LIVING IN GLASS HOUSES

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13244, 21 January 1941, Page 2

LIVING IN GLASS HOUSES

THE NAZI HEADERS MAKE THEIR PILE

"Down with the British plutocrats! with their vulgar diamonds and their rivers of champagne, screams Goebbels’ radio. Wheie does he get his ideas?" queries the astonished Englishman, and the answer is easy. They begin at home, lo collect ideas Goebbels has only to visit the houses of his National Socialist colleagues. He tells us that "Molotov mistook the noise of Berlin’s anti-aircraft gunfire for the popping of champagne corks." This simple picture of Nazi life serves as a frontispiece to our guide to the Wilhelmstrasse Or handbook of racketeers.

Hitler, because he neither smokes nor drinks, has achieved an undeserved reputation for asceticism. His motto is ‘Moderation in refinement, but his style of living makes Hollywood seem suburban. He has a yacht at Kiel and a private tram with cinema and cocktail bar. His palaces at Berchtesgaden and in the Wilhelmstrasse are equipped with every grandeur of marble and gilt and many fine tapestries and paintings "borrowed" from museums not only in Germany but in the occupied territories.

Goering’s income is about £IOO,000 a year, less than Hitler's £ 200,000 so he does not have a train of his own, but he cuts quite a dash in his own way. From his 4 2 motor cars to the retinue of huntsmen blowing hunting horns at departing foreign journalists, from the solid gold bust of his first wife revolving on its marble pedestal to his three country castles and his palace in Berlin, he is on example to the young Nazi of the advantages to be reaped from the party racket. Goebbels is more modest. He pigs it in a Berlin house of fifty rooms and makes do with a mere couple of country estates. Oddly enough it is Goebbels who has roused a protest. The German people put up with a great deal from their leaders, but even they were annoyed when the Minister of Propaganda treated them to a film of his own life, called “Daddy’sßirthday.” It seems that the contrast between their conditions and his was too great. The film was withdrawn.

Where Does the Money Come From? The glib Nazi answer to this searching question is that the leaders are rendering the Reich such invaluable services that “there can be no dividing line between their fortunes and that of the State.” In Other words, the perks of office — official residences, expense accounts, entertainment allowances —are infinitely elastic. No payment, it seems, is too high. What Do the Germans Think Of It? They- may think volumes, but they can say nothing. The Gestapo, the controlled press and concentration camp see to that. But now and then resentment bursts the bounds. The Viennese lately hissed Frau Goering when she appeared in ermine in their Burgtheater. Similarly when" Dr. Ley the “workers’ friend” bought himself a fourth estate in Bavaria at the price of 100,000 marks, there was a protest. “Tell us. Ley, where did you get that 100,00 marks?” said a sign posted on his gate, and when a reward of 100 marks for the culprit’s name was offered by the outraged Sicialist —“Tell us, Ley, where did you get that 100,100 marks?” appeared next day.