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T HE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, June 5th 1933(Germany Under Hitler - First Article)
GERMANY UNDER THE RULE OF HITLER DEATH BLOW TO DEMOCRACY By GARETH JONES
REVOLUTION WHICH SPRANG FROM POVERTY
The Brown Shirts are now masters of Germany. Every day in Berlin they march through streets bedecked with red, black, and white Nazi flags to the sound of those military marches which are rousing young Germany to a passionate militant love of their Fatherland. Eager crowds line the streets for each parade and, stretching out their right hands, call with ecstatic enthusiasm, "Heil, Hitler!"
The leader of the National-Socialists (to give the full name for Nazi), Adolf Hitler, who flies one day to inspect the fleet at Kiel and next day to speak, perhaps, at Munich, commands among millions of people a feeling which can only be described as that of religious worship. I have for my leader;" said one leading Nazi to me, "a love which is as deep as my love for my country, and I have in him a faith than which no faith, even faith in religion, could be deeper. Hitler can never be wrong, and his orders I shall carry out to the death." Imbued with such devotion to Hitler, the Nazi Brown Shirts have, under his command, carried out a revolution which can be ranked with the Bolshevik and the Fascist Revolutions. The German National Revolution, although possessing a far narrower economic and philosophical foundation than that brought about by Lenin, has certainly been more rapid than its Russian counterpart. The Brown Shirts in three months have been able to gain power and dig themselves well in without the ravages of a civil war and without the delay of several years, which elapsed in Italy before Mussolini took over full power. The lightning pace of the National-Socialist triumph makes the French Revolution appear almost like prolonged slow motion.
DEATH-BLOW TO DEMOCRACY
What have the Brown Shirts done since Hitler became Chancellor on January 30? They have dealt a deathblow to democracy in Germany, and have made Parliament into a despised relic of the past. They have put one party, and one party only, into control, and that is the National-Socialist party, which has become as all-powerful as the Communists in Russia and the Fascists in Italy. The Nazis (pronounced Natsi-s) have put themselves into the position of leaders in the universities, in all committees, in factories, on boards of directors, in schools, in public offices. Most positions of trust are now held by members of the party. They have started a ruthless campaign against the Jews, whom they have deprived of rights, whom they have persecuted both economically and morally, and whom they have treated as if they were "inferior men," as they call them. Distinguished scholars and great men, whom we in Britain would be honoured to consider as our citizens, are not allowed to enrich German scholarship or law courts or hospitals. They have abolished two powerful parties, the Social Democrats, who numbered about 8,000,000 voters and the Communists, who numbered almost 6,000,000, and have seized their funds, the private property of those parties. They have imprisoned many tens of thousands of men and women for their political views, and hold them now captive in prisons and concentration camps. They have swept away the liberty of the press, and they come down with a heavy hand upon any editor who dares criticise the leader or his policy. They have created a secret police, which will make still more nebulous any freedom of expression which may remain.
A DREAM COMES TRUE
In the space of a few weeks they have made the old Bavarian, the old Saxony, and all the various States which formed Germany a thing of the past, and the scattered, straggling Germany of yesterday has now become a centralised, unified nation. The dream of generations- namely, a united Germany, where men would not be Saxons or Bavarians or Wurttembergers, but real Germans has in a flash come true. They have attempted a moral cleansing of life in the big towns and have courageously attacked social evils. They have revealed and condemned much corruption in public life and have placed before public servants a high ideal of service for the nation’s sake and not for private gain. They have re-organised education on lines of narrow nationalism and intolerance. They have had midnight bonfires of some of Germany’s most valuable Socialistic books. Such have been the main lines of the national revolution. The Nazis’ actions combine a powerful idealism with a mediæval intolerance and unselfish devotion to an aim and a leader with a brutal disregard of justice and fairplay to the individual. Liberal-minded people have been shocked by the similarity which Nazi decrees have with former reactionary measures, and the treatment of the Jews has caused a revulsion of feeling which is shared by millions of Germans within the borders of Germany.
CAUSE OF THE REVOLUTION
Why has Germany suddenly become so ruthless, so nationalistic, and so thorough in sweeping away the democratic Republic formed after her defeat in 1918? The revolution is, firstly, the revolt of young Germany against years of unemployment, against the boredom of walking the streets without work, against a meagre unemployment benefit, which is, as one man put it, "enough to breathe on, but not enough to live on." Young Germans learned to hate capitalism and to long for a new system where things would be different. A young worker who only received 4s. 6d. per week was not likely to be fond of the system under which existed, and he longed for any programme which offered hope. Most young workers streamed into the Communist camp, while the unemployed who had middle-class connections usually became Nazi storm troops. Even when Germany enjoyed a period of sham prosperity on borrowed money, from 1925 to 1929, there were a steady million or two out of work, but when the cloud of depression broke over the world the figure sprang upwards with a speed which terrified politician and workman alike, and reached six millions. Many families had not enough bread, and the fathers and mothers blamed the system under which their children went hungry. Revolutionaries grew in number until most of Germany became revolutionary. At one time the future seemed like a race. Which would win-Bolshevism or Fascism?
SAVINGS MELT AWAY
Not only the working class, but the middle class was impoverished. In 1923 the savings of the whole country melted away in a few months, when the mark became of infinitesimal value. In 1923 one could buy for a £, millions of marks and later even billions. I remember travelling in that year from Saxony to South Poland, a distance of 350 miles. For 1,750,000 marks, which was equivalent to 1s. 10½d., I obtained a first-class ticket, and I paid the equivalent of fivepence for a five course meal on the train. This inflation a meant the disappearance of the savings of millions of families, and the, ruin of the middle class has been the most fertile breeding ground of the national revolution. On the surface in Germany the streets still look prosperous. Men and women look well dressed, for the Germans have a pride of appearance and a regard for cleanliness which fill one with admiration. But beneath a spotless suit of clothes and a white collar there is often abject poverty crying out for retribution.
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The Vistula and the Polish Corridor - the territory of Poland which separated German East Prussia from Germany proper.
THE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, Tuesday 6th 1933 (Germany Under Hitler - Second Article)
GERMANY WAS NOT READY FOR DEMOCRACY
LACKED EXPERIENCE IN SELF-GOVERNMENT ENSLAVED BY THE NEW SYSTEM
By GARETH JONES "Why do you support the Nazis?" I asked a German professor who had great experience of foreign travel, and who was a gentleman in every way. He replied, "I support the Nazis because I am tired to death of all the little parties which have been squabbling over the spoils of political warfare. I am for Hitler because he has put an end to fourteen years of democratic government which divided our people into camps bitterly loathing each other. I am for Hitler because he has revealed the corruption on which the old party bosses thrived." This German professor put his finger on one of the chief causes of the national revolution. It is a revolt against German democracy. When the war ended Germany became a republic based on principles of Parliamentarism. A country which had always been accustomed to obey the dictates of an Emperor and his generals suddenly became self-governing and, lacking the experience of real parliamentary rule, fell into the worst errors of democracy.
CONFUSED POLITICS
Never had Germany known such political freedom as in the republican years after 1918, but never had politics been so confused, and never had the Germans longed so much for a firm guiding hand. A people for centuries drilled and disciplined by Prussian generals or dominated by princelings and kings suddenly put its destiny into the hands of dozens d parties, each with its slogans. In one general election 37 different parties appealed for the votes of the electorate, and then the parliament was elected the views represented by the parties clashed vehemently that not for many months could a Government be formed. Under the German Republic corruption began to creep into sections of public life, which before had been remarkably pure. The pre-war German Civil Service, though badly paid, was admirable for honesty and for its high sense of duty. After the war certain financial scandals in Government circles aroused the hatred of the people for the new régime, and a cry for more honesty in public service arose, which the Nazis immediately seized for their party platform.
REGIME OF OLD MEN
Moreover, the German democracy of 1918-1933 was, in the eyes of young Germany, a régime of old men. The proportional representation system, adapted by Germany, led to many abuses, for Germans did not vote for "Mr. Schmidt" or "Mr. Braun," but for a list of party potentates, which was usually composed of elderly men who had made big subscriptions to party funds. "Make way for youth," became the slogan of young people, and they determined to overthrow this republic which had so little room for them. Propelled entirely by deep feeling and by an instinctive hatred of self-government, the young Germans forgot some of the fine features of German democracy: its freedom of thought, its social services, and its housing schemes, and painted it as a corrupt Jewish invention, to enslave the German people. Young Germans not only felt themselves enslaved by their system at home, but also longed to break the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles. They were, not willing to admit that they had been defeated in the war, but attributed their debacle to a Socialist "stab in the back" in November, 1918. Every humiliation which Germany has suffered since the war made nationalist feeling flare up, until by 1933 it burst forth in the flames of the National Revolution. A PROUD PEOPLE
The Germans are a proud people and are as sensitive as the Welsh in matters of nationality, resenting any attack on their nation. Everything which the Allies have done since 1918 has increased the nationalist passion of the Germans. The War Guilt Clause, the sending of black troops into the Rhineland by the, French, the refusal to admit Germany into the League of Nations until 1926, the inferiority in armaments, the need to pay £100,000,000 a year in reparations-all these made the forces mount up which were to break out in revolution in 1933. But what rankled most in the German mind was the taking away from Germany of lands inhabited by Germans and placing them under peoples like the Poles, whom they despised. Millions grew up with the conviction that they would willingly die on the battlefield to, win back for Germany the Polish Corridor and other parts which they longed to see re-united to the Fatherland. This urge to shatter the yoke of Versailles and to set up a greater Germany, where all those of German origin should live, led to the fiery nationalistic revolution of 1933.
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THE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, Wednesday June 7th 1933 (Germany Under Hitler - Third Article)
CAMPAIGN OF HATRED AGAINST THE JEWS NATIONAL LOSS OF TRADE AND INITIATIVE
By GARETH JONES One day a leading Nazi said to me: "I tremble when I think of England. You are on the verge of a precipice and nothing but ruin awaits you. Do you know why?" I waited for the reply, and it came "You are doomed because of the Jews who are working your downfall." I almost rubbed my eyes. Here was man of influence in the government of Germany, and he was talking in the terms of the Middle Ages. He continued in strains of fantastic ignorance, and his eyes sparkled as he enumerated the sins of the Jews. As I listened to him I fell as if I had been transported back many centuries, to an age of witchcraft and black magic, so unreal was his description of the so-called machinations of the Hebrew race. When I got out into the streets of Berlin I almost imagined that a pogrom might take place, so burning had been the hatred which the Nazis had expressed for the Jews. But nothing happened, and the streets were as quiet and orderly and the people as calm as ever.
A BLOW IN THE BACK
I have never seen a Jew struck, although there have been many cases of this, and visitors to Germany will be impressed by the outward decency of the towns. But often the quietest parts are the most ruthless battlefields, and so it is in Germany to-day, where the victims are not so much those who have been beaten in the streets or in the Nazi Brown Houses, but those who have been dealt a blow in the back by economic measures. That well-dressed, well-fed Jew walking calmly past may be the greatest sufferer of all, for, recently deprived of his work, he may be living on small savings and dreading the future for his children without hope in a Jew-baiting Germany. So mediaeval had been the terms applied to the Jews by the Nazis that I decided to look up the "Bible" of the National-Socialist movement, namely, Hitler’s "My Struggle," and find out what the Chancellor of Germany had said about the Jews. Again I almost rubbed my eyes, for I came to a page where he described the influence of the Jews in Britain. This is what he said of England: In this country of ‘free democracy’ the Jew is almost the unlimited dictator through the devious method of controlling public opinion!" It was not the British, in Hitler’s opinion, but the Jews who wished the destruction of Germany in 1914-18. Now the Jews, he says, are aiming at the destruction of Japan, for Japan is the barrier to a Jewish world dictatorship. Therefore, the Jews are now rousing the peoples of the world against Japan.
HITLER’S INCONSISTENCIES
Hitler accuses the Jews of Machiavellian intentions upon the life of the world, but these intentions seem to differ according to the page of Hitler's book which one reads. On one page the Jews are accused of the nefarious purpose of desiring the triumph of Parliamentarism. A few pages further on they have suddenly changed their purpose to that of dominating the world by spreading Bolshevism. Indeed, Hitler looks upon the Bolshevik Revolution as a Jewish scheme to conquer the world, blissfully unaware of the fact that Lenin was no Jew, that Stalin is no Jew, that the most powerful Jews in the world are allied to capitalism, and that the Jewish shopkeeper is the greatest sufferer in a proletarian revolution. But these little inconsistencies do not matter in the eyes of Nazis, for Nazis are quite capable of believing that Jewish lie! Bolsheviks are working for the triumph of Jewish High Finance and that Jewish High Finance is subsidising a world revolution Even Jewish jokes are regarded by many Nazis as part of the subtle scheme of world domination by the Jews. Hitler suggests that the Jews try to depict themselves in comic newspapers as a harmless, humorous people in order to mislead public opinion into thinking that they are no danger.
CAMPAIGN OF HATRED
The most brutal and also the pettiest methods are adopted to drum hatred of the Jews into the German people. As I was walking down the Friedrichstrasse, a main street in Berlin, a newspaper boy shouted, "Buy the ‘Aryan Review.’" I bought it, and discovered that it was wholly devoted to proving that the Jews were the leaders of the forces of evil and the originators of wars, and that God wished the Germanic Aryans to be the lighters for idealism in the world. In one library I saw a big notice signed by the German Students’ Union, entitled "Against the Non-German Spirit," which stated that everything a Jew wrote in the German language was a lie because the language of the Jews was Hebrew. What an indictment against the type of university product which the Nazis have brought to the front! Why are the Nazis determined to treat the Jews as an inferior people and to deprive them of posts? The first reason is that the Nazi philosophy is based upon the supremacy of the Aryan race. Hitler writes in "My Struggle": "Everything which we see in human civilization, in achievements of art, science, and engineering, is almost exclusively the creative production of the Aryan." With one sentence he sweeps Japanese art, Chinese philosophy, and Jewish science, the achievements of an Einstein or the healing of Jewish doctors, into the wastepaper basket. The worship of the Germanic past has led to an orgy of inventions about the history of Germany. The facts that the Germans are a people of mixed origin, and that the Slav element in the Prussian is exceedingly strong, are brushed aside scornfully, for Hitler has spoken and Hitler is always right. Secondly, Nazis justify themselves by religious arguments for persecuting the Jews. One pamphlet tells you that the Nazis are the true defenders of Christianity, for it is the Nazis who fight the Jews, thus fighting the enemies of Christianity!
CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC LIFE
Nazis have launched a campaign against the Jews, thirdly, because they believe that Jews are largely responsible for the decline in morals and for the corruption in public life. They state that the influx of Polish Jews has been damaging to Germany. The revolt against the Jews can finally be traced to the antagonism of the small shopkeeper to the fierce competition and unscrupulous methods of many of the larger Jewish concerns. Thus the Nazis have dismissed Jewish doctors and lawyers, officials and professor,. Even Jewish workers and employees have been thrown out to make way for men of German origin. In the realm of sport and art, science and education, the possession of Jewish blood is a barrier to progress. What of the future? There are signs that the persecution is dying down, but the damage done to Germany by it has been tremendous. Shakespeare wrote of the Jews: "If you wrong us, shall not we revenge?" and the revenge has come. Leipzig, the centre of the fur trade, has been dealt a severe blow. Germany’s exports have suffered through a boycott of German goods. But the greatest loss to Germany, in my opinion, will be the loss in brains, in initiative, and in economic genius through which Jews enrich the countries where they live.
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THE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, Thursday June 8th 1933(Germany Under Hitler - Fourth Article)
Worship of the Soldier Under the Nazi Regime Hitler’s Policy "Towards the East"
By GARETH JONES
If you listen to the wireless in Germany today, you will hear in the intervals four notes being played time and again, and you find that it is the tune, "People to Arms! People to Arms!" which is being drummed into the ears and the minds of listeners. If you walk down a main street or enter a café you will be surprised at the number of people who have dug out their Iron Crosses from their store-places and now wear them proudly. If you go to a cinema there is a good chance of your seeing a film depicting U-boat heroes setting forth to sink British vessels during the war or showing Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, scattering his enemies in the eighteenth century. Another film you may see lauds brave Austrian mountaineers who hurl tons of rocks and stones from the hills upon the beads of Napoleonic invaders below. If you go to a theatre there is every likelihood of your seeing a row of French troops pointing their rifles at a German officer condemned to death in 1923, and of your hearing the German hero cry out, "Germany, awake!" before the French commander bids him go on his knees and the rifles spit out fire at their victim. This German officer, Schlageter, who was shot by the French ten years ago for blowing up a bridge in the Ruhr, has become the symbol of Germany’s National Revolution, and the play, based upon his life, which ends in his being shot as he bends on his knees, rouses the most passionate of nationalist feelings in the young Germans who see it, and makes them feel that they also would willingly lay down their lives as soldiers in the national cause.
Urge for Army
The worship of the soldier is again being implanted in the minds of young Germans, and no nobler death is presented to them than death on the battlefield. There is an urge, shared by almost all Germans, even by Socialists, to have a powerful army again, and this reverence for an army is typically described by Hitler in his autobiography when he writes: "What the German people owes to the Army can be summed -up in one word, namely, Everything," The supremacy of the military, the sight of thousands of uniforms, the drilling of the Brown Shirts, the resounding marches the fiery military songs which mainly spring from the victorious German War of Liberation against Napoleon, the cult of discipline rather than of freedom, all these features have led British people to say: "This is a mere return to pre-war Prussianism. It is the Kaiser back in another form." Nothing could be further from the truth. In Germany a real revolution has set up a State differing fundamentally from the Imperial Germany which went to its doom in 1918. Some points are, of course, similar, and the love of leadership and the respect for the authority of the leading figure are reminiscent of the Germany of the Kaiser; but the differences between the two systems are striking and they are being brought to light by the quarrels between the Nazis and the German Nationalists, who are the adherents of Imperialism and Monarchy. Revolutionary Régime
How does the Nazi régime differ from the old Prussianism of pre-war days? It is above all a revolutionary régime depending mainly on youth, whereas the pre-war régime was an old man’s régime, where the colonel of sixty years of age was respected for his age and rank rather than for his brains, and where young people had little chance of promotion on account of the prevailing respect for years. To-day youth is in the saddle and the older men are in the background. Typical of this is the way in which Hitler, who is in the forties, has put the octogenarian Hindenburg completely in the shade. The Nazi revolutionary régime is bitterly opposed to the class differences of pre-war Germany, where peasants and nobles, workers and industrialists, soldier and Royal families built up the pyramid of a semi-feudal State. The Nazis-in a rather vague way appeal for the abolition of class differences and the breaking down of the barriers of snobbishness. Their slogan is "the spirit of the front-line trenches," where they claim the differences between officers and men made place for a comradeship based on patriotism. Thus, in the Brown Shirt Army the sons of the Kaiser are in principle on the same footing as the raw peasant recruit.
Poles Apart
Over the Monarchy the Nazis have a quarrel with the German Nationalists, and thus are poles apart from pre-war Prussianism. The Steel Helmets (the army of the Nationalists) wish to bring in the Monarchy, but Hitler says that that question is not of importance at the minute and would rather let sleeping dogs lie. The truth is that in the ranks of the Nazis there is great antagonism to Monarchy and certainly no love for the "old man of Doom." Even in the treatment of the Jews Hitler differs from the Kaiser, for Wilhelm II. was a friend of Jews and made use of their brains for the benefit of Germany. The supporters of the pre-war policy, the German Nationalists, are opposed to Hitler’s persecution of the Jews and believe that it is doing immense harm to Germany. Two German Nationalists with whom I traveled on a short journey pointed out to me: "It was a disgrace to have dismissed Einstein and some of the greatest Jewish doctors whose discoveries have saved thousands of lives." Even in foreign policy Hitler has entirely opposite aims from the Kaiser. The Kaiser said "Our future lies on the water." Hitler proclaims: "Our future lies in the East of Europe." The Kaiser’s policy was a’ world policy and aimed at the extension of colonies, of export trade, of international banking, and at domination of the high seas.
Hitler’s Aims
Hitler aims at the very reverse. He does not want to extend Germany’s power throughout the world, does not want a large Atlantic Navy, which would immediately antagonise England, neither does he want a large export trade. He wants Germany to be a self-contained State extending towards the East at the expense’ of Poland. He wishes to make Germany as independent of the world as possible. Towards the East! That is his policy, and to carry out that policy, which means in the long run a war with Poland, he is determined to have~ a powerful army, a strong air force, and a modern Baltic fleet. Germany must expand and carry out the policy of conquering Eastern Europe, which was the Prussian policy of six centuries ago. Although Hitler now desires peace, there is in the combination of his Eastern expansionist policy with his militarist training of youth, a profound danger to the peace of Europe in years to come.
Home Policy
In home policy Hitler is a great contrast to the Kaiser. Under the Kaiser Bavaria, Saxony, and the other parts of the Empire were kingdoms or duchies, enjoying considerable independence. But Germans always longed for unity and looked with envious eyes upon Britain, which had been a united nation for centuries. Thus Hitler through the National Revolution welded Germany into a unified structure and put an end to the measure of Home Rule enjoyed by the various States of Germany. A Saxon said to me: "Bravo, Hitler! He has made Germany one; and at last I can really say that I am a German first and foremost and not a Saxon." The greatest difference between Hitler’s policy and the Kaiser’s policy lies, however, in the attitude of the Nazis towards capitalism. It is here that the most striking developments can be expected, for the Nazi party is by no means united on economic lines. There is the national wing and there is also a wing which wants to go rapidly towards Socialism. Will there be a quarrel between the two wings? Will the Nazis take openly anti-capitalistic measures? These are questions which can only be answered in the future, but already observers scent signs of National Bolshevism in Germany. Nazi cells have been set up in every factory and every office, and many of these cells have made their influence felt over the management and interfered with production. Will these cells take over production? And will Germany thus become a National Bolshevist State? One cannot yet say, but the formation of party cells and their interference in economic life are already mother proof of the gulf which separates the Germany of Hitler from the Germany of the Kaiser.
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THE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, Friday June 9th 1933 (Germany Under Hitler - Fifth Article)
Nazis’ Interpretation of Christianity
God on the side of the Nationalists By GARETH JONES
Before me I have a German book called "Christianity in National-Socialism," which attempts to proclaim and prove the following doctrines: First, that "the philosophy of the Nazis is in accordance with God’s creative will, and with the teaching of Christianity"; Secondly, that the principles and the deeds of the Nazis are practical applications of the doctrines of Christ; and Finally, that the Nazis are the only true defenders of Christianity. How does our Nazi author show that Hitler is carrying out the will of God? He first shows that God is on the side of the Nationalists, for He divided men into races and nations, just as He divided living beings into various animals and the world into various regions: "We would seek in vain for German oaks in India and Indian palms in Germany, for Polar bears in Africa and elephants on the North Pole." Thus God created a world where each animal or human being had a. race and a home. Men, therefore, do not exist as men, but as Germans, English, French, Etc.. "God who has created men of such different types has placed in them the urge to keep and to develop their national and racial qualities. Who fights against this is a fool, and is sinning against God and God’s will."
The Teaching of Christ
The Nazi writer depicts God as an enemy of internationalists: "Christ is not an internationalist. His first lesson to men is that they shall please God by being. nationalistic and patriotic." Moreover, Christ is, in the eyes of the Nazi author, a militarist, for He taught that fighting must and will be carried out in this word by weapons, and that no one should yield before an enemy but should fight to the death. Such is this Nazi’s interpretation of the Bible. Those who cry "No more war" are, in his opinion, "Godless hypocrites"! In the struggle for nationalism, "God, the Lord and Creator of all things will always be the victor over internationally minded fools. "Where do we find the clearest realisation of the teaching of Christ?" asks the author. And he replies: "Precisely in National-Socialism." In the first place, the Nazis are being Christian and pacifist when they demand the arming of their own people. Hitler "is not working against Christ and His doctrines, but according to the image of Christ."
Everything German
Since Christianity is, in Nazi eyes, a teaching which extols nationalism, it is the most patriotic of parties which is the most Christian. Therefore, "in Germany everything must be German! German the polities and German the administration, German the language and German the writing, German the music, and German the songs, German the newspapers and German the literature, German the philosophy and German the actions, German the law and German the law courts, German the plays and German the cinemas, German the education and German the schools, and, above all, German must be the home and the family." By making everything German the Nazis are, in their view, carrying out the will of God! Most important of all, the Church must be thoroughly German, and Evangelical Churches (Lutherans, Calvinist and others) are to be unified into one organisation.
Protestants’ Resistance
The Nazis have tried to capture the Evangelical Church by setting up a Nazi sect called the "German Christians," and trying to make its head, Dr. Müller, the first Evangelical bishop. But the vast majority of German pastors have courageously refused to be dictated to by the Nazis and have kept their belief pure. They have elected a non-Nazi, Pastor von Bodelschwingh, as first Evangelical bishop of the Reich, with control over 40,000,000 members. The German Protestants, in doing this, have been the first body in Germany to stand up against the dictates of Hitler, and have shown courage and determination. They have also shown that the Nazi interpretation of religion is not accepted by the mass of pious people in Germany, and that the idea of a military, patriotic Christ has not yet conquered over the gentler, nobler idea which inspires better Christians than the Nazis, and which is summed up in the teaching, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."
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THE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, June 10th 1933 (Germany Under Hitler - Sixth Article)
METHODS OF NAZIS, FASCISTS AND BOLSHEVIKS Striking Similarities of Three Movements By GARETH JONES
I had not been many hours in Germany at the end of May before I felt that much of what I saw and heard was strangely familiar. Where had I experienced before a similar atmosphere of idealism combined with fear, of unbounded hope on one side and of whispered despair on the other?
Then I realised that it was in Soviet Russia and in Fascist Italy that the same atmosphere had encircled me. When I added up in my mind the points of similarity between Berlin, Moscow and Rome I was astounded, for they clearly showed that the methods of the Nazis and of the Fascists are the same as those of the Bolsheviks, however much their aims may differ.
The first point of contact was the idealism of many of the leaders.
The Hitlerites expect a new heaven on earth, just as the Bolsheviks are convinced that they will build up in Russia a paradise. This idealism has led to an admirable feeling of self-sacrifice, courage, and selflessness, and the Brown Shirt who ‘in Germany is willing to lay down his life for his leader has his counterpart in the Russian Young Communist who will work twenty hours voluntarily for the sake of the Five Year Plan.
The Dark Side
But the idealism of the Nazis and of the Bolsheviks has its dark side of intolerance and their faith is that of the fanatic who, driven by deep emotion, keeps his mind completely closed to another point of view.
You cannot argue with a Nazi, nor with a Bolshevik, any more than you could convince a fundamentalist believer in the Bible of the validity of Darwin’s theories. "Germany" ‘has become a religion for the followers of Hitler, in the same way as Communism has ‘become a religion for Bolsheviks.
The ‘Nazi Party has almost as complete control" of the State in Germany as the Bolsheviks have in Russia or the Fascists in Italy; and their ‘method of keeping power is very similar to that of the Bolsheviks and the Fascists. They have captured the whole life of the country; they have put Nazis in control of offices, of factories, of newspapers, of debating clubs, of boards of directors, of every little organisation. Nazis have been made, Commissars of Bavaria, of Saxony, of Wurttemberg. They have been put in the key positions in the police force. Thus, within a ‘few months, the Nazis have entrenched themselves in so skilful a manner that only a civil war could drive them out.
Army of Secret Police
To dig themselves still further in power the Nazis have formed a secret police of many thousand members, with rights of search which almost make them counterpart of the Soviet O.G.P.U. As in Russia and Italy, letters are opened and there are house searchings for counter revolutionary propaganda and for weapons. To British people this intrusion into the sanctity of the home seems preposterous but it must be remembered that for two or three years Germany has almost been on the verge of civil war and that Bolshevism was seriously feared.
Not only the police but the law courts have come strongly under Nazi influence and justice can be said to have become- as in Soviet Russia-a weapon of politics. An incident in a South German town a few days ago illustrates this well. A bank clerk did not hold out his hand for the Hitler salute as a crowd was singing the Nazi anthem, and for this he was seized by the police and put into gaol for seven days. When he appealed against this imprisonment the court of justice condemned him for "serious misbehaviour" to another two days imprisonment and ordered him to pay the costs of the trial. When a court of justice condemns a man to imprisonment for not giving the Hitler salute it can certainly be called a weapon of politics.
The Arts Conscripted
Justice is not, however the only weapon to be seized by the Nazis, for they have conquered almost every branch of national life.
As in Soviet Russia and in Fascist Italy, art is to become a tool of the Government. The theatre has been put under the guidance of Nazis, who are turning it into a propaganda machine for the Nazification of Germany. The cinema is to be a weapon of the Government to make Germany into a Nazi paradise, and the result of this policy can already be seen in the nationalistic and military films which are now the vogue. Literature and painting are to be judged-as in Soviet Russia-on a political criterion, and already one notices a serious decline in the quality of literary criticism, for critics now review a play not according to its intrinsic value, but according to its Hitlerite orthodoxy.
As in Soviet Russia and in Fascist Italy, the press is Government controlled and independent newspapers have been muzzled. Still appearing under their old titles, these newspapers are but a ghost of their former selves and scarcely venture to breathe a word of’ criticism. Liberty of expression has also vanished and the careful guarded way in which Germans now talk makes one think of Moscow or of Rome.
Veiled Criticism
The fear of criticising the régime has led in Germany to the same result as in Russia, namely a host of bitter, humorous anecdotes which are a form of veiled criticism. Jews, for example, say: "A Jew can only become a solicitor nowadays, provided he fought and killed in the war.
The Nazis have learned much from the Bolsheviks in their propaganda methods. I had on this question a long conversation with Dr. Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, who has the reputation of being the cleverest man in the Government, and he spoke with pride of Germany’s achievements in publicity. The Germans, whose propaganda during the war had been so clumsy, had, in Dr Goebbels’ view, become the cleverest publicity men in the world and had out Americanised America in this respect. The use of the cinema, of the stage, the staging, of vast demonstrations to arouse public enthusiasm, the booming of Nazi speeches through loud-speakers as one goes through the streets, the thousands of ‘gay’ flags - all these methods are similar to the’ propaganda methods of the Soviet Union.
Even the worship of Hitler makes one think of the worship of Lenin in Russia and of Mussolini in Italy. In each office his photo hangs, just as Lenin’s and Stalin’s adorn the Bolshevik office. The cult of the leader is the feature of every dictatorship.
Youth in the Saddle
As in Fascist Italy and Soviet Russia, youth is in the saddle in Germany today, and that is one of the similarities which strike one who has been both to Russia and Germany.
There are ‘young men everywhere in responsible positions. A young man whom I met and whom I thought had, on account of his youth, quite a minor position turned out to be the President of one of Germany’s most important provinces! The use of force is another feature which Germany has in common with the Soviet Union, and this leads to the disregard of the individual and to the worship of the State. The State is to the Nazis and the Bolsheviks the God before whom all must bow and to whom individuals must offer up ‘their most sacred rights.
Difference In Aims
However much the methods of the Nazis and the Bolsheviks may be similar, they differ profoundly in aims, for the Nazis believe in maintaining private property, whereas the Bolsheviks hold, private property to be the root cause of human ills. Moreover, whereas the Bolsheviks were a minute minority in 1917, Hitler obtained more than 40. per cent. of the votes of the German people, and can say that he has the support of large masses of the population.
One’s final impression on leaving Germany is that Hitler has achieved his dictatorship without civil war and with comparatively little bloodshed, and that the country is now remarkably calm.
British visitors can go to Germany without any fears, and will be struck by the cleanliness, the: kindliness, and the hospitality of a great people, who, in spite of their nationalistic views, give a warm and pleasant welcome to British guests. The above article concludes a series of six by Mr. Gareth Jones.
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THE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, July 15th,1933
Will Hitler Save Germany? By GARETH JONES
WILL the Germans be happy under Hitler? Will they be prosperous under Hitler? Will they be peaceful under Hitler?
These are the questions which people all over the world are asking, and these are the questions which I shall try to answer in this article. I have seen Germany in the depths of poverty and in growing prosperity, under democracy and under dictatorship, in a time of national despair and in a time of national awakening. Since 1923 I have spent part of every year in Germany. When I first went there ten years ago, so chaotic were conditions that I paid 1,750,000 marks for a railway journey of 350 miles - and these 1,750.000 marks cost me in English money exactly 1s.10d at that time the collapse of the mark was sweeping away fortunes, wrecking families and spreading untold misery everywhere. Then, gradually, I saw Germany recover. And I saw her change in other ways as well. Nazi Brownshirts appeared in the streets. The drums beat a little louder. The military marches crashed out with greater violence. The worship of German idealism became more fanatical. Revolution came. On January 30th of this year a friend rushed up to my room in Leipzig. "Hitler is Chancellor!" he cried, and the Alsatian dog in the room barked loudly at his excitement. Some days later I shook hands with Hitler, the man who had led the revolution, and flew as his guest in his aeroplane on his, lightning election campaign, as a result of which the German People voted away their democracy. A fortnight ago I return from another visit to the land of the Nazi dictatorship, during which I spoke to workers and peasants, professors and businessmen, in the countryside and in the towns.
"We Have Hope Again!"
With that background of knowledge of Germany, I shill try to answer the three questions which are puzzling us in Britain today. Will the Germans be happy under Hitler? Today millions of Germans are more than happy, they are ecstatic. They feel that they have had a moral and spiritual awaking. Watch them as the Nazis match down the Berlin streets, with the military band playing a stirring march. In the eyes of the Brownshirts and of the spectators there shines an almost religious joy. Note the excitement of the children as they see the bright banners and admire their brothers in arms. See how the old folk smile, and say: "Germany is saved. We have hope again. Youth has been awakened." Go to a Hitler meeting and you will see more than happiness. You will feel the electric tenseness of a religious revival. You will see thousands of people swept by a primitive passion. I stood upon the platform, a few feet from Hither, as he addressed 25,000 people in Frankfurt-on-Main. Never have I known such ecstasy, such emotion as pervaded that vast hall. He seemed to hypnotise the crowd and they went mad with nationalism, mad with love of their leader, mad with hatred of all those who disagreed with him, mad with the beating of the drums and with the blaring of the trumpets. They fixed their eyes upon Hitler, and whenever he finished a sentence, they would roar for minutes without stopping. When the speech came to an end, 25,000 people leapt to their feet, 25,000 hands were outstretched, and 25,000 voices shouted again and again: "Heil Hitler!" Crowds are notorious for being carried away by oratory. What of private individuals? The families with which I stay in Germany are all happy over the advent of Hitler. But those who love Hitler are not all Germany. There are millions of them, but what of the others? What of the Jews under Hitler? They are being treated as inferior beings. They are being boycotted. Many of the most brilliant among them cannot earn a living. The Jews are decidedly unhappy under Hitler!
Painting the Black Forest White.
Then there are still perhaps 8,000,000 Socialists left in Germany. Many of them have lost their jobs, and thousands live in dread lest they should have to make way in office or factory for a less efficient Brownshirt. There are also those Socialists who are digging trenches and chopping wood in concentration camps. They are certainly not happy. Are liberal-minded men, internationalists, and pacifists happy under Hitler? Deprived of a living, unable to express their views, their novels banned, they are treated by the Nazis as enemies of the nation. And are the Catholics happy under Hitler? While numbers of them are Nazis, there are millions who fear an attack on their institutions. There is, therefore, a large section of the German people which does not fall in with Hitler’s views. Will the ecstasy of the others last? When the tumult and the shouting die, will the Germans who support Hitler be disillusioned? I think most of them will wait for an answer to the second question-Will the Germans be more prosperous under Hitler? A joke is now whispered in Germany. A humorist asks: "Do you know how Hitler is going to put 3,000,000 unemployed to work?" and then answers the question himself: "He will make the first million paint the Black Forest white. The second million will build a one-way road to Jerusalem, and the third million will cover the Polish Corridor with linoleum." Labour Camps for Youth.
How Hitler is going to bring work to 6,000,000 workless people is a puzzle. The unemployed are almost on the verge of starvation, for a young single man without work only receives 4s. 6d. per week while a married man with two children is lucky if he receives more than 15s. or 16s. a week. Many families have not enough bread. They will judge Hitler, not by the flags or the drums or the uniforms, but by the simple method of seeing whether they have more bread. To bring work and bread to the German people is Hitler’s gigantic task. Now is the time for him to show his strength. We all know that he is a master at oratory, that he can crush parties and men, and that he can arrange circuses for the people. But the greatest task of all is to come. Hitler has already proclaimed a Four Years’ Plan to rebuild Germany. He promises to take 500,000 young men off the streets every year and put them in labour camps. ‘They are to build roads. They are to drain marshland. They are to make moors bring forth vegetables and grain. They are to plant trees. Then they are to be settled on the land and lead the busy, healthy country life rather than waste their time in idleness in the towns. This plan of Hitler’s is exactly what Mr. Lloyd George has advocated in Britain and what Mussolini is doing in Italy. "Back to the land!" is Hitler’s cry, just as it is Mr. Lloyd George’s slogan. It is a courageous, far-looking policy, but there is one question which is worrying even torturing, the Nazi leaders. Where is the money to come from? Germany is poor, for her wealth has been swept away. Hitler is going to meet difficulties galore in finding bread for his people. He wishes to make Germany live to herself alone as far as possible. He wants Germans to produce everything for themselves. He believes in high tariffs to shut out foreign goods and foreign foodstuffs. He is the apostle of economic nationalism. Will not is own policy bring poverty to Germany? Germany cannot live to herself alone. One German out of three depends on exporting for his living. Hitler’s policy strangles exports. Bremen and Hamburg owe their livelihood to shipping. Hitler’s policy hits shipping.
Beating the War-Drum.
Higher tariffs in Germany are already leading to higher prices. Butter and margarine. have already leapt upwards and there is much grumbling among the workers. The German housewife will be less enthusiastic about Hitler if prices mount still higher. Prosperity depends also upon the final question, which is: "Will the Germans be peaceful under Hitler?" If you listen to the wireless in Germany, you will hear in the interval four notes repeated, which are the main notes of the song "People to Arms!" If you go to a cinema you will probably see a film glorifying war or depicting Frederick the Great of Prussia triumphing over the countries of Europe. In the main street of Berlin you will probably visit a War Exhibition and see youngsters excited by the steel helmets and guns, the model trenches and dug-outs. You will then realise that the worship of the soldier has returned to Germany. The boys of Germany are longing for a military career, and the books they are given make them thirst for the excitement of war. Books which show the horrors of war, such as "All Quiet on the Western Front," are banned.
Danger to Peace of Europe.
Turn to the grown-ups and listen to what they say about the future. "Towards the East!" that is the policy they advocate. The Nazis believe that Germany must expand into Poland and settle Eastern Europe with Germans. For this they are intent on building up a strong army, a strong air force, and a powerful Baltic fleet. This policy is dangerous to the peace of Europe. Hitler wants peace now and most Germans want peace, but the worship of the soldier and the desire to expand to the East may, in years to come, lead to grave happenings. Will Germany be happy, prosperous, and peaceful under Hitler? Many may be happy and peaceful for sometime to come. The Nazi ruling class may prosper for years. But I do not believe that any nation can long be happy, prosperous, or peaceful under a dictatorship which denies freedom, lauds militarism, and seeks to cut itself off from the rest of the world.
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THE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, 16th October, 1933.
- As the German Sees It Storm That has been Brewing for 14 years By GARETH JONES
The storm which broke on Saturday, when Germany left the League of Nations, has been brewing for fourteen years. Let us try to put ourselves in the place of an average German and interpret his feelings. Ever since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 stamped the Germans as a pariah race they have nurtured feelings of deep humiliation. They have stored in their memories every little insult to their nation, every attack on their honour, every slight upon their good name, until their supersensitiveness has produced the haughty, clumsy declaration breaking the bonds between them and the Western world. Germans writhe when they think of their history since 1919. WAR GUILT CLAUSE There was first the War Guilt Clause. Nothing arouses the passion of the German so violently as to be accused of the sole guilt in the war. The Germans consider that: the Great War was one of defence by a Germany encircled by powerful enemies; and to be branded as a criminal before the whole world dealt blow to the German’s pride which rankles more to-day than ever. For the gesture against world co operation by Germany on Saturday the accusation of War Guilt bears no little responsibility. But that was not all. Troops poured into the Rhineland and the sacred river of Germany’s legend and song resounded to the bugles and the tramp of the enemy. Imagine how the Germans felt when black troops marched through their country lanes and peaceful villages. I remember how the eyes of patriotic Rhinelanders blazed with fury when they told of negroes insulting their Countrymen. In the inns of the Rhineland tonight vile stories of black troops will be repeated and Hitler will be praised for having cut adrift from politicians who allowed such insults to Germany to remain unavenged. By the presence of foreign troops each German felt his own prestige lowered; but still greater was the humiliation of those Germans who had been placed under the rule of nations which they despised. Millions were made into Polish or Czech subjects, and they prayed for the day when revenge would come.
THE REVENGE
Last Saturday brought revenge, foolish, childish, unthinking, but a revenge which-few Germans will regret. The blow to the League which it entails will raise many a contented cheer in Germany, where the League has always been mistrusted and hated. In 1919 Germany was considered too despicable a nation to become a member, and it was only after many rebuffs that she was allowed to enter in 1928. The feelings of a German can well be summed up in the words, "You did not think us worthy of joining your League in 1919. Very well, in 1933 we rejoice in being able to smash that pro-French weapon of oppression," The League of Nations is synonymous in the German mind with surrender, compromise, and disgrace. Above all, however, the failure of the League of Nations to further disarmament is the main cause for Germany’s outburst. Germany feels fooled by the promise of the Allies at Versailles to disarm and resents the position of inferiority to which she is condemned by her inequality in armaments.
PERSONAL REASONS
It is more than national resentment, however, which has caused Herr Hitler to break away from the League of Nations. The personal reasons were very powerful, as they always are in great political decisions. Hitler will never forgive the Assembly of the League for the magnificent applause which greeted his enemy Dollfuss, nor will Dr. Goebbels forget the cold shoulders which showed him clearly how Hitlerism is hated. And it was in Geneva that Mr. Ormsby-Gore gave one of the most resounding slaps in the face which Hitler has ever had in a speech condemning the persecution of the Jews. However great may be these external reasons, the most important is probably the internal situation of Germany. Hitler has brought excitement, brown shirts, banners, bands, processions, but he has not brought bread. He claims, wonderful success in fighting unemployment, but his statistics are as phantomlike as those of Soviet Russia. The suffering and hunger in Germany are intense and the spectre of disillusionment is shaking an icy finger at the Chancellor. He needs some triumph, some circus, to maintain his popularity. The Reichstag Trial has failed to do this. He, therefore, stages what be imagines will be a dramatic foreign victory to keep minds of his desperate people from their empty cupboards and their tattered clothes.
WILL IT LEAD TO WAR?
Will this gesture of scorn in the face of Europe lead to war? I do not think so. Germany, isolated, still torn by internal dissensions, could never risk an attack. All her former friends, Italy, Russia, Austria, are deserting her and she stands a lonely, tragic figure, hysterically defying the powerful steel claws of France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The more she defies, the tighter the claws gather round her and the lonelier she becomes. By leaving Geneva she has formed another League of Nations, the league of all nations determined and united to prevent her from re-arming
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