“INSIDE EUROPE.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 71, 23 February 1937, Page 10

“INSIDE EUROPE.”

BANNED IN GERMANY. The Chief of Police in Berlin (Herr Himmler) has banned the book “Inside- Europe,” a record of present-day Europe by John Gunther. “Inside Europe,” which was published in England in January of last year, has had remarkable success and is classed as one of the three non-fiction-al “best sellers” of 1936. A few minutes’ reading of the book will show why the Nazis have banned it. It opens with a chapter on Hitler and a large part of the book is taken up with a recital of events which throw's a remorseless - light on the character and deeds of the leader and his associates.

The author gives a very full analysis of the character and motives of Hitler, whom he calls “this paunchy, Charlie Cliaplin-moustached man given to insomnia and emotionalism,” and recounts incidents in his life which Nazi officialdom would, obviously, rather have suppressed. The author mentions as characteristics of the leader a lack of poise, dislike for intellectuals, a habit of haranguing people in ordinary conversation, and a capacity to delude himself. “He believes absolutely in what he says —at the moment,” Gunther says. “But his lies have been notorious.”

The author gives several examples of Hitler’s apparent obliviousness to personal contacts. After referring to his tendency to break out in crying fits after long restraint of emotion Gunther adds; “Hitler does not enjoy too great exposure of this weakness and he tends to keep all subordinates at a distance. They worship him, but they do not know him well. They may see him every day, year in year out, but they would never dare to be familiar.”

The author's account of the remorseless steps by which Hitler climbed to power is 'full, and does not spare the subject. “Hitler never flinched from the use of terror, and terror played a powerful role in the creation of the Nazi State,” he says. “From the beginning lie encouraged terror. The only purely joyous passage in ‘Mein Kempf' is the inscription of his first big mass meeting, in which the newly-organised SA pummelled hecklers bloody.” In an endeavour to throw light on Hitler’s character the author recounts somo of the facts of his childhood. His father, he says was truculent and overbearing, and thought that Adolr was a weakling and a worthless idler and dreamer, called him “moonstruck,” and bullied and beat him. Young Adolf, ho says, detested his father and loved his mother, and this difficult parental relationship was obviously a cardinal point in the development of Hitler’s character. Himmler would not have less reason to suppress the book, for the author is particularly severe on this leader of the SS, the man who, he says, superintended the “death squads” which car-ii-ied out the murders of June 30, 1934. “Heinrich Himmler,” he says, “is ono of the most sinister personalities of the new Germany. . . . He has informally told' the .world that in the event of’ an attempt on . Hitler’s life, even if it is unsuccessful, there will be chaos in Germany and ‘a great pogrom.’ ”