RISE OF HITLER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21548, 20 July 1933, Page 14

RISE OF HITLER

. THE NAZI MOVEMENT ADDRESS BY MR. ALLUM POLICY OF PERSECUTION A review of the Nazi movement and the events which contributed toward the rise of Hitler in Germany was given by Mr. A. C. All urn in an address at the luncheon of the Auckland Creditmen's Club in Milne and Choyce's Rcception Hall yesterday. Th« president, Mr. C. J. Tuuks, presided. As a result of the war, Germany had lost nnich of her territory. Reparations had been demanded of her, but the intense national feeling which had followed the war had prevented her from paying war indemnities through the channels of trade. She was faced,with, the menace of Communism in Russia on one hand and an implacable enemy in Franco on the other. Internally, she had 6,000,000 unemployed, and their dependants, attempting to live on a dolo which provided them with only lid a day for food. The hungry children of the war period in Germany were the voters of to-day. To the German mind the greatest atrocity of the war had been the continuation of the blockade after the armistice. They had passed through revolution and the chaos of currency inflation, in which the workers had seen their wages become valueless before they had had time to purchase food. Practically every person in Germany to-day know what it was like to face starvation. "Hitler capitalised all these factors," Mr. Allum said, "1 am not supporting the viewpoint of tho German people, but it is not to be wondered that they looked for a saviour. This was Hitler's opportunity. As far as 1 can see, he rose to power in a democratic manner. Ho may have misused that power, but tho fact remains that it was given to him by tho voto of tho people. Hitler and his early Nazi followsrs formulated the famous policy of 25 points as far back as 1920. It was a sweeping programmo calculated to appeal largely to the politically iguorant, but it was significant that many p<*ints in that original programme aimed at the persecution of tho Jews. Particular instances were the planned suppression of multiple and departmental stores and censorship of the press, as thesa activities in Germany wore largely controlled by Jews. Ono could sympathise with the endeavours of a people to re-establish themselves after war, but in Hitler's policy there was a definite declaration of Jewish persecution. It could not be said that this persecution was the act of an irresponsible section of the community, and there was ample evidence that accounts of anti-Jewish outrages had not been exaggerated.