The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1940. THE DANCERS OF NAZISM.

Evening Star, Issue 23496, 9 February 1940, Page 6

The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1940. THE DANCERS OF NAZISM.

The aims of Hitler as stated in ‘ Mein Kampf ’ are out of date, and do not touch the essence of National Socialist policy as it is now revealed. Such is the conclusion Of Dr Hermann Rauschning, author of ‘ Germany’s Revolution of Destruction ’ and the later ‘ Hitler Speaks.’ Incredible as the revelation of this Junker writer is, it seems to be borne out by the deeds of ferocity that have been and are being enacted by the Nazis on land and sea. In ‘ Mein Kampf ’ Hitler’s vision was already expansive beyond the dreams of other visionaries. “ To-day,” he wrote, “we number 80 million Germans in Europe. But the correctness of the National Socialist foreign policy will not be established until, a bare century hence, 250 million Germans are living on this continent, and living, not squeezed together as factory coolies for the rest of the world, but as peasants and workers who reciprocally assure each other’s livelihood by what they produce.” He believed that National Socialism would carry its revolution abroad and recast the world. “Finding the German people distressed, disunited, and resentful, he saw in the idea of a racial ascendancy a purpose that would fire their patriotism, satisfy their bitter anger, reconcile and concentrate their passions.” Germany’s racial strength must be developed biologically, morally, intellectually. “ A governing class tempered by battle and welded from the most varied elements must be created. A race given to brooding and dreaming to excess must be brought back to the great truths that only deeds and perpetual activity give meaning to life.” How this revolution was to be accomplished the world has since learned. From first to last, says Mr R. C. K. Ensor, ‘ Mein Kampf ’ is a plea for remorselessly exploiting power.* The doctrine that might is right is never swerved from. Nevertheless, it was a bold and expansive policy, and embodied the ideals of a man of unusual character and outlook.

The amazing thing is that, according to Rauschning, the aims mentioned in ‘ Mein Kampf ’ have fallen into the background and do not touch the essence of National Socialist policy as it now is. “ Intensive settlement in the east of Europe,” the Junker author asserts, “ in territory won for Germany is no longer the central aim of National Socialist policy.” It has now quite different aims. It aims not at the solving of outstanding problems, but “ at the perpetuation of an unlimited and aimless revolution, a revolution for its own sake and not for anything it will

bring. . . . National Socialism does not aim at constructing anything, or at solving any problem. Its philosophy is to create a’ Nihilist revolution, a perpetual chaos, in revenge for the ordered liberal democratic mechanical life which deprives almost everybody of any joy in living.” The first thing to realise, Rauschning goes on, is that the purpose of National Socialism ‘‘ is actually the deliberate and systematic destruction of the social classes that have made history, together with the last vestiges cf their established order.” The National Socialist not only does not believe in economic laws; he does not believe in the law of cause and effect. He does not believe in reason or thought; they arc the causes of the most horrible of all things in his eyes—liberalism. Even the young people of Germany, Rauschning asserts, see in their destructive character the one essential common element in the great revolutionary processes. “ Young Nazis have already got beyond the narrow limits of nationalism and imperialism, but they have also dismissed the dogmatic theories of a ‘ just ’ social order as the source of earthly happiness. They see life’s meaning in its perils, life’s purpose as domination, the means as violence, and the goal as world-wide totalitarian empire.”

At least, then, the Nazis have one definite goal in view—the establishment of a world-wide totalitarian empire. This contradicts Rauschning’s other statement that National Socialism “ does not aim at constructing anything.” Whatever truth there may be in the ideas expressed by the German writer —and he is being widely quoted as an established authority—what he says here supplements and emphasises many of the prevalent beliefs regarding the aims and methods of Hitler and his followers. The Euhrer is shown to bo a dangerous character, who, if not checked in his headlong and insane career, will bring calamity io mankind.