CHARITY IN GERMANY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 179, 30 June 1936, Page 11

CHARITY IN GERMANY.

UNIQUE NATIONAL SYSTEM. “Although there are many aspects of Nazi Germany that do not appeal to those, who have. known the old regime and its conservatism, there are few people in Germany to-day who have not the highest admiration for the Nazi system of the administration of charity,” said Mrs F. Hauslaib, who arrived in Auckland the other day. Airs Hauslaib, whose home is in South Otago, has returned from a visit to England and the Continent, including a three weeks' stay in Germany. Airs Hauslaib explained that, according to the Nazi theory of administration, if a system of charity injured the pride of the recipients or gave them a feeling of inferiority it defeated its own ends in that it fostered a feeling of unrest and rebellion.

In her opinion the giant National Socialist A r olksdienst, with its important subsidiary, the Winterhelp AVerkc, was unique in its scope and in its operation. The AVinterhelp AVerkc combined in a great working whole all the public charities of Germany and drew its finances from voluntary subscriptions, street and industrial collections, special lotteries and gilts. The largest portion of its finance was derived, however, from a remarkable working system of self-denial. By this system each person in Germany able to do so, on a given day of each month had a meal costing about 8d in English currency, 50 pfennigs in German, and paid to the AA’intcrhclp the difference between that cost and one mark or between that cost and the amount usually spent on a meal. By this system about 33 million marks were handed over to the AVinterhelp. This system operated only for six months of the year. Last winter over 134 million people were helped with food, clothing, fuel, finance or furnishing. They were reached by the voluntry workers of the organisation, but the system operated without undue publicity. There was very seldom the need for direct application for help. Those in need of food, clothing, relief from debts; pre-natal or after-birth care, furnishings, sick relief and other things were reported on, often secretly, by the voluntary workers.