STORM TROOP VIOLENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1933, Page 7

STORM TROOP VIOLENCE

NAZI SEIZURE OF POWER many INDIVIDUAL coups TORTURE OF COMMUNISTS Berlin, March 11. Following the general seizure of power - individual Nazis have begun unauthorised miniature coups, notably Herr Strichler, who proclaimed himself Commissioner of North Bavaria and marched to Nuremburg at the head of Storm Troops/ causing the Stahlhelms tionalists) to strongly protest to the Government, . ... , A Nazi has appointed himself Lord Mayor of Altona and has arrested four senators and several officials. Storm Troops occupied the Breslau exchange, suspended business, invaded the law crmHs and expelled Jewish judges and lawyers. There, were numerous similar arrests of mayors in many towns. Another 100 political arrests were made in Berlin, where it is now disclosed that a number of Jews and Communists, arrested in the early days of Hitler’s rule, were manhandled and confined in a dark cellar almost without food. To-day they were taken to a police station. The’police at Hamburg have closed big stores, including Woolworths, “in the interests of public security.” Auxiliaries at Wurtemburg throughout the right arrested Communists, who were dragged from their beds and taken to unknown destinations. Two hundred Communist officials were arrested at Stuttgart. The Communist deputies have not been invited to the opening of the Reichstag on March 21. If they attend they will be arrested. The Berlin correspondent of the London Times states that the newspaper Tageblatt has been suspended and all copies seized because while citing the masterliness of the Nazi coup it deprecated the silence about unjustifiable actions, including unauthorised arrests. DETAILS OF TORTURING. • The. Daily Herald’s correspondent, who reached Prague from Berlin, says that only by leaving Germany is he able to reveal the details, of the Nazi torturings of opponents, ; . He alleges that a number of- Communists were thrust in a room, forced to raise their arms and shout “We love Hitler,” and sing Nazi songs. Then they were terribly beaten with whips and truncheons. One of them died. | One Reichsbanner man was locked in a cell, where he could neither sit nor lie down. He was kept there for two days, being dragged out periodically to be kicked and ill-treated.' His hair was shaved and his scalp painted white. He was released only when he signed an undertaking to remain politically neutral. These and many more cases occurred in. Berlin, and similar torturings were carried out in most of the provincial centres. . x ■ .' The Daily ( Telegraph’s special correspondent who has just returned from an extended tour of Germany, says that the country is living in a state of terrorism. Nobody knows what the outcome will be, least of all the Hitlerites. He declares that the Hitler-Papen Government was undoubtedly the result of a stampede. Both thought that General Schleicher was planning a coup d’etat. Now von Papen and the Hugenberg group fear that they may be pushed aside by the Brown Shirts. The Nationalists’ plan to check Herr Hitler by holding the key positions in Cabinet-was effectively quashed by the fire in the Reichstag. They are now satisfied that Herr Goering arranged the outbreak in order to capture the wavering Reichstag votes for Hitlerism. No responsible person in Germany believes that the Communists caused the fire. After hearing a dozen shots, a nightwatchman at Spandau found the blindfolded, barefooted body of a murdered man. Six unknown assailants shot a factory worker at Neukollm and drove him away in a car. HINDENBURG’S SALUTE. Cheers that drowned the tolling of the bells greeted President von Hindenburg and his Ministers when they drove amid military pageantry to attend at the Opera House the national mourning service for the war dead. President von Hindenburg, with Herr Hitler on his left and his War Minister, General von Blomberg, on the . right, occupied with other Ministers the former Imperial box. The President raised his marshal’s baton to greet the assembly. Reichswehr, Nazis and Stahlhelms lined the stage, flanked by regimental colours. The President and Herr Hitler later took the salute at the Opera House Square under the swastika emblem, which is now flying in full equality with the newly restored Imperial banner. Herr Hitler reiterated the prohibition against lawlessness, declaring that the over-

whelming victory did not demand petty revenges. . Unknown assassins killed Herr Spiegel, an eminent Socialist solicitor, at Kiel. Obtaining admission to his home at two o’clock in the morning by shouting “Police!” “Open!” they fired several shots. Herr Spiegel died m hospital. The Jews who have left Germany include Theodor Wolff, editor of the Tageblatt, George Bernhard, former editor of the Vossische Zeitung, Oscar Cohn, former Socialist deputy, and Herr Weiss, former superintendent of police.