work-

activities of the

state

st

had ordered him

Reichswehr had no business in

about the poUtical

to bother

was already

it

One

politics

popula-

within a state and was

assuming an authority which a weak democratic Government did

The informer found from about twenty

not dispute.

people assembled in the small meeting speaker.

wehr

It

was Gottfried Feder, who

courses. Hitler sat

down

hall.

He

to twenty-five

already

knew

the

also lectured in the Reichs-

quietly

and looked the assembly

over; they belonged "chiefly to the lower strata of the population."

Everything seemed

to

proceed in the usual manner of one of the

countless small political meetings of the

Germany

of that time, until

"a professor" got up and argued against Feder. That was Hitler's cue.

He

had come as a spy and now took part in At the close of the meeting, Anton Drexler, the Chair"German Workers' Party," asked Hitler to read a

forgot that he

the discussion.

man

of the

WHO

IS

HITLER?

27

pamphlet he had written. Hitler read

it

It

bore the

the following

The

Infantry Barracks.

title:

morning

My

Political

contents intrigued him.

progressed from Marxism to "national thinking"

which

I

had experienced myself twelve

The

—"a

was about

in the

author had

development

years before."

of his interest in the pamphlet, Hitler

Awal^ening,

room

in his Uttle

But in

spite

to forget

the

when a week later he received a notice from the German Workers' Party that he had been accepted as a member.

entire matter,

He

had never applied

Naturally, T was

members, and

I

for

membership.

more than

did not

surprised at this

know whether

I

manner

had

never thought of joining an existing party, because

my

own. So

I

was out of the question

this suggestion

of "recruiting"

should be angry or amused.

wanted

to

as far as

I

found I

v/as

concerned.

But then he changed party, even

his

cards, not even a rubber

honest will."

mind and

joined the ridiculously small

though there was "nothing printed, no membership

He became

stamp

its

—only

evident good faith and an

member Number

7.

In the very smallness and obscureness of the group he saw a

chance for himself.

Where

else

could he have played a role?

I was poor and without means seemed relatively easy to bear, but was more bitter to be one of the nameless, one of the millions, whom

That it

Chance

lets live

or die without even those nearest taking any notice. In

addition there was the difficulty which

was bound

to arise

from

my

lack

of formal education.

After two days of painful worrying and pondering he came to the conclusion that he had to take this step.

most important decision

A

more malicious

in his

trick of

It

was, as he says, the

life.

Fate could not be imagined. Hitler,

IS

NO FOOL

political party

Germany

HITLER

28

who was

to build

up the most powerful

had ever known, found duties as a spy;

That was enough

to

his

way

to

it

while he was carrying out his

and he became a member of

in 1919.

Four years

later

it

against his will.

he considered himself strong

attempt to seize the Government by means of a Putsch.

TWO

Program

Hitler's

"Territory as the goal of our foreign policy and a cally

at

new

ideologi-

sound, unified foundation as the goal of our political action

home."

Mein Kampf

His Philosophy of Life

The world

looks like this to Hitler: Nature has populated the

earth with living beings of

Among them

all sorts.

merciless struggle for existence prevails.

The

an endless and

right to live

supreme law. The strong conquer and the weak must this

is

as

it

weak can Nature

tion of the

Man

is

should be. For only by means of the

preservation

is

it.

Under

its

an expression of a combination of conceit, melts like

grown

The

—in

snow

in the

eternal peace

idea that

man might

derisively calls pacifist

and

stupidity." All attempts of

and plants self-

pressure so-called humanity, as stupidity, cowardice,

March

sun. In eternal

humanity must

and vain

war humanity

die."

be able to conquer Nature, Hitler

"typically Jewish in

humanity

logic of Nature, will in the

and

eUmina-

"In the end, nothing but the instinct of

victorious.

their

develop.

subject to Nature's iron will just as animals

are subject to

has

pitiless

is

die;

end harm only the 29

its

impudence and

to revolt against the inexorable

transgressors them-

HITLER

30

Want,

selves.

disease, misfortune,

and

finally

death are their certain

who would Uve must

punishment. "Therefore, he

NO FOOL

IS

and who-

fight,

ever will not fight in this world of eternal struggle does not deserve to live."

Nature

For

is

imbued with the

reason she has given her creatures the instinct for the

this

Only through pairing

with

like

can the strongest and most valuable offspring develop.

The

preservation of the species. strains

universal urge for purer breeding.

strains

progeny of two "not quite equally well-bred beings" cannot achieve the racial superiority of the better of the parents.

Such pairing of

life in

at variance

is

general. This

inferior, but in the

must his

is

is

strength.

because he

He who

or

victory of the former.

to unite with the

is

only a

is

Thus Nature

with the will of Nature for the progress

achieved not in the pairing of superior with

uncompromising

and has no right

rule

own

that

end

born a weakling

The

weaker and thus

may

consider this cruel, but

weak and narrow-minded human

Providence

stronger

to sacrifice

being.

—Hitler uses both concepts —subjects the whole of humanity

inter-

changeably and in the same sense to

laws, but

its

race to

it

treats its

members

of others to submit. Providence has its

differently according to the

which they belong. The function- of some

made some

races

to rule,

is

the executors of

desire for higher breeding; for the others remains the consola-

tion of

fulfilling

Nature's eternal

will

by serving the stronger

willingly.

The chosen

are determined by blood.

Blood

is

the basis

and sub-

stance of the race.

The Still is

less

this

the blood of a people

is

mixed, the purer

is

the race.

mean that the race which has the purest blood The Negro, for example, may, from the point of view

does not

the best.

of blood composition, be quite pure racially; yet Hitler puts this *'born half-monkey" beneath

the

hmit where the human

species

HITLER

S

PROGRAM

3I

must not merely be pure;

begins. Therefore blood

Nature can depend upon

definite quality, so that

evolutionary scheme.

end

to this all

is

the

The

human development

It is a useless

race

"Aryan

whose blood

race." It

own

most highly qualified

was destined

human

culture

to be the bearer of

time.

And

and thus the founders of

It is

is

so

much

here the answer

see before us today in the

and invention

o£ a

probably since the beginning of time.

include in the concept humanity. tion for our

must be

it

to carry out her

undertaking to argue about what race or races were the

original bearers of

Whatever we

is

it

way

is

of

that

all

we

simpler to ask this ques-

easily

human

and

clearly reached.

culture, art, science,

almost completely the creative product of the Aryan. But

this very fact allows the not

unfounded conclusion that he alone was the

founder of superior humanity in general, and for that reason represents the prototype of

What clear.

ing

all

that

we understand by

Hitler actually

As

The word

means by "Aryan race" he nowhere makes would have great difficulties in defin-

capacities.

ciation

it

almost

know

the term

Aryan

in a racial sense.

has nothing to do with blood, physical appearance, or

mental

According to the American Anthropological Asso-

simply denotes a "Hnguistic family."

all

already

word man.

a matter of fact he

Science does not

it.

the

European languages. But theories

flat

of

his

Hitler,

authorities,

the

As

such,

further

it

includes

ironing the

Frenchman Count

Gobineau and the Enghshman Houston Stewart Chamberlain,

manages

to

make

their "scientific discoveries" the justification of his

imperiaUst program.

According

to

him, the Aryans are the chosen people of the Lord.

Certain qualities of their blood races.

They

make them

superior to

all

possess, for example, the gift of organization

other

and of

"inner experience," which has been denied other races. Everything lying outside the realm of "cold logic," such as ethical concepts or expressions of pure feeling, exist only in the Aryan. His highest

-

HITLER

32 virtue

is

culture

every

his readiness to sacrifice himself for the general interest of

and humanity. "Every worker, every farmer, every inventor,

official,

etc.,

who

works, without ever being able to gain

happiness and fortune himself,

a bearer of this high ideal, even

is

the deeper significance of his

if

NO FOOL

IS

action

were always

remain

to

hidden from him."

But being the most the

Aryan

is

inferior races

also

idealistic

and generous among God's

creatures,

exposed to the danger of being misunderstood by

and of

falling prey to

harmful

ideas, for

example, to

the pernicious nonsense of pacifism. Actually the pacifist-humane idea

is all

right

when

man

the superior

has previously conquered and subjected the world so completely that he

The

has become the sole ruler of this earth. possibility of a

becomes

less

dangerous

and

less possible

and

The Aryan

race,

first

fight

original

and then

German see

become

Therefore:

first

fight

edition the last sen-

what can be done."]

"The

it.

Such a people

human

is

Aryan

doomed

to

fusion of blood and the resultant lowering

of the racial level are the only reasons for the dying

the loss of that

lacks the

so polluted that the original

elements finally are submerged in

cultures; for

form

practical application

however, can, through continued mixing with

inferior blood strains,

historical death.

its

finally impossible.

and then perhaps pacifism. [In the tence reads: "Therefore:

idea in this

result to the extent that

oflE

of ancient

beings do not die of lost wars, but rather of

power of

resistance

which

is

the property only of

pure blood." Therefore, within the Aryan people there are for Hitler classes of varying value, depending

upon

the purity of their blood

magnitude of the remaining, unharmed

"racial kernel."

and the For ex-

ample, a people once predominantly Aryan but today "more and

more

falling prey to negrofication,"

arc the French.

and therefore destined

to fall,

hitler's program

33

The German Aryans belong

to the "highest

humanity which by

the grace of the Almighty has been presented to this world."

them from achieving

fortunate circumstances have prevented

goal Providence has set them; to rule the globe. is

the

German

One

Whoever would

truly

and from the depth of would with

of the pacifist idea in this world, fight for the conquest of the to happen, the last pacifist

possible

with the

easily die

earth.

his heart desire the victory all

world by the Germans; for

might

the

of the reasons

on

people's illusion of eternal peace

Un-

if

means have

to

the reverse were

last

German,

since

the rest of the world has never been so completely taken in by this

unnatural and

illogical

Thus whether we

like

nonsense it

or not,

as,

unfortunately, our

we would have

own

people have.

to decide to

go

to

war

in order to achieve pacifism.

Another of the reasons why the German Aryans are not yet the master of the world

is

their failure to retain the full purity of

their race.

The German

people lack that sure herd-instinct which has

the unity of blood and which, in their downfall, because all

when

they oppose their

moments

minor

its

basis in

of danger, saves nations

from

internal differences disappear at once

common enemy, showing him

the closed ranks of

a unified herd. In the fact that our primary racial elements of the most

varying kinds have remained unmingled,

is

to be sought the foundation

what we mean by "super-individualism." In peaceful times it may occasionally be of good service, but all in all it has cost us world domina-

for

tion.

Had

the

German

people in their historical development possessed

which other nations had, the German Reich would today probably dominate the whole globe. The history of the world would have taken another course, and no one can tell if in this manner the same end might not have been achieved which so many blinded pacifists today hope to beg for themselves through whining and sniveling

that herd-like unity

—a peace

supported not by the olive branch of tearful

pacifist females,

but founded rather upon the victorious sword of a nation of

rulers,

ta\ing

HITLER

34 the world into the service of a superior culture.

.

.

NO FOOL

IS

Even today our

.

people suffer from internal differences. However, what brought us misfortune for the past and present,

no matter how harmful

may

be a blessing for our future. Because,

was on the one hand that the complete union

it

of our original racial elements did not take place and thus form a whole, unified body of people,

it

was

just as fortunate

on the other hand,

since

thus at least a part of our best blood has remained pure and evaded racial decline.

For the German people, the Savior does not come too

late. It is

the historical mission of National SociaHsm to bring together the

Germans

to lead the best racial elements

in the nev^,

the Third Reich

all

into

one German Empire,

among them

into ruling positions

in the world, to unite

^

them

and

and

the spiritual

to create

material conditions under which Nature's final goal can be realized.

And

we

herewith

from the domain of the general and

pass

sophical into that of the concrete

Annihilation of the Internal Politics

is

for

Hitler a

and

philo-

poUtical.

Enemy

means

of fulfilling the eternal will of

Providence that the strong must rule and the weak must Just as

human

fall.

culture, according to him, did not begin until the

Aryans subjugated

inferior races, so

the development of culture

to greater heights cannot be reached unless the

German

people,

destined to rule by blood and race, have conquered the place in

the world which

is

their due.

But the German nation of the ground, dishonored

enemies have deprived fices.

it

Its

of the fruits of

domestic and foreign all

its

labors

and

sacri-

Jews, Marxists, and Socialists drove the dagger into the back

German Army just before the conquerors sentenced the German people, in

of the glorious

the

upon

rulers at present lies prostrate

and defeated.

peace treaty of

all

times, to eternal weakness.

final victory,

the

To

and

most shameful settle

accounts

HITLER

S

PROGRAM

with the domestic

35

break the chains of Versailles, to

to

traitors,

do away with the miserable Republic, and

to give the

German

people, once they have recovered their political freedom at

armaments with which

the

are the prerequisites for the

A

to fight for a place in the sun

new

great variety of opponents

of "internal enemy."

The term

home,

—these

Reich.

rise of the

embraced in Hider's category

is

includes not only "racially inferior'^

or "impure" elements, such as "Jews and Jew-bastards," but every-

one whose views and actions do not conform to Hider's philosophy of

life.

Marxists and pacifists

and other beUevers

come under

as well as

it

democrats

in the parliamentary system; all Protestants

and

who fall for such insipid ideas as the universal brotherhood of man or such nonsense as international understanding; all scientists who refuse to be convinced that Hitler's "inexorable logic of Nature," the law of the jungle, must be applied to human society, or who may even doubt the correctness of the National Catholics

Socialist racial theories.

responsible

citizens

secret opposition

They

are

all

unsuited for the honor of being

new German

of the

makes them

Reich. Their open or

a great danger.

They must be broken

with the aid of the two powerful weapons

disposal of a

at the

"strong" government: terror and propaganda.

Twice the opportunity had been missed to clean up the "riffrafJ" home. At the beginning of the World War the Kaiser should have put the leaders of the entire labor movement under lock and at

key, tried them,

and

rid the nation of them.

Pitilessly the entire military

The

guish this pestilence.

machine should have been used

political parties

Reichstag should have been brought to aid of the bayonet If at the

—

or,

even

beginning of the

its

senses

—

if

during the

The

necessary with the

better, suppressed at once.

War and

to extin-

should have been dissolved.

War

.

.

.

twelve or fifteen

thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the people had been exposed to poison gas

all at

once, just as hundreds of thousands of our very best

HITLER

36

German workers

of

all classes

But instead of

had

to suffer

it

would not have been

of millions at the front

"pitilessly

in the trenches, the sacrifice

in vain.

exterminating" the troublemakers and

thus squashing the vermin once and for

all,

"His Majesty the

Kaiser" extended his hand to them in reconciUation. their appreciation

The second

NO FOOL

IS

They showed

by fomenting the Revolution of 1918.

unforgivable error the

German government com-

mitted in 1923, during the French occupation of the Ruhr. Instead of utilizing the pitiable situation of the Reich

and the

incipient

uprisings for the destruction of the "Marxist hordes," the Govern-

ment

called

the French.

them

"A

to help in

organizing passive resistance against

National Government would,

real

have desired disorder and unrest,

if

at

that time,

only to have provided a pre-

text for a final settling with the deadly Marxist enemies of our

people."

With

the "most brutal grip one should have seized the vipers

who were

feeding on our national body." Such an error must not

The enemy within must be

occur a third time!

means whatsoever before Germany can

woe

to us if victory

as there

is

so

not the reward of the

is

much

as a

shadow

down and

nate spiritual ideas by life

day's battle.

its

strength

"For

As soon

which

is

of resistance

the opponent will be the undisputed victor."

Hitler himself puts the question: "Is

philosophies of

first

of defeat over a people

not quite free from internal enemies, will break

destroyed by any

fight foreign enemies.

it

really possible to extermi-

means of the sword?

Is it possible to fight

He

answers the question

movements with

a definite spiritual basis,

with brute force?"

himself, too:

Concepts and

whether

ideas, as well as

false or true,

may

be checked by means of force after a certain

stage of their development, only

time ihc harbingers of a

new

if

the physical weapons are at the

explosive Idea or philosophy of

life.

same .

.

.

HITLER

PROGRAM

S

Each attempt grief in the

a

new

37

by means of violence comes to

to fight a philosophy of life

end

the struggle does not take the form of aggression for

if

spiritual point of view.

Only where two philosophies

with each other can the weapon of brute

force,

bring about a favorable decision for the side which [It

must be

perfectly clear that] perseverance

primary prerequisite for a

battle

of life struggle

unyielding and ruthless,

is

supports.

it

and always

with the weapons of naked

.

.

.

will be the

force.

Only in

a consistently uniform application of the methods for the suppression of a

But

doctrine, etc. lies the possibility for the success of the intention.

soon as violence gives

which

doctrine

is

way

new

wave

new

life

from each persecution;

it

success.

will

even

and the old followers

will attach

them-

with greater obstinacy and deeper hatred than before, and even

renegade followers will try to return after the danger

uniform application of force alone

sistently

it

for after the lapse

of suppression, indignation over the sorrow suffered leads

followers to the old doctrine

selves to

as

—no matter how hesitantly—the

to be suppressed will not only recover, but

be in a position to gain of such a

to indulgence

This persistence

spiritual conviction.

Any

base will be vacillating

is

the

is

over. In the con-

prerequisite for

first

never anything but the product of a certain

force

which does not grow from a

and uncertain.

gained only from a fanatical view of

Propaganda and

lies

It

lacks the stability

solid spiritual

which can be

life.

violence, applied constantly side

lead to the internal union of the

German

by

people.

side,

should

Only with a

united people can Hitler be expected to carry out the great task for

which Providence has chosen him:

to

make Germany

a world

power once more. Upon this goal the entire activity of a nation must concentrate with fanatical determination. All other interests must be subordinated shunned.

The

to this one.

must be

a

sacrifices,

no

efforts

must be

hearts of children must no longer be "poisoned"

with the "curse of objectivity," very existence

No

is

when

the "preservation of one's

at stake." Science in the

means of furthering national

important than

scientific

National Socialist State pride.

And much more

schooling for the young people

is

that

IS

NO FOOL

girl's

training,

HITLER

38

The

the pink of condition."

their "bodies be in

should be directed primarily toward physical development;

too,

and

spiritual

The

have only a secondary

intellectual values are to

role.

goal of feminine education must always be the "future mother,"

for the Fatherland needs soldiers.

The culmination

of the whole educational process

tary training. "Military service

is

must be considered the

of the normal education of the average

to

be mili-

final period

German."

Hitler s Criticism of the Kaiser's Policy Hitler

no raving

is

which stand

visionary.

way

in the

Germany, and he wishes

He

the political difficulties

sees

of a rise to world

power by

to avoid the mistakes

which

a conquered

in his opinion

brought about the downfall of the old Reich. Therefore he submits the domestic

He

criticism.

and foreign is

policy of pre- War

its

actions.

Half-hearted was everything which was in any of this Parliament [the Reichstag]

Half-hearted was

Germany nor

way under

the influence

—you may examine whatever you

will.

policy in dealing with the Poles; of stirring

its

without ever seriously pushing through. for

to a severe

disgusted with the "half-heartedness"

especially

which characterized

Germany

The

result

was neither a

up

victory

a reconciliation with the Poles; instead, enmity with

Russia.

Half-hearted was every attempt to solve the problem of Alsace-Lorraine. Instead of once and for

all

crushing with brutal

fist

the head of the French

hydra, and afterward giving the Alsacians equal rights, neither was

done.

.

.

.

All of this

might yet have been bearable,

existence the country

depended

if

the

power upon whose

—the Army—

^had not also fallen victim to

this general half-heartedness.

The tion

sins

committed by the

would have alone

German

nation for

all

times.

"German Reichstag" draw down upon it the

so-called

sufficed to

Upon

in this direc-

curse of the

the most miserable pretenses did these

— HITLER

S

PROGRAM

39

parliamentary hoodlums

from our people and smash the weapon of

steal

self-preservation, the only protection of their If the graves of Flanders' plains v^^ere to

from them, hundreds of thousands of the

accusers v^^ould rise

young Germans who were driven ciently trained

—

into the jaws of death poorly

and

finest insuffi-

because of the unscrupulousness of these parliamen-

all

tary criminals. Millions of cripples

no

freedom and independence.

open up today, the bloodied

make

other reason but to

and dead the Fatherland has lost, for few hundred demagogues

possible for a

corruption, blackmail, or even only the grinding out of their

political

theories.

While Jewry shouted

and democratic

press,

forth to the

its

lie

of

whole world, by means of the Marxist

German

militarism and thus attempted

with every possible means to burden Germany, Marxist and democratic

development of German national

parties curtailed every adequate

At

the

same time, the

colossal

have been apparent to anyone

force.

crime which had been committed must

who

gave so

much

as a thought to the

matter of a future war, for which the entire nation must be mobilized and

which would find millions of Germans facing the enemy poorly or ciendy trained

—

this

all

sentatives of our

own

insuffi-

because of the crookedness of these fine repre-

so-called "popular representation."

But aside from

the results of the brutal and coarse unscrupulousness of these parliamentary pimps, this lack of well-trained soldiers at the beginning of the

could only too easily lead to losing the war

a fact

which the World

war

War

proved in so horrible a manner.

The nation

loss of the struggle for is

freedom and independence of the German

the result of a half-heartedness and weakness (already apparent

in time of peace) in the training of the entire popular force for the defense of the Fatherland. Just as too

few

.

.

.

recruits

were trained in the Army, likewise in the Navy,

the same half-heartedness was at

weapon more

Had

the

or less worthless.

German

.

.

work

to

make

the national defense

.

battleships at Jutland

had the same tonnage, the same

armor, and the same speed as the English, a hail of the more

German

38-centimeter shells

watery grave.

would have sunk the

efficient

British fleet into a

HITLER

40

Added were

suicidal.

Even

policy.

The

is

Germany made

alliances

meaning

a clear conception of the

was lacking. Hitler

treaties

NO FOOL

domestic preparedness for war was a

to diis insufficient

and dangerous foreign

sterile

IS

of poUtical

convinced that

the fates of nations are welded closely together only by the hope for a

common

success

short, of a

An

alliance

senseless

the sense of

in

common

mutual growth in power.

and

.

.

conquests

acquisitions,

to wage war is no other reason but war.

whose aim does not embrace the intention

worthless. Alliances are

formed

for

Instead of preparing for the battle to rule the world, the

pursued the portentous

illusions of a "peaceful

of the world, the greatest nonsense

of

principle

statesmanship."

The

much

as

with

it.

It

economic conquest

Reich lacked the

old its

own. ...

It

war, only to be finally forced into

unfavorable hour.

It

wanted

Empire

which ever became the leading

strength for active aggressive plans of

ing so

—in

.

to escape

fate

and

it

at the

most

caught up

fate

dreamed of world peace and was stranded

"inner

feared noth-

in a

World

War."

Thus

before the

War

the whole

German

alliance-policy

a defensive association of aged, historically retired,

According

states."

missing will for power

to Hitler this

unfortunate result of the varying racial elements in the disruptive

work

of Jews, Marxists,

and

liberals,

"ended in

and pensioned is

a

most

Germany and and

their "par-

hamentary procurers."

The

aimlessness

and weakness of the Empire

is,

he believes

traced back to the fact that the fundamental question

How, with a constantly growing German nation be insured?

to

be

was not asked:

population, could the future of the

Hitler sees four ways of dealing with the population problem. "First,

number

one might, according

to

of births artificially

and

population."

French precedents, decrease the tlius

evade the hazard of over-

hitler's program

41

But he turns down

As soon

this

method on

propagation as such

as

is

the basis of his race theory.

reduced and the number of births

decreased, the natural struggle for existence to survive will be replaced by a natural

the weakest and

sickliest.

which must become more its

will continues.

The

day be deprived of time be able to

its

Thus

the seed will be planted for a progeny

contempt for Nature and

end, however, will be that such a nation will one existence

spite the eternal

on

man may

this earth, for

for a short

laws of self-preservation, but revenge

A

since the desire for existence in

its

come sooner

to

final

form

will break all ridiculous ties

the humanitarianism of Nature, which destroys weakness to

German future.

A

He who

therefore

would

.

with

insure the future existence of the it

of

its

.

second method would be the one

we

so often hear praised

gested nowadays: domestic colonization. This

many well-meaning

Germany

is

and sug-

a suggestion offered by

people, but usually misunderstood by most of them,

thus causing the greatest

In

it

make room

people by self-limitation of propagation, thereby robs

.

is

stronger race will drive off the weak,

of a so-called humanitarianism of the individual in order to replace

for strength.

fittest

for saving at any cost even

pitiable, the longer this

or later.

bound

which allows only the

mania

damage imaginable.

the term domestic colonization

used for the

is

resettle-

ment, begun toward the end of the nineteenth century, of peasant families in sparsely populated parts of the country, especially east

of the Elbe.

The

Imperial regime, under whose supervision the

resettlement was undertaken, wanted to kill stone

:

first,

to strengthen the

German

two

birds with one

influence against the Poles in

the eastern provinces; and second, to assure to the "J^^^kers," the

landed gentry of these parts, the necessary labor for their largescale agriculture.

small to provide settler

The

plots sold to the settlers

as a rule too

The money on the neighboring sowing and harvest time. The poor peasant.

work and food

was therefore forced

estates of the gentry at

were

to

for the entire peasant family.

earn

HITLER

42 in taking over the settlement,

hopelessly tied

down

went deep

into debt,

to his "property." In this

IS

NO FOOL

and thus became

way, the much-feared

was staved

Carried on in

danger of

labor's deserting the land

this spirit,

domestic colonization was fundamentally but another one

many schemes

the

of

to

please

off.

the influential

and reactionary

Junkers.

The

attitude of the big

changed to

at

landowners toward domestic colonization

once when, after the War, the

Weimar Republic

tried

extend the settlement activity further and to create self-supporting

homesteads.

The Junkers began to fear come up again

settlement question will present, let us hear

... on

what

this earth there are

still

soil

in a later chapter.

has to say about

else Hitler

await the coming of the cultivator.

for their giant estates.

The

For the

it.

huge areas of unused land which but It

is

only just to conclude that this

has not been reserved by Nature for the future use of any one nation

or race, but that to take

land and

it is

and the industry

it

Nature knows no living beings

ence.

.

.

those people

political

as

who

have the strength

it.

boundaries.

and watches the tournament

and industry,

heart

soil for

to cultivate

It

populates the globe with

of strength.

The

strongest of

her dearest child, wins the lordship of exist-

.

For us Germans, however, the slogan "domestic colonization" astrous

if

only for the reason that

it

is

dis-

immediately confirms in us the

opinion of having found a solution, which, in accordance with pacifist points of view, assures us an existence of gentle slumber. This doctrine,

once taken seriously, will in this

mean

the end of

world which by right belongs to

all effort

to regain the place

us.

German were to become convinced that program would assure him a life and a future, any attempt

Just as soon as the average this peaceful at

an active and thus alone

the world

would be

fertile

representation of our vital interests in

at an end. Every truly useful foreign policy

would

of

necessity have to be considered buried as a result of such a national standpoint,

and with

it

the future of the

German

people in general.

HITLER

S

PROGRAM

For that reason

it

43

cannot be stated emphatically enough, says

Hitler, that domestic colonization can never suffice "in securing a

future for the

German

nation without increase of territory."

Also out of military considerations he

man

people growing

...

its

rejects the idea of the

German

food within the

in the very size of the living space of a people there lies an

important factor for the determination of

external safety.

its

the area at the disposal of a people, the greater for military decisions against nations living

is its

more

cially

effectively

A

and

easily

and

espe-

possible against

large territory offers certain protection

against irresponsible attacks, since success serious campaigns,

greater

on smaller, more condensed

more quickly and and completely than would be

nations living on larger areas.

The

natural protection;

areas have always been carried out

and

Ger-

borders.

attainable only after long

is

for that reason the risk of a foolhardy attack

will appear too great, unless extraordinary circumstances prevail.

Therefore extensiveness of the

state

makes

easier the defense of the

freedom and independence of a people, while conversely a small area actually invites the aggressor.

Of

the "four possible ways of guaranteeing

work and bread

the increasing population," Hitler has rejected the control

One

first

to

two, birth

and domestic colonization. But two others remain: could either conquer

new

soil,

in

order to take care of the

surplus millions each year, and thus advance the nation on a basis of support; or one could decide by

means

the needs of foreign markets, in order to

of industry

make

and trade

a living

self-

to supply

from the money

earned.

Therefore: Either territorial policy or a colonial and trade policy.

The

best

method which, unfortunately,

the

Empire did not

choose, would, in Hitler's opinion, have been the conquest of soil

new

in Europe, adjacent to Germany, rather than in the Cameroons.

HITLER

44 one wanted

If

territory

in

Europe,

this

manner

for the

start

marching

conquer with the sword the land,

German

poHcy would have made

a

way be

the Reich would, in the

Order, have had to

to the East in order to

and with the plow the bread

Such

German

of the Knights of the

on the old road

could in a general

Then

acquired only at the expense of Russia.

NO FOOL

IS

it

nation.

necessary to form an alliance

with England.

Only with England protecting the rear would out upon the new Germanic conquest.

start

.

.

it

have been possible to

.

To win

England's approval, no sacrifice would then have been too would have meant the renunciation of colonies and prestige at and we would have spared British industry German competition.

great. It sea,

Only an unconditional tion of world trade

position could have led to such a goal

and

colonies; renunciation of a

German

—renunciabatde

fleet;

concentration of the entire power of the State

The

result

would probably have meant

and mighty

great

future.

.

.

a

upon building the Army. momentary restriction, but a

.

Let us suppose that an intelligent over the role of Japan in 1904, and

Germany might have would never have come to

the results

German it

foreign policy had taken

would be

difficult

to estimate

achieved.

a World War. The blood shed in the would have saved tenfold that lost in 19 14-18. But what a position would Germany assume in the world today!

It

year 1904

However, caught by the

illusions of a "peaceful

economic" pene-

tration of the world, the old Reich decided in favor of the fourth

method

Here

—in

also

it

favor of trade and colonial politics, Hitler declares.

was

led

by the same half-heartedness, the same ridicu-

lous conceptions of peace:

Only children could of friendly

and

believe in going out to get their bananas by

correct behavior

means

and by continually emphasizing

their

peaceful intentions in a peaceful competition of peoples, as has been

HITLER

S

PROGRAM

45

and soothingly, without ever having

prattled so frequently

to resort to

arms.

No, once we entered upon

this road,

should one day become our enemy. a

into

It

it was inevitable? that England was worse than senseless to fly

though quite in keeping with our own harmlessness,

rage,

because England would take the liberty of meeting our peaceful intentions

with the violence of the brutal

have been able to do

From any astrous.

if

egoist.

We,

of course,

would never

this.

point of viev^ the alliance-poHcy of the Reich v^as dis-

For

European

territorial policy

and with England

an

as

was

to be conducted only against Russia

then on the other hand, a colonial and

ally,

world trade policy was to be carried on successfully only against England with Russia.

However, an sidered, just as

.

.

.

with Russia against England was not even con-

alliance little

as

an

alliance

with England against Russia, since in

—an alternative which was

both cases the end would have been war

to

be averted by a trade and industrial policy.

Germany's

alliance

with the doomed Hapsburg monarchy made

an understanding with Russia impossible. At the same time

weakened the enthusiasm

—Germany,

for

it

war on the part of the Triple Alliance

Austria-Hungary and

Italy

—

Italy

^for

bitterly

hated

the Austrian ally.

The

value of the Triple Alliance was negligible even from a purely

psychological point of view, since the solidity of an alliance decreases in just the

same measure

status quo. Conversely

individual signers

by

it.

may

as

it

restricts

to the

maintenance of the

expect to attain tangible, expansive goals specified

Here, too, as everywhere

in offense.

itself

an alliance will become stronger the more the

else,

the strength

lies

not in defense but

HITLER

46

There were dangers of

its

in

Germany

General

memorandum

a

of Ludendorff, then a colonel

on

But the warnings of "German Conservative

Staff.

were blown

Circles"

understood the

foreign policy and tried to correct them, says Hitler,

and he mentions the

who

time people

at that

NO FOOL

IS

winds.

to the four

Hitler's Foreign Policy

In the First

Volume

of his book. Hitler has exhaustively criticized

the failings of Imperial

Germany

in order that a

new Germany

should not repeat them. In the Second Volume, written two years he lays

later,

policy.

become

down

chief

Its

German foreign Germany must once more

the guiding lines for a future

aim

unalterable:

is

a world power!

That means

infinitely

more than just away with

establishing the borders of the old Reich or doing

re-

the

Treaty of Versailles.

Germany

is

no world power today. Even

ness were overcome, significance territory

is

is

we would

a state

as pitiful as that of the present

of

is

state

our present military weak-

whose

Of what

this title.

ratio of population to

German Reich? In an age in up among countries,

gradually being divided

which cover almost

world power a

if

have no right to

on our planet today whose

which the whole world

some

still

one can hardly

entire continents,

political

motherland

is

call

a

confined to the ridicu-

lous area of scarcely 200,000 square miles.

As

far

as

territory goes, the area

of the

German Reich

disappears

And no

one should

completely beside that of the so-called world powers. try to

prove the contrary by naming England and France, because the

nothing but the capital of the British world

English motherland

is

Empire, which

almost a quarter of the surface of the world

The United first

some

And

calls

States

really

must be considered another

its

own.

of the giant states of

magnitude; then Russia and China. All of them enormous areas, of

which are ten times the

even France must be counted

army supplemented

in

size of the

among

former German Reich.

these countries.

Not

only

is its

an ever increasing degree by the colored popula-

HITLER tion of

PROGRAM

S

47

gigantic empire, but racially also

its

it is

so rapidly falling prey

to negrofication that one can actually speak of the beginning of an

... If the development of France were manner for three hundred years, the last would drown in the European-African Mulatto-

African state on European

soil.

to continue in the present

Franconian blood

A

State.

a

new

strains

powerful, closed settlement from Rhine to Congo, populated by

inferior race

ization.

.

.

which had slowly developed from continued bastard-

.

Today we

find ourselves in a world of gradually

which our own Reich

becoming ever

is

less

and

growing

states in

less significant. It is

we face this bitter truth with a cold and sober mind. It we trace the German Reich through the centuries for comparison of its population with that of other countries. I know that

important that is

a

important that

everyone will then be alarmed at the conclusion which

expressed

I

Germany is no longer a wea\ or strong.

already at the beginning of this discussion:

its army is Movement really wants

world power, no matter whether If the

National Socialist

.

cration of a great historical mission for our people,

with

this realization

real condition in this

up the

battle

and

filled

.

.

to receive the conseit

must, imbued

with sorrow over the German people's

world, courageously and conscious of

against the aimlessness

and the

inefficiency

hitherto guided the foreign policy of our people. It

its

goal, take

which have

must then, without

regard to "traditions" and prejudices, find the courage to gather our people and their strength for a forward march upon that road which leads out of the narrowness of our living space to

new

territory,

thus

freeing us forever from the danger of being annihilated or of entering as a people of slaves into the service of others.

The National

Socialist

Movement must

try to

do away with the

proportion existing between our population and our territory as source of nourishment

must

try to

and

basis of support for

our power

do away with the disproportion between our

and our hopeless and impotent

dis-

—regarded politics. It

historical past

present.

The "forward march upon that road toward new territory" leads eastward. "When we in Europe today speak of new territory, we

HITLER

48

can think in the

Here,

too, Hitler sees

Fate vism,

first

itself

place only of Russia

Providence on his

and

bordering

its

seems to point the way. In turning Russia over to Bolshenational existence. For the organization of a

its

Russian governing body was not the result of the Slavs

in

Russia, but

of the

activity

a

political capacities of

wonderful example of the state-building

Germanic element

powerful empires have been

in

built.

an inferior Inferior

once grown into mighty

state edifices

Thus

race.

peoples,

countless

with Germanic

manner more than

organizers and masters as their leaders, have in this

racial

states."

side.

has robbed the Russian people of that intelligence which had

it

heretofore guaranteed

the

NO FOOL

IS

and remained thus

as

long as the

kernel of the state-forming race remained. For centuries Russia

strength from this Germanic kernel of its upper and leading Today this kernel may be considered as almost completely exterThe minated and extinguished. It has been replaced by the Jew. giant empire in the East is ready to fall. And the end of Jew-domination

drew

its

classes.

.

in Russia will also be the

end of Russia

as a state.

by Providence to witness a catastrophe, which

We is

.

.

have been chosen

the most powerful

proof of the correctness of our national race theory.

From the Nazi's conception of their historical mission — to make Germany a world power at the cost of Soviet Russia — to its realization is a long road. Many an obstacle must first be overcome; the soil

must be

carefully prepared before the final battle can begin.

The "internal enemy" must be many must first be freed from Hitler's Policy of Alliances:

totally destroyed.

England and

own

of their

will disintegrate at the very it

Ger-

says Hitler. Yesact

only in the

power, and even a coalition of victorious

interest

powers

which

all,

Italy

is no room for sentimentality, enemy may be tomorrow's ally. States

In politics there terday's

Above

its political isolation.

was formed has been

moment when

attained.

the goal for

HITLER

PROGRAM

S

49

and aims" had fought

States with "partly heterogeneous desires

against

Germany.

All of these states at that time profited by the defeat of Germany.

among

Fear of our strength forced avarice and jealousy

They

powders into the background.

individual

sav^ in a complete emasculation of

the Reich their best protection against a future uprising. Their bad conscience and their fear of the strength of our people

is

the most lasting

putty for keeping the individual parts of this alliance together even today.

The

only hope for a recovery of Germany's strength Hitler sees

up

in splitting

its

former enemies and bringing them

individually. Therefore he attacks

groups in Germany, who,

it

"appeasement pohcy" of the

most sharply those

account

nationalist

fought like him against the

true,

is

to

Weimar Republic and for the re-estabwho through the

lishment of a strong military government, but stupidity of their pohtical

demands kept

ting alHance of our opponents." policy of these groups,

fatal

"whose

extend beyond the border of 1914," return of the territory of which sailles

lishment of the borders of igi^

The

is

it

is

first place, nationalist circles

different,

They did not

impor-

mean nothing

these borders seen

for the future of the Ger-

serve as a protection in the past nor will they

The German

internal compactness through them, nor will

satisfactory,

much more

at stake.

borders of the year 1914

nation.

nonsense of such dimen-

is political

becomes a crime." In the

furnish strength in the future.

now

horizon does not

their constant cry for the

Germany was robbed by the Verdemand for the re-estab-

have not understood that a very

tant issue

man

nonsensical and most

political

Treaty. For a two-fold reason "the

sions that still

re-uniting "the disintegra-

The most

people will neither gain it

from a military standpoint appear

nor could they

finally

its

be assured food, nor do useful, or

even

improve the condition in which

find ourselves in relation to other world powers, or

we

more correcdy

HITLER

50

IS

world powers. Our discrepancy with England

to the real

NO FOOL

will not

be

lessened; the size of the United States will not be reached; not even

France would suffer an essential decline in

The

result of such a revision of the Peace

God knows

be so pitiful that

of our people again for Hitler's second is

that

political

its

Treaty would "again

would not pay

argument against demands

our bourgeois world

program

a political

might want

for the old boundaries

for

sets the

Germany,

it

regaining of the 19 14 borders as

frightens every possible partner

to leave the ranks of our enemies, because he

be attacked individually and to lose the protection of his individual

demand.

blood

to risk the

it."

hinders the spHtting of Germany's enemies.

it

When

it

importance.

state .

.

will

consider

itself

must

Every

allies.

and endangered by

affected

who

fear to

that

.

In howling against five or ten

states,

one neglects to concentrate

all his

powers of will and body for the thrust into the heart of our most despicable opponent,

through an Here, too,

and

the possibility of gaining strength

sacrifices

alliance. lies

a task of the National Socialist

Movement.

It

must teach

our people to overlook insignificant details and keep their eyes on greater things, not to waste their strength

forget that the goal for

of our people,

and

on immaterial

which we must

that the only

fight today

enemy

things, is

whom we

and never

to

the bare existence

must meet

is

and

remains that power which robs us of this existence. Hitler

is

convinced that with "a cool examination of today's

European balance of power," there separating the former opponents of

some

of

them can be won

is

as active allies.

the antagonistic interests of

every possible chance of

Germany, and

To

this

European powers.

that

moreover

end he examines

First, there

is

Eng-

land.

The

traditional tendency of British

diplomacy since the days of Queen

hitler's program

51

Elizabeth was toward preventing by the use of any available means the

growth of a European power beyond check

its

certain limits,

and

if

necessary, to

growth by means of offensive warfare. The weapons of power

used by England in such instances were various, depending on the particular issue or the task to be accomplished, yet the decisiveness

will

power put

forth

were always the same. The more

difficult

and

England's

position became in the course of time, the more necessary did the British Government deem the maintenance of a condition whereby the Euro-

pean

states

exhausted each other as a result of rivalry.

—which —caused the British

England's policy of a European balance of power forces free to defend

over-seas possessions

its

left its

always to turn against the strongest power on the European Continent, and, logically enough, to support the enemies of that power.

By crushing

hegemony of Napoleon I, England had restored for come the balance of power on the Continent. As soon as the successful war of Germany against France (1870-71) and the enormous development of German industry began to shift the balance in favor of Germany, a change in the English position became noticeable. An alliance between England the

a long time to

and France probably could have been prevented, Hitler

Germany had colonial policy

the errors of

from carrying out

refrained

and shown its

its

calls

it,

readiness to turn against Russia.

the victory over

Thus

in the

World War,

or as Hitler

"with the revolutionizing of Germany,"

British concern over the threat of

extinction of for

Germany from

England.

ture in those position

if

it.

Germany

Germanic world hegemony found a

conclusion pleasing to English statecraft.

—even

thinks,

unfortunate trade and

foreign policy brought about an alliance of the

strongest world powers against

With

its

On

the European

An map

interest in

the complete

has since then not existed

the contrary, the very crumbling of the struc-

November days

of 191 8 placed British diplomacy in a

which would have seemed impossible.

new

HITLER

52

IS

NO FOOL

For four and a half years the British world Empire had fought to

Now

break the apparent preponderance of a continental power.

sud-

denly there was a catastrophe which seemed to wipe this power out of the picture completely. There

was such a lack

tive instinct for self-preservation

of even the

most primi-

[on the part of the Germans] that the

European balance seemed to be thrown out of line. Germany and France the first power on the European continent. Actually England did not attain its end in the war. .

.

annihilated,

.

This immediately resulted in decisive changes in English foreign policy.

England does not want by the

rest

some day

in

a

France whose military

fist

can, unhindered

of Europe, take over the defense of a policy

one way or another

conflict

with English

which must

interests.

England

can never want a France that has, wath the possession of enormous western European coal and iron mines, the prerequisites for a menacing

economic world

position.

whose continental

Furthermore, England can never want a France position appears

political

so

secure,

thanks to the

destruction of the rest of Europe, that the resumption of the

main

of French world policy becomes not only possible but inevitable.

line

What

Zeppelin bombs did during the War, French bombs could multiply a thousand-fold any night; the excessive military power of France weighs heavily upor> the

mind

of Great Britain's

Besides England there

is

one other

world Empire.

state in

Europe with no

a complete extinction of a German central which would give France the economic and military potver

interest "in

her to undisputed hegemony." That Italy also

Europe.

is

vital

Europe to lead

Italy.

cannot want a further stabilization of French hegemony in

Italy's

future

will

always be conditioned by a development

centered about the Mediterranean basin.

What made

Italy

go

to

war was

certainly not the desire to strengthen France, but rather the intention of

giving the hated Adriatic rival

[Austria-Hungary, Germany's

ally]

a

HITLER

S

PROGRAM Any

death blow.

mean

53

on the Continent and no one should be fooled

further strengthening of France

a future checking of Italy,

believing

that

common

ancestry

among

will

into

do away with

nations can

rivalries.

Contemplated with a sober and cool head

two

England and

states,

Italy,

it is

today,

whose most natural

In Europe

England and

to a certain degree identical with them.

Germany can have

allies

these

.

.

nation

.

the near future:

in

Italy.

First Destruction of

The

only two

all,

German

not opposed to the prerequisites for the existence of the

and are even

of

first

interests are at least

France

Germany,

the mortal opponent of

irreconcilable,

is

and

always will be France, says Hitler.

The insulting charges which he made against France in Mein Kampf have caused him much embarrassment in his foreign diplomacy. They are in too open contrast with

avowed

his

desire for

peace with France, and they form great obstacles to a

French "understanding," which he pretends

to seek.

German-

Innumerable

times responsible representatives of the Hitler regime have had to

no longer holds

assure the French that the Fuehrer

opinion of France. Hitler himself has done

former

to his

so.

an interview granted the French JournaHst Bertrand

In

de

Jouvenel on February 21, 1936, Hitler said:

"When

I

wrote the book,

the Ruhr. It tries.

Yes,

it is

true,

Here we must noted,

I

was

was the moment of

in prison.

we were enemies consists of

between our coun-

at that time."

revive the Fuehrer's

Mein Kampf

French troops occupied

greatest tension

memory

a

^

little.

two Volumes, the

As

already

of

first

which

Hitler wrote during his imprisonment in the old fortress of Lands>

berg on Lech. This

Volume

on the market on July

bears a 1925 copyright

18, 1925. It is

dedicated to the

and appeared

memory

of the

HITLER

54

men who

sixteen

the dedication

is

lost their

Hves in the

October

i6,

various passages which

during the year 1924.

A

make

IS

NO FOOL

Munich Putsch. The date of Volume also there are

1924. In the it

obvious that the book was written

War

reminiscence of the beginning of the

August, 1914, reads:

in

With proud sadness

I

remember,

during these days of the

especially

tenth anniversary of the tremendous occurrence, the early weeks of the heroic batde of our people, in

which

fate so graciously

allowed

me

to

participate.

This First Volume, however, contains not a single one of the attacks, that

produced so much apprehension and indignation in

France. These insults and attacks are

all to

be found in the Second

Volume of Mein Kampf, which was not written in 1924, but much later; and, to be more specific, at a time when Hitler had long since left

the fortress

Volume its

II

and the French had already evacuated the Ruhr. it is very easy to establish from

bears a 1927 copyright;

contents the time

it

was written. The Conclusion,

for example,

states:

In November, 1923, in the fourth year of Socialist

entire

German Workers'

Reich. Today,

Party was

November,

existence, the National

its

oudawed and

1926, in the entire

before us free, stronger, and internally

more

solid

the

dissolved

in

Reich,

stands

it

than ever before.

In the final chapter, at the very place where Hider expounds his foreign policy in minute detail, there are critical notes on the Treaty

which was signed on October 16, 1925, and introduced the period of polidcal overtures between France and Germany. There are references to the Soviet Union which had "now lasted of Locarno

almost ten years," to the

powers

"eight years after a

still

existing coalition of the victorious

world struggle,"

etc.

Hider can hardly

HITLER

PROGRAM

S

55

moment

have written these chapters "in the

between our countries," ously he wrote

as

of greatest tension

he assured the French

them during

the era of the

journalist.

Obvi-

Briand-Stresemann

policy of rapprochement.

Hitler has gone to great lengths to maintain the fiction that he no

longer holds his former views regarding France. systematic efforts to censor

all

translations of

he forced a Paris publishing house

to

He

has

made

Mein Kampf. In 1934

withdraw and destroy an

unabridged French edition. Neither the earHer English nor the

American

earlier

However from

France.

most important section on

edition contains the

book in Germany, not

the so

first to

much

the current 420th edition of the

as a

word

of the

German

trary, a

new

edition:

".

.

.

original

On

the con-

accusation has been inserted in the current

German

has been changed to soften the attack on the French.

France

—who incidentally

stole Alsace-Lorraine

from

us." Hitler's charges against

bursts of

France are not merely the emotional out-

an embittered German

patriot,

stituent of the National Socialist plans for

An

but a fundamental con-

world domination.

understanding between France and Germany

is

for Hitler

inconceivable.

For that

is

one thing

inexorable mortal

France.

No

matter

we

enemy

who

make

should finally

of the

German

people

clear to ourselves. is

and always

has reigned or will reign in France

The

will be

—Bourbons,

Jacobins, Napoleonites or bourgeois democrats, clerical Republicans or

red Bolsheviks

—the

final goal of their foreign policy will

always be the

attempt to gain possession of the Rhine border and of the Rhine by

means

of a dissolved

and ruined Germany.

France's goal in the

World War was

the complete annihilation of

Germany. The goal of every French foreign

policy will always be

HITLER

56

an impotent Germany. Hitler conviction that he pounds

German

it

imbued with

so completely

is

NO FOOL

IS

this

again and again into the heads of his

readers.

What France

doing today in Europe, stimulated by

is

its

own

desire

and methodically guided by the Jew, is a sin against all white humanity and will one day incite all the juries of vengeance of a

for revenge

generation that has recognized racial pollution as the original

For Germany, however, the French push aside

ened

all

in the

French

and

sentimentality

same manner

as

to offer

we

are, is equally

In view of the vital issue at stake,

cance must wait.

way

The

That

him who,

to

threat-

unwilling to submit to

questions of lesser signifi-

all

German

of any positive

all

who

activity in foreign politics

the injustices

Germany

has

must be made innocuous. has annexed Germanic Southern Tyrol, should not

Italy

way

stand in the

robbing

to

stupid blockheads or slick schemers

by indiscriminately protesting against suffered,

our hand

power.

thirst for

stand in the

sin.

peril signifies the obligation

it

of

its

of a

German

aUiance with

Italy, just as

colonies should not stand in the

way

England's

of an alliance

with England. "Let us leave the healing of our small wounds to the mild cure of time, once close the biggest

From

we

have been able

to

burn out and

one of them."

a military point of view, also,

an alliance with England and

Italy has exceptional advantages.

The most important thing to

England and

Italy will in

at the

which might be strong enough be in no position to do possibility of quietly

so.

moment

is

the fact that an approach

no way bring about war. The only power to

alliance, France, would would give Germany the

oppose the

But the

alliance

ma\ing the preparations for an accounting with made in one way or another within

France, which would have to be the

framewor\

of such a coalition.

For the significance of such

a coalition

HITLER lies

57

Germany would not suddenly be exposed

in the fact that

sion,

but that the opposing alliance

much

so

PROGRAM

S

enemy

misfortune,

is

dissolving

itself,

the entente, to

and with

its

an inva-

to

whom we owe

dissolution the mortal

of our people, France, jails prey to isolation.

There are many other proofs of France. In

Hitler's

own

he wrote in his

1929,

real

paper,

toward

feelings

the

Voelkjscher

Beobachter:

As long manner,

Frenchman shakes hands with a German in a cordial hand is fatal for Germany. Not until France sees the

as a

this

embodiment

of hatred in a

German

statesman will the

German

people

have regained the respect of the world.

The most

convincing statement of his view of the relationship

between Germany and France Hitler,

as a representative of

German

imperiahsm, has formulated in a passage of Mein Kampf. There without defamation,

this

time even without drawing upon "world

Jewry," he writes: I shall

never believe that France's intentions toward us can ever change, rooted in the instinct of self-preservation of the

for they lie deeply

French nation. asl

dear to

me

were a Frenchman and the greatness of France were

If I

as the greatness of

Germany

is

sacred to me, then

could nor would act any differently than a Clemenceau.

number but

people, slowly dying off not only in racial elements,

wishes and deepest longings.

.

understood in Germany, so that the

no longer be wasted for a final

and

on the German

neither

especially in their best

can retain their position in the world only by destroying

Germany. French politics may make a thousand where near the end there will always be this goal last

I

The French

Not German .

.

until this

has been fully

nation's will to live

in merely passive resistance, but will gather

decisive conflict with France side

digressions, but someas a fulfillment of her

—not

until then will there

ing to a conclusion the eternal and in

with everything be a

itself sterile

its

need force

at stake

possibility of bring-

struggle between us

HITLER

58

and France. But with

all this,

Germany must

France nothing but a means of

IS

NO FOOL

see in the destruction of

giving our people the chance of

finally

possible expansion in another place.

The

Territorial Policy of the

Here, then,

is

Future

tion of the victorious powers; a

with

alliance

Italy

rapprochement or

and England; and the

destruction of France, so that

separa-

possible an

if

isolation,

and ultimate

Germany can without

fear of attack

from behind turn toward conquests

The

A

a rough sketch of Hitler's foreign policy:

in the East.

future goal of our foreign policy must not be orientation

—but

toward the West or the East

—

either

eastward expansion in the sense of

German people. Since it taJ^es and the mortal enemy of our people, France, is cho\ing us incessantly and robs us of our strength, we must ta}{e every sacrifice regaining the necessary land for our

strength,

upon late

ourselves, if

it is

suited in

its results

to aid in

an

effort to annihi-

French desires for hegemony in Europe. Every power

natural ally,

if it,

continent unendurable.

No

offer us the possibility of

With

this

effort to

go

we National

political direction of

centuries ago.

We

today our

a power should be too

to such

and no renunciation unutterable

great for us,

is

French desire for power on the

li\e ourselves, finds

if

the final result will but

an overthrow of our grimmest hater. Socialists deliberately

our pre-War

era.

We

put an end

begin where

stop the eternal drive of the

.

.

.

to the foreign

we

left off six

Germans toward the

South and the West of Europe and cast our eye upon the territory in the East.

We

finally

conclude the colonial and trade policy of pre-War

times and pass on to the territorial policy of the future.

Hitler does not veil the nature of such a territorial policy.

he builds Germany's

knowledge races, if

it

new world

empire, he will be guided by the

that a people of masters

must never breed with

does not want to risk the loss of

Old Germany was

guilty in

its

When

its

inferior

domination forever.

internal as well as foreign policy of

hitler's program a terrible error.

59

It

knows, however, that "only

ized. Hitler

can be Germanized."

To

Not language but blood

the ruler and the subjugated

would bring with

"The

it

final result of

the danger of

such a process

therefore be the annihilation of the very properties

which

The

protec-

made

the conquering nation capable of victory."

demands a sharp

tion of the superior race

the

but never people

decides a person's race. Confusion between

deterioration of the ruling race.

once

territory

German language upon a subwould not make Germans of them.

force the

jugated people of an alien race

would

German

differentiation

way

submerged

if

"England

races.

will lose India only

machinery should succumb

which

is

moment

at the

to racial

its

of handling

administra-

decomposition (something

entirely out of the question in India) or

defeated by the sword of a powerful enemy."

it is

between

conquerors and the inferior subjects. In the British

administration of India Hitler sees an exemplary

tive

German-

believed that races or nations could be

The

if

"so-called

Germany have neither before nor after the War necessity of making the race principle paramount

national circles" in

understood the

in their colonial policy.

The "Germanization

of the East," by

which

so

the Germanization of the Polish people, confused

with

German

Here too the

blood.

result

would have become a miserable one:

a foreign race expressing

its

thus compromising through

our

own

alien thoughts in the

its

own

A

German

inferiority the height

people of

language,

and dignity

of

folkdom.

That which

in the course of history has advantageously been Ger-

manized was the

and

many understood German language

settled with

soil

which our ancestors conquered with the sword

German

peasants. In

so*

far as they

brought strange

blood to our nation, they helped bring about that wretched splitting up of our inner being,

—German

praised

which

is

apparent in the

superindividualism.

—unfortunately

still

much

HITLER

60

The

-

conquest of

new

NO FOOL

IS

land for settlement in Europe must serve

the further "Aryanization," the higher breeding of the

The National

race.

newly conquered

Socialist State

German

cannot leave the settling of

territories to chance,

but must subject

it

its

to strict

regulations.

Race commissions appointed to that end the permit to definite racial

whose inhabitants are purity

The

and

will issue to the individual

The qualification for obtaining a permit will be a purity. Thus in time border colonies can be founded,

settle.

exclusively to be bearers of only the highest racial

for that reason of the highest racial efficiency.

inhabitants of these regions

—peoples

point of National Socialist race theory, are fore count with certainty

upon being

or kept in complete slavery.

off,

who, from the view-

all

"inferior"

—can there-

either exterminated, driven

The

Aryans and the non-Aryans can be only

relationship

between the

a master-servant relation-

ship.

The Conquest of

German People

of the

as the Prerequisite of

Wars

Conquest

Germany must have hopes to achieve

its

to ofler

more than good

prove to England and Italy that

power would want with the

Weimar

intentions

policy of foreign alliances. It it is itself

if it

ever

must above

capable of alliances.

all

No

to unite

Republic, with a State whose administration for years

has been a miserable picture of incapacity and pacifist cowardice and

whose people

for the greater part live in democratic Marxist blindness

and scandalously betray the

interests of their

In our present incapacity of being an ally

own lies

country.

...

the profound and final

reason for the solidarity of the robber enemies.

The powers

will not consider

Germany

a desirable colleague

HITLER

PROGRAM

S

6l

government and public opinion represent with equal fanaticism the will to fight for freedom. This is indispensable if a change in public opinion is to be brought about in those nations which are willing on until

march

the basis of their most private interests to suitable partner

—in

Instead of seeking

its

Weimar RepubHc should have

nothing undone for the rebirth of the

and

the desire for self-preservation of the

When,

man

in the year 1919, the Peace Treaty

people, one

by side with a

salvation in Jewish-international under-

standing and pacifist nonsense, the left

side

other words, to conclude a treaty with us.

would have had the

political will for

German

was forced upon the Gerhope that through

right to

very instrument of endless oppression the cry for

have been powerfully nourished. Peace

treaties

drums

whose demands

stride

first roll

for the later uprising.

What an

How

this

German freedom would

nations li\e the lash of a scourge do not infrequently sound the of

power

people.

issue could

have been made of the Treaty of Versailles!

instrument of boundless blackmail and most outrageous

this

humiliation might in the hands of a willing Government have become the

means

of

whipping up national passions

to white heat!

How

an

ingenious propagandistic use of these sadistic horrors could have stirred

up

the indifference of our people into an indignation,

and

this indigna-

tion into blazing mania!

How

every single one of these points could have been burned into the

brain and feeling of this people until finally in sixty million minds of

men and women

a

common shame and

a

common

hatred would have

exploded into a single ocean of flame, from whose glow would have arisen one steel will

and one

cry:

"We

want arms again!" Yes, this peace treaty might have served such a purpose. In the boundlessness of its suppression, in the shamelessness of its demands, there lies the greatest

weapon

spirits of life

of propaganda for the re-vitalization of the nation's

which have gone

to sleep.

Then, of course, beginning with the

first

primer of the child up to

HITLER

62

IS

NO FOOL

and every movie, every billboard and

the last newspaper, every theater

every spare wall must be placed at the service of this one great mission until the timid prayer of

our patriots today, "Lord, make us

free,"

is

transformed in the head of the smallest boy into the glowing prayer,

"Almighty God, wert. Judge

But

if

bless

now

if

some day our weapons; be

we

are ready for our liberty!

have at

It is

disposal the

its

our battle!"

and

mission,

its

courageous foreign policy of the Reich

keen will of a people thirsting for freedom.

Germany make

equally important that

for English

War

bless

our people possess a Government which understands

six years will not pass before the

will

as just as thou always

God,

it

Italian statesmen to revise their

as easy as possible

anti-German

policy.

propaganda created a general anti-German psychology in the

countries of the Allies,

and

takes hard vv^ork to change the spir-

it

itual constitution of a people. Especially in England,

mentarian democracy Jewry can

Germany,

will

it

be

from France and

would be

still

difficult for the

to support

where by

parlia-

influence public opinion against

leading politicians to break

Germany, even though such

away

a policy

in the best tradition of English continental politics. Ger-

mans must understand

the difficult position of these statesmen

who

have to cope with antagonistic public opinion in their countries.

They must be

patient

and do everything

the sails of their opponents. fleet

or for the recovery of

more

difficult

(In 1926 such izable

for English statesmen to

demands seemed

and purely

and coffee-house

Only when

fantastic

to take the

wind out

of

The howling for a new German war the German colonies will only make it draw

closer to

Germany.

to Hitler to be the "absolutely unreal-

nonsense of bloated patriot-politicians

Babbitts.")

a strong

German Government and

a

German

people,

united internally by a fanatical desire to fight for their freedom, will

have convinced the world that Germany must once more be

considered a powerful factor in European politics

—only

then will

hitler's program it

63

be possible to change public opinion in other countries in favor

Germany.

of a coaUtion with

"This,

too,

will

take years of uninterrupted skillful

naturally

work."

An

end, then, to the hurrah patriotism of our bourgeois world of

War

today, to the romantic nationalist slogan of the

enemies

—much

Germany died

An

honor." of

end

fantastic conception of the

its

"Many

years:

to all sentimentality!

Nibelungen alliance

with the Hapsburg corpse. Fantastic sentimentality in the treatment of today's foreign political possibilities forever.

.

.

.

[War and

its]

is

the best

way

to prevent

our rebirth

all-embracing organization should not be

approached from an heroic, but from a practical point of view. Diplomacy

must see

to it that

in a practical way.

use

a people does not perish heroically but

Any means

that leads to this

must be termed a criminal

it

Foreign alone:

irresponsibility.

is it

useful for our people

This

is

God and If,

.

is

\ept alive

good, and not to

.

now and

in the future, or will

it

be to

the only criterion to apply in the treatment of

foreign political questions. Partisan, religious, points of view

.

is

should be based upon one principle

political considerations

their detriment?

end

must not enter the

picture at

humane, or any other

all.

Justice tvith Hitler I

however, there should

race-poisoning moralists,

still

be some weak-minded

who on

idealists or

principle reject the conquest of

foreign territories and the subjection of "inferior" peoples, says Hitler,

they must be told that the highest law of the

will to

win

is

their

the batde for existence.

State boundaries are

The

Germans

made and changed by man.

,

.

.

actual success of the conquest of an excessively large territory by

a nation does not entail any obligation on the part of other nations to

acknowledge the possession of the conqueror

forever. It proves

no more

HITLER

64

IS

NO FOOL

than the power of the conqueror and the weakness of the conquered.

And

power alone

this

law.

is

.

.

.

Coolly and soberly one must regard the matter from the standpoint that surely

given

it

cannot be the will of Heaven that one nation should be

fifty

times as

suaded by

political

justice. If this

world

we need we will

the territory

Of

much

course

really has

to live

enough room

by

upon

not be given

sort of pacifist

would own only one-third Europe.

.

it

and what

.

us.

Then, however, the law of

gladly. is

we

denied to our kindness

we

nonsense as do our contemporaries,

of our present territory; in that case,

would be no German people

ever, there

dis-

our ancestors had depended for their decisions

force. If

same

the

one should not be

for all of us to live in, then

on must be given

self-preservation goes into effect; shall take

And

land as another.

borders from achieving the boundaries of eternal

worry about

to

its

how-

existence in

.

Today we

are eighty million

Germans

in Europe! If in less than a

hundred years 250 million Germans are living on

this continent,

our

foreign policy will have proved correct.

Toward

the end of his

book the worried Hitler writes a

testament to guide the future of the

German

political

nation, once

it

is

master over Europe:

Never

suffer the rise of another continental

every attempt to organize a second military

—be but the beginning of a capable of rising military —an attac^ on Germany, and consider not only your right but

border

power

power in Europe. See in power near the German

state

it

your duty

to use

growth of such a

This

to

it

is

the

any means, including force of arms,

state,

or to destroy

it if it

program with which Hitler

It

and reaction stand. In

the

oflers himself as liberator

and aggrandizer of the German nation. Many of old and well-known.

to chec\

has already developed.

its

features are

contains everything for which chauvinism

its

fanaticism and barbarism

it

expresses the

frame of mind of a beaten and curbed but not destroyed imperialist

hitler's program

65

Thus far, its author has quaUfied German "national" interests.

system. of

But Hitler

will

as a legitimate

spokesman

have to do more than to repeat old goals of con-

quest and robbery in order to prove to the upper class that he has

what

it

more

a people, bled white

He

takes to be Fuehrer.

must prove

and longing

it

by mobilizing once

and

for peace

For

security.

the old compromised reactionaries, for the profiteers of the Pan-

German League ^^ the Germans will no longer work up any enthusiasm. A new approach must be applied. The old goals must be integrated in an all-embracing philosophy of

In 191 4

it

was attacked

sufficed to tell the

to send

them

Belgium, Poland, Russia, of the future

German

willingly to the battlefields of France,

Italy,

whose borders

broadened. "The very existence of the in face of

it

To

and Turkey.

Empire

must be tremendously

German

race"

is

now

at stake,

such terms as offense or defense, aggressor, pro-

unprovoked attac\ must be stripped of

voiced or

build the

will not be confined to the ridiculous

area of 1914, the cry of national self-defense

and

life.

people that the Fatherland

their old

narrow

meaning. Every war Germany will undertake in the future will be a holy war, fought for the fulfillment of the Lord's

Therein

The

lies

doctrine of

Semitism

German

own

will.

the sense in the nonsense of Hitler's racial gospel.

Aryanism

at the other.

is

at

one pole; the doctrine of

Both are designed

to intoxicate

and

anti-

flatter

people into unity and submission.

Hitler

And The Jews

"The efficiency of the truly great popular leader consists in the main and at all times in preventing the division of the attention of a people and always concentrating it upon one single enemy." Mein Kampf

the

^

HITLER

NO FOOL

IS

The American reader who has struggled through eight hundred Mein Kampf might easily come to the conclusion that none

pages of

but a maniac would be capable of the terrible insults and accusa-

which Hitler pours upon the Jews.

tions is

no baseness

in the

would seem

It

that there

world for which the Jews are not responsible,

no indecency of which they have not been

guilty.

They

deliberately

contaminate the Aryan race and carry on white slavery aand tution; they organize societies such as the

Freemasons

in order to

protect immorality under the guise of the religious tolerance

Now

they teach.

prosti-

which

they use the princes, then democracy, and finally

dictatorship for their dark plans.

At one and

the same time they are

the leaders of international finance capital and the international

workers' movement; they have gained control of banking and Big Business in the United States and have delivered over

German

industry to foreigners; they fomented the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the 191 8 Revolution in to the

Rhine

Germany. They brought Negroes

to poison the blood of the

Germans. They are cowardly

and don't wash.

shopworn

All the

Mein Kampf, from

tales of the foulest

anti-Semitism are found in

the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a

document

repeatedly proved a forgery in open court), in which the Jews are said

to

have revealed their plans for world-domination,

down

to

pornographic allusions to the raping of blond Aryan maidens by "swarthy, bowlegged Jew-bastards." Is

there any point,

struck as they

lies

seriously?

still

some may

Have

ask, in taking these vicious,

consider their task to be the investigation of the truth

and not the "fostering of national National Socialist hand, did practice?

moon-

not scientists the world over, in so far

this

racial doctrine as gross

unanimously rejected the nonsense?

prevent the Nazis from continuing

Are we

to dispute their

pride,"

not, then,

it

On

doing these criminals too

abominable assertions?

the other

in theory

and

much honor

hitler's program will

not rid the world of Hitler's

Nazi

will continue to hear the voice

refutations alone

Scientific

The

racial doctrine.

Jew

of the

67

fanatical

in every voice raised against his faith. Fascist race-

frenzy will die only with the collapse of the system which depends

upon

for

it

But

this

support.

its

is

exactly the point

What

need anti-Semitism?

which

Why

interests us.

ends does

it

serve? Is

it

does fascism

an accidental

or a necessary part of National Socialist domination?

we have

In the preceding pages

developed Hitler's domestic and

foreign program without going into the Jewish question in particular.

Indeed,

was our intention there

it

to prove that Hitler's plans

can be presented and completely understood without drawing upon the racial theory at

have

the weakness of the pre- War

criticized

internal enemies

and

its

Other reactionary and imperialist

all.

and have denounced

Empire toward

its

conduct of foreign

affairs

inadequate miUtary preparations for the "unavoidable"

World

War. They,

too,

torial conquests.

racial doctrine

its

concocted "overpopulation" theories to justify

But in

which

so doing, they did not feel the

terri-

need for that

Nazism's unique contribution to the theory

is

and practice of imperialistic expansion. They on political and economic grounds. If

politicians

anti-Semitism and the whole race

justified their position

humbug

Nazis

of the

is

not

necessary in order to provide a rational foundation for the aims of

German

Imperialism,

why

then does Hitler draw them

point, for the support of his

The

First

Whom

is

Volume

of

Mein Kampf

Hider caUing

and Marxists,

as

to account?

one might assume

ism doesn't argue with them;

whom

Hider considers worthy

highly

critical one, is

makes no

secret of his

the

in,

point by

program?

it

bears the

Not

title.

An

Accounting.

Jews, Pacifists, Democrats,

—National

at first glance

exterminates them.

The

Social-

partner

of "an accounting," to be sure a

German upper middle

class.

The Fuehrer

contempt for the complacency, the cowardice.

HITLER

68

and fanaticism

the indecision, the lack of brutaHty class,

and

ing adequately for the

Above

sion.

Just as ists

it

all,

it

War and where

failed

Ruhr

the

bringing

middle-class

a

gas, so

nation.

incapable of prepar-

to a victorious conclu-

it

were concerned.

internal enemies

lacked the energy during the

and Jews" with poison

itself

of the middle

German

general betrayal of the interests of the

its

For him, the German bourgeoisie proved

NO FOOL

IS

War

to exterminate

"Marx-

during the French occupation of

government again preferred

to organize

passive resistance with the aid of Marxist workers, instead of destroy-

ing them in a I

civil

war.

many and many

shouted myself hoarse in those days

tried to

stake,

make

and

clear at least for so-called nationalist circles,

that

if

the

same mistakes were made

as in 1914

a time,

and

what was and the

ceeding years, there would inevitably be an end like that of 191 8.

begged them repeatedly

to give destiny free rein

opportunity to setde with Marxism; but

I

were

finally

Then

I

reached the end of

Then

I

knew

ears.

saw how

its

all

that the

mission and that

it

German

all

Marxism only because

of competitive jealousy, without seriously wishing to annihilate

class,

times.

Bourgeoisie had

had no further task to perform.

these parties quarreled with

The German middle

Every-

better, until they

confronted by the most miserable capitulation of

became firmly convinced

I

and our movement an

preached to deaf

body, including the Chief of the Defense Forces,

at

suc-

in Hitler's

it.

was no longer

opinion,

capable of finding a solution for the problems which confronted a defeated imperialist

Germany.

the future totalitarian

war

An

entire people

of conquest.

had

The middle

to be class

won

for

no longer

possessed a single idea with which

it

could have mobilized the Ger-

man

It

had not even found a useful

people toward such an end.

substitute for the

What, then, was

program

of

Marxism.

there to give to the masses,

if

Social

Democracy were

overthrown? There was not one movement capable of drawing the

hitler's program

69

masses of workers under

The

draw the

to

its

once they had

spell,

"bourgeois" parties, as they

call

lost their leadership.

themselves, will never be able

"proletarian" masses into their camp, since here

two worlds and their

face each other, separated partly naturally, partly artificially, attitude

toward each other can only be one of opposition.

Even before the War, German

statecraft

had ceased

death out of free will and resolution." a

new

them out again "upon the

Marxism and send honor." Without the Idea no

field of

battle!

The demonstration

new

of a great

Idea was the secret of the success

of the French Revolution; the Russian Revolution owes

ject

have the

leads

Idea which could wrest the masses from

enthusiasm for

and from an Idea Fascism

Idea;

to

men to What Germany needed was which

"slightest conception of the nature of the force

its

victory to an

[Italian] received the strength to sub-

a people in a most beneficial

manner

to a

most comprehensive

reshaping.

Bourgeois parties are not capable of doing

Here the National to

fill

the gap

The main

left

Socialist race

this.

concept enters into the picture

by the ideological bankruptcy of the middle

props of the

new

explosive Idea,

German nation as The "Aryan" theory as a doctrine of the German people to dominate the world.

Hitler offers himself to the

"Nature's aristocratic method of selection"

by the Leader-Principle

—as

a basis for the

class.

on the strength of which its

savior are these:

predestination of the

—expressed

in politics

domination by the few

many "inferior." German Imperialism

"pure" and the subordination of the

The marauding

expeditions

of

as

God-

ordained acts for the "self-preservation" of His dearest children.

The destruction of the masses' rights and their exploitation as a German "people's commonweal," in which everyone makes sacrifices.

And

running through

it all

anti-Semitism, as the fuel with which

HITLER

70 the flame of nationalistic fanaticism

is

to be fed to

NO FOOL

IS

\eep

it

at white

heat.

Compared with

the "Liberty, EquaUty, Fraternity!" of the French

Revolution and the "Peace and Bread!" of the Russian Revolution,

Deutschland erwache,

It

("Germany, Av^^ake! Judah,

Jitda, verreckcl

Perish!") seems indeed a typical

Nazi

does not matter to a demagogue

substitute.

how much

truth there

his slogan. If only the masses fanatically believe in

liter-

of consideration," "most brutal decisiveness," in characterizing

the National Socialist

movement and

mutual dependence of the

to the

application of the most tice.

Hitler

in

such expressions as "fanatical intolerance," "ruthless

ally basks in

want

it!

is

A

view of

fanatical

its

aims.

He

continually points

an Idea and the

fanatical belief in

inhuman methods of putting it into praclife is to him the only stable ground for the

constant use of violence against enemies.

There

are not a

few people who even today refuse

stories or written reports of the

to believe the

gruesome deeds of horror

in Hitler's

concentration camps, for the simple reason that they find such bar-

German

barism irreconcilable with their love of the old

culture.

Perhaps they will stop to consider the significance of having a state,

with

all

its

means

idea that the "Marxist," the sociaUst, the communist,

are deadly enemies of the

a

German

of

the fanatical idea

and

the

The

of

Lord.

serving

If

they

day and year cated"

?

bank

officials

torture,

after year, prisoners

There

is

Anti-Semitism

with unflagging

were not

is

when he

is

zeal,

unem-

day

after

turned over to them to be "edu-

comfort in the realization that one

the will of destiny

is

Germany, how could

those brown- and black-uniformed peasant lads, students, ployed, and

Jew

people and that to fight them

deed pleasing in the eyes of

possessed

fascist

of influencing the masses, spreading the

committing

is

carrying out

atrocities.

an integral part of National

Socialist doctrine.

HITLER

PROGRAM

S

The Jew

bears the

Heaven. This

makes

it

is

7I

same

Aryan

relation to Hitler's

what

exactly

new

is

an inseparable part of

would have

Hitler of a

new German

program.

Imperialism. Hitler

the

as

It

many

is

He

not the

a friend of

but the compelling ideological force

knows

that countless dangers

—

Sun enemies all around, at German borders. There is, for example, the

lurk on the road to a Place in the

home and beyond

Hell does to

in Hitler's anti-Semitism.

his political

"weakness" of an "otherwise sensible" man, us believe,

as

Christian Church, which, in spite of

deahng with the strong

of this

notorious complacency in

its

world, constitutes for Hitler an

and

is

partly responsible for

the pacifism which has sapped the strength

from German hearts

eternal source of pernicious doctrines

and made

them incapable of fighting the bloody batdes of the future.

There are the millions social desolation tries,

of

Germans who

hate capitalism with

England, France, and America, whose strength

minds

in the

of the

German

people.

There

is,

stubbornly fix their hopes for a

new and

work from It is

old

German

fresh

the Soviet

German workers The problem

better world.

seems superhuman and frightens the fainthearted.

The

still

is

finally,

Republic, on which the politically most active

be approached?

its

and murderous wars. There are the powerful coun-

How

are they to

statecraft failed miserably in

its

1914 to 191 8, but Hitler feels equal to his mission.

part of the genius of a great leader to

make opponents

of gready

varying natures appear to belong to only one category, because the realization that there are various enemies will lead

characters to doubt their

As soon

many

as

own

weak and

the wavering masses see themselves confronted by too

enemies, objectivity steps in and the question

actually

all

unstable

cause.

the others are

movement alone is With this comes

their

own

paralysis of their

own

wrong and

is

raised

whether

nation or their

own

right.

the

first

strength. Therefore, a

HITLER

72

number

must always be regarded

of different enemies

enemy. This strengthens the

belief in one's

own

IS

NO FOOL one single

as

cause and increases one's

bitterness against the attacker.

The "one

single

enemy" upon

whom

Hitler

concentrates the

attention of his people in order to divert their attention real enemies,

That Hitler scapegoat

is

from

their

the Jew.

is

specifically chose the

He

not surprising.

Jew

for the role of universal

did not need to invent anti-Semitism

but merely to continue an already highly-developed movement. But

him belongs

to

the dubious honor of having "modernized"

it.

In "the good old times" anti-Semitism served as a justification for all

from the corruption and ineffiand from the misery which accompanied the

existing social evils, as a diversion

ciency of governments,

decay of feudalism and the

The

rise of capitalism.

small producer, expropriated by capitalism, and the peasant

son, relegated to the proletariat,

were not

difficult to

ensnare into

looking upon the Jew as the personification of capitaHstic forces-

whose laws they could neither comprehend nor change, but

forces

whose

they

effects

felt

on

their

own

persons.

The

the nineteenth century, as the great labor leader

expressed

it,

was "the socialism of the

sive workers'

movement was

footing. Its followers

lower middle

With

were

It

to be

no longer

tant ideological it

into a

no

found predominantly among the

the task of anti-Semitism has been

serves only as a device for diverting the

attention of the people, but

oped

Wherever the progres-

strong, anti-Semitism could get

class.

the rise of fascism

expanded.

dolt."

anti-Semitism of

August Bebel once

weapons of

now becomes one attack.

of the most impor-

National Socialism has devel-

whole "doctrine."

Naturally, not everyone can play the role of the devil. In the

twentieth century two horns and a hoof

no longer

suffice;

one must

HITLER

PROGRAM

S

be more

A

subtle.

group of human beings must possess quite

nite social characteristics

must have members among

hold responsible for their

members must be

these

the possessing class. It

of a special kind.

which the masses

that possessing class

own

misery.

At

same

the

easily distinguishable is

defi-

they are to be charged with the sins of

if

must be a minority, but a minority

the world. It It

73

most advantageous

also

time, however,

from the majority of if

the group

is

represented on the political Left and in a conspicuous position in the

workers' movement. Finally, as justification of the claims of world-

wide imperialist demagogy,

The Jew

He

is

number

it

must

exist internationally.

fulfills all of these requirements in

an

ideal

way.

a hopeless minority in the world and therefore weak. of Jewish capitalists

is

infinitely smaller

of non-Jewish capitalists, but large of propaganda

enough to enable the

of our time to identify

The

than the number efficient art

much-hated capitalism with

The fury of the masses can be directed upon them withmuch as touching capitalism. Their names, and in northern countries to some extent the color of their hair, make them more these few.

out so

or

less

recognizable. In practically every highly industrialized coun-

try there are Jewish labor leaders,

and the

in the field of progressive Left politics

many.

Finally, there are

number

Fascism

is

of

is

some

it

But the

not relevant for anti-Semitism. It

must

possess a

mass

fol-

can ever hope to gain power. Otherwise the ruHng

an Austrian subcorporal as

would have no need savior. The overwhelming

German workers

their

hated reaction, distrusted the Right,

and followed the lead of the two great labor

istic,

countries of

threatened with loss of their position,

majority of

ocrats

all

there are but a handful.

not a miHtary dictatorship.

lowing before classes,

of Jews

especially great in Ger-

Jews to be found in almost

the world, even though in actual

participation of the Jews

was

parties, the Social

and the Communists. The lower middle

class

was not

Demsocial-

but was opposed to Big Business. Anti-capitaUst sentiment was

HITLER

74

widely spread

among

open reactionary

upper middle

of the

German

The

pig-headed, die-hard Hugenberg, leader

a political

among

following

the laboring

In order to be able to influence the lower middle

classes.

Krupp

Nationalist Party and formerly director of the

Works, could not win

knew

with the old methods of

class

could no longer deal with a majority so

politics

powerful in number.

NO FOOL

laboring classes of the people. Hider

all

perfectly well that the

IS

class or

Communist workers, the National Socialcome out with an anti-capitalist program. It had to compete with Marxism in its own field, but in such a manner as not to gamble away the confidence of German Big Business. Those to whom our presentation might seem too manufactured and those who do not believe that Hitler saw the problem so cyniperhaps even Socialist and

ist

Party had to

cally,

own

need only turn to his

dilemma revealed

itself to

The solution of the Munich while he was

presentation.

him one evening

in

present at one of the political meetings, organized by the Reichswehr, for the "national education" of soldiers.

When

I

Tyranny

heard Gottfried Feder's

of Interest,"

theoretical

truth

future of the capital

I

knew

at

first

He

lecture

writes:

on the "Breaking

once that here

I

which would gain an immense importance

German

people.

The

same time, threatening the

German economic

basis of

for

the

rigorous separation of stock-exchange

from our national economic system offered a

ing the internationalization of

of the

had come upon a

possibility of fight-

life

without, at the

an independent national economy

in

the battle against capital in general. I

began to study again, and

now

for the

first

time came to a

real

understanding of the content and meaning of the lifework of the Jew

now

did his Kapital become really comprehensible to

as did the

batde of Social Democracy against the national

Karl Marx. Only

me, exacdy

economy

—a

battle

meant but

truly international-finance

economy.

to prepare the

ground

and stock-exchange

for the reign of the

capital over the national

HITLER

S

PROGRAM

75

Also, the thought immediately flashed through his

mind

that

now

he "had found one of the most indispensable prerequisites for the

founding of a new party."

Thus

the Fuehrer's intuition brought about the truly gigantic

accomplishment, not only of discovering at once a fundamental difference tal,

between national German and international Jewish

but also of unmasking the Jew Karl

Marx and with him

Social Democratic party as tools of stock-exchange capital.

that he exposed the Marxists to

capi-

and showed them

in their

He

the

boasts

nakedness

be nothing but Jews who, because they wanted to destroy Ger-

many as their next victim, were directing their struggle against German businessmen. To Hitler the fact that the German workers* movement was profoundly divided was but a Jewish tactic. The Jew simply plays Marxism with allotted roles: now as a Socialist, now as a Communist, now as a member of the Spartacus League,^^ or as a Pacifist, or as a moderate Democrat. But he can't fool a

Hider with

it

all.

For the Nazis, the division of ductive";

makes

capital into Aryan-National, "pro-

and Jewish-International, "predatory"

possible the distinction

and bad and harmful

ones.

capital

naturally

between good and useful

capitalists

The Aryan businessman

for profit but for the well-being of his fatherland

This makes him a true is

socialist.

The

and

does not

work

his employees.

dirty capitalist, the exploiter,

the international Jew. Herewith the "scientific" foundation for the

"socialism" of National Socialism has been laid.

In his book as well as in his entire political practice, Hitler has

kept

strictly to

the technique of

making no distinction between the With full deliberation he calls

workers' parties opposing each other. the workers'

movement, with

organizations,

contradictory

and incongruous with

Mein Kampf for a word conGerman Communist Party, whose political program

Jemsh. In vain cerning the

all its

Marxist; but Marxist he uses synonymously will the reader peruse

HITLER

76

IS

NO FOOL

fundamentally from that of the Social Democrats.

differed

The

which surged within the ranks of the workers are

battles

for

Communist revolutionaries, Democratic Government in armed up-

Hitler only a Jewish division of labor.

opposing the existing Social risings,

according to Hitler, were commissioned by the Jews,

wanted

to

make

for the Social

Democrats.

who

Hitler,

"effeminate,"

who

the submission of the terrified middle classes easier

fights

for a goal

which the "cowardly," "stupid,"

and "forgetful" masses

of

German

understand as being their own, must destroy

all

people do not institutions

and

organizations through which the will of the "backward" people

might express nation

tatorship liberties

itself.

The whole National

Socialist

based upon the "Leader-Principle," that

is

the masses through centuries of struggle

freedom of the

the secret ballot

But the mere

to say, the dic-

small aristocracy. Democracy, Parliament,

of a

won by

of speech,

is

system of domi-

—must be

all

the

—freedom

press, the right to organize, the right to

destroyed

National Socialism

if

political suppression of

is

to live.

democratic organizations does

They must be defamed, and as ideals they must be torn from the hearts of the young. The reader may easily imagine how the Nazis villify and dishonor them they denounce them as "creanot

suffice.

—

tions of the Jew."

Parliamentary democracy, the Fuehrer says, conforms best to the requirements of the Jews, since it

eliminates personality and puts in

incapacity,

and

last

but not

least,

its.

stead a majority of stupidity,

cowardice.

This institution can be precious and valuable only to lying sneaks

shun the

light of day,

whereas

it

must be loathsome

to every honest

who and

straightforward fellow, ready to assume personal responsibility. There-

democracy has become the instrument of that race, which according to its inherent aims shuns the sunlight, now and for fore this kind of

HITLER all

times.

less as

he

The

PROGRAM

S

77

Only the Jew can is

an

praise

institution that

is

as dirty

and

faith-

himself.

West is the forerunner of Marxism which would be unthinkable without it. It is democracy alone which furnishes this universal plague with the soil in which it spreads. In its outward form of expression, parliamentarianism, democracy created a present democracy of the

"mock image

of dirt

and

in which,

fire,"

am

I

sorry to say, the fire

seems to have gone out for the moment.

Marxism, however,

is

the supreme attempt of the Jew to eliminate

the overtowering significance of personality in replace

The

it

concept of

movements

human

also

whose name

equality, in

of the past centuries have been led,

The

the Jev^s, according to Hitler.

and to

life

elite,

is

progressive

all

an invention of

Christian doctrine, naturally, has

been polluted by the Jews; for

not the

phases of

all

with the masses' sheer weight of numbers.

it

considers universal

man, and

the Aryan, as created in God's image. National Social-

ism must expose the Christian nonsense of universal brotherly love

and

charity as Jewish rottenness.

German real

soldiers the

most inhumane

its

is

can Hider expect from

brutality,

anything which stands in the

designs.

The Jew

is

which he

says

is

the

way

of Hitler

Germany

for Hitler the invisible antagonist in

every problem and in

all fields.

fascism than from his

own

his

else

humanity of war?

"Jewish"

and

How

The Jew can no more

shadow.

He

develops with

appearance wherever fascism has enemies or

ever Hitler raises the cry of "J^w,"

we may be

escape from it

and makes

difficulties.

sure he

When-

means

a foe

German ImperiaUsm. is the way he works it: Hitler's war program, as we have already heard him say, is built upon the destruction of France and

of

Here

the subsequent annexation of to the Soviet

Union. For the

enormous political

areas in the East belonging

weakening and

isolation of

HITLER

7©

France, Hitler needs the support of England and that in

NO FOOL

IS

Italy.

We

know

Germany should certainly have waged war 1904-5, at a time when Russia, because of its

opinion

his

against Russia in

war against Japan, could have offered little resistance German aggressor. Seen from the point of view of German

defeat in the to the

Imperialism, Hider strives for an old goal.

accomplish the trick of dressing up

this old

How,

then, does he

program

so that

it

may

appear as a heavenly mission of the Aryan Germans against the

Jew? Nothing is more simple. He need but "unmask" Union and all other powers opposing his plans of supand conquest as the tools of Jewish subterfuge, and he will

international

the Soviet

pression

have given

his imperialistic goals a racial justification.

And

this

is

exacdy what he does. In Russian Bolshevism

Jewry

to

we must

see the twentieth-century attempt of

conquer the world.

The more

difficult

crude technique

is

problems of imperialist

politics, for

inadequate, can always be solved

on

which

this

the basis of

the "international Jew." Previously Hitler has endeavored to prove that

on the

basis of the theory of the

England cannot be

European balance of power

interested in the complete annihilation of Ger-

a strong Germany to counteract the French hegemony on the European continent. But the actual of an Anglo-German friendship must be explained some-

many, but rather needs struggle for difficulties

how.

Who

The Jewish

is

behind

it?

You

guessed

it!

Germany was not due to English but primarily to Our Jewish press understood again and again how to people's hatred especially upon England; and many a good

destruction of interests.

direct the

German

ass ^^

most readily flew upon the glue-twig extended by the

Jew, talked of "regaining the strength" of the

German Navy,

the robbing of our colonies, advocated winning

protested

them back, and thus

HITLER

PROGRAM

S

79

helped furnish the material, which the Jewish scoundrel was then able to turn over to the

members

England

of his race in

for practical propa-

ganda purposes.

someone modestly wanted

If

"Marxist-Jewish"

Social

to object that

it

who most

Democrats

nounced the Soviet Union and were reluctant between Germany and the U.S.S.R., and

relations

hand,

was the "Aryan" General

it

was the German

Staff of the

to establish close that,

on the other

—military co-operation with

Army—Hitler would

fling at

probably

was an example of the

Germany

deliver

diabolical

game

made to fit. The Jew is the German

to

blame

the reply that this, too,

Jew who wanted

of the

for your situation!

What

mind

German It's

an

easier existence softens the

excessively. less for

can Hitler offer

Who

But thinking

is

of the great

and

anything.

it,

tells

means

is

which the for war.

"The

receptive capacity

but very limited, their intelligence

their forgetfulness great."

You would now

of

mood

the masses often enough, they

the Fuehrer proclaims.

mass of people

for

not good for fanatical belief

the explosive Ersatz Idea, by

the Jew's fault! If one only

would pay

Aryans and develops

people must be united and brought into the

eventually believe

small,

else

people to strengthen their patriotism? Better living

that? Besides,

and even

to

tools,

The formula can always be

conditions? Access to education and culture?

the

Red

the

over to Bolshevism without burdening his

the Marxists, with the responsibility.

who

Reichswehr

favored "Eastward-Orientation"

him

de-

vituperatively

They can be made

to believe

be powerful, well-to-do, and the masters

had not the Jew deprived you of the fruits of your labors and sacrifices, he flatters the Germans. The Jew paralyzed the of the world,

national instinct for self-preservation with his pacifist-Marxist poison;

he pillaged the German people during the War; he organized the strike of the

victory;

munition workers in Berlin shortly before the

he fomented the Revolution, "the most disgraceful

final

act of

HITLER

80 the century"; he

ment

founded the Weimer Republic on the

of tribute to the AlHes

and renunciation of the

NO FOOL

IS

basis of pay-

German

stolen

he made Germany into a "slave colony" of foreign

territories;

countries.

German history is now being rewritten from this point of view. The schools, the Hitler Youth, the SA and SS, the press, radio, film, the co-ordinated priests, the preachers of the new heathen cults, and last

but not

debauchery

pornographic "disclosures" of Jewish

Streicher's

least,

drum

the

new

doctrine into the Germans.

"education of the masses to nationalism"

is

Thus

the

carried on.

The Jew is the common denominator to which Hitler reduced the sum total of his enemies. All failures, all submissions, all mistakes of German Imperialism in the past must in the same way be laid at must be

the Jew's door, as for the future

pocket.

—

it is

all

the difficulties of the present.

"It's

more

a

than the

satisfactory alibi

the Jew's fault"? If National Socialism uses the in-

dustrious qualities of the

means

as

also wise to carry the general absolution in one's

Can anyone imagine

formula:

And

German

people for the production of mili-

it answers that the international Jew is war preparations by preventing the democracies which he dominates from disarming. If the earnings on German exports are used to buy raw materials for the war machine, instead of food

tary

forcing

it

of destruction,

to

for the masses, of access to the

the Jew's fault, since he deprives

it's

world market. The Jew

tomorrow, Moscow the day

makes

his physical

anti-Semitism. For

after.

appearance

who

is

is

Whether or not of

German goods

Paris today,

a

Washington

Jew

actually

no importance whatsoever

can prove that the

Jew, invisible

to

behind

the scenes, does not pull the strings? In Czechoslovakia, by using

the

Democrat Benes and

defraud the

Germany

his "Hussite" ^^ cUque, the

of her eternal rights to

Jew joined hands with

Czech

Jew

territory.

tried to

In Austria

the Catholic Schuschnigg in order to be

able to block the much-desired return of the "Eastern Province" to

hitler's

program

8i

Nazi

the Reich. If a Roosevelt denounces

a Rosenfeld;

wisdom

if

aggression, he

becomes

an Eden, a Churchill, and a Duf? Cooper doubt the

of appeasement, they

become bribed

tools of international

Jewish finance.

The Nazi won't

allow himself to be disconcerted by

behavior of the Jew and Socialist tradict this

formula because Blum,

trifles.

Leon Blum would seem as

Prime Minister,

The

to con-

initiated

"non-

and thus delivered "Marxist-bolshevik" Spain over German and Italian fascism. But the Fuehrer had already told

intervention," to

the faithful that "there

is

in France today

more than ever an

inter-

nal agreement between the designs of the stock exchanges, the Jews

who

are running

craft."

And

and the wishes

it,

so the

of a chauvinistic national state-

good Nazi remains unperturbed.

He

Blum's pohcy to the general cowardice, indecision, and of

the

parliamentary democracies.

cannot be caught. His Idea will

With

resist

cold

logic

attributes

inefficiency

the

Fascism did not pull anti-Semitism out of a drawer for

consumption only.

It

makes

excellent use of

attacks.

That the

most reactionary sections of the ruling

capitalist

world, becomes

home

in planning foreign

it

for the

fascist

Aryan

any reasoning.

system of government exerts an attraction

more obvious

classes in the entire

The "Law and Order"

daily.

with which Hitler and Mussolini keep their peoples suppressed

The

arouses the admiration of

all reactionaries.

has prepared the

anti-Semitism in countries whose demo-

soil for

cratic liberal traditions formerly barred

learns

more and more

Semitism. Jew-baiting

is

to value the

its

crisis

of capitalism

way. Monopoly capital

diversionist

device of anti-

the bridge over which fascist agents force

England, France, Canada, North and South Amerunemployed workers and the impoverished middle classes are

their entry into ica;

their best

raw

of the native

Who

material,

"Aryan

would deny

and they share the leadership with members

aristocracy."

that Hitler handled the

fundamental problem

HITLER

82 of our times, the struggle between Capital

and Labor,

NO FOOL

IS

in a

manner

No

which many a

capitalist in less fortunate countries envies?

labor trouble!

For such a heaven-on-earth he would gladly

fice

Nor can anyone

a httle of his Christianity.

righteous indignation

German unemployed

are

now working

when

sacri-

expect that the un-

employed, upon whose backs the democracies fight their battles, will fly into

more

political

they read that the

in munitions factories.

And

whoever has had the opportunity, in times of severe struggles between Capital and Labor, of following the behavior of the lower middle

class,

tial class

lasts

knows

that this politically vacillating but

always tends to turn upon both of them

Why

a long time.

most

when

influen-

the conflict

should they not welcome an "arbiter"

who

promises to handle the contending parties with equal severity and justice?

There

a

is

common

develops from the general

base for the Fascist International.

crisis

Why

and from

of capitalist society

failure of the democracies to solve

it

It

the

in a democratic way.

did Mussolini suddenly, after fifteen years of dictatorship,

discover anti-Semitism?

Did

illumination? leisure, to

Was

this cynic

he recendy pick

suddenly struck by a

up Mein Kampf

in

racial

an hour of

read there that he has really always been an anti-Semite,

"perhaps in the depth of his subconscious"?

At

the beginning of his fascist career the Freemasons

^^ sufficed

for

the internal diversion of the Italian people; he dissolved their organizations

and persecuted them no

communists. Not

much

less

harshly than the socialists and

time has passed since the Italian press

fun of Hitler's Aryan theory and sneered

who were

the torch of culture,

burg

forests at a

of civilization.

conversion

is

time

One

when

still

ancient

at his

German

munching acorns

Rome had

made

bearers of

in the Teuto-

reached the pinnacle

astonishingly simple explanation of Mussolini's

that the

economic situation

that the dissatisfaction with

in Italy looks deplorable,

increasing taxes, rising prices,

and the

hitler's program

83

human sacrifices in Ethiopia and in of a new safety valve. But this alone

Spain necessitated the opening w^ould have been nothing

more

than the old Czarist recipe. Anti-Semitism, spread as a national virtue

and a new

religion, also strengthens

his struggle against

the

Near

The

England and France

it

and

East.

co-ordination of the Berlin-Rome-Tokio bloc

of anti-Semitism increases

does

MussoHni's position in

in the Mediterranean

imperialistic

its

matter that the Arabs

whom

on the question

fighting power. Little

Mussolini and Hitler are

now

"protecting" against the Jews are Semites themselves, according to

Nazi

racial theory.

Neither

is it

of importance that there are hardly

any Jews to be found in Japan. In the Near East anti-Semitism carried

on

in the

form of anti-"Judaism"

ments of the German-Italian

to

fight against

fit

is

the political require-

England and France. In

the Far East, where even the skill of a Goebbels cannot build

up

a

"Jewish question," fascism has destined to the Soviet Union the role of the Jew.

Anti-Semitism opens to Mussolini spheres of influence which his

arm

could not reach before. In France, Africa, in North and South

America there If

are millions of Italians

and descendants of

Italians.

they can be united, they will be extremely valuable troops with

whose

aid Mussolini can exert direct internal influence

countries. Anti-Semitism, a simple, comprehensible,

nation" of social and economic inequaUty, rallying cry than the obscure, vague, State." Utilizing a

genuine

existing social injustice,

it

if

is

a far

upon

these

and old "expla-

more

efFective

and new idea of the "Corporate

misdirected feeling of rebelHon against

has a truly international appeal.

By stamp-

ing the Jew as the symbol of capitalism and bolshevism, it draws upon primitive sentiments of resistance against exploitation as well as upon fear of social revolution. Skillfully developed along these lines

by fascism, anti-Semitism thus becomes an ideological link

HITLER

84

between the upper and the lower middle

camp

international as decaying capitalism

itself.

A

spiritual affinity

and American

is

Do

its

NO FOOL can

eflfects

of labor. Its appeal

German and

already uniting

reactionaries.

and

class,

be traced even far into the confused

IS

is

as

Italian fascists

not Hitler and Mussolini, Goebbels

and Gayda find silent—but how much longer silent?—approval of their attacks on Roosevelt? And was not the domestic and foreign collaboration of international fascism quite successful in discrediting

the

New

Deal

a Jewish-Communistic experiment?

as

expression

"Jewish-Communistic" more and more

everything

liberal, progressive,

democratic?

Do

not the

not the

Is

tied

up with

fascists slan-

who would stand in the way of their aggressions as "Communistic war-mongers"? Hider's formula, "Jews and Marxists" has been Americanized. "Jews, Communists, and Foreigners" der everyone

it

in the

is

United

States. It

is

appHed formula of "national

the

Mein Kampf. Thus anti-Semitism is today not only

education" of

means of deception

the old

used by reaction, but an integral part of the fascist-imperialist tics

of penetration

and conquest.

New

always the signal for a further offensive on one of the

where fascism

No

matter

is

how

is

useful

it

may be

to

lies,

Germany, National Socialism

On

sive.

insufficient

its

last

if

it

manifestations. this

Jew has emigrated from

will not stop spreading the gospel of

The more

becomes more strained and

The poor

all

is

the contrary, the "international Jew" will remain

the evil spirit in the world. of fascism

it

nor moral arguments can rid the world of

organized Jew-baiting. Even after the

anti-Semitism.

fronts

expose again and again the

not a part of the fight against fascism in scientific

many

active.

senseless accusations against the Jews as

Neither

poli-

persecutions of the Jews are

little

so, its

when

the internal situation

foreign policy

Jewish shopkeeper, whose poverty

more is

aggres-

visible to

everyone, bears scant witness to the dangerous international influ-

program

hitler's

85

ence, the fabulous wealth,

disappears,

it

will be

in the City of

and the dark schemes of Jewry.

much more

London,

Wall

in

would-be destroyer of Germany.

When

effective to incriminate the

and

Street,

The more

in

Moscow,

abstract

he

Jew

as the

and mysterious

"the Jew" becomes, the better he serves Hitler's purpose.

The

confusion which anti-Semitism has aroused

themselves are rich

due

is

Jew" does not exist. There and working-class Jews; there

leisure-class

and bankers,

are Jewish fur-workers

and

dentists

and small tradespeople,

factory workers. Consequently, there are also reaction-

ary and liberal, conservative and revolutionary Jews fascists

among them. Their

pends upon

the Jews

to the fact that "the

and poor Jews,

professors

among

attitude

A

their social status.

make

only too glad to

make

peace with them.

solini

may come

a few

to their senses

if

fascism would only

hope that Hitler or Mus-

silently

and drop anti-Semitism. They

themselves in a similar position to

many

who would

Englishmen, and Frenchmen,

there are

among them would be

minority

peace v^dth fascism,

Not

—and

toward fascism generally de-

find

non-Jewish Americans,

have no objection whatso-

ever to experimenting with an American, English, or French Hitler, if

they had the assurance that their respective Hitlers would refrain

from "unnecessary" and "embarrassing" pidities"

They

still

do not understand

such "stu-

its

existence

—

^just

sciences.

that regimentation, not only of the

sciences but also of the entire public

fascism for

—from

excesses

book-burning and the regimentation of the

as

as

is

and private

life, is

necessary to

"the night of the long knives,"

^^

the concentration camps, the People's Courts,^^ and anti-Semitism.

They

wonderful

it

must

lenged boss in his

own army of L's

by the "successes" of National Socialism.

are blinded

own

when

the capitalist

is

How

unchal-

house, the captain of industry master of his

have no more NLRB's, no CIO's, no AF company unions and no right to strike, no "foreign and no "red terror"! of workers!

—only

agitators"

be, they think,

To

HITLER

86

IS

NO FOOL

Anti-Semitism in the countries where fascism has gained power can disappear only with fascism

itself.

In the nations which are

still

democratic, the advance of anti-Semitism can be resisted successfully

only

the battle against anti-Semitism

if

unemployment,

against reaction, against

is

carried

on

as a battle

as a batde for better living

which deserve

conditions, for social progress, for a civiUzation

its

name. Either democracy possesses

enough

and

insight

desire to protect

the vital rights of the overwhelming majority of the population,

or "aristocratic"

monopoly

solve the social problems

so obvious that one

is

For the Jews there

capital

will

find

almost ashamed to say is

who

Hitler,

its

will

by means of the Fuehrer-principle. This it

is

again.

only one certainty: Victorious fascism will

strangle them, regardless of whether they have supported

it,

whether

they have "personally" not taken sides, or whether they have openly

and courageously fought against

it.

"The

so-called

most dangerous enemy," writes the organ of the January

13,

1939, "because

good Jew

SA

in

its

is

our

issue of

he challenges our pity and paralyzes us

in our struggle."

But guns sometimes

backfire.

So the witch doctor Hitler gives

understand that his race-formula should not be

his faithful ones to

used schematically. For example, he

justifies

England's post-War

understanding with Japan on the ground that the supremacy of the United States forced English statesmen into

"from

a racial point of

view

is

an

alliance,

which

perhaps unjustifiable, but represents

the only political possibility for a strengthening of the British world position against the aspiring

In

the

interest

of

American continent."

imperialism,

one must have absolutely no

scruples. Hitler did not hesitate to ally himself for a while

an "inferior" race

as the Poles;

he

is

now

courting the "Semitic"

Arabs; and he has signed a pact with the Japanese

Kampf

classified as

one of the

sterile,

with such

who

are in

Mein

non-culture-creating races. In

:

87 order to brush aside any doubt as to the "racial justification" o£ the

Nazi to

alliance

with the "Yellow Peril," the Fuehrer has had recourse

an ingenious method:

He

has raised the Japanese to the ranks

of Aryans!

With

this

he has only repeated what

his ideal

and prototype, the

anti-Semitic burgomaster o£ Vienna, Lueger, did.

lowers accused

him

them "I alone decide

When

his fol-

of associating with Jews, the burgomaster told

who

is

a Jew!"

THREE

How

"How

often

Did

we

Hitler

Come To Power?

used to shake with laughter over these simple-

ton middle-class poltroons and their ingenious guesses as to our origin, our intentions,

and our goal."

Mein Kampf

The Wea\ Democracy Nazi

historians have

an easy time of

it.

They have no more

prob-

In their profession the Leader-Principle, as everywhere

lems to

solve.

else in

Nazi Germany, holds sway. They have

history as the history of Great

Germans

came

to

getic

and more farsighted than any of

power

for the very reason that

only.

to present

The

greatest

German German

he was greater, more enerhis opponents, because

he

fought with the right weapons and because he followed with the sureness of a sleep-walker the road

which Providence pointed out

him. His enemies were blockheads,

Based upon

down

to the

Anyone

this

formula

German

dissatisfied

is

traitors,

to

and crooks.

everything which today

is

handed

children and adults as scientific knowledge.

with such an answer and looking for further

explanation would soon find himself on the direct road to high treason.

The

strength of

"The Great

Man 88

Theory," which

is,

by the way,

HOW

COME TO POWER?

DID HITLER

89

not found in fascist historical science alone,

lies

in the fact that

it

reduces the involved political, social, and economic conditions of an era

and the driving

The

development to pure psychology.

forces of their

theory has, indeed, the advantage of simplicity, but

simplicity. Its interpretation of historical events

ing as that of

its

is

it is

a stupid

unconvinc-

just as

extreme counterpart, an historical philosophy which

has been called "Economic Determinism" and which

often erro-

is

neously taken for Marxism. According to this second theory, the course of history

is

the unavoidable result of tremendous

economic forces before which the individual

is

unknown

driven as a blind and

helpless object.

Like The Great

Man

Theory, Determinism also has for every

question a glib answer, explaining

few stereotyped formulas.

Two

of

and "automatic" and afterward happen

must

as

it

did. It

inevitably

is

all

its it

and nothing.

a

favorite cliches are "inevitable"

knows

had

that everything

to

partial to generalizations such as: Capitalism

go through the phase of fascism before socialism can

be realized; the inner contradictions of the will automatically bring about

its

Although apparently wholly exclusive the former asserts that great

vacuum, while the

latter

economic system

fascist

collapse.

of each other in their indi-

vidual outlook, both theories nevertheless have a

Whereas

works on

It

common

men make

history as in a

holds that solely objective facts

the economic conditions of an era

—make

nucleus.

history, they

—above

all

both deny

the part played by the people in the determination of their destinies.

The

victory of fascism in

triumph was the

result of a

Germany was not

and outside Germany took part victory of a single

alone.

directly or indirectly. It

was not the

German

people over

man, but of one part

another. Neither was

it

inevitable. Hitler's

long struggle in which millions inside

the victory of

Hider gave these powerful

of the

anonymous economic

interests the

forces

form and expression

HITLER

90 by which they were able to In this

helped

NO FOOL

mastery in Germany.

rise to dictatorial

personal share in the success, and to this extent he

lies his

make

IS

history.

But the relationship between Hitler and the German ruling is

classes

not a fixed one; beneath the surface the struggle for power never

stops. Hitler

The

their lord than

men make

statement that

explanation. there

no more

is

They make

own

their

is

their puppet.

history requires further

under conditions which are already

history

and which are not of

he

own

their

choosing. It depends on their

conscious effort whether or not they solve the problems which history presents to them.

A

clear

naturally precede conscious the

more

understanding of the issues must

eflFort.

The

better

men

German

In 1918 the overwhelming majority of the the need of changing

its

social

order in such a

tition of the barbaric slaughter of the

impossible for that the

understand them,

successfully can they intervene in the course of history.

all

War had

time. It

was more or

War

manner

years

people

felt

that a repe-

would be made most Germans

less clear to

not been fought for their benefit, nor for that of

the Italian peasant, the French worker, or the English intellectual.

They hated imperialism because themselves

socialists;

bred wars. Most Germans called

it

they were determined to build a

more humane

and beautiful Reich. Systematically deceived

and kept

tary situation at the front, both the

in the dark as to the true mili-

army and

were completely unprepared for the Ludendorff and Hindenburg save the

Army from

collapse.

The

Kaiser had

fled;

on an immediate armistice

insisted

total destruction.

the civilian population

The sailors

to

rebelled against the

admiralty which wanted to drive them to their death in a

last sui-

The powerful war machine overnight. The ignorance of the

cidal batde against the English fleet.

of the

Empire

literally fell

apart

population and the inconceivable speed and completeness of the catastrophe explain

why

the collapse

was

later so effectively attrib-

HOW

DID HITLER

COME TO POWER?

9I

uted to the work o£ dark forces in Germany, to the Jews and Marxists.

The

lie

of the

war

was

reports

logically

continued in the

lie

of

the "stab in the back."

Every authority of the old Government was gone in people

left

the parties of the die-hards,

and jingoes who had

on "No Peace without Victory." The sharks League who were ready

191 8-19.

The

insisted

Pan-German

of the

to sacrifice the lives of further

hundreds

German soldiers for the robbery of the French Longwy and Briey and who with their greed frustrated

of thousands of

mines of

every attempt at a sane peace, had suddenly become silent and dis-

appeared from the Social

Democratic

mans

turned, took

political arena.

it

up

Power

whom

leaders, to

itself

and the

and millions

of Ger-

They did not

there with a heavy heart.

know what to do with it. The democratic Republic, which within

lay in the street,

millions

succeeded the Empire, carried

from the very beginning the germ of

its

collapse.

The

overthrow of 191 8 was no revolution in the sense of the great French Revolution in 1789, in which the bourgeoisie wrested

Nor was

from the hands

of feudalism.

sian of 1917 in

which the workers

tion takes place only

and

class

in

its

where one

uses political

own

interest.

power

power.

sei2:ed

class

A

social revolu-

to rebuild the entire social structure

The overthrow

of 191 8 created in

marked division of power. Like the Revolution was a typically German revolution it ended in

—

There was, however, a

power

supplants another as the ruling

clearly

191 8

political

a revolution like the Rus-

it

vital difference

Germany no

of 1848, that of

a compromise.

between 1848 and

1918. In

1848 a compromise was reached between the upper middle class

the

nobility,

two propertied

ascendant middle

class

felt

classes

—a

impelled to

compromise

make

An

growing strength of the working

class.

economy was

combined

On

able to support their

the other hand, in 191 8 a compromise

which

and the

in the face of the

expanding

capitalist

rule.

was attempted between

— HITLER

92 the

working

and the upper middle

class

class,

Not

proletarian revolution.

economy unable

doomed

to fail

make

impelled to

NO FOOL

one a non-propertied,

—a compromise which

the other a propertied class cratic leadership felt

IS

Demo-

the Social

in the face of a threatening

only was Germany's exhausted capitalist

to support such a partnership, but the attempt

under any circumstances, for a

socialist

was

order cannot

be grafted upon a capitalist system.

The

Social

the decisive

Democratic Government merely talked of transferring

means

a planned socialist to

of production to public ownership without

economy

touch Big Business.

It

not possible. Actually

it

which

did not dare

never found the courage to divide the big

landholdings of the Junkers the landless peasants

is

—with or without compensation—among

and farm hands.

Reichswehr whose

It

granted unlimited autonomy

it took over from the Army. It left the reactionary judiciary intact. Thus in a few months it became a prisoner of the old reactionary, imperialist forces whose destruction the majority of the German people had

to the reactionary

officers

Imperial

expected from

not

fulfill

it.

Its

great historical guilt

the promise

it

equal to the task placed before

This

is

in the fact that

not to say that these

—to

It

it

did

was not

it.

men

consciously and willfully pre-

pared the way for reaction and fascism.

were good democrats

lies

had given the German people.

The

great majority of

be sure, democrats of

German

them

coinage.

What seemed to them to be socialism, in a Germany which had never known a liberal democracy, was a beautiful dream of general harmony among the classes

They

called

themselves "socialists."

something that never existed anywhere. Least of foundation for

it

in poverty-stricken

all

was there

a

Germany, shaken by the misery

and unrest of the post-War period. One has only to read the autobiographies of these

men

to see

how

helpless

and incapable they

were when faced with the great problems of the

Weimar

Republic.

HOW

DID HITLER

The

political

COME TO POWER?

power with which

the

93

people had entrusted them

melted away in their hands. Party of Germany, the second largest workers'

The Communist

had been founded by

party,

lectuals

who had

left

Democratic workers and

Social

intel-

the old party because they did not wish to

the betrayal of the revolutionary principles of the

participate in

workers' movement.

They had fought

the "Social Chauvinism," the

collaboration of the Social Democratic leaders with the Imperial

German Government during

War. After

the

the revolution, they

continued the struggle against the opportunism of the Social cratic

Governments. Schooled

sian Revolution, they

made

DemoRus-

in the experiences of the Soviet

the conquest

of political

power the

cornerstone of their program. In Berlin and central Germany, in

Hamburg and of

armed

successes

The

—

and heroic

Social

Ruhr

in the

uprisings

all

of

they led the workers in a series

district,

them

ruthlessly suppressed despite local

resistance.

Democratic Government

tried to stave

ofif

the

Com-

munist attacks by turning for support to those deadly enemies of the democratic Republic, the Reichswehr

and the

illegal Freikorps.

With the weapons and the money which the Republic used to suppress the Communists, the German counter-revolution was organized.

During

reactionary forces

the

first

years of the

Weimar

Republic, the openly

would never have alone dared

to shoot

down

the

revolutionary workers. Such a course could be pursued only by a party which a large part of the workers and the lower middle class trusted

The

would bring about

socialism

by peaceful, bloodless means.

hatred of the Communists for the Social Democratic rene-

gades, for the betrayers of the social revolution, and, on the other

hand, the hatred of the Social Democrats for the Communists, in their eyes

who

wished to destroy the peaceful construction of the

Republic, built

up such a high

barrier

between the two great

HITLER

94 workers' parties that

came.

It

among

the

German

NO FOOL

down when decisive days how deep was the division

could not be torn

can hardly be imagined today

cal, social,

workers. There was not a single point of

politi-

and economic nature on which unity between the two

The

existed.

parties

it

IS

Democratic leaders hated the young

Social

come to an understanding with the The Communists saw in the Russian Revolu-

Soviet Republic and sought to

western democracies. tion the

model

for

Germany's own development, and

with Soviet Russia the best

means

to

in closer ties

meet the destructive

policies

The Social Democratic Party assured the workers that German economic structure had to be made strong and effective

of France.

the

again before socialization could be thought

Communists

the

of;

pointed out that with the strengthening of the capitalist economic system, the propertied classes

would

also be strengthened

and that

the policy of waiting was tantamount to the total renunciation of socialization.

While tered

The enmity between

the forces of the

fratricidal

struggle,

Equipped with the huge

working

all fronts.

two

class

parties

Reaction

is

bounds.

were losing no time.

the reactionaries

left

knew no

were engaged in an embit-

and the

financial resources

power which the Revolution had democracy on

the

positions of

them, they led the fight against never petty in the choice of

its

weapons. At the same time that they were legally directing the political opposition,

fitting illegal

they were organizing

armed

resistance

by out-

bands over which the Reichswehr held a protecting

hand. Seeing the weakness and the confusion which existed in the

Government, they soon found the courage

to

attack against the Republic. In 1920, a year

Revolution, they risked their

first

of the

Kapp

and

the

first

The quick

suppression

Putsch was not the work of the Government.

fled.

But the workers smashed

The

liberal

it

frontal

a half after the

armed counter-revolutionary up-

rising and occupied Berlin with their troops. ^^

make

with an

irresistible

English historian, R. T. Clark, in his

It

had

general strike.

Fdl

of the Ger-

HOW man

COME TO POWER?

DID HITLER

95

Republic, draws the following conclusions from the experiences

of those days:

The

situation

had been saved

entirely

by the action of the workers.

Here was a lesson for the democratic coalition, if it was democratic. Democracy in Germany was safe if it based itself on the democratic elements; the lesson that a strong and vigorous Socialist party was the one real basis of democracy in Germany was once more reinforced. But the Government refused to learn it. The strikers, flushed with their victory,

were inclined

to stay out

they had consolidated

till

to see insurrection not merely defeated but punished,

work number

it.

They wanted

and they wanted

the socialist aspect of the Government's

greatly extended.

the influence of Left extremists a great

of the strikers refused to

Under

go back unless guarantees were secured against the "national" intriguers: This was the inevitable end of the compromising concession-to-the-enemy policy adopted by the official party,

which had made

regime out of the promise of a strong

Socialist State.

a timid bourgeois

There was

bitter

evidence already that the bourgeois democracy was no friend to the

workers and the Government obligingly supplied more.^^

The

events that followed the

was willing it

had

to see,

how

to deal with

its

Kapp

powerless the

Putsch showed everyone, who Government already was when

internal enemies of the Right.

wehr, which had offered no resistance to the the workers

when

they refused to lay

Government would take measures

down

The

Reichs-

Kapp

Putsch, attacked

their

arms unless the

to punish the traitors. Together

with the Freikorps, which had fought on the side of Kapp, the

Army

took bloody revenge on the aroused workers. "Outnumbered and badly munitioned, the insurgents [workers] put up a magnifi-

cent resistance in their squalid streets, but were crushed with a thor-

oughness and viciousness that was in striking contrast to the tenderness with

which the Kappists had been

course of the fight in the

The weakness

Ruhr

treated," writes

Clark on the

district.

of the democratic Republic, the non-fulfillment of

HITLER

96

promises, the progressive inflation and economic distress,

its socialist

on the

naturally reacted

attitude

political

of

the

lower middle

In 1918 the peasants, employees, shopkeepers, artisans and

classes.

had

those belonging to the professions,

over from

for the

most part changed

and had come

their old political affiliations

Democratic Party as the representative of their

Social

NO FOOL

IS

new

stead of a

start in life, the

middle

interests. In-

Republic had given them unem-

The impoverishment

ployment, poverty, and despair.

to regard the

of the lower

proceeded with unparalleled speed and brutality.

classes

savings were transferred into worthless paper by the drop

Their

life

of the

mark and

the rise in prices. In the fall of 1923, a loaf of bread

cost millions of marks.

When

the value of the

marks

bilized at the ratio of 4,200,000,000,000 dollar, the expropriation of the

middle

Government had

Since the

socialization, the re-entry of

class

mark was

finally sta-

one United States

to

had long been completed.

capitulated before the difficulties of

German

world mar-

industries into the

ket had, naturally, to be effected in a capitalist fashion. This could

mean

only

working

a further deterioration of the living conditions of the

German

sections of the population.

lost its foreign investments, its colonies,

materials, lete

and which had seen

and antiquated during

to regain costs

its

ability to

middle

classes,

and

War

artists.

top of

this,

senseless

unrolled

itself

German and

its

raw

equipment become obso-

isolation in the

Was

it

War

years,

endeavored

to

officials, stu-

any wonder that the lower

endure new privations

years, gradually lost the

they had greeted the

which had

compete on the international market. The

which were asked

sacrifices of the

most

industrial

capitalism,

a great part of

were borne by the workers, peasants, employees,

dents, scientists,

On

its

its

and

after the

sympathy with which

new Republic?

the infuriating spectacle of fabulous luxury, the

extravagance before

all

in

eyes.

foreign crooks

the

midst of indescribable need,

The War and

inflation

profiteers,

and speculators frequented the swanky

HOW

COME TO POWER?

DID HITLER

97

up Uke mushrooms

night clubs which had sprung

in all the big

In number and growth only one other enterprise could com-

cities.

—the

them

pete with

A

banks. Speculation boomed.

pounds bought a house, a few thousand

dollars,

few English

whole blocks of

streets;

and not a few foreigners made good use of the golden oppor-

tunity.

The "bankruptcy

Germany during

of

sale"

the inflation

more than anything else, advanced the reactionary campaign against "Jews and foreigners." The question of war debts and reparations remained dangerously unsettled. None knew how many billions of gold marks the victorious Allies still wished to extract from the emaciated German people. Demoralization and period has probably,

despair

had reached a depth hitherto unknown.

This was the general

and

was

all this

of the

political

atmosphere during the years 1919-23,

grist to Hitler's mill.

weak democratic Republic,

The

mistakes and omissions

the inexorableness of vengeful

Allied Imperialism were his best aides.

The Demagogue Once and

for

all,

the erroneous idea that Hitler

turer or a reactionary nationalist of the old school

He

is

gang

neither a

who stir

above

he dedicated himself

And more

comprehended the

all,

a politician

^^

nor

and a

pseudo-socialists the deci-

"To lead means to Even before he began

politics.

to a study of

how

to lead

he has, with sure

instinct,

relationship of the classes to one another

and the

than

that,

of their struggle.

Perhaps the reader will think

who

is,

many

masses of the people in

his political career

tician

He

than

masses," he says in his book.

and rule masses.

mechanism

Kapp.

realizes better

sive role of the

be able to

only an adven-

leader of the type of a Captain Ehrhardt

a stupid reactionary like politician

is

must be discarded.

it

farfetched to call Hitler a poli-

thinks in concepts, which, according to his

are an invention of the "Jews

own

and Marxists." Actually he

is

words,

not only

HITLER

98

branding the

NO FOOL

The man who

a shrewd politician, but a class-conscious politician. persists in

IS

who

struggle a Marxist fabrication,

class

pretends to replace the struggling classes with the united nation and capitalist exploitation

who

weal,

alleges

with the National

that his

German

serves only the

Socialist people's

Government supersedes

people as a whole

—that

class

man

commonand

rule

an extraor-

is

dinary strategist of the class struggle.

"The

national intelligentsia," as he calls the representatives of the

old Imperialism of the Kaiser,

an

was compromised and no longer had

program. The middle

effective

craven manner capitulated to the

him had

ing to

"the

against

the courage

Street,"

that

The

in the

only ones

and the strength

is,

"had

parties

class

street."

to

who

most

accord-

come out openly

against organized Labor,

were the

Freikorps. Yet they, too, could not "exert any influence because they

lacked political understanding and above political

any

goal.

.

.

.

they lacked any real

all

That which excluded national Germany from

practical contribution to the poHtical

development was the lack

and of co-operation between brute

of co-ordination

force

and inge-

nious political will."

This failing was to be corrected by the Hitler

He

now

wanted

from the

that

the National if

practical construction of

duce

movement which

it

was

Socialist

to exert

It

was

him

clear to

Party would have to

any influence "upon the

German development." The

masses,

how-

were with the enemy, with the "Marxists"; they were hope-

lessly "led astray If

by the horns.

to take the bull

start

become a mass party ever,

political

undertook to organize.

anyone

still

by the Jew."

real socialism,

could they be

may some

fine

won back?

day

after all intro-

he has but to contemplate the Fuehrer's feelings

concerning "the masses." people separates

How

hopes that Hitler

A

him from

deep abyss of contempt for the working

the true socialist.

He

sneers at "the broad

masses" as being stupid, simple, cowardly, lazy, mentally

inert,

and

:

HOW

DID HITLER

COME TO POWER?

They want

insolent.

to be

99

dominated and are always glad to give

in to the strong.

Like a woman, whose emotional

life

is

motivated

by abstract

less

reason than by an indefinable, instinctive longing for the strength that will

complement

her,

and who

bow

for that reason prefers to

to the

strong rather than to dominate the weakling, the masses in the same

more than the suppliant and are much more satisfied with a teaching which will not tolerate another beside it, than they are with liberal freedom, which they don't know what to do with and which usually makes them feel forsaken. They are equally unaware

manner

love the ruler

of the indecency of their intellectual terrorization as they are of the revolting treatment of their

human

liberty, since

the internal nonsense of the entire doctrine. strength

and

is

They

suspect

see only the ruthless

brutality of the systematic, methodical expressions of this

doctrine before

Hitler

way

they in no

which they must always bow

not referring to his

own

in the end.

doctrine here; he

speaking

is

of Marxism. Elsewhere he says

The ing

is

masses' capacity for learning small;

and

is

for that reason their

in their overwhelming majority action arc guided less

is

but very limited; their understand-

memory

is

short.

.

.

.

The

people

so effeminate that their thought

and

by sober reasoning than by emotional instinct.

Revolutionary workers he

calls

"degenerate proletarians

.

.

.

phys-

ically corrupted and for that reason also spiritually a miserable pack.'*

Whereas some of his fellow party members, as for example the military bully Roehm, have now and then found a word of sportsmanlike praise for the revolutionary workers' courage and their moral strength of resistance, Hitler has only burning hatred and deep contempt for them. The workers for

him

the criminals

who adhere

who upon

to

Marxism always remain

the construction scaffolding in

his "spiritual resistance"

with physical violence and

chased him away. Those who are not

politically conscious are for

Vienna broke

HITLER

100

him

—the

gang

a credulous, uneducated, lazy

NO FOOL

IS

hoodlum

proletariat

of the Viennese flophouse.

But

Hitler, the official's son,

tician needs the

is

The

not Hitler, the politician.

poli-

masses to reach his goals. Without them his move-

ment can never become powerful. Without them Germany can never Thus his feelings are in eternal

again enter upon another great war.

with his

conflict

political insight. It

is

dema-

the real conflict of the

gogue. "All great movements are popular movements," says Hitler,

human

the politician, "are volcanic eruptions of

up by

ual emotions, stirred

the cruel

passions

and

spirit-

Goddess of Misery or by the

flaming torch of the word flung into the masses and are not syrupy effusions of literary aesthetes

When

and drawing-room heroes."

Hitler analyzes the poHcies of the

Pan-German Party

of

Schoenerer, which were closely analogous to his own, he realizes that

it

failed "because

primary masses.

from the very beginning

emphasis upon winning It

became

its

no

fighters.

and hard enough

Because for really great

They

Such a "one

sacrifices

alone are reso-

to fight this battle to the bloody finish."

prospects of victory

summing up, "a philosophy only when the broad masses

ready to fight

necessary

"In general," he says

the

broad

the

lukewarm reformers and

needs the simple people from the broad masses. lute

did not place the

'bourgeois, respectable, mildly radical.' "

party will in the long run attract at best opportunists, but

it

members from

battle

as

the

of

life

will

have

and

are willing

bearers

of

the

new

teaching."

The cal

middle-class parties with their antiquated

warfare

may

be

all

right

when

it

comes

win over

politi-

to satisfying the political

ambition of professional aesthetes and plaintive they will never again

methods of

pacifist females,

but

the masses, says Hitler.

No, we must not entertain any illusions about that. Our present-day become useless for any higher task of humanity, simply because it is without reservation too corrupt, and it is too corrupt not

bourgeoisie has

HOW

DID HITLER

much

SO

—

out of

Id

COME TO POWER? us say

^let

—

deliberate corruptness but rather as a result

of an incredible indolence and

all

comes from

that

it.

which knock around under the

those political clubs

For that reason

collective title of

^'bourgeois parties" have long ceased to be anything but professional

vocational groups united by

common

interests,

the best possible representation of their selfish politicizing "bourgeois" guild

when

ous; but especially,

is

able to

and

whose highest task is interests. That such a

do anything but

the opponents are not

fight, is obvi-

made up

of cautious

shopkeepers but proletarian masses, whipped up to the utmost and resolved to go the whole hog. Hitler's harsh language in his criticism of middle-class political

moment. He accuses them of only They are no longer able to save an imperialist Germany from the German socialists. The opponents of the upper middle class are also his opponents. They are the socialist workers and their political allies, the great majority of the German people. parties should not deceive us for a

one

sin:

To

break

this majority

strategic goal of the

with any available means

young Hitler movement. "Any

is

the primary

available

means"

includes weapons of physical and spiritual terror of every kind.

Upon

looking back today at the beginning of the Nazi Party, one

cannot help admiring the sureness of the demagogic instinct which led Hitler in his political agitation.

up

of his party

From

to the last detail of the

the selection of the

meeting technique, from the

design of the party flag to the party program, everything the service of one task party

known and

pointed in the

—developing a

is

put in

mass party and making that

popular with the very masses

weak Democracy. In

name

who were

a continual attack

disap-

upon the

Republic founded "upon high treason," in an uncompromising battle

on two

fronts, against the

parties, in the concreteness

middle

class as well as the

workers'

and popularity of his demands, and in

a mixture of the most unscrupulous propaganda and unrestrained terror Hitler

saw the

swiftest

and

surest

way

to success.

HITLER

102

NO FOOL

IS

The German Workers' Party underwent a rapid reconstruction after Hitler, its member Number 7, had in appreciation of his orapowers been entrusted with the propaganda department.

torical

all, he pushed aside the old useless party officials and them with soldiers whom he had known in the War and through his work for the Reichswehr. "They were all active young men, used to discipline and from their military days drilled in the

First of

replaced

'Nothing

principle:

Socialist

Very

impossible;

is

everything goes

the will

if

is

Then he undertook to change the name to "NationalGerman Workers' Party." The masses want socialism.

there.' "

he promises them a new, better kind than the poor prod-

well,

uct which the "Marxists" are trying to doctor up.

The

challenge

expressed in the words Socialist and Worf^ers' Party was chosen just as deliberately as the red posters

nounced It

its first

wanted

saw

tion,

meetings.

any

publicity at

It

with which the young party an-

wanted

cost.

The

to provoke. It

wanted

clashes.

Fuehrer, consumed with ambi-

in the isolation of his small

group the greatest

political

we

suffered

danger. "During the early period of our development

from nothing so much

as

our names which in

made our success doubtful." Whenever became weak and despondent, whenever it

his

group of followers

wanted

from the

insignificance

and obscurity of

itself

to shrink before the ridicule of

enemies and the criticism

of friends, he called out to them: It

docs not matter whether they laugh at us or defame us, whether

they represent us as clowns or criminals, the main thing

name

us at

that in time

must

He

still

all,

we

that they again

that they

appear to the workers as the only force with which they

contend.

seeks the hatred of his enemies, for

cannot

is

and again occupy themselves with us and

stir

"whoever on

this earth

the hatred of his opponents does not seem to

worthy friend."

me

a

HOW

COME TO POWER?

DID HITLER

He

workers by imitating the outward forms o£ their

incites the

movement. "As our

we

color

chose red as a matter of principle.

and was bound

the most exciting

is

IO3

to arouse

It

and provoke our

opponents to the utmost and to bring us to their attention in one

way

or another."

He

his rhymesters write

ganda

At

uses their tunes

new

words.

He

and fighting songs

for

which

leads the art of political propa-

to hitherto unattained heights of

demagogy.

the same time he must repeat to the frightened "bourgeois

poltroons" that that there

is

are distrustful. It

enemy

this is

all

absolutely

merely a matter of external show and

no cause

to be alarmed.

The owning

classes

will be some time before they realize that the

front can be broken

up only by such demagogic methods.

"Declarations concerning the final aims of a certain political ground

work," naturally enough, cannot be made. Hitler must in

depend upon

too,

Leader-classes."

this case,

the "intuitive insight of the spiritually superior

But the middle

class

has

less instinct

than even the

police allow.

The German

Nationalist minds, in the greatest secrecy, whispered the

suspicion around that fundamentally wc, too, are nothing but a

new

version of Marxism, perhaps nothing but disguised Marxists or, for that matter, socialists. For even to this very day, these forces do not under-

stand the fundamental difference between socialism and Marxism. Especially

we

when

it

was discovered in addition that

as a matter of principle

did not welcome "ladies and gendemen" at our meetings but only

"German comrades," and that wc spoke between ourselvs only of "party many of our opponents were sure of the Marxist specter.

comrades," then

Thus ally

Hitler speaks with anger

and irony of the middle

whose obtuseness and uneasiness

at the

class,

unscrupulous demagogy makes the Nazis' work unnecessarily cult.

For demagogy

is

a two-edged sword.

an

thought of Hitler's

The

with dangerous promises, cannot eternally be put

masses, off

won

diffi-

over

with promises.

HITLER

104

The middle after

someday

class fears that

have

will

it

to

IS

NO FOOL

pay the piper

all.

In Hitler's remarks concerning the nature and tasks of propa-

ganda, his notorious talent as a politician and his contempt for the masses find clearest expression. Propaganda

and he frequently returns

weapon

to exist that field.

To

to

it

in his book. It

hands of the expert," he

in the

says,

was

"spiritually

made

director of a

me

downfall.

The heroism

wasted" by bureaucratic

More than once put

I

propaganda ministry

During

months

these

at that time!

I

felt for

His

first

means.

It is

success

lies

whenever the desired success

must always be addressed

and must adapt

its

its

I

this:

end

to the principle that the

the only measure of

a

me, when

kill

and application of propa-

summarized, sound something Uke

correct

time the entire

at the front in

services in another place.

basic rules concerning the value briefly

Providence had

would have taken a

the

which any chance shot of a negro might

must be used according

It

if

me down

tied

might have rendered the Fatherland other

ganda,

German Army

only he had been

idiots. If

and criminal know-nothings and

ominous destiny which

treachery of an

the

good portion of the of the

good-for-nothings of our propaganda service, fate different course.

specialist in this

was tortured by the thought that

in the place of these incapable

position in

"a truly fearful

is

German War propaganda and

superiority of that of the Allies, he traces a

German

topic

and he allows no doubt

he considers himself a top-ranking

the inadequacy of

causes of the

favorite

his

is

Propaganda justifies

the

is

attained. In this

It

must be popular

value.

to the masses.

...

intellectual level to the intellectual capacity of the

whom

most simple-minded of those to

it

is

directed.

Therefore,

its

purely intellectual level will have to be driven lower, the greater the

mass of people to be reached.

.

.

.

The more modest

its

scientific ballast

HOW

DID HITLER

COME TO POWER?

IO5

it concentrates exclusively upon the emotions of the Any effective more thorough and complete the result. propaganda must limit itself to a very few points and must use them as slogans until with certainty the very last man can understand what is wanted. The task of propaganda is not to weigh various rights,

is

and the more

masses, the

.

.

.

which may be useful

objective truth,

masses in doctrinary

sincerity,

was fundamentally wrong to

Germany could not

that

this catastrophe,

but

with the whole

guilt,

course of events, as

Propaganda

A

.

.

but to emphasize exclusively the one

It

.

is

it

advocates. Its task

to others,

but to serve one's discuss

alone be

War

made

even

was

if this

guilt

to place

own

is

not to see

it

before the

truth persistently.

from the point of view

responsible for the outbreak of

would have been

it

and

right to

burden the opponent

had not corresponded

to the actual

actually the case.

not a matter of right or wrong, truth or falsehood.

most one-sided representation of one's own point of view, the

lowest possible intellectual level, an appeal only to the instincts and

emotions of the masses, a concentration upon a very few

easily

understandable slogans, and the greatest persistence in their repetiassure success. If these rules are adhered

tion

to,

by means of

propaganda "a people can be duped into seeing Heaven

and conversely the most wretched

life as

In the choice of his means the demagogue

The

as Hell,

paradise." is

absolutely unscrupu-

"less

educated" masses open

up unsuspected possibilities in the political knows the soul of the people. Lying becomes

a science in his system.

lous.

He

credulity

considers

it

and decency of the

are

which

more

will

make

it

credible, since the

easily corrupted in the very

consciously

and

him who

a

very correct principle that in the size of the factor

struggle for

deliberately

plicity of their souls, they

lie

there

is

always a certain

broad masses of the people

depth of their

souls,

than they are

bad. Therefore, with the primitive sim-

more

easily fall prey to a big lie

small one, because they themselves

tell

many

small

lies

than to a

but would be

— HITLER

I06

ashamed

to

tell

NO FOOL

IS

big ones. Such an untruth will never occur to

them and

they will never think of the possibility of such a monstrous boldness of the most infamous falsification on the part of others, and even after the clarification of the falsification they will

will accept at least

infamous

lie

any

long doubt and vascillate and

sort of cause as true; for that reason the

most

can never be wiped out entirely.

The burning

which was intended

of the Reichstag in Berlin,

create the atmosphere for the

open

to

terror of the Nazis, later revealed

the entire significance of this recipe.

Even today many Germans

cannot believe that the Nazi Government burned the Reichstag in order to arouse the middle-class voters and win the elections.

very thought that his Government should commit a crime

is

The

intol-

erable to "the primitive simplicity of soul" of the unpolitical Ger-

man. But

that the criminals themselves should

the innocent

—the

Communists,

to grasp that exceeds the

whom

sit

in

judgment over

they accused of the deed

power of imagination of even

politically

experienced men. Even a Europe which had experienced war and revolution was not used to such methods of fighting. Hitler had

guessed correctly. not to

The

fall

prey to

topic with

The

lie

was too infamous

for part of the people

it.

which Hitler begins

his practical political agita-

Munich is naturally not the delicate issue of the people's commonweal. This would have been embarrassing, for the "uncultured" workers always wanted to know what the commonweal meant in terms of wages, labor unions, the length of the work

tion in

day, the right to strike. Discussions of such touchy questions in-

volved the risk of alienating either the workers or business. Hence Hitler concentrates

upon

and upon

with which he

a lecture

a field with as

which he

already helped to educate the Reichswehr. of his repertory

is

rectly that at that

is

more

familiar

an army propagandist had

The

piece de resistance

the Peace Treaty of Versailles.

He

observes cor-

time the masses regarded denunciations of the

HOW

DID HITLER

Treaty if

as

COME TO POWER?

IO7

"an attack upon the Republic and a sign of reactionary,

not monarchial views." Nevertheless, Hitler decides that his party

must attack the Treaty;

he

for,

nately curry the favor of the masses,

of the Treaty, he

feels,

its

master.

it is

precisely

on the

[National Socialist

issue easily

German Workers'

become a flunkey of pubHc opinion, but must

Party] should not

become

and

indiscrimi-

mass resistance can be most

that

NSDAP

broken down. "The

must not

says, the party

It

must not be the servant of the masses but

their

lord!"

But Hider was soon

to learn that

Reichswehr than the "misled

With

the

first

sentence,

Brest-Litovsk ? Brest-Litovsk!" it

was

easier to "nationaHze" the

which contained the

one could hear the stereotyped until

it

proletariat."

criticism of Versailles,

back in reply: "And

interjection hurled

Thus

the

crowd roared again and again

gradually became hoarse or the speaker finally gave

attempt to convince.

One

up any

could have beat his head against the wall in

despair over such a people!

Indeed, this was the

way

the

German

people at

first

when Weimar

reacted

a Nationalist tried to fool them into believing that the

Republic was guilty of the Peace of Versailles. Not that they had in any as

way acknowledged the Versailles Treaty to be just, and not, tries to make it appear, that they did not want to under-

Hider

stand "that this dictate meant a hitherto unheard-of robbery."

What

the workers wanted to express with the cry "Brest-Litovsk" was their indignation over the hypocrisy of the

German

ImpefiaUsts in

representing the Versailles Treaty as a terrible injustice, after they

themselves had fought for years for the annexation of territory and in the Peace of Brest-Litovsk

had

dictated the

same

tions to a defeated Russia. Hitler, the ImperiaUst,

protest against a peace of extortion. "Marxist

cruel condi-

had no

work

right to

of destruction

^

HITLER

I08

NO FOOL

IS

and the enemy's poisonous propaganda had deprived diese people of

all their

reason," Hitler complains.

were imbued with a nobler sense of

They had fought

experienced.

On

the contrary, these people

justice

than Hider had ever

against Versailles

and

against Brest-

Li to vsk; they fought against imperiaUst war in any form and under

whatever

flag

it

appeared.

The way Hider

breaks

and speaks

down

the resistance of his audiences

propaganda. First of

characteristic of his

all,

is

he changes his topic

meetings on "The Peace Treaties of Brest-

at future

Litovsk and Versailles."

He

"had learned a lesson of great impor-

tance at that time; that

is:

To

reply out of his

hand

stride the

at the beginning!'

weapon

For

this

of the

in his future speeches first of all the generosity with

German Army had

torious I

contrasted the

and showed the

which the

vic-

treated the Russians.

two peace

really

enemy'

reason he describes

treaties,

compared them point

for point,

boundless humanity of the one as contrasted with

inhuman cruelty of the other, and the result was a triumphant one. At that time I spoke on this topic at meetings of two thousand people, where sometimes the gaze from thirty-six hundred hostile eyes struck the

me. Yet three hours

later I

saw before me a swelling mass

filled

the most sacred indignation and the most boundless wrath. great

lie

had been torn out of the hearts and minds of a crowd number-

ing thousands, and in

The really

with

Again a

its

historical truth

place a truth is

had been planted.

distinguished from Hitler's in that the

boundless humanity of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty contained

the following conditions for Russia

:

Cession of 290,000 square miles,

an area one-and-one-half times as large as the whole of Germany, with a population of approximately total

fifty

million or one-third of the

population and with one-third of the entire railway and com-

munication network and 75 per cent of the iron production. In was to pay war reparations amounting to six billion

addition Russia

marks. That

German ImperiaUsm

did not harvest the fruits of

HOW

DID HITLER

the dictate

The

to

is

collapse

its

and

COME TO POWER?

be ascribed not so

much

to

its

to the resistance o£ the Soviet

magnanimity

as to

Government.

four hundred eyes which at these meetings did not look

daggers

at Hitler

belonged to the "Hall-Defense," an armed gang

which accompanied him everywhere breaking of any opposition. Out of the

IO9

for his protection

it

and

for the

developed the notorious SA,

Storm Troops of the Nazi Party.

He rades

party

invariably selected only

whom

young men

for this purpose,

"com-

knew from army days, others, newly won young members, who had from the very beginning been taught and I

trained to realize that terror can be broken only with terror, that

on

this earth the

success."

Any

courageous and decisive had always achieved

heckling was immediately answered with clubbing

and expulsion. With "the most brutal

decisiveness" they

throw themselves upon anyone who had the nerve the Brest-Litovsk Treaty

to

were

to

answer that

was not a document of the most boundless

humanity. They were "trained for attacks Hitler's

and

language becomes

lyrical

be carried out blindly."

to

when he

describes these terrorist

gangs in action.

How the eyes of my boys used to glow at me when I explained to Like a swarm of hornets they them the necessity of their mission. flew upon the disrupters of our meetings, without regard for their preponderance, no matter how great, without regard for wounds and bloody .

sacrifices,

He

.

completely imbued with the great thought of clearing the

for the sacred mission of our

describes

between

.

some

SA ^nd

way

movement.

of the

memorable great meeting-hall

battles

workers, in which the Nazis naturally always

smashed the cowardly Red majority

to bits.

That on more than one

occasion his boys were saved only through rear exits and police

cordons;

that

the

reactionary

judges

of

counter-revolutionary

Bavaria invariably sentenced to severe prison terms "the Reds" as

no

HITLER and

the attackers;

that his

wehr, from which a great cler of the heroic

But even

gangs found

Munich PoHce

tector in the

we

if

their

IS

NO FOOL

most sympathetic pro-

President Poehner and in the Reichs-

many

them came

of

—

the chroni-

all this

epoch of the Nazi movement does not mention. read with the proper

poetic descriptions of the

magic of

He

continues to exist in them.

amount

of skepticism Hitler's

his speeches, a kernel of truth

succeeded in getting thousands to

turn out to his mass meetings and in bringing them under his influence.

was, however, not the workers, but chiefly people from

It

the lower middle class

was not only the

why

felt

drawn

But here somebody

attracted them.

simply,

who

to his

And

movement.

spectacle of the hysterically shouting fanatic

Germany, Hitler screamed

at

them, concretely and

finally told

times were so hard for them.

them.

speculators are enriching themselves

it

which

The Entente

The Jews and

is

pillaging

stock-market

on your misery! The Marxists

have betrayed Germany to international Capital! In the famous Program of the "unalterable" points, the

The Program the

first

all

consisting of twenty-five

of the Nazis attains

contains a series of national

category

inclusion of

NSDAP,

demagogy

and

social

its

pinnacle.

demands.

To

belong: annulment of the Versailles Treaty;

Germans

in a Greater

Germany on the basis of the German colonies;

right of national self-determination; return of the

establishment of a national army, instead of the "troop of mercenaries"

gram

which the Treaty of

Versailles

upon the exclusion

insists

of

all

demands. Naturally the ProJews from citizenship

In their drawing power, however, the national demands short of the social

demands, which were cut

to

the most pressing needs of the lower middle class

War

were

profits

incomes"

to

to

fit

the

rights.

fell

far

mood and

and the workers.

be confiscated by the State;

all

"unearned

be eliminated; big corporations to become the property

of the State;

and large

demanded

to

it,

estates,

where the

interests of the nation

be expropriated. Capital punishment for usurers,

HOW

COME TO POWER T

DID HITLER

Speculators,

and other

parasites

ation of department stores

by the workers in the

The language

is

upon

III

the

German

and subletting

people! Expropri-

to small dealers!

Sharing

profits of industry!

radical;

many

of the

demands

are extremely

popular. In spite of this Hitler did not succeed, either before his

Putsch in 1923 or up to the in exerting a noteworthy

moment influence

power in 1933, upon the German workers'

of his rise to

movement. The organized and experienced German workers have turned their backs with contempt upon the social demagogy of the anti-Semitic apostle of incitement, just as they have turned

down

his

chauvinism.

The masses and

came predominantly from the urban to him in greater swarms economic condition became, the more they saw

of his followers

rural middle classes,

the worse their

and they came

themselves betrayed by the Republic.

was the

movement;

Many

The

raging inflation of 1923

high-point in the development of the National Socialist

first

was the second. Nazi regime have drawn the conclusion on

the depth of the crisis of 1932

observers of the

the basis of the middle-class origin of

its

followers that the entire

regime has a middle-class character. They saw in fascism the victory of the middle classes, threatened with social annihilation, over the

workers

Big Business. Recently, however, most of them

as well as

—through the

have learned better

acts of

an unparalleled aggressive

imperiaHsm, through the economic degeneration of the "victorious"

middle capital

and through the powerful concentration of wealth and in Nazi Germany. It would not have needed the x:onquest of class,

Austria, Spain,

and Czechoslovakia

to recognize in National Social-

ism the new German ImperiaHsm. The entire history of National Socialism points to the forces which stood behind Hitler.

—at the Munich Putsch and at Hitler's Chancellor—they became clearly recognizable. occasions

On

two

appointment

as

HITLER

112

The Putsch

IS

NO FOOL

of igi^

After the overthrow of the Soviet RepubUc, Bavaria became the center of

German

reaction. All the conspirators against the

Weimar

Republic opened headquarters there. Bavaria teemed with

illegal

Rightist organizations, local vigilante groups,

and Freikorps— all

more

Among them

or less closely allied with the Reichswehr.

were

the Oberland (Upland), the Reichsflagge (Reich Flag), the Reichs-

War

kriegsflagge (Reich

Organization),

erich

Flag), the Organisation Escherich (Esch-

the

Wiking (Viking), the Bluecherbund und Reich (Bavaria and Reich),

(Bluecher League), the Bayern

and many Republic

among

others. All

the

were waiting

armed

he controlled a

political party.

now

an informer, but

it

Hermann

living

disposal. to the

unique position

higher

officer in the

now became

no

poUtician, as

Reichswehr, and the retired

Goering, an aviation

officers'

as

SA,

could, of course,

and well-known

officer

during the

War and

by shady business transactions, placed themselves

had connections

SA

Roehm

leader;

at his

introduced Hitler

The sub-corporal Armed Forces. He

corps of the Reichswehr.

high up as the Chief of the

socially eligible

previously closed to him.

tion the

a

understood his value as demagogue. Captain

Goering became the

Association,

The Reichswehr

a party leader

Ernst Roehm, an active

now

won

nationalist groups. Besides the semi-military

longer use Hitler,

Captain

for the opportunity to give the

death blow. Hitler had already

its

and received

He

and money began

invitations

from

circles

addressed the Bavarian Industrial to

come

in.

In the midst of the

infla-

Nazi Party acquired the Voelkjscher Beobachter, then an

independent nationalist weekly. Hitler has never given any accounting of the sources of his finances, not even to his party. That quantities

of foreign

French francs

money poured

—has

in to

him

—

dollars,

pounds,

lire,

been attested by witnesses in court. So,

even

too,

it

has been found that the party salaries of high Nazi functionaries

HOW

DID HITLER

COME TO POWER?

were paid during die

II3

inflation in Swiss francs.

Hitler's prestige as National Liberator.

never taken oifense at

The

None

of this hurt

possessing classes have

this type of international solidarity.

Ludendorff, the most famous general after Hindenburg, formed

an

with the sub-corporal and brought him additional

alliance

As

prestige.

early as ,1923 Hitler

was regarded by Reaction

Bavaria and beyond as the coming man, the one

who would

in

cleanse

democratic Berlin, the "Prussian pigsty."

His party was growing; Reichswehr arms were the SA.

The

new wave trembled

at the disposal of

Ruhr district loosed a The Government in Berlin

entry of French troops into the

of nationalistic

at the political

lapsing currency,

now

less

passion.

and economic consequences of the

col-

sure than ever of the sphinx-like Reichs-

wehr.

The Bavarian Government only: von Kahr,

upon

whom

consisted at that time of one

man

supreme emergency powers had been

von Lossow, Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr in Bavaria and Colonel von Seisser, Commissioner of the Bavarian Police. This trio was busied conferred. His chief collaborators were General

with preparations for a coup

d' etat of

its

own

against the Republic.

them and gave his word of honor that he would not strike independently, but would wait for the command of the Government. Seisser, for his part, tried to come to an understanding with the Supreme Chief of the Reichswehr in Berlin, General von Seeckt, who, however, would not commit himself. Von Lossow also hesitated. Before he undertook the treacherous venture, he wanted to be 51 per cent sure that it would be a go. Hitler urged; he sent Ludendorff to Lossow; he himself dealt with von Kahr; he was impatient. Police President Poehner was on his side; his SA stood ready; Ludendorff would march at the head of the Putschists. After a conference with the Bavarian Government, on Hitler negotiated with

November

6,

1923, in

which von Kahr opposed immediate

action.

HITLER

114 Hitler determined to act for himself,

He

honor.

word

NO FOOL

IS

no word of

of honor or

was suddenly afraid diat the high and mighty revolu-

him down. They had needed him to now they wanted to yield him no share in the spoils. So, on the evening of November 8, with the SA under Goering's command, he burst into a meeting of Munich were plotting

tionists

drum

to let

the masses together, but

upper-class people that

and

had been

called

by a leading businessman,

which Herr von Kahr was about

at

to

the Republic. Revolver in hand. Hitler Leisser into an

anteroom and implored them

They promised, were

New

After the

with Hitler

Armed

freed,

and

and Kahr

as

left

a speech against

and

to support his Putsch.

the meeting.

Government had been announced

Provisional

as political leader,

Forces,

make

led Kahr, Lossow,

Ludendorff

Chief of the

as

German

Governor of Bavaria, and while Hitler

was passing the night in the beer progress of the "Revolution,"

hall waiting nervously for the

Kahr and

his aides betrayed

him and

declared his party dissolved.

Confused and desperate because of conflicting reports about the attitude

of

his

allies,

"Triumphal March"

he

nevertheless

to start the next

ordered

sand National SociaHsts, with Hitler and Ludendorff

were stopped by a few policemen, to their

surprise— with

gone on the

Among

bullets.

first

The Fuehrer

fled.

the sixteen dead

who

fell

No

Putsch had

before the Feldherrnhalle were:

two craftsmen, a

bank

butler,

officials,

three engi-

and a head waiter.

of casualties gives a true cross-section of the social composi-

tion of Hitler's party. Industrial workers there

is its

The

—much

rocks.

neers, four salesmen, list

at the head,

with warnings, then

a judge, a retired captain of cavalry, three

The

scheduled

the

morning. But the two thou-

less

were none.

informative than the history of the origin of the Putsch

legal aftermath.

The

Berlin

Government found

in bringing action against Hitler.

Any

great difficulty

idea of punishing Luden-

HOW

DID HITLER

dorfl,

who had

COME TO POWER?

also

II5

Kapp Putsch, was minimum punishment o£ five

been involved in the

the question. There was a

out o£ years*

honorary imprisonment for high treason, but the Bavarian judges

would be wiUing

declared that they i£

the Reich

to pass sentence

Government pardoned him

after six

on Hitler only

months.

The Gov-

ernment promised.

many have wondered why a man, convicted of high man who had sacrificed sixteen lives in his attempt to

Perhaps treason

—a

—was

permitted to con-

tinue his political activities in prison by writing

Mein Kampf. The

overthrow the Republic by force of arms

writing of this book was, however, only one of the prisoner's

With

activities.

he received

who

political friends

reconstruction of the outlawed

The

raphy.

furnished

The

how he twice visited Hitler in him a new nationalistic military

sort of reading matter

prisoner,

in the

is,

months,

acted

He

had

Germany.

most of the time in Stairs

his first

be

sure,

Thus it

the

Weimar way

dealt in this

from "only the most honorable

who had

interests.

been a leading figure

Route

to stay in jail for the

to

strict solitary

and

last

demo-

whole sentence,

five

confinement.

Power

Hider, the politician, has learned

was

and fellow-

Soviet RepubHc, did not find any clemency in

years,

The Bac\

promised.

To

not selfishly but for the vested

cratic

It

as

poet and writer, Ernst Toller,

Munich

his political friend

as his private secretary. Besides all this,

arch-enemy.

who had

traitor

motives," that

its

free

were uncensored; he could get any

he wished; and

after six

Republic dealt with

The

his letters

Rudolf Hess, acted

he was pardoned

with a

had the use of two rooms; he was

prisoner

go about the town;

reports of the

in his autobiog-

tells

Landsberg and discussed with

to

him with

movement. Roehm,

Story of a Traitor,

organization.

many

the full knowledge and consent of the authorities

much from

the

Munich

Putsch.

attempt to gain poUticai power by an armed

HITLER

Il6

From now on he

uprising.

game and

will

keep to the democratic rules of the

practice high treason only

and

the great industrialists

NO FOOL

IS

on a

strictly legal basis, like

the generals of the Reichswehr.

Republic cannot under such circumstances suppress his party.

The Time

him. The dollar-sun which rose over Germany

after

the stabilization of her currency will shine but a short time.

The

will

work

for

Versailles Treaty, the

World War, istic

about Germany's sole responsibility for the

lie

the burden of reparations, offer material for national-

agitation for a long time to come.

for the

when

moment, have no

special use for

they need him. For he has

The

great capitalists

him, will turn

drawn

to

who,

him again

this lesson, too,

from

his

He can count on "the best people" only so long as they need him. He must play politics in such a way that he is indispensable to them. No danger will threaten him from the pitiful

Putsch experiences

Weimar Republic he need

The

:

so long as the workers, the only real strength that

each other's throats.

fear, are at

reconstruction of the

go by (1924-28) before the

Munich

defeat.

it

Nazi Party was

difficult.

Four

years

has overcome the worst consequences of

The economic

recovery of

Germany and

the

period of the Briand-Stresemann rapprochement were not a cHmate favorable for chauvinist revenge. Internal party dissension used a great deal of energy. In the elections of

May,

1928, the

Nazis

up

won

only 12 seats out of 465 in the Reichstag. (The Social Democrats

won

Communists 54 seats.) But the fact must not be overlooked that in 1928 the party was more firmly behind Hitler than was the old immature movement 153, the

of 1923. His authority as leader

was now uncontested. The

Frei-

korps had either come under his banner or simply disappeared

from

political life.

He

had found a group of able Heutenants. One

of them,

young Joseph Goebbels, an ambitious but unsuccessful

scribbler,

second only to Hitler in demagogy and oratory, was put

in charge of

the

Berlin district.

Then

there

were the brothers

HOW

COME TO POWER?

DID HITLER

Gregor and Otto

Strasser,

II7

who had been

fled the

was no longer that

country after the Putsch, returned,

in danger,

he had made

Roehm

post as

left his

now

that he

and brought Hitler valuable connections

Sweden and

in

up

North Germany. Goering,

the party organization, particularly in

who had

successful in building

Army

Italy. Later, at Hitler's request,

Instructor in Bolivia,

which he had

accepted in disappointment over the course of events after the

came back

Putsch, and

to take over the

financial status of the party

had

also

command

improved.

of die

Two

and most powerful industrial kings of the Ruhr and Thyssen, were now among his patrons.

SA. The

of the richest

district,

Kirdorf

In the middle of 1929 came the second great chance of Hitler's life.

Exactly ten years before, the Bavarian Reichswehr had dis-

covered

him

an anti-Semitic propagandist.

as

was repeated,

Now

advancement

time in the sphere of big poHtics. This time

this

it

who appreciated his quaUties as demagogue, but the focal point of German monopoly capitalism itself. Dr. Alfred Hugenberg, the leader of the German Nationalist was not

few reactionary

just a

officers

Party and one of the Titans of heavy industry, brought Hitler into his orbit.

As one

German League,

most

of the

the continuation of the

War

until the

and

new

lines of resistance for

suffer a defeat.

even while

Looking

German

far

were

had forced

people had been

War

he had begun to

German

ahead he began

soldiers

of the Pan-

German

bled white. But even before the end of the

prepare

members

imperialist

influential

this arch-reactionary

still

Imperialism, should to

losing their lives for

Peace without Victory." In the inflation he acquired

means

it

buy up newspapers

all

"No

of the

of forming public opinion that he could lay his hands on:

newspapers, weeklies, monthlies, film corporations, advertising and

had built up the most powerGermany. In his hatred of democbe outdone even by Hitler. But though he had

distributing agencies; in ten years he ful

propaganda apparatus in

racy he

was not

to

all

HITLER

Il8

command

means

of incomparably greater

and though

opinion,

for

NO FOOL

IS

fabricating public

his influence as leader of the

German NationRuhr

Party reached from the manufacturing plants in the

alist

district

activities class.

Junker

to the

was

This

limited.

estates in the East, his sphere of political

He

could mold only the politics of his

sly little reactionary

He

in motion.

own

to set the masses

did not have the political passion of a Hitler; and

he was too well lectuals as the

was not the man

known

to workers, peasants, artisans,

and

intel-

symbol of the reactionary rich of Germany. Hugen-

berg as friend of the workers? Hugenberg posing as a democrat, to say nothing of a sociaHst? Everyone

The

would have laughed!

opportunity which put the idea of a political alliance with

Hitler into Hugenberg's head

came during

the struggle of the reac-

Young Plan and against Stresemann's conciliatory policy toward France. The extreme Right wished to organize a mass movement against the acceptance of the Plan which, for the tionaries against the

first

time,

tions. this

was

The

to

determine the amount of Germany's war repara-

reactionaries

needed the great

purpose. But the fight against the

nationalistic

drummer

Young Plan was

for

actually

only the occasion, not the inner cause, of the alliance between

Hugenberg and cated that a

new

Hitler.

That such an

Nazis had been entered upon.

had

lost its

One

alliance

was made

at all indi-

era of co-operation between Big Business

The

and the

socialism of this workers' party

horrors for capitalism.

should not, however, imagine that the relationship between

Hider and Hugenberg was a simple one. Their union was not based on love alone. These two partners distrusted each other and each hoped somehow

to deceive the other. Intrigues

and maneuverings

were carried on without end. Monopoly capitalism, the impelling force of imperialism, needed for the

moment

Hitler's masses of

loyal adherents in order to liquidate the social gains of the Republic, to shatter the labor unions, to carry

on rearmament, and

to

break

HOW

DID HITLER

COME TO POWER?

II9

the bonds of the Versailles Treaty;

monopoly

capital for

its

money,

this respect the interests of

and of ever,

and

perfectly well that after the Republic

classes

and

was a

political,

called,

whether

it

it

would be an

haps a monarchy police

would be

for long years the

and

social,

"National Rebirth" of Germany.

might be

One

affair

tempo,

cultural content of the

thing was clear

Whatever

:

it

was not

yet certain

old-style military dictatorship,

with per-

a dictatorship.

as decoration

—or

But

SA and SS would

and the Stahlhelm^'^ or the

Nazi bureaucracy would have

at

be the

or a

civil servants

control of the

would aim

it

fascism; whether the Prussian

instruments of the terror; whether the old

the economic poHcy

them would

power within the ruhng

fight for

outcome would determine

its

and the

the form,

and

had been crushed

was not merely a personal

carry out the program. This it

trade,

by inspiration, were one. Both, how-

they would have to settle with each other as to which of

between two individuals;

power. In

political

Hugenberg, the imperialist by

Hitler, the imperialist

knew

Hitler for his part needed

influence,

new

Government; whether

world commerce or

self-suffi-

ciency; whether an independent or co-ordinated Christian church

would enjoy governmental backing; whether the racial issue would whether it would be made the core of the new ideology

exist at all or

—

of the State

all this

would depend upon whether Hugenberg and

the forces represented by him, or whether Hitler

would

gain the upper hand.

finally

It is

democracy, the workers' movement, the

would

disappear.

exploitation.

last

and

his party,

true that in either case

remnants of

civil liberty

There would be no further organized opposition

Germany would be transformed into

to

a gigantic barracks.

Nevertheless the interests of the two partners were not identical. Hitler

knew

only too well that the

lowing, he was done

card and

sell

for.

He

moment he

was much too

lost his

mass

fol-

clever to waste his best

himself unconditionally to Hugenberg.

He

reserved

for himself complete political freedom of action. In the course of

HITLER

120

IS

NO FOOL

three years, the "National Front" between Big Business

Nazis went

to pieces

sensed any danger of being dropped by his powerful his salvation in a ruthless attack

to use the

on them.

He

propaganda apparatus that he had

funds for bombarding "the

talists'

traitors," "the

and the

on more than one occasion. Whenever Hitler

built

up with the

capi-

people,"

"the

register

social

he saw

allies,

did not then hesitate

moneybags," and "the country-club reactionaries." In

demagogy he was unhampered by any direct identification with the owning classes. His masses of adherents were the only asset he could trade on. He had to keep them under all circum-

his social

stances. It

was therefore necessary

classes as the

who

middle

to appear to the

who was

not the tool of any

fought only for the welfare of the great

sham

In this

him always

one and only unselfish servant of the nation,

national revolutionist

but

for

as the

class interests,

German

people.

front against Big Business lay one of the reasons

why

the liaison with Reaction did not cost the Nazis the sympathies of the lower middle class. "See

would

agitators

how

he

tells

them

the truth," Hitler's

say triumphantly in their meetings.

"When

power, the rich people can't walk over you as they do in

he

this

is

in

Jew

Republic."

One had

other observation occurs at this point.

utterly disappointed the

class,

once

it

became

hopes placed in

clear that the Social

of the fight for a socialist

Germany

Once it

Social

Democracy

by the lower middle

Democrats were making

a miserable horse-trade,

and

that

they were losing one position after another to the old reactionary forces, the alliance

with these forces no longer harmed the prestige

of the "revolutionist" Hitler. tion. It

It

even enhanced his power of

gave the "son of the people" the attributes of decency and

legitimacy as well as poHtical prestige.

SA

attrac-

and SS, of

aries, of

dissipation

Rumors

of murders by the

and immorality of high Nazi function-

plans for wholesale assassinations, seemed to be without

HOW

DID HITLER

foundation

COME TO POWER? German

the guardians of

if

121

morals, the generals, the

church dignitaries, and the respectable women's clubs considered

him

socially acceptable

man

generation has never been able to part entirely with

illusions of the

the

politically trustworthy.

enough trump cards

couldn't lose by

it.

Moreover,

had not forgotten the

The campaign

older Gerits

fond

the world.

it

was the only way he could win.

bitter lessons of the

against the

with Hugenberg.

to risk a tie-up

Young Plan

Munich

its

Putsch.

but the National

failed,

Front remained in existence and continued parties

The

good old days when everyone could find work and

German name was honored throughout

Hitler held

He He

and

attacks

upon those

which had turned Germany into a "Young-Colony." The

Plan provided a superabundance of material for agitation. Germany

was

to

treason!

pay reparations for more than

Not only you but your

fifty years.

children

"National high

and your grandchildren

have been enslaved," raged the unleashed Hugenberg-Hitler propaganda. By auto, radio, airplane, the struggle was carried into the remotest village. Finally, the coffers of

High Finance were com-

pletely at the disposal of the Hitler organization.

Now

the Nazis

could demonstrate what modern demagogy was able to achieve. In a single year sixty National Socialist newspapers

The

appeared on the market.

functionaries

and

periodicals

of the party,

who

formerly for the most part had served without pay, became full-time employees. Their financial dependence upon the party leadership strengthened the Leader-Principle more than anything

Thus

it

is

else.

not surprising that Hitler's alliance with the most

powerful and reactionary Big Business groups harmed him but little,

even within his party.

took place. Otto Strasser,

It is

true that a series of

who had

minor mutinies

once been a Social Democrat,

dared to point out the dangers of the political course and to say

something about treason against sociaHsm. Without Hitler threw

him and

his small

group out of the

party.

much

A

ado.

revolt in

— HITLER

122 the Berlin

SA, which forced

way

its

also successfully

NO FOOL Head-

into Goebbels' Party

quarters and smashed everything to bits

found— Hitler

IS

—Goebbels

put down.

He

was not

to

be

had the money; he

had the power.

The

NSDAP now grew with lightning

influence of the

the elections of September 800,000 votes of 1928

—6,500,000

Reichstag instead of

12.

1930,

14,

and

it

received

speed.

—instead

At

of the

sent 117 representatives to the

In an unparalleled sweep

it

became the

second largest party in Germany. Only Social Democracy with 8,500,000 votes

The

and 143

was

seats

still

numerically stronger.

show that it was definitely not to the industrial workers that Hitler owed this victory. The combined vote of the Social Democrats and Communists had increased. A loss of 600,000 Social Democrat votes was more than offset by an increase of 1,400,000 Communist votes. "Marxism" had not been smashed, but the center parties had suffered heavy losses. The new Nazi voters were bolters from the moderate center parties and election results of 1930

who had

people

never voted before.

How political

minded

the entire

population had become can be seen from the ratio between the actual

and the

to vote

went

eligible voters.

Eighty-two per cent of those qualified

to the polls.

Most important among the reasons for Hitler's gains was the crisis which began at the end of 1929. Propaganda and demagogy alone do not suffice even with the heaviest financing

economic

—

to explain the Nazis'

prepared crisis its

soil

phenomenal growth. For

and the right

political climate

shook the economic and

very

foundations.

that

an especially

were necessary. The

political structure of the

Unemployment rose to over The Government's

Foreign credits were withdrawn.

Republic to six

million.

vaults

were

empty; Government authority was rapidly vanishing. Bruening, appointed Chancellor under pressure of Reichswehr-General von Schleicher, did his best to destroy the last vestiges of democracy

and

HOW

COME TO POWER?

DID HITLER

I23

the people's confidence in the Republic.

Soon he reigned without

which lowered

the Reichstag by emergency decrees

salaries, raised

consumers' taxes, and decreased the already miserable unemploy-

ment

relief allowances.

In the eyes of the masses Bruening became

the Chancellor of Hunger.

The Republic intellectuals,

down

has sold you

hammered

National SociaHsts

at the

Day by day

the river!

unemployed,

at the

the

at the despairing

peasants ruined by bottomless prices, at the

small businessmen suffering from the drop in the consumer's pur-

chasing power.

Among policies

the workers dissatisfaction with the Social Democratic

became more and more

had degenerated

party

into

Bruening was lost

all

The

"socialism" of this

complete opportunism. For

Bruening's Emergency Decrees

had

noticeable.

it

all

the "lesser evil" for the Social Democrats.

still

fighting spirit.

their

of

took the political responsibility.

The Communists,

to

They

be sure,

increased their influence, but, confined to a sectarian poHcy, they did

not succeed in gaining the confidence requisite to launching a great united It

is

movement

1930 to 1933.

can

against Hitler

and Reaction.

not necessary to trace in detail the fast-moving events of It

has been done in innumerable books. If anything

democratic forces against the

illustrate the helplessness of the

assault of their enemies,

eighty-four-year-old

it

is

the fact that in the person of the

von Hindenburg, Imperial

Reichs-President

Field Marshal and descendant of a Junker family, the Republic saw its last

The story.

means of

salvation.

internal poHtical history of this period reads like a pulp

Intrigues

and counter-intrigues

pended upon winning Hindenburg's racy

had passed

alternated;

favor.

The

everything de-

fate of the

into the hands of a poHtical gang,

Democ-

headed by

Colonel Oscar von Hindenburg, the President's son, and by Dr. Meissner, Secretary of the Presidency.

HITLER

124

Bruening push

confidence of the Junkers

lost the

program, intended

a resettlement

to

NO FOOL

IS

when he attempted

to

overcome the agricultural

by breaking up some of the huge landholdings in Eastern Germany. Schleicher found the right successor in the retired

crisis

Cavalry Captain Franz von Papen, who, as military attache in Washington during the War, had become notorious in connection with the German dynamiting of American munition plants. His

good manners which

pohtical quahfications consisted of his

vated the aged President.

Rhenish tiously

he contributed his share

excellent

capti-

a family of big

connections.

Conscien-

downfall of the Republic. In

to the

he unconstitutionally ousted the Prussian Government,

thus annihilating the

prop of the Social Democrats. Von Papen who recommended Hitler to Hindenburg the most critical moment of their existence.

last

go-between

also the

and saved the Nazis

Out

and had

industrialists

July, 1932,

was

Von Papen came from

at

—

what motives he acted whether out of revenge upon Schleicher who had made him Chancellor only to let him down, or of

whether in the hope of using Hitler does

room

it

A

matter.

and

plots,

democracy

in

as his

democracy ruled by

financial scandals,

which

millions

is

of

tool— it

is

not clear nor

intrigues, tricks,

already on

organized

its

drawing-

deathbed.

workers

look

A on

paralyzed while a small clique in the palace of an old Imperial

General decides their future, After

von Papen's

maker," had to

fall.

exists

He

a rule of the

oration" with the labor unions the Nazis.

Thus he hoped

rule without Hitler.

"the

Chancellor-

in a last effort

with the idea of establishing a kind

flirted

—

of military dictatorship

Schleicher,

Government himself

to take over the

keep Hitler out.

only on paper.

General

Army

supported by a "collab-

and by the Gregor

to get a base

Strasser

broad enough

,for

wing him

of to

But the clique around Hindenburg persuaded

the Reichs-President that of cratic Prussian family,

was

all

a

people Schleicher, scion of an aristo-

dangerous innovator. Schleicher, Hke

HOW

COME TO POWER T

DID HITLER

Bruening before him,

fell as

I25

victim of the Junkers.

He

tripped over

Help Swindle. Hundreds improvement of small-scale agri-

the plan of exposing the so-called Eastern of millions appropriated for the

Germany had found its way into the pockets The small farmers got nothing like their

culture in East

big landowners.

of the share.

Schleicher had the documentary proof of the swindle and threat-

ened

to publish

it.

But the Junkers would not

ence with their sacred rights to the

They had

the ear of the Reichs-President.

A

had presented him with the former family burgs, lost long ago by the family

provided by Big Business. This

any

interfer-

taxpayers'

money.

tolerate

German

short time before they estate of the

Hinden-

and bought back now with funds token of affection could not

little

but enhance the President's feelings for the plight of the harassed Junkers. Schleicher's attack prietors

and

upon

the privileges of the landed pro-

with the labor unions were for

his suspicious dealings

Hindenburg "Bolshevism." Schleicher had eral," as the

Nazis called him,

political intrigue.

Bruening last

was

certainly

no

was

The

clear!

The National

President of the Reich

assured Gregor Strasser: "I give you

General that

I

cellor of the

German

30, 1933,

To

will never

Reich!"

—

"Office

Gen-

in rapid succession!

Socialist

At

"Revolution" could

—who one month before had

my word

of honor as Prussian

Bohemian sub-corporal Channow summoned Hitler on January this

and entrusted him with the formation of the Government.

assess

the role

assigned to Hitler,

it is

and circumstance of

moment

make

The

a brilliant expert of

fighter.

—Papen—Schleicher—consumed

the road

take over.

He

to go.

may have been

which Big Business and the Junkers had well to examine more closely the exact time

his "seizure of

power." Until the very

the ruling class wavered. It turned over the

not joyfully but with hesitation. For a while

it

last

Government

had hoped

that

von

Papen, one of them by birth and education, could handle the job of destroying the Republic.

While Papen was Chancellor, Big Busi-

HITLER

126

The

ness subsidies to the Nazis shrank.

became

NO FOOL imme-

visible

In the July elections of 1932, the Nazis reached their

diately.

maximum theless,

effect

IS

of 13,700,000 votes

Hindenburg refused

and 230

Never-

seats in the Reichstag.

to give Hitler the portfolio of

Chan-

to him as the leader of the make him only Vice-Chancellor under Papen. Three months later, at the November election, the

cellor,

which ordinarily would have gone

strongest party.

Nazis

lost

He

wanted

two million

votes

to

and

thirty-four seats in the Reichstag.

The Hitler Party suffered a tremendous loss in prestige when all of Germany looked on as the "Revolutionist" with the strongest party behind him was twice summoned by Hindenburg and twice left without the Chancellorship. The

On

turning point seemed to have come.

this occasion

forces

no revolutionary shouting could hide the

behind the scenes were deciding whether

was

what conditions the sub-corporal

to

at all

govern.

fact that

or under

The

party,

triumphant but a few short weeks before, began to crack up.

propaganda machine

ate

which could no longer be

up an endless amount of money

raised by wealthy individual friends, but

only by Big Business organizations. Hitler was

If

they did not continue to pay,

lost.

My

In Goebbels' diary. entries for the

Deep

Its

—sums

Part in Germany's Fight,^^ the following

December days

of 1932 are to be found:

depression throughout the organization.

One

feels so

worn out

one longs for nothing but a few weeks' escape from the whole business. 'Phone

call

from Dr. Ley [Leader of the German Labor Front]: The

situation in the party

The

Christmas reigns in the life.

getting worse

is

from hour

to hour.

year 1932 has brought us eternal ill-luck. Outside the peace of

The

past

was

alone, pondering over

my

and the future looks dark and gloomy;

all

streets. I

sad,

am

at

home,

chances and hopes have quite disappeared.

For hours, is

the Leader paces

obvious that he

is

up and down

thinking very hard.

He

the is

room

in the hotel. It

embittered and deeply

HOW

DID HITLER

wounded by

COME TO POWER?

this unfaithfulness

127

Gregor Strasser

[of

who was

gone over to Schleicher]. Suddenly he stops and

to have

party once

to pieces,

falls

shall shoot

I

reported

says: "If the

myself without more ado."

A

dreadful threat, and most depressing.

Goebbels

calls

the financial situation in

and

ebbtide, debts

December

and on top of

obligations,

impossibility, after this defeat, of digging

hopeless. this,

all

up money

"Only

complete

in large

sums

anywhere."

mood

This was the

one month before rescue

was the

it

of the party

came

to

and

power.

its

highest leaders exactly

The man who came

irrepressible retired cavalry captain,

to

von Papen.

its

He

arranged a secret meeting between the desperate Fuehrer and the

man

Cologne banker von Schroeder, a

in the close confidence of the

big industrialists of the Rhine and Ruhr.

made

bels

A

few, days

later

Goeb-

the following entry in his diary: "Finances have very

suddenly changed for the better."

When try

the

money began

had decided

tions

to

to flow again,

it

meant

with the unions and whose "bolshevist economics" had made

him suspect. The Schroeder Bank had

excellent connections with the "City,"

London's financial center. English influences

much

may have

played a

greater role in Hitler's appointment than the world knows.

two most

Schleicher and Hammerstein, the the Reichswehr, were

known

"Eastward-Orientation," toward

A

that heavy indus-

back Hitler against Schleicher, whose negotia-

to

influential generals of

be favorably disposed toward

making a bid

for Soviet friendship.

highly dangerous course for England. In a paid drummer,

Finance, Industry, and Landowners beUeved they had a reliable

more

agent than in military dictators with "national-bolshevist"

leanings.

One

of the methods

deserves

some

which won

attention because

it

for Hitler the Junkers' confidence illustrates so

well his social dema-

:

IS

NO FOOL

the twenty-five Points of the "unalterable"

Program

HITLER

128

gogy.

Among

of the National Socialists, there

is,

as already pointed out,

has to do with landownership reforms. fessed to be the party of the

A

political party

one which

which pro-

working people naturally could not

ignore the- fact that with more than 5,000,000 agricultural units in

Germany,

owned more than 37 per cent of does not have to be a Bolshevik to consider

34,000 big landowners

One

the total acreage.

unhealthy such an enormous concentration of ownership, which to

a great degree Bulgaria,

slovakia,

is

remnant of the

a

Czecho-

feudalistic past.

Rumania, Hungary, Poland, and the

Baltic

border states have, since the War, been forced to undertake a more or less serious redivision of the land.

Land-reform was part of the

program of every German party which wanted

to be considered

progressive.

We

demand

a land-reform to

meet our national requirements; the

enactment of a law to expropriate without indemnity land for the

common

welfare; the abolishment of land taxes;

and the prevention of

speculation in land.

Thus we read But

agrarians,

Nazi

in the unalterable

as early as

was able

fairy story.

1928 the Deutsche Zeitung, organ of the big to publish

an

official

announcement by Hitler

In the light of the mendacious interpretations made by our enemies of the

Program

Since the

of the

NSDAP

NSDAP,

the following statement

is

necessary:

recognizes the principle of private property,

it

is self-

evident that the phrase "expropriate without indemnity" can refer only to the creation of legal

of the

to expropriate,

possibilities

which was not acquired lawfully or

commonweal. This,

is

therefore,

if

necessary, land

not administered in the interests is

directed primarily against the

Jewish land-speculation companies.

Thus

a social

demand, however vague, has been turned

anti-Semitic issue.

With

into an

unfailing class instinct Hitler has always

HOW

DID HITLER

COME TO POWER?

I29

considered private property in the means of production to be sacred,

has always warned the members of his

movement

they sympa-

lest

thize with the Marxist brand of Socialism.

In the discussion which preceded the expulsion of Otto Strasser,

he refuted

Strasser's

Don't you

and

circuses;

able to count tion of a

any

Socialism":

the great mass of workers wants nothing but bread

see,

We We

will never be

any extent.

you

are,

motivated by

has no understanding for any ideals.

it

on winning the workers

new

class of

masters

who

to

are not, as

on compassion, but who

ethics based

on grounds

"German

want

a selec-

are absolutely convinced that

of superiority of race they have the right to rule,

and who

can ruthlessly uphold and maintain this mastery over the broad masses.^^

This language the Junkers and big industriaHsts understood better than the eternal chatter of reforms

Another

factor

—the

and

socialism.

threatening changes in the development of

the Social Democratic and

Communist

Parties

—must

have exerted

upon come to power. From Communists gained 1,400,000 votes which to a great degree came from former Social Democrats. Compared with 1928 the number of Communist voters was almost doubled. With 6,000,000 votes it became the third strongest party in Germany and was well on the way to overtaking the Social Democrats. some

the decision to let Hitler

influence

1930 to 1932 the

Social

Democracy

fusion, the

in decline, the Hitler-mobilized masses in con-

Communists gaining

—such

a situation could not con-

tinue. In the next crisis millions of Social

might go over

to the

Democrats and

Hitlerites

Communists. Three years of hunger, unem-

ployment, despair, and boundless demagogy had heaped up an

enormous amount of prevented by

all

political

means.

Now

it

But not without guarantees.

dynamite.

was

To

A

landslide

had

to

be

Hitler's turn.

the very

end the ruling

classes

could not free themselves from the thought that Hitler was unpre-

HITLER

130

—^and

dictable— not a gentleman like themselves

NO FOOL

IS

dangerous

that

elements were concealed in his movement. So they surrounded

with

a

favorite

cordon

of

dependable,

him

men. Hindenburg's

trustworthy

Roehm

von Papen was made Vice-Chancellor. Not

or Goer-

ing, but the Prussian General von Blomberg got the Reichswehr

von Neurath, a

Ministry. Neither Rosenberg nor Ribbentrop, but professional diplomat of the old school, Office.

berg.

moved

The Ministry of Commerce was safe in The Stahlhelm leader Seldte became

into the Foreign

the hands of

Minister

HugenLabor.

of

The Treasury was taken care of by Count Schwerin-Krosigk. To make it foolproof, Hindenburg let it be understood that no changes could be undertaken in the Cabinet without his personal consent.

We

have him on a leash! So thought the Hugenberg crowd, the

Reichswehr bureaucracy, the landed

He

can

move

in

the Democracy.

one direction only

One month

families, the Reichs-President.

—against the Left,

later the

the workers,

Reichstag burned.

The

terror

began.

Today

it

looks as though the leash has not withstood the strain.

Hindenburg

is

dead

—even

his testament the

to their advantage; Schleicher

and Gregor

Nazis have

falsified

have been mur-

Strasser

dered by Hider; von Papen escaped the same fate by a hair's breadth.

Neurath was squeezed out of the Foreign

Office

by Ribbentrop. In

Hugenberg's Ministry of Commerce reigns Funk, Hitler's economic adviser.

The Commander-in-Chief

with Goering

made

at his side as

of the

armed

forces

is

by Goebbels, the despised Mephisto of the Third Reich.

be sure, Franz Seldte, the former Stahlhelm leader,

still

Ministry of Labor, and Count Schwerin-Krosigk

now,

Tax

Hitler,

Chief of the Air Force. Propaganda

Collector in the Ministry of Finance.

The one

prived of his steel helmets without which he

ment.

The

other

tries

is

haunts the as before,

has been de-

not even an adorn-

desperately to give the less

financial structure of the

is

is

To

and

less

orthodox

Third Reich some appearance of

solidity.

HOW It

and its

DID HITLER

COME TO POWER?

^3^

the Hne, that he seems that Hitler has conquered right down is to regain Imperialism no other will determine how German

Place in the Sun.

He

and no odier?

FOUR

How

"The

Does Hitler Carry Out His Program?

movement depends upon

future of a

the intolerance, with true one,

and carry

which it

its

the fanaticism, yea

followers represent

it

as the only

through, despite other similar move-

ments."

Mein Kampf Savior of Civilization

Of

T

his idol, Karl Lueger, Hitler says admiringly that he under-

"how to make use of all the already existing means of power, make existing powerful institutions favorably disposed toward him and to draw from such old sources of strength the greatest stood

to

own movement."

possible use for his six years of his

to heart the teachings of his master.

might seem

Hitler's road to

Government show how well

at times as

To

the superficial observer

though Hitler, Hke a

lenging the whole world at once. Actually, he

who

prepares and times his actions at

care.

Two

flict

weapons whose

of our age help

Germany

him

power and

the pupil has taken

mad is

bull,

were chal-

shrewd

a

tactician

home and abroad with

effectiveness

grows out of the

in a singular

as well as outside.

manner

The

it

great

social con-

to attain his vicis

the spectre of

"Bolshevism" has become one of the most misused

political catch-

tories in

first

Bolshevism.

132

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

words o£ our time.

comes from the history of the Russian labor

It

movement. "Bolsheviki" was the name given the left

they

wing

won

word

was

by the Bolsheviki, and

led

meaning

history of the

first

and

which

term "Bolshevism"

State, the

friends of the

construction.

up images

calls

name

to

has taken

To

adversaries

its

represents,

Third International, the sum

only successful theory and practice of

total of the

tion

which united

parties

International, the

over the world. Inseparably bound to the

all

Workers'

and

to the followers

is

since their revolutionary

by those workers'

form the Third (Communist) political

(Boh he

for more.) Since the Russian October Revolution

principles are recognized

on a

to the followers of

of Russian Social Democracy, led by Lenin, because

the majority of votes at a Party Convention.

the Russian of 1917

I33

it

of willful lawlessness

socialist revolu-

a symbol of terror

is

and general chaos.

All serious observers are united in the beUef that in 1932 there

Communist

was hardly a chance

for a

reasons are already

known

the lower middle class

revolution in

The working

to us.

had turned away from

securely in the hands of reactionary officers.

it;

Germany. The was split;

class

the

Army was

The upper middle

and Junkers were in no way intimidated, but rather on the sive against the Republic.

of Hitler's

most powerful

And

yet the fear of Bolshevism

necessities of

as a result of

man

was one

aides.

Throughout the world capitalism has reached and nervousness

class

offen-

its

a state of irritability

obvious failure to supply the vital

without disastrous

crises

has remained of the proud conviction of

its

and

collapses.

Not much

youth that through free

competition the ever-increasing welfare of humanity was guaranteed.

There

is

no

intelligent capitalist

governments must intercede in

who

their nations'

does not realize that

economic

life

in order

to alleviate the devastating effects of depressions, the chronic un-

employment of

millions, the pauperization of the

the plight of the intellectuals.

The

middle

class,

and

representatives of "rugged indi-

— HITLER

134

vidualism" are gradually dying

IS

NO FOOL

But reactionary groups have

off.

moment given up the struggle against reform measures, even though they may acknowledge them to be necessary. If govnot for one

ernment has

to

inaugurate reforms, then

own government. They themselves want and who is to give, and they want to have

it

should be

to decide

at least their

who

is

to receive

be assured that they will

to give as little as possible.

In

all

progressive legislation—be

the protection of youth, the

it

most modest agrarian reform, or a more humane penal code they see an attack upon their world, their morals, their possessions.

When

in

America a democratic President

is

called a

Com-

munist because he supports rehef for the unemployed, govern-

ment help for the farmers, or Labor's right to organize, one can imagine what role the Red herring, the scare of Communism and Bolshevism, must have played in a country like Germany, over which the shadow of a social revolution had already passed. As the Savior from Bolshevism, Hitler was certain of the wholehearted support of Big Business. In January, 1932, a year before he

was entrusted with the Government, he of Western

Even

if

Germany

there are

Germany today who assert that we National work they are mistaken! If it would be no more Germany, no bourgeoisie! The

many

question Bolshevism or ago!

Take

in

—

no Bolshevism would have been decided long

the weight of our gigantic organization off the scales of

national events

would

magnates

in Duesseldorf:

Socialists are incapable of constructive

were not for us there

told the industrial

and you

will see that without us, even today Bolshevism

tip the scales.^^

For the master of the

art of

propaganda and demagogy,

was and God-

it

easy to give such a horrifying picture of a Godless, starving,

enslaved Soviet Russia that fearing Protestants

and

many

Catholics,

of the peasants, of the

were ready

to

throw themselves

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

into the

arms of anyone

similar fate.

With

who promised

to protect

the spectre of Bolshevism Hitler

between the workers and the lower middle

Above

all,

as

I35

them from

made

classes

a

the breach

wider.

still

"Bulwark against Bolshevism" he succeeded

in gain-

ing the backing of great sections of the Christian churches.

Those who beHeve thing from as the

went

in appeasing fascism

German

Nazis had crippled

after all their other

had warned against

might have learned some-

their chief

enemy, organized

opponents in turn. In Mein

the Government-inspired campaign against

sacred. Otherwise

and

Kampf

Hitler

he should not be a

if

think

judgment on a church

fair to pass

Kampf, CathoHcism: "To the

institutions of his people

become a reformer, it

labor, they

a repetition of the Bismarckian Kultur

political leader, the religious doctrines

must be

As soon

domestic developments since 1933.

he has the

politician

stuff for it."

He

but should

did not then

as such, "if

once in a

while a degenerate in priestly garb runs afoul of the moral code in a vile manner."

up

With such

a righteous

man, himself brought

who gave the Church its due and who would uproot Communism, the Vatican was eager to sign a concordat.

a Catholic,

Godless

That was

in 1933, soon after Hitler

time his position was not secure.

became Chancellor. At

The agreement with

the

that

Pope

him at home and abroad. It "co-ordinated" twenty German Catholics and helped smooth over foreign criti-

strengthened million

cism of torture and murder in the prisons and concentration camps.

A

few years

later the

Nazi

press suddenly

pubHshed sensational

reports of moral crimes of degenerates in priestly garb, of sexual

among Catholic monks, of the treacherous smuggling money out of Germany by Catholic nuns. In campaigns which

perversion of

lasted priests

weeks the immorality and the high treason of Catholic were paraded before the people in monster public trials. A

new Kultur Kampf National Socialist

lies

is now on, fought with the weapons of and unscrupulousness. More than eight thou-

HITLER

136

sand Catholic monks and lay brothers, according to

were brought

IS

NO FOOL

official reports,

by step the Catholic Church

to trial. Step

being robbed of the rights Hitler had guaranteed

it

now

is

Con-

in the

cordat. Catholic youth organizations have been dissolved; Catholic

parents have been so intimidated that they are taking their children

The

out of parochial schools.

leader

"Catholic Action,"

of the

Ministerial Director Klausener, along with several of his collaborators,

was shot by the SS

in the blood

XI did not deter Church is hardly

purge of 1934. The famous

moment. Hundreds of ministers who refuse to use their pulpits for Nazi propaganda have been paying for their daring in prisons and concentration camps. Encyclical of Pius

The

Protestant

The best-known among them, trine of salvation

was

to

bring

learned too late that the

him

his Evangelical faith. Hitler is the

no other gods before him

better ofF.

Pastor Niemoeller, started out as a

He

faithful supporter of Hitler.

the Nazis for one

—this

new

doc-

into irreconcilable conflicts with

Lord thy God. Thou shah have is

the First

Commandment

of

National Socialism. Protestants and Catholics were desirable aUies the battle against

in

must become

Marxism, against "Bolshevism."

Religious persecution in the Third Reich

is

this

they

directed not only

and not primarily against the Christian Doctrine sure,

Now

faithful Nazis.

as such.

To

doctrine cannot very well be used by a system

be

which

declares the conquest of other Christian peoples a mission set for it

by Providence and which places allegiance

and Race above allegiance

The Nazis cannot

to

to Fuehrer,

State,

Christian teaching and humanity.

afford to allow anyone to have a

shadow of

doubt about their mission. In fanaticism and intolerance they see the

only guarantee of their continued existence. But above

all,

they can under no circumstances put up with any organization

which might become the center of mass opposition against regime.

When

today a

German

their

attends services at the Evangelical

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

Confessional Church or attends CathoUc mass,

137 it is

former days, merely a matter of worship, but

in

act.

Whether he wants

to or not,

no

longer, as

also a political

he indicates thereby that

ception of the nature of religion and of the function of the

not that of the Nazis,

is

"People's Church,"

and that he

it

must "by

all

means subordinate the

of brotherly love to the idea of national honor."

As soon

Church

National Socialist

chief theorist. Hitler's close friend Alfred

whose

Rosenberg, writes that

rejects the

his con-

as Hitler felt strong

ideal

^*

enough, he tore up his agreement

with the Pope. With what end in view he had signed the Concordat at

an

all, is

apparent from a remark of Rosenberg's concerning

agreement between the Vatican and Mussolini, which

earlier

had served the Nazis Through

as a

model:

the Concordat of 1929 Catholic priests are deprived of the

right to political activity; the Catholic "Pathfinder" organizations, too,

have been dissolved, in order not to allow the development of a State within the State. Since the Vatican has approved this step for

can no longer

raise

Italy, it

any fundamental objection to similar measures by

other governments.^^

In the "totalitarian" Hitler State

ment

to decide

where

it

will

draw

it

is

entirely

activity. "Totalitarian" itself signifies

political

siders all

and sundry

subordinate to

its

human

fields of

authority.

Who

up

to the govern-

and

the line between religious

life,

that the State con-

endeavor, and behavior

can prevent the Nazis from

upon

seeing in the preaching of brotherly love an attack

their

own

doctrine and institutions?

But in foreign

spite of all that has

countries

Christendom.

"It

happened

is

Germany,

fascists

in

the savior

of

should never be forgotten," writes Father

in his weekly Social Justice (April

Axis

in

continue to celebrate Hitler as

3,

CoughUn

1939), "that the Rome-Berlin

the great poHtical rampart against the spread of

Com-

HITLER

138

munism. As

such, the Rome-Berlin Axis

NO FOOL

IS

serving Christendom

is

manner." The Bolshevik scare continues

in a pecuHarly important

to serve in the field of reHgion, as in international politics, as the trail-blazer of fascism.

With

Red herring

the

He

Hitler conquers Europe.

need only

confront the English and French bourgeoisie with the threat that

with him the only dependable

dam

against

Communism

and he can squeeze any imaginable concessions out of fearful for their existence.

"me

will

fall,

capitalists

By blackmail tactics, by the ultimatum made his greatest conquests without

or Bolshevism," he has

firing a single shot.

His invincibiHty Hes in the quaking of the

Chamberlains and the Daladiers lution in

Germany,

at the

thought of a

socialist revo-

Spain or wherever fascism might expe-

Italy,

They react exactly as did the frightened German Asked to choose between fascism or a possible popular

rience a defeat.

middle

class.

uprising, they blindly choose fascism.

The

poHtical attitude of the English

Government toward Japa-

nese aggression in Manchuria, Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia,

miHtary occupation of the Rhineland, his annexation of

Hitler's

Austria and Czechoslovakia, Hitler's and Mussolini's intervention Spain, MussoHni's seizure of Albania

in

was dominated by

of these

only

Communism

British

—

its

attitude

a single thought: In a

toward

all

new world war The

can win. Democracy grows weak with age.

Tory Government moves toward the road of surrender, German Republic did. The Red herring is devour-

exactly as the

ing

i

it.

Just as

it

was the

class interest of the

the Junkers that brought Hitler to class

make

interest of his

the

in

if

bourgeoisie and

Germany,

it

is

the

English and the French bourgeoisie which

triumphs in Europe possible. Therein

his success. Hitler

they are,

German

power

lies

the secret of

and Mussolini would not be the cynical

they did not

make

pirates

the most of their historical role as

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

"Saviors of Civilization."

"What

is

his Reichstag address

on January

Italy

is

fascism has done for the preser-

as yet incalculable," Hitler said again in

vation of civiHzation

Germany and

I39

31, 1939.

"Upon

the solidarity of

founded the salvation of Europe from

its

threatened destruction by Bolshevism." Liberator

and Revolutionist

The warning est

against the deluge of Bolshevism

Hitler's sharp-

is

but not his only weapon in carrying out his plan of conquest.

The

struggle over the re-division of the world

century, integrally tied

up with revolutionary

social nature. Inseparable

from

Hitler, the

is,

in the twentieth

desires of national

and

Communism-Killer,

is

Hitler the "Revolutionist," the "Protector of National Minorities," the "Liberator of Oppressed Nations."

In the projected National Socialist world-empire

group of

nationalities.

Germans,

Poles, Serbs,

lives

a motley

Hungarians, Czechs,

Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Turks, Bulgarians, Russians, Ukrainians,

Jews, and others exist as scattered national minorities within foreign states.

Migrations and, more than

that, political borders

have created

this

Babel of languages and nationalities in Southeastern Europe.

The

Paris Peace Conference at the

end of the World

the political reorganization of this territory

on

War

attempted

the basis of the

right of nationahst self-determination.

But the Peace Conference did not

solve the minority problem,

partly because of the designs of French-English Imperialism. Ger-

many was cally allied

to

be surrounded by a ring of independent

with France, which were to block any

states, poHti-

new German The Soviet

attempt at expansion toward Southeastern Europe.

Union, on the other hand, was

to

Western Europe by a chain of border against Bolshevism by

be cut off from Central and states.

The

no means originated with

idea of a bulwark Hitler.

However, no international commission, even with the

best of

HITLER

140

IS

NO FOOL

could have solved the nationality problem solely on

intentions,

the basis of plebiscites. Self-determination remains but an

phrase

if

it

nomic reforms. Even the most democratic of Czechoslovakia,

knew

How much

these post-War states,

conscious discrimination against

its

more

justification

there for dissatisfaction

is

the part of the Ukrainians in Poland, the Hungarians in or the Bulgarians in Yugoslavia! Since 1919 in Eastern

enough

eastern Europe, to

blow up

spark to

set

all it

political

off.

than half of the to

total

From an economic and

is

extremely strong.

Germany, and Germany its

industrial

products.

With

holds

the geographic advantages.

is

building up a monop-

equipment

for their

the annexation of Czechoslovakia the

When

to stop Hitler's military fortification of the

dominant influence

More

export of countries Hke Yugoslavia and

oly position by bartering

its

Rumania,

and South-

dynamite has again accumulated

Hitler has decided to apply the match.

all

on

Europe. National self-determination needs only a

mihtary point of view alone his position

Rumania goes

minorities

and cultural autonomy or of government

in questions of political relief.

empty

not accompanied by far-reaching political and eco-

is

farm

German Army

France took no steps

Rhine,

it

lost to

Germany

How much

miUtary aid to

more difficult it Poland, Rumania, or

Utilizing to the full Germany's economic

and military prepon-

will be for

France

in the Balkans.

to bring

Yugoslavia in the future!

derance. Hitler bores from within in the states he threatens. desire

among German

minorities in Poland, Lithuania,

Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Slovakia is

not

astonishing

triumphs,

in

of National

view of Socialist

to "return

Hitler's

home

to the

uninterrupted

agitation,

The

Hungary, Reich"

series

of

and of the profound

national conflicts in those states. Numerically these minorities are

not negligible. In Poland there are probably over a million Ger-

mans, in Hungary and in Yugoslavia each half a million, in

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

Rumania

three-quarters of a million.

Many

I4I

of them, with their

great faithfulness to tradition and their narrow clannishness, are

material for potential "Fifth Columns"; their formidability naturally increases with Hitler's influence.

The Nazi's in their expansion do not depend merely upon German minorities. To the Hungarians in Rumania or the Croats in Yugoslavia they come as liberators from the Rumanian or Serbian yoke. They have already "saved" the Slovaks from the Czechs. Only one minority, the most oppressed of

all,

does not

Germans in the Southern Tyrol, whose language Mussolini forbids, whose tradition he destroys, whose affection for the homeland he persecutes as high treason.

interest Hitler.

The

That

is

the 250,000

Axis, the collaboration with "the great

Alps,"

is

more important

for the Savior of

of a few hundred thousand Germans. expelling the province.

The

German

knows no

ImperiaHsm. In

nationalities

the fate

accepts Mussolini's decree

sentimentalities.

military conquest of the territories

are to be incorporated in "Greater

Hitler

South of the

population from this old German-Austrian

Imperialist

The economic and

He

man

Germany than

critical

Germany"

situations

is

such

which

not enough for

newly annexed

might become dangerous foreign elements within

Nazi Germany. Hitler has not forgotten how

in the

World War

the Austro-Hungarian conglomerate of nationalities cracked up.

He knows

what

in the rear of a

it

means

to

have eight million embittered Czechs

German Army

facing East. "Pacifying" by blood

and terror the conquered territories, or those yet to be conquered, must go hand in hand with the actual winning over of a part of the population to National SociaHsm.

whose support Hitler can gain the peasants, and

The most important

class

in these agricultural countries are

upon them the Nazis concentrate

their propa-

ganda. In Southeastern Europe, where the peasants' fight for land

is

HITLER

142 the

at

of

root

the social

the Nazis

struggle,

Jin^-^'^iberators. Anti-Semitism facilitates their role.

NO FOOL

IS

pose as peasant-

The

Jews, by a long

development, have been forced to concentrate upon trade

Thv

historical

l\

and a few of the professions closed to them.

Hence

—

other vocations having been

all

in countries

with a

relatively large

Jewish

population, such as Poland or Rumania, the Jewish lawyer, cattle

made

buyer, and peddler can easily be the peasant as the symbol of

the

Jew becomes

sharpers and exploiters. Fighting

all

the hated landowners, the corrupt

Once we

rious bankers.

Hungary, the Nazis

tell

government

rule in Poland,

the peasants,

well as capitalist exploitation. the land they

synonymous with fighting

the poor peasant

to

work; then the

to appear in the eyes of

Then

the usu-

officials,

Rumania, Yugoslavia and

we

will clean out feudal as

own

the peasants will finally

"interest slavery" of the

banks will be

broken; then the industrial and cultural development which has

been shackled for centuries will advance in giant peasants are

gained

all

little, if

Hitler's

totaUtarian

mate

Imperialism conquers not only with

One

to touch.

air-

of the most tragic spectacles of

the sight of the fascist powers capitalizing

aspirations for national

fascists

them because they have

cashes in on social abuses and injustices which

It

democracy refused is

to believe

the

anything, from Anglo-French "protection."

planes and tanks.

our time

more ready

the

And

strides.

and

social

freedom

—the

on

legiti-

sight of the

posing with considerable success as the friends and pro-

tectors of oppressed nations

and exploited

classes.

Here

it

becomes

most obvious that fascism cannot be fought successfully merely on -J|(^

ideological grounds.

The hope

for a better life will always

the "liberator" welcome, regardless of

"Military

Of

all

make

his reputation.

Economy" the surprises

which National Socialism

ing on the world, there

is

is

constandy spring-

probably none that aroused more specu-

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM? than

lation

"economic miracle." Even people

its

now and

Hitler's policy of conquest

and hope

I43

to his

who condemn

then point with admiration

domestic achievements. Did he not bring about

order and recovery in a surprisingly short time to a country torn

by

political conflict

and confronted with economic collapse? Did

he not do away with unemployment and give the working people an economic security which the democracies are faiUng

them?

them

Hitler's foreign

but at

say,

poHcy

home he

for the solution of social

The Nazis

is

barbaric

to give

and criminal, one hears

has entered upon

new

constructive roads

and economic problems.

They enuwould do to raise the Hving standards of the people if they only had the raw material, the territory, the "living-space," which other great powers possess. "If we had the merate

all

Ukraine,

screamed

industriously encourage such thinking.

the things they

we would make a at the Nuremburg

paradise out of Germany," Hitler

Party Congress in 1936 amid the

thunderous applause of his audience. In every speech he peddles the argument that

Germany

is

"a people without living space."

He

compares Germany's population per square mile with the population per square mile of the Soviet

Union, America, or the British

Empire, and demands that something be done to correct the

How

proportion.

successful his

argument has been so

by the widespread notion that Hitler can be bought

and

far off

is

dis-

shown

from war

that further territorial concessions will release the explosive

power of the Third Reich

like

steam out of a valve. As

yet,

how-

grown with every conquest; he mobilizes aggressive. The more more he rants that he belongs to the "have-nots." Can

ever, Hitler's appetite has

ever

more

feverishly

he has the

and becomes ever more

he never be appeased?

To make

a fundamental distinction between the internal

external policy of a

one

policy. If

it

government

is

naive.

A

and

government has but

adopts a program of conquest and domination

.-V^

HITLER

144 abroad,

Surely

no coincidence

is

it

that

three great imperialist aggressors

Germany,

—have

and now rule with

cratic institutions

Germany,

And

and Japan.

Italy,

home,

institutions at

surely

guided in

vv^

its

Hitler's

to alleviate the

What

Hitler has done in

underprivileged, people,

its

has been able to do

it

much what he

is

on the road

has put

state

which

the opinion expressed that there are

—that

the

it

will lead.

how

parallels

Could

it

Of

between Nazi

states.

Frequently one hears

of the

basic differences

Third Reich

completely organized under an all-encompassing plan; that

is

also

German

businessmen are losing their independence and are becoming employees of the

he

to find a surprising resem-

no longer any

economy

fortifications.

to socialism after all?

draw

Union and

blance in the economic systems of both

tually

not

is

picture.

He

has done, but

and, even more, where

the Soviet

economies

whole

a "miracle."

work, and, from a

to

has become quite fashionable to

Germany and

is

armaments, highways, and

not so

be that Hitler-Germany

in their

a

financial bankruptcy, he has extracted at least

billion dollars for is

reveal the

Germany

unemployed back

But the wonder

it

its

all

tliat

democratic

cannot be separated from his foreign

policy

was confronted with

late

—the

demo-

foreign relations by the instincts of a wild beast.

internal

six million

retain

to

misery of

Only taken together do they

twenty

their

all

no coincidence

it is

effort

encourage the cultural progress of

to

policy.

and Japan

methods not only

terrorist

government which puts forth every

y'.

Italy,

destroyed

Czechoslovakia, Albania, and parts of China; but also

Austria,

and

NO FOOL

attempt to enforce an iron suppression at home.

will

it

IS

vir-

State. Private property, so the story goes,

has long ago become a fiction in

Germany;

nally; in reality the State does as

wishes with private capital and

it

is

it

exists

only nomi-

when and where capital is to be invested, but also to bring. The independent businessman as well as

decides not only the profit

it

— HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

the free market

and

we

and

free labor, uncontrolled price

the regulators of the system talism,

I45

hear, have

—

all

profit as

these essential elements of capi-

been replaced by the

of a state

dictates

bureaucracy.

There

no doubt that the economic order of the Third Reich

is

outwardly resembles

less

and

which we have been used something

to.

Whether

new

fundamentally

the capitaHsm of free competition

less

or not for that reason

—perhaps

—

socialism

it

is

another

is

question.

All the cultural, economic, and political innovations of Hitler-

Germany have one thing tion. From the education

everything

they

war prepara-

serve

Farm

Bill" to the "Schools for Leaders,"

airplanes to the adulteration of bread

subordinated to one end.

is

all

of youth to the building of state high-

ways, from the "Hereditary

from the production of

common:

in

Germany must win

the

next world war. It

the

was therefore unavoidable that the Nazi State should subject

economy

entire

to

minute regulation and should

seriously with the rights of the individual capitalist.

interfere

Those who

see

any government interference in business or in any pubHc prop-

in

erty a sign of socialism

might today take up the famous Social

Democratic slogan of 1919-20 and shout that socialism

march throughout

One need the social

"By

not

know much

sociology

and economic system

their fruits ye shall

know

that

Economy," and by spiritual,

this they

and economics is

them."

have built and are continuing to build

all

is

on the

the world.

being

set

The Nazis

at a feverish

understand "the

total

understand

to

up

in

call

Germany. what they

tempo "MiHtary mobiUzation of

moral, physical, intellectual, economic and technical

forces of the entire people's

serves the total

war

commonweal."

^^

The

total

mobiUzation

—the war which will be fought with

all

weapons

HITLER

146

and

in all fields. It

is

to

of the world. Military

to

its

totality,

New

economy" that

its

outward forms of

man, drafting even the

to

itself it

is

due

weaknesses peculiar to

German

dimensions, which leave the "war

of the Kaiser-Reich far behind.

economic sphere, but that

is

nev\^

the thoroughness of Hitler's

reflects

as well as certain

indeed are

does not confine

it

by the

resemblance to a planned economy

Its

which in turn

war preparations capitalism.

NO FOOL

make Germany the master of Europe and Economy and socialism have as much in

common as do prison and freedom. Many observers have been misled Military Economics.

IS

New,

also,

is

the fact

government interference

in the

invades the private Hfe of every Ger-

child of ten into

the attempt of the Nazis to

make

its

service.

But not new

a virtue of necessity.

The Achilles heel of German economy is its lack of raw material. The highly developed German industries have always been dependent

upon foreign raw

tional material for

German

materials. Hitler's

armament and

tremendous need of addi-

the simultaneous curtailment of

exports produced an endless chain of government inter-

ventions in the form of rationing and apportioning, of regulating exports prices.

and imports, of directing

The

necessary

capital investment

and of fixing

English or American armament industry can take the

raw

and

materials

accessories

from the market without

immediately creating a serious shortage. So

far,

present British

rearmament has been carried out with the understanding ernment orders should

interfere as

little

of private business. "Business as usual"

motto during the

had

to

modify

it

first

as the

that gov-

with the interests

was Chamberlain's unheroic

phase of British rearmament, although he speed and the extent of his armament pro-

gram grew. But German

capitalism, so poor in

never afford such luxury, even

The

as possible

if

it

wanted

raw

material, could

to.

Spartan frugality, which the Aryan philosophy of Ufe

teach the

German

people,

is

is

to

but a reflection of the bitter necessity

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

to feed the

Moloch of the war

The German

needs.

industries at the expense of civic

who

workers,

are told

Goering that they should prefer cannons the head

when

I47

by the well-padded

to butter, hit the nail

on

they characterize Nazi-heroism with the ironic

statement: "Military posture takes the place of the winter overcoat."

The

apparent incongruity between the Third Reich's desire for

self-sufficiency

on the one hand and

hand vanishes

if it is

of a country poor in all

raw and

possible sources of material

up the gaps

on the other

for conquests

understood as the totalitarian war preparation

as best they

accessory materials.

and

reserves for

By mobilizing

war and by

filling

can with substitutes, the Nazis arm them-

World War them not an end in itself. Mass many ways less satisfactory substi-

selves against a repetition of the disastrous effect of the

blockade. Self-sufficiency

is

for

production of expensive and in

the country. If today the Hermann Goering Works opens up mines which had been abandoned for decades

tutes impoverishes

Iron

because

it

did not pay to operate them,

and labor expended

to extract

it

means

that the capital

one ton of iron must be greater than

in countries with richer deposits of ore.

The more

successful Hitler's

second Four-Year Plan, to which he has assigned the task of making

Germany of the

self-supporting through the

last existing

stitutes, regardless

omy

raw

materials

of costs

most painstaking

utilization

and the production of new sub-

—the worse off Germany's national econ-

will be, the higher the cost of production, the smaller the

consumer's share. Such an economic policy even an heroic National

SociaHsm cannot carry on for the pleasure of the Apostles of Blood

and

Soil. It

can be justified only by the hope of a final success that

more than pay for all Once we have Rumanian

will

the temporary hardship oil,

Danish

butter — we

we

will

have plenty; then you can loosen your

the

German

people.

and

self-denial.

Hungarian wheat, Ukrainian

ore,

don't need to stint ourselves any more; then belts,

the Nazis

tell

HITLER

148

But

meantime, Military Economy snatches the control of

in the

the entire national

armament

NO FOOL

IS

life.

The enormous need

new

of capital for the

works, the transfer of entire branches of industry

Germany,

the vulnerable border-regions to the center of

from

the con-

standy rising costs of "self-support," force the Government to draw net of regulations ever tighter.

its

Forced concentration of trade,

and decline of the workers'

whip of

the

capital, elimination of

total

mobiUzation.

small business and

living standards

The demands

of the

go on under modern army,

navy, air force, and fortifications can be met only by the technical

equipment of big industry. Whether they want Nazis have

to strengthen the

or

to

not,

the

preponderance of the huge industrial

plants over the medium-sized

and smaller

ones.

And

even

among

the big industrialists, there are certain groups, the masters of heavy

who on

industry,

the basis of the indispensability of their factories

war must be shown preference

for

and

materials

in

the

assignment of raw

labor.

Since Hitler has been in power, the capital investments in Ger-

man Is

industry have constantly risen.

not this the best yardstick for measuring the progress of Ger-

man economy under

our leadership, ask the Nazis?

investments

belching

signify

smokestacks,

Do

growing

not these industries,

numbers of employed, rising purchasing power of the people and general prosperity? There is only one factor they lose

increasing

sight of: that this

omy — a

Hitler

is

merely a matter of the

rise

of Military Econ-

boom.

At an ever-growing percentage new investments controlled by the

Government.

might argue that Roosevelt with

opponent of the

pump-priming

is

New

and Deal

well launched

same road. But the difference between the New Deal's economy and the Nazis' total mobilization precisely the difference between democratic and fascist aims. In

upon

the

intervention in national is

An his

are inspired

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

Germany

the available capital

is

I49

directed into industrial channels

Nazi

to serve w^ar. In 1938, for example, according to official tistics,

Economy) were

to Military

1933;

sta-

the investments in capital-goods industries (which are vital

whereas

amount

three times the

investments

in

increased only one-third in the

taking control of the

money and

ing the flotation of

new

invested in

consumer-goods

the

same

industries

Through

period.

a pains-

through prohibit-

capital market,

and

stock issues, through forced loans

raw material and through a foreign-trade control, the Nazi Government sees to it that all available resources are used for the war machine.

obligatory investments, through alloting

The term

available

elastic.

is

The

less

sumer goods production, the more there

needed for con-

capital is

be used for war

to

products. This simple truth determines the Nazis' attitude toward the people's standard of living. Siegfried Lines.

Drawing

One

cannot eat guns, airplanes, and

would purchasing power

six million workers into industry

under normal conditions lead to an increase in

demand for consumer goods. As a consequence, idle would flow into light industry, which would hold out the promise of good profits. But it is just this that Military Economy must avoid; its aim is war and not the well-being of the people. "Don't you think that we would raise wages if we could!" exand

a rise in

capital

claimed Rudolf Hess, the Fuehrer's lieutenant, in his address in Halle, in

1937.

"The command could

wages 50 per

Raise

all

much

popularity by such a

Because raised,

we have

cent!

We

easily

enough be given:

in the leadership

command. But why

a conscience. For

we know

would gain

don't

that

but no one could prevent the corresponding

we do

it?

wages can be rise in prices

which must follow."

Such a statement contains but a

half-truth:

chasing power of the workers would lead to a

consumer goods

if

their supply

A

rise in the

pur-

rise in the price of

were not increased accordingly.

HITLER

150

This the Nazi Government does not want of importing the it

would have

to

raw materials

to do.

it

would have

much-needed apartment houses. Funds destined

for

to

party's "historical mission"

living standards of the

People's

is

such that

for Mili-

it

The

with the

conflicts

whenever the question of raising the

German

people comes up.

Nazis must decide against the

their cause, the

to use

be utilized for pubHc welfare.

socialism of this Workers' Party

The

war machine,

import butter and wool; instead of using building

Economy would have

tary

For then instead

so necessary for the

materials for the construction of fortifications,

them

NO FOOL

IS

To

be true to

interest of the people.

Commonweal demand for labor is insatiable. After having German domestic workers to return to Ger-

Military Economy's

forced thousands of

many from Switzerland, England, Holland, and Scandinavia, the now recruiting farm hands from Italy, Hungary, and

Nazis are

Czechoslovakia and skilled metal workers from the United States

and Canada. They have long the

German women's realm

number

of

employed

women

rose

from

is

the family.

of

women employed

1,840,000.

A

compulsory "year of service" for

in

The

total

5,200,000 in 1935 to 6,400,000

1938;

in

view that

since revised their former

of activity

from

industries,

1,400,000

women makes

to it

impossible for a girl under twenty-five to enter a college or to take a job without having

worked one year on a farm.

But the guardians of the German family do not stop here. Child labor has again been legalized.

Young

people over sixteen

may

again be required to put in up to nine hours of night labor; ado-

between fourteen and sixteen may be required

lescents

eight hours until ten o'clock in the evening;

fourteen

may

conditions)

The

to

work

and children under

be required to do light work (under good hygienic

up

to five hours a day.

ten-hour day has generally replaced the eight-hour day. For

— HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

I5I

important industries the number o£ working hours can be increased

The "Decree concerning

to twelve.

the securing of required labor

for purposes of special state-political significance"

signed in February,

Every worker can

1939, puts

labor

any time be shifted

at

which Goering

under miHtary

any place

to

discipline.

do work

to

considered important for national safety. In time of war the decree will certainly be extended to include all

Four- Year Plan has

"The

security of national defense has forced

one which

my

work. The dictator of the

measure in

justified the

it

was no pleasure

for

me

fellow working comrades, of

to sign.

making

did not hesitate:

line of reasoning

German for the

forests.

I

to issue a decree

When

it

when

his order to cut

it

barrier in the West,

introduced compulsory labor."

he used in

was a matter,

the Reich safe,

was a matter of building an insurmountable I

Nazi fashion:

typical

me

down

same

the

It is

the beautiful

Preparation for the war of world conquest

justifies

Nazis any despoliation of Germany and the German people.

Together with longer working hours goes the speed-up. Today,

under the direction of the German Labor Front, the huge Nazi

company union which

workers and employees must

all

intensified efficiency drive

in figures of accident

1936 to 1937, the

is

and health

number

The

the effects of

Even

Its

Within one

statistics.

officially

an

join,

on labor can be read

effects

from

year,

of shop accidents, of injured

workers whose cases were to 95,200.

on.

and

sick

recognized, rose from 86,700

physical capacity of the workers,

Aryan undernourishment,

undermined by

strained to the utmost.

is

One of their leading {The German National

the Nazis are beginning to be alarmed.

periodicals,

Die Deutsche

Economy) wrote y

V ol1{swirtschaft

a short time ago:

In recent weeks, there has been a

series of

symptoms of

overstrain

of workers in industry. First, a grippe epidemic took proportions

indicated heightened susceptibility to disease through nervous cal exhaustion.

Second, in

many

factories there

is

which

and physi-

excessive stimulation

HITLER

152

NO FOOL

nervous tension during working hours. Third, the number

as a result of

of excused absences

symptoms

IS

from work has

risen sharply.

carefully, because the last thing

We

we want

must watch those is

a falling ofi in

production.-^

The

production begins to a

mere appendage

until

when drop. Never before was the worker so much the machine as under Military Economy. Not

exhaustion of the workers gets

to

official

attention only

they have lowered the people's living and working condi-

where productivity

tions to the point

is

seriously affected, have the

Hitler Socialists reached the limit of exploitation. This Umit alone decides the

ment

amount

industries.

of capital

The Nazi

and labor "available"

for the

arma-

The

diver-

theoreticians say so openly.

armament and

sion of the nation's resources into

the resulting

deterioration of the living standard of the population can be con-

tinued

"if

necessary, until near

begins," writes the

the point

where physical decay

Nazi Professor Karl Burkheiser.^^

Lengthening of the working-day, introduction of child labor, speed-up,

woman and

and the importation of foreign workers do

new German

not satisfy the needs of total mobiUzation. In case of war, millions will have to be ready to

fill

the places of the

workers drafted into the Army. Mihtary Economy seeking

and

new

labor reserves

and

finds

them

is

in "the less economical

for that reason nationally less desirable shops," as

spokesmen puts

it.

petitive struggle has

It

cannot even afford

incessantly

to

one of

its

wait until the com-

squeezed out the small businessman.

It

orders

their elimination.

From

1935

to

1938 the

number

of independent cobblers has

decreased from 161,000 to 141,000; before the end of 1939, the liqui-

more small shoemaker-shops is planned. The Reich Ministry of Labor reported that up to the beginning of 1939 more than 100,000 men have been transferred from their bake-, butcher-, tailor-, and barbershops into industry. In the retail dation of 25,000

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

trade, the

men,

As

same process

is

going on. The number of radio

down from

for instance, has been cut far

back

I53

as February, 1937, the

sales-

70,000 to 32,000.

Frankfurter Zeitung reported

"a suggestion to close up unprofitable one-man enterprises in order

workers for the purposes of the

to use these craftsmen as skilled

...

Four- Year Plan.

It is

estimated that there are from 500,000

to 600,000 such enterprises."

Article

16 of

Nazi Program

the "unalterable"

one of

their organs, the

sections of the so-called

Deutsche VolJ{swirt, has middle

class are living

warn

to

for

"the

Nazi

rule

calls

creation of a healthy middle class." After six years of

that "large

from hand

manner which is almost critical." Whoever sees in the freezing of prices and wages,

to

mouth

in a

of entire branches of trade to

new

in the closing

investment, in the assignment

of labor to particular plants, in the decrees against migration

farm

to

city

—whoever Nazis

desire of the

the

shadow and

tration

sees

in

these measures

to organize a

for the substance.

He

from

nothing but the

planned economic system, takes that the concen-

fails to realize

centralization of capital, the

crowding out of small

enterprises by Big Business, the further polarization of the

German

people into a few "Leaders" and a "following" of millions, have not been prevented, but accelerated by such government intervention.

Hitler has not aboHshed private property in the duction.

When

Military

Economy

means of pro-

has required the condemnation

of private property, he has usually paid adequate compensation.

He

employs expropriation without indemnity only

"punishment" for

anti-fascists

and Jews,

just as

as

a political

he grants special

who have "outstanding merits for the National Socialist State." The profit system is still intact in Nazi Germany. This trivial difFerence between Hitler's People's Com-

economic privileges

monweal and

to those

the economic system of the Soviet

Union

is

made

HITLER

154 light of

by those

the two. Is

it

who

NO FOOL

IS

discover a fundamental similarity between

only, as they affirm, a matter of a difference in the

label?

Let us pick up any financial news item on

German Big

Business

connected with MiHtary Economy: Wireless to

New

The

Yoi\ Times.

Berlin, June 3, 1939.

At

the shareholders' annual meeting at Frankfort

directors of the

I.

the maintenance of the 8 per cent dividend.

55,180,000 marks against

marks was written

During the

on June 23 the

G. Farben [TThe German Dye Trust]

off

Net

54,853,329 marks in

will

recommend

profits in 1938

were

But 135,718,466 for plant against only 105,250,296 marks in 1937.

six years of the Hitler

1937.

regime the Dye Trust passed

out more than three hundred million marks in bonuses and divi-

sum is From 1933

dends, and this as reserves.

entire chemical output vastly increased total

The

tliat

to

its

total profits set aside

1937 the Trust raised

from one-third

volume

to

its

share of the

more than one-half of

for the country

a

.^^

Secretary of State in the Reich Ministry of Economics, Rudolf

Brinkmann, had there

only a fraction of

is

some

to

admit in his speech of November

justification in the

the big are

complaint of

2, 1938,

that

German businessmen

growing bigger and the small and middle-sized

independent enterprises are weakening and passing away. According to the annual report for 1938 of the semi-official Reichs-KreditGesellschaft, profits

from

an institution owned and directed by the Reichs'Ban\,

made by

5.5 billion

corporations in industry

marks

and commerce increased

in 1932 to 14.2 billion in 1937.

passed corporations' profits at the height of the 1929,

when

They even

boom

in 1928

sur-

and

they had been 13.5 billion marks and 12.7 billion marks

respectively. In the first nine

months of 1938 the taxable

profits of

the corporations rose again 20 per cent over those of the corre-

sponding period in 1937. In 1928, the best year for German business

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

I55

War, 33463 corporations with a capital stock of more than one million marks each made a total profit of 2.5 billion marks. Three hundred and ninety big corporations out of the 33,463 after the

accounted for

1.3 billion

marks

profit out of the 2.5 bilUon,

an aver-

age of 3.6 million per corporation. In 1936, the reduced number of 29,434 corporations

made

a total profit of 3.7 billion marks.

them were 573 corporations whose marks, an average of

4.1

profits

accounted for

Among

2.3 billion

million per corporation. In 1936, the profits

of these big corporations were 48 per cent higher than at the peak of prosperity.

In 1928 4,977 persons in

Germany had an annual income

marks and more. The

100,000

total

income of

this

of

category of

taxpayers was then one billion marks, or 6.5 per cent of

all

taxable

wage earners which is in a number had fallen to 1,686, and their

personal income (excluding the income of separate category). In 1932 their total

income

to

0.3

billion

marks, or

personal income. In 1936 their total

income

to

14

billion

5.2 per

number had

marks, representing

cent of

all

taxable

risen to 5,692, their 10.3 per cent of all

taxable personal income.

More

recent statistics are not yet available. But there

slightest

is

not the

doubt that they will show only further concentration of

wealth in the upper

class.

In the "Marxist" era the Government, to avoid a general eco-

nomic

had taken over great blocks of leading bank and stocks. The transaction was merely a subsidizing of

collapse,

industrial

private business with taxpayers'

money. The Reich paid

far

more

than the market value of these securities and then put them away in a

drawer in expectation of better times. This was the socialism

When

of the

Weimar

owned

70 per cent of the 140 million capital stock of the Gelsen-

Republic.

Hitler

kirchener Bergwerksverein (a mining

came

to

power, the Reich

company belonging

to the

Steel Trust), 70 per cent of the 80 million capital stock of the

HITLER

156

Commerz-und

IS

NO FOOL

Privatbank, 88 per cent of the 150 million capital

stock of the Dresdener Bank, 38 per cent of the 130 million capital stock of the Deutsche Bank. All of these shares have in the

time been returned to private hands again. enterprises have been able to

mean-

The banks and

buy them back with the

big

profits they

have made under Hitler's regime. Returning the monopolies to private ownership

is

one of the by-products of

this strange

"economic

bolshevism." It is

the

no

how few

than surprising

less

personnel

of

changes have occurred in

Germany's top-ranking

families.

They

are

a

hardy bunch. The old names that loomed big in the days of the

War,

Pan-German League, and the inflation are still at the list. Take Thyssen Jr., for example, who

the

head of the exclusive

introduced Hitler to Rhenish-Westphalian industrialists and who, together with Kirdorf, carried through the decision that for each

ton which the Coal Syndicate sold, the

NSDAP.

fifty

pfennig was to go to

His father was one of the firebrands of the Pan-

German League, who as early as September, 1914, had demanded of the German General StaflF the annexation of French iron mines. Thyssen of the

and

Jr. is

war

also

the

chairman of the United

industries.

one of the

Steel

Works,

the heart

Old Kirdorf, another intimate of the Fuehrer bosses in the Pan-German League, was Hon-

orary President of the Steel Trust until his death in July, 1938.

Thyssen's partner

is

Geheimrat Voegler, who in 1917 wrote the

"United German Iron and Steel Manufacturers'

Memorandum" the entire

to the

General

Staff,

strictly confidential

demanding

the annexation of

French coal and iron regions and pointing out the

importance of these deposits for a future war. In the Board of

Hugenberg and

the

Herr von Schroeder.

He

Directors of the Steel Trust there are besides:

Rhenish banker Stein, whose associate is

the

same von Schroeder

January, 1933.

to

whom

is

von Papen brought Hitler

in

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM

The

twenty-eight Board

members

I57

?

more

of the Steel Trust hold

than four hundred directorships on the boards of mining, chemical,

and machine-building corporations. Even

in the giant utilities, like

Power Company, which, like most Germany, is pubHcly owned, the gentlemen

Rhenish-Westphalian

the

public

utilities

in

of heavy industry are reigning. Voegler of the Steel Trust

Chairman

of the Board of the Rhenish-Westphalian

pany, and

among

members we

the other Board

also

is

Power Com-

find Thyssen

Jr.

again.

Krupp, the owner of the "German armament smithy" in Essen, has a seat on the Board of Directors of the government-owned

German

He

Railroads and on Hitler's

at the

is

same time a stockholder

dries, the Dillinger

in the

Upper

Corporation.

Silesian

Foun-

Foundries in the Saar, the Germania Dockyards

Chemnitz Automobile Corporation, the

in Kiel, the

Works

new Motor Road

in Schweinfurt,

Ball Bearing

and the Berndorf Metal Works in Austria.

His empire extends from the North Sea

to the Saar,

from Austria

to the Rhine.

But, one

may

object, the

Hugenbergs may be

as

Krupps and Thyssens,

wealthy as they like

—that

^erhaps is

them with it

would be

and has been doing

mean

doesn't

they have any political influence. If Hitler wanted expropriate

and

the Voeglers still

to,

he could

a stroke of his pen. better simply to note

what Hitler

for the past six years, rather

upon what he could do. By suppressing the workers'

actually

than to specu-

late

organizations, by introducing the

Leader-Principle into every private business, by trampling under foot

all

civil

liberties,

by taking the most aggressive imperiaHst

course and subordinating the entire these,

economy

to that

he serves the interests of the old Imperialist

end

—by

circles of

all

Ger-

many. His domestic and foreign policy miraculously coincides with theirs.

He

sees in the

Krupps and the Thyssens, according

to his

HITLER

158

own

words, the representatives of the best

mission

lies

in ruling.

How

German

IS

NO FOOL

race,

when he made Thyssen and Voegler members

obvious

whose

highly he values their quaUties became of the

Reichstag and Voegler's son the Leader of the "Hitler Youth" in the Ruhr.

Herr Reisman-Grone, formerly a member of the Pan-

German League and owner he made First Burgomaster

of a Rhenish-Westphalian newspaper,

of Essen. Reisman-Grone's son-in-law.

Dr. Otto Dietrich, was one of the

He now

Hitler and heavy industry.

first

intermediaries

between

Chief of the Reich Press

is

Service and Minister in Hitler's Cabinet. Krupp's daughter married

an

SA

officer,

and

it

must have been a high point

the SA, the "fighters" against the Trusts,

"the

aisle at

wedding of

Justizrat Clauss, the

the old with the

in the lives of

when they formed an new Germany." Even

former Chairman of the Pan-German League,

has been invited into Hitler's Reichstag.

An

especially fine

example of Hitler socialism

of Emil

Georg von Stauss

member

of the Prussian State Council

is

the appointment

as Vice-President of the

—Herr

von

Reichstag and

Stauss,

who,

as

Director of the Deutsche Bank, as President of the AnatoHc and the

Bagdad Railroad Company,

as

General Director ot the Euro-

pean Petrol Union and of the German Petroleum Corporation, had led the

The

economic advance of the Kaiser-Reich into the Near East.

construction of the Berlin-Bagdad Railroad

was

his favorite

dream. In 1935, the weekly Militaer-Wochenblatt analyzed in retrospect the significance of the plan as follows:

The Bagdad

Railroad, this gigantic project of the Deutsche

with a rising Germany behind

it,

meant

for this

Germany

Bank

not only the

domination of Central and Southeastern Europe, but also the opening for this country of the

further policy,

Persia

undreamed

economic resources of the Near East and of

of perspectives.

From

still

the point of view of trade

even India would be endangered once Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and

had found

access to

German commerce.

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

In 191 8 Herr von Stauss tough. Herr von Stauss that he has

remained

is

lost

the battle.

I59

But an

imperialist

is

not discouraged, and his interests show

faithful to his favorite idea

—the

Not only is he armament firms, such as

Rumanian, Caucasian, and Iranian

oil.

conquest of

member

a

of

the Bavarian the Board of Directors of big Motor Workers, the Rhine Metal-Borsig, Siemens, etc., but he is also President of the German Air-Hansa Company, which runs,

among and

others,

an

mail and passenger service between

air

and Afghanistan. Besides, he

Syria, Iraq, Iran,

is

Germany

Chairman of

the Board of Directors of the Bavarian Lloyd Steamship Lines,

which, together with the Danube Steamship Company, dominates river transport

on the Danube. In May,

1938,

two months

after the

start work upon the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal which, according to an official report, is to facilitate the exchange of Ruhr coal for the metals and other raw materials of Austria and the Balkans.

occupation of Austria, the Hitler Government decided to

The

Essener National Zeitung, Goering's paper, divulges the pur-

pose of the

new

into Asia."

A

canal with the headline:

line of

communication

is

"By way

of the

now under

"which, upon completion of the Rhine-Danube Canal,

region by

way

of the

and

to the Indian

In the Board of Directors of the is

to

make

industrial

Rhine and the Danube through the Black Sea,

to Iran, even to near-India

Canal, there

is

from the West German

possible a direct water route

Danube

construction,

Ocean."

Company which

is

^^

building the

also a representative of the Stauss-controlled

Bavarian

Lloyd.

Will von Stauss be luckier the second time ?

whose aims the German people bled the eUte in the Third Reich the "Aryan race

The same gentlemen once before are of masters." as well. still

still

Not

for

—

only the old industrial magnates, but the Junkers

Their huge

estates are

still

intact

and the "Eastern-Help"

is

going strong. Between 1931-32 and 1937-38, 562 million marks of

:

HITLER

l60

government subsidies have been given ture.

When

Hitler

The

spent.

whom

came

to

rest, four-fifths

did they give the

All in

all,

subsidies.

to eastern

power, 115 million of of

NO FOOL

German

this total

agricul-

had been

was distributed by the Nazis.

it,

government

the 562 million marks, 35.5 million or 7 per cent

to 10,931 units

To

money?

41,435 agricultural units participated in the

Of

IS

"under hereditary

size," that

is,

went

to very small farms;

marks or 42 per cent went to 27,477 units "within hereditary farm size," that is, to middle and big farms; 288.8

237.4 rnillion

marks or

million

farm

51 per cent

size." In short, three

half of

all

the

went

to 3,027 units "over hereditary

thousand Junker families got more than

money earmarked

for subsidies to "eastern

German

agriculture."

Domestic colonization,

too,

presents

no

threats to the Junkers

anymore. Between 1919 and 1932 the Weimar Republic's ment, timid and insufficient as average of 4,000

new farms on

the crisis of 1929, the tion. So,

it

it

resettle-

had been, had created each year an approximately 100,000 acres. After

government had given the matter more

had estabUshed

atten-

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

want the Germans

Hitler does not

to look

l6l

for "living space"

Germany.

inside

show

Hitler need not

berg for their earlier

daily gratitude to a

political

them by carrying through

and

Thyssen and

a

Hugen-

He repays He may per-

financial assistance.

his imperiaUst

program.

Germany. But as master armament industry and the Junkers,

sonally consider himself the sole master of

of

Germany he

strengthens the

the greatest trusts

and

greatest landowners

—the symbols of German

mihtarism and imperiaHsm. Surely he would cotton, wool, shoe

of Hamburg, and not More than anything

least the

lower middle

would

that

else,

whether the Fuehrer imperialist policy.

Hke

also

to

humor

the

and clothing manufacturers, the big merchants

likes

it

or not, he

The demands

class

bolster

position.

But

the prisoner of his

is

of Military

and the workers.

his

Economy

dictate his

actions.

In Mein

Kampf

he had written the proud words: "The State has

nothing to do with any particular economic conception or economic development."

The barons

realistic ideas of

they were to play in

"One

it.

In

had more

of heavy industry, however,

the "national rebirth" of

Mein Kampf

does not die for business

Germany and

Hitler

had

of the part

said heroically:

—

only for ideals." In his Reichstag

address of January, 1939, however, the needs of Military

"We must

broke through in his cry: those needs

up

as the natural

ones of a people without living space

must not deceive anyone. The has

little

to

do with the

Economy

export or die!" That he dressed

living space of National

SociaHsm

idyllic picture that Hitler paints of the

community of peasants and workers "who through their mutual work enable each other to live." For fascism, more living space means more workers to be exploited, more soldiers to be commanded, more raw materials to be turned into machines of destruction.

When

fascist

fascism conquers a country,

economy upon

it.

it

digests

it

by forcing a

Every time the monster devours a victim,

HITLER

l62 it

becomes bigger and more

Saar, Austria,

and raw

trial

and mountainous

new

weeks

after

as

regions."

may

it

Munich,

Vol^swirt, wrote: "In winning the

materials, has acquired

Thus, incredible of

Two

NO FOOL

and Sudetenland the Reich, already lacking

tory

sity

terrible.

Der Deutsche

Schacht's organ,

IS

in terri-

mainly overpopulated indus-

^^

sound, the Nazis announce the neces-

conquests to compensate for the old.

Hitler's Socialism

The

Economy

further Military

required to keep the collapsing.

A

artificial

of officialdom

and red tape

and growing

strains.

and counter-decisions,

and a corresponding hypertrophy

indicate deep-seated conflicts of interests

"At a recent enquiry conducted by a South

West German Chamber

of

Commerce among

with 100 to 200 employees each, of the total clerical

is

German economy from

flood of laws, decrees, decisions

prohibitions, control commissions,

more stringency

advances, the

structure of

it

was found

work was devoted

small manufacturers

that

up

to 75 per cent

to the fulfillment of control

requirements," says a special report on Germany, published by the

The Banker

English monthly

The high Nazi

of February, 1937.

are infiltrating into the executive posts of

officials

Big Business. Big Business representatives are being appointed gov-

ernment

There

officials.

is

a

growing personal union between the

bureaucracy of the State and that of the giant corporations. There is

also a corresponding

officials.

growth

in the "best circles."

A

January

symptomatic of the

"fixing,"

23,

1939,

is

among government

in corruption

"In Berlin everything has a price"

is

a phrase to be

heard

decree of the Reich Ministry of Finance of

and racketeering

is

scale

on which bribing,

going on. The decree holds

it

neces-

sary to forbid to "all employees of the Reich Finance Administration

any

activity

with or without recompense outside of their duties

in matters pertaining to the authority of the

Reich Finance Adminis-

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM?

163

tration." It also forbids the acceptance of presents or favors,

but with

the modification that this does not refer to "social relations based

upon draw

real reciprocity."

the line.

The

The

Only the

People's

Commonweal knows where

to

leaders are entitled to graft.

expense and nuisance of the top-heavy bureaucracy, the rising

taxes to cover at least a part of the tion, the

measures taken against the

of inflation, are naturally

cost of

flight of capital

cumbersome

who do

especially to those

enormous to

war produc-

and the

many German

threat

capitalists,

not share in the Hitler boom. Dissatis-

and finds

faction has taken hold of all social strata

expression in the fear of the end of the journey

answer National Socialism knows

is

more

violence

common

its

—war.

The

only

and more

demagogy. Military

and

police forces are ever growing. After taking in the

Austrian and Sudeten-German contingents, the

Navy and

now

Airfleet

police there

is

Its

the "inner enemy."

There

the

German Army,

two million men. Besides the regular

the SS, originally organized in 1923 as Hitler's per-

sonal bodyguard.

service.

totals

It

chief function today

are the general SS, the

SS Shock-Troops "for

watch and destroy all

There

branches of the

SS Communication Division,

special assignments," the

the Secret State Police, the responsible to Hitler.

to

is

has fully equipped units in

SS Field

Police,

SS Skull and Crossbones, personally

are besides the National Socialist Motor-

ized Corps, the National Socialist Air Corps, and the

SA

and

SA

Reserve.

The

fear that

edge of

any

close contact

their actual living

with the people and any knowl-

and thinking might dampen the morale

of the Elite Guard, creeps through the educational rules of the SS.

In isolated Leader Schools called ordensburgen, which are built

and

set

apart like medieval cloisters, the

young

Blackshirts are

They

are selected only

drilled in the teachings of National SociaHsm.

from

families that can trace their

Aryan

origin back to the year

HITLER

164

They

1750.

the

marry only

are permitted to

IS

women who

NO FOOL

can present

same untainted pedigree. The quarters of the Skull and Cross-

bones are changed

at

between them and the service in their

short intervals to prevent any fraternizing

population.

civil

hometown; they

They

are never

are never used for

on duty alone; there

always one to watch the other. They are the guaranteed 99

^

is

per

cent pure murderers.

The

Leader-Principle had to be adjusted to the growing

demands

Mein Kampf, Hitler Germanic Democracy; election of the

of the dictatorship. In the original edition of called

it

"the principle of

Fuehrer, but absolute authority for him." In the current edition of

he defines

his book,

it

as "the principle of the absolute

authority." This revision

was not

for the sake of style. It

Fuehrer

meant a

fundamental change in the structure of the Nazi Party and of other mass organizations in the Third Reich. inally

wrote that "the chairman of a

and that

all

local

While Hitler

group

is

all

orig-

to be elected"

the Leaders of the party are to be chosen by the

mem-

"The

chair-

bers themiselves, in later editions he issued the order:

man of a local group is to be appointed by the next higher Leader. The same principle is to hold for the next higher organization, the county or the province. The Leader is always to be appointed from above."

The

masses of people, the stupid herd of sheep, must be pre-

vented from having the slightest influence upon the government

and

its

direction; governing

is

exclusively the business of the Fuehrer

and the nobles who surround him. All organizations, not only the Party, the SS, and SA, but also the

"National Food Estate," an obligatory association of

all

agricultural

producers and distributors, as well as the Labor Front (and recently the

Evangelical

Common

Church!)

are

them

their

to all of

is

the broadest possible base, they

built

upon

the

Leader-Principle.

pyramidal structure. Resting upon

grow narrower and narrower

until

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM

Government

they end in the

They

apex.

165

?

Hke everything in

serve,

the Third Reich, the purpose o£ domination, mass control, and

war

preparation. In the social composition o£ their governing bodies, too, they

and

resemble a pyramid.

peasants, are the

their party

work

Nazi

At

an "honorary

as

the very base,

faithfuls, poorly office."

Higher up

the middle class element becomes stronger. is

working

absolutely unpolluted by

Where

among

The

of a petty

The

Goebbels?

official.

"Doctor,"

he

as

Streicher, the ruler of Franconia,

is

called,

of

coming from

Party's families.

Dr. Frick, Minister of the

Interior,

General von Epp,

officials.

Count Helldorf, the Police President of

Berlin? Offspring of Junker families. Dr. Ley? at least

the

From merchant

or Police-General Daluege? All sons of

Have we

Commonweal?

Goering? Son of a high

show-off intellectual. Hess and Rosenberg?

the ruler of Bavaria, or

pyramid

class elements.

entrusted with responsible positions in the People's

official.

in the

around the apex

air

and sons of workers who have been

are the workers

The Fuehrer? Son

the workers

paid or carrying out

—wait

a minute!

found one ? The Leader of the Labor Front boasts a simple peasant family. If

it is

true, it

must have

been an extraordinary lucky chance that enabled the son of a poor peasant in pre-War university.

By

peasant origin.

had

to dismiss

his

Germany

manner

Degree from a

The Dye Trust, which employed him him for chronic drunkenness.

The Nazis know what ment with

to get his Doctor's

of Hving, one could hardly guess his

great aims

dangers

lie

must constantly

before Hitler,

in their isolation. try not to lose

its

"A moveconnection

with the broad mass of the people," Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf,

For

this reason,

he places

as

much emphasis upon

the maintenance

upon the organization of his armed forces. must never be left to himself. He must constantly be exposed to the observation and influence of the Nazis. He must not be given time to come to his senses. As a tiny cog in a

of a mass following as

The German

citizen

HITLER

l66

NO FOOL

IS

huge machine, with the omnipotence of the State held constantly before his eyes, he must reaUze that as an individual he is nothing, and

member

as a

which tomorrow

The

child

who

is

now

ization at ten leaves

Labor

Service.

mobiUzed

of a

nation, as a citizen of an

will rule the world, he

it

Long

is

Empire

everything.

required to join the Hider Youth Organ-

at the

age of eighteen to be drafted into the

Army,

before he enters the

SA

the

gives

him

mihtary training. After two years of service in the Army, he

SA

becomes a member of the paid work, he must in a factory

or

join the

first

SA

Reserve. If he looks finally for

German Labor

Front.

As worker

he receives a card which prohibits him from shifting by permission of the Government. "Strength Through

jobs except

Joy" takes care of his leisure time. His private

"Block Warden,"

close supervision of the

who

the Air Raid Defense has the right to enter his

Only death

German

will wrest the

citizen

from

life

is

under the

as a functionary of

home day

or night.

Hitler's loving care.

With the amount of labor and capital spent for armaments and war preparation Hitler could have made a paradise of Germany. Instead, he transformed

it

becomes more and more

Nazi economist and an

into a

huge barracks. His "sociaHsm"

spiritual, a

mental

editor of Hitler's

bruch, sees sociaHsm already established: its

belief in

The

newspaper, Nonnen-

"The German

people, by

^"

a pleasant

is

attitude, a faith.

National SociaUsm, has spiritually taken possession of

the economy."

This

own

Unfortunately,

it

way

of expropriating the trusts

did not seem sufficient

when

and Junkers.

Hitler had to take

possession of the economies of foreign countries.

The upon

three widely publicized benefits bestowed by

the lower middle class

workers and white radio

set,

people's

"the

car,"

collar

people's

and the

better

Nazi

socialism

paid categories of

workers are the introduction of a cheap receiver,"

of

and of cheap vacation

a

cheap automobile, "the

trips

on board "Strength-

HOW

DOES HITLER CARRY OUT HIS PROGRAM

Through-Joy"

away more powerful

are taking

in to foreign

The

people's receiver

so constructed that the

is

can hear only stations within a very limited radius.

listener

—and

The

boats.

167

?

news

very useful

broadcasts.

—for

sets to

The

ization

people's receiver

which

owned by

is

for

war and,

at the

the

same time,

ing purchasing power into the proper channels.

German

Germany's motor-

serves a twofold purpose. It furthers

and preparation

good enough

is

Goebbels' propaganda and enlightenment.

people's car, built by a plant

Labor Front,

The Nazis

prevent listeners from tuning

leads exist-

The man who buys

the car (on an installment plan financed by the compulsory contri-

butions of

all

workers and employees

money to spend on tary Economy does

now

to Ley's

other consumers' goods

not want.

How

Union)

will

have

it, is

another question. Rubber, gasoline, and

important for war and therefore

who

long the proud owner

paying for a car not yet produced will be able to enjoy

he gets

restricted.

less

whose production Mili-

oil

is

once

it,

are vitally

Joseph Werlin, director

of the Daimler-Benz Works, one of Germany's biggest automobile factories,

wrote the other day in Der Deutsche Vol^swirt that "the

use of automobiles for purely personal pleasure

may have

be

to

limited."

The finally,

significance of the boat trips with Strength

became

clear

intervention returned

from Spain. Then the Nazis,

parable brazenness, told

Legion

Through

Joy,

beyond a doubt when the German army of

how

in their incom-

they had transported the

to Spain, disguised as tourists.

Of

Condor

course, they will use their

troop transport ships to take vacationing workers, small business-

men, shopkeepers, and employees navia. It

makes

friends,

its

to the

Mediterranean or Scandi-

strengthens "national unity," and

cheap, too. Capitalism has not spoiled the working masses. are grateful for

two weeks of sunshine. But the

is

people's car in the

new Strength-Through-Joy cruiser Robert Ley instance destined for The Day —not for pleasure.

garage as well as the are in the last

it

They

— HITLER

l68

To German

ears certain

inseparably

bound up with

1917-18 the

German

words terrible

like turnips or

was one of those

ingredient.

There

is

marmalade

people virtually lived on turnips.

ersatz products in

no war

yet.

NO FOOL are

memories. During the winter of

of an indescribable nature took the place of butter It

IS

Marmalade

and margarine.

which worms were the

best

But the consumption of marmalade

has increased 400 per cent since Hitler socialism

came

to

bless

Germany. Another word means something pagne.

The

story

is

to the

German

people

cham-

in the following table:

Consumed Germany

Bottles in

Year

(in millions)

1913

Four times champagne.

as

12.1

1933

5-5

1934

10.3

1935

12.2

1936

14.5

1937

19-9

1938

24.0

much marmalade consumed;

four times as

much

FIVE

Wm Hitler Win?

"The

satisfaction of the

members

of a national

body emanates in

the long run not exclusively from theoretical phrases, but rather

from the goods

of daily

life

received by the individual

the resultant conviction that a peoples' in

commonweal

and from represents

achievements the interests of the individual."

its total

Mein Kampf

The Changed World

Situation

Hitler and

have

Six years

centration

his party

a long time. It

is

now is

been in power more than

six years.

an eternity for the prisoners in the con-

camps and the dungeons of the Third Reich,

for the

driven from their homeland or waiting for an opportunity

Germans

more than two thousand days and nights of constant mortal danger for the men and women who continue with from

to escape

unswerving Six years

it.

It is

loyalty the struggle against fascist barbarism. is

but a short time.

One Thousand

sees itself

moving with

new war. What do

Years. terrible

these six years

Probably no one

is

It is a

Third Reich that

nightmare to a world which

for Hitler?

How much

nearer

his goal?

more surprised 169

in a

speed toward the catastrophe of a

mean

have they brought him toward

only a prelude to a coming

who believes

period of grandeur for the Nazi will last

It is

at Hitler's success

than the

HITLER

170

Fuehrer himself. The son of Alois Schicklgruber thing.

He showed

no

talent as a painter,

The war

for

which he had longed

architect.

neither glory nor advancement. In 1919 he that he

less

depended

for

NO FOOL

IS

failed in every-

no qualifications so

was

as

an

much brought him

so lonely

and

friend-

companionship upon the mice in

his

Mein Kampf, he used to feed morning hours. Shortly before his thwarted Putsch November, 1923, he confessed only this modest ambition:

barracks which, as he describes in in the early in

"All

movement continue, that it be placed on a basis, and that I make my livelihood as chief of the Beobachter." ^^ In 1932, when he wanted to run for the

desire

I

is

that the

sound business VoelJ{ischer

man

presidency of the Reich against Hindenburg, the

without a

country trembled in fear of deportation. Goebbels has disclosed that

month before the "ascent to power," the Fuehrer thought of The iron superman, endowed with an unshakable will,

a

suicide. exists

only in the legends of Nazi history.

One need

not rely on information from the Fuehrer's friends or political hopes and ambitions. It Mein Kampf. The book shows how quickly and far beyond his expectations came to him. The ques-

enemies to trace the curve of his is

in the pages of

easily victories

tions

which Hitler has there placed in the foreground have already

to a large extent

been answered. Not that Mein

How

because of political developments.

dated which

As

the

sets forth the subjection of the

maximum program

been carried out

—or

of the Nazis

working toward the solution of

Only of

which declared

a

war

outdated

world

to

Nazi

culture!

remains valid until

a

good part of

his

road and

tasks, the difficulties of

his followers a

historical interest

is

it

has

Nazi movement has been destroyed.

until the

But Hitler has already traveled have stunned him and

it

Kampf

can a document be out-

now

is

few years ago.

are those sections of his

to the death

now

which would

upon organized

book

labor, parlia-

mentarianism, freedom of thought, progressive education, independ-

WILL HITLER WIN ent science carried

—in

upon "Jewish Bolshevism." Hitler has the letter. Hundreds of thousands o£ his internal

a word,

them out

enemies

I7I

r

to

who opposed

the rebirth of

German

Imperialism, have been

shot "while trying to escape," beheaded for "high treason," sentenced

imprisonment

to life

The

at

hard labor, or driven out of the country.

nation has been "united" with terror and propaganda.

Only of

historical interest also are Hitler's ideas of

how

to use

the conflicting imperialist interests of England, France, and Italy to

remove Germany from her

and England,

as

—that

freedom"

isolated position.

With

the help of Italy

he foresaw, he has regained Germany's "national

is,

Germany to particiThe union with Austria, which

the freedom of Imperialist

pate again in imperialist robberies.

Hider in the opening sentence of Mein Kampf regarded as a life task, is now remembered as only the beginning of his redivision of the world.

How

long ago

it

called the strongest military

seems that France could rightly be

power of Europe and

Today

has lost some of

the Treaty

of Versailles!

in Central

and Southeastern Europe;

fortified

enemies, in

its

As Alps

Rhineland; its

it is

cut of?

its

closest allies

from others by a

faced on three sides by three united fascist

African and Far Eastern possessions are in danger: and

military preparation

the Fuehrer looks

—built

mous

it is

it

the guardian of

and

has long been overtaken by Germany.

down from his

in sheer rock

difficulties

it

"eagle's nest" in the Bavarian

by three thousand workers, with enor-

at great cost

—he can view his Reich with the

proud feeling that he has increased his area by 63,000 square miles

and the number of

his subjects

by

18,000,000.

lated within the short period of six years

Such

victories,

accumu-

and won without any

serious fight, are extraordinary indeed.

The Europe

of today

is

not the Europe of Mein

and Hitler himself has contributed most

to

its

Kampf any

more,

changes. In carrying

out a successful imperialist program, he at the same time destroys the very world political situation

which made

possible his success.

HITLER

172 It

IS

NO FOOL

was the very weakness of German Imperialism which enabled to separate England from France and which, on the other

him

hand,

made

it

seem advisable

to British

and French Imperialism

to

encourage Hitler's arming for an attack upon the Soviet Union.

Today, however, not France, but Germany

power

ist

in

no longer

is

the strongest imperial-

Europe from a miHtary viewpoint. The

feels

menaced by France, but by

the

Empire

British

Berlin-Rome-Tokyo

Every further sapping of France's strength by Germany

triangle.

simultaneously means the sapping of Britain's strength inevitably drives the British closer to the French. In

stage of Hitler's policy of expansion reached

its

Munich

peak

and

also,

—and

the

first

its

end.

Until then his actions in the field of foreign policy were mainly directed toward his

first strategic

goal

—the isolation and weakening

He relegated to the background the German demand for colonies. He reconciled despised and hated Poland, then "entirely at the mercy of France." He made his rapprochement with Italy. He

of France.

undermined the economic and poUtical influence of France in the Balkans.

During

this entire

period he enjoyed the

tacit

acquiescence,

the direct encouragement, of the British reactionaries.

Long

if

not

before

he scrapped the military clauses of the Versailles Treaty, the British

Government knew

that he

was preparing

for the

move by

feverish

rearmament. Questions by uneasy oppositionists in the House of

Commons were

always given vaguely reassuring

replies.

When

Hitler in March, 1936, decisively violated the Treaty by sending his

army

exerted

its

into the Rhineland,

Government not only French Government from taking

the British

influence to prevent the

counter-measures, but soon afterward sealed the nullification of the military clauses of Versailles by concluding a naval agreement with Hitler, in

which

it

permitted

him

to construct types of warships,

including submarines, previously forbidden to Germany. Imperialists

believed

it

The British German

extremely clever to confine the

WILL HITLER WIN

173

r

Navy to one-third the size of the British. They wished to strengthen Germany against France as well as against the Soviet Union, but within certain limits. Here again we meet the grandiose notion that Hitler could be canalized. What Chamberlain had in mind at Munich was the diversion of German Imperialism toward the East, in orderly gentlemanly stages, according to the tried pattern of the British robber barons.

The

which Hitler advanced can be

incredible rapidity with

gauged by the changes

German

imperialisms.

directed not so

much

between the British and

in the relations

Today

the barrage of

Nazi propaganda

said to have answered, "I

would

I alter

actually

make

In Mein

saw a

so.

the

nations,"

who

^*

he had

flattered the

German

Empire

to the last

proponents

of

a

did not

If Hitler

attributed to him, he

might well have

England

had lauded the youthful vigor

readiness to defend her

the

is

would write every word as it is; only one chapter on England. I would write just

remark

Kampf

possible ally; he

ridiculed

Mein Kampf,

—the

the contrary of the view expressed therein."

done

is

against France as against England. Hitler

himself, asked about his present attitude toward

chapter

best

in

which he

of England's

drop of blood; he had "league

suppressed

of

sought to utiHze the national independence move-

ments in the British colonies in order

to

undermine the

British

Empire.

Then he had

written:

"How

difficult it is to defeat

Not

England we

mention that

Germans have

learned well enough.

Teuton prefer

in spite of everything to see India under British

rather than any other domination."

He

to

had thought

of the "hopes for a fantastic uprising in Egypt.

give our

German rummy-players

end under the well-aimed

companies and

—in

fire

a hail of deadly grenades."

as

a

just as Httle

'holy war' can

the pleasant sensation that

others are ready to spill their blood for us to a helUsh

The

I

reality, it

now

would lead

of British machine-gun

HITLER

174

Such declarations are unlikely

Moslem

confidence in the effect

would be painful

interests

now

were

to lead to

depicts to the

to

NO FOOL

IS

produce in Germany today

much

policy of the Berlin-Rome Axis. Their

German

and German

the collision of British

if

The England which

war.

people

is

the fascist press

once again that of "Perfidious

Albion," the country of unheroic moneybags, of the senile toothless lion.

Goebbels

now

calls

the English people

and cowardly." At present there

is

very

little

"dumb, in

treacherous,

Nazi propaganda

about the "bolshevist menace," but a great deal about the "treacherous Christian democracies," referring of course to England, France

suddenly accuses Chamberlain of plot-

and the United

States. Hitler

ting to encircle

Germany, and

What

Or

his plans?

Hitler revised

Neither.

remains the destruction of the Soviet Union and

the annexation of Tories'

Has

has British reaction become anti-fascist?

Hitler's final goal

the

cancels the naval treaty.

has brought about this sudden change?

its

richest regions,

benevolent neutraUty in

despite all the partial successes of

and he could be

certain of

such an undertaking. But

German ImperiaUsm,

this final

goal has receded farther than ever before. In his judgment of the Soviet Union's possibility of survival, Hitler has

made

his greatest

blunder. His prophecies of the imminent collapse of the gigantic state in the east, his

demonstrations of the inability of the Russian

people to govern themselves without the assistance of a

German

ruling class, read today Hke the babbling of an idiot. His hatred for the Soviet

Union completely warped his judgment. Mein Kampj, Hitler answered those who favored

In 1926, in

German-Soviet understanding with the scornful declaration

Germany own one

does not want an ally which "even today does not single factory in

which a

really

a

that

call its

working automobile can

be produced."

How the

first

simple

it

then seemed to Hitler to deliver a death blow to

workers' and peasants'

state.

But time has worked not only

WILL HITLER WIN for Hitler. "really

Today

175

?

in Soviet factories not only are automobiles,

work," produced but tanks and heavy

which Dur-

artillery as well.

Kampf was

ing the period that has elapsed since Mein

written,

Soviet industry has supplied 500,000 tractors to a mechanized and collectivized agriculture. It has developed airplanes

many

an iron and

Germany

steel

flights to the

itself

and approximately twice

Union

army and an

United

States. It has built

up

industry with an output only slightly behind that

Britain. In the production of oil

the Soviet

surpasses

far

as large as that of

and other

air fleet superior to

United States

as

essential

Germany.

raw

possesses

It

Great

materials

today an

The country whose now ranks second only

Germany's.

industrial strength Hitler ridiculed in 1926 to the

set

world's records and which have twice successfully crossed the

North Pole on non-stop of

which have

an industrial power.

This change in the international position of the Soviet Union,

which Hider

failed to foresee,

orientation of

is

the principal factor behind the

Germany's and England's foreign

policy.

With

new the

growing strength of the Soviet Union precluding any immediate expression of the "urge toward the East," Hitler

is

compelled to

him into direct conflict Empire. Germany resumes her drive

seek other avenues of expansion. This brings

with the

interests of the British

toward the Near East and India, pursuing once more the course taken by the Kaiser on the eve of the World War. Together with his Italian partner,

Hider now challenges Anglo-French control of

the whole Mediterranean area; he co-operates with Japan against British interests in the

Far East; he begins

to press

Germany's

claims for colonial possessions. Nazi agents are active in Holland,

Denmark, and Belgium

—

all strategically

located

from the viewpoint

of British miUtary security. Dozens of airdromes have been built in

Northwestern Germany from which planes can be launched against English

cities.

Thirteen years ago Hider ridiculed the

German

philisdnes

who

HITLER

176

dreamed of fomenting

revolt

in

British

NO FOOL

IS

but today he

colonies,

follows their recipe and, in collaboration with Mussolini, the Arabs fleet,

and other

British colonial subjects.

beginning once again

Thus

He

at all points Hitler

is

in

Mein Kampj.

"rummy-players";

for

the

stirs

up

building a huge

to challenge British naval

supremacy.

compelled by the logic of the interna-

tional situation to revert to the Kaiser's policies

condemned

is

He

which he

so bitterly

can only follow the advice of the

forces

which

German

unrestrained

Imperialism has evoked are far more potent than the fine theories

which the

To for

"liberator of

Germany" once spun.

be sure, there always was in Hitler's timetable a day marked

an accounting with Britain

too.

But

it

was relegated

as far as

Once France was destroyed and the Soviet Union dismemGermany might be strong enough to take the skin of the

possible.

bered,

British lion.

"England

will lose India

.

.

sword of a powerful enemy',' reads a Kampj What then seemed to Hitler one .

prises of a far future

is

.

of the

But

lies

most

Mein

difficult enter-

today a point in his immediate program. Six

years of British "appeasement" have convinced

Empire

subdued by the

if it is

cryptic sentence of

on the road of

him

that the British

least resistance.

Hitler's successes in foreign policy, great as they

may

appear,

cannot hide the fact that he has failed to achieve his primary objectives:

France and alliance with Britain against the

isolation of

Soviet Union. Far from separating his potential enemies, he has

driven them closer together. Great Britain, always reluctant to enter

Continental commitments and always striving for the weakening of the Soviet Union, to

is

now

compelled for the sake of

guarantee the borders of European

states

and

its

to

own

security

move toward

rapprochement with Soviet Russia. Even Chamberlain and fellow-Tories are forced to

make

at least a gesture

his

toward an alliance

with Moscow. Similarly the French Government, which only a short time ago had minimized the importance of the Franco-Soviet Pact

WILL HITLER WIN? and refused Union, lective

So time

is

177

to enter into military conversations

now

agreement against Nazi aggression.

fearful it

is

Britain of further

has pledged to throw

German

all its

attacks that for the first

military

might behind Poland,

Rumania, Greece, and Turkey, in the event feels

endangered and

France,

now

fight in

to

with the Soviet

pressing Britain to accept the Soviet terms for a col-

calls

on her

assistance.

any one of them

And

Britain

the event of aggression

increasingly favors Britain, France,

the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo triangle,

opponents of the

at least

fascist bloc.

imperialist adventure

popular opinion

is

little

as against

doubt in the

politics that in a

war the

moral and economic support

Thus Germany's very

to the

successes in

have evoked the spectre of "encirclement"

which Hitler has always dreaded: a of the most powerful

States

and the Soviet Union

minds of most students of international United States will give

Denmark, Holland,

against

and there

and

determined

virtually linked in a military alliance, are

Belgium or Switzerland. In the United

What

that

possible

anti-German coaUtion

states.

alliances has Hitler acquired in return?

He

has

won

the

support of two great powers, Italy and Japan, and of a small group

weak satellite states, whose loyalty to Germany remains somewhat questionable. Italy, Hitler's strongest ally in Europe, is a country with a comparatively weak heavy industry, poor in essential raw materials, and impoverished by its costly miHtary campaigns in Ethiopia and Spain. Furthermore, the ItaUan people, including large of

sections of the ruling fascist circles, are not overfond of the alliance

with Germany and are disinclined to

sacrifice

themselves for the

aggrandizement of the Third Reich. Mussolini, even

if

cannot ignore these sentiments; and the Duce himself

and

practical

gendeman who would not

in order to save his

has

its

hands

full

own

skin.

hesitate to

it

still

a cynical

abandon Hitler

Germany's Far Eastern

with China; and while

he wished, is

ally,

Japan,

has considerable

HITLER

178

nuisance value, Japan

Germany

assistance to

Measured rials,

in

The

NO FOOL

scarcely in a position to render decisive

is

in time of war.

terms of

financial resources,

states are

IS

man

power, industrial strength, raw mate-

and military equipment, the anti-aggressor

enormously stronger than the BerHn-Rome-Tokyo

triangle.

strength and the stability of the nascent anti-aggressor coali-

tion cannot, of course, be

They depend

also

on the

measured in terms of these sincerity

and determination of the

aggressor states, which in turn depend in these countries are in power.

factors alone.

Tory

upon what

Chamberlain

politicians like

and Simon, Daladier and Bonnet can

scarcely

regarded as

be

unwavering opponents of aggression and fascism. As long champions of "appeasement" remain in power, there ance against a

new Munich. As

anti-

political forces

is

as these

no

assur-

and Czechoslovakian

the Spanish

events demonstrated, international agreements and the canons of international law are

or the Duce.

The

no more sacred

them than

to

French Governments was due in no small measure revulsion against

Munich and

the

growing demand

resistance against aggression. It did not

French

to the

Fuehrer

and

recent shift in the foreign policy of the British

reactionaries

mean

had been converted

popular

to the

for a policy of

and

that the British

to

principles

the

of

democracy. Hitler's

Dilemma

In analyzing the dynamics of in

mind

German

expansion,

have actually intensified Germany's economic seizure of Austria has given Hitler plants coal

we must

bear

that Hitler's successes not only have failed to solve, but

and

if

difficulties.

If

the

some iron ore and munition him some

the conquest of Czechoslovakia has yielded

and arms

the other vital

have not given him enough

iron, oil,

chromium, manganese, tungsten,

lead, or

factories, they

rubber, copper, nickel,

raw materials which the war economy

of the

Third

.

WILL HITLER WIN?

I79

Reich so desperately demands. Both Austria and Czechoslovakia lacked their to

own

supplies of these materials

and were compelled

import them. Furthermore, both of these annexed

territories

had

highly developed consumers' goods industries, the raw materials for

which they these

also partly

two countries

purchased abroad. Thus, the conquest of

intensified

Germany's raw material shortage and

contributed to the dangerous disproportion between the inflated sectors of

its

industries

working

for

war and those engaged "only"

in the production of consumers' goods (and therefore put on a diet)

The change

Germany's foreign trade balance from an export

in

surplus of 442 million marks in 1937 to a deficit of 493 million in 1938,

further draining off the country's meager gold supply,

largely

due

demands

to the additional import

is

and

of Austrian

Czechoslovakian industries, which under Nazi rule are losing their foreign markets.

At

the present

moment,

Third

the masters of the

new difficulties by stripping window frames, and copper

Reich "solve" these

Czechoslovakia of

iron fences, steel

wire. It

question of time before they

come

for the

bronze church

is

only a

bells.

Certainly the Nazis themselves did not believe that the seizure

of Austria and Czechoslovakia

were quite content

would

solve their problems.

They

to leave such illusions to the "appeasers" in the

now

democratic countries. Nazi spokesmen tion of a general "redistribution" of

frankly raise the ques-

raw material

resources through-

out the world; their demands go far beyond the return of Ger-

many's former

colonies. Hitler's ambitions for a redi vision of the

world make the Kaiser's dreams appear quite modest in comparison.

Thus foreign

the logic of Germany's MiHtary

program seems

to lead directly

Economy and

of Hitler's

toward war. For nobody will

beHeve that the realization of such colossal ambitions can be achieved peacefully.

Even

the Chamberlains will be compelled at

to balk at Hitler's insatiable

demands.

Any

serious

some point

breakdown

of

the anti-aggressor coalition, any treacherous attempt to save "peace

HITLER

l8o

by a

in our time"

moment

new

capitulation

for his "lightning

shown

brutahty he has

whole

NO FOOL

might convince Hitler

war" has come.

in his

IS

career.

He

will lead

"The

it

that the

with the

search for a quick

no Umitations which might delay victory must be imposed on the employment of force," writes General Horst von Metzsch, an expert of the German War Ministry whose specialty is decision requires that

the study of the effects of

"No

limitations

of

principle

modern war on

which might delay

Hitler's

war

strategy.

French and English children

German enemies But

if

powers

victory."

the civilian population.

This will be the guiding

includes the poisoning of

It

as well as the slaughtering of all his

that he can lay

hands on.

a firm and determined coaUtion of the world's strongest

resists

further

German Army with

Nazi aggression and confronts Hitler and the the prospect of certain defeat

they

move—

a single

demon-

if

what then?

Nobody stration

assume that

will be so credulous as to

by the

democratic powers would make

He

cherished philosophy and political goal. his aggressive speeches; he

might express

Hitler abandon his

might

for a while cease

his readiness to enter into

conversations regarding limitation of armaments; he might try to reconcile British public opinion tion

of

submarines;

maneuvers

renew

by a temporary halt in the construcregard

but he will

for gaining time, awaiting a

all

these

measures as

more favorable moment

to

his imperialist mission.

Let us suppose, however, that a firm anti-Hitler front once and for all prevents the

Fuehrer from carrying out his foreign program.

There are those who

believe that

military action the difficulties

he will basis

try,

and

if

which

will be able, to shift

Hitler

his

fails to

solve through

war program has

created,

German economy from

a

war

back into normal channels.

This, of course,

would be

a gigantic task, involving the complete

reversal of everything that Hitler has preached

and practiced

since

WILL HITLER WIN

lOl

T

the inception of the

Nazi movement.

fundamental

German economy,

shift in

German culture

would mean not only

life,

It

race ruling the globe, of the

a

but a basic change in every

molded until now to would dissipate Hitler's

sphere of social and cultural

dreams of a world Reich.

It

fit

Hitler's

vision of a

Aryan masters imposing their It would mean a return to

on benighted backward peoples.

the "nonsense" of peaceful co-existence with the various nations.

more than doubtful that the Nazis could survive the consequences of such an abandonment of all their endeavors, no matter It is

how skillful ing

they might be in obscuring

German

to the

it

old program.

To

capital into the

its

significance or in present-

new

people as merely a

expression of Hitler's

begin with, Hitler would have to stop the flow of

war

industries

to shut down most of the huge now employ millions of workers.

and

arms and munitions plants which

He would have to demobilize part of his armed forces. Thus he would immediately confront the problem of finding employment for the masses of men and the accumulations of capital, until now absorbed by Military Economy. According to the estimate of Hugh S.

Hanna

of the

and possibly

less

U.

S.

tion] are productively activities

Department of Labor,

than 70 per cent [of the

"less

than 75 per cent popula-

German working

employed and must support the unproductive

of the remainder." ^^

The unemployment

directly

and

immediately created by an end of Hitler's unproductive MiUtary

Economy would go the

more

acute form.

boom, with

It

than

i

Nazi Germany would then

as the

Weimar

would meet the

crisis,

to publish

per cent in gold, and with

it,

its

face

Republic, but in a far

unhidden by

a depleted treasury, with a national debt so

Nazis do not dare

that the less

into millions.

same economic problems

a

cannon

enormous

with a currency covered by

raw material

reserves con-

verted into useless armaments.

The

political

repercussions

would be immediate. Until now,

Hitler has been able to enjoy the support of Big Business and at

HITLER

l82 the

same time

to

NO FOOL

IS

maintain a large popular following because he

appears as the apostle of a Greater Germany.

program which won the support of both the and the small shopkeepers,

It

was

his foreign

Ruhr

industry

of the Junkers of East Prussia

and the

titans of

small South-German peasant. But once Hitler's promises of a world

Reich exploded, his internal position must undergo a profound change.

With

the unifying force of his foreign

would be compelled

to

make

more

a

Big Business and the masses of the

German

In the sphere of internal policy there

is

program gone, he

open choice between

or less

people.

only one effective means

of mobilizing the people behind Hitler: a serious effort to improve

the hving conditions of the workers and the lower middle class in city

and country. Such a course would bring Hitler

flict

with the vested

promoted the

interests.

interests

On

the other hand, a

of Big Business

into direct con-

program which

and the Junkers would

rapidly lead to a disintegration of Hitler's mass following.

Hider's whole outlook, his poHtical record, his connections with

German

would indicate that in such an eventuality he would follow the normal course of reactionary statesmanship. If he were to cease making cannon, he would in all probthe rulers of

ability still refrain

unUkely

from granting the people

that Hitler

and the Thyssens

business

would

butter. It

is

extremely

Krupps German economy and

revise his honest belief that the

are the ordained lords of

that the "stupid herd of the people"

must be ruled by the Leader-

Principle.

Faced with millions of unemployed released from the armaments factories.

Hitler

would undoubtedly attempt

works and other measures at the

same time would

ship with Big Business. national crats,

"monuments,"

an

in

try to

undertake public

mass support, but

maintain his close working relation-

He would erect

to

effort to retain

new

and construct more roads

build

more

of his pseudo-classic

palaces for favored

for those

who

Nazi bureau-

can afford automo-

WILL HITLER WIN? But such a program would be confined within

biles.

by

183

basis of his

of the

power and which he

German

no more of

nation.

imposed

limits

Hitler's desire to preserve those capitalist forces

which

are the

believes necessary for the existence

Such a public works program would provide Germany's unemployment problem than

a solution for

similar efforts in other capitalist countries. Furthermore, not even

Goebbels' propaganda can successfully cover roadbuilding with the

same glamour empire.

The

a crusade for "national liberation"

as

necessity of fitting his domestic

of Big Business would inevitably lose

His

ability

stripped of

to

him some

maneuver would be

much

program

restricted,

and world

to the interest

of his mass support.

and he would be

of his personal prestige.

But some observers believe that Hitler would go much beyond a public works program and might even decide to embark on the path toward socialism. All those in the present

many certainly

who

see,

or profess to see, a similarity

economic system of the Soviet Union and Nazi Gerenvisage no

difficulties in

such a course.

Some Ameri-

can and European writers express the opinion that Hitler holds such vast

power

that he

would encounter no

lishing socialism, should he decide to

do

serious obstacles in estabso.

—the sworn enemy of — miraculously Socialism, of the "Jew and Marxists" were converted Let us assume, for the moment, that Hitler

to a socialist viewpoint. If

living of the

German

Business, to break

carry out even the lose the support

up

he attempted

to raise the standards of

people, to curtail the profits of

German Big

the large landed estates of the Junkers, to

first steps

toward socialism

—he

would

and incur the enmity of the ruling

put him into power, and whose

interests

he has served.

certainly

classes

On

which

the other

hand, he could not possibly gain the support of the "internal

enemy," of the German workers.

could not undo the persecu-

He

could not convert the bitter hatred of

and oppressed

into sympathetic support nor bring

tions of the past six years.

the persecuted

He

a

HITLER

184 to life the thousands

he has murdered.

He

NO FOOL

IS

could not revive the

trade-unions which he has destroyed, without evoking powerful

working

forces

the

jails

ing

own

for his

To embark on

destruction.

a socialist

program, Hitler would have

and concentration camps and

class;

to

open

work-

release the leaders of the

he would have to revive the democratic rights which he

has destroyed; he would have to permit the reorganization of the trade-unions he has suppressed; he the reactionaries

who now

occupy

would have all

to drive out of office

leading posts in the Govern-

ment and Army; he would have to break the power of the Thyssens and Krupps, and of the Junkers. Can one possibly believe that leaders of the Nazi party who come from the upper middle class, that leaders of the Reichswehr, who come from the German aristocracy will follow Hitler in a program directly contrary to their own interests?

When Roehm

and

his

followers dared to consider a

"second revolution" in the interests of the lower middle

program

from

far

Socialism

—they

Socialist

seriously,

move

The

—

it is

To anyone who

pauses to consider the prob-

unthinkable that Hider would or could possibly

in that direcdon.

Internal

With scale

class

violent death.

the antithesis of everything that Hitler has advo-

is

cated and fought for.

lem

met

his

Enemy

program of foreign expansion blocked, and with

program of genuine domestic

question, Hitler can be certain that his "internal

Even today Nazi and

picture of "law

terror has failed to

enemy"

sell

to foreign

tourists,

is

Beneath the apparently placid surface of German spread unrest

will

and an

active organized opposition.

Nazi newspapers publish

grow.

wipe out the opposition. The

order," of a completely unified Reich,

Nazis so successfully

a large-

reform out of the

social

in obscure posiuons

which the

a superficial one. life,

seethes wide-

Almost

two or three

daily the line items

WILL HITLER WIN?

185

reporting the execution or the imprisonment of

"high treason" or other

activities

executioners' axe, the steel whips of the

the

swamps where

Germans

guilty of

The

against the Third Reich.

SS guards, slow death

prisoners are forced to work,

all

in

the terrors of

The

the Gestapo have not broken the spirit of the "internal enemy." fight against Hitler continues.

As long

him

as Hitler's struggle for "national liberation" gives

easy victories, and consequently popular support, the active opposition

is

necessarily confined to a minority of people with convictions

strong enough to risk the dangers of torture and death. But this opposition will certainly

grow

both foreign and domestic this point.

Even

in proportion to Hitler's failures in

affairs.

Past experience has demonstrated

Hitler's foreign victories, in so far as they reveal

the dangers of his course, have a two-sided effect. If

on the one hand

they appeal to the "national aspirations" of a large section of the

German

growing anxiety that

people, they simultaneously arouse

the final outcome of Hitler's course will be catastrophic war.

Munich,

same time

Hitler's greatest victory, led at the

striking manifestations of unrest

and

paper correspondents noted that the

German army

demonstrations of the

opposition.

to the

most

American news-

German crowds

greeted the

in the streets of Berlin with

anxious silence, eloquently expressing their fear of war. For the

underground movement, the September for the first time

an opportunity

crisis

Germany provided

in

to reach people

who

had

until then

been completely under Nazi influence.

The growing

fear of war, the effects of Military

standard of living, social

and

reform already have cost him

workers

who had few

Economy on

the

Hitler's failure to carry out his promises of

illusions

much

popular support.

The

about their fate in the Third Reich

have had no reason to revise their skepticism. Their resentment against the virtual slavery in

which they

overtime and inferior foodstuff expresses

live,

itself

against speed-up,

in passive resistance

at

IS

NO FOOL

many

factories.

HITLER

l86

work

that has led to a decline in the output of

Lately, incidents of spontaneous

mass opposition against the Nazi

regime have occurred. At the end of April, the workers of one of the largest

armament

Rheinmetall in Duesseldorf, received the

plants,

speech of the Labor Front District Leader with jeers and anti-Nazi cries.

The

repercussion of their action in other factories in Duessel-

management

dorf was so great that the

of Rheinmetall put

up a

punishment any further discussion

notice threatening with capital

of the events in the plant.

The lower middle sionment.

It

arms. But

all

class in the cities

had thrown

itself

most

undergoes a painful

disillu-

enthusiastically into Hitler's

the foreign "victories" cannot hide the fact that

economy narrows

war

the basis of existence of the small businessman,

deprives his shop of necessary

raw

materials, his shelves of con-

sumers' goods, subjects his business to the costly supervision of

him with

arrogant bureaucrats, burdens tributions,

and demands

that

taxes

he carry on

and "voluntary" con-

for the sake of "Greater

Germany." Discontent and unrest are widespread. Their causes are various.

They range from most

the narrowest interests of special groups to the

vital interests of the entire people. Dissatisfaction

may have

its

source in the deterioration of consumers' goods or in the barrenness

and regimentation of

spiritual

and

cultural Hfe. It

may be

aroused by the indignation over compulsory labor or the Jewish

pogroms.

It

may grow

living of the

people.

It

may

Nazi

manifest

worship or in the

out of the striking contrast between the high

leaders

and the

itself

in the

grumbHng

self-denial they preach for the

demands

for

freedom of

religious

of housewives against the officially

from bread to potatoes, from Even now, before the decisive battle. foreign successes. Under no circumstances

imposed change from meat

to fish,

butter to marmalade-substitute.

Hitler feels the cost of his

could he hope to lead a united nation into a war of aggression.

— WILL HITLER WIN?

The mood

of the

187

German

Germany. Despite

outside of

people all

strongly affected by events

is

Germany drown

Hider's efforts to insulate

against outside influence, to suppress foreign newspapers, to

out foreign broadcasts, to prevent Germans from traveling abroad the

German

people react sensitively to the opinions and actions of

foreign countries. Diplomatic negotiations to cement an anti-Hitler alHance, a message

from Roosevelt, an appeal from

undistorted report of provocative sion. If

if

doubts about Hitler's course were transformed into

the conviction that he anti-fascist

is

leading

movement, now

foolish to

Germany

a potent

army threatening Hider's

Only such a

political force

organized

to ruin, the

small force, would become

if

rule.

could overthrow Hitler.

It

would be

assume that the Nazi regime would collapse automadcally

through the sheer weight of economic

As long

modern times has done force strong enough to

so.

living standard of the

German

manage

an

their impres-

an overwhelmingly powerful coalition of nations blocked

Hitler's path,

a vast

British labor,

Nazi maneuvers make

as there

is

stop him. Hitler can

people,

No

difficulties.

regime in

no organized poUdcal further lower the

still

and German industry can

raw material than now. The difficuldes of the Nazi economy must be transformed into polidcal difficulties for the whole Nazi system before it can be to stagger along with

successfully attacked

less

and brought down.

of the great majority of the ized, to

even

German

It will

require the efforts

people, unified

overcome the powerful armed

and well organ-

forces of the

Nazi

dictator-

ship.

At

present, the chances for such a revolution

foreign observers

seem

slim.

Most

tend to beUeve the Hider regime unshakable

Germany suffers a crushing defeat in war; and many inside Germany share this opinion. They see a Nazi bureaucracy numberunless

ing millions and an omnipotent State whose power and authority

cannot be challenged.

The

face of the

Nazi front looks impene-

:

HITLER

100 trable.

But

IS

NO FOOL and

history should have taught us to distrust the face

what

discern carefully

is

going on behind

it.

Otherwise

unprepared for great events; such sudden changes

we

to

will be

as the collapse of

Czarist Russia, of the Kaiser, or, for that matter, of "ever-lasting"

American prosperity

will not be understood as turning points in a

contradictory development, but as miraculous

and inexplicable

inci-

dents.

True, the higher Nazi bureaucracy seems today firmly established

and unlimited

in

its

power.

permeating the privileged

has succeeded to a large extent in

It

classes

the Nazis pay the price for

it.

and in sharing

In

their privileges.

But

Mein Kampj Hider had warned

against opening the National Socialist Party to political profiteers

The more and

tions

material, successful

a

movement has

until

to offer in the

the greater will be

jobs,

finally

party

in

its

accept him.

done

With

such

numbers

him an

that

have overrun a

honest fighter of

movement and

older

that the

new-

however, the "mission" of such a movement

this,

is

for.

as if they

Nazi Party rather than by

bitter

the

human

for inferior

undesirable intruder, determinedly refuse to

Today, these sentences read the

easily accessible posi-

the political opportunists will

days will not be able to recognize the old comers, seeing in

form of

attraction

thoughts in the

German

to the "old fighters" of the

SA.

its

were written by a

highest boss.

reader, especially

He

if

critic

They must

of

incite

he should belong

sees the lucrative positions

taken

up by the "March-Hares," by those who jumped on the bandwagon only after victory was certain. He sees the rapid advancement of the big industrialists' sons in the party and the rapid advancement of the high party functionaries in private business.

It

attention for ever that the "union between the old

many" goes on racy in

cannot escape his

and the new Ger-

form of a participation of the high bureaucthe exploitation of the people. Phrases and promises are in the

WILL HITLER WIN?

189

knew

not enough, as Hitler himself once

ment might appear contains

it

all

The Nazi movewhich the

the conflicting elements of a class society

commonweal"

"people's

very well.

to the outsider as a monolithic bloc; in reality,

The

actually represents.

conflict

between

these elements can never stop.

Whoever

and succumbs should

power of the Nazi

despairs over the stupendous

to a feeling of the hopelessness of

mind

call to

the fate of the

SA. Originally

it

and most important Nazi military organization.

army during

veritable

Chancellor, increased

demand made it.

numbered membership

it

its

600,000

when then

into a

and the

early

Hitler was appointed

men. In the summer of

to 3,000,000. It

largest

grew

felt

1934,

talked of a "Second Revolution," which, after

It

would break

out,

interests

caught with his

—that

social

class

had

"Marxism"

the domination of the Robber-

Barons and Junkers. In such talk the lower middle

and

it

strong enough to

the fulfillm.ent of the promises that National Socialism

had been wiped desires

was the It

the Nazi's "period of struggle"

days of Hitler's rule. In January 1933,

rulers

any resistance

class

voiced

whose imagination Hitler had

and national demagogy.

When

its

first

their leaders

challenged the power of the Reichswehr, they came to a terrible end.

In the June purge of 1934

were shot cal

backbone of the

men.

500,000

It is

Roehm and hundreds

command.

at Hitler's

SA

has been broken.

allowed to march

Today

at the

parades and birthday celebrations; and

plunder Jewish

German forces.

stores,

people."

What

It

But

is

still

good enough

it

numbers again

big raUies, the victory

it is still

a useful instrument

of terror against the illegal organizations of the Social Democrats.

of his lieutenants

Since then the miUtary and politi-

to

Communists and burn synagogues,

and enact the "spontaneous outbursts of the it

no longer belongs

has destroyed

effect of the contradictions

its

to the elite of the

armed

value for the Nazi dictatorship

between demagogy and

the interests of the lower middle class

truth,

is

the

between

and those of monopoly

capital.

HITLER

1^0

From

October 1939

all

Germans who have completed

IS

their military

service will be organized in special "defense detachments,"

detachments will be incorporated in the

saw

porters

in this decree a sign that the

Actually, the decree liquidates the that will recall to a

its

SA

re-

has returned to favor.

as a separate organization. All

former grandeur will be the old name attached

longer have anything in

common

with Roehm's "old fighters."

base of Hitler's dictatorship

slow as

and these

SA. Some newspaper

organization whose membership and leadership will no

new

The

SA

NO FOOL

it

may

is

contracting,

and

appear today, will gain speed and

this process,

momentum

in

proportion to the bankruptcy of Hitler's foreign and domestic policy.

no short cut to freedom and democracy for the German The Germans themselves must put an end to the shame of having their good name soiled with the deeds of savages. They alone

There

is

people.

can prove that the all

man who now

and organizational

their constructive

plans,

is

not of their

own

to learn to fight the fascist

resistance they

showed

in

they were defending their will

have to overcome

common

son to their living.

The

millions of to learn

abuses

choosing.

all their

industrious efforts,

talents for his

The German

enemy with the same courage and will of the World War as long as they believed fatherland from foreign aggression. They

all their diflFerences,

desire for peace

so irrelevant in compari-

and freedom and humane

greatest social force in the anti-Nazi front

German

murderous

people will have

workers. Theirs

from the mistakes of the

is

is

the twenty

also the greatest responsibility

past, to unite to

win the millions

of the lower middle class for an irresistible People's Front.

Any genuine welcomed by

the

support from the outside world will certainly be

German

anti-Fascists.

But such

assistance,

rendered in peace or war, must be genuinely democratic. Versailles,

defeated Hitler.

whether

A

new

imposed by British and French Imperialism upon a

Germany, would overthrow Hitler only

to create a

new

WILL HITLER WIN German

fascism can be destroyed only by destroying the social

order that breeds tion

is

I9I

?

Germany

Only for the forces of imperiaUsm and exploita"Have Not" nation. Only for an economic system

it.

a

which produces an "overpopulation" whenever the means duction cannot be employed to the profits of their owners

many

a "nation without territory."

ImperiaHsm originate in the

raw

last instance in the

and consuming power of

the producing Hitler's task

The dynamic its

is

Ger-

German

discrepancy between

present economic order.

overcome the discrepancy by conquering new

to

is

forces of

of pro-

by adding new foreign markets, by chaining new

materials,

millions of workers to capital's chariot.

The German

people's

making themselves

task

is

to

overcome the discrepancy by

the masters over the

using their industries for their

own

means

of production, by

needs, by establishing their

welfare as the goal of their peaceful and collective efForts.

mans

are a strong

and talented people. Once they enriched the

ture of the world.

fascism

may

enable them to be the

will yet rise in their

was

That they were among the

for a time

power

to

first to

first to fall

put an end to

wipe out the memory that

besmirched with blood and barbarism.

own

The Gercul-

prey to it.

their

They name

FOOTNOTES

Footnotes

Rudolf Olden, Hitler. Querido Verlag, N. V. Amsterdam, 1935. Trans-

1

lated

from the German

by Covici-Friede, 2

Pan-German 10.

An

edition, p. 33.

New York,

American

edition published

1936.

Party, not to be confused with

Pan-German League. See

anti-Semitic, nationalistic political party in Austria-Hungary.

In decline before the

War; did not

Hapsburg

survive collapse of

Monarchy. Party, founded by Karl Lueger, anti-Semitic Burgo-

3 Christian-Social

master of pre- War Vienna. It later After the

War

came under Catholic

influence.

the strongest opponent of the Austrian Social Democratic

Schuschnigg its leaders. Introduced a in 1934 and surrendered to Hider Austria in Fascism Catholic brand of Seipel,

Party.

Dollfuss and

in 1938. Since dissolved. *

Konrad Heiden, Adolf Hitler. Europa-Verlag, Zurich, 1939. Translated from the German, p. 238. American edition published by A. Knopf,

New

York, 1936.

Names popularized by the Nazis for they accept as legitimate: The First which Empires German the three of the German Nation" (962-1806); Empire Roman "Holy Reich—The Third Reich (1933-....). The The Reich (1871-1918); The Second

^ First,

Second and Third Reich.

terms are often misunderstood as signifying (i) the Kaiserreich of 187 1, the Weimar Republic of 1918, and (3) the Hitler Reich (cf., for (2)

instance,

William N. Loucks and

nomic Systems,

New

^

Olden,

'^

Freikorps. Illegal

York, 1938.

J.

Weldon Hoot, Comparative Eco-

p. 595).

op.cit. pp. 56-58.

actionary

and

armed detachments organized

after the

War

nationalistic officers, students, etc. to fight the

195

by

re-

Weimar

FOOTNOTES

196 Republic.

The

Germany

set

Freikorps refused to recognize the

fare against Poland, Lithuania

tection of the

Govermnent and the Heiden,

borders of

and Latvia, committed

army

acts of terrorism

Ruhr and enjoyed the proReichswehr (German Army) and all reactionaries in the

against the French occupation

®

new

by the Treaty of Versailles and carried on regular war-

in the

judiciary.

op.cit. p. 84.

^Paris-Midi, February 28, 1936. ^^

Pan-German League, tions

during the

whose

a political organization

War had much

common

in

imperialist aspira-

with Hitler's program of

world domination. Main champion of a "Peace through Victory" during the War. See Mildred S. Wertheimer,

New ^^

Spartacus-League.

Name

of a left revolutionary

from the German

Social

Democratic Party during the

into the ^^

The

Communist Party

of

^^ Hussite, a follower of

burned

movement which split War and grew

Germany.

flying ass of the original edition of

metaphors of the Fuehrer, was in

^*

The Pan-German League,

York, Columbia University, 1924.

Mein Kampf, one

later editions

of the

famous

transformed into a bird.

John Huss, the Bohemian reformer

who was

alive as a heretic in 14 15.

Freemasons.

An

international secret fraternal order

mainly belong to the comfortable middle

class.

whose members

Many

of Mussolini's

democratic opponents were Italian Freemasons. Mussolini persecuted

them

for political reasons.

to-do enabled

him

But the

fact that

to claim that his

many

of

movement was

them were

well-

revolutionary

and

anti-capitalist.

^^

Night of the long knives. The Nazis announced beforehand a general massacre of their opponents once Hitler came to power.

and three nights

would be turned over

for three days

and SS. The burning

of the Reichstag

terror, the

^^ People's

Nazi version

of the St.

was the

signal for

up

SA

an organized

officials

to deal with all political offenses against the

Their hearings are

Germany armed

Bartholomew Night.

Courts. Nazi juries consisting of Nazi

officers set

to the

secret, their sentences final.

and

Army

Third Reich.

FOOTNOTES ^^

197

Wolfgang Kapp, a Prussian

German League, high

State

closely connected

Army circles and the He represented the

Republic.

stand the fine arts of

official,

propagandist of the Pan-

with the reactionary bureaucracy,

Junkers, tried in 1920 to overthrow the

who did not

pre-fascist reactionary,

demagogy and mass

under-

betrayal.

^^ Clark, op.cit. pp. 66-67. 1^

Captain Ehrhardt. Naval

officer

during the War. Prototype of the

Freikorps-Fuehrer, supported the Kapp-Putsch by marching into Berlin

with

his

marine brigade of 5,000 heavily armed men. The Reichswehr under General von Seeckt let Ehrhardt and his rebels go

Command

free, declaring that

Ehrhardt had given his word of honor not to make

any further move against the Reich Government. Ehrhardt later took part in Hider's Putsch in Munich in 1923 and in many other counter-

The Republic never

revolutionary enterprises.

failed to

pay him his

Government pension. 20Stahlhelm (Steel Helmets), a semi-military organization under the political leadership of the German Nationalist Party, led by Alfred

Hugenberg. For a while in Stahlhelm was 21

22

dissolved

close co-operation

when

My

the Nazis

with the

came

SA and

SS, the

to power.

&

Blackett,

Ltd., London, 1935. p. 205 fl. Otto Strasser, Aufbau des deutschen Sozialismus (Building

German

Dr. Joseph Goebbels,

Part in Germany's Fight. Hurst

Socialism). Heinrich Grunov,

Prag. L, 1936. p. 122.

Adolf Hider's vor Westdeutschen Industrie-Fuehrern im Industrie-Klub zu Diisseldorf" (Address of Adolf Hider before the West-

23 "Vortrag

ern

German

Industrial Leaders in the Industry-Club at Diisseldorf).

Miinchen, 1932. 24

p. 28.

Alfred Rosenberg, Der Mythus des

XX.

Jahrhunderts (The Mythos of

608. the 20th Century). Hoheneichen-Verlag Miinchen, 1936. p. 25

Alfred Rosenberg,

26

State Richard Thoma, Die Staatsfinanzen der Vol{sgetneinschaft (The

op.cit. p. 609.

Finances of the People's Commonweal), Tiibingcn, 1937. 27

Quoted from Herald-Tribune, April "Nazi Economics and War."

17,

1939:

Edward H.

Collins,

FOOTNOTES

198 2^

Karl Burkheiser, Grenzen des Staats\redits (Limits of State Credit), Berlin, 1937. p. 64.

^ Max Co.,

Ascoli and Arthur Feiler, Fascism for

New

York, 1938.

^^

Esscrwr National Zcitung, Sept. 17, 1938.

2^

Der Deutsche

^' Fritz

Norton &

Vol^swirt, Oct. 14, 1938.

Nonnenbruch, Die Dynamische Wirtschajt (Dynamic Economics),

Zcntralverlag der ^^

Whom? W. W.

p. 261.

Heiden,

NSDAP,

Franz Eher Nachf., Miinchen, 1936.

p. 11.

op.cit. p. 131.

von Wiegand, "Hider Foresees His End!" Hearst's International combined with Cosmopolitan, April, 1939. Hugh S. Hanna, Congressional Record, March 3, 1939.

^•^Karl

^^

1

Modern Age Books On Germany and Related Topics If

you

to you,

you

will be interested in the special

tions listed in

Our

book or gained information from it which was of value group of Modern Age publicathe pages which follow.

liked this

have been deluged with manuscripts dealing with the subGermany, or with topics which are directiy or indirecdy related to the European situation in which Germany plays the key role. Many of these books were worthy of publication, but the five volumes ject of

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When

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the whole world

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Reich, and the

In Erika Mann's School for Barbarians, we find a completely objective and authoritative picture of education in Nazi Germany today, a theme

which is important to all of us, for the training which young Germans get might well affect the future ^the very near future of young Americans. The New Inquisition by Konrad Heiden is another beautifully written and accurate book, a description of the whole Jewish problem, the pogroms of 1939 and the reverberations of those pogroms in Germany and outside. Secret Armies, by John L. Spivak, exposes Nazi activities on our own doorstep, after first showing us the tactics which were unfortunately so successful in Czechoslovakia, which are now being exposed in France and England, and which will be increasingly exposed in this country, Mexico and Latin America. We think it is pertinent to list two more volumes, both published in the summer of 1939; Air War, by W. O'D. Pierce, and Military Strength of

—

—

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School for Barbarians

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"Whoever has the youth has the future," said the cunning master of Germany many years ago, when he was still an obscure Austrian ex-corporal. This book damningly shows how far he has gone toward warping pliable Here is a saddening record and that bodes ill for generations to come; family life poisoned and destroyed; a once proud school system debased; babes in arms pressed into a sinister system of regimentation that allows no child to draw a breath save by leave of the State. Miss Erika Mann is peculiarly qualified to draw this picture of anguish with bold and unsparing strokes. Herself a member of the war generation of German youth, she knows at first hand the life of young people under

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The daughter

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—

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Writing at white heat and yet with magnificent restraint, Konrad Heiden unfolds what is unmistakably the real story of the Jewish persecutions in Germany and of the November pogroms which sent waves of revulsion through the whole of the civilized world. This book would be unbelievable were

it not for its painstaking documentation, ranging from the testimony of reputable foreign observers to

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The book opens with the Blood Oath being administered personally by Der Fiihrer to his own carefully selected "Elite Guards" 50,000 new recruits on the stroke of midnight, November 9, 1938, in Munich. Before twenty-four hours had passed, the damage to Jewish stores and property

—

—

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From

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The author

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—

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Secret

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Air War

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will the man-in-the -bomber react to his role of

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