LUXURY LIVING

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13269, 20 February 1941, Page 7

LUXURY LIVING

NAZI LEADERS AXU THE "PERKS" OF OFFICE "Down with the British plutocrats, with their vulgar diamonds and their rivers of champagne," screams Goebbeis' radio. "Where does he get his ideas?" queries the astonished Englishman, and the answer is easy. They begin at home. To collect ideas Goebbels has only to visit the houses of his Nationalist Socialistic colleagues. He tells us that "Molotov mistook the noise of Berlin's an-ti-aircraft gunfire for the popping of champagne corks." This simple picture of Nazi life serves as a frontispiece to our guide to the WTilhelmstrasse or handbook of racketeers. Hitler, because he neither smokes nor drinks, has achieved an undeserved reputation for ascetism. His moto is "Moderation in refinement," but his style of living makes Hollywood seem suburban. He has a yacht at Kiel and a private train 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, so he does not have a train of 00, so he does not have a train of in his own way. From his 42 motorin his ow way. From his 4 2 motorcars to the retinue of huntsmen blowing hunting horns .. at depart-' ing 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 an example to the young Nazi of the advantages to be reaped' from party racket. Goebbels is more modest. He "pigs it' 'in a Berlin house of 50 rooms and makes do with a mere couple of country estates. Oddly enough, it is Goebbels who has aroused 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's Birthday." 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 The film was withdrawn.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, I entertainment allowances —are infin- | itely elastic. No payment, it seems, j is too high. \ What do the Germans think of it? ; They think volumes, but they can say nothing. The Gestapo, the controlled press and concentration camp see to that. But now and then rei sentment bursts the bounds. The Viennese lately hissed Frau Goering j when she appeared in ermine in their Burg-theatre. 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 100,000 marks?" said a sign posted | oh his gate, and when a reward of 10 marks for the culprit's name was offered by the outraged Socialist, "Tell us, Ley, where did you get that 100,100 marks?" appeared next day. j