BLOOD AND RACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 22

BLOOD AND RACE

THE gHr»*THEORY

A REWRITING OF HISTORY*

TO- DEFINE DESTINY

Herr Hitler appealed recently to the "doctrine of blood and race" as a cardinal principle Of Nazi policies; in an article in the London "Daily Telegraph" on February 3 the teaching of this doctrine in special Nazi schools is .discussed by William Teeling who has just been yisiting a number of ftienv '.',..

'As far as one. can generalise, it is safe to say that politics do not enter into the German Army, writes Mr. Teeling. The army, is allowed to develop on its-own lines; and in the Four Years' Plan and economic development of Germany Dr. Schacht and those connected-with him-(and they number thousands throughout, Germany), whether-they, are ■members of the party or not, are allowed also a fairly free hand. . * ■'.. What ■ the Fuhrer, however, mow considers he needs is an organised body of people to teach the country what is to be its national political^outlook. Since the National Socialist Party is now on a par with, and some say above, the. Statei" there can obviously only be one party. It has been decided that the. party is to have,a definite line of thought-on almost every subject which is comprised in the teaching of the Weltanschauung (world outlook). " ~-•■•■•'■■ What that line of thought is. to be. is not yet decided in every detail, notably as regards religion, nor how it should be taught • . : TEACHING THE TEACHER. So far,'the idea is that each Gau (or province) of Germany shall have a number of schools for picked boys, •who will receive a model education and, it is hoped, will later become leaders in their different spheres of life. A few Reich political schools, taking still more 'select youths from the ages of 10 to 18, will-teach boys to be even more perfect. ; It is hoped that at least 50 per. cent. ;.of these Eeich political students" will go into the army permanently. , - :-, After the.boys have left'the .political schools they may study ■ a trade, and later they will do their service and their ■'-. military service. Finally the> pick; of them . will go for three years;to the three new'colleges for political, training, one near the Belgian- frontier,; one' ; :;in;:.' Southern Bavaria, and one ■ in; Pomerania. When that education.is finished (an education which includes jumping out of aeroplanes in.parachutes and other heroic actions) the young men, now in their late twenties, will be the recognised teachers of the Weltanschauung for the large number of schools already . started throughout Germany, which I have 'recently been yisiting. - ' ' . ■ ■ In every province of the new Germany there are at least three of these schools. They have between forty and fifty students, . and are usually situated in .beautiful country surroundings. The students are young men and middle-aged: merits workers yi? 1 industry or. civil servants^^TheyJdpya three weeks' course and-.^are tEeniv expected to. be ■ able^to go'back to their-.grpups and districts sand, explain the--- Nazi teaching, which 'isx>pppularly . called abroad "The Theory of" Blood and Race." . ;-.■ ■: - - ■■■ ■.;: TEST; OF-ANCESTRT. ' ■In this article I wish neither to approve nor disapprove of these teachings. In any case, many of them are still in-a state of flux, and how far they are developed or curtailed depends largely on Christian churches in Germany, and still more on the ordinary lay German Christians. Suffice it that much is being said outside Germany to prove that.-the teachings of the new Germany-must" lead to war. It is as well, therefore, to glance at the 'actual* teachings and the teachers. It may be possible that such-teachings CMi'be taught in Germany.; without affecting other .countries. To begin'-'syith; nobody .can now join the party arid be a political leader who cannot trace^his-ancestry back satisfactorily to A.D. 1800. It was about this time that Germans began to intermarry with-Jews. The blood of everypne at the "schools is, thus, satisfactory. Their first lesson is in questions of heredity, the next in Race questions, ■nd after that come numerous lectures en "Yolk," on the internationalism of IJewry and Freemasonry and on the proper teaching of-history." "Only in the last week are present-day problems discussed. , The'Volfc (People) lectures discuss such thorny problems .as sterilisation, inbreeding, and the like. Combined with the Race lectures they give an impression that the-world is divided up into peoples, that each people has its: own characteristics, that that is inside you, arid. is ' there whether you like-it or not;,you cannot get. away, from it and therefore you might just as well do the things that react best on people having such internal inclinations. Therefore the Germans are Nordic and: have in no sense the same outlook, as, say, the- French, who are Westerns, or as the Italians. The Nordic people, I gathered, are not democratically inclined, and it is unwise to have them too much filled with book-learning. Their forte. is definitely sport, the open-air life and generally clean living. Too much dancing, feminine art, and the like does them harm. The teachers, with real enthusiasm, more.than once explained to me that such teachings in no sense implied Imperialism. TAKEN FOR GRANTED. It would be unthinkable for a'newly-well-educated German to marry a coloured person. "In England that is already the unwritten law, in Germany it still needs to be impressed." They would often go on to stress that much that we resent in their new preaching of nationalism' has been for centuries taken for granted in Great Britain, and that the British people forget the Germans are not yet accustomed to think nationally. ■;■

This would bring us to the numerous lectures on history. ■ At first much stress is laid on the Stone and Prehistoric Ages; then come lectures on the early Emperors. Here.it is strongly stressed that great Nordic leaders, strengthened by their Nordic surroundings, went across the Elbe, and often as. far as Rome, being ambitious to become Emperors. . In doing this they lost their strength drawn from their native soil, arid sacrificed the interest of the German peasant. This brings the.Nazi to Luther, who is looked-Divas a hero, but not a /eligious herbil That side of his life does notr come into-discussion, except in so far as it- shows him as a great German rebel ■ against outside and international forces, san,d- as .the first man to consolidate ihtiaJpne German language a lot of dialecf§ which split •>he Germans into numerous foreign nations. ■ ■ . ■ ,

In that way he was: \ precursor of Hitler,-whose ambition it is riot only to break down the political differences in the German States,1 but to develop a national, thought and. patriotism, . -JThis-'iihk^ft^^t&Jer-ii followed

through by descriptions of the rise of Prussia and the Hohenzollerns, the great north German leaders, and leads on to criticism of Rousseau and the influence of the French. Western doctrines throughout the nineteenth century which led to Marxism and ; Bol^ shevism. : '.. ELIMINATED IX FRANCE. There are other lectures which show that the Nordic strain was eliminated from France; here, as examples, are cited the expulsion of the French Huguenots and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. .There are lectures to show why the Greece of today has little to do with the great days of Athens, how the Nordic conquerors of India and Persia have died out, and the lesson of experience for the German people of today to be drawn from those mistakes of the past. It is felt that Germany has quite enough to do in developing her own race, and seeing that her citizens abroad do not degenerate, to be ever accused of Imperialism. The position of the Germans in other lands could be compared to a member of a family having certain peculiarities who yet goes abroad. His family doctor, knowing all the family symptoms, and how liable they may be to be affected, say, by certain winds, tries to keep in touch with him and prescribe a suitable regime. If there are Nazis in Holland and England, it was pointed out to me, cne must not forget there are Nordic strains in both these countries and we oughtto be interested to know what the Nordic specialists prescribe for such feelings. As interesting as the teaching ■is usually the teacher. Wherever I have met him, he has been an enthusiast; usually he has .been one who took part in the war. .„■ ,' \ . He will tell you quite frankly 'that were it not for the present revolution he would never have got where he is. He considers he has got there because hidebound tradition alone.was his opponent—and that L has been suppressed. His ideas are definitely Socialist,' his respect for deep international book learning is not great. He certainly does not want war for war's sake. SOURCES OF IDEAS. Unlike the nouveau; riche of most countries he is not now able to travel about nor to keep in touch with foreign opinion, except through the censored Press. He is. therefore saturated with the teachings he is teaching and has heard no .contradiction of them that has not been prefixed with condemnation from someone whom he genuinely respects. He gets his theories and his policies from Hitler's "Mem Kampf" and from Rosenberg's books and speeches, supplemented by articles in a fortnightly journal circulated from Berlin. . ' He: teaches' what he..has learnt with a very real enthusiasm to possibly rather surprised and confused middleaged German citizens, who have been chosen themselves. to teach in their districts. He couples with it theories on the present day which it is as well for foreigners to realise most middleaged and other Germans believe to be true, and agree with. These theories include the doctrine that Germany canhot live without raw materials and colonies; that Germany is as great as other nations and never really lost the war in the field and will not be satisfied until she is treated as everybody's equal; and that she is surrounded by Communistically-inclined enemies. Air this the average German believes already, and so he is likely at least to take on chance those newer theories I have enumerated. Coming from the same source they may be necessary for a new Germany, he feels, as. they seem ..to, be combined with pride of race, health, and, possible work, as well as a desire for peace which is in'every, German who fought in the war. ... ' .. ' !,'■■ .' ". '■. i Such are the individual Germans who are teaching modern Germany what it in turn shall teach tomorrow. They may be wrong, but their enthusiasm should be understood in all our dealings with them.