Category — Nazis

Ada and I are celebrating this evening with dinner at the Hotel  Excelsior after we learned that Hitler lost the runoff election to old man Hindenburg. Hitler’s additional 2 million votes were not enough to overtake the old general.

There is no word yet how Hitler is taking the defeat, but his communications man, Joseph Goebbels, is said to be stricken with depression. London’s Daily Telegraph predicts the end of Hitler. Let’s hope they are correct.

The fate of the militant arm of the Nazis in the hands of the Weimar government. There are rumors that the stormtroopers will be banned throughout Germany.

Ada and I chose the Excelsior for dinner specifically because Hitler has banned his party from using the hotel. It is not widely known that Nazi officials were turned down by the Excelsior when they asked to use it as  Hitler’s Berlin headquarters. Hitler and his followers operate from the Kaiserhof instead and do not trade at the Excelsior. We should have an excellent evening together at the Askanischen Platz.

The campaign is only a week long and so everything is compressed, including rumors. Via airplane, Hitler and his flying circus are visiting  many cities each day addressing tens of thousands of admiring crowds. Hindenburg holes up at his estate.

Getting back to rumors, the biggest rumor of all is that we haven’t seen old man Hindenburg because he is dying. My sources tell me this has no truth in it. Also, rumors are spreading that his son Oskar has become a socialist and will vote for Hitler. Other rumors fly that Hindenburg’s two middle-aged daughters have become leaders of a Socialist student party.

On the other side of the fence, Hitler supposedly has become a vegetarian because he has stomach cancer. He claims he won’t live long and must win the presidency quickly to implement his plans for the German people.

SA Storm Trooper leader Ernst Roehm is back in the news. The Munich Post has published an unflattering story about the man’s homosexual proclivities. A close source tells me Hitler is enraged, but not at the newspaper. He is furious at the SA leader for once again attracting negative attention, especially during this extremely short campaign season. Hitler dispatched his lawyer, Hans Frank, to talk directly to Roehm to find out the details. Frank was stunned when tough man Roehm admitted to being ‘bisexual.’  Hitler still stands by his old SA friend but has made it clear that in no circumstance must children be involved. If children are involved Hitler told Frank that Roehm ‘Must go!’

An aside: my travels took me to the outskirts of Berlin today and I saw vagabonds at every street corner. Unlike Berlin central where the police keep them out of sight, the periphery of of Berlin is rife with the unemployed and the vagrant. This worries me. These could be Hitler voters.

The undercurrent of civil war continues to bubble on the streets as well. I came across a beggar who was recently blinded in one eye. He told me he was  a communist who had a violent tussle with Nazis who used brass knuckles with spikes. I fear that Hitler will do well tomorrow. But I hope that Hindenburg will keep the fascists from coming to power. Germans prefer order to chaos and I believe Hitler represents the worst political party ever to emerge in German history.

I’ve told Ada to confine her travels  to central Berlin and that I shall accompany her if she needs to go elsewhere in the capital.

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Old man Hindenburg missed winning the presidency by a mere .4 of a percent. He polled 18,651,497 votes to Hitler’s 11,339,446 votes. The nationalists and the Communists split the remaining votes.

So, because of a shortage of less than 200,000 votes for the old man,  we’ll suffer through  a run-off election next month.

I am happy to report that high level Hilterites are despondent, propagandist Herr Goebbels particularly, but that Hitler himself is said to be ready to go at it again next month with renewed vigor. The more he can poll in the elections, the more his Nazis can be represented in the Reichstag.

A source tells me of an alarming development the night before the election. Apparently Ernst Rhoem’s SA stromtroopers, 400,000 strong, cordoned off much of Berlin in case Hitler won the vote,  apparently with the intent to take over the entire government in a coup. The Wiemar government is investigating. If true, this could result in serious repercussions for the Nazis. It rings of the unsuccessful Munich putsch, which is not a favorable impression for Herr Hitler and his minions and once again reeks of treason.

I also understand that Hitler is furious at Chancellor Bruening for setting aside all government radio programming during the election for use only for Hindenburg electioneering. It amazes me that Hindenburg gave only one speech during the entire election and it was a recording played on radio the night before the vote. It shows the old man is still beloved by many of the electorate, even in his dotage – or that the the masses are frightened by the far left and far right fighting it out in the streets and whether the marauders can actually govern if elected.

We’ll watch carefully to see how Hitler and his gang handle the next election round. I am assured the communists will run again, but the nationalists may throw in with Herr Hitler.

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My sources tell me that Hitler has decided to dive head first into the presidential race against Paul von Hindenburg. Herr Hitler is putting his political career on the line and perhaps his head on the chopping block. The coming weeks may very well determine his personal political fate as well as that of National Socialism. He is going all in.My instincts tell me that Hitler will be around for quite a while, regardless of the outcome, unless he is assassinated.

Once again I bring the point that in order for Hitler to run in the presidential election, he must become a German citizen. I await some news on this topic shortly. All eyes are on Brunswick as its elected Nazi leadership has the ability to appoint Hitler to a local government post, thus automatically making him a German citizen, rather than the stateless person he is at this hour. It is a rather remarkable phenomenon that most people don’t know Hitler has neither German nor Austrian citizenship.

So, why have I fixated on Herr Hitler and his Nazi followers? To our great national misfortune, I believe National Socialism will emerge victorious from this messy soup of political parties we have today in Germany. Too many people are terrified of the communists and their Soviet puppet masters. That party will go nowhere but down and out. They are checkmated on all sides. Besides, the Soviets are ruthlessly managing their economy, experiencing terrible, devastating famines. The Red Menace is too ingrained in the minds of a majority of working class and aristocratic Germans for those groups to ever turn in the leftist direction.

The Catholic Center party and the so-called conservatives are losing ground and I don’t believe Hindenburg can get a clear majority in the looming presidential campaign. Compared to Hitler’s vigor, the old man appears drained and feeble and will  only appeal to a portion of the electorate desiring a return to the old ways.

In contrast, the energetic Hitler, with populist promises and spectacular parades, is reaching across many political lines to appeal to an electorate hungry for Germany’s return to its rightful place on the world stage. His speeches are imbued with uniting Germany, not tearing it apart, which is a clever tactic. He appeals to the volk and rails against popularized common ‘enemies’ – communists, liberals, parliamentarians, The Wiemar Republicans, foreign capitalists, the strictures of the Versailles treaty and all its signers, and finally, but not least, weak-kneed diplomatic back-stabbers responsible for losing the Great war, which many Germans believe we never lost. My father boasts to this day that his artillery battalion was never defeated on the field of battle by the Russians, French, British or Americans.

My favorable political prediction for the eventual success of the Nazis does concern me enormously, of course, because underlying Hitler’s campaign to legally take control of Germany (vs. his putsch attempt in Munich 10 years ago) is an undercurrent of totalitarianism, ultra-nationalism and antisemitism. No one disputes Hitler is envious of Mussolini’s fascist success. Hitler, like Mussolini, is a rabid bully.

Herr Hitler has toned down his antisemitism as a main thrust in his speeches, but one only has to read passages from Mien Kampf to see that in backrooms he uses parasitic analogies to condemn all ‘foreigners’ in Germany, particularly Jews. I counter than German Jews are not foreigners. My family has been in this country for over 100 years. Nazi philosophy ignores the ‘Germanness,’ loyalty, and integration Jews have enjoyed in Germany, including the fact that Jews fought in the Great War in the same proportion as any other German group. Nazism is a vile philosophy cloaked in a thin veneer of respectability – the underpinnings of which are so heinous that Hitler and his staff must keep its xenophobic origins under wraps during the coming campaign. But the truth of it all will all surface one day. I hope to help make that happen.

On a related note, Ada and I went to see Franz Schrecker’s opera “Der Schmied von Gent” last night. Showing the racist face of Nazism, Brownshirts were outside the opera theater harassing patrons. You see, Schrecker is Jewish. Ada didn’t want to go into the theater when she saw the commotion, but I insisted and we continued on our way. I gripped Ada’s hand tightly and pushed through the throng. The hatred on the faces of the fascist hate mongers took my breath away. I pulled Ada close and we made it safely inside the theater.  These staged Nazi protests are not going to prevent me from supporting  artists in Berlin, regardless of race, and I will not be bullied. I will stand my ground.

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I returned to Berlin yesterday. Ada stopped by tonight and informed me that she was in Dussseldorf last week  visiting her parents. She tells me there was quite a riot when Hitler spoke to local industrialists at a large hall in downtown Dusseldorf. The Communists gathered outside and caused quite a scene. Someone cried out, “Death to Hitler!” and the rush was on.

Hitler’s personal guard, the SA, did what they do best. They cracked heads. There was quite a bit of blood in the street. Ada explained that the SA is simply better armed and trained than the Reds and it showed. The local police came to clean up the mess, but not until after the storm troopers had their way with the Communists. Hitler made it clear that the Reds will think again before tackling  his well-trained bodyguards.

Ada’s parents were so shocked at the violence that they put her on the next train to Berlin and here we are. She’ll stay the night. I’ll finish my article on Japanese expansionism and tomorrow Ada and I will spend the day together.  

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January, 1932. I met with Rudolph Hess this afternoon at my apartment. We had a wide-ranging discussion. Today, Hess wanted to steer most of the conversation toward diffusing the ‘misunderstood’ racial policies of the Nazis. He said to pay little attention to  what Hitler says on the subject, but I countered with the many hateful Jewish references in Mein Kampf, which I just finished reading. Hess tended to shrug off the statements, suggesting that Hitler was trying to satisfy a certain small segment of the Nazi party and other ultra-nationalists who  need to hear such things in order to win votes. Hess tried to assure me that the vocal racists were not the majority in his party. Certainly Germans could see that.

I reminded Hess that I myself am one quarter Jewish on my mother’s side.

“You see! I am a Nazi and I am happily consorting with you, my good Albrecht! Plus you know I love your father, my favorite professor.”

But as we wrapped up our discussions, I was not sure who was trying to influence whom in our relationship. Hess is a big fan of the British (he abhors the Russians and French, as do I) and is convinced we will never go to war with England again. He knows I have many friends in Britain. Perhaps he is is trying to shape my view of the Nazis, knowing I will pass along neutral tidbits to my British contacts.

I myself, on the other hand, want to know more about the inner workings of the National Socialists with the hope I can help keep them from seizing power from Hindenburg.

I did get one bit of useful information from Hess. He indicated that Hitler is preparing one of the most modern presidential elections ever. Hitler plans to fly across all of Germany, using air transport as a means to visit several distant cities in one day. A brilliant idea I must confess, unfortunately, considering old man Hindenburg will not likely move an inch from his estate in Prussia during the election. He’ll try to run everything from his palace and rely heavily on his stature of  “Hero of Tannenberg.”

We ended our meeting in our usual way by comparing horoscopes and downing some schnapps. Hess made a a point of letting me see his new Mercedes, a gift from Hitler.

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Leon Trotsky calls Hitler a blowhard: “In every war the enemy tries to exaggerate its strength to impress the enemy. Hitler is just as good a braggart as Napoleon was. but his pretensions will be come true only the minute that the proletariat takes faith in them.”

Hitler hit back in Munich, calling Roman Catholics and others that oppose him “tools of Bolshevism.”

He continued, “The bourgeoisie, do not seem to realize that Bolshevism is shaking the foundations of civilization. Victory for Bolshevism would mean the end of all — including religion — and a relapse into barbarism. If our movement were wiped out today Germany would be Bolshevist tomorrow!

“On to victory. Comrades, we march into 1932 as fighters so that we may leave it as victors! Long live our ever beloved German people! On to victory like knights without fear or blame we will charge—through Hell, Death and Damnation!”

This is typical Hitler rhetoric.

The Communists and the Nazis go at it daily with frequent fatalities on both sides. Trotsky sent a recent message to German Communists, trying to bolster their efforts to take over Germany. What a mess we are in. Communists on one side, Nazis and ultra-nationalists on the other and the ineffective Wiemar Republic in the middle. Lord help us all.

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Not wanting to strengthen Bruening and the the Republic in any way, Hitler has rejected the idea of prolonging Hindenburg’s term, calling the concept utterly “unconstitutional.” What a riot. The irony of Hitler calling anything unconstitutional is sadly laughable.

The Nazi’s are obviously spoiling for an electoral fight. I’m not sure why Hitler wants to run against Hindenburg at this time. The old man seems unbeatable.

Since the 1930′s, the Nazi’s have been winning provincial elections. But to run a country-wide election is something else indeed. Why does Hitler risk ruining his own powerful position and that of his party?  If he does obtain citizenship and runs against Hindenburg, I hope and pray that he gets beaten soundly by the old man. It would be devastating.

I would prefer that Germany install a government similar to England’s whereby King Wilhelm could come back from the low countries to his throne. I can see that scenario happening in the future if Hindenburg continues to rule, but we are lost if Hitler succeeds in his ambitious and ruthless climb to the top. Let us hold the elections, ruin Hitler and  put a stake in the heart of the Nazis!

Sources tell me that Hitler was called from Munich to Berlin to talk with Chancellor Bruening about prolonging Hindenburg’s presidential term. Hindenburg does not want to go through the strain of another election. The old man wants to prolong his own term, but not have to once again fight for it against Hitler and others.

Hitler reportedly said in Munich when he received the summons to Berlin that, “Now I have them in my pocket! They have recognized me as a partner in their negotiations.”

Bruening’s  proposal includes two incentives. If the Nazis agree to Hindenburg’s term extension, Bruening will retire once he settles the problem of repaying reparations and restoring equality for rearming Germany. He also said that on his retirement, he would suggest to Hindenburg that Herr Hitler be made Chancellor.

Hitler has apparently not given an answer yet. He has retired to the Kaiserhof just down the street to confer with his deputies. My sources at the hotel tell me that Hess, Strasser, Goebbels, Goering and Roehm are all in attendance.

We shall see what the morrow brings.

Word from Leipzig has arrived. Hitlerite speakers at the local congress continue to press the idea of the superiority of the “Nordic” race, whatever that is.It is a rather odd thing for the Nazis to propound when their leaders are all rather swarthy themselves! No blond, blue eyed Hitler, Hess, Goebbels or Himmler.

More ominously, the Leipzig Nazis called for the murder of Marxists, the abolition of trade unions and the mandatory sterilization of Jews and other “lesser” races in Germany (read: Slavs and Gypsies). How the Nazis are winning elections with this kind of wretched rhetoric is beyond my comprehension.

I think that they must be appealing to voters who want radical change because the Republic is perceived as corrupt and run by special interests. Other, less than desirable issues, such as sterilization and murder, are not in the forefront of the voter’s mind, though they obviously should be of concern to any civilized nation.  The political system in Germany appears to be broken to most Germans and Hitler and his brownshirts obviously have vigorous plans to attract non-Marxists, non-Catholics and hyper-nationalists, all of whom together constitute a majority of the populace.  Talk of oppressing minorities seems not to bother the average voter one pfennig.

Playing to the anti-Semitic feelings of many German Christians is to be expected. My question is, what constitutes a Jew in the Nazi mind? Full-blooded Jew? Half Jew? I am one-quarter Jew on my mother’s side. Am I to be sterilized if Hitler comes to power? Could it come to that? I would seriously consider leaving the county, perhaps for England or America ( I can’t abide the French ).