Part V of the "Germany's Hitler" series - and please remember that this was published in 1934 - and compare it to our Clintonite times:
On Saturday, October 14th, 1933, Hitler withdrew his country from the League of Nations. There should have been no occasion in this for the universal amazement it has caused. Adolf Hitler had announced his intention of taking this step some months before. Not before Germany has parity of rights does it concern her at all to waste time over disarmament conferences which forever come to nothing.
On the same day President von Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag, since, in consequence of the dissolution of all parties except the National Socialists, this now had become a mere rump.
The new electors fully confirmed all former National Socialist gains, and went far beyond. The result of these, held in November, was a victory for Adolf Hitler which even his most ardent adherents had hardly dared hope.
>From a voting population of 43 million, 40 1/2 million supported the
National Socialist regime. Six hundred and sixty one members returned to the Reichstag. It meant that 95 % of the German people had firmly taken their stand behind Hitler.
This result was their thanks to him for all that he had hitherto done for them.
The foregoing brief resumé has concerned itself with little but the political aspect of things. In the following chapter some attempt will be made to show what all this meant translated into everyday terms, brought to bear on the everyday life of the German citizen.
Hitler, the Workless and the Needy
In the autumn of his first year as Chancellor Adolf Hitler issued what was at once an order and an announcement: "This winter, no one must starve or freeze in Germany."
Lots of people scarcely took the words for sober earnest, they saw no possibility of them being made good. Indeed how should this state of things be realised; the burdens and deprivations of the late War still weighed heavily on all the world; never had it been possible hitherto that people should neither starve nor freeze to death in winter!
One might safely say that such an ideal never would have been practicable, had not a man directed affairs in Germany who knew how to bring into the sphere of practical politics that simple Christian charity one to another which the churches have been preaching throughout the ages.
Hitler's motto had long been "Love your neighbor more than yourself. Be ready, always, for the least of your own, to sacrifice your belongings and your life." It is known, of course, that Hitler accepts no income from his Chancellorship, but directs that this money should go towards the relief of unemployment. It may not equally well be known that during the winter 1933-34, when the sales of his book had reached the peak, the whole of this increment was also ear-marked for the poor.
The Germans have a special gift for organization. Here it seemed eminently practical to organise the "Winter Relief Work" (Winterhilfswerk) by means of the Party machine. It was extraordinary to see how everybody took advantage of this to bring his own, personal sacrifice and exertions into line with the Führer's design and behest. No fewer than one and a half
>million people of position and influence threw themselves whole-heartedly
into this great effort, to say nothing of the rank and file who also did their utmost, and of those who willingly gave their mite.
The scope of this, the biggest philanthropic effort ever made at one time by one people, was so all-embracing that, enlisting as it did the cooperation of great and small alike, it would require three times as much space at our command, merely to outline it. Some idea of it, however, we must endeavor to convey for three reasons, first, to combat the often repeated gibe that Adolf Hitler has no constructive ability, no sizable plans; second, to show - if it really should need showing - how and why it is that he holds the trust and love of the German people as a whole; and thirdly, to claim for him that he lost no time at all after coming to power, in proceeding to make good the promises of his Party programme. (...)
In no smallest village in Germany, nay, in no poorest cot was something not done, something not spared, to aid this nation-wide work. It was generally estimated that some three hundred million marks were devoted to it in this way. Possibly this estimate is too low. Not, by any means, that the Winterhilfsarbeit (Winter-aid-work) could merely be appraised in terms of money. Nor could it be measured in terms of material comfort. Its value for the union and solidarity of the reawakened German spirit was above all else.
Given, then, this fount of money, let us very briefly enumerate the numerous channels into which its flow was directed.
Adolf Hitler called upon everyone who had a job of any sort, big or small, to set aside weekly or monthly some small saving for the poor. It was a request, not an order, for Hitler knew well enough that very many people were in no position to spare a single pfennig (fifth part of a penny). All who possibly could, came forward with their "bit" for the "Battle with Hunger and Cold." The directors of the whole enterprise set an excellent example, and the rank and file willingly proved their Socialism in response.
Every Sunday during that whole winter hundreds and thousands of collectors were to be seen selling tags in the streets to the same end.
Through this source alone enormous sums were gathered in, and very often other results came from these tag days. Case after case occurred of their leading to employment for the unemployed. For instance, in the Harz Mountains of Thuringia there are little towns whose inhabitants live by glass blowing. At this time unemployment was rife among them. So the directors of the Winter-Aid thought it a good thing to have tags made of glass, and gave this welcome order throughout the district. It resulted in months of work for three thousand poor glass workers in Thuringia.
The whole "brain wave" was so much appreciated by the public that when these glass tags appeared upon the streets there was a rush for them. In three days over twenty-five million were sold out! Could any better proof be adduced than this of how truly National Socialism concerns itself with the needs of even the smallest of the German workers?
(to be continued tomorrow)
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Thought for the Day:
"When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before, you see more in you than you did before."
(Clifton Fadiman)