“CLEAN-UP” OF NAZI PARTY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20282, 4 December 1935, Page 9

“CLEAN-UP” OF NAZI PARTY

ANOTHER “PURGE” BEGINS ACTIVITIES OF SECRET POLICE EFFORTS AGAINST GRAFT AND EXTRAVAGANCE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright BERLIN, December 2. Herr Hitler has ordered a new “clean up” of the Nazi party to rid the movement of men whose extravagant living has caused comment. They are being asked how they are able to spend recklessly when their incomes are supposed to be modest. The first victim was a prominent official whom the Gestapo (Secret Police) seized. The new Nazi purge is of a most extensive nature. The secret police are raiding houses throughout Germany. Suspects are taken to the Gestapo headquarters, while agents remain in their houses searching letters, books and papers. The fate of those arrested is seldom disclosed, leading to the wildest rumours, but it is believed that the purge is aimed principally at Roman Catholics, who are alleged to have participated in politics, reactionaries who are accused of conspiring against the Nazi political and economic measures, and Nazi officials, who are suspected of graft and extravagance. The Secret Police are creating an atmosphere of tension similar to the O.G.P.U. (Russian Secret Police), whose methods they closely follow. Telephones are tapped, correspondence is intercepted and suspects are shadowed. The extension of activities is possibly due to the widespread grumbling at the food shortage and rising prices. It is generally agreed that Germany is heading for a hard and dismal winter. “BAD ELEMENTS NOT WANTED” OBJECTS OP THE PURGE BERLIN, November 23. That conditions are not as they should be in the Nazi trade union, the German Labour Front, is admitted in a short and obscurely worded announcement appearing in to-night’s “AngrifT.” The Labour Front leadership is to be purged of all "bad elements,” whatever that conveniently vague phrase may be. The same applies to the workers' organisation, “Strength Through Joy.” The rank and file of the Labour Front is to be cleansed of "non-social elements," whatever that phrase may signify in the Nazi dictionary. To carry these tasks through a “disciplinary court of honour” has been set up, with the well-known Nazi leader, Von Rentelen, as chief. This strange institution will take over the reorganisation, and it is also to defend subordinate trade union ieaders from “encroachment” on the part of individuals. Millions of German workers, compelled to belong to this trade union, suspect shady work behind the scenes. SWIFT AND DRASTIC ACTION TREACHEROUS ELEMENTS REMOVED What was considered to be a longoverdue “purge of treacherous elements" was carried out by Herr Hitler early in July, 1934, when a revolution, which had transformed Berlin into an armed camp, was crushed. “Everyone who has resisted us has been shot,” said General Goering, Herr Hitler's first lieutenant, in announcing that seven leaders of the Nazi Storm Troops had been summarily shot, and many others, including Captain von Rcehm and the whole of the headquarters staff, had been arrested. General Kurt von Schleicher, whom Herr Hitler succeeded as Chancellor of Germany in January, 1933, was shot dead for resisting arrest, Captain von Roehm, commander of the Storm Troops, his fellow Storm Troop leader, Herr Ernst, and his entire staff were arrested. Herr Hitler stated: "I have dismissed von Roehm from his office and expelled him from the party and from the Storm Troopers. I appoint Group Leader Lutzer, chief of staff. Storm Troopers disobeying orders will be ex- ' pelled and also will probably be arrested and sentenced.” Herr Hitler's letter appointing Group Leader Lutzer as chief of staff of the Brown Shirts in succession to von Roehm, said: “I rely on your loyal and obedient co-operation to make the Storm Troops that instrument which the nation needs and which I have in mind." Herr Hitler's orders to his new chief o! staff demanded that the Storm Troops should be reorganised so that every leader behaving badly in public should be ruthlessly excluded. Leaders should be examples of simplicity and were ordered not to give opulent dinners w’ en millions of their countrymen lacked the essentials of living. Herr Hitler declared: “I forbid leaders giving diplomatic dinners (which evidently referred to Captain von Roehm’s lavish entertainments for foreign diplomats and newspapermen). Leaders who get drunk in public are unworthy of their posts, and leaders causing rows as a result of their excesses will be mercilessly removed.” The police searched every house in the west-end section, which was surtounded.