Читать книгу The History of Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression - Various - Страница 121

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A. First Steps in Acquiring Control of State Machinery.

(1) The Nazi conspirators first sought control of State machinery by force. The Munich Putsch of 1923, aimed at the overthrow of the Weimar Republic by direct action, failed. On 8 November 1923 the so-called Munich Putsch occurred. During the evening, von Kahr, State Commissioner General of Bavaria, was speaking at the Buergerbraeukeller in Munich. Hitler and other Nazi leaders appeared, supported by the Sturmabteilungen (Storm Troops) and other fighting groups. Hitler fired a shot and announced that a Nationalist Revolution setting up a dictatorship had taken place. There followed a conference after which von Kahr, von Lossow, and Colonel of Police von Seisser, announced they would cooperate with Hitler and that a “Provisional National Government” was established, as follows:

Reich Chancellor	Adolf Hitler
Leader of the National Army	Gen. von Ludendorff
Reich Minister of War	von Lossow
Reich Minister of Police	von Seisser
Reich Finance Minister	Feder

It was also announced that Kahr would be State Administrator for Bavaria, Poehner would be Bavarian Prime Minister, and Frick would be Munich Police President. Kahr, Lossow and Seisser then departed. During the night the latter group alerted the police, brought troops to Munich, and announced that their consent to the Putsch had been obtained by force. On the afternoon of the next day, Hitler, Ludendorff, and their supporters attempted to march into the center of Munich. At the Feldherrnhalle the procession met a patrol of police, shots were exchanged, and men on both sides were killed. Hermann Goering was wounded, the Putsch was broken up, the Party and its organization were declared illegal, and its leaders, including Hitler, Frick, and Streicher were arrested. Rosenberg, together with Amann and Drexler, tried to keep the Party together after it had been forbidden. Hitler and others later were tried for high treason. At the trial Hitler admitted his participation in the foregoing attempt to seize control of the State by force. He was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. (2532-PS; 2404-PS)

(2) The Nazi Conspirators then set out through the Nazi Party to undermine and capture the German Government by “legal” forms supported by terrorism.

(a) In 1925, the conspirators reorganized the Nazi Party and began a campaign to secure support from Germany voters throughout the nation. On 26 February 1925, the Voelkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) appeared for the first time after the Munich Putsch, and on the following day Hitler made his first speech after his release from prison. He then began to rebuild the Party organization. The conspirators, through the Nazi Party, participated in election campaigns and other political activity throughout Germany and secured the election of members of the Reichstag. (2532-PS)

As a reflection of this activity the Nazi Party in May 1928, received 2.6% of the total vote and obtained 12 out of 491 seats in the Reichstag. In September 1930, the Nazi Party polled 18.3% of the total vote and won 107 out of 577 seats in the Reichstag. In July 1932, it received 37.3% of the total vote east and won 230 out of 608 seats. In November 1932, it polled 33.1% of the vote and won 196 out of 584 seats in the Reichstag. (2514-PS)

(b) The Nazi conspirators asserted they sought power only by legal forms. In November 1934, Hitler, speaking of the Munich Putsch of 1923 said:

“It gave me the opportunity to lay down the new tactics of the Party and to pledge it to legality”. (2741-PS)

In September 1931, three officers of the Reichswehr were tried at Leipzig for high treason. At the request of Hans Frank, Hitler was invited to testify at this trial that the NSDAP was striving to attain its goal by purely legal means. He was asked: “How do you imagine the setting up of a Third Reich?” His reply was, “This term only describes the basis of the struggle but not the objective. We will enter the legal organizations and will make our Party a decisive factor in this way. But when we do possess constitutional rights then we will form the State in the manner which we consider to be the right one.” The President then asked: “This too by constitutional means?” Hitler replied: “Yes.” (2512-PS)

(c) The purpose of the Nazi conspirators in participating in elections and in the Reichstag was to undermine the parliamentary system of the Republic and to replace it with a dictatorship of their own. This the Nazi conspirators themselves made clear. Frick wrote in 1927:

“There is no National Socialist and no racialist who expects any kind of manly German deed from that gossip club on the Koenigsplatz and who is not convinced of the necessity for direct action by the unbroken will of the German people to bring about their spiritual and physical liberation. But there is a long road ahead. After the failure of November, 1923, there was no choice but to begin all over again and to strive to bring about a change in the spirit and determination of the most valuable of our racial comrades, as the indispensable prerequisite for the success of the coming fight for freedom. Our activities in parliament must be evaluated as merely part of this propaganda work.

“Our participation in the parliament does not indicate a support, but rather an undermining of the parliamentarian system. It does not indicate that we renounce our anti-parliamentarian attitude, but that we are fighting the enemy with his own weapons and that we are fighting for our National Socialist goal from the parliamentary platform.” (2742-PS)

On 30 April 1928, Goebbels wrote in his paper “Der Angriff”;

“We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. We become members of the Reichstag in order to paralyze the Weimar sentiment with its own assistance. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and per diem for the this “blockade” (Barendienst), that is its own affair.”

Later in the same article he continued:

“We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies: As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come.” (2500-PS)

In a pamphlet published in 1935, Goebbels said:

“When democracy granted democratic methods for us in the times of opposition, this was bound to happen in a democratic system. However, we National Socialists never asserted that we represented a democratic point of view, but we have declared openly that we used democratic methods only in order to gain the power and that, after assuming the power, we would deny to our adversaries without any consideration the means which were granted to us in the times of opposition. (2412-PS)

A leading Nazi writer on Constitutional Law, Ernst Rudolf Huber, later wrote of this period:

“The parliamentary battle of the NSDAP had the single purpose of destroying the parliamentary system from within through its own methods. It was necessary above all to make formal use of the possibilities of the party-state system but to refuse real cooperation and thereby to render the parliamentary system, which is by nature dependent upon the responsible cooperation of the opposition, incapable of action.” (2633-PS)

The Nazi members of the Reichstag conducted themselves as a storm troop unit. Whenever representatives of the government or the democratic parties spoke, the Nazi members marched out in a body in studied contempt of the speaker, or entered in a body to interrupt the speaker, thus making it physically impossible for the Reichstag President to maintain order. In the case of speakers of opposition parties, the Nazi members constantly interrupted, often resorting to lengthy and spurious parliamentary maneuvers, with the result that the schedule of the session was thrown out of order. The tactics finally culminated in physical attacks by the Nazis upon members of the house as well as upon visitors. (L-83)

In a letter of 24 August 1931 to Rosenberg, Hitler deplored an article in “Voelkischer Beobachter” the effect of which was to prevent undermining of support for the then existing form of government, and said: “I myself am travelling all over Germany to achieve exactly the opposite. (047-PS)

(d) The Nazi conspirators supported their “legal” activities by terrorism.

1. The Nazi conspirators created and utilized as a Party formation the Sturmabteilungen (SA) a semi-military voluntary organization of young men trained for and committed to the use of violence, whose mission was to make the Party the master of the streets. The SA was organized in 1921. As indicated by its name, it was a voluntary organization of young men trained for and committed to the use of violence. To quote from a pamphlet compiled on order of the Supreme SA Headquarters:

“The SA was not founded as one forms just any sort of club. It was born in midst of strife and received from the Fuehrer himself the name “Storm Troops” after that memorable hall battle in Hofbraeuhaus at Munich on the 4th of November 1921. * * * Blood and sacrifice were the most faithful companions of the young SA on its hard path to power. The Storm Troops were and still are today the fist and propaganda arm of the movement”. (2168-PS)

It was organized along semi-military lines from the beginning. To quote again from the same official pamphlet:

“It is one of the greatest historical services of the SA that at the time when the German People’s Army had to undergo a dissolution, it held high those virtues which marked the German soldier: personal courage, idealism, willingness to sacrifice, consciousness of responsibility, power to decide, and leadership. Thus, the SA became among the people the messenger and bearer of German armed strength and German armed spirit.

“The 4th of November 1921 was not only the birth hour of the SA by itself, but was the day from which the young fighting troop of the Movement took its stand at the focal point of political events. With the clear recognition that now the unity (Geschlossenheit) of a troop led to victory, the SA was systematically reorganized and so-called “Centuries” (Hundertschaften) were established * * *” (2168-PS)

In March 1928, Goering took command of the entire SA. In November 1923, SA units were used in the Munich Putsch. When the Party was reorganized in 1925, the SA continued to be the fighting organization of the Party. Again to quote the official pamphlet on the SA:

“And now a fight for Germany began of such a sort as was never before fought. What are names, what are words or figures which are not indeed able to express the magnitude of belief and of idealism on one side and the magnitude of hate on the other side. 1925: the Party lives again, and its iron spearhead is the SA. With it the power and meaning of the National Socialist movement grows. Around the central events of the whole Movement, the Reich Party Days, dates, decisions, fights and victory roll themselves into a long list of German men of undenying willingness to sacrifice.” (2168-PS)

Mastery of the streets was at all times the mission of the SA. While discussing his ideas as to the part which this organization should play in the political activity of his Party, Hitler stated:

“What we needed and still need were and are not a hundred or two hundred reckless conspirators, but a hundred thousand and a second hundred thousand fighters for our philosophy of life. We should not work in secret conventicles, but in mighty mass demonstrations, and it is not by dagger and poison or pistol that the road can be cleared for the movement but by the conquest of the streets. We must teach the Marxists that the future master of the streets is National Socialism, just as it will some day be the master of the state.” (404-PS)

To quote again from the official SA pamphlet:

“Possession of the streets is the key to power in the state—for this reason the SA marched and fought. The public would have never received knowledge from the agitative speeches of the little Reichstag faction and its propaganda or from the desires and aims of the Party, if the martial tread and battle song of the SA companies had not beat the measure for the truth of a relentless criticism of the state of affairs in the governmental system. * * *

“The SA conquered for itself a place in public opinion and the leadership of the National Socialist Movement dictated to its opponents the law for quarrels. The SA was already a state within a state; a part of the future in a sad present.” (2168-PS; for further material concerning the SA, see Section 4 of Chapter XV.)

2. The Nazi conspirators constantly used physical violence and terror to break up meetings of political opponents, and to suppress opposition in their own meetings. The following facts are indicative of the methods constantly used by the Nazi conspirators during this period: On numerous occasions meetings of the Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft (Peace Society) were broken up and terrorized by shock troops and SA units. Groups of National Socialists invaded meetings of the society, interrupted the speaker, attempted to attack him, and endeavored to make sufficient disturbance so that the meetings would have to be cancelled. (L-83)

To quote once again from the official SA pamphlet:

“* * * As an example of a seemingly impossible deed, the 11th of February 1927 should be firmly preserved. It is the day on which the SA broke the Red Terror, with heavy sacrifice, in the hall battle at the Pharoah’s Hall (Pharussaelen) in Berlin, the stronghold of the Communists, and thereby established itself decisively in the capitol city of the Reich. In considering the badly wounded SA men, Dr. Goebbels coined the phrase “unknown SA Man”, who silently fights and bleeds, obeying only his duty.” (2168-PS)

In Berlin, under the leadership of Goebbels, so-called Rollkommandos, were organized for the purpose of disrupting political meetings of all non-Nazi groups. These Rollkommandos were charged with interrupting, making noise, and unnerving the speaker. Finally the Nazis broke up meetings by Rollkommando raids. In many cases, fights resulted, during which furniture was destroyed and a number of persons hurt. The Nazis armed themselves with blackjacks, brass knuckles, rubber truncheons, walking sticks, and beer bottles. After the Reichstag election of 1930, Nazi terrorism became more overt, and from then on scarcely a day went by when the Chief of the Security Police in Berlin did not receive a minimum of five to ten reports, and often more, of riots instigated by Nazis. (2955-PS)

During the campaign for the Reichstag election of 14 September 1930, Nazi conspirators made it a practice to send speakers accompanied by many Storm Troopers to meetings of other political parties, often physically taking over the meetings. On one such occasion a large detachment of Storm Troopers, some of whom were armed with pistols and clubs, attended a meeting called by the Social Democratic Party, succeeded in forcibly excluding everybody not in sympathy with their views, and concluded the meeting as their own. Such violent tactics, repeated many times, were an integral part of the political creed of the Nazi. (L-83)

Ultimately, in Berlin, just before the Nazis seized power, it was necessary to devote the entire Police Force to the job of fighting the Nazis, thus leaving little time for other Police duties. (2955-PS)

3. The Nazi conspirators constantly threatened their opponents with organized reprisals and terror. During the course of the trial of three officers of the Reichswehr for high treason in Leipzig in September 1931, Hitler said:

“But I may assure you that if the Nazi movement’s struggle is successful, then there will be a Nazi Court of Law too, the November 1918 revolution will be atoned, and there’ll be some heads chopped off.” (2512-PS)

Frick wrote in the National Socialist Yearbook for 1930:

“No wonder that as the situation of the entire German people, as well as that of the individual racial comrade, grows rapidly worse, increased numbers are realizing the incompetence of the parliamentarian system, and no wonder that even some who are responsible for the present system desperately cry for a dictatorship. This however, will not save them from their fate of one day being called to account before a German State Tribunal.” (2743-PS)

On 7 October 1929, the National Socialist District leader Terboven said in a meeting in Essen:

“This weakness is especially known to Severing, who symbolizes the present State, and he intends to render a service to the State, which is breathing its last; but this too will no longer save the present corrupt parliamentarian system. * * * But I give such a dictatorship only four weeks. Then the people will awaken, then the National Socialists will come to power, and then there will not be enough lamp posts in Germany.

“The National Socialists will march into the new Reichstag with thirty members; then there will be black eyes every day in this Reichstag; thus this corrupt parliamentarian system will be further discredited; disorder and chaos will set in, and then the National Socialists will judge the moment to have arrived in which they are to seize the political power.” (2513-PS)

On 18 October 1929, Frick, while discussing the Young Plan in a meeting in Pyritz said:

“This fateful struggle will first be taken up with the ballot, but this cannot continue indefinitely, for history has taught us that in a battle, blood must be shed, and iron broken. The ballot is the beginning of this fateful struggle. We are determined to promulgate by force that which we preach. Just as Mussolini exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also succeed in accomplishing the same through dictatorship and terror.” (2513-PS)

In December 1932, Frick, at that time Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Reichstag, stated to a fellow member of that committee:

“Don’t worry, when we are in power we shall put all of you guys into concentration camps.” (L-83)

4. The Nazi conspirators openly approved acts of terrorist committed by their subordinates. On 22 August 1932, five National Socialists were condemned to death for a murder in the town of Potempa. Hitler wired to the condemned men:

“My Comrades! Faced with this terrible blood sentence, I feel myself bound to you in unlimited faithfulness. Your liberty is from this moment a question of our honor. To fight against a Government under which such a thing could happen is our duty.” (2532-PS; 2511-PS)

Goering, two days later sent the following telegram to the condemned men:

“In nameless embitterment and rage against the terror sentence which has struck you, I promise you, My Comrades, that our whole fight from now on will be for your freedom. You are no murderers. You have defended the life and the honor of your Comrades. I send to your families today 1,000 Marks which I have received from your friends. Be courageous. More than 14,000,000 of the best Germans have made your interest their own.” (2634-PS)

On 2 September 1932, the death sentences were commuted to imprisonment for life. In 1933, after the Nazis came into power, the five were set free. (2532-PS)

Soon after coming to power the Nazi conspirators took steps to grant a general amnesty for all unlawful acts, including acts of violence, committed by their adherents in the course of their struggle for power. On 21 March 1933 a decree was promulgated, signed by von Hindenburg, Hitler, Frick, and von Papen granting amnesty “For penal acts committed in the national revolution of the German People, in its preparation or in the fight for the German soil”. (2059-PS)

B. Control Acquired

(1) On 30 January 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of the German Republic.

(2) After the Reichstag fire of 28 February 1933, clauses of the Weimar Constitution guaranteeing personal liberty and freedom of speech, of the press, of association and assembly, were suspended. The Weimar Constitution contained certain guarantees as to personal freedom (Article 114), as to inviolability of the home (Article 115), and as to the secrecy of letters and other communications (Article 117). It also had provisions safeguarding freedom of speech and of the press (Article 118), and of assembly (Article 123), and of association (Article 124). The Reich President was authorized, “if public safety and order in the German Reich are considerably disturbed or endangered,” to take steps to suspend “the Fundamental Rights” established in Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153. (Article 48 (2) ). (2050-PS)

On 28 February 1933, the Nazi conspirators, taking as their excuse a fire which had just destroyed the Reichstag building, caused to be promulgated a Decree of the Reich President suspending the constitutional guarantees of freedom. This decree, which purported to be an exercise of the powers of the Reich President under Article 48 (2) of the Constitution, and which was signed by the Reich President, Hindenburg, the Reich Chancellor, Hitler, the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, and the Reich Minister of Justice, Guertner, provided in part: