RUDOLF HESS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21971, 24 May 1941, Page 4

RUDOLF HESS

Early Nazi Days One Dark Incident Translation of the editorial of “Die Zeitung,” the German antl-Nazl journal, published in London on May 14 by Sebastian Haffner. The deputy of the Fuhrer has delivered himself into British custody. When Mr Churchill gave this unprecedented piece of news to the Ministry of Information it startled even the cool-headed Sir Walter Monckton. "But's that’s great news,” he cried. “Yes,” said Mr Churchill. “The maggot’s in the apple.” It Is one of those Churchilllan sayings which are bound to become classical. It gives the gist of the matter. Whatever details are behind Hess’s film-like flight, one thing is certain: The prestige of the Nazi Reich has suffered a blow as it has not done since June 30, 1934. It is too early to say why Herr Hess fled to England. There are several possible explanations. He may have got on one of Himmler’s black lists. He may have had serious political quarrels with his “colleagues.” He may, sooner than the less initiated, have got inside information about the real situation in Germany and thereupon acted as many of the lesser criminals will act when the zero hour is approaching: Try to get himself out of trouble and play the penitent sinner. Maybe finally—there is nothing the trashy phantasy of Hitler and his gang is not up to—it is that this “loyalist of the loyal,” as he was styled up to yesterday, has been designed only to simulate treason and really to make a last desperate attempt at creating confusion among the one-time friends of the Nazis in England. If this should be the case, one may rest assured it will be foiled by the vigilance of the British Government. “Made No Mistake ** but there is one thing we must earnestly warn against: That easy sentimentality of some British people which in the gossip columns tends to convey the impression that .this Hess is "not so bad,” and pours out moving tales of his shyness,, his pleasant smile, and his affection for his wife and child. Make no'mistake about.it. He is as bad as the worst of them. ,He has —beside Roehm—been Hitler’s first and closest associate, joint founder of the Storm Troopers, joint producer of their terror war • inside Germany, joint author of that Bible of destructive Nihilism, "Mein Kampf,” a cognisant of the Reichstag fire, one of those mainly responsible for the slaughter of June 30. His hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people. His fansftieiSm and ruthlessness match that of a Himmler and a Streicher. If there is 1 anything by which he distinguishes himself among his fellow-criminals, it 16 the impudence which always made him specially suited to deny atrocities with an air of offended honesty. He did this all the way from the tortures in the concentration camps to the war preparations against Czechoslovakia. When this man to-day plays the inoffendmg husband and father, nobody should become his dupe. His flight is a ground for grim satisfaction, not for soft-hearted pardon. But for satisfaction there really is ground, and even more for propagandistic exploitation. Germany has suffered a defeat on the moral and political battlefield which is devastating and which may become decisive if the strategists of propaganda know how to make use of it. To get its true meaning one has only to imagine what it would mean for Britain if Lord Beaverbrook or Mr Bevin were to-day to fly to Bavaria in a Spitfire to put his fate in the hands of the Fuhrer. Would that not place a mortal weapon in the hands of Goebbels? That is exactly what has happened to Germany—with the difference that Hess is not simply an influential Minister of a democratic State, but the deputy and the designed successor of the allpowerful Fuhrer. The blow is terrific! All that has now to be done is to make it resound to the remotest corner of the globe. For goodness sake no discretion and no manners this time! This is the moment to make all the noise in the world and to turn every available searchlight on this self-revealed corruption and core-rottenness of the Nazi State. It just so happens that Hitler is in the midst of most delicate negotiations with Ineunu, Stalin, Matsuoka, Franco, and Darlan. The internal bankruptcy and swindle of the German regime which have now come to the light must be so driven home even to the last Turk, the last Russian, Japanese, Spaniard and Frenchman that it simply becomes impossible for statesmen of those countries to do business with that regime. Reactions in Germany They have at once arrested someone for letting him escape, in spite of the explicit orders by the Fuhrer. What a charming picture! The third man of Germany, the deputy successor of the Fuhrer, a notorious lunatic! His adjutant is in reality his warden! If that is possible—what is impossible? Are we, perhaps, to hear to-morrow that the Fuhrer himself for years has been “notorious” for being mentally deranged? Would it not perhaps be even more likely with him than with Hess, who, after all, had not quite so many public fits of hysteria and is nto known in his personal circles as a “carpet-biter”? It seems as if even the German people have this time stirred in that stupor in which they are being led to the abyss during the last few years. The nervous, fidgety efforts of the Propaganda Ministry and party imply that the event has caused somewhat stronger reactions in Germany than that “self-controlled” interest with which, according to the classical picture of the "Reich.” the German people look at Hitler’s victories. “The German people, however, remains firm in its victorious conclusion.” So says the determination to carry to war to its official proclamation of the N.S.D.A.P. Qui s’excuse s’accuse. The eyes of Germans have been covered with much success. Has it by chance been forgotten to cover up their noses as well, and have they begun to sniff the rotten smell from the maggoty apple?