THE REICH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 18

THE REICH.

UNDER THE SWASTIKA.

HITLERIAN DEVICES.

SKILFUL USE OF GERMAN

PSYCHOLOGY.

(By PAUL C. SMITH.) (II.)

SAN FRANCISCO, April,

The new Germany to-day, like all things under the sun, is neither completely new nor completely old. But to anyone who knew the Germany of the early 1930'5, it is a vastly different Germany.

In the middle of 1932. a scant eight months before Adolf Hitler's ascendancy i to power, Germany wm iti the last, throes of economic and social disorder. , Political chaos was the only product of S endless dissension among more than 30 political parties. Unemployment, inefficiency, waste were everywhere apparent. Largely the obvious result of France's UJkajillingness to accept America's (and England's) suggestions for alleviation of | the post-war pressures upon vanquished Germany, the German mnn in the street Was despondent, hopeless. German youth, filled with the preachments of Fascism by the National Socialist party, |;waft chafing under the oppressing necessity of constantly pnving for a dead horse which had 'been ridden only by the preceding feneration. Hitler promised, and promised nificently. His appeal was overwhelming to a large and virile section of the people. In February. 1933, Hitjjvler came to power, and the Germany of jl'Weimar was liquidated forthwith. | To-day there is no political chaos. It sfiis prevented by the simple device of iS.maintaining concentration camps for the |; occupancy of conscientious objectors. It gift discouraged liy the simple example of (i.'the purge of 1934, or the shake-up of February, 1938. There is but one politigfcal faith in Germany to-day, and that is 1 the faith of Hitler. Can Spume Forth 42 Divisions. There is n'o unemployment to-day, r; very little waste and infinitely less "inefficiency. German wage-earners are ■/...working, on the average, 48 hours a week. |JNo employable is without a job. Berlin IpS being rebuilt. Arms factories are grumbling day and night. A network of new highways criss-crosses the third Reich. pjj* Bomb-proof, barracks can spume forth ; 42 divisions of Germany's new army to ficrowd those highways when Hitler finds need, to say the word. But, meanwhile, ||lie has said the word in another direction, l and those highways keep full of the of to-morrow—the Hitler youth, K sturdy of body and spirit, marching forth I? daily to gather, up the waste paper of so that it may be sent to a for use as substitute for some Kmissing raw material. And on week-ends Ifvthese new highways are crowded with truckfuls of German workers going to ||ithe open air for free beer and sauskge, i 'a rl Nazi speech and , "strength through fjoy." ' IP'! There may not be butter enough to go If the complete rounds of these people, fethere may be a shortage of.wheat flour, E there may be a constant overdo&e of ; potato soup, but the Hitler the S Nazi stalwart, will scorn the suggestion Kthat it matters. He is strong in body, 'i fearless in spirit. He not only does not : need, but does not want, the'! luxuries of diet so "over-emphasised" by inferior peoples. Any dietary deficiency is as

nothing before tlie overwhelming drive of his sense of racial superiority, so carefully nurtured by Hitler. French Policy Responsible. There may be some who do not share this outlook. There may be German youths who would rather have butter to eat and books to read than whale oil margarine and labour camps. But they are not the stuff of which the new German is made. They are under the influence of an older generation, whose thinking was once dominated by "tr-a.itorous international Jews and Marxists." They must conform, or there is no pla«e for them in the Germany of to-day. And if there is a place, it is surrounded by barbed wire fence. These are highlights, but such is Unessential character of the Hitler product. It is a product for which he is responsible, but he himself is a product for which post-war French policy is chiefly responsible. This is essential to any understanding of Germany to-day. Those who under-estimate the capacity and ability of Hitler as a leader, of the German yieopte _ are either themselves fools or propagandists for a counter order. It is largely the degree to which he has been under-estimated in the past that has served to make him the power lie is to-day., The man himself has great intelligence, keen political intuition, an inexhaustible energy,' an unusual capacity to 'absorb information and a fanatical devotion to his beliefs In the racial superiority of; Germans. He has turned his intelligence to a comprehension of., $he psychology .. of a people who believed themselves - "conquered by inferiors!' in 1918, and who soon grew tired paying excessive price for • their defeat. His political intuition told him as long as fifteen years ago that such a psychology could be pursued into a

great cause. That same intuition made it Clear that antagonistic elements within Germany itself could be saddled with partial responsibility for the embarrassments of the defeat. Supreme Power of State. Hitler's inexhaustible energy brought him through long prison terms with increased • determination and his fanatical devotion to his own beliefs renders him ruthless to the degree so essential to the very existence'of a concept such as his. I'iuler that concept, the life of the individual is but a transient possession of the State, and therefore is to be given or taken at will by the ennnciator of the State's demands. The Hitler vision of Germany is that of a great State dominated by a people of superior blood, cut jpid slashed to impoteney by an unjust imposition of peace. As he sees it. and as he lias made the largest portion of Germans see it, it is a picture in which the traditional enemy of Germany, France, bad sought to ilestroy the very foundations of Germany by a post-war poliey calculated to destroy her economy and, through that destruction, the unity of' the German peoples. . * . Within-the reduced borders of postwar Germany itself, according, to the Hitler view, were "anti-German" forces in the forms of Socialist aijd Communist agitators, trades union leaders, who preached pacifism on the one hand and interfered with the efficiency of peace on the other; Jews, of two categories, who were willing, within one category, to "sell out" the glory of Germany for commercial or financial advantage, or, within the other, category, to. serve the Imperialistic aims of post-war French policy through adherence to Bolshevistic subversion.. f • "Politic" Sense of Superiority. Thus, from this Hitler view grew a Hitlerian determination, imparted to a large number of followers, to revive the racial or "folkic" sense of superiority long inherent in the German psychology,

and to turn it to the purpose of reuniting the German peoples into a national entity of world importance. From the beginning, tolerance and compromise did not figure in this scheme of tilings. It could not. Tolerance and compromise would have made its development to its present proportions impossible. And tolerance and compromise to-day would destroy the very structure of National Socialism itself. This is both its strength and its weakness. There is no room for discussion or disagreement in Germany. Economic policies, social policies, political policies of necessity, therefore, must be determinated quickly and decisively by the few men whose "words constitute law. and those words must be-approved, quickly and decisively, by Hitler. Hitler himself believes profoundly that he is but the instrument of the will of the German people. He makes an intellectual concession to the smouldering passions of freer days when he insists that he interprets the will of the people —as expressed in a general election in 1033 which granted him the powers of dictatorship. ■ Unsound Wishful Thinking. V Predictions of the early economic and social collapse of Germany are not sounder than the wishful thinking of contemporary Germany's political and ideological opponents. Hitler has turned enough economic energy to the will'of the State to keep the order alive for some time to come. Some nations have built strong regimes from material wealth dug from the soil. When these resources have been exhausted, they gained the elements of revival by marching on to new soil. For Hitlerian Germany neither course was possible. Others, therefore, were chosen to aid the Hitler regime in its promise to eliminate unemployment for "Aryan Germans."

The first step was to shake the big stick in the face of foreign capital which had entered. Germany in the poet-war period in the form of long-term bond issues, industrial participations, equity holdings and bank deposits. Debts were then "adjusted" by edict. Bank deposits were brought under control through currency controls. Industrial participations and equity holdings were frightened into repatriation at terrific discounts. The resultant absorption of economic energy once owned and controlled by foreigners was thus confiscated and turned to the purposes of the regime. Almost simultaneously came the exploitation and expropriation of the Jews, whose property was confiscated through the aid of currency and other manipulations when the Jews found life in the new Germany no longer bearable. These resources were acquired either directly by the State or by Aryan interests friendly to the regime at discounts as great as 80 to 95 per cent. Reichsmark's Many Values. Then there is the control of even Aryan German investors through currency manipulation, internal and external trade restrictions, and the general application of "economic planning." To-day there are more than 200 different internal values to the Reichsmark. and it is simply not healthy to question the authorities when one value is applied to the mark in your pocket as opposed to another value. Now the "union" with Austria is a fait accompli. And in that corner of the new German Reich are more natural resources, more foreign -investors, more Jews. When those are exhausted in the interests of the National-Socialist order, there still remain the Austrians of Aryan stock, who will have further "opportunity" to contribute to the advancement of the society of pure Germanic peoples. By tliat time, however, the new Germany will have taken another of her logical steps in the direction of establishing the security of the German peoples under the protection of the swastika. Germany marches on. —N.A.N.A.