RISE OF THE NAZIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21874, 9 August 1934, Page 18

RISE OF THE NAZIS

MOVEMENT OUTLINED MAIN AIMS OF PARTY. CAREER OF ADOLF HITLER Current events in Austria have inspired a correspondent, who signs himself "Ignoramus," to write to the Hkrat.d asking, for information concerning the Nazis. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazis, was born in 1889 in the Austrian frontier town of Braunau, where his father was a customs official. As a young man ho worked as a housepainter's mate in Vienna, but the outbreak of the Great War found him in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, working as a carpenter and doing various odd jobs for a living. He joined the Bavarian Infantry, was wounded in action and won the Iron Cross. Only in 1932 did ho become a naturalised German subject.

After the war he joined the German Labour Party, which had only six members and party funds totalling 7s 6d. Hitler's oratory in tho beer halls of Munich brought large numbers of Socialists and others flocking to the party's ' banner, and he changed the name of the organisation to tho National Socialist German Labour Party (tho Nazis). "The programme of national socialism," ho said, "can he read in our Hag. In tho red we see the socialist idea of our movement, in the white tho national idea, and in the swastika the symbol of the Aryan cause for which we are fighting." In 1923 Hitler decided to take Bavaria by storm and then march on to Berlin. The march was abortive. Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years' imprisonment and, the party was officially disbanded. Hitler was liberated after eight months. Party Reconstructed Hitler set to work and reconstructed the party, which ultimately, in the election of March, 1933, and in alliance with the Nationalists, obtained a clear majority in the Peichstag. Hitler became Chancellor. The party may be said to have ceased as a political party inasmuch as it has been transformed into the State itself. The programme of the Nazis has been tabulated under 25 points. It was drawn up by a young engineer, Gottfried Feder, was accepted by Hitler and declared by him in 1926 to be sacrosanct and unalterable. Among other things the programme states: — "We claim that all, Germans must be united in one Great Germany, this claim being based on the right of national self-determination. We claim full recognition of the right of the German people to stand on an equal footing with other nations. Therefore we call for the abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain. Rights of Citizenship "We demand territory and soil (colonies) to furnish the supplies which our people need and to admit of the overseas settlement of our surplus population. Only those who are compatriots can be citizens of the State. They alone are compatriots who are of German blood, no distinction of religious creed being made. Therefore no Jew can be looked upon as a compatridt.

"He who is not a German citizen can live in Germany only "as a guest and will be subject to special laws for the government of aliens. All further immigration of non-Germans is to bo prevented. We demand that those nonGermans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be immediately forced to leave the country."

Section 18 of the programme states: "We call for a ruthless campaign against those whose activities run counter to the common interests. Public oppressors, usurers and profiteers are to be punishable with death, irrespective of creed and race."