Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey

This is a novel in progress. Based in history and exhaustive research, Softly is the story of an ordinary Berlin Homicide Investigator at the time of the Hitler takeover. Forced to join the SS to keep his position, Hari becomes embroiled with the likes of Goering and Himmler and finds himself on the slippery slope to hell as he commits more and more acts that skew his moral compass, even as he doggedly investigates the heinous murders of a serial killer who is high within the Nazi hierarchy.



Softly,
Softly,
Catchee
Monkey
A Novel by Lawrence H. Freeman





‘Softly, Softly Catchee Monkey...’
Ashanti (Ghana) proverb
quoted by Lord Robert Baden-Powell
Founder of the Boy Scouts






























Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey
A Novel by Lawrence H. Freeman
BLOOD
Dear God! There was so much blood! Whoever would have thought that such a small woman could contain so much blood. It was everywhere. The woman had been only a bag of blood, and now she had painted the walls and the ceilings and the floors and the windows with her incarnadined substance. He shook, but inside he exulted in the fountains and pools of blood.
1933 BERLIN
It was early-morning. A winter’s moonless blackness in January 1933. Berlin was crystalline cold. A sheen of dew overlay the tree-lined street, reflecting intermittent pools from the inadequate, nostalgic antique gas lamps that were kept for the tourist trade.
In Germany, the terrible residue of the 1914-1918 First World War, ‘the War to end all wars’ was the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic, the inheritor of the remnants of the German Empire, was struggling under the impossible demands made by the allies as their price for peace under the Versailles Treaty. The weak minority government found itself presiding over a bleeding nation beset by the Treaty requirement that Germany pay enormous reparations and dismantle it’s Army and Navy. This was compounded by unemployment, inflation, violence in the streets, and the belief that their leaders had sold them out to the enemy.
By 1932, Weimar and the Treaty were fast receding into memory, National Socialism had yet to lay its heavy hand upon the Nation, while newly arisen hope, and fervent patriotism was paving the way for Germany to take her rightful place in the first rank of Nations under the charismatic Fuhrer. Though there were still doubters, Hitler’s ebullient supporters winked and promised that all would be well once power was consolidated.
Dazed, he walked away, leaving red footprints in his wake, his soaked clothing dripped splashes of blood. The detritus of the woman, he left for others.
It wasn’t only politics that were confusing in Germany that year. Berlin had always been a cosmopolitan capital, with a flair for the arts and entertainment professions that made it a Mecca for creative people from all over the world. A large part of the confusion was economic. With the German Mark running 4.2 trillion Marks to just one U.S. Dollar, the man on the street required some pretty fancy footwork just to survive, and just in Berlin alone, a City of four million people, 750,000 people were unemployed. Almost one-fifth of Berlin’s work force was officially unemployed. In the whole country, some 6,000,000 were out of work!
Sophisticated and liberal Berlin, populated by the intellectuals and the elite, was not the overwhelmingly religious, rural and moralistically traditional Germany, but to the rest of the world, Germany meant Berlin, and book-burning was the symbol of the victory of the moralistic right wing. As the strict Nazi morality pressed down harder, Berlin was by turns, prudish and licentious.
OWEN WISTER
Herr Owen Wister could have been defined as inoffensive and unobtrusive. It was his job to supervise the cleanup. A slight man of a little less than medium height, balding but with a fringe of hair, his mild blue eyes were enlarged by pebble-grained tortoise-shell glasses. He eschewed facial hair and his eyebrows were faint pencil-lines almost obscured by his spectacles. His walk along the middle of the street was far from the linden trees lining the sidewalk fronting the darkly-looming four and five-storied Renaissance-Baroque mansions. His steps were confident, almost arrogant in glossy black wingtips, and there was a certain sartorial elegance in the fashionable close-fitting cut of his dark grey pinstripe suit framed a startlingly-white spread-collar shirt and solid shining maroon silk foulard. An unbuttoned black shawl-collared Chesterfield coat hung with a white silk scarf betrayed a casual attitude. Born in England, he had nevertheless spent most of his thirty-seven years on the Continent.
HARI VOLKMANN
On the third floor in one of those mansions, Senior Police Inspector Hari Volkmann sat in his apartment before a table littered with empty Rhinewasser and Tyrol Beer bottles, mostly with Sweet Caporal cigarette butts in the bottom of the bottle. His reddish thinning hair with a deep widow’s peak was cut en brosse since his early army days, his watery blue eyes were red-rimmed and closing. He was slovenly in a dirty, stained undershirt, drunk again and quietly bemoaning his lot in life.
Only 37, but already fattish and a little out of shape out-of-shape, a police investigator for almost twenty-odd years, he thought of himself as a ‘has-been’, one of the ‘Old Guard’, whose experience and seniority were being usurped by the ‘New Breed’. No plainclothes for these guys.
The Party members were in smart knife-creased brown uniforms creaking with Sam Browne belts, their huge black Walther automatics cinched aggressively high in glistening flap holsters. They wore their cockily-perched pillbox hats with the silver insignia flashes of Rohm’s SA. Their stupid chin straps were tightly fastened.
Hari was tired. Tired of the never-ending, thankless tide of crime and criminals.. Tired of making arrests only to see the scum out on the street again before he had finished the paperwork. Tired of being alone and lonely. Tired of being separated from his wife and children by hundreds of miles. Tired of begging her to come back, of telling her there was nothing to fear, when the truth was, he didn’t know.
It had started well. Exciting. The constant drilling and playing soldier stirring his blood. Hari had been born a country boy in 1896 in the village of Wessel, a small insular rural place where his father was the local schoolmaster. Horst Volkmann had never forgotten that he had been Leutnant Volkmann in the victorious Wermacht of Bismarck’s Franco-Prussian War, although along the way he had inflated himself to Major. Never actually having seen active service, his duty in the quartermaster’s corps had imbued him with a military matrix that limned his values for the rest of his life.
Hari was an only child and the idol of his mother’s eye, but he was also the subject of his father’s exaggerated ideas of discipline.
Escaping to the Wermacht at the age of 16 with the fond approval of his father and the tears of his mother, Hari took to the army of the Kaiser as a relief from the strictures imposed by his father. In the army, Hari found the acceptance and the camaraderie that had been missing from his life. Used to authoritarian ways since childhood, Hari easily fit right into the intense training that was the preparation for what came to be called ‘The Great Patriotic War’.
Hari never did get to the front, so he was saved from ‘the war of the trenches’ by his service in the military police, where he spent the war chasing deserters. His military police service, along with an influential uncle’s assistance, got him a vaunted place in the Berlin Politzei even as many of his fellow soldiers wandered to streets in a futile search for work, and poor Germany starved and suffered under the yoke imposed by the hated ‘Allies’.
The times were exciting, with the police poised on a knife edge between the Freicorps and the Communists who were always at each other’s throats, with one or the other holding unauthorized marches that often ended in bloody riots.
In the police it was understood that the Freicorps were the preferred combatants, and serving policemen were often involved against the hated Communists. Everyone had seen what had happened in Russia only very recently, and now it was spreading throughout Europe.
It had begun to look as if the Communist Revolution would overwhelm the continent, and the ‘powers-that-be’ moved heaven and earth to prevent it, and incidentally, to preserve their own grip on power. This sentiment, and the fear of the Communists was universal, and it did not help that the Bolshevists were often seen to be Jews.
But that was all beyond Hari’s purview, because he had rapidly advanced to the rank of Kriminalinspector, and once into the Homicide Bureau, he had found his niche and had no time for the political nonsense that went on outside his own narrow world.
His homicides occupied him completely, until politics began to bleed over into his work. More and more of the homicides seemed to have political motives, and Hari gradually became more and more aware of what was really going on in his country, and he became really concerned when his profession became impacted by the roiling battle for power that consumed Germany.


PROFESSOR JOST KESSLER
Professor Jost Kessler had been sitting and drinking with Hari most of the night, and before that they had sat in the local neighborhood watering hole, trading beer for beer. Jost lived in the apartment below, was a Professor of Political Theory at the University and he loved to hash over theories with Hari, who, as a policeman, the Professor thought of as the practical ‘spear-point’ of government.
They had been through the usual subjects of women, the weather, morality, and sports, particularly the Six-day Bicycle Races on the board track at the Sportspalast Velodrome. They had just finished arguing over the new American racing sensation, Reggie McNamara, when they finally moved onto politics. Jost was holding forth on the year just past, saying that 1932 had been a year of confusion.
‘How so?’ said Hari.
‘Hitler!’ Responded Jost. ‘It’s all about Hitler. Everything depends on the man. He has given us hope!’
‘Hope, Jost? Hope? His thugs are the ones that are causing the riots in the streets. His Auxiliary Police are the largest part of the problem !’
‘Law and Order, Hari. That’s what it’s all about. Herr Hitler has said it again and again, and that matches the mood of the people. Before we can do anything, there must be order and freedom from violence. Things are happening, Hari, great things that will sweep our Germany from her malaise and make of her a great nation again.
‘My God, Jost, you sound like a Nazi yourself.’
‘Yes, I am now a supporter of Herr Hitler’s National Socialists. What of it?’
‘I thought you were a Social Democrat.’
‘I was, Hari, but what Hitler says makes more sense to me now. 1933 will be a year of decision, a year even of triumph, and Germans are ready for it. You can feel it in the air. Germany is poised to make a great leap.’
Hari looked sideways at Jost, and then he grinned. ‘Oh, Jost. Now I get it. It’s about your Professorship. You want to keep your job.’
Jost smiled ruefully. ‘Well, there is that, of course, and the students are more for the Nazis than the Brownshirts! See, about two months ago, the students took a poll in which they rated the Professors. Imagine! Students rating the Professors! But the University is paying attention, and I was called into the Provost’s Office. I saw the way the wind was blowing. Sorry to practice my lectures on you, but who else do I have to rehearse with?’
‘Okay Professor. Rehearse away. I’ve never been that interested in politics, especially after the war, but maybe you can fill me in on what is really going on. I could use some new arguments in this battle I’m having with my wife.’
‘You asked for it, Hari. This year actually began last December before when a new Chancellor, Müller, took office under the authority of our revered Reichprezident, Paul Hindenberg. Less than two months later, the abortive Müller Chancellorship came to a quick end at the close of January 1933. It was done in by the mounting problems of a liberal and parliamentary government tottering atop a shaky coalition. The way was cleared for Hitler to assume office.
‘Jost, you make it sound as if Hitler was inevitable.’
‘Maybe Hitler himself was not inevitable, but someone like Hitler was. Hitler is the creation of a coming together of factors, and he was the child born of the wishes and hopes of the German people. They need him as much as he needs them. He modeled his campaign on a combination of Wagner’s Parsifal and the Frederick the Great’s German monarchy, a monarchy that ended with the abdication of Wilhelm and his Prime Minister Bismarck.. He came to our rescue as ‘the man on the white horse.’
‘Herr Hitler as a knight in shining armor, carrying the lance of truth. Some picture.’
‘Surely you recognize it, Hari. It is Parsifal.’ Herr Hitler is nothing new for Germany, he is simply the embodiment of German desires. He brought to the electorate a virulent anti-Semitism that blamed Germany’s Jews for the Country’s dire economic situation, and charged the Jews with fostering divisiveness between the Right and the Left.’
‘The Jews? What have the Jews to do with this?’
‘They are convenient, Hari, because in spite of Europe’s ages-old hatred for Jews, Germany’s Jews have been the most assimilated in the world and have reached the heights of prominence and prestige.’
‘Come on, Professor. This is just all political shit. All this about the Jews. There have always been Jews, and people have always been jealous of them. They are just a convenient scapegoat. No one thinks the Nazis really mean it. It is like two little boys telling dirty stories behind the barn.’
‘No, Hari. Not this time. He believes! That is the secret of his power. This man believes, and his belief has carried Germany with him. Hitler has used this prominence to portray the Jews as rapacious profiteers whose presence undermines the morality and also saps the energy of the populace with their evil, ‘Jewish Spirit.’ Hitler has joined this belief with a vendetta against the Jewish-Bolshevists.’
‘Convenient, isn’t it?’
‘Very much so. By joining the two, he has promised to rid the population of these ‘tubercular’ threats to the purity of the Aryan nation. In addition he promised to ‘weed out’ the mentally ill and ‘workshy,’ those living ‘a life not worthy of life,’ and who were draining the sorely-needed resources of Germany. He called them ‘maggots feeding on the decaying body of Germany.’
‘Acting only as a ‘Devil’s Advocate, Professor, there is a certain amount of logic sandwiched in between the madness.’
‘And that is the genius, because Herr Hitler has also capitalized on the Country’s disgust with the inefficient and fractious Parliamentary system, and he has promised to replace it with a familiar, and much-loved ideal for Germany, the imperious one-man rule. At this time in the history of the world Fascism seems a step forward from the madness of our present government.’
‘So Hitler would be a Dictator? Like Mussolini?’
‘Not necessarily a bad thing, Hari, except that it depends so much on the will and the personality of the Dictator. Then again, once they gain power it is always so bloody-awful hard to get rid of them.’
‘So you are in favor of a Dictatorship?’
‘Not really in favor, but not really opposed either.’
‘Pardon?’
‘There are many who fear this step into a longed-for earlier time. Not necessarily to Bismarck, but back to Frederick the Great. Under Weimar, they brought many social programs pointing towards a more involved government, and some fear that those programs would be dismantled under National Socialism.’
‘Professor, it is beginning to sound like a few bureaucrats are afraid of their empires being dismantled.’
‘Maybe so, but they might also be genuinely concerned for these programs. Who knows?’
‘So, you were a Social Democrat, a middle-of-the-roader, and now you are a National Socialist raising the Heil for Herr Hitler. You did it because of your job...’
‘... Oh, Hari. It is not just because of my job...’
‘Well, I’m sure you will admit it is at least partially because of the job. What about others?’
‘That is always a consideration, but it is only one of the factors. I would say that most support Hitler, often for the wrong reasons. The rabid Right, the Conservatives, the rich, the anti-Semitic and the religious all supported him almost from the beginning. Above all, they wanted a rigid stability without violence, economic instability, Jews, Communists, unemployment, immorality, and they wanted an end to the reparations due after WWI.’
‘Okay, Professor, that’s the rich, but the rich are certainly not a voting majority. What about the others?’
‘Ah yes. The others. Well, the huge middle class feels threatened by the interior threat of the Jews as well as the exterior threat of the Communists. The Communists terrified them because of their atheist ideology and their nationalization of private property. Take away their crutch of religion and their superior pretensions and they would have nothing left. They cling to Hitler as a savior. Even the Jews. They treat the anti-Semitism as rhetoric and look to Hitler for stability. ’
‘Doesn’t leave many to really oppose him, does it?’
‘Even less than you might think, Hari. Many on the Left and the poor also support Hitler because they fear the street violence, the Jews, everyone hates the Jews, the economic instability because the little that they earn is worth less each day, and then there is the immorality. For the poor that is the only stable thing in their lives, and it is being destroyed.’
‘So it looks like we can look forward to a government, by Hitler, and for Hitler, Professor, and may God have mercy on our souls.’
‘Amen, Brother Hari, Amen.’
THE NEW MEN
For the umpteenth time, Hari mulled over the situation. The ‘New Men’ were given the plum assignments, the celebrity murders, the high-profile, newsworthy crimes and investigations, and whose exploits drew all the ink. Even Goebbels had used the radio to extol the ‘auxiliary police’, these Germans who were turning the Police establishment on its ear with their new methods.
The old guys, the real policemen such as Hari, the Kriminalinspectors who had slogged their way up from the streets. They were now relegated to the sewers, mostly fetch-and-carry for their new SA masters, and once in a while the new Freiherr, an SA man himself, threw them a bone. A whore killing, an SA/Communist riot, a Jew beat up by the SA.
Sure, the Party line was that no one was above the law and that all victims were equal, but the handwriting was on the wall, plain for anyone to see. The cases to pursue, the cases to bury, investigation by the wink and the nod, and in the proper instance, where one had to deal with scum, ‘shot while trying to escape’, put paid to the matter. Once in a while, it became necessary to send an ‘asocial’ outside of the Justice system and to one of the new ‘Reeducation’ Camps. Volkmann liked the camps. Anything to get the filth off the streets. Every one gone was one less he had to deal with.
The one he was supposed to be working now, was enough by itself, to drive him to drink. At one time it might have even had some priority. Only a whore killing to be sure, but at least it was an interesting whore killing. It had even gotten a little play in the papers, just a little splash in the Tageblatt about Vampiren, but still he was surprised that the SA people hadn’t taken it away. They probably didn’t want to dirty their lily-white hands on a whore, at least not on a dead whore. Let Volkmann handle it, he might as well have something to do, they laughed. Volkmann knew they laughed. It stung. He was not used to being laughed at.
DIE GOLDENER
Her real name had been Ingrid Düffler, but her street name was Die Goldener, the Golden One. It was a derisive term, because while Die Goldener had long, blond hair, the blond came out of a bottle, and Die Goldener had been into other bottles as well. She was well-known on the street, also well-used. She had seen better days but she did not deserve her end.
It was not that she had been dumped like trash in some alley. No, she had been oh so carefully laid out, naked and carefully-composed on a red cloak. Placed in the alcove entrance to a Sex lingerie shop on a fashionable avenue far from her usual ‘stroll’. She lay, arms outstretched, legs together, eyes open and glazed, hair spread out in a fan around her head.
What was most unusual was the whiteness of her skin. They were soon to learn that her body had been drained of blood. She had been carefully washed and cleaned for presentation, placed on show before rigor mortis set in, while she was still supple and easy to move, before the statue solidified.
Volkmann was assigned right after the frantic call came in from the beat cop. A newly-minted ‘kinderpolitzei’, another ‘bully boy’ sent over from the overflowing ranks of the SA. Volkmann was gratified to see that this tough guy had upchucked all over his carefully polished hobnail boots. It was good to see they were human after all. Volkmann took charge and posted the boy to keep people away until the Corpse Technician had a chance to do his work.
Volkmann squatted down to get a better look at the body. He noted the flaccid breasts and stomach (he was still a man, after all), but could not see any major wounds that could have caused the death, but he did see myriad white lines, each some eight to ten centimeters long, most of them about as long as his pen, all running longitudinally, everywhere on the body.
Waiting for the technician and the flash photographers, he wished they would hurry up so he could get a beer somewhere. He was careful not to disturb Ingrid’s remains, or the area immediately around the scene, but he was fascinated by the lines. They reminded him of the stress lines that had formed around his wife Judit’s bottom and lower abdomen after the birth of their son Gerd, now serving as a Leutnant in the Reichswehr somewhere in Prussia, and the twins, Ricki and Susi, but these were a little different. Judit’s had seemed almost like scars, while these were more like seams. He was anxious for the technician to arrive so he could examine these thin white lines more closely. While waiting, he began to count the lines.
He had almost reached 200 and was still counting when he was interrupted by a shout.
‘Hey, Hari, how does it go?’ The tech had arrived, and he was one of the old crew, so he and Hari Volkmann were familiarly acquaintanced.
‘Hey, Lothar,’ Hari answered back. ‘Come on over here and take a look at this.’
The Tech ambled over and squatted down beside Hari. He whistled once in amazement. ‘What the hell are those?’ he said, pointing to the white lines on the body..
‘You’re asking me?’ questioned Volkmann. ‘Isn’t that what you’re here for?’
‘Listen, Hari. I don’t want to touch her until the photos are taken, but I’ve never seen anything like it, have you?’
‘Not me.’
The photographer showed up and Hari and Lothar moved away to save their night sight from the multiple flashes. The cameraman moved around, flashing again and again, until, after about 15 minutes he turned to Hari and said he had enough.
While the Police photographer was working, Hari had sketched the scene in his pocket notebook, and when photographs were done, Hari and Lothar moved back over to the body. The Tech took a leather pouch from his Doctor’s satchel, and opening it, took out a dental pick and pulled at one of the white lines. It opened up almost like it was a mouth.
‘Shit!’ Said Lothar. ‘These things are cuts! And pretty deep cuts at that!’ He looked at Hari. ‘She’s been bled out, Hari. That’s why she’s so white. There’s no blood left.’
‘Hmmm. There’re hundreds of them. She must have suffered terribly. Poor girl has almost been flayed alive.’
‘You’re right there, Hari. These cuts are reasonably clean, just a little blood residue left. They were made while she was still alive, Hari, because if her heart had stopped, the cuts would not have bled, and the blood would have settled in her body. She bled herself out, Hari.’
Volkmann was skeptical. ‘What? She committed suicide?’ He was a little testy because he was thirsty and wanted to go look for an open bar, or even a beer garden.
‘No, no. That’s not what I mean. It is almost impossible for her to have made the cuts, I only mean that the pumping action of her own heart allowed the wounds to continue bleeding.
‘Jesus! How long would that have taken?’
‘Hard to tell exactly. Too many factors to consider. Several hours at least, probably anywhere between three and seven. Too many things we don’t know. We don’t even know where this happened. Certainly not here, because wherever it happened, there would be blood everywhere. Gallons of it.’
‘Pain?’
‘Look again at the cuts. These are made by something that is extremely sharp. Even a scalpel would not cut this clean. There may not have been that much actual pain. Of course, if she was watching it happen, then the psychological pain would have been unimaginable. I don’t know what could have made the cuts. Maybe we’ll find a piece of the instrument in one of the cuts. Other than that, I have never seen, or even heard of, anything like this.’
‘Jesus, Lothar, whoever did this really is a vampire. Hell, he’s worse than a vampire!’
There was a flash, and Volkmann turned to see one of the reporters for the Tageblatt, flashing his pictures and muttering under his breath. ‘Worse than a vampire. Worse than a vampire.’ The reporter caught Volkmann with his arm flung up covering his eyes from the flash. In the paper the next day, it looked as if he were cowering, shielding himself from the vampire.
Looking at the picture, Hari realized how much he needed a drink.
Not waiting for the ailing Reichprezident to die, the National Socialists began the process of gathering all the reigns of power together to place them in Hitler’s hands.. From that time forward, the Nazis alone wrote the book on police procedure.
The procedure had always been that the Kriminalinzpector conducted the investigation, calling for expert and backup assistance as needed, but also writing regular reports for the oversight of the Freiherr. But not this Freiherr. Volkmann prepared the Investigation reports and submitted them as usual, but when the Freiherr Braun came across the reports in his ‘Inbox’, he called Volkmann into his office and closed the door.
FREIHERR BRAUN
‘Kriminalinzpector Volkmann, I have discovered these on my desk.’ He extended a handful of reports toward the Inspector on the other side of his desk.
‘Yes, Freiherr, they are the Investigation Reports as required by procedure.’
‘Let me get this straight. You are wasting my time, asking me to read reports on the death of a whore?
‘This is a murder, Freiherr. As the assigned Inspector working the case, I am required to file reports on my progress. I am only doing that which I have always done.’
Braun’s face was red and the finger pointing as Volkmann shook as he spluttered, ‘Not in my office, Volkmann. Here I do not waste my time with whores! I have important business of the Reich to take care of, and I will not have my time wasted on whores! Do I make myself clear, Volkmann, or do you need an extended transfer to directing traffic?’
‘I understand, Freiherr, but what I do not understand is what I am expected to do.’
‘Your job, Volkmann. Your job. Just clear up this mess, catch a suspect and keep it away from me unless you think it requires my delicate touch. And I don’t want you wasting my time, so if you come to me, it better not be trivial! Dismissed.
Volkmann turned and walked out of the office, fuming. Was there no law in Germany anymore? What did it matter if the victim was a whore? Did that make it any less a murder? Was she any the less dead? Volkmann was angry and confused. What was he to do? Frame up some poor feeble-minded dupe and hope it would all go away? Was that how he was to be a policeman now? What else could he do? Being an investigator was the only thing he ever knew, other than his time in the army, and he sure didn’t learn any employable skills there. Shit! He had a headache and needed a drink.
Philosophy aside, Volkmann finally decided that he would go on being an investigator just as he had always done. The Nazis wouldn’t last, and if they did, some of the rough edges would soon be worn away, abraded against the immortal bureaucracy. He would continue as always, doing the best job that he was capable of. Sooner or later his worth would be again recognized.
ERIK MENDELSOHN AND THE LECTURE
Resolute once more, Volkmann returned to his desk to pick up his file on Die Goldener, but it was not to be. One of the young message runners suddenly appeared at his desk to remind him that he was required to attend the lecture in the Great Hall downstairs. Some boring lecture being given by one of the new brass. Someone Hari didn’t know and didn’t want to know, but his presence at the lecture was mandatory, so he got up and collected his friend Erik, another Inspector, and together they went grudgingly to the Great Hall. Usually such lectures were sparsely attended, but not this time. It seemed as if the bosses had rousted all the investigatory and even the support personnel to attend this one. The two of them settled down toward the back for an hour or two of twilight sleep, and they were little disturbed by the ramrod-straight little spit-and-polish martinet who mounted the platform and began to speak. What he said soon robbed them of their attempt at half-sleep.
RUDOLF DIEHLS
‘Gentlemen of the Berlin Police, will you please come to order. My name is Rudolf Diehls, and I am in charge of the Geheime Staatspolizeiamt, the Secret State Police. It is my high honor to acquaint you with various police agencies that not only will you be a part of, but with whom you will be working hand-in-glove.’
Erik nudged Hari and whispered, ‘What the hell is the Gestapo doing here?’
Hari replied, ‘How the hell should I know. Maybe we’re all under arrest. Why don’t you shut up, and maybe we’ll find out.’
The little speaker continued, ‘The Shutz Staffel SS was originally made up of 280 men in 1929, and was a loose association of special groups within the SA. Now, in 1933, it has over 200,000 members. This year, the Führer will be selecting a core group called the Liebstandarte Division as his personal guard. While still technically under the SA, nevertheless, the SS is wholly independent.’
Erik leaned over. ‘Just what we need, a history lesson on the SS. I wonder whether it’ll help with the crime rate.’
‘Well, you could look on this as a little vacation. A break in our work week.’
Diehls seem to realize that he was losing his audience, and so his voice became louder. ‘Herr Heinrich Himmler was originally appointed to the position of Director of the Bavarian political police in 1929, a special department of the Interior Ministry. Together with his assistant, Herr Reinhardt Heydrich, they created the Reich police for political purposes. Herr Himmler was then given command of the political police in most German States, but In Prussia, he encountered resistance from Reichminister Hermann Goering, who had placed myself at the head of the Geheime Staatspolizeiamt, the Secret State Police, known familiarly to you as the Gestapo.’
Hari, thirsting for a beer, whispered to Erik, ‘And I’d rather not become any more familiar.’
Diehls went on, almost seeming apologetic. ’Of course you are aware of the conflict that has arisen between Herr Himmler’s men as commanded by Herr Reinhard Heydrich, and our own force under my leadership.’
Erik laughed under his breath. ‘What a revelation, I thought those pitched battles between the two groups were intellectual discussions.’
A bureaucrat in front of them turned, gave them a dirty look and growled, ‘Ssshush!’
Now Diehl’s voice rose with patriotic zeal. ‘I am proud to announce that serious talks are underway to make Herr Heydrich as Inspector of the Secret State Police and a Deputy of both Herr Himmler and Herr Goering, the overall Director of the combined agency. He has promised to bring in the espionage service of the SS, the Security Service, Sicherheitsdienst, which will then be known as the SD.
Hari turned to Erik, and whispered, ‘I know this is going somewhere, but I’m beginning to wonder where.’
Erik only said, ‘There hasn’t been too many changes since Hitler’s National Socialists took over...’
‘Except for the Freiherr. Don’t forget the Freiherr.’
‘... Right, Hari, except for the Freiherr. Maybe that’s about to change.’
Now Diehls was shouting to emphasize his vision. ‘Eventually, it is expected that Herr Himmler will assume overall control as Reichsführer SS, and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, but this may take several years to achieve full coordination of all police services. It is the intention to standardize all police services on a national level.’
Erik looked stricken.
‘Make no mistake about this, Gentlemen. As of this moment you are members of a great National police force. At different points in your careers, you may be required by the dictates of efficiency, to transfer to one of these other organizations. Regardless of which agency you serve, you serve the Fatherland, and we expect nothing less than full and enthusiastic cooperation among all the agencies. Heil Hitler!
Both Hari and Erik were silent, lost in thought. They returned to the office and split to go to their own desks.
Already thinking of an excuse to go for a drink, Hari settled into his chair to go through the Goldener file, when he felt a presence at his shoulder. He looked up to see his friend and sometimes partner, the man with whom had attended the mandatory lecture. Kriminalinzpector Erik Mendelsohn. Big, bluff and bald, Mendelsohn looked so dejected, Volkmann was alarmed, and asked what was the matter.
A BEER WITH ERIK
‘Hari, come with me for a beer at the Garten.’
Volkmann eagerly picked up the file, and taking it with him, went downstairs with Erik, following him into the beer garden, Solingen’s, just down the street, a traditional watering-hole for the police contingent from the Palace of Justice on Wilhelmstrasse. Usually, he and Erik sat right up front, where they could meet and greet their fellow workers going in and out. This time, Erik led the way to a table way in the back and over in a corner, where they would not be overheard. Hari was going up to the bar to get them a beer, but Erik passed instead for a plain seltzer water. Hari returned to their table with the water and two beers for himself.
Erik was really worrying Hari, and once they had ordered, Hari leaned over the table. ‘Okay, Erik. What’s up?’
‘Trouble, Hari. I don’t know if I can stay on the job.’
‘What? This fucking job is your life, you asshole. What are you talking about?’
‘Oh, come on, Hari. Haven’t you seen our new Kameraden? And the new Freiherr? He’s no cop, he’s some kind of an assassin or something. And you heard that guy Diehls. Another thug. They are planning a takeover, and all of us are in the way. We are Der Alteren, the old ones. These new ones will change everything. Either we do it their way, or we will be out.’
‘Okay, okay, so they got rid of Willi, and replaced him with this thug. What? You think he’ll last forever. When the district goes to hell, maybe they’ll even bring Willi back. Just do your job and don’t worry about it. They’ll always need cops! We’ve got job security.’
‘Hari, were you at the parade?’
‘Which parade? We seem to be having lots of parades lately.’
‘The night Hitler took power.’
‘Is that what you’re worried about? Hitler?’
‘Oh, it’s not just Hitler, it’s the whole National Socialist thing. Too many changes, Hari. Too many changes.’ Erik was shaking his head from side to side, as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.’
Hari punched Eric lightly on the shoulder and grinned. ‘Oh shit, Erik. You worry too much. Hitler’s all talk. You don’t really think he believes all that crap he says, do you? Give him a couple of months and the process of governing will knock some of those rough edges off him. You’ll see.’
‘You think so, eh? Well, I don’t like some of the things I’ve seen so far, and it’s getting harder and harder for me to do the job’
‘You always were a worrier. Like what? What’s bothering you now?’
‘The camps for one.’
‘The reeducation camps? You think there’s something wrong with the camps? You picked the wrong thing to argue about with me. I like the camps. They get the scum off the streets, gives them a few months in the country fresh air. Less paperwork for us.’
‘A few months in the country fresh air? Is that what you think they are?’
‘Well, that’s what the posters say, the ones we have hung all over the station. Then there was that film that they showed us, the one where they shaved and washed up those bums off the street, and then fed them.’’
‘Yeah? Well, I’ve seen their camps. I even did some of the transport. There aren’t any camps in the country. The camps are in SA warehouses all over the city. They have been buying up old warehouses for the last six months, even before they were in power.’’
‘Must be temporary. They won’t be there long.’
‘Really? They’ve been in actual operation for the last three months, and there aren’t any plans to move them. They built chicken wire cages inside the warehouses, and stuffed people into them. People that we sent there. Hari those people are starving and living in terrible conditions.’
‘Come on, Erik. I’m sure there is a logical explanation. Besides, look at who we’re sending there. Communists. Socialists. Mental defectives. Adolescent hooligans. Gypsies. All of them troublemakers. We’re better off without them.’
‘Without trials. Without lawyers?’
‘Hell, the Freiherr looks over the cases before the bad ones are sent off...’
‘Right. That’s what I mean. Can we trust the Freiherr?’
Hari was silent. Erik didn’t even know about the run-in that Hari had just had with the Freiherr. ‘Okay, I see what you mean. But surely you wouldn’t throw over the job for that. And what about the roving bands of Communists and Socialists that were fighting the SA on the streets. Nobody was safe. Broken heads and killings. Blood all over the streets. At least all that shit has pretty well stopped. What else?’
‘Yeah, they stopped the mobile riots all right. Sent all those people off to the camps, but you’ll notice that they didn’t send any of the SA to the camps. Hell, no. Instead we have roving bands of SA toughs doing whatever they want, and they’re now Auxiliary Police!’
Hari said, ‘I don’t like the Brownshirts any more than you do, but somebody has to patrol the streets, and I say, better them than me. Say what you will, at least the streets are safe now. They weren’t before.’
‘They’re safe for anybody except those that the SA want,’ answered Erik’
‘Listen Erik, let’s face it, as long as it isn’t me, they’re on my side.’
‘That parade in front of the Chancellery really disturbed me. I was there, Hari. I was even carried away with it. There were tens of thousands of people there. Brownshirts. Blackshirts. Blueshirts. Everyone marching in these giant blocks, carrying torches. Huge drums beating. Military bands. Prussian martial music. The crowds, the bands, the marchers. Shit, Hari, everybody there was fucking hysterical! Hell, they almost attacked the French Embassy on the Pariserplatz right there. For that matter, I would have attacked the French Embassy! There is something in the air. It’s really terrifying. These people could do anything!’
‘Erik, they just won a big election. They’ve been trying to do it for years. No wonder they were celebrating.’
‘What about the book burning? The banning of artists and writers?’
‘Erik, are you kidding me? Berlin used to be a damned cesspool. Still is, for that matter, but at least they are clearing out the persistent troublemakers. Prostitutes, little children, boys as well as girls, selling themselves openly on the streets, naked dancers, sex shows, dirty pictures and dirty books. Have you been to the movies lately? How about ‘M’? Peter Lorre as a child molester brought to justice by a criminal gang, one of the Ringverein. ‘The Blue Angel’, glorifying a prostitute and making a fool out of a good German. And the worst of them all, ‘The Threepenny Opera,’ saying that the law-breakers and the law-enforcers are the same. What has happened to our values? Our morality? Be fair, Erik. Look at what it was then and then see what it is now. Okay, it’s not perfect, and there are things to fix, but you have to admit that at least that part is better. Believe me, I won’t miss a few dirty books and meaningless pictures.’
‘That’s not all of it, Hari. I’m a Jew.’
‘So what? Sure, the Nazis say a lot of things about the Jews, but that’s just political shit. They don’t really mean it. What do you think they’re going to do, deport the millions of Jews? It would be impossible. What would the rest of the world say? Germany would be outside the family of nations. We want to lead the nations of the world, not turn our backs on them. No, there’re just too many Jews, and too many Jews with real power, for the Nazis to do anything about them. This will all go away and everything will just go back to normal, like it always was. Just don’t go off half-cocked. Relax. Everything will be all right.’
‘Yeah? Tell that to Weiss.’
‘What? You mean Isidor? The deputy commissioner of police?’
‘His name isn’t Isidor. It never was. His name is Bernhard. It was only Goebbels that called him Isidor. That was just to make sure that the masses knew he was a Jew.’
‘Nonsense! The man was a pedophile. They found pictures. He fiddled his expenses. They needed to get rid of him. Couldn’t have a man like that in charge of the police. Never mind whether he was a Jew. That had nothing to do with it.’
‘Well, you’re right about one thing. They needed to get rid of him, but it was because he was a Jew in a high position. As for the rest of it, they made it up. He was framed - framed by experts.’
‘Then why didn’t he stand up like a man and fight?’
‘He knew that no matter what he did, he’d never be able to clear his name. He’d been tarred with a broad brush. He knew that some would always believe that he was a child molester. He’d never escape it. That sort of thing never goes away. He couldn’t stand people looking at him that way. He’d always been a respected man, and now he saw questions in their eyes. They’d never let him have his job back. His life was over. He shot himself. They killed him just as sure as if they had assassinated him with their own hands.’
‘And just how do you know so much?’
‘He was my uncle and my godfather. We’d have known.’
‘All right, let’s say that you’re right, and I’m not admitting for one minute that you are, what has that got to do with you? By the way, you want a beer? I’m buying.’’
‘No thanks, Hari, I don’t drink during work hours.’ If there was a rebuke in that for Hari, Hari missed it. ‘This thing with Weiss, it’s a message. They got rid of him, just as they’ll get rid of all of us. None of us will have jobs. The doctors, the lawyers, the tailors, none of us. I will have to take my family and go.’
‘Go? Go where?’
‘Anywhere but here. Many have already left. Einstein, Feuchtwanger, Marx, Brecht, they are all leaving, Hari.’
‘Pah! The intellectuals, the negative ones. The cowards. The rats are deserting what they think is a sinking ship. They would make of our Germany a wasteland fit only for the Nazis! All should stay and work to make of this country a paradise. What will be accomplished by their leaving? This is our country, you cannot fight for it from Switzerland. Who cares what Germans say when they are living in England or America?’
Hari’s diatribe was not really directed against Erik, he was only repeating what he had already said to Judit, without result.
‘Hari, the handwriting is on the wall for all to see. Hitler will force us all out of Germany.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. How can they throw millions of people out of work? What would they do then, deport them? You people breed like rabbits. There are too many of you, and too many of you are rich and powerful. There is no possibility that they could be rid of all of you.’
‘Did you read Mein Kampf? Hitler says it right there in black and white.’
‘Political claptrap, Erik. They couldn’t do it. Take my advice. Pull your head back into your shoulders, settle down and do your work just as you have always done. This will all blow away. Take my word for it.’
‘I wish I could.’
BACK TO DIE GOLDENER
Nothing was ever settled in their conversations, and both left the restaurant with their preconceptions intact, but with some new input to play with. Since Hari already had the Goldener file and it was late evening, he decided to do some fieldwork. Cranking up his assigned old Auto-Union, thinking about Freiherr’s new BMW, he wheeled out to head for the intersection of Friedrichstrasse and Taubenstrasse and began to cruise slowly, on the lookout for the Poules, the ‘street chickens’. This was the area of ‘the stroll’ that Die Goldener had worked. Volkmann had used many of the girls as informers in the past, and he had several favorites that he used for other purposes when the mood struck him. Just one of the benefits of the job.
The righteously puritanical Nazis hadn’t gotten around to Friedrichstrasse yet, but everybody knew that it was coming. Many areas of the city had already been declared Proztitutenfrei, with sweeps by the SA, and the girls shipped off to the newly established Government brothels conveniently placed in various commercial districts. But it hadn’t happened here yet, so all the girls were out on the street exercising their free enterprise to make as much money as possible before they were forced into the governmental facilities.
They were still wearing their usual uniforms. Most of them were in thigh-high boots, shorter than short skirts, and they twirled their multi-colored umbrellas over their overly made-up faces. Some of them carried whips and sported rakishly-canted military officer’s caps. Many were really heavily powdered and rouged transvestites. The others were dressed as schoolgirls. Braids, middy-blouses, calf-high white stockings and carrying armfuls of books. There was something for every taste.
TRUDI
Hari pulled to the side of the road, his brakes squealing. Leaning across the seat, he shouted out the open window, ‘Hey, mädchen, come here.’
The false schoolgirl went into her act. She giggled and hesitated, finally shyly edged toward the car. ‘Ach, liebchen. I was just on my way home from school, and I really shouldn’t talk to strange... Oh, shit, it’s only you, Hari. What do you want? I’m working here.’
‘Yeah, sure, Trudi. Get in the car. I need to talk to you.’
She got in petulantly and Hari threw a photo onto her lap. It was a death shot of Die Goldener. ‘You know her?’
‘Sure I know her. Ingrid. She’s dead, so what? It happens. This is a rough business and you got to look out for yourself.’
‘Yeah. You’re all heart, Trudi. What’s the talk on the stroll.’
‘Most of the talk is just that she’s dead, and the way she died sends chills right through me. I’m real careful, you know, but a girl’s got to make a living, you know?’
‘Yeah. Look, Trudi, I’d really like to catch this guy.’
‘All this trouble for a dead whore? You gotta be kidding me.’
‘No, no shit, girl. It’s like... well, it’s like a personal thing with me.’
‘What, you had a thing with her? You cops...’
‘No, it’s not like that. It’s just that... Well, I need to get this one. Can you help?’
‘Okay. Seems to me that I heard she was hanging around Le Chat Rouge, you know, that joint a couple of blocks down. It’s a girl-girl bar, you know, but sometimes...’ She shrugged. ‘Well, you know. When you go there, talk to one of the bar girls, Gerta. She’s good people, and she and Ingrid were pretty tight. She’s all broken up, you know?’
‘Okay. Thanks, Trudi. And if you hear anything...’
‘Sure, Hari, and watch your back. Whoever did this does not seem like a real nice person.’
‘Yeah, Trudi. See ya.’
Le Chat Rouge was on Friedrichstrasse and immediately distinguishable by a huge red neon cat with a winking eye and a tail swishing back and forth. By night the club was erotic and exotic, loaded with scantily-clad bar girls that were for rent or lease by either sex, but Hari had been there in daytime with all the lights on, and it was just tawdry, dirty and dusty. This was hardly the first time that Hari had been there. In fact, a surprising number of his investigations began or involved Le Chat Rouge.
GERTA AND MAX
Hari hadn’t told Trudi, but he was already well-acquainted with Gerta. She was there, but not working the room. No, she was back in the dressing room, dressed in her flimsy, short, flapper frock, intriguingly cut so that it exposed something interesting every time she moved, whether she intended it or not. She was sitting hunched over on a stool, a large man’s handkerchief pressed to her nose, trails of black mascara ran down from her red-rimmed eyes. A large fat man in a tuxedo sat beside her, his face made up into a garish mask by lipstick, rouge and Mascara. Hari recognized him as Max, the Master of Ceremonies for the shows that ran several times a night at the club.
They both looked up as Hari walked in. Gerta acknowledged him with a tearful, ‘Hari.’
Hari only said, ‘Max. Gerta. Sorry about Ingrid.’
Gerta wailed and Max patted her shoulder, looking reproachfully at Hari for bringing up the subject again. The reproachful look seemed incongruous on such a ludicrous man..
Hari pulled up a Brentwood chair and sat down on it backwards, his chin leaning on his folded forearms. ‘Hey kids, you gonna help me out here, or what?’
Gerta looked up resentfully. ‘Help you? What do you care about another dead whore? You guys never cared before!’
Max patted her some more, and shushed her at the same time, but this time looking apologetically at Hari.
Hari made a production out of lighting up a cigar with a wooden match. He wanted the moment to pass. To give them all a chance to regroup. ‘Look, Gerta. It doesn’t matter why, but this thing has become personal with me. You help me, and I’ll do the best I can to get this bastard, okay?’
Gerta peered at him through red-rimmed eyes. ‘Tell me the truth Hari. Do you think this is a solo thing, or is this one looking for more?’
‘Gerta, I really don’t know, but if I had to guess, I’d say that Ingrid was only the first. This guy made too much of a production out of it. He wants the publicity. He wants to be a star.’
Gerta sobbed, and then wailed. ‘I don’t know anything, Hari! She had dates! We all have dates! I didn’t keep track of hers, she didn’t keep track of mine. They were just guys, Hari!’
‘Who’s her man, Gerta?’ I know she’s got one. All you girls have one. For protection if nothing else.’
Gerta peered at Hari, trying to see if she could trust him. ‘Hugo, Hari. Hugo Schleiffer.’
‘Where can I find him?’
‘Don’t tell him I told you.’
‘Why not? I don’t want him for anything.’
‘You’re a cop, Hari. I don’t need it known around that I’m talking to the cops.’
‘You scared of Hugo, Gerta? Was Ingrid scared of him? You think he had something to do with Ingrid’s murder?’
‘Nah. She was his meal ticket. A good earner. Why would he kill her, especially that way. I could see it, maybe, if she mouthed off and he popped her one. Anybody can do that, but to do somebody like Ingrid was done? Whoever did it wasn’t just pissed off, he is sick!’
‘Well, we’ll see. Where can I find him?’
‘He’s got a whole stable. I think maybe six or seven girls. I can give you a list of the names, if you need it. He keeps an eye on them. Drives up and down Friedrichstrasse in a pretty snazzy sable brown Mercedes sedan. !930 model, I think. Always washed and polished. Hugo worries about his image.’
‘You part of his stable, Gerta?’
‘No, Hari, I have my own man. I just don’t really like Hugo. He’s just a little too... you know... weasely. Not scary, just... weasely.’
“Okay, Gerta... Max..., thanks for the help. If I need anything else I’ll get back to you, and if you come up with anything, you know where to find me.’
HUGO SCHLIEFFER
Hari spotted the car parked outside a Viennese coffee house with a sign that blinked ‘café mit schlag’, coffee with whipped cream. Hugo was easy to spot. He sat relaxed in a wrought-iron ice cream chair at a small, marble-topped table by the window, where he could watch the commerce along the boulevard. Across from him was one of the schoolgirl poules listening to him intently. Hari recognized Hugo because he looked... weasely. Hugo instantly recognized Hari as Polizei, and almost looked as if he was going to rabbit, but then he realized that Hari had made him, so he relaxed in resignation, waving the ‘schoolgirl’ away to leave the seat vacant for Hari.
Hari slid into the seat and handed Hugo a business card. Hugo was wary, but took the card, looked at it and then up at Hari from under squinched brows. ‘So?’ He said.
‘Ingrid.’ Said Hari.
‘Shit!’ Answered Hugo.
‘She one of yours?’
‘So?’
‘Weren’t you looking after her?’
‘You want me to live with them too?’
‘Don’t play games with me, Hugo. Not on this one. I could have just as easily pulled you into an alley and beat the shit out of you, and you know it. Cooperate with me, or I’ll see to it that you lose your stable, and maybe spend a little time in the hospital as well.’
Hugo whined a little. ‘I couldn’t watch her all the time. I got a few girls, but she was my best. I pretty well let her off the leash most of the time. I trusted her, and I knew she could take care of herself.’
‘Okay, I’ll buy that for the moment. The night she was killed. When was the last time you saw her that day?’
`Let’s see... I’m pretty sure we went to Schlieffen’s. We had a late supper about ten, and we left there about eleven-thirty. Didn’t have much to drink, maybe two or three. We talked, of course. I knew she had a late date. That’s what she told me. Said something about how her date had some event to go to before he could see her. That’s about it.’
‘She tell you anything about this guy?’
‘Not much, only that stuff about him being late.’
‘She tell you what he looked like? What he did? Anything about him at all?’
‘Look, Inspector. We were just two old friends having dinner. We weren’t really talking about dates and things like that.’
‘Why not? You were her man, weren’t you? Her protector. Didn’t you keep an eye on her, watch out for her?
‘It really wasn’t like that with Ingrid. She was no virgin. She’d been around for a long time, and she really knew her way around. I was more like... well, her manager. I handled her money for her, made investments and like that. I paid her bills, took care of problems. That kind of thing.’
‘Where would she have taken him?’
‘I don’t know. Sometimes she took them back to her apartment, but she often went with them.’
‘Isn’t that dangerous?’
‘Like I said, she took care of herself.’
‘Not this time she didn’t.’
Hugo didn’t answer, but looked down at the table, following the patterns in the marble.
‘All right then. Where’s her apartment? The address.
‘It’s in a building on Mauerstrasse. 1236, apartment 3G.’
‘You been there since it happened?’
‘No. I’m just not ready yet.’
‘You have a key?’
‘Hey, wait a minute, Inspector... I mean, like, I’d like to go through the place first. You know, see what’s there.’
Hari sighed with exasperation. His voice was low with menace. ‘Just give me the fucking key, Hugo.’
Hugo took out a key ring and unhooked a key, handing it to Hari.
‘Give me the address again so I can write it down.’ Hugo repeated it.
Hari got up to leave, but then said, ‘Did she say whether she’d seen this guy before?’
‘Matter of fact, I think she did say she’d seen him before.’
‘Was he a regular?’
‘Don’t know, Inspector.’
‘She keep a date book, a calendar? I’m sure she didn’t give receipts, but maybe she kept track of payments.’
‘Yeah, I needed her to do that. It was part of our deal.’
‘Do you have her books?’
‘Sure, all but this last month. I got them at the end of the month.’
‘Okay. I need you to take them down to the station and leave them at the desk for me. Got it?’
Hugo didn’t look too happy, but he nodded.
‘And any other paperwork or pictures you can find.’
‘By the way, she have any particular friends, any of your other girls, maybe?’
‘Nah. She kept to herself. Maybe Gerta down at Le Chat Rouge.’
‘Any family that you know of?’
‘I don’t recall... wait a minute. She had a daughter. Kid was staying with somebody. I don’t remember who. I’ll think on it.’
‘Okay. If you think of anything else, you need to get back to me. Right?’
‘Sure. By the way. Can you do me any good downtown. Maybe some way to keep my girls going? I don’t need to have them in some government house somewhere.’
Hari poked a forefinger into Hugo’s chest. ‘I got faith in you, Hugo. You’ll find a way. You and me, we’ll be doing business for a long time, and I want you to remember that.’
Hari left in the old Auto-Union, leaving a cloud of smoke behind that lingered for quite some time.
MORE FROM THE FREIHERR
It was very late when he got back to the station, and he was surprised that the Freiherr had been waiting for him for hours, and was rather upset. Confused over the apparent flip-flop, Hari climbed the stairs to the Freiherr’s aerie. He knocked on the door and was answered with a gruff ‘Arein!’ ‘Come!’ Hari walked in to find the Freiherr sitting behind his desk, and there was another SA uniformed young man who was seated in one of the two guest chairs that sat in front of the desk. The uniformed guest was sitting back smugly, while looking appraisingly at Hari. Volkmann bridled immediately. Just who did this puffed-up puppy think he was?
The Freiherr was almost livid with rage, or maybe it was embarrassment. ‘Herr Volkmann! And just where have you been all day? Do you not check in anymore? Are you too good to let us know where you are and what you’re doing?’
Hari stuttered over the contradiction. ‘I-I-I was out investigating on Die Goldener case. I told you I was working on it. I didn’t think you wanted to be bothered with it.’
‘Never mind that now.’ Turning to the SA man, the Freiherr whined; ‘That is the trouble around here. No discipline. No order. Things will change Stabsunteroffizier! Oh yes. Things will most certainly change with you now here...’
SERGEANT KURT SEECKT
So. This impudent pissant was one of the new recruits. And a Sergeant at that. To Hari, a Sergeant in the SA was just a couple of steps lower than, oh, say... Hugo the pimp.
It was Hari’s turn to appraise him. The usual natty brown SA uniform with the creaking leather. Even puttees, for chrissakes. The usual sneer. The guy was young, maybe a little under 30, with the brutish, blocky body of the usual street tough that was in the SA. Like his boss Rohm, his doughy face bubbled like a thermal mud vent suddenly frozen. Big but loose. A pile of lard stuffed into an SA casing, topped by a supercilious smirk under the pillbox kepi strapped under two or three chins. Hari despised the man instinctively.
The Freiherr unceremoniously stood behind his desk, leaning on his hands placed flat on the top. He grinned at Hari in a way that made Hari veeerry suspicious. ‘You are to be congratulated Herr Volkmann, this is a very fortunate day for you.’
‘Yeah? Why?’
‘Because you are privileged to have a new partner. One who will supply the items that you lack in your work. Discipline and Order. I have the honor to present to you Stabsunteroffizier Kurt Seeckt. He is very well thought of among the ranks of the SA.’
Yeah, I’ll bet. Thought Hari, but he said, ‘Chief, I haven’t worked with a partner since old Baer died, and that was years ago. I think I’ve been doing fine on my own. A partner would just get in my way. I’ve built up a network over the years. People who know me and trust me are not going to talk in front of some uniformed stranger. Not only that, but I’m right in the middle of Die Goldener investigation and there’s no time to bring someone up to speed.’
‘Ah my boy. You do not understand. This is not a request, it is an order that Himmler himself was involved with. All of our experienced Kriminalinzpectors are to have SA partners. You know, a fresh eye and all that.’
‘So what your saying is, that I have no choice.’
‘Now, I wouldn’t put it that way. You should be looking at the bright side of all this. Here you have an intelligent and experienced man who can help you with all the new paperwork that will now be required.’
‘Does he have to wear a uniform? It’s going to be like wearing a neon sign on my head flashing Polizei. I’ve always worked kind of quietly. The circles I move in, my informers and such, they don’t like to advertise they have connections to the cops.’
The Freiherr waved the whole idea aside with his hand. ‘Volkmann, you are still looking at the negative. There is to be a whole new way of policing. No more kid gloves. No more please and thank you. Now we will walk up directly and boldly, with all the majesty and power of the German State beside you in the form of Stabsunteroffizier Seeckt here.’
Seeckt smiled in acknowledgment. Looking like the cat that swallowed the canary.
Hari looked skeptical. ‘And if they don’t answer these questions?’
‘Oh, they will, Volkmann, they will. The new regime is giving us tools that you just won’t believe. Incredibly persuasive tools. In fact, life-changing tools that everyone will do anything to avoid. Oh yes, Volkmann. You don’t have to worry about that any more. They will all want to talk to you.’
‘Is there anything I can do about this?’
‘Of course, my boy’, the Freiherr said expansively. ‘You can call Herr Rohm and talk to him about your complaint. Here, I will even let you use my telephone.’ He took the headset out of the cradle and extended it to Hari. ‘No? Wise choice, my boy. Now, you go and make peace with the Stabsunteroffizier, and cheer up, as a Senior Kriminalinzpector, you will nominally be in charge of the team, but I advise you not to disregard the advice of your junior partner. Now, both of you get out of here and go back to work.’
Leaving the building, Hari begrudgingly handed the file to Seeckt and together they got into the Opel. Sitting himself in the torn passenger seat, Seeckt sniffed in disdain and made a show of plucking loose stuffing off the seat. ‘This vehicle does not reflect well upon us as representatives of the Reich, Meinherr.”
‘You’re right. It’s a piece of crap, but it’s the one they gave me.’
‘But there is nothing that says it must be kept filthy, and even with damage along one side. These things are easily put right.’
‘Look, Seeckt. I like it this way. At least it doesn’t scream ‘cop’ wherever I go. Some of the places I go don’t like us very much.’
‘Are you ashamed of being a policeman, Herr Volkmann?’
‘Shit, don’t even go there, Seeckt. I’ve been a cop since you were in diapers, and I don’t need a lecture on car care from you.’
‘Meinherr, maybe it is that you have been in the force for too long, and certainly someone should tell you how to treat the property of the Reich, and how to be a true representative of the Reich.’
‘Seeckt. I’ll make you a deal. You just sit there, shut the fuck up, and read the fucking file so maybe you will have a clue what we’re doing, and I won’t find it necessary to pull over to the side of the road, and tell you how the cat ate the cream.’
They went on quietly for a while, and then Hari said, ‘What’s that thing in your belt, there, some kind of a nightstick? You need to carry a nightstick? Beat cops don’t carry nightsticks, they leave them in the car. That’s what that leather loop is for on the door.’
‘No, no, Meinherr. I do not leave my Gummiknüppel in the car. Anywhere I go, my Gummiknüppel goes with me. I have carried it since my teenage years when I battled the Communists and the Socialists in the streets. Which side were you on, Volkmann?’
‘Which side was I on? What kind of crack is that?’
‘Hhmmm. Volkmann... That a Jew name? Are you a Jew, Volkmann?’
‘As a matter of fact I’m not, although it’s none of your business.’
‘My eye is on you, Volkmann, and I better not see any Jew tricks out of you.’
DIE GOLDENER’S 1236
Volkmann gave up. It wasn’t worth it, and besides, they’d reached Die Goldener’s apartment house. Number 1236. Hari was surprised. It was much fancier than he would have expected. It was 6 storeys. One of the new concrete and glass block buildings that had sprung up recently. The doorman had a uniform fit for Feldmarschall Goering, and usually Hari would have had to go through hoops and show his ID to get past the pompous fool. But not this time. As they approached the front door, the doorman sprang to attention, touched the peak of his uniform cap, opened the door and murmured respectfully, ‘Stabsunteroffizier.’
Seeckt said, ‘Carry on,’ and swept through the door followed by Hari. Just inside the entrance, Seeckt turned back to the doorman. ‘I see you are a veteran,’ spotting the red, black and white ‘bull’s-eye’ on the man’s lapel.
To Hari’s surprise, the man actually saluted, crying ‘Zu Bifel, Stabsunteroffizier.’
Seeckt returned the salute, and then extended his open hand and said, ‘The keys to 3G, Veteran.’
Without a word or a hesitation, the doorman handed Seeckt the master key.
Seeckt took the key and only said, ‘Carry on, Veteran.’
Seeckt and Hari went to the chrome and glass elevator and pushed the button for the third floor. Hari was dumbfounded. Seeckt had gotten through and even been given the key without all the threatening and bluffing that Hari would have had to go through. Never mind search warrants and all that, the doorman had simply given them the key. Never mind that Hari already had gotten the key from Hugo. Maybe there was something to this uniform business after all.
They entered to find a small, but light and airy, single bedroom apartment with enormous windows that gave onto the Berlin panorama. They went through it cursorily to establish that it was not the murder site. The place was almost excessively neat and clean. The sleek, flowing lines of the blond and expensive Bauhaus furniture filled the rooms, but there was not a trace of struggle or blood.
Then they began a more meticulous search. In a sideboard drawer, Hari discovered a well-thumbed calendar date and address book. Paging through it quickly he reached the date of the murder and found only a single notation on the page. In a neat, feminine hand, it read:
M-12:30
Going to the address section, Hari found nothing listed in the ‘M’ section.
Hari went into the bedroom to show the diary to Seeckt, who he found going through the clothes closet when he came across a big man’s uniform jacket, complete with the insignia of Oberst in the Reichswehr. Hari immediately saw the Spanish campaign ribbon and the ribbon for the Franco medal. For some reason he was surprised by the jacket. Somehow consorting with whores was beneath army officers. Hari would rather have expected SA or SS, but no, it was Reichswehr.
Seeckt seemed a little uncomfortable at the find, but, taking the jacket and the calendar, they left the apartment, but on leaving, Seeckt dripped a wax puddle onto the lock, and, using his ring, impressed a swastika to keep people out. What amazed Hari was the fact that Seeckt seemed to think that just that little wax seal would actually keep people out!
Returning to the station, Hari was a little put out when Seeckt put the evidence in under his own name, but it wasn’t worth arguing over. On his desk, Hari found a sealed brown manila envelope, and written on the front in careful printing was:
Attention: KI Hari Volkmann
-Victim: Ingrid NMN Duffler (aka Die Goldener)
-Date of Incident: 01/16/33 Time: 0230 am ±
-Location of body: 13726 Kurfürstendamm
-Evidence found at autopsy (lower end of 9mm cut - left lower abdomen)
-Number of cuts 437 (see file diagram for placement)
-Unknown missing weapon appears to be triune bladed
-Cause of death: Slow exsanguination.
-Obsidian chip (4mm x 2mm)
Contact: Lothar Eyck, Anatomical technician
Hari scratched the back of his head. Obsidian? Searching his old school memories, all he came up with was Mexican Indians: Aztecs, Olmecs, Maya. They used obsidian knives. He thought they also made wooden swords with the edges made of obsidian chips. Obsidian was supposed to be very sharp. Maybe even sharper than steel scalpels. The cuts would be more like paper cuts, very thin and clean. A 3-bladed obsidian knife? A museum piece?
GONE FOR THE DAY
Wrapping up the day by writing a report, Hari left for his empty apartment on the Unter den Linden. He was comfortable there in the large antique house that had been broken up into 3-bedroom apartments, two to a floor, with four floors (and no elevators). The place was furnished with heavy, old, dark oak pieces that had come from Judit’s parents estate in Bavaria. The apartment and the furniture were Judit’s legacy from her parents, Hari could never have been able to afford it on a police investigator’s salary.
Lonely, drunk, and feeling sorry for himself, still full clothed, he fell asleep across the bed. He slept like one dead (if the dead were given to stertorous snoring) for some three hours when he was startled awake by the insistent double buzz of the telephone.
‘Oh no! Not tonight.’ Hari was sure it was headquarters and he was being called in, but when he picked up the phone and answered ‘Volkmann!’ He heard the hesitant voice of his wife on the other end.
JUDIT ON THE PHONE
‘Hari? Hari, what’s wrong? You sound so strange.’
Hari dry-washed his face, pulling himself together. ‘Oh, Judit. Sorry, I was asleep and the phone woke me.”
‘You’ve been drinking again’, she said accusingly.
‘Let’s not start this again. Of course I’m drinking. What else am I supposed to do with my family off in Switzerland?’
‘You know why we’re here. We have already discussed it!’
‘Ach! It is foolishness. Do you think things are really going to change that much here? Come home Judit, I miss you. I need you here with me.’
‘You know I can’t. Look around you, Hari. People are leaving Germany in droves. All kinds of people. Scientists. Actors. Directors. Academics. Professionals. All kinds of people.’
‘But many are staying, as well. I don’t believe that things will change that much, if they even change at all.’
‘Hari, we are not talking about what this is all about. I am Jewish. My parents and my grandparents were Jewish. That means, according to the Nazis, that the children are Jewish.’
‘So what? It never meant too much to us or the children. Religion never meant anything before, why should it mean anything now?’
‘You mean it never meant anything until now.’
‘Judit, you are being ridiculous. You are no more a Jew than I am. Have you ever been to temple? I mean, ever? You are married to me. We have been to the Lutheran church together with my family. This is a little foolish, is it not?’
‘Yes, it is foolish, but, it’s the Nazis who’ve made me Jewish. They will not let me be anything else. If you have a grandparent who is a Jew, then you are a Jew, even if you are the Pope himself. Hari! Stop being obtuse. It means something to the Nazis. Have you not read Mein Kampf? Hitler told us what he was going to do. We are no longer safe in our own Country. I will not have the children put through that.’
‘And what about us, Judit? What happens to us?’
‘Hari, you could come here. Or we could go to England, maybe even America.’
‘And what would I do there Judit? How could I earn the kind of money that I am sending you now?’
‘You are a policeman. A Senior Inspector. You could get a job here.’
‘We have talked about this before. I would have to start all over again. At 50! You want me to be a traffic policeman? What about my seniority, my rank?’
‘Oh Hari, this is the same old argument again. It is late and I am too tired to go through this again. I love you, Hari, and the children love you and miss you.’
‘Me too, Judit. I wish we could be together, but I just don’t see how.’
‘If it is meant to be, then it will happen in God’s good time. Goodnight, Hari, and take care.’
‘Good night, Judit. All my love to you and the children.’ Hari carefully put the handset back in the cradle and again lay back across the bed.
LOLA
Fifteen minutes later the phone buzzed again. This time it was the office, and what the telephone dispatcher said was. ‘Hari? There’s another one. You need to get over to Behrenstrasse, right across from the Metropol. Seeckt is already on his way and he will meet you there.’
‘... wait a minute. You called Seeckt first? I’m the one who’s senior, why did you call him first?’
‘Don’t get all in a snit, Hari. Your phone was busy.’
The location was easy to spot. As opposed to the site of the death of Die Goldener, this one was not quite so lonely. There were at least eight patrol cars illuminating the area with their rotating blue lights. There were also two ambulances with red, white and yellow lights winking and blinking like a carnival ride. Seeckt had only just arrived, and he nodded in acknowledgment and said, ‘Herr Volkmann.’
Hari nodded back, but said, ‘Where is she?’
Seeckt pointed to an alley beside the Metropol Theater. Once dark, it was now brightly lit by portable lights driven by a noisy, chugging generator. The alley was full of people. Police, plainclothes investigators, uniformed SA men, and several experts crouching by the body.
Approaching the mouth of the alley, Seeckt roared, ‘Araus mit du! Only our experten will stay. The rest of you, ‘RAUS!’ The crowd gave way before his uniform, and Seeckt and Hari moved into the alley to squat down beside Lothar, who was already examining the body. The girl was whitely shining in the focus of the portable arc lamps, but outside the pool of light lay deep blackness.
Lothar greeted Hari with a nod and a ‘Hari.’ Hari replied with a ‘Lothar,’ then said, ‘what’ve we got.’
‘Another dead body, Hari,’ Lothar answered with his droll graveyard wit.
Hari ignored the attempt at wit. He recognized this one as well. Lola. There was always a whore named Lola, sometimes even two or three. Now there was one less. Lola was younger than Die Goldener, but that didn’t make her any the less dead. It only took seconds for Hari to see the myriad white cut lines that covered her naked body. This one was posed as well. Her body was on her right side, legs partially drawn up, but her upper body was more or less on her back, her face turned to the side, her eyes closed, and her red hair spread around her head like a copper sunburst.
‘How long, Lothar?’
‘Well, don’t hold me to this, Hari, but with the outside temperature and her body temp, maybe three to four hours.’
‘Killed here or somewhere else?’
‘You see any blood Hari? Somewhere else, then dumped here, well, maybe not dumped, sorry, poor choice of words. Placed. Yeah, she was placed here.’
Hari turned to Seeckt. ‘Seeckt? You got any influence at headquarters?’
Herr Hari, you would be surprised by how much I have.’ He laughed as if he had made a great joke.
‘I want to do a sweep of Die Goldener’s apartment house. I want everyone in that place talked to. I’m looking for descriptions of men going in and out of her apartment. I want the Friedrichstrasse prostitutes canvassed to find particular friends or acquaintances of Die Goldener. I want somebody different to sweat her pimp Hugo. I want him shaken like a tree to see what falls out of the branches. I want to end up with a list of her ‘dates,’ Then I want your people to get me addresses and contact points for all her dates. And by the way. Do the taxis as well. See if any of the driver’s remember seeing her with anyone. Maybe there was a regular who went to that address once a week, something like that..Think you can handle that?’
‘You are asking if my people will be able to handle an assignment to talk to the proztituten? Hari, I think they will bless the day of your birth.’ Seeckt left to get started.
Returning to the problem of Lola, Hari asked Lothar, ‘Is it the same?’
‘I can’t tell you that, Hari, but it sure looks the same.’
‘You getting anywhere on the instrument?’
‘I think so. I asked the Neue Museum about obsidian blades and a three-pronged instrument, and they really weren’t much help, but they did refer me to a consultant from Munich. My department sprang for the fare and we’re bringing him up here to take a look at the piece we found.’
‘How soon?’
‘Don’t get anxious, Hari. He’ll be here in a couple of days. He’s supposed to be an expert in Maya artifacts.’
‘Maya? Have we established that it’s Maya?’
‘No, not really, Hari, but we’re trying to narrow it down. This expert may do it for us.’
‘Okay, Lothar, just keep on it, I’d like to get something solid to go on. Anyway, I better go talk to this one’s man. That should be a barrel of laughs.’’
‘You know who he is, Hari?’
‘No, not right now, but I’ll bet Hugo will know.’
Hari found Hugo at the same café, and Hugo was not thrilled to see him again.
‘Hey, Kriminalinzpector, you meeting me all the time sure is not good for my business.’
‘Yeah, Hugo. I guess I should start feeling sorry for you, but the fact is, we’ve got another girl murdered the same way, and I need to know her man.’
‘Another one? Oh shit! This is really going to be bad for business. Who is it this time?
‘That girl Lola. You know, the redhead. The one who always dressed real crazy, ‘cept now she has no clothes at all.’
‘Not Lola. Son of a bitch! She was a real good earner too. Rolf was her manager, and he was always real careful with his girls. He’ll probably know something about her date.’
‘So? Where can I find him?’
ROLF
Hugo pointed over at the corner of the café. Right there, I’ll get him over here. We might as well have a little party. Hugo motioned Rolf to come over. He was a big guy. Long, black leather coat, and a black fedora hat down over one eye. Well-shined ankle-high boots. Obviously fancied himself a big shot.
‘Yeah?’ He said, looking suspiciously at Hari.
Hari shoved a chair out with his toe. ‘Have a seat, Rolf. We need to have a talk.’
Rolf jerked a thumb over at Hari, and asked Hugo, ‘Who’s this?’
‘You’re right, he’s a cop, but he’s okay. Sit down. He’s got something to talk to you about.’
‘Yeah? Will it be something that I want to talk about?’
Hugo was exasperated. ‘Sit down, Rolf. Stop being such a hard guy.’
Rolf sat back in the chair, pushed his head back on his head and lit a cigarette with a wooden match scratched along the marble tabletop. ‘So?’ He asked Hari.
‘Lola yours?’
Rolf looked over at Hugo, who nodded his head. ‘And if she is...’ He said to Hari. ‘So what?’
Hari was tired of playing. She’s dead. Murdered. Just a few blocks from here. Right now she’s lying naked in an alley with all the blood drained out of her. What do you know about it?’
Hari had seen it before. He saw Rolf’s ‘tough-guy’ facade crumble and then dissolve into uncontrollable wracking sobs.
Hugo was sympathetic. ‘They were to be married.’
‘He was going to marry one of his whores?’
‘Oh, come on, Kriminalinzpector. ‘Let he who is without sin... and all that stuff.’
It took a while for Rolf to settle down, and it was only after Hari promised to take the man to see her body, that Rolf was even able to answer Hari’s questions, and even then, haltingly and in fragments. ‘I looked out for her. I loved her. We were to be married. I didn’t allow her to go with just anyone. I had others for that. No, my Lola was reserved for special people. Only real gentlemen. They had to have the best of references. Politicos. High military men. Even the Religious. Merchants. Industrialists. The highest of the high. The best of the best.’
‘I am sure, Herr Rolf. But this time. Who was her date this time?’
He spoke like a man in a trance. ‘The name? I didn’t have a name. She was to meet him in the lobby of the Adlon. He would have her picture and would approach her.’
‘Who set it up? Who contacted you?’
‘A man of the government. A Herr Wister. His credentials were of the highest. He was the First Assistant to the Interior Minister for the State of Brunswick. A serious gentleman. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how this could have happened. She is a wonderful woman. Goodhearted. Charitable. Kind. I don’t understand... I don’t understand...’ Rolf broke down once again.
The next day, Lothar called to tell Hari that the expert from Munich had arrived and would meet them at the Neue Museum.
DOKTOR-PROFESOR JOHANNES HOFFMAN-SHOENFORN
‘Mein Gott!’ The fevered expression came from Doktor-Profesor Johannes Hoffman-Shoenforn. Of the Munich politeknik Institute was Chairman of the Department of Central American Studies, specializing in Maya artifacts and a consultant to the New Museum on Neue Friedrichstrasse.
Lothar had taken the fragment of obsidian to the New Museum, to the Curator of Maya-Olmec artifacts, to see if they could identify it. While they recognized it as obsidian, they were confused by the greenish color. To clarify the matter, they sent for the Doktor-Profesor and had now arrived to render an opinion. He would handle the article only with padded tweezers, removing it from the brown, Kraft-paper envelope, and he was amazed. ‘It is something I have never seen before. Exceedingly rare. Where did you get it?’
‘Not to put too fine a point on it Doktor-Profesor, but it was found in a cut on the body of a murder victim.’
‘Hmmm... I am surprised that you were even able to find it, Inspector. There must have been an extremely fine cut.’
‘Oh there was, there was. Do you recognize it?’
‘Recognize it? No, I don’t recognize it, because that would assume that I had seen it before, and I haven’t. If you want to know what it is, I can help you there.’
‘Excellent. What is it?’
‘Inspector, this is a sliver of an ancient Maya obsidian knife blade, and the unusual part is its green color, indicative of obsidian found near the Pachuca volcano near Mexico City.’
‘Would such an item be used today, Herr Profesor?’
‘Well, obsidian is used today in some places, even hospitals in Germany and throughout the world, but not green obsidian. Modern usage is pretty well restricted to black obsidian, as far as I know.’
‘What is it used for?’
‘Extremely delicate surgery, Inspector. It is only used there because it is many times sharper than the finest steel scalpel. It is the sharpest cutting edge known. When compared to steel scalpels, obsidian cuts cleaner, promoting more rapid healing with less scar tissue.
‘Would this type of obsidian necessarily be Maya?’
‘Maybe not necessarily, but almost certainly, because green was a felicitous color for the Maya and would have been highly prized for surgery.’
‘Profesor, are you aware of any examples of this green obsidian in Germany or anywhere else on the continent?’
‘Absolutely not. I would know if there was. That is why I was so shocked to see it. I could hardly believe my eyes!... Wait. It is possible that some Maya ceremonial jewelry might contain green obsidian, but I know of none in public collections.’
‘Public collections? You mean there are private collections?’
‘Oh, most certainly. The Maya were quite a fad during the 20's, and there are many private collectors with fairly extensive collections.’
‘Is there any record of these collections?’
‘To some extent, yes. Most of our museums have lists of artifacts in the hands of private collectors, but, of course, it is not comprehensive.’
‘Look, Herr Profesor, are you aware of a triple-bladed tool of any type containing obsidian blades?’
The Doktor-Profesor thought for quite a while, before he answered. ‘No, Inspector. I do not know of such a thing, and I cannot imagine what such a thing would be used for.’
‘Could you do some research for us? See if such a thing exists?’
‘Of course, Inspector, but it may take some time. Our communications with museums in other countries are more restricted these days.’
‘Any help you can render would be highly appreciated.’’
OFFICE OF THE FREIHERR AND THE TRANSFER - MAJOR
It had been a long, hard night, and Hari got into Headquarters late to find another summons from the Freiherr. Just what he didn’t need this morning. He clumped up the stairs and knocked on the oak-framed, pebble-glass door with the Freiherr’s name on it. With the familiar ‘Arein,’ Hari opened the door, crossed the threshold and stopped, shocked still.
The two occupants of the office wore the forbidding black and silver uniform of the SS, with the lightning runes and the death’s-head insignia. To everyone in Germany, it was a uniform that inspired a mortal fear, and Hari was no exception.
It took him long seconds to realize that the two grinning spectres were the Freiherr, now outfitted as an SS Oberst, and Seeckt, who was apparently now Unterleutnant Seeckt of the SS.
The two of them laughed fraternally, as Der Oberst said, ‘Oh, Volkmann, you should see your face!’
‘What the hell is this?’ Yelped Hari.
‘It’s really very simple. We of the Berlin Police, particularly the investigators, have been offered an opportunity that comes but once in a lifetime. Our backgrounds have already been probed and our racial antecedents well established. I must tell you that your wife’s background did cause some hesitation, but now that she and the mongrel children are now living apart and separate from you, this is no longer a problem! And I, for one, applaud your fortitude in putting them away from you.’
Hari wisely kept his mouth shut, with difficulty, of course. Except to say, ‘What is this great opportunity that has been offered?’
Der Oberst laughed. We have been offered the opportunity to transfer without penalty to the Shutzstaffel. And the best part is, that you, Hari, with your wealth of experience, can become a Major immediately. In fact, your uniform is already downstairs, hanging on your locker.’
‘Now, just a minute, Oberst. I have never wanted to be in the SS. I want to be what I am, a simple Police Kriminalinzpector. I wish to remain a policeman.’
Der Oberst grew more serious. ‘But you would remain a policeman, my boy, after all, the SS is only the National Police force.’
Hari grew stubborn. ‘But I wish only to remain a simple Berlin Policeman.’
Der Oberst only said, ‘Naturally, you may do as you wish, but as your superior, I must advise you that almost all of the Kriminalinzpectors have already agreed to transfer, and you may not feel comfortable unless you are part of the group.’
‘I am afraid I might be uncomfortable as part of the group.’
‘Well, have it your way, I am sure that Herr Himmler would not want you if you do not wish to join, but for your own sake, I ask that you think about it for a few days. After all, we would hate to lose you.’
‘Are you saying that if I do not join I will not be able to be an inspector?’
‘No, no! I ask only that you think about it.’
ERIK DISAPPEARS
It was several days before Hari realized that his friend Erik Mendelsohn was no longer on the duty roster. When he asked after Erik, he received only vague and awkward responses and downright hostility when he pressed it. Hari resolved to look into the matter, but recognized that it would have to be done ‘on the quiet.’
Within a few days, Hari came to the realization that he was the only investigator or high level administrator who was not in an SS uniform, and his treatment around headquarters began to reflect an icy change in attitude. More and more, he was being isolated by the staff. Although it was somewhat disturbing, Hari would have been able to live with it, except that it was beginning to affect his performance. His reports were being ‘lost’ or simply ‘mislaid.’ Messages and memo’s never got to him, and those he generated rarely got to the recipient. Poor Performance notices began to be inserted in his record, and he soon began to smell that he was being set up to be discharged from the Berlin Police. It was a ‘not so subtle’ nudge to push him into the arms of the SS.
Hari resisted as long as he could, a total of 9 days, but after two harrowing summonses to the office of the Freiherr, now Der Oberst, during which he was admonished for his ‘poor attitude,’ he gave in.
Feeling disloyal to Judit and the children, he finally told the Freiherr that he was formally requesting transfer to the SS. What else could he do? He knew that the way it was going, he would soon be without his job. Investigation was the only thing he knew, and he had looked into the situation, and discovered that every investigator in the Country, had been co-opted by the SS. Without the SS imprimatur, Hari would be unemployable and without an income. What would he do then? What could he do then? Even more to the point, Judit and the children would be totally without funds. He felt trapped. It was more than a feeling, it was a reality.
What was even worse, he talked to Judit repeatedly during this period, and not once did he share with her the torture he was undergoing. Even after he began wearing the hated and feared uniform, he never told her. He just continued lying to her, and telling her that everything was still the same. He never told her about the missing Erik Mendelsohn, even after the rumors that Erik had been pulled off the street and dragged into a black Citroën by four big men wearing long, black leather coats and black fedoras. He had tried to trace the provenance of the story, but ran into a stone wall. Nobody would say anything, but their reactions spoke volumes. Erik was gone, all right, and not to a good place, either. It wasn’t long before he discovered that Erik’s family had disappeared as well. Just seemed to have vanished from the earth.
RATIONALE
It was male-bonding time. Just the boys from the Station sitting around drinking after work.
‘Wolkmann? It is a Jew name, nicht war?’ It was one of the New Men, and one that Hari hardly knew well enough to even nod at when passing in halls.
‘No it isn’t, but what difference should that make to you?’ Hari was drunk and being careless with words.
‘What bit you? It should make a difference to every right-thinking German.’ His uniform collar loosened and sweat streaming down his coarse, reddened porcine face. His pig-eyes squinted in the darkened, smoke-filled space.
They sat in a Bierstube. Well, at least they called it a Bierstube, when it was actually more of a cellar, an illegal, after-hours beer joint that was a gathering place for the Berlin Police. A place where it was agreed that all would be hands-off. An informal place to gripe or vent, a place where everyone understood that everything that happened there, usually happened under the influence, and would never be reported. To report what went on at the Bierstube would result in being branded a traitor to one’s own brothers, and an anathema throughout the police community.
It was all of brick, this ancient kellar. Vaulted ceilings dripped ancient, crumbling mortar and guttering candles provided the illumination, such as it was.
Hari was a little ‘in his cups’, and figuring that he was ‘among his own’, he was bemoaning what was happening to Germany. Especially Hitler. He thought that people were fools to fall for the ‘Hitler Line’ as he called it, but his table partner was suddenly enraged, and Hari was disconcerted that this brutish-looking fellow was a lawyer who was now working with the Gestapo, and was actually one of Hari’s superiors in the Department.
“Are you insane? What would you have had us do? Germany was not only on its knees, it was actually on its back, feet in the air. In the death throes. Germany has always been the ‘younger brother’ of the world. Too little, not enough, always coming too late to the party. Germany had always had an inferiority complex.
This all began with the defeat of Napoleon at Austerlitz. It was then that Germany was unified, and the eagle flew high and proud. Maybe it even flew a little too high. We wanted our place in the foremost nations, and we were willing to fight to get it. The Austro-Hungarian empire was always a sticking point, but The Great Patriotic War was our bid for power. We were willing to reach out to get it, but our reach exceeded our grasp and we fell on our faces.
It was a terrible time for us. We are talking about 1918 to 1934. Sixteen years. Sixteen years of having our faces pushed in the mud. The Versailles Treaty. The terrible reparations that were bankrupting us. The Great Depression. Millions of Marks for a crust of bread. The lost territories. My God man, we were nothing. No respect. No place in the family of nations.
We had to do something. Hitler didn’t create the new Germany, Hitler was Germany. The terrible anger of Germany rising from the ashes and the dust. He gave voice to what we all felt. The voice was angry and strident, but so were we. Do you not remember? Blame it on the Jews, he said. They had always been to blame. They were cosmopolitan, not committed to Germany.
They were of the world, and it was the world hat had beaten Germany down beyond her knees. It was too much. The Jews were debauched and immoral and they were dragging down the rest of us. Homosexuality. Filth. Provocative nudity. Permissive sexuality. My God, something had to be done. Sure we laughed. Sure we sniggered behind our hands, but deep down we were ashamed. Ashamed to be brought down to the depths of our animal intincts.
We were better than that, and we knew it. We were the best and we needed to let everyone know it. They thought they had their feet on our necks. Well, we showed them.
COMMUNISTS

THE SWEARING-IN CEREMONY
Hari’s toughest time was the swearing-in ceremony. He hadn’t told Judit anything about it, but new recruits to the Shutz Staffel underwent a ceremonial swearing in Munich, and it was a much-prized event. Der Oberst and Seeckt, the new Unterleutnant, were jubilant that Hari had decided to join in time that they could all be sworn in together. Together with about one hundred and fifty other new recruits, they embarked on the special train laid on for them at the Friedrichstrasse Banhof. On the way to Munich, they limited themselves to two toasts to the Fuhrer. It wouldn’t do to appear intoxicated at the ceremony.
Held at the Munich Feldherrnhalle, built as a massive shrine to fallen Nazis, there were several hundred new recruits from all over Germany, gathered in blocks and divisions, they marched solemnly into the square before the Feldherrnhalle. The massive stage was hung with blood red, white and black swastika flags, and there were fourteen plinths engraved with the names of the fallen from the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, and supporting flaming braziers that provided an eerie, flickering light for the ceremony.
Hitler himself strode onto the stage and stood statue-like, hands crossed low in front of him. The silence was strictly enforced and the squadrons stood stock-still in their ranks as the church bells struck midnight. Then the standard-bearers from each division advanced onto the stage, and one-by-one, they proceeded to join their flags to the Blutfahne, the Blood Flag being held by Hitler, claimed by legend to have been dipped in the blood and bodily fluids of the fallen martyrs of the Putsch. After the joining of the flags, the assembled SS men, wearing swastika arm bands and steel battle helmets, recited the ‘blood oath of allegiance’:
‘I vow to remain true to my Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler. I bind myself to carry out all orders, conscientiously and without reluctance. Standards and flags shall be sacred to me.’

As was intended, Hari was almost carried away by the solemnity and the ceremony. He had intended not to recite the oath, but, surrounded as he was by avid Nazis, he would have been noticed. So, he recited the oath, but he didn’t mean it. Then they marched out, singing the Horst Wessel song.
NOSFERATU LIVES
After the discovery of Lola’s murder, the newspapers went crazy. Most had references to the 1922 silent movie, Nosferatu, the great German expressionist prototypical Vampire film. One of the papers even headlined ‘NOSFERATU LIVES AGAIN!’ The rest of the front page was taken up by the famous photograph of the Actor Max Schrecht in his terrifying makeup as the Vampire. The papers vied for reaches in hyperbole, and the City was gripped in terror. That is, the rest of the City was terrified, to the denizens of the inner city, the downtown area that came alive only at nightfall, it was ‘business as usual.’
As for Hari, he plodded along doing the standard investigatory work, the boring necessity of following each thread all the way until it ran out. While others were sifting friends, neighbors and relatives of the murdered girls, looking for lumps in the flour of the investigation, Hari had latched onto the thread that seemed to begin with Herr Wister, First Assistant to the Interior Minister for the State of Brunswick. The man who had set up the date with Rolf for Lola.
HARI AND OWEN WISTER
Hari soon discovered that Herr Wister was disinclined to be cooperative. After many abortive attempts to contact Wister by telephone, Hari decided to go to Brunswick for a face-to-face meeting. Although Hari was now decked out in the silver and black of the SS, even though he preferred what had almost become the alternate uniform of the SS, the full-length black leather coat and black fedora of the Gestapo, he was not yet comfortable with the arrogance and compulsion generated almost naturally by the new Unterleutnant, Seeckt. True, Hari was now a full Major (even though he was referred to by the office staff behind his back as der Alteren, the ‘Old Man’), but he had somehow failed to develop the ‘Gestapo attitude.’ On this interview Hari thought he might need it.
Brunswick had been the scene of the 1919 Spartakist uprising. The Communist insurrection had been ruthlessly suppressed, and ever since, the city and state had been closely held in an iron fist. Hari knew that the hand that made that fist was the Interior Ministry. They were the police for the State.
The Ministry was housed in a baroque monstrosity meant to impress, and it did. As they walked up the stairs, Hari noted the busy comings-and-goings of various SS officers. There were no elevators in the building, only the marble staircases curving gently around a soaring central atrium crowned by a colored-glass dome. Naturally, the office of the Ministry was on the fourth floor at the top of the building. It must have been designed to exhaust visitors before they got to the Ministry. Hari knew they were in trouble when they were ushered into an inner oak-paneled office by the standard Valkyrie ice maiden and announced to the Assistant Minister.
Standing in the precise center of the capacious room was Herr Owen Wister. A slight man of a little less than medium height, balding but with a fringe of hair, his angry agate eyes were enlarged to fanaticism by pebble-grained tortoise-shell glasses. He eschewed facial hair and his eyebrows were faint pencil-lines almost obscured by his spectacles. His stood stolidly in glossy black wingtips, yet there was a certain sartorial elegance in the fashionable close-fitting cut of his dark grey pinstripe suit that framed a startlingly-white spread-collar shirt and solid shining maroon silk foulard. Born in England, he had nevertheless spent most of his thirty-seven years on the Continent. A square party Swastika pin and a WWI ‘bull’s-eye’ emblem were prominently displayed on his lapel.
On the ice maiden opening the door, Assistant Minister Wister immediately flung his arm up and shouted a ‘Heil Hitler’ at them. The greeting had been in fashion since 1926 within the inner circles of the party, but as Hitler came to the fore and power was consolidated in the party, the ‘Heil Hitler’ became more and more acceptable. Seeckt clicked his heels and answered in kind, but Hari only made a half salute with his forearm and hand at right angles and his palm outward and did not reply verbally.
The little man bowed slightly and then motioned them to the gold Louis XVth chairs positioned in front of a desk large enough to play a doubles tennis match. ‘Gentlemen?’ He asked.
‘Herr Assistant Minister...’
‘You may call me Generaloberst Wister, Gentlemen. I have the honor to be granted that title by Reichsfuhrer SS Himmler himself. I ask you to keep in mind that I outrank the both of you, and under the SS oath, you are bound to follow my orders. I have already told you that I did not want to be bothered about this matter, and so I must ask you, why have you chosen to ignore my order?’
Hari heard this proclamation with amazement, and his angry response was, ‘This is a murder investigation Herr Generaloberst! We have our duty.’
‘Your duty?’ Asked the livid little man in amazement. ‘Your duty,’ He said again, this time in derision. ‘Since when does your duty to a dead whore mean more than your Hitler Blood Oath? You are disloyally disobeying the direct order of a superior officer!’
Hari was almost speechless. Certainly he could not have heard correctly. ‘But, Herr Generaloberst, we are Kriminalinzpectors. We need to investigate this matter, and you are our only lead to someone who would at least be a Material Witness in this case. We need to question this person. Certainly, as a Reich official, you would not stand in our way?’
The Generaloberst stood up behind his desk. Hari secretly thought that there must be a platform behind the desk that raised the little man to a more respectable height. He again gave the Hitler salute and yelled out, ‘Heil Hitler.’ Then in a normal tone, he said, ‘Thank you for coming, Gentlemen. You have done your duty to the Reich, and now I bid you good day.’
Hari turned to Seeckt, who sat there as if he were a statue. ‘Generaloberst...’
The little man turned ascerbic, and said sharply,. ‘I said good day, Gentlemen. I have a busy schedule and no more time to waste with you.’
‘But Generaloberst...?’
Wister spoke slowly and in an over-distinct voice. ‘Did you hear my order MAJOR? Must I press this button on my communicator and have you taken into custody for insubordination to a superior officer?’
Hari just looked at him while he mulled the problem over in his mind. It took a little time for the situation, so abnormal even to a regular police officer, to sink in. Then he stood up, motioned to Seeckt, and together they left the August presence of the Generaloberst. Leaving him still standing behind his desk. Hari now saw that there might be drawbacks to being an SS officer after all.
SUMMONS TO THE RESIDENCE OF THE PRESIDENT
It started with a summons to the office of the Freiherr. There he was welcomed with what, seemed to Hari to be restrained kameraderie by a man who was very nervous. ‘Volkmann, we have received a request for your presence at the Residence of the Praesident der Reichstag.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me, you have been invited to the Residence of the President.’
‘Invited, or ordered?’
‘Does it matter?’
‘Did they tell you what it’s about?’
‘I asked, but they refused to tell me, Volkmann. I am sorry.’
‘What are you sorry about?’
‘Well, for such a summons, you must be in some kind of trouble.’
‘Not that I’m aware of, but I guess I will find out.’
The Residence was very impressive, and it was obvious that this was not a home, but rather an office building. Hari walked up the steps, thinking all the time of how many steps led to the guillotine. On entry into the building, a young girl in a smart SS uniform, starched white shirt, tight across her breasts, a black tie and black skirt, greeted him with a pert ‘Heil Hitler,’ and asked his name. She recognized it immediately and told him to report to Dining Room IV, room 231, and directed him upstairs. Finding the correct room, he knocked on the door, dreading what he might find inside.
A blond, uniformed Gestapo man opened the door and bowed Hari in. Crossing into the room, Hari took a couple of steps and then he was shocked into immobility.
Seated in a large, tufted, black leather wingchair, was the President of the Reichstag, Hermann Goering. Known as ‘Unser Hermann’, ‘Our Hermann,’ to Germans across the land, this wildly popular public figure dressed in a fantastic, almost musical-comedy dove-gray uniform festooned with enough gold braid and decoration to sink a battleship, and of no rank that Hari could recognize, looked much as he did in his many newspaper and poster photographs. He was sitting in the chair, and with one hand, flicking leather gloves across the palm of the other hand.
As Hari stood there, the man’s legend flashed in his mind. A famous war hero, an Air Ace, inheritor of Von Richtofen’s ‘Flying Circus,’ Hermann Goering was one of Hari’s particular heros. Hari disliked the Nazis on principle, but he did admire the fact that both Goering and Hitler were heroes from the War ‘before the stab in the back.’
Goering had risen from exile from Germany all the way up to Minister Praesident der Reichstag, and was the darling of the whole country. And here he was, sitting right in front of Hari. Standing beside Goering’s chair was Reichminister Heinrich Himmler. Hari didn’t idolize the little ‘chicken farmer’ who was short, so out-of-shape as to be dumpy, had a stupid little brush moustache, and his glasses splashed back the light as if they were mirrored circles moving in tandem. The remaining strands of his hair were plastered down across his bald spot.
‘Sit, sit, Kriminalinzpector.’ Hari took the chair Himmler indicated, a chair that was alone in the middle of the floor. He was feeling uncomfortable, apprehensive, concerned, and downright afraid.
Himmler sat on the corner of the desk with a thick file in his hand. ‘We have been looking at your file Kriminalinzpector.’
‘Oh, oh! Here it comes,’ thought Hari.
‘In particular, your war record from the Great Patriotic War.’
Hari was surprised, and thought, Huh? What has my war record got to do with anything?
‘It is very interesting. You were a Sergeant in a battalion of Engineers?’
‘Yes. I had studied mining at school before the War, and after I joined, they discovered that I knew something about mining and construction.’
‘And you were of some use to the Army, I believe. Your Army file contains many commendations.’
‘It was trench warfare, Reichminister.’
‘So, Herr Volkmann?’
‘It was fought in and under the ground. Both sides often occupied the same ground for months, sometimes even years. The only movements were through trenches or tunnels. After a while, we lived like moles, using explosives and men with picks and shovels to honeycomb the land. We even had trains in tunnels, and hospitals and camps completely underground. It had become that we were afraid of the daylight.’
‘So you became proficient in the uses of explosives.’
‘My superiors thought so, and provided myself and my men with much employment with explosives. There was a time when we were even tunneling under Allied encampments and then blowing them up with explosives.’
‘And what about fires, Volkmann? What experience do you have with fires?’
‘Fires were a rather large problem underground, Reichminister.’ Methane gas was often present underground and we used timbers for tunnel supports and we often used wooden flooring so that men and equipment could be moved down there, without being exposed to enemy firing. Often the boards would absorb equipment oil and gasoline, and then, whooosh! We had to deal with that all the time.’
‘Do you think you could plan and set a controlled structure fire?’
‘Certainly, Reichminister.’
‘We would like you to take charge of a squad of men to burn a large structure. Do you think you could do that?’
‘Do you mean to destroy it with explosives, or burn it down?’
‘Burn it down, I think.’
‘Yes, Reichminister. I could do that.’
‘How many men would you need, and do they need to be experienced, or could you instruct them in a short time?’
‘I could instruct inexperienced men, but as to how many, I would need to know the size of the structure.’
‘It is the Reichstag. We want you to burn down the Reichstag.’
Hari was confused. Had he fallen among criminals? Where these Conspirators and saboteurs? How could it be? Goering and Himmler? Okay, so he did not really trust the Nazis, but these? These were the leaders of the Nation. No, this was a test of his loyalty, of his patriotism. That’s what it had to be, a test. ‘I am not the man for you, Reichminister. I am a loyal German, why would I want to do such a thing?’
‘So are we, Volkmann. Loyal Germans I mean. Your orders would come from the highest authority, Volkmann. The very highest authority. Do you understand?’
‘I’m sorry, Reichminister. I do not understand, and I don’t want anything to do with such a plot.’
‘If Herr Goering and I were to ask you personally?’
‘I would be very impressed Reichminister, and I would want to know the reason, but I still would not wish to do it.’
‘Ah, so this is what it comes to.’
‘I am sorry, Reichminister, and I apologize, but I could not do such a thing and still consider myself a loyal German.’
GERD
‘I see, Volkmann, well...’ He turned to ......, who nodded. ‘In your file, Herr Volkmann, I see that you have a son, Gerd, a Leutenant in the Wermacht.’
‘Leave my son out of this.’
‘I’m sorry, I cannot leave him out of it. I see also that he is the child of a Jewish mother, a woman who is still your wife. Isn’t that true, Volkmann?’
‘She is out of the Country Reichminister.’
‘We are aware of that, Volkmann. Not that such a situation would put her out of our reach, should we choose that road, but Volkmann, your son Gerd, is here. Right here in Germany, and Volkmann, under the racial laws, he is a Jew!’
‘This is not fair. This is not right. This is not German.’
‘Oh, Volkmann, it is very German, for we are Germany. We might not even have to go that far, although we probably would, anyway. No, you have taken an oath to the Fuhrer, and this is an direct order from him. You disobey at your peril, Volkmann. Also at your son’s peril. Even at the peril of the rest of your family. Do you understand, Volkmann?’
‘Yes, now I think that I do, Reichminister.’
‘Will you undertake the mission, Volkmann? Willingly, Volkmann?’
The wing chair creaked as Goering shifted his not inconsiderable weight. He raised the hand holding the gloves. ‘Ach, Heinrich, you certainly cannot be accused of an overabundance of tact or subtlety. You treat the boy as if he were an imbecile. It is apparent that he is intelligent, and a patriot as well. This is not someone who can be ordered to commit what he sees as an illegal, and likely also an immoral act as well. First you spring such a surprise on him, then you threaten him, then his wife, and even his children. No, Heinrich, we must tell the boy the truth, and once he sees our reasoning, I am sure he will be convinced to join us in our endeavor. Goering sat up and leaned forward to Hari, who had been becoming increasingly more hostile.
‘Now my boy, I know that you are a good and loyal German man. You were in the Army during the War. You fought in the trenches and tunnels of the Front. I fought in the air, just as you fought on the ground. Both of us saw friends and comrades injured and die. We are the veterans and we know how things are. We walked hand-in-hand with death and destruction. Is that not right?’
‘Yes Minister Praesident.’
‘No, no, my boy. We are veterans together. There is no need of titles between us. Here you are among friends and comrades. Here I am Hermann and you are Hari. It is all right if I call you Hari, is it not?’
‘Y-Y-Y-Yes, Minister Praesident.’
Goering laughed heartily. Come, Hari, can you not say, Yes, Hermann?’
Hari laughed as well, but even so it took real effort to say, ‘Yes, Hermann.’
Goering’s eyes blazed. ‘They died in vain, Hari. Our friends and our comrades, they all died in vain.’
‘No, Hermann. I cannot agree to that. They could not have died in vain. They died a glorious death, heroes of the Nation.’
‘They died for Weimar, Hari.’
‘Not for Weimar, for Germany.’
‘But Weimar was what we got, Hari.’
‘No, Herman, Weimar did not last.’
‘Did it not? Maybe Weimar, a republic made up of those who stabbed us in the back, is gone, yet Germany is not united, Hari.’
‘But the election...’
‘Yes, Herr Hitler has been made Chancellor, and I preside over the Reichstag, but our Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the N.S.D.A.P. What people refer to as the Nazis, we are a minority party, and every day we must battle the Socialists and the Communists, and others as well.’
‘That is in the nature of a Democratic government.’
‘Ah! But Germany is wounded, and Demokratische is only an old Greek word, a word that our Nation cannot afford to debate. Right now, Germany is like a cart being pulled apart by all the horses going in all different directions. If Germany is to recover her greatness, all the horses must pull in the same direction.

‘But I do not understand...’
Goering was on a roll now, and he needed no help to keep the conversation going. He was painting a vision with words. ‘You might well ask, well, Hermann, how would we get all the horses to pull in the same direction? I would have to answer that one way would be to let a mountain lion loose. Then all the horses would be running away from the lion, but they would be running in the same direction.’
‘If that is a lesson for Germany, then how do we get all the horses to pull in the same direction?’
The fat man jiggled as he laughed. ‘We have to find a mountain lion.’
‘What has all this have to do with the Reichstag?’
‘You know that the Nation has massive unemployment and that people are starving.’
‘Of course.’
‘And you know that we are in the middle of runaway inflation, an inflation that threatens to destroy us?’
‘Yes.’
‘You know that under the terms of the Armistice we owe the Allies billions and billions of marks that we can never pay. They would make of our Germany a slave for all time.’
‘We all know that.’
‘And, Hari, because of all that, and because of the loss of territories, and the factories that were stolen from us, and the peoples that were cut off from the Greater Germany, we are weak, pitifully weak.’
REICHSTAG
‘But I do not understand, Hermann. Burning the Reichstag...’
‘It is not the Reichstag, Hari. The Reichstag is only a symbol, something for the Nation to readily identify with. The burning Reichstag will be the sign of the mountain lion, a lion that can be anyone we want. We have chosen the Communists. We will tell the people that this is the symbol of a Communist uprising that must be crushed if the Nation is to survive. Then all the horses will pull together.’
‘There would not be killing...’
‘Killing? Killing? Who said anything about killing? Hari, comrade. I would never ask you to kill someone. It is only the burning of a building. And yet, it is more, Hari. This one act will build of our Germany, a great Nation. A place where all good Germans can live well and hold their heads high in the world. Hari, it is to make a place where your wife and your children can come home to you, to live in a new Germany, a strong Germany!’
‘Well...’
‘Your Nation needs you now, Hari. We call upon you, veteran. We need you to stand tall and pick up the gauntlet that has been thrown down. I know that we can count on you, Hari. Your record shows it. Your work shows it. You show it. Will you join us?’
If Hari had been able to think about it for a moment, he might have been able to see the holes in the argument, but this was Hermann Goering. A great man who was asking Hari to help him. There were so many emotions working on Hari at the same time that he could not resist. To put it another way, Hari had stars in his eyes, and so he said, ‘Yes, Hermann, I am with you. You can count on me.’
Hermann leaned back in his chair once again, flicked the leather gloves once more against his palm, and only said, ‘I knew we could. Now I will let Heinrich continue.’
That brought Hari back to earth with a bang, but he had given his word, and in this way, he could still fly with ‘Unser Hermann.’
Rolling out a blueprint of the historic building on a Renaissance marble-topped table, Himmler said, ‘How many men?’
Hari got up and stood by the table to look at the blueprint. ‘The Reichstag is a stone and marble building. How would it burn? I could see that we could blow it up, but...’’
‘Please. Don’t try to be stupid. The furniture and furnishings in the Great Chamber are not stone and marble. The paintings and hangings, the paper in the offices, the many books, they are not stone and marble. There is enough to burn, Volkmann, more than enough to burn.’
Hari looked at the blueprint. ‘How will we get in?’
Himmler pointed to a pair of dotted lines that led to the basement of the Reichstag. ‘See this? It is a subterranean tunnel that carries the ducts for the central heating system. It comes here, to the Presidential Palace. You can enter through here.’
‘What about the guards in the Reichstag?’
‘They will not be there that night, Volkmann. They will be at an emergency somewhere else.’
‘How fortunate.’
‘Pay attention, Volkmann. The major blaze must be here, in the Chamber of Deputies, this large space below the great dome. We want the fire to light the dome so that it is visible throughout the City. We need an immediate fire, something that starts and is fully involved in six minutes or less.’
‘That means incendiaries.’
‘We do not care how you do it, that is your job. And there is another factor that is to be considered.’
‘Which is?’
‘We have been keeping surveillance on a certain mad Dutchman. A Communist as luck would have it. He has been making the rounds of bars cadging drinks by saying that he will burn down the Reichstag!’
‘How does that help us?’
‘We will blame the Communists for the fire. We have already warned the Public that the Communists are planning an uprising, and the signal will be the burning of public buildings.’
‘Yes. I read about that in the newspapers, but I didn’t put too much stock in it.’
‘Neither did anyone else. We expected that, but once the Reichstag burns and we arrest a Communist in the act of burning it, well then...’
‘So, Reichminister (Hari couldn’t bring himself to call the Reichminister Heinrich)how do we time this? Do we have to wait for this crazy Dutchman to decide to go in and burn the place?’
‘No, we are more efficient than that. Several of the SA people are now friends of the Dutchman, and we are... um... helping him.’
‘Helping him how, Reichminister?’
‘Our people will take him to the building at the time we decide. They will put fire-making materials in his hand and put him into the Chamber. The rest of his friends will leave. We will know when he is to be there. Before that, your team, which we have code-named ‘Sturm 17,’ will have placed your..., what did you call them? ...Oh yes, incendiary materials, timed to ignite at a time we have agreed upon. Your team will then escape using the same route. The fire will then explode, and in six minutes or a little more, the Fire Department will arrive, together with certain interested officials, he nodded to Goering, and Goering acknowledged the nod, and find the crazed Dutchman in the middle of the fire. Caught red-handed, as it were.
‘Very neat, Reichminister. Very well planned.’
‘Do you understand, Volkmann? More importantly, can you do it?’
‘Oh yes, Reichminister. It is all very simple. Some oily rags, a lot of gasoline, a little magnesium, and some timing pencils. It will be just exactly as you say.’
‘It better be. No mistakes here, Volkmann. How many men will you need?’
‘No less than seven, no more than ten. And I need not say that these men must be reliable.’
‘They will be as reliable as you, Volkmann.’
‘You mean, you will have something against them.’
Himmler glanced over at Goering and smiled. ‘We have chosen wisely, Hermann.’
When Hari returned to headquarters, the Freiherr and Seeckt (and everyone else in the building, because the word of the summons had spread like wildfire) were surprised to see him return. They had thought that by now he would have been in the dread cellars of Gestapo Headquarters on Willhelmstrasse. When asked, he would simply smile and say that it was a State Secret. He noticed that he was immediately given new respect, and maybe even not a little fear.
But, of course, that did not solve his problems with Judit. He had tried to keep her in the dark about the happenings, but she seemed to sense that there was something he was not telling her. She kept pressing him to tell her if there was anything the matter, but he just kept reassuring her. It didn’t work. Finally, he decided he had to see her face-to-face in Switzerland.
THE TRAIN TO SWITZERLAND
Asserting his new authority, he was given a three-day leave and boarded one of the fast new trains that now ran so efficiently in the Reich. Leaving from the Friedrichstrasse Banhof, he occupied a compartment, and in a day-an-a-half, traveled in luxury to Munich, then to Stuttgart, and soon arrived at the Swiss-German border, high in the snow-covered Alps, before transferring to a Swiss train proceeding on to Bern, where Judit and the children were waiting for him. He traveled through Germany wearing his uniform because he had discovered that it opened many doors for him, even in ordinary life. He expected that it would provide him with an easy passage through the border, especially through the German customs people. Naturally he was not required the go through the usual Border Police check with the rest of the passengers. No, he was ushered into a private office where an official jumped up to attention and flung him the Hitler salute, which Hari had grown used to responding to.
Hari handed over his papiren, fully expecting a cursory examination and an immediate pass-through. Such was not to be. The official accepted the papers, actually a long, thin blue book embossed with a gold German eagle, with Hari’s official documents pasted and stamped therein, and examined them in a cursory fashion, true to expectation, but then he compared them with several typewritten lists that were paper-clipped together. Everything seemed to be going fine until suddenly the official, going down the list with his finger, stopped, then looked at Hari, looked back down at the list, and asked Hari to excuse him for a moment. Hari was a little concerned, but not greatly.
It took some fifteen minutes before the official returned, with a very worried look on his face, and accompanied by an SS Colonel, resplendent in full uniform, obviously dressed to impress as a representative of the Reich. Hari sprang to attention, and the Colonel had Hari’s documents in hand and obviously compared Hari’s face with the picture pasted in the little book. ‘You are Major Hari Volkmann?’ He accused.
‘Yes, Colonel.’
‘Why are you attempting to leave the Reich, Major Volkmann?’
‘A brief holiday, Colonel. I have been working very hard, and need a little time off.’
‘Are there not enough fine holiday destinations within the Reich, Major Volkmann?’
‘Of course, Colonel, but I just wanted to get away for a short time.’
‘I must congratulate you, Volkmann.’
‘Yes, Colonel?’
‘You must be of very great value to the Reich.’
‘I do my duty, Colonel, and I hope that is sufficient.’ Now Hari was worried.
‘It must be, because you are on our list. A recent addition, I see.’
‘List? I don’t understand...’
‘We have a list, Major Volkmann, of those whom the Reich considers too valuable to the State to authorize them to take the risk of leaving the Reich. They might be kidnaped, or drugged by spies, or compromised in some manner that might be harmful to the German people. You must be very proud.’
‘Does this mean I am not to be allowed to go to Switzerland?’
The Colonel smiled. ‘Of course.’
‘Must I ask to see your superior, Colonel?’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t do that, Major Volkmann. Complaints about the list are handled by the Gestapo, and,’ he smiled wolfishly, you know how, um... difficult... they can be. Do you still wish to pursue a complaint?’
Hari realized they were not going to let him get away when he knew about the Reichstag plan. ‘No, Colonel,’ he sighed. I will take the train back.’
‘Very wise, Major Volkmann.’
With the information that he had, they would be watching him. Likely monitoring his telephone calls, and his letters as well. If he tried to tell Judit anything about the situation, he knew they could cut him off. He was aware of the government’s ability to monitor calls, he had used it himself on occasion. Now, he ruefully admitted to himself, it was a question of ‘the biter bit.’
He called Judit from the border to tell her that he had been unavoidably held up at work and wouldn’t be able to make it. It was the truth, but Judit wanted to talk about it and set up another meeting. Hari told her he had just been called into an important meeting and would get back to her. He could tell that she didn’t believe it and was becoming frantic, but what could he do? He was only thankful that he was still allowed to send money to her, in spite of the strict currency restrictions that had just been put in place.
He returned to headquarters and his ‘vampire killer’ case. Waiting for him was Lothar’s brown envelope with its legend printed on the front:
Attention: KI Hari Volkmann
-Victim: Gretl Marta Breuning (aka ‘Lola’)
-Date of Incident: 01/22/33 Time: 0430 am ±
-Location of body: 1469 Behrenstrasse
-Evidence found at autopsy: Many narrow cuts and neck bruising. Skin under fingernails
-Number of cuts 163 (see file diagram for placement of cuts and bruising)
-Hands and an unknown missing weapon appearing to be triune bladed
-Cause of death: Slow manual strangulation (fractured hyoid bone causing asphyxiation)
Contact: Lothar Eyck, Anatomical technician

Hari took one look and called over Seeckt. ‘Have you seen this?’
‘Yes.’
‘Have you talked to Lothar?’
‘I thought it would be better to wait for you.’
‘Let’s go.’ They went downstairs to the Morgue and chased down Lothar.
Lothar said, ‘I expected to see you down here. What took you so long?’
Hari said, ‘I took a couple of days off and just got back. So, this Modus Operandi is different?’
‘Well it is and it isn’t, Hari. He started with the cuts and something happened. They fought and he finished her off.’
‘They fought?’
Lothar thought about it for a minute. ‘Yes, and this time she had those three-pronged defense cuts on her palms and arms. Not only that, but she had bruises and scratches on her body aside from the neck bruises.’
‘She had skin under her nails?’ This little tidbit had caught Hari’s interest.
Lothar smiled. ‘A lot of it. She got this guy good.’
‘Were you able to tell anything from the skin?’
‘Well, a lot of this may be guesses, Hari, but it looks like a male Caucasian, probably about 50 from the skin tonicity. She got him in the face because there are hair follicles that came up with the skin. Maybe even eyebrows. The scratches were deep because she drew blood.’
Hari was excited by the news. ‘So our man is likely marked?’
‘Likely very much so. He may very well be a real mess.’
‘Did you find anything else that might be different about the case at this point, Lothar?’
‘Not really too much, Hari. The body was washed as before, but not as carefully, almost as if the preparation was hurried, and he didn’t wait until the body fully bled out as before, because there was some minor bleeding post-mortem. Also the bruising. There was some kind of serious fight. With the other girl, Die Goldener, she did not fight, but simply bled out through the cuts, as if she did not know she was cut, as if she just went to sleep.’
Now they were getting into the meat of the matter, and Hari asked, ‘And Lola was different?’
‘Certainly. Die Goldener had over 400 cuts and no bruising, but Lola only had a hundred odd cuts and then all the bruising and the broken neck. He started with both of them the same way, but Lola discovered what was happening, and fought like a tiger, Hari.’
‘Good for her. At least she fought back until he killed her. Do you have an opinion as to how her neck was broken?’
‘Well, Hari, that’s a little more speculative. Either she was chopped or punched across the front of the neck. After that, she suffocated rather quickly.’
‘Would such a blow be difficult?’
‘Well, you have to realize that this is a sheer guess on my part, Hari. I can only say that it depends. It probably could not be delivered by a small woman or a weak man. It would have taken some considerable strength, although adrenaline rage could have contributed to the power.’
‘Did you find any more obsidian, Lothar?’
‘No, Hari, although the cuts are similar and probably made by the same instrument, although one of the tines would now be missing a chip. That might account for the fact that the triune cuts on Lola, were just slightly different. The right-hand cut on each of the three-cut patterns was slightly wider, just a touch more jagged than the other two.’
‘Well, at least it would give us a way to identify the murder weapon. We should be able to match a possible weapon to the chip. But what about this broken prong, would it have hurt more?’
‘That is an interesting question, Hari. From my research on obsidian, it appears that if prepared correctly, an obsidian blade is many times sharper than the sharpest surgical instrument. It might be that an obsidian cut might not hurt, and might almost not be felt. Certainly it would be a touch on the skin, but possibly not much more. As for the one more jagged cut, that would be different. That one might well be felt. Might even hurt, but still only in a minor way.
‘It may have been relatively minor, but maybe it was enough to set her off. Is that a possibility?’
‘That’s a reasonable hypothesis, Hari, but there are no guarantees.’
‘Lothar, any information or clue as to where she was killed?’‘Well, nothing that I can really pin down so far, but there were some carpet fibers found in the crack of her ass. They look like automobile carpeting. Unfortunately my office doesn’t have the staff to do anything with them.’
‘I understand, Lothar, give them to me in an evidence envelope, I have a bunch of people I can put on that aspect of the investigation. Anything else?’
‘This is stuff that we discovered after the original evidence envelope was prepared, and if this was to go to trial, there might be some problem with a defense attorney.’
‘Don’t worry about that, Lothar, these are new days. Haven’t you heard?’
Lothar looked at Hari quizzically, but decided to let the matter pass. ‘Well, there was one other thing... I found a very small piece of fabric under her nails. Looked like feldgrey, Hari. Like it was from a uniform. Probably Reichswehr, although not necessarily.’
‘Now all we have to do is find the uniform that has that tiny piece missing.’
Hari returned to the office, located Seeckt, and then the two of them went to the small conference room, a room they sometimes called the ‘War Room.’ It was called that because it had a large blackboard where cases could be diagramed. Hari had decided that it was time to see what they had to work with. He started with Lothar’s reports

VICTIM 1
-Victim: Ingrid NMN Duffler (aka Die Goldener)
-Date of Incident: 01/16/33 Time: 0230 am ±
-Location of body: 13726 Kurfürstendamm
-Place of death: no information
-Evidence found at autopsy (lower end of 9mm cut - left lower abdomen)
-No other physical evidence found at scene.
-Number of cuts 437 (see file diagram for placement)
-Unknown missing weapon appears to be triune bladed (see obsidian chip)
-Cause of death: Slow exsanguination.
-Green obsidian chip (4mm x 2mm) Identified by expert as chip sharper than scalpel an coming from Pachuca volcano, Mexico. Connected to ancient Maya. No identity of instrument, but expert following up with private collections.
-Oberst Reichswehr uniform jacket w/Spanish campaign ribbon and Franco medal ribbon. (Search of her residence)
-Notation in calendar for date: M-12:30 (Search of her residence)
-Witness 1: Pimp (Hugo) could provide no additional.
-Witness 2: Friend (Gretl) is bar girl at Le Chat Rouge - pointed to Hugo.
-To do:
1. Uniform Jacket (connect to M?) Who had those ribbons? Was Rolf in Spain?
2. Witness canvass
3. Research weapon - connect to chip.
4. Who is M?
5. Check Hugo’s vehicle for match to carpet fibers from Lola
6. Does Hugo have a ledger recording past dates? Was M a regular?
_______________________________________

VICTIM 2
-Victim: Gretl Marta Breuning (aka ‘Lola’)
-Date of Incident: 01/22/33 Time: 0430 am ±
-Location of body: 1469 Behrenstrasse
-Place of killing: Unknown but auto carpet fibers and piece of uniform fabric found on body.
-Evidence found at autopsy: Many narrow cuts and neck bruising. Skin under fingernails. Auto carpet fibers and piece of Reichswehr uniform?
-Number of cuts 163 (see file diagram for placement of cuts and bruising)
-Hands and an unknown missing weapon appearing to be triune bladed, one blade broken and might match to sliver found on Ingrid’s body.
-Cause of death: Slow manual strangulation (fractured hyoid bone causing asphyxiation) Could have started as Goldener style killing but broken blade hurt and made her aware, so she fought and he killed her by breaking neck by punch or chop.
-Witness 1: Pimp Rolf interviewed led to Owen Wister
-Witness 2: Owen Wister, Assistant to Interior Minister of Brunswick and a Generaloberst. Interviewed in his office re setting up liaison with Lola. Pulled rank, was hostile and uncooperative.
To do:
1. What about Wister. Why hostile? How to break down?
2. There has been no search of Lola’s residence. Do that.
3. Check Rolf’s car for match to carpet fibers. Was Rolf in Spain?
4. Can we check Wister’s car for match to fibers.
5. Could Wister be the date? Was he in Spain?
6. Witness canvass at her residence and at meeting hotel. Get some description of her date.
7. Did Lola keep a calendar? Notation?
8. Did Rolf keep a calendar? Notations?
9. Did Rolf keep a ledger for past clients? Check for regulars.

BURNING THE REICHSTAG
Going over the list with Seeckt, Hari apportioned out the tasks, and sent him out on his way, because Hari had other fish to fry, and he needed to get on with building the bonfire. He had picked his men from the group that Himmler had offered him, and also chosen an amazing piece of work by the name of Karl Ernst, specially seconded to him from the SA. Bone-thin, with sunken cheeks and protruding eyes, his patriotic fervor (or maybe his psycho pathology) exuded from his skin like a miasma. Himmler had personally recommended him as obsessive and dog-loyal. Himmler was right.
Hari went over the plan with Ernst. Where to plant the inflammatory materials. How to set the time pencils. What to do with the oily rags. Where to spread the kerosene. What to do with the magnesium powder. He gave him a list of items to obtain. It had already been determined to enter and exit through the heating tunnel, and he soon met the leader of the group that was handling the crazy Dutchman, whose name was Marius Van Der Lubbe. If the man hadn’t existed, it would have been necessary to invent such a patsy. Half-blind, half-mad, a long-time Communist who was forever passing out literature that he kept in his pockets, Van Der Lubbe had been arrested three times for abortive arsons, once at a Welfare office, once at a City Hall, and once at a vacant Imperial palace. He really did have a plan to burn down the Reichstag, but it was pitifully inadequate, limited to matches and the torn pieces of his shirt.
Van Der Lubbe was clearly insane, and he spent his evenings in this or that Bierstube, raving loudly about his plan to hundreds of witnesses. In the course of things, the Gestapo came upon him, and the plan soon unfolded. An SA group was assigned to become his friends and co-conspirators as he loudly raged about his hatreds and his plans while they fed him beer after beer in apparent boozy camaraderie.
On the evening of February 26, 1933, Hari led his little band from the basement of Goering’s residence, through the heat and damp of the heating tunnel to emerge into the Reichstag, unencumbered by any security guards. Well-drilled, the group split up to accomplish their assigned task, setting their incendiary bundles at the foot of flammable curtains and throughout the wooden benches and desks of the legislative chamber. Hari took one last look around, and led his people back out through the passage.
At precisely 9:38 that evening, as previously commanded, the severely inebriated Van Der Lubbe was shepherded to the Reichstag and shoved in through an open window, his hands filled with matches and firelighters. The SA then noisily smashed the window, hoping that the noise would be noted by witnesses. Once there, Van Der Lubbe ripped off his shirt, tore it into strips, and proceeded to haphazardly attempt the arson of the Reichstag.
Suddenly, two-and-a-half minutes after he entered, he was surrounded by explosions and fire, as the previously set incendiaries erupted. The entire building was almost instantly engulfed in flame, and long tongues of fire interspersed with thick tendrils of black smoke cast coruscating shadows across the great dome of the Reichstag.
Within minutes, the police broke in and arrested Van Der Lubbe. They found him terrified and cowering against a pillar, gibbering nonsense. His upper body was naked, sweating and smeared with dirt, in his hands were torn strips of his shirt and matches. Stuffed into his pants pockets were sheaves of Communist leaflets. He was breathing heavily, gasping for breath with anxiety.
In short order, Goering, fully dressed in a glorious uniform, arrived on the scene together with Hari. Goering immediately started shouting to the Gestapo Chief, Rudolf Diehls. ‘This is a Communist crime against the new government! This is the beginning of the Communist revolution. We must not wait a minute. We will show no mercy. Every Communist official must be shot, where he is found. Every Communist Deputy must this very night, be strung up. Everyone in league with the Communists is to be arrested. There will be no mercy.’’
Okay. So Hari knew that Communist literature was found in the guy’s pocket. So what? So what if he was a known Dutch Communist? So what? The guy was also obviously crazy! The Nazis had been screaming about the Jewish-Bolshevists for years. What made them think that this fire thing would gain them anything?
But Hari was afraid. Afraid that he had helped set something in motion that would quickly get out of hand, like the fire. His head was spinning, and in spite of the fact that Hari’s involvement had Goering and Himmler’s seal of approval, Hari couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong. He was rattled by the sudden appearances of Goering and Diehls, and by Goering’s drastic statements. Hari didn’t know if they were said only for effect. Could Goering’s harangue be interpreted as orders?
Hari went to bed restless and woke restless. Going into the office the next day, it was as if someone had kicked over an anthill. When he asked what was happening, the response was ‘Hindenberg signed the decree.’
‘What decree?’
‘Hitler’s decree. Go look. There’s a copy on your desk. Everybody got one. I got things to do.’
Hari went to his desk and found Seeckt already in and waiting for him with a proud smile on his face. ‘Hindenberg signed the decree,’ exulted Seeckt.
‘I know. They told me. Now I have to see what it says.’ Hari picked up the copy and read the head note:

Emergency Decree For The Protection of the Nation and the State

‘What do you think of it?’ asked Seeckt.
‘I don’t know, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet...’
‘Don’t bother, Hari. I can tell you what’s in it. It takes our handcuffs off. Lets us do what we’ ve been doing behind the scenes anyway. Now we can do it and not get bothered over it. Now it’s our turn to finally get the Jewish-Bolshevists.’
‘Really? What does that mean?
‘What I said, Hari. No more civil rights.’
‘What do you mean, no more civil rights?’
‘What do you think, Hari? No more freedom of speech, of press, of assembly and association. All of it gone.’
‘Oh, is that all?’ Asked Hari sarcastically.
‘No, not quite. We are allowed to detain in protective custody without time limit and without court order.’
Continuing with his sarcasm, Hari said, ‘Really? Anything we can’t do?’
‘Not much, Hari. Chancellor Hitler says that the struggle against Communists must not be made dependent on judicial considerations.’
‘What’s the basis for all this?’
‘Hari, Hari. You have not been listening to the radio. Why do you think that the party distributed all those one-station People’s Radios? They want us to listen to it! Goering’s speech has made it all clear. The Reichstag arsonist met with Communist officials before the fire!’
‘What? Does anybody really think the crazy Dutchman set that monster fire by himself?’
‘No, Hari, but that only proves it. The other Communists got away. Reichpraesident Goering says that they are ready to poison public kitchens, kidnap the wives and children of government ministers. He has proof that the Communists have stockpiles of explosives to sabotage electricity works, the railways, and other concerns important to life support.’
‘Bullshit!’
‘Hari, I consider myself your friend, but I cannot allow you to break the law.’
‘Okay, what’s the rest of the news?’
‘Hindenberg has signed over his powers to the Nazis.’
To himself, Hari muttered, ‘Bloody, senile old fool.’
‘What was that, Hari...? Oh, never mind.’
‘Anything else in the act?’
‘Not much, Hari, but we can also open letters, read telegrams, listen to telephone conversations... Oh yes, we can search, and even confiscate houses and cars. Naturally we can also search any person we wish, and our orders supersede property rights.’
‘Mein Gott! When does this verdamnt act expire. When is it subject to Reichstag review?’
‘Be careful, Hari. The act does not have an expiration date and there will be no review.’
‘Well, at least it’s just a federal law and doesn’t apply to the states, so they will all get to vote on it.’
‘Not quite, Hari, the act allows the government to take over the federal states.’
Hari suddenly realized what all this meant, and under his breath he said, ‘Mein Gott! I have handed the bastards all Germany!’
‘Hari? What did you say?’
‘Nothing. Seeckt. Nothing.’
It was not until later that night that Hari had caught up with his paperwork. He painfully typed it on the balky old black Olympia high-top, banging away at the silver-rimmed white letters. He kept moving the misfeeding platen to line up the type with the lines on the pre-printed forms, which seemed to have been proliferating since the new regime began taking hold. Hari hated paperwork. He was not alone.
A STRANGE HAIR
He was interrupted only once during the day, when Lothar called him.
‘Hari?’
‘Yeah, Lothar. What’ve you got?’
‘You’re not going to like it, Hari.’
‘I already don’t like it. What the hell is it?’
‘We found a hair tangled in Lola’s hair.’
‘Oh? And was that a shock to you?’
‘It’s a different hair, Hari.’
‘Human?’
‘No, not human. We think it’s rodent, but we’re going to the University to see of someone can identify it.’
‘Why bother Lothar? If it’s a rat hair, wouldn’t you expect to find that on a body lying in an alley?’
‘Well, we don’t think it’s a rat hair. Rat hairs are coarse, and this one seems to be too soft.’
‘Okay. Okay. I’m too tired to think about your rat hairs right now. Just let me know.’ Hari may have been a little short with Lothar because it was getting into the afternoon, and he hadn’t had a drink yet. Right after he hung up on Lothar, he slipped downstairs to the bierstube and quickly downed a couple. Enough to fortify him to the end of the workday.
HARI AND PROFESSOR JOST
Hari finished the day and went home to his apartment. Opening the front door to the small black-and-white mosaic tiled floor of the vestibule, Hari saw the inner door closing on the heels of the Professor and shouted to catch him. The Professor was delighted and together they trudged up the stairs to Hari’s apartment. Once settled in behind Hari’s kitchen table spread with the combination of what Hari and the Professor had been bringing home for dinner, and once Hari had downed a couple of the Pilseners, the Professor looked at Hari and said, ‘I haven’t seen the wife and children lately Hari. They away visiting somewhere?’
Hari hadn’t really wanted to get into it, but once the question was out in the open, the dam burst. Hari needed someone to talk to, and the Professor was handy right then.
‘They’re in Switzerland.’
‘Visiting relatives, Hari?’
‘Running away, Professor.’
‘From what?’ Professor Jost asked, surprised by the revelation.
‘Hitler and his friends.”
‘But why? I don’t understand.’
‘She’s Jewish, Professor. She’s afraid. Herr Hitler has made no secret that he’s out to get rid of the Jews. I know it’s all political garbage, but she believes it.’
‘She is not alone, Hari. Many Jews have chosen to leave the Reich. The famous, the rich, those who can easily find places to go. Actors, scientists, writers, musicians, even Nobel laureates. These too are afraid and have left.’
‘But there is no reason to be, is there, Professor?’
‘No, I don’t think so. Hitler needs a scapegoat. Something to tie the Nation together. We have been fragmented for so long. This target of the Jewish-Bolshevists is the enemy that will unite us.’
‘There are people who are afraid.’
‘Hari. Hari. There is room for all in the Greater Germany. Look at the Communists. They say there are so many of the former Communists that have joined the SA that there are jokes that the SA is brown on the outside, but pink inside! After all, we are all Germans, and many of the SA and the Gestapo were formerly Communist street toughs. They will go to whoever will feed them. There are many who vote with their stomachs. It only requires that one pay ‘lip-service’ to the new masters. Believe me, Hari, accommodations will be made.’
‘But in the meantime?’
‘What is it that is said? You cannot be making an omelette without breaking eggs?’
‘But so many changes? They are changing the whole country.’
‘Have you heard what Herr Goebbels, said? ‘Things cannot go on as they are. There must be a change. We have the choice: from here on into Bolshevist anarchy or from here on into National Socialist order and discipline.’
‘But this... ?’
‘This is a revolution, Hari. Make no mistake about it.’
Hari was still skeptical. ‘ They have cast aside our laws. We are now a Police State. Our citizens have no rights. Not even trials!’
‘No question about it. The world is changing and there is no more time for the niceties of a polite society. Russia has already undergone one type of revolution. It is just not Germany, the whole world is in the grip of a terrible recession. There are riots of the unemployed in Britain and the United States. The fascist movement that started with Mussolini has spread over all the world. England has Oswald Mosely and his Blue Shirts, and even America has the America Firsters. Have you not heard of the Black Hundreds? The Ustaci? And you are worried about the loss of a few Jewish intellectuals? This is a world-wide movement, my boy.’
‘I am worried about my wife and children, Professor.’
‘Tell them to come back to the new Germany. Tell them they must look on the bright side. Not at what we have lost, but rather what we have won. Is there any question we now have law and order? No more daily riots. No more death toll of the battles between the SA and the Communists. Are the streets not safe, now? We no longer have the craziness in the Reichstag. Morality is returning to the Nation. Stability is returning to the economy. We do not need millions of marks to buy a loaf of bread. We are repudiating the Versailles Treaty so that the terrible burden of reparations is off our backs and we can hold our heads up once again. The foolish democracies are so weakened by the depression that they can do nothing about it.
ANOTHER VICTIM
There was a knock at the door, and Hari levered himself up to open the door to Unterleutnant Seeckt, already in his uniform. ‘Hari. We have another one. The Vampire has sent us another victim.’
‘Where is she?’
‘Wansee on the Scvhwanenwerder peninsula.’
‘He dragged her way out there? That must be 20 kilometers from the Kurferstendamm. That’s a long way to take a dead whore.’
‘Hari, you are making many assumptions that are not correct.’ Seeckt said primly.
‘Really? Like what?’
‘She was likely killed near there because she lived there. She didn’t come from the Kurfurstendamm, and she wasn’t a whore.’
‘That’s a pretty fancy area, Seeckt. Doesn’t Herr Goebbels live near there?’
‘Yes. Hari, she lives in that area because she is the daughter of Generalmajor von Ritter.’
‘Oh my God. Geli von Ritter?
‘That’s the one.’
‘She’s been all over the newspapers for the last few months. Some scandal involving a married rich American. She’s beautiful in the photos.’
‘Not any more.’
Professor Jost Kessler was sitting with his mouth open and his ears cocked. This was better than going to the Gloria Palast cinema. Once Hari had laughingly told the Professor that he could not come along, Hari and Seeckt took Seeckt’s auto for the long drive out to Wansee.
SEECKT’S MERCEDES
Hari was shocked to see that his assistant, the lowly Unterleutnant Seeckt, was driving an expensively beautiful botfly iridescent green Mercedes Touring car. ‘Seeckt, how is it that you are driving a Mercedes while I am in my old Opel?’
‘I have friends that you do not have, Hari,’ smirked Seeckt.
‘Friends with a car like this?’
‘I consider it a long term loan. My friend is on an extended vacation, and where he is he cannot drive.’
‘Huh? Maybe you could introduce us. I’d like to have good friends like that too.’
Seeckt laughed, enjoying himself hugely. ‘Unlikely, Hari. Besides, you would not want to go where he is. You probably wouldn’t like him anyway. You don’t move in the same circles.’
‘What? Is the bastard too good for me? Maybe you are ashamed of me, Unterleutnant.’
‘His name is Kauffmann. Isidore Kauffmann. Maybe you have heard of him?’
‘Kauffmann? Of the Department Store Kauffmanns?’
‘Yes, Hari, the Kauffmann of the Jew Department Store Kauffmanns.’
‘You know him?’
Seeckt laughed again. ‘Well..., I don’t actually know him... .’
‘Then how the hell did you get his car?’
‘Herr Kauffmann has gone for an extended vacation in a lovely spot in the country that we call Dachau. We sent him there with many of his co-religionists. We wanted them someplace where they could practice their religion. Lately, they seemed to have been more interested in stealing bread from the mouths of honest Christian Germans, than they have in being spiritual.’
‘A concentration camp?’
‘A concentration camp. A wonderful idea that we have borrowed from the British. They set up camps during their Boer War in South Africa. We owe a debt of gratitude to their Cecil Rhodes.’
‘So you have his car, Kauffmann’s.’
‘It is my car now, just as the Jew Department Store is now the People’s Department Store.’
‘Well, all I can say is that the People sure have a nice car.’
‘Thanks, Hari,’ said Seeckt nonchalantly, as if he had actually accomplished something for which he should be congratulated.
The powerful car floated over the roads while they talked about Hitler’s proposal for the new Autobanen that would weave a network of high-speed superhighways over the whole of Greater Germany. Along with the convenience, they were being touted as improving the defense of the Reich, by allowing the swift movement of troops and equipment to the borders. Hari liked the idea of transportation corridors, but was disturbed by the military emphasis. So far as he was able to see, there was no overt threat to Germany’s borders. Oh, the French had been troublesome about the Saar Valley, but this didn’t amount to war.
WANSEE AND THE GENERALMAJOR
By the time they reached the luxuriously wooded suburb of Wansee, it was already becoming dark. It took them some time to locate the stone gothic pile that was the home of the Generalmajor, but they were obligated to make a courtesy call at his home before proceeding with the investigation.
A Reichswehr Sargeant in an immaculate uniform opened the great oaken iron-bound door and ushered them through the great hall and into a cozy library where a roaring fire burned in a man-high fireplace. The Generalmajor entered soon after, and the two officers sprang to attention, clicked their heels and shot him a Hitler salute. A corpulent short man with a fringed bald head, von Ritter looked hollow-eyed and exhausted, and was dressed casually in clothes so rumpled it looked as if he had slept in them, as indeed he may have done.
Von Ritter passed a hand over his eyes and said, ‘Please, gentlemen, sit.’ He indicated two chairs that were part of a seating group in front of the fireplace, while he dropped into a velvet wing chair that was part of the same group.
‘Thank you for coming, gentlemen.’
‘The Fuhrer’s thoughts are with you this day by reason of your unfortunate loss, Herr Generalmajor.’
‘Please convey rhat his consideration is much appreciated. Now, how can I help you?’
It was Hari who took the lead. ‘We are the investigators who are assigned to the case at this point.’
The Generalmajor looked quizzical. ‘You are from Berlin, no? I had expected someone more local, someone more... atuned... to Wannsea.’
Hari was a little uncomfortable. ‘We will be working with the local people, of course, but we were assigned because of certain... a... similarities to a case we were already working on.’
‘The local police have been extremely close-mouthed about the circumstances in which our darling Geli was found. They came only to advise us of her death.’ He embarrassed Hari by choking back a sob.
Hari responded. ‘With apologies, Herr Generalmajor, that was due to our instructions. We wish to perform a preliminary overview before details are released to anyone.’
‘...and that includes the family?’ Von Ritter was becoming angry, and for good reason, to Hari’s thinking. ‘Gentlemen, for the life of me I cannot imagine why you would want to withold...’ Suddenly he went white and a rush of understanding flooded across his face. ‘You are from Berlin!’ He anguished. ‘Berlin! It is the ‘Vampire’ case. Gott in himmel, Geli is a victim of this Vampire!’
Hari rose quickly and moved to the stricken man’s side. Placing a placating hand on the Generalmajor’s shoulder, Hari said, ‘We don’t know that, Generalmajor. We have been sent here because of some perceived similarities, but until we have completed the preliminaries, we cannot comment further. You have our assurances that we will report our findings to you. and keep you fully apprized of our progress, until then, I’m sure I have no need to remind you that you are a Generalmajor of the Reichswehr, and that you must conduct yourself accordingly.’
Hari and Seeckt left as quickly as practicable, but Seeckt was disgusted. “I am ashamed of the man! Imagine!’
‘Seeckt. The man just lost his daughter! Can you not have some compassion?’
‘Compassion? Compassion, you say? That man must be prepared to lose thousands of men at one stroke, and he falls apart at the loss of one girl?’
‘Seeckt. Seeckt. I fear that you are a lost cause. Let’s just forget it. We’ll go see what the town police have turned up.’
‘Pah! A bunch of potato farmers. We’d be better off without them, but as you say, it is what we must do.’
Leaving the wrought-iron gates of the estate, Hari’s mind began to wander. Sometimes he felt as if he were in The Hall of Mirrors at the Fun House. Hari was torn. He thought of himself as a good and loyal, patriotic German who hated to see his country brought low by the arrogant power of her ages-old enemy, La Belle France.
It was England and America that had provided the manpower and the industrial capacity that had swallowed up Germany, but it was the French who were insistent on extracting their pound of flesh.
How pleasant it would be to tweak the nose of Marianne, the symbol of France. Hitler would do that. Hell, Hitler was doing that! Refusing to pay the reparations, stalling, challenging all estimates and accountings, fighting for every inch of the Saar and the Ruhr, even demanding more and more concessions to the ever-greater glee of the Average German.
Those were the good things, things that would once more instill pride in the Nation, but it was the other things. Hari was made uneasy by the tightening grip of the National Socialists, and the uses they were making of their new-found power. The Nazi perception of citizenship seemed almost to be a hive mentality. What was good for Germany was good for the individual. No matter how much had to be sacrificed, even freedom and life itself.
To make it worse, he could sometimes understand the point of view. Even though, viewed objectively, it was a pitiless horror.
Rumbling along through the cobblestones that made up the main street of the town, the ostentatious car headed toward the hilltop, on which squatted the gemutlich Black Forest Cuckoo Clock-type District Police Station.
THE BOY
The ‘schnitzel at the Romanische Café was simply the best. Hari loved the place, but then again, apparently so did everyone else in Berlin. There was always a long waiting line, but being a Police Inspector had its good points, and so, there Hari sat, in solitary splendor at a large table in the middle of the insanely crowded noisy restaurant, waiting for Karl the waiter to bring the ‘schnitzel. The trio came into the dining room, being shown to an out-of-the-way table by the swinging doors of the kitchen. Hari’s attention was drawn to them by the sudden relative silence that fell over the crowd. The two adults were somewhat hesitant and even diffident, afraid of offending. They looked normal enough, an older man, a middle-class burgher, and his somewhat frazzled frau. They seemed tired and harassed, but were intent on their mission, that mission being a dinner at a fine restaurant. The problem was their son.
The boy seemed to be, maybe twelve, maybe thirteen or fourteen years old. Huge for his age, he had a misshapen, dragging leg that caused him to walk with a shambling limp and limited the trio’s progress across the floor. The boy’s face was tortured, the muscles and parts working without cohesion. Hair cropped short, well out of the current fashion, his ears were large, and protruded almost comically from his somewhat cone-shaped skull. His wet lips worked without sound, and the tip of his tongue darted in and out, in reminiscence of a lizard. The parents were embarrassed, but even more so, the many diners in the room seemed embarrassed by the spectacle.
Embarrassed and uncomfortable. Unwilling to be reminded of the ever-so-slight gap between the so-called ‘normal,’ and the stygian depths of the ‘less-than-normal. The ‘normals’ wished the boy gone, whisked away beyond their ken. Hari understood their feelings. He felt the same way, and he felt that way against his will and against his own intelligence. He wished the boy gone for himself, for the other diners, for the parents, and even for the boy himself, for whom each moment must be agony. ‘A life not worth living,’ is what Herr Goebels had called it. An excuse for euthanasia of the mental defectives that had seemed to proliferate as the economic health of the county improved. Hitler made the case. Why waste inordinate resources to support these ‘lives not worth living?’ Was this not depriving those who might better use these resources? Were these not millstones around the neck of Germany? Was it not better for everyone, including the defectives themselves, that they be removed from the gene pool? Would these defectives not breed more defectives? The new science of Genetics proved that it was better to cull the bad genes that were infecting the entire population?
And speaking of ‘culling,’ this also applied to anything that tended to weaken the will and the resolve and the strength of Die Volk. The weak had to be sacrificed so that those who remained could only grow stronger. Strength bred strength. Weakness bred chaos. So it had been throughout history.
In that flash of insight, Hari understood Hitler. Understood the German people’s visceral response to Hitler after their long trek through the darkness. Hari’s thin veneer of civilization had been pierced and laid his primitive being open and receptive to the emotional appeal that came from the Nazis.

THE AMERICANS

Hari was shaken from his reverie by Seeckt shutting off the car in front of the Wansee Police Inspectorate. The two of them were saluted into the building by two policeman who were bookends for the entrance.
WANSEE INSPECTORATE AND CHIEF INSPECTOR JOHANN KRENEK
‘Who is in charge here?’ demanded Seeckt in a peremptory tone, and once they established their bona fides, they were immediately ushered past the mounted hunting trophies lining the corridor that led to the Chief Inspector’s bailiwick, their glass eyes glowering at the interlopers. Their guide knocked at the heavy wooden door, using his ring to create a clicking that might be heard through the door. Faintly they heard a voice from within bid them to enter, and they walked in to find an older man, somewhat corpulent, even avuncular, and dressed in mufti. He was standing behind an ornate ormolu desk, its surface covered in a haphazard pattern of documents.
‘Herren, I bid you welcome to our humble station. The Generalmajor has noticed me of your coming, and we are honored to have you among us.’ He flipped them a desultory Hitler salute, and Hari and Seeckt responded in kind, even though Seeckt grumbled a little at the pro forma salutation. The Chief Inspector clicked his heels, dipped his head an announced himself as Chief Inspector Johann Krenek indicated the two chairs before his desk, and asked how he could serve the honored Herren.
Hari sat back in the chair. ‘Herr Chief Inspector, we would appreciate it if you could bring us current on your investigation to date.’
The Chief Inspector suddenly looked uncomfortable, and in a characterization of discomfort, ran his index finger under the tight collar of his tunic.
‘Herr Chief Inspector?’
‘I’m sorry Herren...’ He paused. ‘I would be pleased to cooperate with you, but...’
‘But what?’ Pressed Seeckt.
‘I am but a humble Chief Inspector, but this is my District. It is a District that I am proud of, and I have been here a long time. I would like to remain here at my post.’
Hari was confused. ‘I don’t understand, Chief Inspector.’
‘Please.’ The Chief Inspector held out his hands. Do not be mistaken, Herren, It is not I, but my superiors...’
Hari was becoming frustrated. He stood. Coming face-to-face with the Chief Inspector, he asked bluntly, ‘Out with it, Krenek.’
‘I cannot assist you.’
‘What?’
‘I can give you no information on this matter.’
Now Seeckt rose and fairly roared at the poor man. ‘I warn you Krenek. Maybe you have poor eyesight. Maybe you do not recognize this uniform I wear...’ He leveled his finger at the shrinking Chief Inspector. Maybe it requires a call to Herr Himmler, Krenek! Maybe you would cooperate better after a little time in the cellars at Wilhemstrasse. Enough of this nonsense, Krenek. Tell us where the investigation is.’
Thoroughly cowed, Krenek nevertheless had his back against the wall. ‘I cannot. It would be worth my life.’
‘Krenek, if I do not get what I am entitled to, I will see to it that you wish your life would end, if only to bring you peace.’
Hari put his hand on Seeckt’s arm. ‘Seeckt. This is counter-productive. Can you not see that they will not allow him to cooperate? We should just leave.’
Seeckt stopped dead, then turned slowly and looked piercingly at Hari. Hari just nodded, and without another word, the two turned on their heel and left the office and the station, returning to the sybaritic luxury of the car.
Seeckt was angry. ‘Why, Hari? Why did you allow that to happen?’
‘What were you going to do, Seeckt, shoot him right there in his own station? That would surely have gotten us some cooperation, wouldn’t it?’
‘Hari, you do not realize the power of the uniform, the fear that it creates, the willingness to cooperate fully, because to do otherwise might send one to Wilhelmstrasse. You have heard the English saying that ‘clothes make the man’? Well, in this case, it is not only the clothes, but a demonstration of control, of absolute authority. This whining of yours may be all right for civilians, but we are Gestapo now, and we have the power to enforce our word as law.’
Hari was livid with anger, and his voice was low and filled with menace. ‘Leutnant Seeckt. A pretty speech, but I suggest that you are forgetting your place. Maybe in your world ‘clothes make the man’, but in my world, the world in which you must live and operate, I am a Major, and, it seems necessary to remind you, your superior. You may make suggestions to me, and then it is my option to disregard it. I tell you now, do not make the same mistake again.’
Seeckt sprang to attention, clicked his heels, bowed his head, and said, ‘At your orders, Herr Major.’
‘All right, Seeckt. Now that we have that out of the way, do you have a suggestion as to what we should do next?’
‘I am at your orders, Herr Major.’
‘Yes, yes, but do you have any suggestions as to what we should do next, other than returning to Berlin and making our report of the Chief Investigators lack of cooperation?’
‘Yes, Herr Major, as a matter of fact, I suggest that we just continue with our investigation as if we had been given the cooperation. Possibly we might consider obtaining a report from the autopsy doctor, and even viewing the body.’
‘All right, Seeckt. Let’s do this your way. Maybe I can actually learn something. After all, the cooperation of the Doorman when we went to Die Goldener’s place.
DOKTOR BECK
Seeckt led the way across the cobblestone square to an ugly one-story residence-like structure that had a sign hanging from a wrought-iron stanchion that announced the offices of a Doktor Beck. Seeckt marched in as if he owned the place, trailing Hari behind him. There were several people, obviously patients, sitting in the waiting room, and they looked up as the front door banged back into the structure. An elderly white-haired gemutlich matron seated at an old wooden desk looked pleasantly up at them, but was startled when Seeckt snapped, ‘The Herr Doktor. At once gnadige frau!’
The older woman was nonplussed by the intrusion. ‘Do the herren have an appointment with the Herr Doktor?
Seeckt slapped his swagger stick on top of the desk, producing a loud crack that made everyone in the room jump. ‘Do I look as if I had time to make appointments, frau? I am here on the business of the Reich, and I demand to see the Herr Doktor at once. At once. Do I make myself clear? Seeckt was now leaning forward over the desk, yelling directly in the face of the now cowed elderly woman, who was shrinking away from Seeckt’s verbal, and spittle, onslaught.
She scrambled back over her chair. ‘At once. Yes, at once. I will get him.’ She scampered back through the office doorway, returning a moment later to motion Seekt and Hari through the door. She ushered them into a small office, crammed with heavy, dark, inappropriate furniture and many, many files scattered every which way over every available surface. Frowning at them was a small, wiry, balding man in his fifties, with bulging eyes as seen through thick, horn-rimmed glasses.
‘What the hell do you mean by frightening that poor woman out of her wits?’ He asked peremptorily.
‘You Beck?’ Demanded Seeckt.
‘Doktor Beck, if you don’t mind.’
‘I am Leutnant Seeckt, and this is Major Volkmann. We are of the Gestapo and we are here on the business of the Reich.’
‘I don’t give a damn who you are. You have no business frightening my receptionist.’
‘We have no time here for idle chit-chat. We are here for the report on Geli von Ritter.’
‘What?’
‘Geli von Ritter, Doktor. Geli von Ritter.’
‘And what business is it of yours? My reports are for Chief Investigator Krenek, and they are confidential.’
Seeckt’s laugh was like the bray of a mule. ‘Confidential? Confidential from the Gestapo? Nothing is confidential from the Gestapo. My demands are in the name of the Reich.’
The Herr Doktor was shaking with anger as he stared up at the huge SS man. “Why, you jumped-up puppy! Just who the hell do you think you are? These records are in my custody and they are my responsibility_’
Seeckt slashed his lead-weighted, leather-covered swagger stick across the little doctor’s face, and Beck fell back against a glass-fronted medical cabinet to a crescendo of breaking wood and smashing glass. Bottles fell and broke, one-by-one, and multi-colored pills mixed and rolled across the floor. The doctor slowly slid down the breaking shelves and wound up sitting on the floor as a Niagara of blood started from the cruel wound across his cheeks and nose. He was still conscious, but dazed and uncomprehending.
The office door opened and the elderly receptionist stuck her head in the door. ‘Doktor? I thought I heard_’
‘Get out!’ Snapped Seeckt, and the woman withdrew. Throwing a towel at the bleeding man, he said, ‘Now, Herr Doktor, the records.’
Doctor Beck rose unsteadily to his feet, and stumbling like a drunk moved to his desk without a word. He opened the bottom drawer, took out a file and handed it to Seeckt.
‘Now Doktor, we will see the corpse. Where is it?’
‘In the basement,’ the Doctor mumbled.
‘Take us there at once,’ demanded Seeckt.
‘...but I have patients waiting.’
Seeckt grinned wolfishly and slapped his open palm lightly with the leather-encased riding crop. Beck sighed deeply and shuffled to the back door, opened it and preceded them down the concrete steps into the dimly-lit cellar.
The foundation was obviously very old. Roughly-dressed stone and timbers, clear, old-fashioned light bulbs strung on bare wires lit the large open space brightly, but cast shadows so black they looked like holes leading to infinity. The real infinity was the not-quite-human bag of bones and skin that lay whitely exposed on a stainless steel trolley that lay under an incongruous fluorescent fixture that pitilessly illumined the remains beneath it. Hari was used to seeing dead bodies. They were a part of his job and he had seen many of them, but most of them had been adults, many of them having led a rather rough life that led to an even-rougher death. They had elicited little sympathy, but this one, this one was little more than a child, and she looked so helpless lying there, open to the elements and the stares and cruelties of the world.
‘This the one?’ Asked Seeckt uselessly. A quick glance around would have told him that this was the only body in the cavernous cellar.
The resentful but frightened Doctor did not bother to answer, but moved into a litany of the girl’s condition. ‘Exsanguinated,’ he said. ‘Completely exsanguinated.’ No blood where she was found. Must have been moved because the place where she died must have been swimming in it. I have counted 150 of these short but deep cuts, all of them in threes. The instrument, whatever it was, is exceedingly sharp, almost impossibly sharp. Her body had been washed and her hair carefully arranged. She had been placed where she would be found. The little Doctor slammed his fist into his palm. ‘The bastard wanted her to be found!’ He choked up and tears were running down his cheeks.
They’d gotten what they’d come for and left soon after that, the Doctor’s old receptionist chasing after them, yelling. ‘Don’t you go! I’ve called the Chief Inspector. He won’t let you get away with this. He’ll know what to do with you!’
Hari thought to himself that the Chief Inspector certainly would know what to do. If he took a minute to consider his career, he would just stay away until they were long gone. Oh yes, he would know what to do all right.
They went from the office of the Doctor to the local newspaper, Wansee Tageblatt, and were given the issues having to do with Fraulein von Ritter. There had been no attempt made to hide the body. In fact, it had been unceremoniously dumped on the neatly-cut small grassed area in the middle of the town square, in full view of the whole world. The Tageblatt had unfeelingly published a front page picture of the abandoned nude body, although, probably in deference to the Generalmajor, it was a long-shot, and the details were indistinguishable. The 5-point masthead clearly made the identification.
Other than Hari telling Seeckt to get Lothar and the Crime Scene people to come out, their ride back to the city in the giant automobile was mostly silent, with each of them immersed in their own thoughts.
Hari knew that he was changing, becoming more open to Seeckt and what he represented. Police work had always been about compromises, and as such it was often frustrating. While he’d always understood the limitations on their investigations imposed by the civilian laws, rules and customs, still, it was demoralizing to let the guilty walk away because of some technicality. Over the years he had learned to work within the strictures of the system, and even though the rules were sometimes at least bent, if not actually broken, Hari and his fellows had generally hewed to the accepted and approved limits.
Seeckt? Seeckt was like a breath of fresh air, moving through the landscape as if he were an implacable force for justice. He was willing to sweep aside all to get to the heart of the matter. Just in this investigation alone. The so-called ‘Vampire’ murders, Seeckt had used his uniform like a bludgeon. His power and arrogance as an investigative tool, brushing aside the petty annoyances of morality, fear of violence, and the old rules, as if they were the wreckage of the old order, pushed aside in pursuit of the truth.
Look at how much they had accomplished with Seeckt’s methods. Accomplishments that would have been impossible if they had followed Hari’s lead. It was a revelation.
Hari Volkmann was growing and changing into something that he had not been before. For one thing, he was being given more authority, more challenging assignments, encouraged to exercise his leadership capabilities. He was sometimes uncomfortable in his new role, but as time went on, he gradually gained confidence.
But along the way, somewhere between simple policeman and what he might become, there were bellwethers that were signposts to the future for those able to interpret them. One of these was:
TEMPLEHOFF
Hari had to admit that he was curious. The assignment was not one of his choosing, but he was to command the Security Detail that the Prefecture of Berlin were providing for the candidate for the Chancellorship once he landed at Templehoff, the new U-shaped aerodrome that had been opened just outside the Berlin city limits. Seeckt had no part because he had been called to a meeting on one of his earlier cases. One of the cases that he had worked on before he teamed up with Hari.
Hari had ten men, six on motorcycles and four more in the non-descript Opel sedan with him. It was only a twenty-minute trip, but Hari was surprised to be met at the entrance to the airport by a large phalanx of heavily-armed Brownshirts.
Hari and his squad came to a stop before the blocked entrance, and an older, fatter Brownshirt swaggered up to the car, and placing one foot on the running board, leaned into the driver’s side window, and speaking as if the driver were not there, directed his foul breathed speech toward Hari.
‘This aerodrome is closed to the public, Meinherr.’
‘Inspector is my rank, If you would,...’ Hari looked for some sign of insignia on the Brownshirt uniform, but there was none, and Hari was well aware that this was an honor guard for Herr Hitler, and he was right in the middle of a quandary.
‘...Herr Major,’ Hari had decided on a rank that likely exceeded the actual title of this self-impressed big mouth. For one thing, although the bully had taken it upon himself to close the airport to the public, he surely knew that Hari and his troupe were hardly the public.
Then too, this pig had no official standing except his Brownshirt S.A. rank, and that certainly gave him no authority to close the aerodrome. If anyone were members of the public in this little confrontation, it was the Brownshirts. Even so, Hari hesitated. If these were Herr Hitler’s people, as they almost certainly were, they were men who carried with them the authority of the man who was very likely to be the next Chancellor. There were political ramifications to be considered here.
Hari spoke to the man who still had his head in the driver’s door window. ‘We are here to provide an escort into the city for Herr Hitler.’
The Brownshirt laughed nastily. ‘That is our job, and we know how to do it.’
‘But as a matter of common courtesy...’
‘We have no need of your common courtesy, Inspector, so you can take your men and their motor scooters back to that cesspool you call a city. We will protect and escort our leader.’
‘Major, have you given any thought to the idea that you might be exceeding your authority?’
Hari was answered by a braying laugh. Sneeringly, the Brownshirt said, ‘Inspector, what makes you think that you have any authority here at all?’
Mildly, Hari answered, ‘I am an Inspector of the Berlin Police, and last time I looked, Templehoff Aerodrome was within our jurisdiction. And, I might add, I don’t see why I should have to justify myself to you at all.’ He’d started out calmly, but as things went on he was becoming more heated. The beefy Brownshirt’s face reddened, his eyes narrowed, and his hand hovered around the area of his gun.
Hari glanced over at his lieutenant, and the man nodded as his rifle lifted to ‘port arms’ position. There had been pitched battles between the Police and the S.A. before, and the way this was shaping up was not good.
Hari would have said more, but at that moment their conversation was interrupted by the full-throated roar of the Fokker tri-motor carrying the ‘Hitler Over Germany’ campaign. Hitler had amazed the world by jumping all over the length and breadth of Germany in his silver Fokker. Hearing the plane, Germans by the hundreds had turned out at each stop to hear the daring candidate.
The landing gave Hari time to reconsider, and in the end, Hari only shrugged and signaled his squad back to Berlin. If the matter was already handled, why should he force himself on the situation. What was he supposed to do, attack the Brownshirts?
On the trip back to Berlin, Hari was impressed by the gathering, swastika-waving crowds that cheered when his little cavalcade first appeared, but the cheering died out raggedly when the people realized they were not carrying Hitler toward Berlin.
Hari wore his black uniform now, the one with the death’s head insignia and the silver lightning runes. He wore it proudly now for in it he was highly respected and feared. Almost god-like. He was the personal representative of the Fuhrer, and the very symbol of the new Germany. A Germany that was now a member of the very highest rung of nations, once a beaten, downtrodden and despised carpet for all to wipe their feet on, now reborn and elevated to the point where Germany was now at least their equal if not their better.
But with the new power and sway over others had come the envy and the guerilla backbiting and attacks from the citizens of the defeated countries.
THE FREIHERR SPEAKS
The summons to the office of the Freiherr early in the morning came as a surprise to both Hari and Seeckt, Usually they did the daily, weekly and monthly reports which went to him, and his comments came back in the form of memos or serious criticisms which were called racketen - rockets. A summons from the Freiherr was a notice that something serious had come up. They couldn’t imagine what it might be.
They walked into the glass-enclosed office and were met by the Freiherr’s icy stare. He picked up a folder and shoved it across the desk at them. He did not ask them to sit down and he skipped the preamble. ‘What is this shit?’
Hari felt he had stumbled into Deja Vu. It is our reports, Freiherr.’
‘Your reports? Your reports on what?’
‘The reports on the Vampire victims and our progress to date.’
‘Are you feeble-minded or something, Volkmann?’
‘I beg your pardon, Freiherr?’
‘Did you not hear me the last time? Was it something about the way I said it? Did you not understand it?’
Hari looked at Seeckt and they both shrugged imperceptibly. ‘Excuse me, Freiherr...’
‘No, Volkmann, I do not excuse you. And you, Seeckt, I am ashamed of you. I had expected more. Your training, your background, I would think that you would know better than to meddle in things that do not concern you.’
Seeckt seemed confused, but no more so that Hari. ‘Das Vampiren, Freiherr?’
‘Vampiren, Seeckt.’
‘...But I do not understand.’
Brandt was enraged. ‘Are you both so stupid that ypu are unable to take hints when they are given to you? Did you not understand what was happening when you tried to talk to Unterminister Wister?’
Hari looked at the Freiherr. ‘Well, we did think it a little strange.’
‘A little strange, he calls it. Did he not pull rank on you? Did he not refuse to cooperate in no uncertain terms? Did he not order you out of his office?’
‘Well, yes, but I thought...’
‘No, Volkmann, you did not think. And what of the affair in Wansee? Were you not able to see that no one was going to work with you on this case?’
‘In all fairness, Freiherr, we were able to get the required information anyway.’
Brandt cast a sardonic glare. ‘For that you expect a medal?’ You assholes!’ He thundered. ‘You must be blind as well as stupid. Did you not see the Army connection? Do you not smell the long arm of the High Command? Since you cannot take hints, then I must tell you clearly. ‘You. Both of you. You - are - off - this - fucking - case! From here on the Abwehr is to handle it and you two are to stay out of it! And if you do not have enough to do, I am sure the High Command will be more than happy to transfer you to the Front. Now do you understand?’
HARI AND SEECKT AND WHAT TO DO
Hari and Seeckt walked out together, deep in thought, until Seeckt said, ‘Hari? What do we do?’
Hari answered with a question. ‘Seeckt, did you call in Lothar’s team?’
‘The Crime Scene Techs? Of course, but what do we do about it now?’
‘Listen Seeckt, no matter what else I may be, I’m still a policeman.’ Hari raised his hand to ward off Seeckt’s objections. ‘I know. I know. I heard what Brandt said, that sniveling paper pusher. He’s afraid of his own shadow. The higher-ups sneeze and he’s right there with a handkerchief to wipe their nose. This is my case! Our case if you wish, but I intend to go forward with it.’
‘Brandt said the Abwehr would handle it.’
‘Seeckt, have you seen the Abwehr handle it? All that has been done so far is to get in our way. They don’t intend that it be handled. They want it to just go away.’
‘Why would they want that?’
‘Isn’t it clear? Our target is some grosser - some bigwig who thinks he is above the law.’
‘Looks like the higher-ups do too.’
‘Maybe so. It makes no difference to me.’
‘Major, you wear the uniform and you are subject to their discipline.’
‘Look, Seeckt. Lately I have been required - no, forced - to do some things that I am not proud of, but I am still a policeman. One thing I have found, no matter what the regime, they need policemen. They will not take action against me for doing my job, it would not look good. There would be repercussions.’
‘From who?’
‘From the many policemen who know me and who I have worked with over the years.’
‘You think so?’ Seeckt sneered. ‘What repercussions have there been from your Jew friend Erik Mendelsohn?’
‘So you know about that, do you?’
‘I know enough.’
‘You must tell me one of these days.’
‘No, I don’t know precisely what happened, only that it did happen.’
‘Well, Seeckt, we’ll leave that for the moment. I only need to know that I am going to continue doing my job, and I also need to know if you will be with me, or if you will go off tattling to your superiors like some little girl.’
‘No, you are my chief, and I will work with you. Your cases are my cases.’
‘Okay then, time to get the results from Lothar and his crew, and also to make up our list.’

VICTIM 3
-Victim: Geli von Ritter (Daughter of Generalmajor von Ritter)
-Age: 23 DOB: June 09, 1910
-Date of Incident: Actual unknown. Date of body abandonment 05/12/33 Time: 1 AM+. Discovery 05/12/33 5AM.
-Location of body: Grass circle in Wansee Square
-Place of killing: Unknown and awaiting autopsy reports and crime scene investigation. Body washed and hair arranged.
-Evidence found at autopsy: Many narrow triune cuts mainly to front torso.
-Number of cuts 150 (see file diagram for placement of cuts and bruising)
-Hands and an unknown missing weapon appearing to be triune bladed, one blade broken and might match to sliver found on Ingrid’s body.
-Cause of death: Exsanguination
-Witness 1: Discovered by town butcher Willi Stresseman

To do:
1. What about Chief Inspector - why resistant. Who is he afraid of?
2. Was there any crime scene investigation, and where is the report?
3. Was anything found at the crime scene?
4. Why was Doktor Beck uncooperative and who is he afraid of?
5. Who is leaning on the Freiherr?
6. Geli’s friends and contacts?
7. Her movements that night. Did she have a date? Was there a party?
6. Witness canvass at the town square.
7. Did Geli keep a calendar? Notations?
8. Did Rolf keep a calendar? Notations?
9. Interview the Generalmajor.
10. Interview Stresseman.
11. Obtain Lothar’s report.

LIDICE AND HEYDRICH
Events arose which immediately trumped Hari’s concerns with Geli von Ritter and the others. Now, on 27 May, had come the events at Lidice, the small town in what had been the Czech Republic, where a cowardly ambush had murdered the Reichsprotektor. A protege of Himmler, Reinhardt Heidrich, though only 42, was already an APK, an Alter Partei Kamerad, with a low number of his Nazi Party Card. Reinhardt had been at the Munich Beer hall Putsch with Hitler. He had seen the wave of the future early, and had ridden it to the crest.
We all knew of him, of course, he was the darling of the Party, the protege and probable successor to Himmler, and maybe, someday, even of the Fuehrer himself.
Surpassingly handsome, a fine figure of a man, always dressed in his immaculate black uniform, which set off his bright blond hair and icy blue eyes, he was riding imperially in his huge black shiny Mercedes cabriolet. He took great pride in being able to ride through the Protectorate, the territory that had been the country of Czechoslovakia, in an open and unarmored car, without Security or even motorcycle outriders, all of which had been urged on him incessantly. But then he would not have been Heydrich, not a man who courted danger to add to his mystique.
He had been lolling in the back seat, arms akimbo on the rear seat back, basking in the miasma of fear and awe that surrounded and followed him. His power of life and death, which he was able to exercise at will or whimsy, cast him in the role of a god, and his assassination communicated to the subject peoples that Nazi invincibility was only a myth.
This was at the very peak of Nazi power when all seemed to fall before us. Right from the beginning it was known that it had to be a British plot, planned by Churchill, the spider across the channel spinning his web in our backyard
We were told that Heydrich was not killed in the attack, and was not even seriously wounded. What we were not told was that the bomb had driven wire and horsehair fragments of the seat deep into Heydrich’ spleen, and he was to die and lingering and agonizing death from simple infection 9 days later, a death that was to prove disastrous not only for Heydrich, but also for the Czechs and others, but only coincidentally discomfiting to Hari. .
There had been assassinations and attacks by guerillas before, but those had been mosquito bites compared to the impact that Heydrich’ death, there in a pleasant country village, caused in Berlin. It had long been Nazi policy to shoot 10 citizens for every German that was killed by the ‘partizans’, as the killers called themselves.
Sending Heydrich to Valhalla was different. Shooting jews, peasants, and even town officials in retaliation had become commonplace, fit only to generate newsprint to wrap fish in.
Hari, like everyone else, had been shocked and enraged by the effrontery of the killers. If they were able to assassinate a high official of the Nazi party, one who was at the top of the very top, one who was lionized and idolized throughout the Reich, then who would be safe? The man was a household name, a man whose death had generated shock waves that shook the complacency of the German people, a people who supposed themselves secure, and even inviolable in the powerful arms of the Nazis.
On notice of the assassination, a reward of a million marks was posted. Anyone aiding them would be shot, along with their entire family. 10,000 Czechs, including any opposing intelligentsia were to be arrested, and one hundred of the most important were to be executed. All political prisoners in custody were to be executed. 500 Jews were to be arrested in Berlin. Road and Rail traffic out of Prague was halted. Martial law was declared in the Protectorate.
Then a curfew was imposed within the entire Protectorate, and 21,000 Waffen SS troops in full battle gear searched 36,000 homes in a vengeful manner, wounding many and resulting in 541 arrests for not having the proper papers. Random searches occurred throughout the protectorate. Everyone over 15 was required to register with the police. Those failing to do so were to be shot, along with anyone harboring them.
Evidence gathered at the scene of the assassination was displayed, along with descriptions of the wanted men. Anyone recognizing the men or the possessions and failing to report was to be executed along with their entire family.
Supposedly one of the assassins had been injured in the attack, and all 7000 doctors in the Protectorate had to swear in writing that they had not treated an injured man fitting the descriptions. 157 people were executed by firing squads for martial-law offenses or for having expressed approval of the attack.
On the death of Heydrich, a death providing the opportunity for a huge Nazi funeral, 3000 Jews were to be sent to their deaths in the extermination camps. The village of Lidice was selected for extermination. Concluding that parachutists were hiding in the village, Lidice was to be burned and then bulldozed. Men were to be shot on the spot, women sent to the camps, and children worthy of Germanization were to be handed over to SS families, while the rest were to be killed.
In the furor following the attempt, an order from a vengeful Hitler authorized the execution of 30,000 politically-active Czechs. When a radio transmitter was found in the village of Lezaky, every one of the inhabitants of the village was murdered except for two little girls deemed worthy of Germanization.
3188 Czechs were immediately arrested and 1357 were condemned to death by Emergency Courts. This did not include the 3000 Jews deported to the killing camps, or the inhabitants of Lidice and Lezaky.
When the role of the Orthodox Church in aiding the assassins was uncovered, an enraged Hitler ordered the Church dissolved and its property confiscated. Its Priests were shot throughout the Protectorate, and the Orthodox Church ceased to exist..
4000 relatives of Czech exiles in Britain were held hostage at camps in Moravia.
A statement had to be made. Everyone knew it, but still a controversy generated a disturbing undercurrent. A statement was one thing, but there was a strong lobby for a truly horrendous act, an act that would be an unmistakable response to the Heydrich message, and there was considerable opposition. Quiet opposition.
It is true, the response would be harsh, but we are not monsters, Ungeheuer. The amis can say what they will, but we in Germany are not without feelings, without compassion, but there must be order. How can there be a civilization without order? In the Protectorate we were the order, and it was for the ordinary citizen to accept and not oppose the order. How could it be otherwise? That would be anarchy. That would be chaos, and we who had survived the Weimar Republic knew a lot about chaos.
In fact, there were no monsters, and there was sound reasoning for some acts which might seem monstrous to those who did not think it through.
There was sound reasoning for what had been proposed, along with a healthy helping of Darwinian self-interest. Our actions against the homosexuals, the Communists, the Socialists, the mental defectives, the Gypsies and the Jews enriched the average German by lifting burdens and conflicts from the social fabric and contributing substantial assets to the Nation.
Germany had always been a civilized nation, a leader in scholarship, the arts, social engineering, the sciences, and even government, and there was some misdirected concern that a seemingly horrific act might well diminish our Nation’s legacy. Such concern was likely from those who were unfamiliar with Darwin. It had been adequately proven to us by Goebbels and others that race was all, and that to have a healthy, homogenous and united nation capable of leading the world, that the weak and the unfit had to be removed from the genetic mix.
What was proposed was that, in retaliation for the murder of Heydrich, the entire village of Lidice be razed and destroyed, and its entire population exterminated. That was the word that was used, exterminated. The measure pricked even the most hardened heart, and a rising tide of objections swelled from some within the ranks.
It was not the destruction of the town that was the problem, nor was it the shooting of the whole of the adult population, but it was the killing of the children and infants that caused the more squeamish to be concerned about the German image in the eyes of the rest of the world. It was thought that they would not understand.

OCCUPATION
It had been true throughout history, and had never changed. Hari knew that occupations by foreign troops had been more or less effective, but they always incurred the resentment of the locals. German occupations had been no different.
At the beginning, at least, occupations were always by force and a show of strength to cow the local populations. Ours was no different. Rules of the occupation were set down and draconian punishments threatened. We were willing to be hard but benevolent fathers to these new children of ours. But it was now our house and we made the rules.
Unfortunately, people are always people, whether they be occupiers or occupied. People relax, things begin to normalize under the abnormal conditions, people take chances and some rules are broken. People are punished, usually harshly, others become more resentful, and tensions always escalate. The occupiers are always unwanted strangers, and sooner or later someone lashes out.
An occupier was killed, usually by stealth, but killed nevertheless. It was Sergeant Shweik, an older and kindly man, well thought of among the troops. It is then that the game began. The occupiers were outraged. How dare they! This scum thinks that they can kill one of the victors with impunity? We’ll show them! They will see what it costs to resist us!
So the reprisals begin. Not against the person responsible for the death, because he couldn’t be found, he was being hidden among the generally sympathetic population. So they killed his family and some of his neighbors, and knocked down his house. The locals saw this as unfair and it raised their levels of ire.
Then there may be a semi-organized military attack on a patrol, say, or maybe on an isolated outpost. The occupiers answered with the cry of ‘10 for 1'! And the executions started. The idea was to terrorize the population and target them all, so that if there was an attack, anyone might be chosen to pay for it.
All this tension, the hostility of the people, the continual necessity to watch for expected attacks, the psychological pressure of the firing squads, the unrelenting fear of being alone and nakedly exposed to the hatred all around them, caused the troops to be on a hair trigger. Then too, there were the insurgents, the guerillas. There were always rumors that there were organized forces arrayed against us, forces that had been trained and equipped by the British or the Americans, even the Russians. We never knew where the next bullet was coming from and which of us would be the next to be hit.
We of the Wermacht had been indoctrinated that we were liberators, that we had come to free ethnic Germans from Slavic slavery. On first entering the country and being met by cheering and German-flag waving crowds, that was the way it seemed, but somehow that aura of welcome and well-being melted away to leave the more realistic picture. We just didn’t understand it and it confused us.
It also made us angry, and the German troops became surly and over-bearing, brooking not the slightest disrespect from the locals. The era of good-feeling was over, and the more we felt it, the more we made sure that the locals knew we held them to be inferiors. Our punishments for the slightest infractions were to inspire fear, and they did that, but they also inspired a simmering hatred. Hari knew the mechanism, and why it was speeding downhill out of control, but he had no idea how to put the brakes on. He wasn’t the driver, he was only a passenger.


HARI AND LIDICE – THE DESCENT
Since Hari had been assigned to command the einsatzkommando responsible to carry out the orders dealing with Lidice, he was inexorably drawn into the maelstrom surrounding the decision.
The controversy was brought out into the open when the principals concerned with the planning and execution of the Lidice operation were brought together. They were to hear a speech by Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS, and now, by extension, the powerful head of all law enforcement within the German Reich.
The compact little man with the gleaming round eyeglasses was attired in his full uniform, the uniform that was so imposing on the tall blonde giants of the Waffen SS that provided a bodyguard for him, even in front of this stellar audience of the SS. It struck Hari that for all the propaganda about physical fitness and image within the Reich, it was unlikely that Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, and even Hitler himself wouldn’t be able to pass the physical for the SS. Even so, his immense egotistical confidence made him an impressive, if unemotional, speaker.
‘I speak to you today, as trustee for the consolidation of German nationhood. Most of you know what it means to see a hundred corpses lying together, or five hundred, or a thousand...’
Hari hadn’t seen such things, and he was taken aback to hear the tacit admission that they had taken place.
Himmler continued on in his high-pitched, wheedling voice. ‘To have gone through this, and yet... to have remained decent, this has made us hard. This is a glorious page in our history...’
Hari’s head was spinning. On the one hand he was proud that Germany had dug itself out of the great hole it had fallen into after the World War, and he was proud of his own position of power and influence within this dynamic structure. His own finances were fast approaching wealth, and there were open hands thrusting money at him from every direction. He had become like a favored son between greed and morality, and it was easier to allow rationalization to lead the way to the easier, the more profitable path, the path that would allow him to continue to enjoys his status.
But still there was this... thing... nagging somewhere, tugging at the corners of his mind.
After the ‘pep rally’ was over, Hari, as one of the organizing members of the Lidice team, was invited to join the hierarchy, as well as Himmler, in a side room where there was to be a toast to the Fuhrer. It was an invitation which could hardly be refused.

PRAISE FROM HIMMLER
Hari joined the small group, and his presence was actually acknowledged by Himmler with a slight nod and a raising of his champagne flute. Such recognition by the notoriously uncivil Himmler caused the raising of eyebrows and a rise in the level of envious whispering. A buzz that did not pass unnoticed by Hari.
His almost unconscious conscience prodded him to raise his concerns in the only way that would be acceptable in this gathering of barracudas that swam lazily by, just waiting for any sign of weakness to tear with ravening ferocity into the offending member of the pack.
Each and every one of them would stop at nothing, shrink from the most immoral or underhanded act to climb even a millimeter over the rendered and bleeding body of his fellow. And Hari was, no matter how he rationalized it, a member of the pack.
Still troubled somewhere deep in his mind, he took a long pull at his champagne, and taking care not to express weakness, began. ‘The American Jew press will make much over what we do at Lidice. It is proper that they fear us. The whole world must fear us!’ Hari raised his glass to the proposition, and smiled broadly.
The others raised their glasses and drank, while one of them said, ‘The Jew scum will tell the world to be shocked, particularly about the dead children.’
Himmler said drily, ‘They should have been more shocked by the sadistic murder of the Reichsprotektor. An authorized government representative and a good man besides,’ he raised his glass and said, with as much emotion as this emotionless man could summon, ‘To Reinhardt.’ The group joined in the toast.
‘But this thing of the children...’ one of the group said.
‘...will be a confirmation of our resolve,’ said Himmler. ‘It will show them that security and social order are paramount, and that our rule MUST be respected, or it will be on their children’s heads.’
A Major in the group spoke up, bravely (and stupidly) taking his life in his hands. ‘Reichsminister, this thing of the children may be difficult for the men. The officers, of course, understand the necessity of the lesson, but the men...’
Himmler was magnanimous in his acceptance of this implied criticism. ‘You may rest easy, Major. As for the children, it has been decided that those children found worthy of Germanization are to be saved, and delivered up to deserving SS families to raise as their own.’
‘What about their parents?’
‘They are not to be left to protest.’
With this concession, the gathering returned to other, mostly logistical, matters.
That seemed to settle the matter, but some time later, Himmler drew Hari off to the side. ‘I envy you, Volkmann. It is you who will be the spearpoint for the Reich. It is your arm that will be the strong right arm of the Fuhrer wielding the sword of his justice.’
The prick of his almost-dormant conscience still tugged at Hari,
Himmler continued. ‘We know that this is not a pleasant task, that your mind must be uneasy, even when you are firm in your duty. Any decent German man would still have those feelings, we would not want him if he did not. Through all these unpleasant times, until all is pacified and in order, we must live up to our ideal of the good German man and the good German soldier for the Reich.’
Hari stood mute, allowing the accolades to wash over him in the flood of righteousness.
‘And so,’ continued Himmler. ‘We have decided to grant you a boon, not a reward, mind you, but rather think of it as our consideration for your well-being during this difficult time.’
Hari raised his head to look into Himmler’s ice-cold blue eyes behind his glasses.
‘We are making of your wife an honorary Aryan, so that she may return to her homeland with a light heart, to be at your side,’
Hari was shocked. Truth to tell, he had not even thought of his wife’s part in his recent rise, and Himmler’s announcement caught him off-guard. ‘...I... I... I don’t know what to say, Herr Reichminister.’
Himmler dismissed this with an airy wave of his hand. It is not necessary to say anything, Volkmann. Naturally, this will also legitimize your children, for they will now be children of fully Aryan parents!’
Hari glowed. ‘This is unexpected, Reichminister.’
‘We like to treat well those who act in the interests of Germany. You are destined for great things, Volkmann. Our congratulations.’
‘Reichminister, I do my best for the Fatherland.’
‘We know you do. Of those who receive our favor, much is expected, but we are not insensitive to the, uh, delicate actions that we require.’
‘How so?’
‘Well, for one thing, we realize that this latest assignment might well be somewhat distasteful to a decent man such as yourself, and we would hardly expect you to undertake such a task alone. Oh no, the responsibilities for Operation Reinhardt will be fairly proportioned.’
‘Operation Reinhardt?’
‘Who else better deserves that honor of having such an important event named after them than one who has made the ultimate sacrifice for the Fatherland.’
‘You mentioned apportionment, Reichminister?’
‘Now, what I tell you is not to be general knowledge, but I know that I can trust you to keep it to yourself, can I not, Volkmann?’
‘Of course, Reichminister.’
‘Now that Reinhardt has finally died of his wounds after 9 days of almost unimaginable suffering, the Fuhrer has determined that all Bohemia must bear the burden for this cowardly blow at the very foundations of the Reich. In his great wisdom, he has deemed that, instead of the mere ten thousand Czechs already arrested, now, the sacrifice of thirty-thousand Czechs has been confirmed.’
Hari was stunned. Certainly, he was as outraged as anyone by the Heydrich assassination, but thirty-thousand men, women and children to be exterminated in retaliation?
‘Yes, Volkmann, thirty-thousand, but you, and you alone, have been awarded the honor of punishing the very village where this terrible deed was done. You, Volkmann, will go down in the history of the Thousand-year Reich as the Sword of Hitler’s Justice!’
And that was precisely what Hari was beginning to be afraid of.
‘I have the honor to shake your hand, Hero of the Third Reich!’ Himmler clicked his heels and extended his hand for Hari to shake. Himmler had a limp fish handshake, but Hari supposed that it was necessitated by the thousands of handshakes that Himmler had given over the tenure of his career. Or maybe that was just how Himmler shook hands, because usually, his greetings would be by the Hitler salute. The little man smiled in a way that seemed more like a smirk, and said, ‘Go now and accomplish your task.’

THE FROG IS BOILING
It was like walking in quicksand, the further you walked, the deeper it got, until you felt you were drowning. It had been so easy in the beginning, but that was like the frog in the boiling water. When he first got in it was only lukewarm, but the longer he swam, the hotter it got. Hari had more or less slipped into, or rather had been led into, the quagmire of the Gestapo, but the longer he was in it, the more uncomfortable he became, until he found himself doing things that were against everything he thought he had stood for. It just seemed so right at the time. It was just easier to take each little baby step than to stand up and invite catastrophe. He imagined that’s how it was for everybody, until finally they had done such things that they had no choice but to continue on the path or find themselves damned. Maybe they were damned anyway, but it somehow no longer mattered because they were in so deep. There was just nothing else he could do. He had bought the package and he was in for the full ride.

EINSATZGRUPPEN ACTION REPORT
Hari’s Einsatzkommando had been assigned to him. He had hoped to get some of the more hardened ones, some who had already done such things, who had been involved in the famous ‘Jew Hunts’, and for whom it would only be one more day in an endless cycle. Instead he got a Reserve Police Battalion, and their only experience had been in so-called ‘resettlement’ actions, or rescue operations in a bombed city.
He had originally had fifteen men, and had made the mandatory speech to the assembled gruppe that participation was voluntary and that no one who stood down from this operation would be punished in any way. Hari knew that it was not quite the truth. While there would be no official punishment, the peer pressure of the gruppe would do its own work.
He went on to tell them that they had been called upon to perform a frightfully unpleasant task. The assignment was not to his liking, indeed it was highly regrettable, but the orders had come from the highest authority. It would make their task any easier, the men should remember that in their own homeland, bombs were falling on women and children. These were people that had instigated the American boycott that had damaged Germany. There were those in this very village that were involved with the partisan rabble that had killed Heydrich. A clear message had to be sent, and they had been chosen to deliver the message. If they failed to do so, then they were only inviting future attacks, attacks that they would be responsible for. It was their duty. And he expected them to do their duty.
Each would not want to appear cowardly or weak in front of his fellows, men who had been together for months, and in some cases, years. Each of them also knew that the Einsatzgruppe had a job to do, and that it would have to be done no matter how many or how few of them remained to do it. None of them wanted to shirk his duty, or be disloyal to the gruppe.
These men were not the Waffen SS, not even really soldiers. They were the Ordnungpolizei, the Order Police. Middle-aged, working-class men, city men that had been impressed into service to free up the younger and more fit for the fighting at the front. Just your ordinary German.
Hari took the opportunity to observe the conduct of the men assigned to him, as a barometer of the average German citizen. That’s what these were, average German between 35 and 50, men with families. Well-settled men who had been pulled out of jobs or professions, and they were often from a homogenous location so they may have known each other all their lives.
Hari picked up the Battalion files to acquaint himself with his charges.
Take the Sergeant, one of the younger men at 48, Karl Streim, had been a Deputy City Clerk for many years, but had been impressed into service, mostly for his logistical skills. He was hardly the typical German Wermacht Sergeant. Instead he was quietly phlegmatic, an almost pedantic man whose meticulous ways ensured a smooth-running organization. But he was not a man you’d pick to cover your back in a pitched hand-to-hand battle.
Corporal Alfred Wohlauf had been a teacher at one of the Darmstadt Gymnasiums. A little more militaristic than the Sergeant, he was responsible for what drilling and training the men received. At the formation of the 307, there had been intensive training, but that had been years earlier, and since then, they had been pretty well ignored, except when they were needed and deployed.
Wilhelm Scheer was also a Corporal, now aged 52, had been the manager of a Notions wholesaler, and he was the Company thief. Thief, in that he was their procurement officer. When materials, weapons, or food, or whatever were needed. Wilhelm was your man. His trades were legendary, and he kept the men as well supplied as was possible in the middle of the war. Of course he was also responsible for many of the complaints that town officials and housewives made to the Sergeant.
Then there was Paul Sereny. A midget who had been employed at a now-defunct circus was now the 307 Battalion clown. He was a Private, and hardly a military figure, he was nevertheless renowned as absolutely fearless, known to venture into any danger at the drop of a hat.
Alfred Schimpke, 56, was a restaurant manager who had actually run a café mit schlag place. His wife had died of heart disease, but he had two grown children who wrote to him regularly. To the Battalion, he was ‘Uncle Alfred’, a man everybody took their troubles to. Even if he had no answers, he always gave consolation. He was a Private, long overdue for promotion, but no one worried much about that in the 307.
There were always one who did not get along with the group, and in this group that was probably Otto-Julius Steiner. At age 62, he was the oldest of the Battalion and the only true Jew-hater. He doted on Die Sturmer, had his personal copy of The Protocols of The Elders of Zion, and had even read Mein Kampf all the way through. In spite of the popularity of Hitler’s early biography, it was generally agreed that the book was unreadable. A particular target of Paul Sereny, the midget, they could reduce the entire Battalion almost to tears when Otto-Julius wound up chasing his tormentor.
Erwin Retzlaff was an anomaly among the members of the gregarious Battalion. Aged 50, he kept his own counsel. Slow-thinking and slow-speaking, he was nevertheless well liked by the close-knit group, and he was respected for his great strength. This Private was the one that everyone wished for at his back in a serious fight.
Rudi Kube was rumored to be the older brother of a young German General now on the Russian Front. At 57, he was more out of shape than in, and his uniforms always seemed to be ill-fitting because they were too small for him, and he was too cheap to pay a tailor to let out his clothes. His almost-legendary stinginess had earned him the title of ‘Jew’, and he was generally called Jew Rudi to his great annoyance. Everyone knew that he was also a ‘soft-touch’ for a cigarette or a couple of marks.
Private Georg Karlsen was, surprisingly enough, the acknowledged leader of the Battalion. At 56, he had been in the First War and had a familiarity with tactics and the idiocy of officers. The men listened to him, and First Sergeant Streim took great care to consult with him on any move the Battalion might make.
Private Ernst Mehler was more suffered than liked. At age 49, he’d failed at more businesses than most people ever thought of. He was one of those who wanted to be liked by everyone, a puppy always wagging his tail. He was tolerated, and no one doubted that no matter what the Battalion was ordered to do, Ernst would be right there with them, forever trying to win favor.
Gustav Kageler was a 53-year-old amiable drunk. Amiable unless he had to go without, and then he was a terrible grumbler. But give him a beer or a shot, and he was pleasant and contempt. He had been a highway worker back home, and was no longer with his family. Everyone knew that his drinking had started long before the foundation of the Battalion. A running joke was that they were going to take his drink away a day before a coming battle, so that he would be angry enough to fight.
Conrad Jobst had been in the Wermacht, but had been kicked out for hitting an officer. It was rumored that he broke the man’s jaw. Now 56, he had served his term and been relegated to the Police Battalion as a Private. Social enough, but a generally angry man, he was looked upon as a real asset in case of a fight.
Primo Haslach owed his first name to an Italian mother, but he was proud of it and ready to fight anyone who said he didn’t look like a ‘Primo.’ Proud of his physique at 53, Private Haslach was a professional bricklayer, and much sought after back home. A huge man, the Battalion wisdom said that with Primo in the front ranks, any enemy would be so scared he’d take ‘French Leave.’
Private Hartwig Girzik at 50 was tired of jokes about his name. So his name was Polish, so what? His parents had both been born in Ramstein and he was as German as they come. The best shot in the Battalion by far, Hartwig practiced every chance he got, telling everybody that he’d save their lives one day. Maybe he’s get his chance.
Hermann Jacklein, now a Private, had been a Corporal, and Hari knew that it took some doing to get busted down in a Police Battalion. Hermann was sanguine about his misadventure, readily admitting that he used to have a drinking problem, and yes, he probably did break up the Bierstubbe, but he didn’t remember a single thing about it, and would everybody just leave him alone and talk about something else? Known as a brawler, even at the age of 52, Jacklein was a welcome addition to any military operation.
The 307 Order Police Battalion came from Darmstadt. Although each Police Battalion was supposed to be composed of 500 men, the number dwindled as more and more classes were called up by the Army and the Gestapo, classes that had previously been excluded. Then, considering the strenuousness of the work that was sometimes required, it was not surprising that death and injury further reduced the number to the present 15.
Only 15, but, supported by the troops of the SS, they were considered sufficient to make up the Einzatsgruppe that was to exterminate the village of Lidice.
Repugnant though the job may have been, twelve of the fifteen still stood with Hari. One person complained of illness, ‘Uncle’ Alfred Schimpke was taken with stomach pains and diarrhea, which Hari attributed more to the sensitivity than to biology. ‘Jew’ Rudi Kube actually had his leg broken in three places in an altercation with a 6x6 truck, so there was no question about his sensitivity. Gustav Kageler had flatly refused to take part. He would be dealt with later, but Hari had not decided how.
The next morning, Hari gathered together the twelve men of the Einsatzkommando, ten of them equipped with Schmeiser machine-pistols, and two of them manning the MG-34 heavier machine gun which was mounted behind the tailboard of one of the huge six-wheel trucks.
The village had been surrounded, and the men of the Waffen SS had just gathered the townspeople in the square without trouble when an old man and a young boy made a sudden and desperate dash to escape, spoiling the orderliness of the operation because old Otto-Julius opened fire, the damned fool, bloodily shredding the stumbling duo. That was bad enough, but what followed made it much, much worse.
Hari had done everything possible to allay the fears of the citizens as they were rounded up, trying to keep them as calm as possible so they would not cause a problem and upset his men, but the shooting ended that effort, and suddenly Hari was faced with a full-fledged riot. Women were crying and screaming, and men were shouting and trying to break through the cordon that the SS men had established across the main exit road from the village.
Hari fired his Walther into the air several times, and pushed his way into the melee, shoving and punching and kicking in an attempt to quiet them down, but it was no use. Finally Hari re-holstered his Walther, chambered his Schmeiser and started firing into the struggling, closely-packed throng. His men, hearing the telltale flat clicking roar, joined in with their own machine-pistols, firing indiscriminately at the roiling mass. Then the louder spitting sound of the MG-34 cut in, and slowly, over what seemed like hours, but was likely only minutes, the crowd thinned and gave way to clumps of intertwined body parts lying in red and black piles made up of fathers, mothers and children. Screaming and angry shouts quieted to moans and death-rattles. Hari was terrified that his men had been shooting each other, but by some miracle, not one of the old fools had been hit.
The job somehow got done. It was messier than Hari would have liked, and he was more upset than he should have been to set an example of the steely-nerved commander performing his duty, but the job got done anyway.
Noticing one of the Waffen SS wielding a motion-picture camera recording the scene, Hari, with a berserker roar, sprang at the man, and, with a vicious swipe of his Schmeiser batted the heavy camera from the surprised soldier’s hands, the man’s eyes bulging as the black-clad Major screamed at him, ‘Dolt! Are you crazy? What makes you think we would want a record of this mess? Are you proud of what we have done this day? Would you want your mother to see this film? Get out of my sight, scheisskopf, before I mistake you for a resident of this Gott-verdammt place.
Yes, Hari ordered the coup de grace administered to the wounded civilians in the form of a pistol shot to the neck. He even shot three of them himself. What else was he to do? His orders were clear, and he understood that it was necessary to level and depopulate Lidice in order to preserve the peace further down the line. How else were they to impose order if not to clearly announce that uprisings would be met with draconian punishments? It was safer for the German occupiers, and in the end, safer also for the average citizen. Eventually, they would comprehend and his true role would be understood. Nevertheless, for some unknown reason, he was still uncomfortable in his command. His ego was being fed day by day, but on the other hand...
By God, he was thinking about them killing children! No, that wasn’t quite correct. In fact, it was all about HIM killing children, for he would be the one who was in command of the operation to destroy the town and its inhabitants. He had been told that he had him he had to kill the children.
For just a moment he was taken aback, was there no stopping point to what he would do to maintain or even improve his position? Was there any telling where this all might lead? This was not a conscious thought, only a flitting chimera, for to make it conscious would be to make it too real. It would demand a confrontation between greed and morality, and it was easier to allow rationalization to lead the way to the easier, the more profitable path, the path that would allow him to continue to enjoys his status.
But still there was this... thing... nagging somewhere, tugging at the corners of his mind.
THE FREIHERR SPEAKS AGAIN
Brandt summoned them the next day, and Hari and Seeckt walked into Brandt’s office together. He did not ask them to sit down. Seeckt whispered to Hari from the side of his mouth. ‘We’re in for it, now.’
The Freiherr was standing, his hands clasped behind him, looking out the windows toward the blank brick wall that was his view some 10 feet away. ‘I told you, Volkmann. I told you and told you. Why couldn’t you just listen for once.’ Brandt turned around to face them. ‘We are going to miss you around here, Volkmann, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you.’
‘Freiherr, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why don’t you just get on with it.’
‘Sure, Volkmann. It’s the Vampire case. I told you there were important people on it. I told you to stay away from it. It’s your fault. There’s no one else to blame.’
‘What’s my fault? Blame about what?’
‘The Reichminister’s office called.’
‘Goering? What did they want?’
‘You, of course. What else could they want? They want you. You have an appointment on Tuesday at 0200 hours.’
‘I’ll have to check my calendar, see if I have time for Goering this week.’
‘Always with the jokes, Volkmann. We’ll see how funny you are after your little meeting. That is, if you even come back. Make sure your files are in order, Volkmann, so your successor can just step in.’
‘Sure, Freiherr. I’ll have it all set up for you.’
‘You had your warning, Volkmann. Remember the last meeting with Goering? Very few people survive even one meeting, let alone two. It’s been nice working with you. You were the best, but I guess that Seeckt can pick up where you leave off.’


THE REICHMINISTER AND THE PUTSCH
Volkmann was more than a little worried about another summons to appear before Goering. He was fairly sure that what Brandt said was correct. He was about to get gigged over the Vampire case, but he was determined to ride it through.
He appeared in the Reichminister’s reception area at the appointed time, and somewhat to his surprise, he was not kept waiting, but was rather shown directly in. That could be either good or bad, Hari didn’t know which.
He was directed to the white circular rug at the entrance to the office, and there he stood, awaiting the pleasure - or displeasure of the occupant.
‘Sit, sit, my boy. You are one of us now, a strong and brave warrior!’ The Bavarian Prime Minister sat stolidly on an immense padded bench of gilt and orange, his face wreathed in fat and smiles. His blubbery lips moved constantly as he fed morsels into them, and his chipmunk cheeks quivered under his porcine agate-like black eyes.
Hari thought that ‘Unser Hermann’ had become so fat that he was almost a parody of his younger, handsome blonde self. The poor man was stuffed into a gold-braided and bemedaled comic-opera white uniform, his enormous jowls spilling over his high collar.
Goering had summoned him again to the Residence of the Parliamentarian in spite of the fact that there was no longer a Parliament. They had voted themselves out of existence at Hitler’s request so that he could rule by Emergency Decree during a crisis that never seemed to end.
‘Your wife and children are well?’ Goering asked pointedly.
‘Very well, Excellency’, replied Hari. Their relationship was not of a nature that would allow Hari to inquire after Goering’s family, in spite of the declaration that he was now, ‘one of them’.
‘Major Volkmann... Hari, if I may...’ Certainly Hari would be the last to object.
‘... Hari, what do you know of the S.A., the Sturm Abeitlung? I ask you to speak freely, without fear, as a veteran policeman who must have had substantial contact.’
‘Since you ask me to speak freely, I must tell you Reichminister, that I consider them brutal and undisciplined, ‘bully boys’ in uniform. They are often the subject of our investigations, and we find them hard to ‘bring to book’ because of their high-level protection.’
‘That is all about to change, Hari, and that is why you are here. We want you to be part of that change.’
‘As you will, Reichminister.’
‘You know that Ernst, Ernst Roehm, the head of the S.A. - the Storm Troopers if you wish, is one of the APKs, one of the Alter Partei Kameraden, the elite of the National Socialists.’
‘Of course, Reichminister, that goes without saying.’
‘An ugly brute, fat and crude, with that slash across his face. I never liked him, right from the beginning.’
‘Yes, Reichminister.’
‘Oh, I won’t deny that they had their uses, there at the beginning. With all the enemies that the NSDAP had, the Socialists and the Communists, and, of course, the Jews, a little brute force was sometimes needed.’
‘It’s just that they sometimes treated the police as their enemy.’
‘Yes, yes. Regretable. They are, of course the lowest of the low. Sweepings of the gutter, the remnants of the old Freicorps, and there are so many of them.’
‘They do seem to be numerous Reichminister, roving the streets in their bands.’
‘Yes, well... It is a difficult situation, and it has recently become more difficult. You see, Hari, there are too many groups competing for power, and it is becoming unwieldy, and maybe even dangerous.’
‘Dangerous, Reichminister?’
‘Oh, for a long time they served a definite purpose. They are not University or Army trained, they are not the elite of the nation, they sent a message to the ordinary people of the nation. The workers of the hand and of the land were important to the National Socialists, more important than the elite, the intellectuals, and the Jews. It was to be a path to power for the ordinary man, but they are out of hand.’
‘In what way, Reichminister?’
‘Now they want to swallow the Army.’
Hari bristled. ‘They want to take over the Army? Please tell me that won’t be possible, Reichminister.’
‘Be patient, Hari. We will get to it. Yes, they want to lord it over the Army. Roehm has been positively embarrassing in his campaign to get Hitler to appoint him Minister of War. He considers the Army Generals ’old clods’ and longs for the power as a puling adolescent yearns for a siren.’
‘And the Fuhrer, what does he think of all this?’
‘It is very complicated. Roehm is an old compatriot of the Fuhrer. It is even said that Roehm took a bullet for him during the Munich Putsch.’
‘And yourself, Reichminister?
‘I abhor his lust for power. I abhor it so much that I have given up control of the Gestapo to Reichminister Himmler, in exchange for SS cooperation in any operation I may institute against the SA leadership.’
‘And what of the Army?’
‘Oh, the Army, they would be willing to take him on with fists and teeth, but the law does not allow the Army to operate against German citizens. They see him as their implacable enemy. The time of the mindless activism of the streets has come to an end.’
‘Reichminister, to topple the SA I would gladly do whatever I can, in whatever role you see for me.’
‘The Fuhrer, somewhat pressed by the Army, and myself, of course, finally realizes the danger of Roehm. The rotten homosexual core of the SA disgusts the Fuhrer, or course, and he realizes it must be rooted out, no matter what the cost. He has also been given evidence that Roehm is actually planning a coup to replace the Fuhrer with himself as the head of the nation. What do you think of that?’
‘I am your instrument, Reichminister.’
‘We expected nothing less. The Fuhrer has authorized a ‘blood purge’ to destroy the SA leadership. A conference has been planned at the pleasant resort hotel at Tegernsee, where Hitler and his staff will meet with Roehm and his staff to plan for the future of the SA. It is up to us to assure that there will be no future. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, Reichminister. And my role?’
‘You are to have the honor of planning and overseeing the execution of the plan, with the use of Gestapo Death Squads. This will be a two-pronged assault. You are to take Roehm and his group into custody at Turgensee, and transfer them to Stadelheim Prison in Munich for interrogation. I expect that you will lead this attack. At the same time, someone you will deputize is to round up the SA leadership in Berlin. They are then to be taken to the SS barracks at Lichterfelde, also for interrogation. You are to note that the Fuhrer has referred to this as a ‘blood purge’, and if some of the arrestees do not make it to interrogation, no blame is to be attached to you. Do you understand?’
‘Zu Biffel, Reichminister.’
‘Thank you, Hari, I knew I could count on you. Now you may leave.’
‘Uhhh... Reichminister?
‘Yes my boy?’
‘There is a matter over which others seem to be troubled.’
‘And you are involved?’
‘I am the investigator on the case.’
Goering smiled. ‘Really? I thought you had been taken off the case.’
‘It is my case, Reichminister, and I must follow it. It only makes sense. I have been on it from the beginning, and I am familiar with everything connected with it.’
‘Hari, what if I were to tell you to drop it?’
‘I regret to say that it would have an effect on my opinion of you.’
‘I am aware of the situation, Hari. You are brave almost to the point of foolishness. There are powerful forces at work here.’
‘There has never been any doubt in my mind about that. Nevertheless, this is my job. It is what I am good at, and if I am stopped from doing my job, then I will feel that my life has no value.’
‘That is about what I had expected of you. Let it be known that I am monitoring the situation, and if there is interference or less than complete cooperation, I will take it as a personal affront.’
‘Thank you Reichminister.’
Goering took a tall leather wallet from the breast pocket of his ornate uniform, withdrew a small document and handed it to Hari. ‘It is already dictated and prepared for you. Use it well, it is a pass that allows you to exercise considerable power as my personal Deputy. I’m sure I do not have to tell you to use it wisely.’
‘I don’t know what to say, Reichminister.’
‘There is nothing to say. One hand washes the other... and Hari?
‘Yes, Reichminister?’
‘From now on, where it comes to this case, I want you to report to my office directly. Tell Brandt I said so. That should take care of it.’
‘Again, I am in your debt, Reichminister.’
‘Yes you are, Hari. Just do your job and report to me. I tell you now that you may not agree with the final disposition in the case, but that is my decision, and not yours. You just do your job. Dismissed.’




.
WISTER UNDER THE GUN

Owen Wister, Assistant Minister of the State of Brunswick, a Generaloberst of the German Army, a small and elegantly outfitted man, trembled before his superior.
‘_But_’
‘But me no buts, little man. You were given an assignment and you have failed in that obligation. 3 stupid whores are dead_’
‘Pardon me, but only two of the girls were whores, the third was the daughter of a respected Generalmajor, who, I might add, has been devastated by the death of his daughter_’
‘Fuck the Generalmajor and fuck you, Wister. The Kriegsamt is in an uproar over these foolish women. You were supposed to handle it.’
Wister was whining. ‘But it is the Kriminalinspektor_’
‘Look. Get this through your head. I don’t care if it is Winston Churchill and his Jew friend Rozenkrantz, I do not have time for this. I have Himmler and Goering on my neck, and any day now, I expect a call from the Fuhrer himself about this stupidity, and you better believe it will not be me hanging on a meat hook!’
The little man clicked the heels of his mirror-polished boots and dipped his head in submission. ‘I understand, and I will do my duty.’
‘I expect nothing less, and, mind you, I will have nothing less. Now, get out of here with your stupid whining excuses, and I do not want to see you again unless you have been successful.’
Wister threw the man a perfect ‘Heil’ and spun on his toes to leave the room, his heels clicking across the marble floor, rationalizing his actions to himself as he went. He had imperiously straight-armed the two Kriminalinspektors who had been sic’d on him, and that should have been enough. But then the two bastards had gone behind his back and kept on with their infernal questions. The arrogance of them! Scheisse! He had even gone to their boss, Braun, and he didn’t understand why they had not gotten the message.
He had called Braun when the matter had first arisen, and just after the3 meeting with the Kriminalinspektors . ‘Braun? Wister here. I am very disappointed in you. In fact, I am more than disappointed, I am angry. Braun, and I am not a man that you would want to make angry.’
‘Of course not, Herr Assistant Minister. I do not understand what I could have done to cause you any displeasure.’
‘It is not what you have done, Braun, it is what you have not done.’
‘Whatever it is, Assistant Minister. I sincerely and humbly apologize, and I vow to do better in the future.’
‘You better, Braun. I am not one for excuses.’
Braun was diffident. ‘Of course, Herr Assistant Minister. But, Herr Assistant Minister... Might I ask what it is that I have left undone?’
‘Braun, Braun. What have you done about those two dolts you call Kriminalinspektors?
There was silence for a moment, and then Braun said, ‘You mean Seeckt and Volkmann?’
‘I don’t remember their names, you fool. The ones who were causing trouble over the whores. You know who I mean.’
‘They have been removed from the case Assistant Minister.’
‘Really? Then why are they still causing trouble?’
‘I don’t know Assistant Minister. I cannot imagine¼’
‘I do not ask you to imagine, Braun. I do not ask you anything. I tell you. Get those assholes off the case or you will be found hanging off a meat hook. Am I understood?’
‘Yes, of course Herr Assistant Minister. Right away Herr Assistant Minister. I will see to it personally.’
‘I expect you to see to it personally, Braun, or else I will see to you personally. Heil Hitler.’ The sound told Braun that the Assistant Minister had dropped the phone into the cradle angrily.
It only took one phone call to Wansee for Braun to realize that Volkmann and Seeckt
were still working the Vampire case, but it also brought to mind that Volkmann was the darling of both Goering and Himmler. Maybe the Assistant Minister did receive calls from both of them, but Brandt was sure that neither Goering nor Himmler knew who they were making the calls about. Once they found out, Brandt figured there might be a change in the equation.
There was no way of telling how this all might shake out, but Brandt knew that he was in a difficult position. On the one hand he had Wister pushing him to do something about Volkmann and Seeckt, but on the other hand, he knew that if he made serious moves against Volkmann, he would have to answer to Goering and Himmler. Of the two choices, he preferred to handle the anger of Wister to the alternatives, but he knew that somehow he would have to explain the situation to Goering and Himmler so they could weight the alternatives. Obviously they were protecting someone, but it would depend on how important that person was.
Brandt had enough experience with Volkmann to know that he was relentless, and that once he got his teeth into a case, then it was only a matter of time before that case would be solved. Hari was retribution seeking someone, but the question was, who?

























WELCOME HOME
Judit was washing dishes in the little apartment on Wilmerstrasse in the picture-book Swiss town of Zermatt. The kitchen window framed a postcard view of the brightly snow-capped Jungfrau, and she daydreamed as she worked methodically in the sunshine that streamed in on her.
She missed Hari, but she was terrified of returning to Germany. She thought that if Hari could just get out, anyway he could, then they might go somewhere, maybe England. She knew so many of their friends that had gone to England. Maybe even to America, even though she thought that might be a little too much of a pipe dream.
There was a knock at the door. It seemed a little too peremptory, even demanding. I wonder who that can be? Probably one of those verdamnt Swiss bureaucrats. Those assholes who were forever finding new forms to fill out and charge fees for. To save time, she pulled her passport and papers from the top kitchen drawer and started toward the door.
It had only been luck that she had gotten out of Germany before they canceled the Jewish passports. Now it would have been impossible. The Swiss were sometimes difficult, but once again she thanked God that she was here and not there.
At the door, she could see the dark form of a man through the pebbled glass panes, so she paused before opening the locks to ask: “Vo bist du?”
The answer came back in the form of a question: “Frau Volkmann?”
Reassured, she turned the lock and opened the door. Her knees turned to water and the nausea rose in her throat.
He stood there, an SS officer in a black uniform with death’s head flashes on collar and campaign cap. Legs spread, he stood stolidly, arms akimbo and thumbs hooked in the patent-leather belt. He looked at her quizzically, “Frau Volkmann?”
He must have known what the sight of his uniform would do to a Jewish-German woman, but he remained impassive.
Holding onto the door to be able to stand, Judit could only stare without answering. She was struck speechless.
“Frau, you are to come with us.”
For the first time she saw the two other SS men that stood close behind the officer. Her nightmares had come alive, and she collapsed right where she stood.
She regained consciousness to find herself in the backseat of a large, luxurious car. She was seated between the two SS men, and the officer was in the front seat, but turned so that he could see her, his arm up across the back of the seat. The car was being driven by an older man in civilian dress, probably a Swiss.
“Ah, Frau Volkmann, I see you have returned to us.” A sardonic smile flitted across his face.
Inside, Judit was still close to hysteria, but she was frozen with fear. “What is this?” Her voice trembled, and she was ashamed of her fear, but unable to control it.
The officer shrugged. “It is only that we take you back home. Back to Germany.”
A wail rose unbidden from her throat.
‘No, no, Frau Volkmann. You do not understand. You have no need to fear us. Germany is your home. We take you to re-unite you with Major Volkmann’.
Judit’s brain unfroze and processed this new information. ‘Major’ Volkmann? Who was Major Volkmann? It couldn’t be Hari. Hari was a police inspector. He wasn’t even in the army. Gerd was in the army, but a Major? It could not be.
The officer saw she was still petrified.
‘Your husband, Frau, the Herr Major. You are to be together.’
‘But this is Switzerland, by what right...?’
The officer was almost apologetic. ‘What is this talk of rights? This is not a question of rights. We take you to your husband. It is where you belong.’ The more he spoke the more confident he sounded.
‘But the border... My passport... My papers...’
He waved his hand dismissively. ‘No, Frau Volkmann, we are Diplomatic, no? None of that nonsense for us. We will go right through the border to where a special railway car awaits us for a pleasant trip back to Berlin.’
Oh God! That was her last chance. A plan had been taking shape in her head. She would make a scene at the border. She would run. She would scream for help. The Swiss would help, they would have to help! But they would not even be stopping at the border.
‘I have no clothes. All my things in my apartment...’ She was coming back to herself, and her hysteria was returning. ‘...Oh God!’ She screamed in a high voice. ‘My children. I cannot leave the children.’ She was pleading now. ‘You would not make me leave my children! You could not be so cruel.’
The officer put a hand on her arm, and said in a voice filled with concern. ‘Frau, Frau! Calm yourself. All is arranged. Your children are being retrieved at school even as we speak. We will meet them at the train. They will be riding with us back to Berlin. Your clothes will also await you at the train, all is being cared for. Not to worry, Frau. All else will be shipped back to Berlin. All is arranged. All is arranged.’
She heard him. She even wanted to believe him. The alternative was nightmarish, but believe the SS? How could she believe the SS? She dissolved in exhaustion. There was nothing to be done. All must await whatever happened. She must trust in God to protect her and her children. There was no one else.
True to the officer’s promise, Trudl and Frans were already within the railroad car when she arrived. She did not even notice that it was a sumptuous private car and not the cattle car with open wooden slats that she had been expecting. Rushing into the car, she swept the terrified children up in her arms and shushed away their tears until they were quieted. Then she tried to reassure them, telling them they were going to Daddy, and all would be fine.
He met them at a small railway station just outside Berlin. He had received a telegram from Zermatt, telling him that they were on the way, and what time they were scheduled to arrive. Truth be told, he was not ready for them. He had not been telling Judit of his meteoric rise and was unsure of how she would receive the news. The telegram had been given to him when he arrived at the office, and he was in full uniform for a meeting which was scheduled for later in the morning. The thing was, that he was about to meet her wearing his full uniform, and wished it were otherwise.
THE MEETING
Descending from the train after the officer had unlocked the door for her, she was still holding on to the brass rail when she realized that arrayed before her was a semicircle of Gestapo officers. Taken aback because she had been expecting Hari. She staggered for a moment with the sight of her worst nightmare come to life, and stopped on the last step, her children peeking out from behind her.
It was Trudl who cried ‘Papa!’ and squirmed past her to run to one of the black-clad visions. Judit let out a cry as the officer put out his arms to pick up the little girl who was squealing in delight. Perceiving, but not actually seeing, her child in the arms of a monster, all the rumors she had heard about Gestapo families raising Jewish children came to life.
Her cry echoed through the confines of the railway station. ‘NO-O-O-O-O!’and she ran with her face in rictus and claws outstretched to tear her child from the arms of this devil who was snuggling her.
It would be easy to say that Hari was blase about the whole scene, but in truth he was mostly just frozen, almost paralyzed with fear as this screaming harpy descended on him. He put the child down gently and turned to face Judit, who came to him now with fists upraised as she fell upon him, her hands balled into hammers as she pounded on his chest, again and again, all the time wailing that plaintive ‘N-O-O-O-O-O-o-o-o-o...
The cry trailed off as she finally heard the man’s voice trying to connect with her. Trying to soothe her. ‘Judit. Judit. It’s all right. It’s okay. It’s me. It’s me. Look at me. It’s me, Hari. It’s just me. Everything is all right. I love you. I missed you so much. It’s all right, Judit. It’s all right.’
It was only then that she looked up at his face, and then the face, the uniform, Berlin, the train, everything, came together, and if Hari had not held her up, she would have collapsed in a heap at his feet.
Hari shepherded her and the kids into the huge black car, complete with fender flags and motorcycle outriders, all of which had been placed at his disposal as part of his reward for faithful service. Hari busied himself with the eager and anxious children, while an almost-catatonic Judit huddled in the corner, taking it all in with frightened eyes but without speaking.
Professor Jost was already waiting for them in their old apartment as Hari half-carried Judit into the foyer as the children trailed behind. Carefully placing her on the couch, leaving her alone with Jost and the children, he went into their bedroom and changed into his casual clothes. He chose garments that were familiar to her, instinctively reacting to her trauma.
She lay on the couch for a while, gradually edging up until she was more-or-less in a sitting position, and ever-so-slowly, her eyes brightened and she became aware of her surroundings. Finally she turned to Hari, and said, ‘Hari, is that really you?’
He went to the couch and sat next to her while Jost played with the kids, but he was a little disconcerted when she obviously drew away from him. ‘Yes Judit, it’s me. We’re back here in our own home, together with the children. Really, everything is all right.’
‘Who was that man in the SS uniform with the gun, the one that looked like you?’ She said. Still suspicious.
Hari turned serious. ‘That was me too, Judit.’
‘How could that be you? You’re only a policeman, and that was not the uniform of a policeman. Besides, you haven’t worn a uniform since you were a uniformed officer on the street.’
Hari drew a deep breath. ‘There’s a lot that you don’t know.’
‘Start off with why I am here. Why were the children and I forcibly dragged out of Switzerland to come back to this horrible place?’
‘Judit, there is nothing to fear. You and the children have been made honorary Aryans.’
‘Hari, you know that I, for one, do not see that as much of an honor.’
‘Not even if it means that you and the children are safe forever?’
‘And what did it cost for this wonderful honor?’
‘I am in the Gestapo,’ He raised his hand to still her exclamation. ‘I know. I know. But it was the only way. Not only for my job, but also for you and the children. To protect you. It was my duty.’
‘Duty to what? To their vaunted Third Reich? To that rotten bastard Hitler?’
Hari sighed. He had known this would not go well. ‘No, Judit. My duty to my family.’
Judit sneered. ‘Very noble, I’m sure. You made this great sacrifice for the bunch of gangsters who are murdering my entire people.’ And what did you get out of it?’
‘You and the kids for one thing.’
‘And what else?’
‘They made me a Major.’
‘A Major in the SS, you must be very proud. Who did you have to kill to be a member of this brave and honorable fighting force?’
‘Please, Judit. Try to understand. I am a German and this is my government. What I do is for you, but also for Germany.’
‘Oh no you don’t, you bastard. You can’t blame this on the kids and me. We were off safe in Switzerland, and you could have been there too.’
‘No, I couldn’t. Remember? I tried just to visit, and they wouldn’t let me out of Germany.’
‘Oh, you could have got across if you really tried. How about all those that are smuggled out of this farkukte country all the time?’
‘I couldn’t. I am too well known and I know too much. They would never let me go. I am watched all the time.’
‘You?’ She sneered. ‘What do you know that is so important? How many poor innocents you have sent to prison?’
Stung, Hari responded. ‘I thought you were proud of my job. You always seemed to be.’
‘I was proud of the policeman, not some monster of a Gestapo agent!’
There it was. Hari, desperate to connect with his wife, to somehow impress her with his new importance, blurted out, ‘I know the truth about the Reichstag Fire.’
‘You know what?’
‘No, I shouldn’t have said anything.’
‘But you did. What do you know about the Reichstag Fire?’
‘It was arson.’
‘Of course it was arson. Everybody knows that. It was the Dutch guy. A moron.’
‘No, Judit. It was ordered by the higher ups.’
Suspiciously, she asked. ‘Just who are these higher-ups?’
‘It’s better if you don’t know...
‘Hari...! She warned.
‘Goering and Himmler.’
For just a moment, Judit was struck speechless. Then she asked, ’You know Goering and Himmler?’
Modestly, Hari just nodded.
‘But they are monsters, Hari.’
‘Judit, I know that to you they must seem like monsters, and I confess that I originally thought so as well, but it is only that some of the things that they must do, appear to be monstrous, but it is only that they are necessary.’
‘Hari, I don’t know what to say.’
‘Don’t you remember how beaten Germany was after the end of the First War? And during the Weimar Republic. Germany was being nibbled to death by lesser peoples. We had been sold out during the War, and then the sellers had taken over the country and were turning us into a permanently beaten and subservient nation.’
At least we were respected as an honest and civilized people.’
Almost against his will, Hari laughed. ‘Respected? You think we were respected? Let me tell you something, my gentle wife, respect only comes out of fear, and no one, no one, feared us. You can say what you will, but the National Socialists have restored our respect, and they have done it by strength, and yes, sometimes by acts which may seem monstrous, but which only reinforces our resolve, and enhances our respect.’
Plaintively, Judit asked, ‘Hari, do you know what is going on in this country?’
‘As much as I need to. As much as affects me and mine and also allows me to do my job. Why, even now I am caught up in a political struggle involving one of my cases, and I am confident that the leadership will back me to the hilt. That is what is going on in this country.’
‘Hari, maybe it is that both you and Germany are mad, but will eventually recover. I can only hope so, because it seems that, for good or ill, we are tied together. You are my husband and I am your wife and it is clear that the Gestapo mean for us to be together. I can only hope that you will come to your senses soon, but in the meanwhile, you will do me the favor of not asking me to approve of what you do.’
JUSTIFICATION
‘Don’t you see, Judit? This is real police work. Finally there is a chance to get rid of the SA scum, the vicious sadists who have made our lives hell for years. Can you not at least admit that this is something that needs to be done?’
‘Hari, Hari. Yes, you’re right. This is something that needs to be done, but it is the way that it is being done. This is not done according to the law, it is a power struggle between gangs. They don’t dare use the Army, the Army would not do such a thing. With the Army it would be a matter of honor.’
‘Judit, at least admit that it is a good thing.’
‘Okay, but a good thing done in a bad way is still a bad thing. Look at the terminology, for God’s sake. Your Fuhrer orders a ‘blood purge’ and it is to be carried out by a Gestapo ‘Death Squad’. Not even the regular Gestapo, for heaven’s sakes, but the ‘Death Squad’! Hari, wake up, this is not law, this is murder. It is only murder authorized by murderers who are in power right now. Remember, they will not always be in power, and someday there will be a day of reckoning, I pray that the day will not also be for you.’
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Judit was being isolated. Her husband was a Gestapo officer. Her older son a lieutenant in the Wermacht, and the two younger children were now members of the Hitler Youth. She had fought this last as long as she could, until she realized that by keeping the children out of the Hitler Youth, she was making them different from their peers, pariahs to be singled out and picked on by the school bullies. Finally, she was forced to give in, and left to bite her lip when her own flesh-and-blood came home to spout Nazi propaganda.
COLUMN
It was three in the morning and the column of vehicles were spread out over half as mile as they sped along the Autobahn toward Turgensee. There were trucks as well as cars, but all with the exception of the first car with their lights blacked out. Hari was in the second car and sweating profusely. It was not overly warm, and he was not concerned with his logistics. Hari’s work was already done, the planning was over, and from here-on-in, he was more-or-less and observer for Goering.
It was just that Hitler rode in a huge Mercedes in the middle of the column. He was adamant that he be there for Roehm’s arrest, and nothing anybody said could dissuade him. Hari had been presented to him while Hitler was in conversation with two of the Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler, his private bodyguards. For just a moment the Fuhrer stopped talking, fixed his blue-eyed gaze upon Hari for what seemed to be an eternity, and then turned back to return to his conversation. Hari was dismissed without a word.
The vehicles rendezvoused as quietly as possible in a parking lot that was by the hotel. There was a complement of 100 Gestapo to deal with an expected seventeen members of the SA high command. The hotel was silent as they entered and spread out through the three floors. The first men into the lobby took over the desk and pulled all the plugs on the switchboard, forcing the protesting staff into a small back room behind the reception desk. At the same time, the room numbers of the SA group were parceled out.
Roehm was in room 237 and Hitler went to that room along with ten of the Gestapo. They used the key they had obtained from the desk to silently enter the room. Hitler positioned himself at the foot of the bed, and suddenly the full room lights were flipped on and powerful flashlights were focused on the occupants as the bed coverings were ripped aside.
Roehm and his young male companion were naked in the bed together, sleeping spoons. With a nod from Hitler, the young man was summarily dispatched with a single shot to the forehead, spattering blood and brains all over the headboard, and Roehm tumbled out of bed, startled, uncomprehending and sleepy-eyed. His eyes widened as he saw Hitler staring at him. ‘M-mein Fuhrer...’ He exclaimed.
Hitler was beside himself and trembling with rage as he strode forward and began slamming Roehm back and forth with the leather-covered riding crop that Hitler held in his hand. Covered by more guns than he could count in so short a time, Roehm could do nothing to stop the onslaught. Cowering, he was driven to the floor as bright red stripes began to appear all over his face and body, slashes from the riding crop where blood droplets suddenly bloomed and ran over. Roehm said nothing but ‘Uuhhnn...uhhnn, uuhhnn, uhnn, as he was struck.
Finally the Fuhrer turned away, his face blanched and strained, and several of the Gestapo unceremoniously dragged the SA Chief out through the door, his heels furrowing the pile on the thick carpet.
Fourteen of the Seventeen SA leaders survived the raid to be brought back to Stadelheim Prison. There, the still-naked disgusting lump named Roehm was pushed into an entry anteroom. Furnishings consisted of one wooden chair, one small rickety table, and upon the table, a tablet of lined paper, a pencil, and an old ‘Broomhandle’ model Mauser automatic pistol with one bullet already in the chamber, but none in the magazine. With one look at the setup, it was clear that Roehm was being offered the officer’s way out, courtesy of his old friend and comrade, Adolph Hitler.
Hari and several of the Gestapo men played cards outside the locked door of the room, waiting for the echo of the shot that sounded the end of Ernst Roehm. They waited and they waited. Time for prayer and time to write notes to those who might care, they thought. Fifteen minutes passed. Thirty minutes. Then it was an hour, and patience was exhausted. They threw open the door, and there sat a still-naked, but now humbled Roehm, once master of tens of thousands of vicious thugs. ‘Herr Hitler,’ he whined. ‘Take me to Hitler. This is not right. I am loyal, I have always been loyal.’
The Gestapo Captain made a rude noise in disgust, called Roehm a Pimpf - a kid from the Hitler Youth, and then in one movement unsnapped his holster, drew his Walther automatic and shot Roehm directly in the face. The man was dead before he hit the ground.
The shot was a signal to the Gestapo guarding the other 13 members of the SA leadership. All 13 were shot where they stood, and a single shot to the neck, a sign that had become a Gestapo Death Squad trademark, made sure of their deaths.
All-in-all, Hari’s plan went off like clockwork, with the single exception of a single sergeant shot by his own men in an embarrassing mistake, probably the result of a ricochet during the firing squad execution of a group of SA men.
Of course, given the tenor and enthusiasm for the destruction of the hated SA, mistakes were made in targeting certain individuals, and it was probably foreseeable that some of the Gestapo took the opportunity to eliminate some of their own personal rivals.


VISIT TO SACHSENHAUSEN
“Thanks for the offer, Hari. But it’s just not possible.”
Hari took that as an insult. “Not possible! Not possible! Of course it’s possible. I’m an SS Obersturmbannfuehrer! Do you really think that anything is impossible for an SS Obersturmbannfuehrer in today’s Germany?”
Erik put a placating hand on Hari’s arm. A KZ inmate placating an SS officer. “No, Hari. That’s not what I meant. Let’s face it. I’m a Jew in Germany. I’m going to be in trouble anywhere I go, and, for the present, I have it pretty good here. I’m a Sonderkommando, and they’ve given me charge of a squad of Sonderkommandos, and we live pretty well, considering_”
‘But_”
“Then there is Miriam and the children.”
“Yeah? What about them?”
“They’re here too, Hari. We’re all more or less hostages for each other. Like I said, thanks for the offer, but it’s really not possible.”
“Okay, I see. What if I could get you all out?”
“Listen, Hari, where could we go? You think you could get us out of the Reich?”
“That’s a little different. Hell, I couldn’t even get me out of the Reich, and I tried.”
“That’s the thing, Hari. If we’ve got to stay in the Reich, then this is probably the safest place for us. I appreciate the thought, but we might as well just stay here.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“I really appreciate it, Hari, especially knowing the position that you’re in.”
“The position I’m in?”
“You know, what with your Jewish wife and everything. Hell, at best your children are Mischlinge, half-breeds.”
Hari had forgotten. Well, not really forgotten, because it was always in the back of his mind, but with his promotion to Concentration Camp Inspector, it was really on the back burner. Erik brought it forward with a jolt. “Uh, that’s not really a problem anymore.”
‘How so?”
“They made them honorary Aryans.”
“Jesus! What did you have to do to get them to do that?”
Hari thought for a moment. His shame bloomed like a prize rose in a potful of fertilizer. Most of the time, he was unaware of his shame. In fact, most of the time he was proud of his exalted position. Proud of the way that he was kow-towed to. Proud of his connections to the leadership. Hari was a very middle-class man with very middle-class values. Middle class German values. He was a success. By any outside measurement he was a success. Prosperous and respected. It was only at times like this that doubts arose, and when they arose, they were monstrous.
Hari would have given almost anything to be able to talk over his predicament with someone, but there was no one that he could trust enough to be able to talk freely. Judit only knew what he told her, and that was very little, even though she probably knew there was much more under the surface, but it was also possible that she didn’t really want to know. Hari thought she might well be afraid of what she would discover. She was right.
So Hari lied to his friend Erik. "In here they have your family hostage to your good behavior, and out there, they have mine."
"Bastards."
Hari wanted Erik off the subject, so he asked, "Don't you find it hard to do their dirty work for them in here?"
Erik looked puzzled. "Do you really think that it's any harder for me to do their dirty work in here, than for you to do their dirty work out there?"
That stopped Hari cold, and for just a minute he was speechless. It didn't seem to be that way, but he was reminded of the story of the boiling frog. The one where a frog was put in a pot of cold water over a fire, and he never realized that the water was getting ever hotter until he was boiled. Hari suddenly realized that he was already boiled, he just hadn't realized it.
It had all seemed so easy, all those tiny little steps, with very good reasons for each of them. It was almost like a funnel, quite large on entry with lots of wiggle room, time and choices to make each decision. Then it got narrower, with less room, less time, less real choices, and now he was in the neck of the funnel where his progress was faster and faster, and everything was out of his control. He was marching in lockstep with the National Socialists to God only knew where.
But all he said was, "Yeah, well..."
"I understand, Hari. We all have our own path to take. Thanks for everything and I really miss working with you."
"Maybe after this war is over, Erik."
"I don't know, Hari. A lot of things have changed."
"But they'll always need policemen."
"I guess. Okay, see you, Hari." As quickly as he came, Erik was gone.


KZ INSPECTOR
Hari had been called to the Freiherr's Office, and he was surprised. He was almost never called to the Freiherr's office anymore. He was being left alone because he answered to higher powers.
He walked in. "Freiherr."
To Hari's surprise, the Freiherr stood and extended his hand for a handshake. His warm smile belied his relief at having a burr removed from under his saddle. "Hari my boy! Congratulations!" He grasped Hari's hand in both of his and shook it like he expected it to give milk.
"For what?"
"You've just been promoted. "
"No one has told me."
"They've told me, and I'm telling you. You have been promoted to Obersturmbannfuehrer! It is a great honor, and I am proud to have served with you. We will be sorry to lose you, but your promotion is a feather in my cap."
"Lose me? Am I going somewhere?"
"It's in line with your new promotion. You are appointed Abgeordnetkonzentration Lagerprufer." Brandt beamed.
"What the hell is that?"
"Deputy Concentration Camp Inspector. You report directly to Oberstgruppenfuehrer Eicke at Prinz-Albert Strasse. You know the place, Gestapo headquarters."
Hari did know the place, and it did not have a very good reputation. It's where the Gestapo did their interrogations, and he'd heard stories of the screams. "And what about my caseload?"
"Don't bother about it. I'll transfer them to your buddy here. He can handle them.'
"And the "Vampire?"
"That one particularly. We'll hand that over to the Abwehr. They should have been handling it anyway."
"How so? The killings were in our jurisdiction. What has the Army to do with it?"
"Come on, Hari. We both know that there are Army overtones to this case. Let the Army take care of its own. Heaven knows there hasn't been a lot of co-operation from anyone over the case."
"That's just the point. The Abwehr will bury it."
"Hey! You should be happy. You just got a promotion to a cushy new job. All you have to do it catch soldiers stealing from the Jews, and they stole it from someone in the first place. Should be a walk in the park."
"I'm still responsible for those dead girls."
"Hari, Hari. You going to worry about 3 dead whores in the middle of a war where thousands are dying every day? You have to take life as it comes. Take the promotion. Tour the countryside frightening camp guards. Drop the Vampire case."
"That's what this is all about, isn't it. Just to get me off the Vampire case."
"How do I know what it's all about? I'm just a piece of the machine. It's what all promotions are about. You did a good job on your present assignment and you get a better one."
"Kot! Not in today's Reich!"
"Careful, Hari. Take what they give you. The Russian Front is awfully cold this year."
"Okay, Freiherr. I think I understand. I'll go see Eicke at Prinz-Albert Strasse like a good boy, but you haven't seen the last of me. I'm a policeman. That's all I was and that's all I'll ever be. It was all I ever wanted to be."
"Mit gunser glucke, Hari, gunser glucke."

OBERSTGRUPPENFUEHRER THEODOR EICKE
Oberstgruppenfuehrer Theodor Eicke was a true success story in Hitler's Germany. Hari disliked him on sight. A brutal, jowly, beetle-browed, blocky-looking man in his 40's dressed in a slovenly uniform generously decorated with gold oak leaves and shoulder-strap spaghetti.
High collar open at the throat, the SS General was the son of a station master in Solingen. Eicke had served in the Great War, then in the Freikorps, becoming a Police Inspector before joining the Nazi Party. Fleeing to Italy to escape prosecution for involvement in bomb plots against political enemies, Eicke returned when Hitler came to power. Made commandant of Dachau, the first German concentration camp, he soon had a reputation for cruelty.
As a reward for murdering Ernst Roehm during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, he was appointed Inspector of Concentration Camps and head of the Totenkopf Units. His responsibility was the reorganizing of the concentration camp system and training the future commandants and their guards.
He was to be Hari's boss.
Eicke hooked his thumbs in his uniform jacket belt and eyed Hari up and down. "So you're the trouble, eh?"
"Oberstgruppenfuehrer?"
'The trouble, man. The trouble."
"I'm sorry, Oberstgruppenfuehrer. I'm sure I have no idea to what you might be referring."
"You have no idea to what I might be referring?" Eicke's face was red, and he sprayed as he yelled.
"No, sir."
"Look, Obersturmbannfuehrer Volkmann, I don't much care what you've been up to over at Freidrichstrasse, but you're at Prinz Albrechtstrasse now, and over here, you'll do as your told or you better start learning Russian. Get me?"
"Of course, Oberstgruppenfuehrer." Hari was standing so straight at attention that he actually quivered. He didn't like this arseloch, but he had no illusions as to the power that this man had. True, Hari had friends in high places, but so did Eickes, and Hari had no wish to get in the middle of a power struggle.
"You're my Deputy, and that means that you make the rounds of the camps and see how they are running. Let me tell you how I run my ship. You may be First Mate, but never forget that this is my ship. As I tell my men, you must live up to the death's head symbol of the Totenkopf Division and treat prisoners with, inflexible harshness. As for the men, you are to be just as harsh with them as they are to be with the camp inmates.
They think I am blind or stupid, but I know what is happening out there. Laxness, laziness, drunkenness, rank inefficiency. You and I must speak frankly about what is going on here. Our job, our honor, is the Final Solution of Das Jude Fragge. The Jewish Question must be solved in Europe before we can take our solution to the rest of the world. We must first exterminate our own vermin, every last man, woman and child. Yes, especially the children. They are the future, but they are not the future of the Reich, they are the future of the worldwide Jewish Cabal that is smothering the vitality of the Aryan race.
We have proven this theory again and again, and soon the Aryans of the world will unite with us to rise up and overthrow their Masters. In Germany they tried to dominate by outbreeding us. They breed like rats, four or five to our one. They have left us no choice. We must be hard to do what must be done. Do I make myself clear?”
“I will do my duty Obergruppenfuehrer.”
“Yes you will, Volkmann. There are two things that are paramount here. We must be more efficient in our mission. Herr Himmler demands that we step up our output, and that we do it in a cost-effective manner. I am under the gun myself, Volkmann, and that means so are you.
The other thing is the rampant theft of Reich treasure that has been confiscated from the Jews. My men think I do not know, but I can see by the statistics how much the average Jew has concealed, and from a count of the transferees, I can see what should be forwarded to Berlin as against what has been sent to us. It fluctuates, Volkmann. It fluctuates wildly. Do you know why?”
Hari was still at attention, and his muscles were cramping. His eyes were pointed over Eicke’s head. “No. Obergruppenfuehrer.”
Eicke’s voice became an angry hiss. “They are stealing, Volkmann. My own SS, the cream of the German military, they are stealing! We are charged with gathering up the belongings and little treasures of the Jews, even their hair and their gold teeth, but it all becomes the property of the Reich. My very own men are stealing from the Reich.” His voice was filled with wonder, as if such a thing was unthinkable.
“It will be up to you, Volkmann. I charge you to catch them and stop this embarrassment to our honor. They are a disgrace to you Volkmann. Her Himmler has shown us the way. There is to be no tolerance for the immoral swine who have disgraced our uniform. You are to show no mercy. Seek them out in the dark places where they hide. Hang them! String them up from meat hooks. Do it before the assembled staff. An object lesson for the rest. They must learn and understand, Volkmann. All must learn and understand.”
“Yes, Obergruppenfuehrer.”
“And, Volkmann...”
“Yes, Obergruppenfuehrer.”
Eicke lowered his voice. “Never forget. You have a neck as well, Volkmann. Farshtayenzee?”
“Yes, Obergruppenfuehrer.”
“Dismissed.”
Hari turned to walk out the door, but Eicke said, “

ROTTENFUEHRER
Hari was a German and an Officer and his duty lay in doing what he was ordered, no matter what his personal feelings. He knew that if he walked into any of the camps as the Deputy Camp Inspector, he would get nothing from the men that even remotely approximated the truth.
His appointment had not yet been announced and his face was still not known among the staff, so he got himself assigned to Auschwitz-Birkenau as a Rottenfuehrer with clerical abilities. He had prepared a cover story for when they asked him why he was only a Private at his advanced age. He would then smile crookedly, maybe a little shamefacedly, and mime drinking by lifting his fist to his mouth with his thumb extended as if it were the neck of a bottle. Any soldier would immediately understand that. Broken in rank for drinking. Hari knew there would be other staff in the camps with a similar problem.
They welcomed him with open arms. Even called him Papa. He didn’t deal much with the inmates, his contacts were with the SS staff. The information he was looking for came to him during the nightly drinking sessions in the guards barrack Dora.
Simply put, they loved their jobs. Fortunate sons, all of them. Many of them had even paid to get appointed to the positions. Why not? They were not at the front getting shot at. They had nice, easy jobs, their sexual pick of the Jewish women (or men) inmates and many chances to get rich as well.
Hari soon came to realize that their lockers must be full of loot. They didn’t take it all, of course. They didn’t want it all, but they had oversight at the Kanada location, the area of the camp where the clothes and valuables of the inmates were supposedly stored. That was what they told the inmates as their introduction to Auschwitz, but the actuality was that the clothes and pitiful luggage was sent to Kanada. They had named the barracks Kanada because Canada was a fabled land with untold riches, and their own Kanada was much the same.
The Jews had been told they were being transported to work camps in the east. To have told them the truth would have resulted in riots, and this way it kept them quiet with a glimmer of hope. Their hope was only a glimmer, because early on, rumors of the death camps had drifted back to the ghettos. Humans being what they are, no one wanted to believe it, and they lived in false hopes.
Once they got to Auschwitz in the packed cattle cars, they were split off into two groups. One group was made up of the able-bodied men and women able to work in the giant rubber plant that had been established near the camp, a ‘partnership’ arrangement where the Camp Commandant provided the requisite slave labor. They were required to exchange their own clothes for the distinctive stripped pajamas of the inmates. The clothes went to Kanada.
The other group, the elderly, the weaker women and the children were shunted directly to the Birkenau death camp where they would be sent to the ‘showers’, where they were told to undress and leave their clothes and belongings on a numbered hook on the wall. They were told to remember their numbers so they could reclaim their things after the shower. Then they were fed into the gas chamber, and an hour later were shoveled into the crematorium, but only after all rings, eyeglasses, and gold teeth had been taken from the bodies. Their things went to Kanada.
At Kanada, women prisoners meticulously examined the garments, even ripping apart the seams. Many Jews had hidden valuable items in their clothing, gold chains, diamonds, anything of value, and the women were trained to find it. The patrolling guards would come along, and if they saw something they wanted, they would simply take it. That even included clothes and shoes which they would take home. Consumer goods were in short supply in Germany. There was a war on, and the Amis had blockaded the ship traffic. The blockade was blamed on the Jews.
What was left went to Berlin.
It was evident that theft was widespread throughout the camp. All the guards were involved. Hari never found one that wasn’t. After all, there was no real accounting for the systematized theft. No one had ever been caught, and everybody knew about it and everybody did it. Why not?
Hari was why not.
But that put Hari in a quandary. He had carte blanche to stop the theft. Hari wasn’t under any illusions. The guards were only stealing what had already been stolen, but that didn’t make much difference. This was his province and he had a duty, but how was he to perform this duty. He couldn’t hang all 3,000 something guards in the camp. He’d hang the stupid ones.
The next day he let slip that he’d heard a rumor that there was to be an inspection and audit. All the guards already knew that hanging was the punishment for theft, so Hari figured he’d done enough.
He waited one week, and on that morning he dressed in his fine new black uniform, and flanked by four Totenkopf in silver helmets and gorgets, Schmeisers at the ready, the Camp Commandant announced him as the new Deputy KZ Inspector who had come to inspect and audit. Hari saw the stricken faces on the guards that he’d been friendly with, and he spoke to the assembly, telling them that even as he spoke, his men, brought in from outside, were sealing the lockers, and they would be gone through, one by one. The murmur that had begun with his appearance on the platform rose in level as he spoke. Several of the guards tried to leave while Hari was still speaking, but they were roughly shoved back by armed SS men. Strangers to them, also brought in from outside.
They’d been given their warning, and if they didn’t take it, well¼

RUDI
It was a shot-in-the-dark, one of Hari’s hunches. Some of them paid off, some of them didn’t. Rudi Gernstein was more of a town character, a youngster of 22, the n’er-do-well son of an influential family – Hari thought that the family had contracts with the army for sundries – or something like that. It was also rumored that the family might be at least part Jewish, the name certainly was, but certain Jews had a way of getting around it. Hari figured that might come in handy if they tried to bring any heat down on him.
The boy thought of himself as an American, and actually looked down on Berliners, but he was a real party-boy, and hob-nobbed with all the bigwigs, or at least the children of the bigwigs. Hari figured that since the Vampire was the conversational currency of the moment Rudi had probably heard something about it.
Hari found Rudi on a corner of the Kurfurstendamm. The boy was in a group of outrageously-dressed boys and girls when Hari pulled his car to the curb and called the boy over.
“Rudi, Rudi,” Hari clucked, shaking his head from side-to-side.
Rudi looked at him quizzically. “What?”
“I hear things about you, Rudi.”
“Yeah? Like what kind of things?” But the boy now looked worried.
“Oh, the usual, gambling, girls just a little too young, even boys.”
Rudi was suddenly wary, and maybe even a little sheepish. “I didn’t do nothing wrong.”
Hari smiled wryly. “Where have I heard that one? Anyway, relax Rudi, I’m just looking for a little information.”
Rudi suddenly got his back up. “What’s it to ya, Daddy-O?”
Hari sighed. “Look, Rudi, we know your history and we do try to make some allowances, but there are limits. You are not in your America now, boy.”
“So waddya want?”
“Your family has high connections, right?”
“So?”
“And you know that we have enough on you and your ‘friends’ that we can make life very difficult for you, right?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Okay, we’ll play it your way for a little bit. What do you hear about some high-up secret organization, army or SS?”
“You kiddin’ me, man?”
Hari sighed again, then said patiently, “Rudi, Rudi, Rudi! Sometimes I really don’t know what to do with you. So let me run a couple of things down for you. You, you’re a party boy. Your parents are rich, you were educated and raised in America, and we know that you’re a pretty sought after commodity out here on the Freidrichestrasse, so we know you hear things. All sorts of things. We just want to know a little about one of the things. This secret organization.”
Rudi whined. “So why you come to me, man?”
“Enough you little scheisskopf. I asked you a question. Or maybe you’d like to think about it in Dachau?”
Sullenly, the boy said. “You wouldn’t dare. My father would skin you alive.”
“Maybe he would try, but I don’t think he could skin both Heinrich Himmler and I.”
At the mention of the feared head of the Gestapo, the boy blanched. “...but I don’t know anything.”
‘Well, then, because I don’t believe you, you better make something up.”
“What’s this about?”
“Not that it matters, but we’ve been hearing rumors about the Vampire.”
“Scheiss-on-a-stick! You don’t want much, do you?”
“Rudi, I am running out of patience, here. Once again, what have you heard?”
“Why don’t you ask your friend, Himmler.”
That one stopped Hari for a moment. What do you mean?” Hari asked suspiciously.
“Look, Herr Polizeiinspektor, let’s face it, there’s nothing you could do to me that Himmler couldn’t do worse.”
“What? You’re telling me that Himmler is the Vampire? That’s preposterous...”
“No, no! I didn’t say that. I only said you should talk to him.”
“About what? The Vampire? The secret organization? Maybe the weather?”
“I just said you should talk to him. He can give you some of the answers.”
“Rudi. I’ve got to have more than that. Tell me what you’ve got.”
“What? And be the first male victim of your Vampire.”
Hari grabbed the boy’s shirtfront. “Come on, let’s see if we can sort this out down at headquarters. Maybe your memory will be better there.”
“All right! All right! “What do you know about Wewelsburg?”
“The SS Order Castle? Not much, just what everybody else knows. It’s the training center for the SS higher-ups.”
‘Right the first time, Herr Polizeiinspektor. Like I said. Talk to Himmler. Go and talk to him at Wewelsburg.”

THE HOLY LANCE - DIE HEILIGE LANZE DE GOLGOTHA
The Holy Lance that was on display was a fake. The icon housed in St. Catherine’s Church that had been kept and used by Frederick the Great, and was the possession of the House of The Hapsburgs at the Hofburg Museum is now a clever counterfeit. It is three feet of blackened iron broken into two pieces and perforated with a two foot blood runnel in the center. Its wide base had flanges depicting the wings of a dove. Within the central aperture of the blade, a hammer-headed nail from the true cross has been secured by a sheath threaded and held in place by metal wire.
The original had been the Spear of the Roman Soldier Gaius Cassius Longinus, a soldier who was going blind, and he used it to pierce the side of Jesus on the cross, but a spurt of blood hit his eyes and his sight was miraculously restored. Instantly a believer, he became a monk who was involved in several miracles.
Said to have been unearthed by Helena at the same time that she found the Holy Nails and The True Cross, it was later buried at Antioch to prevent its capture by the Saracens. Its next sighting was in the basilica of Mount Sion in Jerusalem, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Lance, broken into two pieces, and encumbered by legends and myths. followed a confusing path until it was used for investiture during time of The Holy Roman Empire, which was not Holy, not Roman, not even an Empire.
It had been possessed by a series of military conquerors including Frederick Barbarossa and Charlemagne, who carried it through 47 successful battles, but died immediately after he dropped it.
A legend grew up that whoever possessed it would be able to conquer the world. Napoleon tried for it, but failed. As a child, the young Austrian, Adolf Hitler became entranced by the Spear, and as Chancellor of Germany, looking to establish has credibility as the inheritor of the Holy Roman Empire, he annexed Austria, and immediately ordered the spear sent to Nuremburg, where it supposedly remains in St. Catherine’s church.
That is only half the story. In reality, when the Spear came to Nuremburg, Hitler had the Spear expertly duplicated, and the copy was placed in the Church.
The original went to Himmler’s Teutonic Order Castle in Wewelsburg, the home of the Knights of the Holy Lance an Order established by Himmler under the occult sign of The Black Sun, an ancient rune with origins in the dim past . Even more than Hitler, Reichminister Himmler was an avid believer in the occult and in the race theories of the past. He believed that the Aryan Race was destined to rule the world, and was descended from its origins in Tibet.
As the mythic center of their Thousand-Year Reich, Himmler took over the ancient town of Wewelsburg and reformed the entire region to a plan of the Holy Lance, with the monumental Teutonic Order Castle, the Auftrag Schloss, as the spear point.

WEWELSBURG
Wewelsburg loomed out of the mist like a fairy-tale, but Hari knew it was really nightmarish.
The gigantic triangular castle that was not really a castle sat atop a commanding hill overlooking the town of Paderborn near Dusseldorf. It had been there since 1603, but had been transformed since 1934 when Heinrich Himmler leased it from the district for a dollar a year, the lease to extend out to the year 2034.
Although referred to as a castle, it had been successively a Bishop’s residence, then re-constructed as a castle for a Robber Baron, and was now the spiritual center for the elite of Himmler’s SS.The elite of the elite. Known to others only as the Twelve Knights, was called by Himmler the Knights of The Holy Lance, but to each other they were the Orden of the Schwartze Sonne, the Black Sun Order. They knew they were the spiritual, and now the actual physical incarnation of the ancient and legendary Teutonic Knights. Parsifal made flesh.
They were the living embodiment of the fantastic world of Hitler’s hero, the great composer Richard Wagner.
Since Himmler had taken it over and remade it, the Feuhrerschule had incorporated the village and the entire district had now been remodeled into a simulcra of ‘The Spear of Destiny’, with the castle as the point, and the entire complex was to to be the ‘Center of the New World’ for the Thousand-Year Reich.

HARI AT WEWELSBURG
Hari had never been to the castle before. Oh, he had heard of it, of course. Everyone had. It was the training center, the Fuehrerschule, for future leaders, the Fuhrercorps, but also the meeting place of Himmler’s Teutonic Knights. It was also to be the premier castle of the chain of Order Castles across the Reich.
Hari knew he would never be allowed to train at the Castle because he had defiled himself with a Jewish wife, and encumbered himself with half-Jewish children. The honorary certification as an Aryan meant nothing at Wewelsburg because it was also the administrative and experimental center of the Ahnenerbe program, the laboratory that was to be the last word in the ‘Science’ of Race.
This was to be Hari’s final stop in his search. He would confront the killer where he had gone to ground, but the man would not be alone, he would be surrounded and protected by the all-powerful Reichminister Himmler and his cult of leadership, and they had wanted the case buried.
Hari didn’t care. This case was his anchor, his one link connecting him to reality while he was still awash in the nightmarish world of Hitler’s Germany. True, Himmler was his patron, but he was also the protector of the Generalmajor, who was part of Himmler’s sacred circle, and Hari’s connection to Himmler could well have been the leadership’s attempt to distract him from his quest for the ‘Vampire’.
It came to Hari that he was not afraid to die. In fact he would welcome it. He had seen the face of evil, and it was staring back at him from the mirror. He knew that the regime was rotten, and at the beginning he wanted nothing to do with them. They had seduced him. Taken him to their festering bosom, and overwhelmed him by giving him wealth, power, returning his family to him, treating him as a cherished equal.
And he had become their equal, in all ways. He had looked upon the face of evil and it was him. He was as dirty as they. He had as much blood on his hands as they. He had become as unfeeling as they, and by, first his acquiescence and then by his willing participation, he had allowed them to subvert an entire nation. No, he had subverted the entire nation, for their crimes were also his.
And all he had gained was bitter in his mouth. He and Judit were more distant now than when she had been in Switzerland. It was not her, so much as him. He had been able to tell her only a fraction of his actions since she had returned, and living a continual lie meant he was unable to meet her gaze, and so he had been spending less and less time at home with her. It was just too painful. His new power was even worse, because his conscience was like a worm in a swollen apple, eating it from the inside. His success? That meant nothing to him because his needs, and even his wants, were provided by the Nazi State. And his affiliation with the leadership was about to be severely tested.
This was something he had to do, because everything else in his life was a lie.
They let him in the castle gate because of his black uniform and identification. Plus the fact that he gave the Reichminister as his appointment. He passed by what was obviously an add-on, a wooden, barracks-like structure. He saw through the windows that there was a class in process, the kids about 10 or 12, and Hari assumed that they were the children of the staff who wouldn’t be allowed to mix with the locals, and as he passed he could hear them chant:
“Fuehrer, my Fuehrer, given to me by God,
protect me and I would yet receive a long life
You have rescued Germany out of its deepest need,
to you I owe my daily bread
Fuehrer, my Fuehrer, my belief, my light
Fuehrer my Fuehrer, you would leave me not.”
Ah, what improvements had been made in the vaunted German educational system. Hari looked at the map that had been sent to him, and he entered the circular North Tower that looked a lot newer than the rest of the massive16th Century castle. SS guards in silver helmets and gorgets flanked the massive oak doorway. At his approach, the guards jumped to attention and then reached over to open the iron-bound doors. To put it simply, Hari was blown away.
The entrance hall was obviously meant to impress. Immense and at least five stories tall, it was all faced in marble, and lit by an enormous stained-glass dome that bathed the interior in coruscating rainbow hues as the sun moved slowly overhead. Ancient tapestry hangings graced the walls
The center of the marble expanse of the floor was a stylized circle of black, ray-like runes that Hari knew was the famous Schwartze Sonne, the legendary Black Sun that had been chosen as the symbol of the Thousand-Year Reich.
Looking around the walls, he was unable to see a door, but by referring to map, he went to the hanging of Seigfried rampant, and pulled the silken gold tasseled chord that silently raised the tapestry to expose deeply-chased bronze doors that opened to reveal a marble staircase the curved following the circular structure.
The Holy Lance, possession of which guaranteed the conquest of the world, was given a premium place of honor. It was ensconced atop a tall bronze plinth set in the center of the inlaid marble depiction of the Black Sun, a circular ray of S-runes, an abstract representation of a total eclipse that some primitives called “the Feathered Sun.”
The imposing sculpture was in the high-vaulted, domed center of the softly-lit circular underground room that was the ceremonial meeting hall of the Twelve Knights. The apex of the vault was an indirectly-lit stylized bronze cast swastika that dominated the room. The Lance was surrounded by the twelve simply-carved stone thrones of the elite under the high domed ceiling, each of the thrones topped with a spotlight that cast a pillar of light blending up toward the ceiling creating in that ceremonial, echoing space an atmosphere of austere pageantry focused on the Spear.
The twelve were hooded and robed in black, seated on their blocky white thrones, indistinguishable from each other, except that Himmler wore a large shining silver replica of the Lance on his chest, suspended by a simply knotted black leather thong. They were all equal, but Himmler was a little more equal.
They seemed to be waiting for him in that great room deep underground, and he felt naked as his shoes clattered, echoing down the marble steps until they spilled over into the grand room.
Not in the least cowed, Volkmann burst into the room. "Where is he? The Major-General. Morden. Which one is he?"
Himmler stood, and quivering at the affront to his sacred room, his face pinched white, his round glasses flashing in the light, he obviously controlled himself with effort. "Volkmann! Control yourself! This is sacred ground and I will not have it defiled."
"Then turn the hurenson over to me. Stop protecting him."
Himmler pointed to the central step-down area wherein sat the Lance. "Sit on the step Volkmann. Believe me, all will be arranged to your satisfaction."
"Just turn him over to me."
An angry buzz rose from the twelve.
Mildly, Himmler spoke in tones that belied the intensity of the room. "Are you questioning me, Volkmann?"
Realizing he had crossed the line, Volkmann went to the step and sat down.
Himmler addressed both Volkmann and the assembled 'Knights’, "mein herren of the Orden. I have a sad duty to perform this day. I am a proud man, and you are all proud men, but, as you know, we are faced with a grave responsibility. Four young women are dead. They are gone from this world to Valhalla in the next. It is not the job of a Police Inspector, pardon me Volkmann, but that is really all you are...”
Hari nodded in acknowledgment. Himmler was right. That is all he really was, all he really wanted to be.
“...It is not his place to question us, the leaders of the Thousand-Year Reich. Yet, he knows of our ritual, and we were foolish enough to allow Generalmajor Fleiss to complete his assignment in his own way. That was our error, and it is an error that must be rectified. Herr Volkmann is here to make things right.”
A voice came from one of the cowled figures. “Meaning no disrespect to you, Reichminister, but why do we not just kill this intruder?”
Himmler spoke testily.”It is too late for that, Generalmajor, it has become fodder for the newspapers and must be brought to a conclusion.” He sighed, “Even our control has some limits, there are some things that must be seen to be accounted for. We have tried to get Volkmann here to drop the case, but he seems to be extremely stubborn. Yes, we could kill him, but we do not kill our own. Once we start killing our own for doing a superb job, then we must begin to question our own morality, and who knows where it might end. So we have no alternative but to satisfy him and ourselves. He will not be bought off, and he has his own sense of justice to satisfy. We have chosen to keep all this within our own house, to allow Volkmann to be our instrument.”
Another voice came from beneath a cowl. “I do not understand, what is proposed?”
“It is time for a sacrifice, is it not?”
“But Morden is hardly a virgin.” There was coarse laughter.
“Neither were some of the others,” said Himmler. “This is wartime, we must make do,” he said drily. “Generalmajor Morden, step forward.”
A robed figure stepped down into the lower circle and pushed his cowl back to reveal a stolid, chiseled face, his eyes bleak but wide open.
Another voice. “Is he to be bled? Like one of the cows?” The bleak eyes of Generalmajor Morden darted.
Himmler’s voice was devoid of any emotion. “No, not a General Officer. He failed to do his duty and he will be punished for it. I trust that will be the end of it. Will it, Volkmann?”
“He was not alone, Reichminister. There were others involved, and under the law they too must be punished.”
“I was involved, Volkmann. Would you punish me? Will not Morden satisfy your sense of justice?”
Hari was silent. He didn’t know what to say.
“We will give you Morden, Volkmann, but more you should not ask. The Generalmajor is to be punished not only for your purposes, but also for ours. It is not a question of if, you will be satisfied, you must be satisfied...” He paused and his emotionless voice hardened. “Or we must rethink our position.”
Volkmann sighed, then admitted. “It is more than I expected, Reichminister. I can hardly expect to arrest the entire Orden.” His posture stiffened as he rose to face Himmler. “It is enough, Reichminister.”
“And how will you handle the rest of it. The newspapers and the public, I mean.”
“Shot while trying to escape, I should imagine. The rest I will make up. He will have been alone. He did them all. The clues will point to him because he was the field man, right?”
“Yes, he was our emissary on those missions. The girls were brought back here, and then returned... after.”
“Then it is sufficient.”
“This... shot while trying to escape. It will have happened here?”
“No, that would be too difficult. Wannsee, I would think. Yes, Wannsee would do it.”
Himmler thought for a moment. “Yes, Wewelsburg would raise too many questions. Wannsee would be better. Yes, Volkmann, I agree.”
Himmler turned and extended a floppy-sleeved arm at one of the twelve, and his pudgy hand oozed from the sleeve to single out one of the twelve. “You. Do your duty.”
The man stepped forward without hesitation, and in one fluid motion, stepped down into the sunken circle, at the same time drawing his Luger and pointing it at Morden’s temple. Morden stood rigid, statue-like in the face of death. A single shot rang out, echoing round and round the crypt, while Morden simply crumpled like a sack of grain.
Himmler turned back to Volkmann. “We will transport him, Polizeiinzpektor.”
It struck Volkmann that this was some dramatic tableau. The theatrically-lit chamber, the robed, monk-like figures standing at attention. The lance on the plinth and the bloody bag, shapeless and crumpled on the floor.

THE SWAMP
It was like walking in quicksand, the further you walked, the deeper it got, until you felt you were drowning. It had been so easy in the beginning, but that was like the frog in the boiling water. When he first got in it was only lukewarm, but the longer he swam, the hotter it got. Hari had more or less slipped into, or rather had been led into, the quagmire of the Gestapo, but the longer he was in it, the more uncomfortable he became, until he found himself doing things that were against everything he thought he had stood for.
It just seemed so right at the time. It was just easier to take each little baby step than to stand up and invite catastrophe. He imagined that’s how it was for everybody, until finally they had done such things that they had no choice but to continue on the path or find themselves damned. Maybe they were damned anyway, but it somehow no longer mattered because they were in so deep.
It was just that, every so often, when you stood up and looked around, you were horrified by how far you were from shore, to what lengths he had gone beyond his moral anchor. And he was ashamed, for he realized that his actions allowed others to do terrible things, just as theirs had condoned his acts. They were all in it together, a great conspiracy of shame.



RADIO & BRAINWASHING
There were millions of people, throughout the nation, cheering and raising their arms and voices in salute. And there were a hundred million more people listening to the celebration 'organized' by the newspapers and the radio, with local and national newscasts providing "advance" advertising for the "largest patriotic celebration in history."
The Nazi state was created by the oligarchical financial and political interests who controlled the newspapers, film and radio, and even academia, all the news and entertainment mediums. Forget about whatever stories you've heard about how Hitler came to power -- his path to power was cleared by the oligarchs employing the brainwashers that programmed the people. The people who had put the Nazis in power will never give up on the idea of mass psychological brainwashing as a means to maintain their power.
The people in power realize, that for most people, there is little or no purpose to life, except to survive to the next day. Our people have a deep-seated 'cultural pessimism', and are cynical about nearly everything. Man's anxiety, his wish to protect life, forces him to relinquish what was ultimately His best chance of survival -- his ability to react and make appropriate decisions. But giving this up, He is no longer a man, but a child. Knowing that for survival, he should decide and act, and trying to survive by not reacting -- these in their combination overpower the individual to such a degree that he is eventually shorn of all self-respect and all feelings of independence.
As soon as they came to power, the Nazis ordered the production and mass dissemination of cheap radios, some of them that would only receive one station, insisting that every German have access to the broadcasts. They erected loudspeakers in public places so there was nowhere that the message could be escaped. In that way, all or nearly all Germans were hearing his voice at the same moment -- gave an enhanced power to the message; it created an air of "all powerfulness," being part of a mass experience as the moment of the speech approached, the announcers described the frenzy and excitement of the crowd. Few ever remember any specific content in Hitler's speeches, it isn’t necessary, the visceral emotion is enough.
Over a period of years, following the First World War, Germany was brutalized by the economic policy of this international elite. Hitler's Nazis were funded and promoted as a political option, and then steered into power in 1932-33.
At the root of this experiment was the desire to create a New World Order based on reversing a fundamental premise of Judeo-Christian civilization - that Man is created as a higher and distinct species from animals, all men are created 'equal' in the eyes of the Creator.
Such a worldview cannot allow for the existence of an oligarchy who views itself, by birthright and worldly power, as more equal than other men. Such oligarchs, and creatures like their coterie of brainwashers, hold a contrary worldview: Man is an animal, a degraded beast, whose worst impulses must be repressed by the state. Laws are created to 'control' these human animals and to allow for the continued existence of the social order. Men, in turn, make a 'social contract' to allow themselves to be governed by such laws, which are mutable, since they are government by neither Natural Law nor truth. This is the view of the so-called Enlightenment, and in its extreme form, the fascist state.
Large numbers of people must be induced to give up beliefs that are the heritage of Judeo-Christian civilization. The peculiar fascination of all brainwashers is the Gnostic heresy, Satanism, or what they call the alternate variation of the religious experience. Hear me, boy, the Nazis, are a group of gnostic psychotics, who will predictably go out of control until the world realizes that the experiment has to be destroyed and scourged by fire. In the interim, the Freudian mobs, us, will have been unleashed by the process and will have destroyed much of Europe. For us, the Nazis are the end of the world.


FREUD, LE BON & JUNG
To remove the orthodox religious matrix requires the equivalent of psychological shock therapy. Nazi Germany is an experiment in 'Freudian mass psychology'. Freud may have been a Jew, but his theories created a mass social revolution.
Freud made the case that it is the primitive animal characteristics of Man that are at the center of His emotional life. His life is a conflict between an animalseeking 'pleasure' and gratification, and a reality that says that this cannot always be so; thought emerges as the individual tries to balance between the pleasure and reality principles.
This belief that Man is nothing more than a degraded beast is at the core of the Freudian system that there can be no absolute truths because any notion of right and wrong has to be the process of thought, and thought is only a confusion between the baser instincts and the social restrictions.
Society exerts control over this degraded beast in the form of a social contract, that with the rest of religion, that tries to convince Man that He is more than a beast. They thought that religion was a construction that Man has made God in 'His' image, all for the purpose of easing the pain of His existence. The old religious forms, especially Western Christianity, demand that Man be responsible for his fellow humans. The new religious forms are a 'mystical anarchism', a religious experience much likened to satanic practice of the Nazis and the views of Carl Jung.

But it wasn’t just Freud that provided the underpinnings for the Nazi philosophy, there was also the French psychologist Gustav LeBon, with his infamous "The Psychology of the Crowd". It was LeBon's main thesis that as part of a mass or crowd, Man regresses to a 'primitive' mental state. A person who may be otherwise highly cultured and moral is capable of acting like a barbarian, is prone to acts of unspeakable violence and inhumanity, and loses his critical faculties in a large mass of people.
Continuing on with the Freudian interpretation, Le Bon taught that the behavior of an individual can be determined by his perceptions and the actions of others around him. Place this animal in a mass of similar animals, and his human identity is crushed -- He ceases to think as a human and becomes caught up in instinctive animal-like activity. Freud even said that masses of people could be deliberately induced to give up their moral conscience
Along with the hope for a better life, came the threat. That was accomplished through mass terrorization, through both the actual use of jackboot terror and the 'implied threat' to use it. This ‘carrot and stick’ approach led the majority of Germans to doubt their own judgment, making them more susceptible to brainwashing. And history supports the contention. From the proletariat of Rome, to the mobs of the French Revolution and the Terror, oligarchs have used 'agents provocateurs' and money to lead the most effectively controlled masses, those which are easily led, to a carefully chosen, but charismatic leader, a ‘man on a white horse’, one who will solve all problems, bull his way through all obstacles, show the way to the new, bright future. It is this leader who places the mass under an effective hypnotic spell.
The German people felt that they had failed, that they had lost their way, and Hitler became the individual citizen's common 'I ideal' and took over all critical faculties, just as the hypnotized individual surrenders his self-determination to the hypnotizer.
Hitler was the first man to tell every German what he had been thinking and feeling all along in his unconscious about German fate, especially since the defeat in the World War, and the one characteristic which colors every German soul is the typically German inferiority complex.
Freud said that it was the leader who provided the common bond for a mass of people; their common attachment to the leader enables each member to identify with the other, giving form and direction to the mass.
Then again, although it would be violently denied, this aura of omnipotent power exudes a sexual attraction that is repressed or desexualized. In order for this to function, however, Hitler had to be seen as aloof, with no emotional attachments to anybody, so as create an almost god-like or mystical quality.
Hitler was the prototype of Jungian Man, who surrendered His reason to His unconscious, who welcomed divine madness as Jung himself advised. Jung, who saw the wave of the future early on, had joined and been embraced by the party. He was even able to put the mechanism into words of rationalization: "In the interest of science, we can no longer ignore the palpable differences, long known to persons of insight, between the Germanic and Jewish psychologies. ."
Never could Hitler be overthrown by other Germans; he was Germany. He is the "collective [racial] unconscious of the German people."
STAB-IN-THE-BACK
Early on in the 19th Century, Germany was caught up in the heroic model. Extreme nationalism, territorial expansion and racism. This super-patriotic idealism lasted until the German defeat in WWI, leaving them with what they perceived as an unjust peace treaty, an unfair financial burden, the loss of certain territories, and a disastrous loss of face in the community of nations. Germany was left demoralized and without a strong government. There was widespread opinion that the Weimar Republic was an inferior form of government that had been imposed on the nation, and was responsible for the DOLCHSTOSSLEGENDE, the ‘stab in the back’, that Germany had been ‘sold out’ by the Weimar Republic, which was seen as dominated by Jews. Then in 1919, the Communist Revolution in Russia became real in Germany, and riots broke out. The financial problems were exacerbated by rampant inflation beginning in 1923, and came to a head with the worldwide financial collapse and depression of 1929. Germany suffered bank and business collapses, as well as soaring unemployment. A witch’s brew of social and economic crisis. In paroxysm of weakness, the Weimar Republic struggled along with the crutch of coalitions, but the growing crises required rule by emergency decree, and elections were often and violent. The country was over the edge of collapse, and the conservative Germans became terrified and afraid of the changes being wrought by the more liberal modern age. They were shocked by the perceived immorality, hyper-sexuality, homosexuality, the violence, and race-mixing, an affront to the long-standing anti-semitism of the Germans.
THE SERMON, THE HISTORY, LUTHER & THE RATIONALE
Meine richtige Herren, it is with great pride that I have the privilege to address you men of the Liebstandarte Adolph Hitler, you men that are the best of the best, the finest of the entire Shutz Staffel organization. I am further honored by the presence of your leader, Minister Heinrich Himmler.
I have been asked to take the pulpit today to reinforce your faith that you stand by the side of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Oh, yes, I too have heard the grumbling of the treasonous swine who doubt the path that our Fuhrer has taken. The Americans say that our measures of dealing with the Jew are unprecedented. They speak as puppets of their Jew masters, the worldwide Zionist conspiracy.
Not only do they lie, but they disregard both the truth and history.
Let it be understood that we do not hate the Jew, for to do that would be to give them a power that they are not worthy of. It would be as if we hated rats that bring the plague, or biting insects, or snakes, or even dangerous beasts such as the bears of the Black Forests.
No, they are dangerous to us, and have ever been recognized as such.
As far back as the year One Thousand and Twelve, Henry II, the Holy Roman Emperor expelled the Jews from Mainz. No, we do not know why, meine Herren, but we can guess, can’t we?
But that was still not the first, because in 1235 , at Fulda, Germany came the first recorded accusations of the ritual murder of Christian children by Jews, and it happened again in 1272.
The third Crusade, in the year of Our Lord twelve Hundred and Fifty, wisely led by Count Emicho, decided to attack the Jewish communities, most notably in the Rhineland, under the slogan: "Why fight Christ's enemies abroad when they are living among us?" Eimicho's host attacked the synagogue at Speyers and killed all the defenders. Another 1,200 cowardly Jews committed suicide in Mayence to escape his attempt to forcibly convert them. All in all, 5,000 Jews were murdered.
By 1254, the French had had enough of the perfidious Jews, and Louis IX expelled the Jews from France, their property and synagogues confiscated. Unfortunately, most moved to Germany.
For those who think that Herr Hitler was the first, in 1267 the Vienna city council forced Jews to wear Pileum cornutum (a cone-shaped headdress, prevalent in many medieval illustrations of Jews). This distinctive dress was an addition to Yellow badges Jews were already forced to wear.
Also in 1267 came the first orders for Jews to live in a segregated quarter. The first Jewish ghetto.
It was in 1285 that Munich became the first to accuse the Jews of ritually sacrificing Christian children as a part of their religious services. 68 Jews were immediately killed by righteous Christians, and then 180 more Jews were burned alive at the synagogue.
Two years later in Oberwesel, 40 Jewish men, women and children were put to death after a ritual murder accusation.
13 years later, the German knight Rindfleisch led massacres of thousands of Jews in 146 localities followed by persecutions against Jews in Franconia and Alsace led by the Armleder, but it was the plague that really got things moving. In 1348, the Jews were blamed for the Black Death. The charge was laid to the Jews that they poisoned the wells. Massacres spread throughout Spain, France, Germany and Austria. More than 200 Jewish communities destroyed by violence. Many communities were expelled and settled down in Poland.
By 1386, Wenceslaus, Holy Roman Emperor, expelled the Jews from the Swabian League and Strasbourg and confiscated their property. Soon after that, a Jewish boy was accused of plotting against a priest and the mob slaughtered some 3,000 of Prague Jews, destroying the city's synagogue and Jewish cemetery. Wenceslaus insisted that the responsibility lay with the Jews for going outside during the Holy Week.
In the early 1400’s there were persecutions of Jews in Vienna, and the Vienna Edict led to confiscation of their possessions, and forced conversion of Jewish children. 270 Jews burned at stake and the Jews were expelled from Austria.
Many of you are familiar with the story of the infant Simon, the martyred Saint and patron of kidnap and torture victims for almost 500 years since he was canonized by Pope Sixtus V. Upon an accusation of the murder of the infant Simon The entire Jewish community was arrested, 15 leaders were burned at the stake, and the rest of the community were summarily driven from the town. And this was not the last time that the Jews sacrificed one of ours for their rituals.
In 1475, the filthy Jews of Mecklenburg stabbed a consecrated wafer and we burned 27 Jews, including two women, and to this very day the spot is still called the Judenberg. All the Jews were driven from the Duchy.
And they learned nothing, because it happened again. Forty Jews had to be executed in Brandenburg, Germany for desecrating the host in 1510, and the rest of them were expelled. Then, 38 Jews had to be burned at the stake in Berlin, and eight Roman Catholic converts from Judaism were burned at the stake for being secret Jews.
Ah, but finally the true flowering came about in 1519, when the greatest Christian of them all, Martin Luther led the Protestant Reformation and challenged the hated Catholic doctrine preaching that Christians should deal kindly with the Jews and to instruct them to come over to us. Ach! The wrong-headedness of such a thing!
For the first time, a true German Christian religious scholar saw the Jews as they really were and what is more, figured out what to do about it! There is no doubt that Martin Luther was the Hitler of his time, and our Great Leader is his worthy successor.
In his pamphlet On the Jews and Their Lies Martin Luther advocated an eight-point plan to get rid of the Jews as a distinct group either by religious conversion or by expulsion:
"...set fire to their synagogues or schools..."
"...their houses also be razed and destroyed..."
"...their prayer books and Talmudic writings... be taken from them..."
"...their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb..."
"...safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews..."
"...usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them..." and "Such money should now be used in ... the following [way]... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed [certain amount]..."
"...young, strong Jews and Jewesses [should]... earn their bread in the sweat of their brow..."
"If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs."

There is no question that Luther and his people were well on the road to dealing with the Jews because the first thing they did was to raid and loot synagogues in Berlin and then expel all the Jews from the city.
Martin Luther's sermon Admonition against the Jews shows that he knew well the perfidy of these vermin because he recites ritual murder, black magic, and poisoning of wells. Luther recognizes no obligation to protect the Jews.
In 1380, Jews of all ages were driven from Frankfurt on 1614 after Vincent Fettmilch, who called himself the "new Haman of the Jews", led a raid on Frankfurt synagogue that turned into an attack which destroyed the whole community. Soon, all Jews are forced from Worms, Sandomierz and Vienna.
Frederick II, who we still call ’The Great, he of Blessed Memory, a leader who even Herr Hitler has called a heroic genius, in 1744 wisely limited Breslau to only ten "protected" Jewish families, on the grounds that otherwise they would "transform it into complete Jerusalem", and he encouraged this practice in other Prussian cities. In 1750 he issued the edict proclaiming that the "protected" Jews had to "either abstain from marriage or leave Berlin", and Archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa further ordered that "... no Jew is to be tolerated in our inherited duchy of Bohemia.” But she must have been talking to some Jews, because she soon reversed her position, on condition that Jews pay for readmission every ten years. But this was still not the end, because she then introduced the law limiting each Jewish family to one son.
By the early 1800’s, the people were tired of the Jew tricks, and there were a series of anti-Jewish riots in Germany which quickly spread to Denmark, Poland, Latvia and Bohemia. Just before the turn of the century, the First International Anti-Jewish Congress convened at Dresden, and soon after that, the anti-Semitic Christian Social Party was formed and soon elected the Mayor of Vienna.
And now, the Jew conspiracies are laid bare by the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Stolen from under their very noses comes the Jew plot to rule the world.
Even science has come to assist in our understanding. For Germany to thrive, we must be a pure Aryan race, unsullied by the parasitic, biological ‘germ’ which threatens the purity of the Germanic race. The Jews constitute a supreme danger against which the German people must defend themselves.
Did we not learn our lesson from the war? We are a superior people who were defeated by the Jews. The Jew Weimar Republic sold us out. It was an inferior form of government that had been imposed on our nation, and was responsible for the dolchstosslegende, the ‘stab in the back’. We cannot, we must not allow this to happen again. We must take control of our own destiny, our Christian destiny, and maker of our nation judenfrei.
Germany is Hitler, and Hitler is Germany. Only unser Hitler can show us the way. Only he can lead us on from Martin Luther. For a thousand years Germany has struggled to free herself from the hated Jews, and now our chance has come in the form of Hitler.
You must not listen to the traitors and nay-sayers, they would lead us back into the dark. No, we must follow Hitler into the light. If there are cockroaches in the house, do we not kill them and drive them from our home? Germany is our home and the Jews are our cockroaches. How about rats? Would we allow them to live side-by-side with us? Of course not! Jews are our rats.
These things are less than human and we must not make of them more than they are. Be merciless! Be without pity! Be strong so that Germany will no longer be weak. Sometimes actions are necessary that seem distasteful when they are really in our best interests. If we have a gangrenous leg, it must be cut off or the whole body will become infected. So it is with Germany. We are the body. The Jews are the infected limb, and Hitler is the surgeon.

GERMANY & THE JEWS
KRISTALLNACHT was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of Luther’s birth.- Hitler & the Nazi Party blamed Germany’s problems on the Jews and claimed that the Germans were a superior people. These racist ideas led to extreme nationalism.2/25/1920, the following day, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (forgery that was supposedly the minutes of a worldwide meeting of Jewish elders conspiring to seize world power. Hitler had it reprinted in the 1920s,& distributed copies to the public during his political campaigns) were published in the local antisemitic newspaper. The false, alarming accusations reinforced Hitler's antisemitism. Soon after, treatment of the Jews was a major theme of Hitler's orations; increasing scapegoating of the Jews for inflation, political instability, unemployment, and the humiliation in the war, found a willing audience, who believed Hitler could restore Germany’s strength & pride. Jews were tied to ‘internationalism’ by Hitler (gg). “All agree that from 12th century, negative stereotypes of Jews became deeply embedded in European culture at an instinctual & mythic level. Redotted with modern arguments, these stereotypes regained their power to turn excitable masses against Jews in times of crisis.”Jews were also associated with the new Weimar government and the collapse of the German economy during the great depression. As the Nazis struggled for power, they were able to tap into a deep well of historic stereotypes and prejudice against the Jews.. ... Adolf Hitler ... and the Nazi Party clearly attached central significance to the ‘Jewish problem’ in the formation of their ideology ...”6 “The moderated antisemitism of a large part of the German population was absolutely crucial. It prevented any effective opposition to the murder of an unpopular minority.”7 ---------------------------1. Racial purity and the racial superiority of Germans, with strong antisemitismRacial Nationalism: Nazism included racial theory denigrating ‘non-Aryan; the Aryan Superiority Myth, stressed: the superiority of the Aryan, its destiny as the Master Race to rule the world over other races; - Hitler preached nationalistic superiority, a racially "pure" Germany; German racial superiority basic tenet of National Socialism. & Germany/Aryan supremacy the goal of unrelenting struggle. Slavic untermenschen.*Nazis came to believe that Aryan destiny as master race, was meant by nature to rule over the rest of the earth, and entitled to take others’ land=Lebensraum- Hitler condemned the Jews, exploiting antisemitic feelings that had prevailed in Europe for centuries.” (http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/nazirise.htm)Nazism included a violent hatred of Jews, which it blamed for all of the problems of Germany=scapegoat theory of politics, individualism versus the national community. (theories of Chamberlain & Alfred Rosenberg). - “Hitler encouraged national pride, militarism, a commitment to the Volk;“1920s Nazis attracted important section of intellectual classes -teachers, students, because universities became hotbed of extremist right-wing ideas decades before. Students & teachers associations among 1st to join Party; also lower-ranking bureaucrats, lawyers, doctors, engineer, Protestant pastors, elements in army & aristocracy. Bauer: Rethinking the Holocaust, p. 33By 1921 the NSDAP had 4,500 members & support of extreme right-wing people. *The New York stock Exchange collapsed on October 24, 1929; and the Great Depression (GD) began in the United States at the end of 1929. Domino effect; worldwide economic crisis; unemployment. The economic & psychological impact of the GD made the extremist parties more attractive. Germany’s economic plight worsened. G. suffered from high & increasing/rising unemployment & from bitter political divisiveness; public restlessness. Germans yearned for strong leadership to end misery, degradation.Political mobilizationNew elections Sept 1930. This gave Nazis opportunity. bold swastika-emblazoned banner, torch-lit pageants, mesmerizing music, they hammered home their utopian vision of a community of the German racist Volk.Using seduction, pressure, & terror -intimidation, National Socialist gained adherents.Jews & Bolshevism were tangible & accessible, clear foci for resentment*The Nazi Party Platform & Nazi propaganda:A. Anti-Versailles Treaty - attacked the ‘November criminals,’ 1. against paying war reparations2. desire to regain control of lost territoriesB. Anti-Bolshevik - attacked the CommunistsC. Anti-liberal, & anti-democratic1. against political system that begun with the French Revolution -democratic system2. promote the idea of nationalism & volkisch ideologyD. Antisemitic - scapegoating of the Jews for inflation, political instability, unemployment & the humiliation in the war; Jews blamed for all the evil in the world; tied to ‘internationalism’ - trying to take over the world. *E. depicted Hitler as a savior from the chaos, unemployment, sent by destiny - promises 1. economic recovery - putting an end to the hyperinflation of Weimar2. regaining Germany’s ‘proper place’ - restore Germany’s strength & pride-->Redemptive antisemitism.“What was the appeal of the Nazis? * In time of uncertainty, instability, their message was delivered with certainty.* There was strength associated with authoritarian rule.* It appealed to extreme nationalism and identified with superiority.* Master plan for glorious Germany had a mission for everyone.* It used propaganda and pageantry in a masterful way.* The message was directed to the average man.* There was a strong emphasis on family, morality. It opposed degeneracy.* It put people to work..* To the powerless, there was the seduction of power.* By using scapegoating, they identified those whom they labeled “enemies of Germany” - Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped.”17 Propaganda techniques, led by Joseph Goebbels, worked & “were effective because - It was targeted to masses, the common people.- It appealed to emotion rather than logic or intellect.- It offered a problem & a solution. - It played on fears, prejudices, & stereotypes.- It used repetitions to great effect.The Nazis throughout the 20s created a number of slogans that illustrated their message:Deutschland erwache. Honor, freedom, bread. He who thinks German must despise the Jews. The one thing makes the other necessary.Our last hope: Hitler..”Nazi slogan: One nation, One people, One leader, made sense to millions - reestablish Germany’s position in Europe by creating a new strong 3rd Reich which would overcome the shame of the Versailles Treaty, German pride, uniting all Germans under one leader- "racism, combined with centuries-old hatred/bigotry, the longest hatred- of the Christians for the Jews, renewed by a nationalistic fervor which emerged in Europe in latter half of the 19th century, fueled by World War I never totally resolved;”“development of the Holocaust by German National Socialism (Nazism) can be explained by specific factors operating in Germany:*1. ... retardation of the development of a national unity ...*2. Identification of an integral German (volkisch) nationalism ... excluded Jews ...*3. German romanticism ... rejected liberal & democratic traditions ...*4. German defeat in WWI and resulting desire to reassert German collective strength (Germany's defeat in World War I and its national humiliation following the Treaty of Versailles, exacerbated by worldwide economic hard times) .*5. Economic crises of early and late twenties ... (Ravaged by World War I, the German state was already in poor economic shape before the Depression of the 1920's struck. Reparations demands and a weakened infrastructure led to inflation and unemployment. The democratic institutions artificially established by the Allies and a feeling of global alienation as a result of a guilt clause and land seizures in the Treaty of Versailles exacerbated social turmoil and left Germany looking for someone to blame.)*6. Central & crucial element of the long-standing tradition of antisemitism in “explaining” crises and social problems.”22 - Ineffectiveness of the Weimar Republic: The Weimar Republic, a weak democracy, never really effectively governed Germany and therefore was not much of a match for the Nazi party when it gained power.- Nazism appealed to people’s need for a sense of belonging, loyalty & community.
Nazi underground aircraft factories still exist
Farmer’s wife in Germany with son in the army
Rumors re Polish prisoners used to attack a German Radio station
Turning point
862-7935



DARWIN
It is not that Herr Hitler has hatred for Jews, as Jews, it is rather that scientifically, it has been absolutely proven, by Darwin, among others, that they are an inferior race. Mongoloids, Gypsies, mental defectives have been shown to be polluters of the superior Aryan strain. The pure race will always triumph over the weakened strains, and it is the duty of the pure race to ensure that it is kept pure, and not to allow dilution by the inferiors. We must keep the race pure, and to that end, we must be steadfast in our absolute determination to maintain the separation of the races, and nothing, no false pity or mercy or any other foolish or weak emotion can be allowed to interfere. We must all accept that the inferiors must be weeded out, whether by separation, exile or even extermination, the vermin deserve no more, for that’s what they are, no more than noxious pests that are parasites feeding off the life blood of the true German people. It cannot be considered that we are heartless, for if a diseased or deformed animal or insect comes into the house, you have to kill it, because if it is diseased, or carries disease, it is your bounden duty to get rid of it before it infects your family, and if it is deformed, then it should be killed out of mercy and human kindness. You notice I say human kindness, and by that I mean true humans, Germans.

As Humber notes, Hitler believed that Blacks were ‘monstrosities halfway between man and ape’ and therefore he disapproved of German Christians:
‘ … going to “Central Africa” to set up “Negro missions,” resulting in the turning of “healthy … human beings into a rotten brood of bastards.” In his chapter entitled “Nation and Race,” he said, “The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel, but he, after all, is only a weak and limited man; for if this law did not prevail, any conceivable higher development (Hoherentwicklung) of organic living beings would be unthinkable.” A few pages later, he said, “Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live”.’ 61
‘ … peoples to decay …. In the long run nature eliminates the noxious elements. One may be repelled by this law of nature which demands that all living things should mutually devour one another. The fly is snapped up by a dragon-fly, which itself is swallowed by a bird, which itself falls victim to a larger bird … to know the laws of nature … enables us to obey them.’ 32
‘If I can accept a divine Commandment, it’s this one: “Thou shalt preserve the species.” The life of the individual must not be set at too high a price. If the individual were important in the eyes of nature, nature would take care to preserve him. Amongst the millions of eggs a fly lays, very few are hatched out — and yet the race of flies thrives.’ 33

‘The Germans were the higher race, destined for a glorious evolutionary future. For this reason it was essential that the Jews should be segregated, otherwise mixed marriages would take place. Were this to happen, all nature’s efforts “to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile” (Mein Kampf).’ 20
. “A world court … would be a joke … the whole world of Nature is a mighty struggle between strength and weakness — an eternal victory of the strong over the weak. There would be nothing but decay in the whole of nature if this were not so. States which [violate] … this elementary law would fall into decay. … He who would live must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this world where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist.” To think otherwise is to “insult” nature. “Distress, misery and disease are her rejoinders”.’ 49
‘ … organized lie [that] must be smashed. The State must remain the absolute master. When I was younger, I thought it was necessary to set about [destroying religion] … with dynamite. I’ve since realized there’s room for a little subtlety …. The final state must be … in St. Peter’s Chair, a senile officiant; facing him a few sinister old women … The young and healthy are on our side … it’s impossible to eternally hold humanity in bondage and lies …. [It] was only between the sixth and eighth centuries that Christianity was imposed upon our peoples …. Our peoples had previously succeeded in living all right without this religion. I have six divisions of SS men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn’t prevent them from going to their death with serenity in their souls.’ 56

Introduction
Expunging of the Judeo-Christian doctrine of the divine origin of humans from mainline German (liberal) theology and its schools, and replacing it with Darwinism, openly contributed to the acceptance of Social Darwinism that culminated in the tragedy of the holocaust.1 Darwin’s theory, as modified by Haeckel,2,3,4,5,6 Chamberlain7 and others the primary reason that Nazism reached to the extent of the holocaust was the widespread acceptance of Social Darwinism by the scientific and academic community.1,8,9,10
The very heart of Darwinism is the belief that evolution proceeds by the differential survival of the fittest or superior individuals. This requires differences among a species, which in time become great enough so that those individuals that possess advantageous features — the fittest — are more apt to survive. Although the process of raciation may begin with slight differences, differential survival rates in time produce distinct races by a process called speciation, meaning the development of a new species.
A major force that has argued against this view was the Social Darwinian eugenics movement, especially its crude ‘survival of the fittest’ worldview. the idea that the hereditary quality of the race can be improved by selective breeding is as old as Plato’s Republic but:
‘ … modern eugenics thought arose only in the nineteenth century. The emergence of interest in eugenics during that century had multiple roots. The most important was the theory of evolution, for Francis Galton’s ideas on eugenics — and it was he who created the term “eugenics” — were a direct logical outgrowth of the scientific doctrine elaborated by his cousin, Charles Darwin.’ 13
Nazi governmental policy was openly influenced by Darwinism, the Zeitgeist of both science and educated society of the time.10 This can be evaluated by an examination of extant documents, writings, and artefacts produced by Germany’s twentieth century Nazi movement and its many scientist supporters. the Nazi treatment of Jews and other ‘races’, then believed ‘inferior’, was largely a result of their belief that Darwinism provided profound insight that could be used to significantly improve humankind.14 the political philosophy of Germany was built on the belief that critical for evolutionary progress were:
‘ … struggle, selection, and survival of the fittest, all notions and observations arrived at … by Darwin … but already in luxuriant bud in the German social philosophy of the nineteenth century. … Thus developed the doctrine of Germany’s inherent right to rule the world on the basis of superior strength … [of a] “hammer and anvil” relationship between the Reich and the weaker nations.’ 14
The importance of race in Darwinism
The theory of evolution is based on individuals acquiring unique traits that enable those possessing the new traits to better survive adverse conditions compared to those who don’t possess them. Superior individuals will be more likely to survive and pass on these traits to their offspring so such traits will increase in number, while the ‘weaker’ individuals will eventually die off. If every member of a species were fully equal, natural selection would have nothing to select from, and evolution would cease for that species.
These differences gradually produce new groups, some of which have an advantage in terms of survival. These new groups became the superior, or the more evolved races. When a trait eventually spreads throughout the entire race because of the survival advantage it confers on those that possess it, a higher, more evolved form of animal will result. Hitler and the Nazi party claimed that one of their major goals was to apply this accepted ‘science’ to society. And ‘the core idea of Darwinism was not evolution, but selection. Evolution … describes the results of selection’.16 Hitler stressed that to produce a better society ‘we [the Nazis] must understand, and cooperate with science’.
As the one race above all others, Aryans believed that their evolutionary superiority gave them not only the right, but the duty to subjugate all other peoples. Race was a major plank of the Nazi philosophy; they incorporated Darwinism:
‘ … in their political system, with nothing left out …. Their political dictionary was replete with words like space, struggle, selection, and extinction (Ausmerzen). The syllogism of their logic was clearly stated: The world is a jungle in which different nations struggle for space. The stronger win, the weaker die or are killed ….’ 17
In the 1933 Nuremberg party rally, Hitler proclaimed that ‘higher race subjects to itself a lower race …a right which we see in nature and which can be regarded as the sole conceivable right,’ because it was founded on science.15
Hitler believed humans were animals to whom the genetics laws, learned from livestock breeding, could be applied. The Nazis believed that instead of permitting natural forces and chance to control evolution, they must direct the process to advance the human race. The first step to achieve this goal was to isolate the ‘inferior races’ in order to prevent them from further contaminating the ‘Aryan’ gene pool. The widespread public support for this policy was a result of the belief, common in the educated classes, in the conclusion that certain races were genetically inferior as was scientifically ‘proven’ by Darwinism. The Nazis believed that they were simply applying facts, proven by science, to produce a superior race of humans as part of their plan for a better world: ‘The business of the corporate state was eugenics or artificial selection — politics as applied biology.’ 18,19
As early as 1925, Hitler outlined his conclusion in Chapter 4 of Mein Kampf that Darwinism was the only basis for a successful Germany and which the title of his most famous work — in English My Struggle — alluded to. As Clark concluded, Adolf Hitler:
‘ …was captivated by evolutionary teaching — probably since the time he was a boy. Evolutionary ideas — quite undisguised — lie at the basis of all that is worst in Mein Kampf -and in his public speeches …. Hitler reasoned … that a higher race would always conquer a lower.’20
And Hickman adds that it is no coincidence that Hitler:
‘ … was a firm believer and preacher of evolution. Whatever the deeper, profound, complexities of his psychosis, it is certain that [the concept of struggle was important because] … his book, Mein Kampf, clearly set forth a number of evolutionary ideas, particularly those emphasizing struggle, survival of the fittest and the extermination of the weak to produce a better society.’ 21
Furthermore, the belief that evolution can be directed by scientists to produce a ‘superior race’ was the central leitmotif of Nazism and many other sources existed from which Nazism drew:
‘ … its ideological fire-water. But in that concatenation of ideas and nightmares which made up the … social policies of the Nazi state, and to a considerable extent its military and diplomatic policies as well, can be most clearly comprehended in the light of its vast racial program.’ 22
The Nazi view on Darwinian evolution and race was consequently a major part of the fatal combination of ideas and events which produced the holocaust and World War II:
‘One of the central planks in Nazi theory and doctrine was …evolutionary theory [and] … that all biology had evolved … upward, and that … less evolved types … should be actively eradicated [and] … that natural selection could and should be actively aided, and therefore [the Nazis] instituted political measures to eradicate … Jews, and … blacks, whom they considered as “underdeveloped”.’ 23
Terms such as ‘superior race’, ‘lower human types’, ‘pollution of the race’, and the word evolution itself (Entwicklung) were often used by Hitler and other Nazi leaders. His race views were not from fringe science as often claimed but rather Hitler’s views were:
‘ … straightforward German social Darwinism of a type widely known and accepted throughout Germany and which, more importantly, was considered by most Germans, scientists included, to be scientifically true. More recent scholarship on national socialism and Hitler has begun to realize that … [their application of Darwin’s theory] was the specific characteristic of Nazism. National socialist “biopolicy,” … [was] a policy based on a mystical-biological belief in radical inequality, a monistic, antitranscendent moral nihilism based on the eternal struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest as the law of nature, and the consequent use of state power for a public policy of natural selection….’ 24
The philosophy that humans can control and even use Darwinism to produce a ‘higher level’ of human is repeatedly mentioned in the writings and speeches of prominent Nazis.25 Accomplishing the Darwinian goal for the world required ruthlessly eliminating the less fit by open barbarian behavior:
‘The basic outline of German social Darwinism [was] … man was merely a part of nature with no special transcendent qualities or special humanness. On the other hand, the Germans were members of a biologically superior community … politics was merely the straightforward application of the laws of biology. In essence, Haeckel and his fellow social Darwinists advanced the ideas that were to become the core assumptions of national socialism …. The business of the corporate state was eugenics or artificial selection ….’ 18
Hitler once even stated that we Nazis ‘ … are barbarians! We want to be barbarians. It is an honorable title [for, by it,] we shall rejuvenate the world ….’26 Hitler, as an evolutionist, ‘consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the theory of evolution’.27 Keith adds that:
‘If war be the progeny of evolution — and I am convinced that it is — then evolution has “gone mad”, reaching such a height of ferocity as must frustrate its proper role in the world of life — which is the advancement of her competing “units”, these being tribes, nations, or races of mankind. There is no way of getting rid of war save one, and that is to rid human nature of the sanctions imposed on it by the law of evolution. Can man … render the law of evolution null and void? … I have discovered no way that is at once possible and practicable. “There is no escape from human nature.” Because Germany has drunk the vat of evolution to its last dregs, and in her evolutionary debauch has plunged Europe into a bath of blood, that is no proof that the law of evolution is evil. A law which brought man out of the jungle and made him king of beasts cannot be altogether bad.’ 28
Jews in Germany and Darwinism
The German eugenic leadership was originally less anti-Semitic than even the British leadership. Most early German eugenicists believed that German Jews were Aryans, and consequently the eugenicist movement was supported by many Jewish professors and doctors both in Germany and abroad. The Jews were only slowly incorporated into the German eugenic theory and then laws.
The Darwinian racists’ views also slowly entered into many spheres of German society which they had previously not affected.9 The Pan German League, dedicated to ‘maintaining German Racial Purity’, was originally not overtly anti-Semitic and assimilated Jews were allowed full membership. Many German eugenicists believed that although blacks or Gypsies were racially inferior, their racial theories did not fit Jews since many Jews had achieved significant success in Germany. Schleunes adds that by 1903, the influence of race ideas permeated the League’s program to the degree that by 1912, the League declared itself based upon ‘racial principles’ and soon excluded Jews from membership.29
In spite of the scientific prominence of these racial views, they had a limited effect upon most Jews until the 1930s. Most German Jews were proud of being Germans and considered themselves Germans first and Jews second. Many Jews modified the German intelligentsia’s racial views by including themselves in it. Their assimilation into German life was to the extent that most felt its anti-Semitism did not represent a serious threat to their security. Most Jews also were convinced that Germany was now a safe harbour for them.30 Many still firmly held to the Genesis creation model and rejected the views upon which racism was based, including Darwinism. What happened in Germany later was obviously not well received by Jewish geneticists, even Jewish eugenicists and certain other groups:
‘The eugenics movement felt a mixture of apprehension and admiration at the progress of eugenics in Germany … but the actual details of the eugenics measures which emerged after Hitler’s rise to power were not unequivocally welcomed. Eugenicists pointed to the USA as a place where strict laws controlled marriage but where a strong tradition of political freedom existed.’ 31
Hitler’s eugenic goals
Nazi policies resulted less from a ‘hatred’ toward Jewish or other peoples than from the idealistic goal of preventing ‘pollution’ of the superior race. Hitler elaborated his Darwinian views by comparing the strong killing the weak to a cat devouring a mouse, concluding that ultimately the Jews must be eliminated because they cause:
‘ … peoples to decay …. In the long run nature eliminates the noxious elements. One may be repelled by this law of nature which demands that all living things should mutually devour one another. The fly is snapped up by a dragon-fly, which itself is swallowed by a bird, which itself falls victim to a larger bird … to know the laws of nature … enables us to obey them.’ 32
Hitler then argued that for this reason, governments must understand and apply the ‘laws of Nature’, especially the ‘survival of the fittest’ law which ‘originally produced the human races and is the source of their improvement’. The government must therefore aid in the elimination, or at least quarantine, of the inferior races. Hitler argued:
‘If I can accept a divine Commandment, it’s this one: “Thou shalt preserve the species.” The life of the individual must not be set at too high a price. If the individual were important in the eyes of nature, nature would take care to preserve him. Amongst the millions of eggs a fly lays, very few are hatched out — and yet the race of flies thrives.’ 33
Hitler was especially determined to prevent Aryans from breeding with non-Aryans, a concern that eventually resulted in the ‘final solution’. Once the inferior races were exterminated, Hitler believed that future generations would be eternally grateful for the improvement that his programs brought to humanity:
‘The Germans were the higher race, destined for a glorious evolutionary future. For this reason it was essential that the Jews should be segregated, otherwise mixed marriages would take place. Were this to happen, all nature’s efforts “to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile” (Mein Kampf).’ 20
Individuals are not only far less important than the race, but the Nazis concluded that certain races were not human, but were animals:
‘The Jews, labelled subhumans, became nonbeings. It was both legal and right to exterminate them in the collectivist and evolutionist viewpoint. They were not considered … persons in the sight of the German government.’ 34
As a result, the Darwinist movement was ‘one of the most powerful forces in the nineteenth–twentieth centuries German intellectual history [and] may be fully understood as a prelude to the doctrine of national socialism [Nazism]’.35 Why did evolution catch hold in Germany faster, and take a firmer hold there than any other place in the world?
Evolution used to justify existing German racism
Schleunes noted, rather poignantly, that the reason the publication of Darwin’s 1859 work had an immediate impact in Germany, and their Jewish policy, was because:
‘Darwin’s notion of struggle for survival … legitimized by the latest scientific views, justified the racists’ conception of superior and inferior peoples and nations and validated the conflict between them.’ 36
The Darwinian revolution and the works of its chief German spokesman and most eminent scientist, Professor Haeckel, gave the racists something that they were confident was powerful verification of their race beliefs.37 The support of the science establishment resulted in racist thought having a much wider circulation than otherwise possible, and enormous satisfaction ‘that one’s prejudices were actually expressions of scientific truth’.36
And what greater authority than science could racists have for their views? Konrad Lorenz, one of the most eminent animal-behavior scientists then, and often credited as being the founder of his field, stated that:
‘Just as in cancer the best treatment is to eradicate the parasitic growth as quickly as possible, the eugenic defense against the dysgenic social effects of afflicted subpopulations is of necessity limited to equally drastic measures …. When these inferior elements are not effectively eliminated from a [healthy] population, then — just as when the cells of a malignant tumor are allowed to proliferate throughout the human body — they destroy the host body as well as themselves.’ 38
Lorenz’s works were important in developing the Nazi program designed to eradicate the ‘parasitic growth’ of inferior races. The government’s programs to insure the ‘German Volk’ maintained their superiority made racism almost unassailable. Although King claimed that ‘the holocaust … pretended to have a scientific genetic basis’,39 the position of the government and university elite of the time was so entrenched that few contemporary scientists seriously questioned it. The anti-Semitic attitudes of the German people were only partly to blame in causing the holocaust — only when Darwinism was added to the preexisting attitudes did a lethal combination result.
Eugenics becomes more extreme
The first step in an eugenic program was to determine which groups were genetically superior; a judgment that was heavily influenced by culture. The ideal traits were:
‘ … a human type whose appearance had been described by the race theorist Hans F.K. Günther as “blond, tall, long-skulled, with narrow faces, pronounced chins, narrow noses with a high bridge, soft hair, widely spaced pale-coloured eyes, pinky-white skin colour”‘. 40
Although superficial observations enable most people to make a broad classification of race, when explored in depth, race status is by no means easy to determine, as the Nazis soon found out. Many of the groups that they felt were inferior, such as the Slovaks, Jews, Gypsies, and others, were not easily distinguishable from the pure ‘Aryan’ race. In grouping persons into races to select the ‘best’, the Nazis measured a wide variety of physical traits including brain case sizes. The Nazis relied heavily upon the work of Hans F.K. Günther, professor of ‘racial science’ at the University of Jena. Although Günther’s ‘personal relationships with the party were stormy at times, his racial ideas were accepted’. They received wide support throughout the German government, and were an important influence in German policy.41 Günther recognized that, although ‘a race may not be pure, its members share certain dominant characteristics’, thus paving the way for stereotyping.41
Günther concluded that all Aryans share an ideal Nordic type which contrasted with the Jews, whom he concluded were a mixture of races. Günther stressed a person’s genealogical lineage, anthropological measurement of skulls and evaluations of physical appearance, were all used to determine their race. Even though physical appearance was stressed, ‘the body is the showplace of the soul’ and ‘the soul is primary’.42 Select females with the necessary superior race traits were even placed in special homes and kept pregnant as long as they remained in the program. Nonetheless, research on the offspring of the experiment concluded that, as is now known, IQ regressed toward the population mean and the IQs of the offspring were generally lower than that of the parents.
The bad blood theory
Darwinism not only influenced the Nazi attitude toward Jews, but other cultural and ethnic groups as well. Even mental patients were included later, in part because it was then believed that heredity had a major influence on mental illness (or they possibly had some Jewish or other non-Aryan blood in them), and consequently had to be destroyed. Poliakov notes that many intellectuals in the early 1900s accepted telegony, the idea that ‘bad blood’ would contaminate a race line forever, or that ‘bad blood drives out good, just as bad money displaces good money’.43 Only extermination would permanently eliminate inferior genetic lines, and thereby further evolution.
Darwin even compiled a long list of cases where he concluded bad blood polluted a whole gene line, causing it to bear impure progeny forever. Numerous respected biologists, including Ernst Ruedin of the University of Munich and many of his colleagues such as Herbert Spencer, Francis Galton, and Eugene Kahn, later a professor of psychiatry at Yale, actively advocated this hereditary argument. These scientists were also the chief architects of the German compulsory sterilization laws designed to prevent those with defective or ‘inferior’ genes from contaminating the Aryan gene pool. Later, when the ‘genetically inferior’ were also judged as ‘useless dredges’, massive killings became justified. The groups judged inferior were gradually expanded to include a wide variety of races and national groups. Later, it even included less healthy older people, epileptics, both severe and mild mental defectives, deaf-mutes, and even some persons with certain terminal illnesses.1,44
The groups judged ‘inferior’ were later expanded to include persons who had negroid or mongoloid features, Gypsies, and those who did not pass a set of ingeniously designed overtly racist phrenology tests now known to be worthless.45 After Jesse Owen won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Hitler chastised the Americans for even permitting blacks to enter the contests.46
Some evolutionists even advocated the view that women were evolutionarily inferior to men. Dr Robert Wartenberg, later a prominent neurology professor in California, tried to prove women’s inferiority by arguing that they could not survive unless they were ‘protected by men’. He concluded that because the weaker women were not eliminated as rapidly due to this protection, a slower rate of evolution resulted and for this reason natural selection was less operative on women than men. How the weak were to be ‘selected’ for elimination was not clear, nor were the criteria used to determine ‘weak’. Women in Nazi Germany were openly prohibited from entering certain professions and were required by law to conform to a traditional female role.47
Evolution and war in Nazi Germany
Darwinism not only offered the Germans a meaningful interpretation of their recent military past, but also a justification for future aggression: ‘German military success in the Bismarkian wars fit neatly into Darwin categories … in the struggle for survival, [demonstrating] the fitness of Germany.’48 War was a positive force not only because it eliminated ‘weaker’ races, but also because it weeded out the weaker members of the ‘superior’ races. Hitler not only unabashedly intended to produce a superior race, but he openly relied heavily upon Darwinian thought in both his extermination and war policies.25 Nazi Germany, partly for this reason, openly glorified war because it was an important means of eliminating the less fit of the highest race, a step necessary to ‘upgrade the race’. Clark concludes, quoting extensively from Mein Kampf, that:
‘Hitler’s attitude to the League of Nations and to peace and war were based upon the same principles. “A world court … would be a joke … the whole world of Nature is a mighty struggle between strength and weakness — an eternal victory of the strong over the weak. There would be nothing but decay in the whole of nature if this were not so. States which [violate] … this elementary law would fall into decay. … He who would live must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this world where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist.” To think otherwise is to “insult” nature. “Distress, misery and disease are her rejoinders”.’ 49
German greatness, Hitler stressed, came about primarily because they were jingoists, and thereby had been eliminating their weaker members for centuries.50 Although Germans were no stranger to war, this new justification gave powerful support to their policies. The view that eradication of the weaker races was a major source of evolution was well expressed by Wiggam:
‘ … at one time man had scarcely more brains than his anthropoid cousins, the apes. But, by kicking, biting, fighting … and outwitting his enemies and by the fact that the ones who had not sense and strength enough to do this were killed off, man’s brain became enormous and he waxed both in wisdom and agility if not in size ….’ 51
In other words, war is positive in the long run because only by lethal conflicts can humans evolve. Hitler even claimed as truth the contradiction that human civilization as we know it would not exist if it were not for constant war. And many of the leading scientists of his day openly advocated this view: Haeckel was especially fond of praising the ancient Spartans, whom he saw as a successful and superior people as a consequence of their socially approved biological selection. By killing all but the ‘perfectly healthy and strong children’ the Spartans were ‘continually in excellent strength and vigor’.52 Germany should follow this Spartan custom, as infanticide of the deformed and sickly was ‘a practice of advantage to both the infants destroyed and to the community’. It was, after all, only ‘traditional dogma’ and hardly scientific truth that all lives were of equal worth or should be preserved.18,53
However, the common assumption that European civilization evolved far more than others, primarily because of its constant warmongering in contrast to other nations, is false. War is actually typical of virtually all peoples, except certain small island groups who have abundant food, or peoples in very cold areas.54 Historically, many tribes in Africa were continually involved in wars, as were most countries in Asia and America.
Nazism and religion
Much of the opposition to the eugenic movement came from German Christians. Although Hitler was baptized a Catholic, he was never excommunicated, and evidently ‘considered himself a good Roman Catholic’ as a young man, and at times used religious language. He clearly had strong, even vociferous, anti-Christian feelings as an adult, as did probably most Nazi party leaders. As a consummate politician, though, he openly tried to exploit the church.55 Hitler once revealed his attitude toward Christianity when he bluntly stated that religion is an:
‘ … organized lie [that] must be smashed. The State must remain the absolute master. When I was younger, I thought it was necessary to set about [destroying religion] … with dynamite. I’ve since realized there’s room for a little subtlety …. The final state must be … in St. Peter’s Chair, a senile officiant; facing him a few sinister old women … The young and healthy are on our side … it’s impossible to eternally hold humanity in bondage and lies …. [It] was only between the sixth and eighth centuries that Christianity was imposed upon our peoples …. Our peoples had previously succeeded in living all right without this religion. I have six divisions of SS men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn’t prevent them from going to their death with serenity in their souls.’ 56
His beliefs as revealed in this quote are abundantly clear: the younger people who were the hope of Germany were ‘absolutely indifferent in matters of religion’. As Keith noted, the Nazi party viewed Darwinism and Christianity as polar opposites. Milner said of Germany’s father of evolution, Ernst Haeckel, that in his Natural History of Creation he argued that ‘the church with its morality of love and charity is an effete fraud, a perversion of the natural order’.57 A major reason why Haeckel concluded this was because Christianity:
‘ … makes no distinction of race or of color; it seeks to break down all racial barriers. In this respect the hand of Christianity is against that of Nature, for are not the races of mankind the evolutionary harvest which Nature has toiled through long ages to produce? May we not say, then, that Christianity is anti-evolutionary in its aim?’ 58
The opposition to religion was a prominent feature of German science, and thus later German political theory, from its very beginning. As Stein summarized Haeckel in a lecture titled On evolution: Darwin’s Theory:
‘ … [Haeckel] argued that Darwin was correct … humankind had unquestionably evolved from the animal kingdom. Thus, and here the fatal step was taken in Haeckel’s first major exposition of Darwinism in Germany, humankind’s social and political existence is governed by the laws of evolution, natural selection, and biology, as clearly shown by Darwin. To argue otherwise was backward superstition. And, of course, it was organized religion which did this and thus stood in the way of scientific and social progress.’ 59
Martin Bormann, Hitler’s closest associate for years and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, was equally blunt: the church was opposed to evolution and for this reason must be condemned, but the Nazis were on the side of science and evolution. Furthermore, Nazi and Christian concepts are incompatible because Christianity is built:
‘ … upon the ignorance of men and strive[s] to keep large portions of the people in ignorance …. On the other hand, National Socialism is based on scientific foundations. Christianity’s immutable principles, which were laid down almost two thousands years ago, have increasingly stiffened into life-alien dogmas. National Socialism, however, if it wants to fulfil its task further, must always guide itself according to the newest data of scientific researches.’ 60
Bormann also claimed that the Christian churches have long been aware that:
‘ … scientific knowledge poses a threat to their existence. Therefore, by means of such pseudo-sciences as theology, they take great pains to suppress or falsify scientific research. Our National Socialist world view stands on a much higher level than the concepts of Christianity, which in their essentials were taken over from Judaism. For this reason, too, we can do without Christianity.’ 60
As Humber notes, Hitler believed that Blacks were ‘monstrosities halfway between man and ape’ and therefore he disapproved of German Christians:
‘ … going to “Central Africa” to set up “Negro missions,” resulting in the turning of “healthy … human beings into a rotten brood of bastards.” In his chapter entitled “Nation and Race,” he said, “The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel, but he, after all, is only a weak and limited man; for if this law did not prevail, any conceivable higher development (Hoherentwicklung) of organic living beings would be unthinkable.” A few pages later, he said, “Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live”.’ 61
A literature review shows that German racism would have had a difficult time existing if the historical creation position, void of race curse theories, had been widely accepted. One of these biblical theories was the claim that Genesis teaches that ‘two types of men’ were originally created; Adam and Eve, the superior race line, and the ‘beasts of the earth’, the inferior black race line.62,63 Few people, though, accepted this idea.
Relatively few scientific studies exist which directly deal with Darwinism and Nazism — and many evolutionists avoid the subject because evolution is inescapably selectionist. One of the best reviews of Darwinism and Nazism documents clearly that Nazism felt confident that their programs of extermination was firmly based on evolution science.64 Recently, a number of popular articles have covered this topic in a surprisingly candid and honest way.65 The source of the worst of Nazism was in Darwinism and we must first understand history to prevent its repeat. Paraphrasing the words of Hitler, those who ignore the lessons of history are condemned to repeat it.66 Admittedly, some persons who did not accept evolution espoused non-evolution theories which accommodated or even espoused racism. Nonetheless, these persons were few and the theories that were developed seem to be mostly in response to preconceived ideas or to justify existing social systems.
Nazism-applied evolution
From our modern perspective, many persons have concluded that World War II and its results ensued from the ideology of an evil madman and his equally evil administration. Hitler, though, did not see himself as evil, but as humanity’s benefactor. He felt that many years hence, the world would be extremely grateful to him and his programs which lifted the human race to genetically higher levels of evolution by stopping race pollution by preventing mixed marriages with inferior races.
‘Hitler was influenced above all by the theories of the nineteenth-century social Darwinist school, whose conception of man as biological material was bound up with impulses towards a planned society. He was convinced that the race was disintegrating, deteriorating through faulty breeding as a result of a liberally tinged promiscuity that was vitiating the nation’s blood. And this led to the establishment of a catalogue of ‘positive’ curative measures: racial hygiene, eugenic choice of marriage partners, the breeding of human beings by the methods of selection on the one hand and extirpation on the other.’ 67
Hitler’s efforts to put members of these inferior races in concentration camps was not so much an effort to punish but, as his apologists repeatedly stated, was a protective safeguard similar to quarantining sick people to prevent contamination of the rest of the community. In Haas’s words, the Nazis believed that ‘killing Jews and others was in fact a scientific and rational way of serving an objectively greater good’.68 Or, as Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, adds, ‘such a struggle, legitimized by the latest scientific views, justifies the racists’ conceptions of superior and inferior people and nations and validated the conflict between them’.69 Many in Germany recognized the harm of Darwinism, and Nordenskiöld claimed the Prussian Minister of Education, even for a time in 1875 banned, its teaching:
‘ … the Prussian Minister of Education sent round a circular strictly forbidding the schoolmasters in the country to have anything to do with Darwinism … with a view to protecting schoolchildren from the dangers of the new doctrines.’ 70
An interesting question is, would the Nazi holocaust have occurred if this ban had remained in effect? Haeckel was at the center of this fight and garnered much support from:
‘ … free-thinkers and it is easy to realize the eagerness with which the friends of the freedom of thought and word must have gathered around him in spite of his many delusions, when such measures as the school regulations mentioned above were adopted … All the more so as the outcome proved Haeckel’s justification; Darwinism might be prohibited in the schools, but the idea of evolution and its method penetrated everywhere … And to this result Haeckel has undeniably contributed more than most; everything of value in his utterances has become permanent, while his blunders have been forgotten, as they deserve.’70
A biologist writing the above today would certainly drop ‘as they deserve’ because Haeckel is today acknowledged as an unscrupulous forger who played no small role in the horrible events that occurred in the 1930s and 1940s.
The well documented influence of Darwinism on the Holocaust has been greatly downplayed by the mass media. Current writers often gloss over, totally ignore, or even distort the close connection between Darwinism and the Nazi race theory and the policies it produced, but as Stein admonishes:
‘There is little doubt that the history of ethnocentrism, racism, nationalism, and xenophobia has been also a history of the use of science and the actions of scientists in support of these ideas and social movements. In many cases it is clear that science was used merely as raw material or evidence by ideologically interested political actors as proof of preconceived notions. Most contemporary sociobiologists and students of biopolitics would argue that all attempts to use science in this manner are, in fact, mere pseudoscience ….’ 71
He adds that there is also little doubt that this contemporary self-protecting attitude is based on a:
‘ … somewhat wilful misreading of history. The history of ethnocentrism and the like has also been the history of many well-respected scientists of the day being quite active in using their own authority as scientists to advance and support racist and xenophobic political and social doctrines in the name of science. Thus, if the scientists of the day used the science of the day to advance racism, it is simply a form of Kuhnian amnesia or historical whitewash to dismiss concern with a possible contemporary abuse of science by a claim that the past abuse was mere pseudoscience.’ 71
Darwin was not just responding to his culture as often alleged. In Hull’s words ‘we have all heard, time and time again, that the reason Darwin’s theory was so … sexist, and racist is that Darwin’s society exhibited these same characteristics’. Hull answers this change by noting that Darwin was not ‘so callow that he simply read the characteristics of his society into nature’.72
Nazism is often used as a warning example of the danger of religious zeal, yet only occasionally is the key role of the eugenics of Francis Galton, based on the theory of natural selection espoused by his cousin, Charles Darwin, mentioned. Eugenics is still alive in the world today. As late as 1955, a Canadian professor of zoology, notes that ‘possibly the most significant fact is that he [Darwin] finally freed humanity from a great measure of … church proscription and won his fellow men a freedom of thought that had been unknown for centuries’.73 He then argues that reducing the churches’ influence in society allowed the discovery of, not only the means of evolution, but the knowledge that man had the means and that we can either direct evolution or let it take place on its own or, worse, stop it by counteracting the forces which propel it, causing devolution.
Rowan argued that man has, tragically, chosen the latter ‘selection is still as vital to human progress as it has ever been. The great Darwinian principle remains…’. Then he added, ‘When man acquired intellect, he started on an entirely new path without precedent in the animal world, the course of which now depends, not on further physical changes, but on intellectual and equally intellectual selection.’74 Unfortunately, he concludes, humans are ‘saving’ the intellectually inferior and have failed to order their affairs according to the laws of biology.74 This discussion, although tactful, is clear: those whom evolutionists judge as less fit need to be eliminated, or at the least our efforts in saving them, should be limited and we should let nature do its work. Not to do so will result in the eventual doom of the human race.
Conclusion
Firmly convinced that Darwinian evolution was true, Hitler saw himself as the modern saviour of mankind. Society, he felt, would some day regard him as a great ‘scientific socialist’, the benefactor of all humankind. By breeding a superior race, the world would look upon him as the man who pulled humanity up to a higher level of evolutionary development. If Darwinism is true, Hitler was our saviour and we have crucified him. As a result, the human race will grievously suffer. If Darwinism is not true, what Hitler attempted to do must be ranked with the most heinous crimes of history and Darwin as the father of one of the most destructive philosophies of history. An assessment by Youngson concluded that the application of Darwinism to society, called eugenics, produced one of the most tragic scientific blunders of all time:
‘The culmination of this darker side of eugenics was, of course, Adolf Hitler’s attempt to produce a “‘master race’ by encouraging mating between pure ‘Aryans’” and by the murder of six million people whom he claimed to have inferior genes. It is hardly fair to Galton to blame him for the Holocaust or even for his failure to anticipate the consequences of his advocacy of the matter. But he was certainly the principal architect of eugenics, and Hitler was certainly obsessed with the idea. So, in terms of its consequences, this must qualify as one of the greatest scientific blunders of all time.’ 75
First published in: Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal 13(2):101–111, 1999


A little about Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Luther, a German theologian and religious reformer, initiated the Protestant Reformation and forever split Christianity from Catholicism. His influence extends beyond religion to politics, economics, education and language. In 1505, after receiving a bachelor's and master's degree, he suddenly abandoned his studies, entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt and became a monk. He became a controversial figure when he published his Ninety-Five Theses, opposing the indulgences (release from the penalties for sin through the payment of money by the Catholic Church). This resulted in his split from the Roman Catholic Church where he established unique Christian interpretations about the Bible and theology. His influence resulted in the major Protestant denomination of Lutheranism where their churches today use Luther's name.
Protestant Christians so admire Martin Luther that he stands as a respected "Patron Saint" to their beliefs and morals. Christians often quote him, theologians write books on him, and many name their children after him (Martin Luther King Jr., for example).
Luther's anti-Jewishness
Unfortunately few popular books on Luther go into detail about Luther's anti-Jewishness, or even mention that he had a hatred for Jews at all. This has resulted in a biased outlook towards Martin Luther and Christianity. This unawareness of Luther's sinister side, while honoring his "righteousness" leads to a ratcheting promotion of Luther which supports a "good" public image while also transporting his Jewish beliefs to those who carry the seeds of anti-Semitism. This will present an unwanted dilemma for many Christians because Luther represents the birth of Protestant Christianity as well as the genesis of the special brand of Jewish hatred that flourished only in Germany.
Although Luther did not invent anti-Jewishness, he promoted it to a level never before seen in Europe. Luther bore the influence of his upbringing and from anti-Jewish theologians such as Lyra, Burgensis, (and John Chrysostom, before them). But Luther's 1543 book, "On the Jews and their lies" took Jewish hatred to a new level when he proposed to set fire to their synagogues and schools, to take away their homes, forbad them to pray or teach, or even to utter God's name. Luther wanted to "be rid of them" and requested that the government and ministers deal with the problem. He requested pastors and preachers to follow his example of issuing warnings against the Jews. He goes so far as to claim that "We are at fault in not slaying them" for avenging the death of Jesus Christ. Hitler's Nazi government in the 1930s and 40s fit Luther's desires to a tee.
So vehemently did Luther speak against the Jews, and the fact that Luther represented an honorable and admired Christian to Protestants, that his written words carried the "memetic" seeds of anti-Jewishness up until the 20th century and into the Third Reich. Luther's Jewish eliminationist rhetoric virtually matches the beliefs held by Hitler and much of the German populace in the 1930s.
Luther unconsciously set the stage for the future of German nationalistic fanaticism. William L. Shirer in his "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," puts it succinctly:
"Through his sermons and his magnificent translations of the Bible, Luther created the modern German language, aroused in the people not only a new Protestant vision of Christianity by a fervent German nationalism and taught them, at least in religion, the supremacy of the individual conscience. But tragically for them, Luther's siding with the princes in the peasant rising, which he had largely inspired, and his passion for political autocracy ensured a mindless and provincial political absolutism which reduced the vast majority of the German people to poverty, to a horrible torpor and a demeaning subservience. Even worse perhaps, it helped to perpetuate and indeed to sharpen the hopeless divisions not only between classes but also between the various dynastic and political groupings of the German people. It doomed for centuries the possibility of the unification of Germany."
In Mein Kampf, Hitler listed Martin Luther as one of the greatest reformers. And similar to Luther in the 1500s, Hitler spoke against the Jews. The Nazi plan to create a German Reich Church laid its bases on the "Spirit of Dr. Martin Luther." The first physical violence against the Jews came on November 9-10 on Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) where the Nazis killed Jews, shattered glass windows, and destroyed hundreds of synagogues, just as Luther had proposed. In Daniel Johah Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, he writes:
"One leading Protestant churchman, Bishop Martin Sasse published a compendium of Martin Luther's antisemitic vitriol shortly after Kristallnacht's orgy of anti-Jewish violence. In the foreword to the volume, he applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day: 'On November 10, 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany.' The German people, he urged, ought to heed these words 'of the greatest antisemite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews.'"
No apologist can claim that Martin Luther bore his anti-Jewishness out of youthful naivete', uneducation, or out of unfounded Christianity. On the contrary, Luther in his youth expressed a great optimism about Jewish conversion to Christianity. But in his later years, Luther began to realize that the Jews would not convert to his wishes. His anti-Jewishness grew slowly over time. His logic came not from science or reason, but rather from Scripture and his Faith. His "On the Jews and Their Lies" shows remarkable study into the Bible and fanatical biblical reasoning. Luther, at age 60 wrote this dangerous "little" book at the prime of his maturity, and in full knowledge in support of his beliefs and Christianity.
Few people today realize that Luther wrote 'On the Jews and Their Lies.' (He also wrote such works like "Against the Sabbatarians.") Freethinkers should become aware of the anti-Semitic influence that Luther has brought on the world. His vehement attack on Jews and his powerful influence on the believers of the Germans has brought a new hypothesis to mind: that the Holocaust, and indeed, the eliminationist form of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany may not have occurred without the influence from Luther's book "On the Jews and Their Lies."
Walter Buch, the head of the Nazi Party court, admitted Luther's influence on Nazi Germany:

When Luther turned his attention to the Jews, after he completed his translation of the Bible, he left behind "on the Jews and their Lies" for posterity.
-cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Many people confess their amazement that Hitler preaches ideas which they have always held.... From the Middle Ages we can look to the same example in Martin Luther. What stirred in the soul and spirit of the German people of that time, finally found expression in his person, in his words and deeds.
-"Geist und Kampf" (speech), Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]
Hans Hinkel, a Nazi who worked in Goebbels' Reich Chamber of Culture said:

Through his acts and his spiritual attitude he began the fight which we still wage today; with Luther the revolution of German blood and feeling against alien elements of the Volk was begun.
-cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich
Erich Koch, the Reich Commissioner for Ukraine and President of the East Prussian Protestant Church Synod wrote:

Only we can enter into Luther's spirit.... Human cults do not set us free from all sin, but faith alone. With us the church shall become a serving member of the state.... There is a deep sense that our celebration is not attended by superficiality, but rather by thanks to a man who saved German cultural values.
-Konigsberg-Hartungsche Zeitung, 20 Nov. 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]
Bernhard Rust served as Minister of Education in Nazi Germany. He wrote:


Since Martin Luther closed his eyes, no such son of our people has appeared again. It has been decided that we shall be the first to witness his reappearance.... I think the time is past when one may not say the names of Hitler and Luther in the same breath. They belong together; they are of the same old stamp [Schrot und Korn].
-Volkischer Beobachter, 25 Aug. 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Hans Schemm became Bavarian Minister of Education and Culture. Throughout the Reich, Germans particularly knew Schemm for his slogan, "Our religion is Christ, our politics Fatherland!" He writes:


His engagement against the decomposing Jewish spirit is clearly evident not only from his writing against the Jews; his life too was idealistically, philosophically antisemitic. Now we Germans of today have the duty to recognize and acknowledge this.
-"Luther und das Deutschtum," Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf (19 Nov. 1933: Berlin), [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Our confession to God is a confession of a doctrine of totality.... To give ultimate significance to the totalities of race, resistance and personality there is added the supreme totalitarian slogan of our Volk: "Religion and God." God is the greatest totality and extends over all else.
-(Gertrud Kahl-Furthmann (ed.), Hans Schemm spricht: Seine Reden und sein Werk (Bayreuth, 1935), [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]
Julius Streicher (one of Hitler's top henchmen and publisher of the anti-Semitic Der Sturmer) was asked during the Nuremberg trials if there were any other publications in Germany which treated the Jewish question in an anti-Semitic way., Streicher put it well:

"Dr. Martin Luther would very probably sit in my place in the defendants' dock today, if this book had been taken into consideration by the Prosecution. In the book 'The Jews and Their Lies,' Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are a serpent's brood and one should burn down their synagogues and destroy them..."
Quotes from Martin Luther's "On the Jews and their lies," 1543

Luther's Introduction:
I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not have believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews into taking their exile and wretchedness upon himself. However, the devil is the god of the world, and wherever God's word is absent he has an easy task, not only with the weak but also with the strong. May God help us. Amen.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

He did not call them Abraham's children, but a "brood of vipers" [Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that was too insulting for the noble blood and race of Israel, and they declared, "He has a demon' [Matt 11:18]. Our Lord also calls them a "brood of vipers"; furthermore in John 8 [:39,44] he states: "If you were Abraham's children ye would do what Abraham did.... You are of your father the devil. It was intolerable to them to hear that they were not Abraham's but the devil's children, nor can they bear to hear this today.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools...
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Now just behold these miserable, blind, and senseless people.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

...their blindness and arrogance are as solid as an iron mountain.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Learn from this, dear Christian, what you are doing if you permit the blind Jews to mislead you. Then the saying will truly apply, "When a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the pit" [cf. Luke 6:39]. You cannot learn anything from them except how to misunderstand the divine commandments...
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury. Thus they live from day to day, together with wife and child, by theft and robbery, as arch-thieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

However, they have not acquired a perfect mastery of the art of lying; they lie so clumsily and ineptly that anyone who is just a little observant can easily detect it.
But for us Christians they stand as a terrifying example of God's wrath.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

If I had to refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write against them as much and for as long a time as they have used for inventing their lies-- that is, longer than two thousand years.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

...Christ and his word can hardly be recognized because of the great vermin of human ordinances. However, let this suffice for the time being on their lies against doctrine or faith.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a noble, precious jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Alas, it cannot be anything but the terrible wrath of God which permits anyone to sink into such abysmal, devilish, hellish, insane baseness, envy, and arrogance. If I were to avenge myself on the devil himself I should be unable to wish him such evil and misfortune as God's wrath inflicts on the Jews, compelling them to lie and to blaspheme so monstrously, in violation of their own conscience. Anyway, they have their reward for constantly giving God the lie.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

...but then eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God's anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Over and above that we let them get rich on our sweat and blood, while we remain poor and they such the marrow from our bones.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

In brief, dear princes and lords, those of you who have Jews under your rule-- if my counsel does not please your, find better advice, so that you and we all can be rid of the unbearable, devilish burden of the Jews, lest we become guilty sharers before God in the lies, blasphemy, the defamation, and the curses which the mad Jews indulge in so freely and wantonly against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, this dear mother, all Christians, all authority, and ourselves. Do not grant them protection, safe-conduct, or communion with us. . . . With this faithful counsel and warning I wish to cleanse and exonerate my conscience.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Let the government deal with them in this respect, as I have suggested. But whether the government acts or not, let everyone at least be guided by his own conscience and form for himself a definition or image of a Jew.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

However, we must avoid confirming them in their wanton lying, slandering, cursing, and defaming. Nor dare we make ourselves partners in their devilish ranting and raving by shielding and protecting them, by giving them food, drink, and shelter, or by other neighborly acts...
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Therefore we Christians, in turn, are obliged not to tolerate their wanton and conscious blasphemy.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death. My advice, as I said earlier, is:
First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire...
Second, that all their books-- their prayer books, their Talmudic writings, also the entire Bible-- be taken from them, not leaving them one leaf, and that these be preserved for those who may be converted...
Third, that they be forbidden on pain of death to praise God, to give thanks, to pray, and to teach publicly among us and in our country...
Fourth, that they be forbidden to utter the name of God within our hearing. For we cannot with a good conscience listen to this or tolerate it...
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

He who hears this name [God] from a Jew must inform the authorities, or else throw sow dung at him when he sees him and chase him away.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. For our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

...they remain our daily murderers and bloodthirsty foes in their hearts. Their prayers and curses furnish evidence of that, as do the many stories which relate their torturing of children and all sorts of crimes for which they have often been burned at the stake or banished.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

...that everyone would gladly be rid of them.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

Undoubtedly they do more and viler things than those which we know and discover.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

If I had power over the Jews, as our princes and cities have, I would deal severely with their lying mouth.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

They [rulers] must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in proceeds without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal harshly with them, as Moses did...
If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)

My essay, I hope, will furnish a Christian (who in any case has no desire to become a Jew) with enough material not only to defend himself against the blind, venomous Jews, but also to become the foe of the Jews' malice, lying, and cursing, and to understand not only that their belief is false but that they are surely possessed by all devils. May Christ, our dear Lord, convert them mercifully and preserve us steadfastly and immovably in the knowledge of him, which is eternal life. Amen.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)
But perhaps the most lasting damage of all came from Luther openly advocating the abandonment of using natural reason (Luther considered his use of theological reasoning different from natural reason, i.e., scientific reasoning) . His theological message to live by faith and to abstain from listening to reason has mentally enslaved the lives of millions of Christians to this day. Throughout his literary life he wrote statements such as, "Whoever wishes to be a Christian, let him pluck out the eyes of his reason," "We must give reason a vacation and enter a different school. We must refrain from consulting reason. We must bid reason hold its peace; we must order it to be dead. We must gouge out its eyes and pluck its feathers...," "You must kill the other thoughts and the ways of reason or of the flesh, for God detests them." I can find no other influential writer who has spent as much ink, ad nauseum, against the very investigative tool which has kept the human species alive-- reason.
And no one should ever forget that his justification for these atrocious works came entirely from Christian Protestant beliefs fueled by the Bible. I don't know how Protestant Christians will react when faced with the realization of Luther's mad intolerance, but they will have to deal with the fact that this man stands as the Inventor and Creator of their Christian denomination.

"Such a desperate, thoroughly evil, poisonous and devilish lot are these Jews, who for these fourteen hundred years have been and still are our plague, our pestilence, and our misfortune."
Martin Luther -- Angel to the Fifth or Sardis Church Age 1520-1752
Jewish authorities are well aware of the two phases of Luther's ministry: that wherein he wrote his "Jesus Christ was Born A Jew," filled with sympathy for their long unbelief which he laid on the unsympathetic attitude of the Roman Catholic church. Luther's study of the TALMUD became the dividing line. His second and last phase was one of warning against the self-styled Jews as destroyers of Christianity and of Christians. After Luther became conversant with the TALMUD and the ritual cursings of Judaism, he declared that a person who condones such blasphemies partakes of them.
***
"He did not call them Abraham's children, but a 'brood of vipers' [Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that was too insulting for the noble blood and race of Israel, and they declared, 'He has a demon' [Matt 11:18]. Our Lord calls them a 'brood of vipers'; furthermore in John 8 [:39,44] he states: 'If you were Abraham's children ye would do what Abraham did . . . You are of your father the devil.' It was intolerable to them to hear that they were not Abraham's but the devil's children, nor can they bear to hear this today."
***
"They are the real liars and bloodhounds, who have not only perverted and falsified the entire Scriptures from beginning to end and without ceasing with their interpretations. And all of the anxious sighing, longing and hoping of their hearts is directed to the time when some day they would like to deal with us heathen as they dealt with the heathen in Persia at the time of Esther . . . "
***
"Oh how they love the book of Esther, which so nicely agrees with their bloodthirsty, revengeful and murderous desire and hope. The sun never did shine on a more bloodthirsty and revengeful people as they, who imagine to be the people of God, and who desire to and think they must murder and crush the heathen. And the foremost undertaking which they expect of their Messiah is that he should slay and murder the whole world with the sword. As they at first demonstrated against us Christians and would like to do now, if they only could; have also tried it often and have been repeatedly struck on their snouts . . ."
***
"Their breath stinks for the gold and silver of the heathen; since no people under the sun always have been, still are, and always will remain more avaricious than they, as can be noticed in their cursed usury. They also find comfort with this: 'When the Messiah comes, He shall take all the gold and silver in the world and distribute it among the Jews.' Thus, wherever they can direct Scripture to their insatiable avarice, they wickedly do so."
"Therefore know, my dear Christians, that next to the Devil, you have no more bitter, more poisonous, more vehement and enemy than a real Jew who earnestly desires to be a Jew. There may be some among them who believe what the cow or the goose believes. But all of them are surrounded with their blood and circumcision. In history, therefore, they are often accused of poisoning wells, stealing children and mutilating them; as in Trent, Weszensee and the like. Of course they deny this. Be it so or not, however, I know full well that the ready will is not lacking with them if they could only transform it into deeds, in secret or openly."
***
"A person who does not know the Devil, might wonder why they are so at enmity with the Christians above all others; for which they have no reason, since we only do good to them."
***
"They live among us in our homes, under our protection, use land and highways, market and streets. Princes and government sit by, snore and have their maws open, let the Jews take from their purse and chest, steal and rob whatever they will. That is, they permit themselves and their subjects to be abused and sucked dry and reduced to beggars with their own money, through the usury of the Jews. For the Jews, as foreigners, certainly should have nothing from us; and what they have certainly must be ours. They do not work, do not earn anything from us, neither do we donate or give it to them. Yet they have our money and goods and are lords in our land where they are supposed to be in exile!"
***
"If a thief steals ten gulden he must hang; if he robs people on the highway, his head is gone. But a Jew, when he steals ten tons of gold through his usury, is dearer than God himself!"
***
"Do not their TALMUD and rabbis write that it is no sin to kill if a Jew kills a heathen, but it is a sin if he kills a brother in Israel? It is no sin if he does not keep his oath to a heathen. Therefore, to steal and rob (as they do with their moneylending) from a heathen, is a divine service . . . And they are the masters of the world and we are their servants -- yea, their cattle!"
***
"I maintain that in three fables of Aesop there is more wisdom to be found than in all the books of the Talmudists and rabbis and more than ever could come into the hearts of the Jews . . ."
***
"Should someone think I am saying too much -- I am saying much too little! For I see in [their] writings how they curse us Goyim and wish as all evil in their schools and prayers. They rob us of our money through usury, and wherever they are able, they play us all manner of mean tricks . . . No heathen has done such things and none would to so except the Devil himself and those whom he possesses -- as he possesses the Jews."
***
"Burgensis, who was a very learned rabbi among them and by the grace of God became a Christian (which seldom occurs), is much moved that in their schools they so horribly curse us Christians (as Lyra also writes) and from that draws the conclusion that they must not be the people of God."
***
"Now behold what a nice, thick, fat lie it is when they complain about being captives among us! Jerusalem was destroyed more than 1,400 years ago during that time we Christians have been tortured and persecuted by the Jews in all the world. On top of that, we do not know to this day what Devil brought them into our country. We did not fetch them from Jerusalem! . . . Yes, we have and hold them captive, as I would like to keep my rheumatism, and all other diseases and misfortunes, who must wait as a poor servant, with money and property and everything I have! I wish they were in Jerusalem with the other Jews and whomsoever they would like to have with them."
***
"Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools . . ."
***
"Now just behold these miserable, blind, and senseless people. "
***
". . . their blindness and arrogance are as solid as an iron mountain. "
***
"Learn from this, dear Christian, what you are doing if you permit the blind Jews to mislead you. Then the saying will truly apply, 'When a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the pit' [cf. Luke 6:39]. You cannot learn anything from them except how to misunderstand the divine commandments . . ."
***
"Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them."
***
"Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury. Thus they live from day to day, together with wife and child, by theft and robbery, as arch-thieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security."
***
However, they have not acquired a perfect mastery of the art of lying; they lie so clumsily and ineptly that anyone who is just a little observant can easily detect it. But for us Christians they stand as a terrifying example of God's wrath."
***
"If I had to refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write against them as much and for as long a time as they have used for inventing their lies -- that is, longer than two thousand years."
***
". . . Christ and His Word can hardly be recognized because of the great vermin of human ordinances. However, let this suffice for the time being on their lies against doctrine or faith."
***
"Alas, it cannot be anything but the terrible wrath of God which permits anyone to sink into such abysmal, devilish, hellish, insane baseness, envy, and arrogance. If I were to avenge myself on the devil himself I should be unable to wish him such evil and misfortune as God's wrath inflicts on the Jews, compelling them to lie and to blaspheme so monstrously, in violation of their own conscience. Anyway, they have their reward for constantly giving God the lie."
***
"No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants."
***
". . . but then eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God's anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!"
***
"Over and above that we let them get rich on our sweat and blood, while we remain poor and they suck the marrow from our bones."
***
"I brief, dear princes and lords, those of you who have Jews under your rule -- if my counsel does not please you, find better advice, so that you and we all can be rid of the unbearable, devilish burden of the Jews, lest we become guilty sharers before God in the lies, blasphemy, the defamation, and the curses which the mad Jews indulge in so freely and wantonly against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, this dear mother, all Christians, all authority, and ourselves. Do not grant them protection, safe-conduct, or communion with us . . . With this faithful counsel and warning I wish to cleanse and exonerate my conscience."
***
"Let the government deal with them in this respect, as I have suggested. But whether the government acts or not, let everyone at least be guided by his own conscience and form for himself a definition or image of a Jew."
***
"However, we must avoid confirming them in their wanton lying, slandering, cursing, and defaming. Nor dare we make ourselves partners in their devilish ranting and raving by shielding and protecting them, by giving them food, drink, and shelter, or by other neighborly deeds."
***
"Therefore we Christians, in turn, are obliged not to tolerate their wanton and conscious blasphemy."
***
"Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death."
***
"What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Let us apply the ordinary wisdom of other nations like France, Spain, Bohemia, et al., who made them give an account of what they had stolen through usury, and divided it evenly; but expelled them from their country; For as heard before, God's wrath is so great over them that through soft mercy they only become more wicked, through hard treatment, however, only a little better. Therefore, away with them!"
***
quot;How much more unbearable it is that we should permit the entire Christendom and all of us to be bought with our own money, be slandered and cursed by the Jews, who on top of all that be made rich and our lords, who laugh us to scorn and are tickled by their audacity!"
***
"What a joyful affair that would be for the Devil and his angels, and cause them to laugh through their snouts like a sow grinning at her little pigs, but deserving real wrath before God."
***
"What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews. With prayer and the fear of God we must pratice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames. We dare not avenge ourselves. Vengenance a thousand times worse than we could wish them already has them by the throat. I shall give you my sincere advice:
First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly -- and I myself was unaware of it -- will be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. . . .
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. For they have justly forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor Jews captive with the saying of Moses (Deuternomy 17 [:10 ff.]) in which he commands them to obey their teachers on penalty of death, although Moses clearly adds: "what they teach you in accord with the Law of the Lord." Those villains ignore that. They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience contrary to the law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison, cursing, and blasphemy. In the same way the pope also held us captive with the declaration in Matthew 16 {:18], "You are Peter," etc, inducing us to believe all the lies and deceptions that issued from his devilish mind. He did not teach in accord with the Word of God, and therefore he forfeited the righ to teach.
Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let they stay at home. . . If you princes and nobles do not close the road legally to such exploiters, then some troop ought to ride against them, for they will learn from this pamphlet what the Jews are and how to handle them and that they ought not to be protected. You ought not, you cannot protect them, unless in the eyes of God you want to share all their abomination.
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess. Such money should now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble. For such evil gains are cursed if they are not put to use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.
Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen 3[:19]). For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants."
***
"But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's Name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. For our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God."
***
Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death. My advice, as I said earlier, is:
First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss in sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire. That would demonstrate to God our serious resolve and be evidence to all the world that it was in ignorance that we tolerated such houses, in which the Jews have reviled God, our dear Creator and Father, and his Son most shamefully up till now but that we have now given them their due reward."
"To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden -- the Jews . . ."
"Let the government deal with them in this respect, as I have suggested. But whether the government acts or not, let everyone at least be guided by his own conscience and form for himself a definition or image of a Jew. When you lay eyes on or think of a Jew you must say to yourself: Alas, that mouth which I there behold has cursed and execrated and maligned every Saturday my dear Lord Jesus Christ, who has redeemed me with His precious blood; in addition, it prayed and pleaded before God that I, my wife and children, and all Christians might be stabbed to death and perish miserably. And he himself would gladly do this if he were able, in order to appropriate our goods . . ."
"Such a desperate, thoroughly evil, poisonous, and devilish lot are these Jews, who for these fourteen hundred years have been and still are our plague, our pestilence, and our misfortune."
"I have read and heard many stories about the Jews which agree with this judgment of Christ, namely, how they have poisoned wells, made assassinations, kidnapped children, as related before. I have heard that one Jew sent another Jew, and this by means of a Christian, a pot of blood, together with a of wine, in which when drunk empty, a dead Jew was found. There are many other similar stories. For their kidnapping of children they have often been burned at the stake or banished (as we already heard). I am well aware that they deny all of this. However, it all coincides with the judgment of Christ which declares that they are venomous, bitter, vindictive, tricky serpents, assassins, and children of the devil, who sting and work harm stealthily wherever they cannot do it openly. For this reason, I would like to see them where there are no Christians. The Turks and other heathen do not tolerate what we Christians endure from these venomous serpents and young devils . . . next to the devil, a Christian has no more bitter and galling foe than a Jew. There is no other to whom we accord as many benefactions and from whom we suffer as much as we do from these base children of the devil, this brood of vipers."
***
"We are at fault for not slaying them."
***
"I wish and I ask that our rulers who have Jewish subjects exercise a sharp mercy toward these wretched people, as suggested above, to see whether this might not help (though it is doubtful). They must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in, proceeds without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal harshly with them, as Moses did in the wilderness, slaying three thousand lest the whole people perish. They surely do not know what they are doing; moreover, as people possessed, they do not wish to know it, hear it, or learn it. There it would be wrong to be merciful and confirm them in their conduct. If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs, so that we do not become partakers of their abominable blasphemy and all their other vices and thus merit God's wrath and be damned with them. I have done my duty. Now let everyone see to his. I am exonerated."
***
"They exalt themselves and praise God for separating them from the heathen. . . In order that their raving, frantic and foolish nonsense might be perfect, they praise and thank God, first, that they are human beings and not animals; secondly, that they are Israelites and not Goyim; thirdly, that they were created as Men and not as Women. Such foolishness they do not have from Israel, but from Goyim."
"For thus the historians write that the Greek PLATO daily gave such praise and thanks to God, if such blasphemy and haughtiness could be called the praise of God. For that man (Plato) also praised his gods for these three things, that he was a man and not an animal, a man and not a woman. a Greek and not a non-Greek or barbarian. Such is the praying of a fool and the praise of a blasphemous barbarian: just as the Mals imagine that they alone are human beings and all the rest of the world nothing but inhuman beings, ducks, or mice."
***
"My essay, I hope, will furnish a Christian (who in any case has no desire to become a Jew) with enough material not only to defend himself against the blind, venomous Jews, but also to become the foe of the Jews' malice, lying, and cursing, and to understand not only that their belief is false but that they are surely possessed by all devils. May Christ, our dear Lord, convert them mercifully and preserve us steadfastly and immovably in the knowledge of him, which is eternal life. Amen."
***
"Even with no further evidence than the Old Testament, I would maintain, and no person on earth could alter my opinion, that the Jews as they are today are veritably a mixture of all the depraved and malevolent knaves of the whole world over, who have then been dispersed in all countries, similarly to the Tartars, Gypsies and such folk."
Here are excerpts from Luther's reply to the Talmudic charge that Jesus did His miracles by magic with the Tetragrammaton, or Shem Hamphorash, the consonants of the word Jehovah (by which the Rabbis whistle up the demons)? Published in 1543:
"Vom Schem Hamphoras undvom Geschlecht Christi"By Martin Luther;from The Jew in Christian Theology,Gerhard Falk, McFarland and Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC and London, 1931:
"But your [God's] judgment is right, justus es Dominie. Yes, so shall Jews, but no one else be punished, who held your word and miracles in contempt and ridiculed, insulted and damned it for such a long time without interruption, so that they will not fall, like other humans, heathens and all the others, into sin and death, not up in Hell, nor in the middle of Hell but in the pit of Hell, as one cannot fall deeper . . ."
***
"Even if they were punished in the most gruesome manner that the streets ran with their blood, that their dead would be counted, not in the hundred thousands, but in the millions, as happened under Vespasian in Jerusalem and for evil under Hadrian, still they must insist on being right even if after these 1,500 years they were in misery another 1,500 years, still God must be a liar and they must be correct. In sum, they are the devil's children, damned to Hell. . ."
***
"The Jews too got what they deserved. They had been called and elected to be God's mouth as Jeremiah says . . . Open your mouth wide and I will fill it; they however, kept tightly closed their muzzles, eyes, ears, nose, whole heart and all senses, so he polluted and squirted them so full that it oozes from them in all places and devil's filth comes from them."
***
"Yes, that tastes good to them, into their hearts, they smack their lips like swine. That is how they want it. Call more: 'Crucify Him, crucify Him.' Scream more: 'His blood come upon us and our children.' (Matthew 27:25) I mean it came and found you . . ."
***
"Perhaps, one of the merciful Saints among us Christians may think I am behaving too crude and disdainfully against the poor, miserable Jews in that I deal with them so sarcastically and insulting. But, good God, I am much too mild in insulting such devils. I would fain to do so, but they are far greater adepts at mockery than I and possess a god who is master in this art. It is the Evil One himself.
"Even with no further evidence than the Old Testament, I would maintain, and no person on earth could alter my opinion, that the Jews as they are today are veritably a mixture of all the depraved and malevolent knaves of the whole world over, who have then been dispersed in all countries, similarly to the Tartars, Gypsies and such folk."
***

SPEECHES OF HITLER
For us there are only two possiblities: either we remain German or we come under the thumb of the Jews. This latter must not occur; even if we are small, we are a force. A well-organized group can conquer a strong enemy. If you stick close together and keep bringing in new people, we will be victorious over the Jews.
AFTER the War production had begun again and it was thought that better times were coming, Frederick the Great after the Seven Years War had, as the result of superhuman efforts, left Prussia without a penny of debt: at the end of the World War Germany was burdened with her own debt of some 7 or 8 milliards of marks and beyond that was faced with the debts of 'the rest of the world' - the so-called 'reparations.' The product of Germany's work thus belonged not to the nation, but to her foreign creditors: 'it was carried endlessly in trains for territorities beyond our frontiers.' Every worker had to support another worker, the product of whose labor was commandeered by the foreigner. 'The German people after twenty-five or thirty years, in consequence of the fact that it will never be able to pay all that is demanded of it, will have so gigantic a sum still owing that practically it will be forced to produce more than it does today.'
And if we ask who was responsible for our misfortune, then we must inquire who profited by our collapse. And the answer to that question is that 'Banks and Stock Exchanges are more flourishing than ever before.' We were told that capitalism would be destroyed, and when we ventured to remind one or other of these famous statesmen and said 'Don't forget hat Jews too have capital,' then the answer was: 'What are you worrying about? Capitalism as a whole will now be destroyed, the whole people will now be free. We are not fighting Jewish or Christian capitalism, we are fighting very capitalism: we are making the people completely free.'
Christian capitalism' is already as good as destroyed, the international Jewish Stock Exchange capital gains in proportion as the other loses ground. It is only the international Stock Exchange and loan-capital, the so-called 'supra-state capital,' which has profited from the collapse of our economic life, the capital which receives its character from the single supra-state nation which is itself national to the core, which fancies itself to be above all other nations, which places itself above other nations and which already rules over them.
The international Stock Exchange capital would be unthinkable, it would never have come, without its founders the supra-national, because intensely national, Jews....
The Jew has not grown poorer: he gradually gets bloated, and, if you don't believe me, I would ask you to go to one of our health-resorts; there you will find two sorts of visitors: the German who goes there, perhaps for the first time for a long while, to breathe a little fresh air and to recover his health, and the Jew who goes there to lose his fat. And if you go out to our mountains, whom do you find there in fine brand-new yellow boots with splendid rucksacks in which there is generally nothing that would really be of any use? And why are they there? They go up to the hotel, usually no further than the train can take them: where the train stops, they stop too. And then they sit about somewhere within a mile from the hotel, like blow-flies round a corpse.
These are not, you may be sure, our working classes: neither those working with the mind, nor with the body. With their worn clothes they leave the hotel on one side and go on climbing: they would not feel comfortable coming into this perfumed atmosphere in suits which date from 1913 or 1914. No, assuredly the Jew has suffered no privations! . . .
Certainly a government needs power, it needs strength. It must, I might almost say, with brutal ruthlessness press through the ideas which it has recognized to be right, trusting to the actual authority of its strength in the State. But even with the most ruthless brutality it can ultimately prevail only if what it seeks to restore does truly correspond to the welfare of a whole people.
That the so-called enlightened absolutism of a Frederick the Great was possible depended solely on the fact that, though this man could undoubtedly have decided 'arbitrarily' the destiny - for good or ill - of his so-called 'subjects,' he did not do so, but made his decisions influenced and supported by one thought alone, the welfare of his Prussian people. It was this fact only that led the people to tolerate willingly, nay joyfully, the dictatorship of the great king.
AND THE RIGHT HAS FURTHER COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN THAT DEMOCRACY IS FUNDAMENTALLY NOT GERMAN: IT IS JEWISH. It has completely forgotten that this Jewish democracy with its majority decisions has always been without exception only a means towards the destruction of any existing Aryan leadership. The Right does not understand that directly every small question of profit or loss is regularly put before so-called 'public opinion,' he who knows how most skilfully to make this 'public opinion' serve his own interests becomes forthwith master in the State. And that can be achieved by the man who can lie most artfully, most infamously; and in the last resort he is not the German, he is, in Schopenhauer's words, 'the great master in the art of lying' - the Jew.
And finally it has been forgotten that the condition which must precede every act is the will and the courage to speak the truth - and that we do not see today either in the Right or in the Left.
There are only two possibilities in Germany; do not imagine that the people will forever go with the middle party, the party of compromises; one day it will turn to those who have most consistently foretold the coming ruin and have sought to dissociate themselves from it. And that party is either the Left: and then God help us! for it will lead us to complete destruction - to Bolshevism, or else it is a party of the Right which at the last, when the people is in utter despair, when it has lost all its spirit and has no longer any faith in anything, is determined for its part ruthlessly to seize the reins of power - that is the beginning of resistance of which I spoke a few minutes ago. Here, too, there can be no compromise - there are only two possibilities: either victory of the Aryan, or annihilation of the Aryan and the victory of the Jew.
It is from the recognition of this fact, from recognizing it, I would say, in utter, dead earnestness, that there resulted the formation of our Movement. There are two principles which, when we founded the Movement, we engraved upon our hearts: first, to base it on the most sober recognition of the facts, and second, to proclaim these facts with the most ruthless sincerity.
And this recognition of the facts discloses at once a whole series of the most important fundamental principles which must guide this young Movement which, we hope, is destined one day for greatness:
1. 'NATIONAL' AND 'SOCIAL' ARE TWO IDENTICAL CONCEPTIONS. It was only the Jew who succeeded, through falsifying the social idea and turning it into Marxism, not only in divorcing the social idea from the national, but in actually representing them as utterly contradictory. That aim he has in fact achieved. At the founding of this Movement we formed the decision that we would give expression to this idea of ours of the identity of the two conceptions: despite all warnings, on the basis of what we had come to believe, on the basis of the sincerity of our will, we christened it ''National Socialist.' We said to ourselves that to be 'national' means above everything to act with a boundless and all-embracing love for the people and, if necessary, even to die for it. And similarly to be 'social' means so to build up the state and the community of the people that every individual acts in the interest of the community of the people and must be to such an extent convinced of the goodness, of the honorable straightforwardness of this community of the people as to be ready to die for it.
2. And then we said to ourselves: THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS CLASSES: THEY CANNOT BE. Class means caste and caste means race. If there are castes in India, well and good; there it is possible, for there there were formerly Aryans and dark aborigines. So it was in Egypt and in Rome. But with us in Germany where everyone who is a German at all has the same blood, has the same eyes, and speaks the same language, here there can be no class, here there can be only a single people and beyond that nothing else. Certainly we recognize, just as anyone must recognize, that there are different 'occupations' and 'professions' [Stände]-there is the Stand of the watchmakers, the Stand of the common laborers, the Stand of the painters or technicians, the Stand of the engineers, officials, etc. Stände there can be. But in the struggles which these Stände have amongst themselves for the equalization of their economic conditions, the conflict and the division must never be so great as to sunder the ties of race.
And if you say 'But there must after all be a difference between the honest creators and those who do nothing at all' - certainly there must! That is the difference which lies in the performance of the conscientious work of the individual. Work must be the great connecting link, but at the same time the great factor which separates one man from another. The drone is the foe of us all. But the creators - it matters not whether they are brain workers or workers with the hand - they are the nobility of our State, they are the German people!
We understand under the term 'work' exclusively that activity which not only profits the individual but in no way harms the community, nay rather which contributes to form the community.
3. And in the third place IT WAS CLEAR TO US THAT THIS PARTICULAR VIEW IS BASED ON AN IMPULSE WHICH SPRINGS FROM OUR RACE AND FROM OUR BLOOD. We said to ourselves that race differs from race and, further, that each race in accordance with its fundamental demands shows externally certain specific tendencies, and these tendencies can perhaps be most clearly traced in their relation to the conception of work. The Aryan regards work as the foundation for the maintenance of the community of people amongst it members. The Jew regards work as the means to the exploitation of other peoples. The Jew never works as a productive creator without the great aim of becoming the master. He works unproductively using and enjoying other people's work. And thus we understand the iron sentence which Mommsen once uttered: 'The Jew is the ferment of decomposition in peoples,' that means that the Jew destroys and must destroy because he completely lacks the conception of an activity which builds up the life of the community. And therefore it is beside the point whether the individual Jew is 'decent' or not. In himself he carries those characteristics which Nature has given him, and he cannot ever rid himself of those characteristics. And to us he is harmful. Whether he harms us consciously or unconsciously, that is not our affair. We have consciously to concern ourselves for the welfare of our own people.
4. And fourthly WE WERE FURTHER PERSUADED THAT ECONOMIC PROSPERITY IS INSEPARABLE FROM POLITICAL FREEDOM AND THAT THEREFORE THAT HOUSE OF LIES, 'INTERNATIONALISM,' MUST IMMEDIATELY COLLAPSE. We recognized that freedom can eternally be only a consequence of power and that the source of power is the will. Consequently the will to power must be strengthened in a people with passionate ardor. And thus we realized fifthly that
5. WE AS NATIONAL SOCIALISTS and members of the German Workers party - a Party pledged to work - MUST BE ON PRINCIPLE THE MOST FANATICAL NATIONALISTS. We realized that the State can be for our people a paradise only if the people can hold sway therein freely as in a paradise: we realized that a slave state will never be a paradise, but only - always and for all time - a hell or a colony.
6. And then sixthly we grasped the fact that POWER IN THE LAST RESORT IS POSSIBLE ONLY WHERE THERE IS STRENGTH, and that strength lies not in the dead weight of numbers but solely in energy. Even the smallest minority can achieve a mighty result if it is inspired by the most fiery, the most pas sionate will to act. World history has always been made by minorities. And lastly
7. If one has realized a truth, that truth is valueless so long as there is lacking the indomitable will to turn this realization into action!
Thus we were the first to declare that this peace treaty was a crime. Then folk abused us as 'agitators.' We were the first to protest against the failure to present this treaty to the people before it was signed. Again we were called 'agitators.' We were the first to summon men to resistance against being reduced to a continuing state of defenselessness. Once more we were 'agitators.' At that time we called on the masses of the people not to surrender their arms, for the surrender of one's arms would be nothing less than the beginning of enslavement. We were called, no, we were cried down as, 'agitators.' We were the first to say that this meant the loss of Upper Silesia. So it was, and still they called us 'agitators.' We declared at that time that compliance in the question of Upper Silesia MUST have as its consequence the awakening of a passionate greed which would demand the occupation of the Ruhr. We were cried down ceaselessly, again and again. And because we opposed the mad financial policy which today will lead to our collapse, what was it that we were called repeatedly once more? 'Agitators,' And today?
And finally we were also the first to point the people on any large scale to a danger which insinuated itself into our midst - a danger which millions failed to realize and which will nonetheless lead us all into ruin - the Jewish danger. And today people are saying yet again that we were 'agitators.' I would like here to appeal to a greater than I, Count Lerchenfeld. He said in the last session of the Landtag that his feeling 'as a man and a Christian' prevented him from being an anti-Semite. I SAY: MY FEELING AS A CHRISTIAN POINTS ME TO MY LORD AND SAVIOUR AS A FIGHTER. IT POINTS ME TO THE MAN WHO ONCE IN LONELINESS, SURROUNDED ONLY BY A FEW FOLLOWERS, RECOGNIZED THESE JEWS FOR WHAT THEY WERE AND SUMMONED MEN TO THE FIGHT AGAINST THEM AND WHO, GOD'S TRUTH! WAS GREATEST NOT AS SUFFERER BUT AS FIGHTER. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and of adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before - the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice. And as a man I have the duty to see to it that human society does not suffer the same catastrophic collapse as did the civilization of the ancient world some two thousand years ago - a civilization which was driven to its ruin through this same Jewish people.
Then indeed when Rome collapsed there were endless streams of new German bands flowing into the Empire from the North; but, if Germany collapses today, who is there to come after us? German blood upon this earth is on the way to gradual exhaustion unless we pull ourselves together and make ourselves free!
And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly, it is the distress which daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people. And when I look on my people I see it work and work and toil and labor, and at the end of the week it has only for its wage wretchedness and misery. When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil, if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom today this poor people is plundered and exploited.
And through the distress there is no doubt that the people has been aroused. Externally perhaps apathetic, but within there is ferment. And many may say, 'It is an accursed crime to stir up passions in the people.' And then I say to myself: Passion is already stirred through the rising tide of distress, and one day this passion will break out in one way or another: AND NOW I WOULD ASK THOSE WHO TODAY CALL US 'AGITATORS': 'WHAT THEN HAVE YOU TO GIVE TO THE PEOPLE AS A FAITH TO WHICH IT MIGHT CLING?'
Nothing at all, for you yourselves have no faith in your own prescriptions.
That is the mightiest thing which our Movement must create: for these widespread, seeking and straying masses a new Faith which will not fail them in this hour of confusion, to which they can pledge themselves, on which they can build so that they may at least find once again a place which may bring calm to their hearts.
. . IT IS a battle which began nearly 120 years ago, at the moment when the Jew was granted citizen rights in the European States. The political emancipation of the Jews was the beginning of an attack of delirium. For thereby they were given full citizen rights and equality to a people which was much more clearly and definitely a race apart than all others, that has always formed and will form a State within the State. That did not happen perhaps at one blow, but it came about as things come about today and always do come about: first a little finger, then a second and a third, and so bit by bit until at last a people that in the eighteenth century still appeared completely alien had won equal citizen-rights with ourselves.
And it was precisely the same in the economic sphere. The vast process of the industrialization of the peoples meant the confluence of great masses of workmen in the towns. Thus great hordes of people arose, and these, more's the pity, were not properly dealt with by those whose moral duty it was to concern themselves for their welfare. Parallel with this was a gradual 'moneyfication' of the whole of the nation's labor-strength. 'Share-capital' was in the ascendant, and thus bit by bit the Stock Exchange came to control the whole national economy.
The directors of these institutions were, and are without exception, Jews. I say 'without exception,' for the few non-Jews who had a share in them are in the last resort nothing but screens, shop-window Christians, whom one needs in order, for the sake of the masses, to keep up the appearance that these institutions were after all founded as a natural outcome of the needs and the economic life of all peoples alike, and were not, as was the fact, institutions which correspond only with the essential characteristics of the Jewish people and are the outcome of those characteristics.
Then Europe stood at the parting of the ways. Europe began to divide into two halves, into West Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. At first Western Europe took the lead in the process of industrialization. Especially in England crowds of farm laborers, sons of farmers, or even ruined farmers themselves, streamed into the towns and there formed a new fourth estate.
But here one fact is of more importance than we are accustomed to admit: this England, like France, had relatively few Jews. And the consequence of that was that the great masses, concentrated in the towns, did not come into immediate contact with this alien nation, and thus feelings of aversion which must otherwise necessarily have arisen did not find sufficient nourishment for their development. In the end the fifty or sixty thousand Jews in England - there was hardly that number in England then - with supreme ease were able so to 'Europeanize' themselves that they remained hidden from the primitive eye of the ordinary member of the public and as 'Captains of Industry,' and especially as representatives of capital on a large scale, they could appear no longer as foreigners but themselves became Englishmen.
This accounts for the fact that anti-Semitism in these States could never attain to any native vigor; for the same is true of France. And precisely for this reason in these countries it was possible to introduce the system which we have to represent to ourselves under the concept of 'Democracy.' There it was possible to create a State-form whose meaning could only be the mastery of the herd over the intelligentsia, the mastery over true energy through the dead weight of massed numbers. In other words: it must be supremely easy for the Jewish intelligentsia, small in numbers and therefore completely hidden in the body of the British people, so to work upon the masses that the latter, quite unconscious of whom they were obeying, in the end did but serve the purposes of this small stratum of society.
Through the press propaganda, through the use of the organs of information, it was possible in England to found the great model parties. Already in those early days they saw to it shrewdly that here were always two or three groups apparently hostile to each other, but in fact all hanging on a gold thread, the whole designed to take account of a human characteristic - that the longer a man possesses an object, the more readily he grows tired of it. He craves something new: therefore one needs two parties. The one is in office, the other in opposition. When the one has played itself out, then the opposition party comes into power, and the party which has had its day is now in its turn the opposition. After twenty years the new party itself has once more played itself out and the game begins afresh. In truth this is a highly ingenious mill in which the interests of a nation are ground very small. As everyone knows, this system is given some such name as 'Self-Government of a People.'
Besides this we always find two great catchwords, 'Freedom' and 'Democracy,' used, I might say, as signboards. 'Freedom': under that term is understood, at least amongst those in authority who in fact carry on the Government, the possibility of an unchecked plundering of the masses of the people to which no resistance can be offered. The masses themselves naturally believe that under the term 'freedom' they possess the right to a quite peculiar freedom of motion - freedom to move the tongue and to say what they choose, freedom to move about the streets, etc. A bitter deception!
And the same is true of democracy. In general even in the early days both England and France had already been bound with the fetters of slavery. With, I might say, a brazen security these States are fettered with Jewish chains....
In consequence of this widespread aversion it was more difficult for the Jew to spread infection in the political sphere, and especially so since traditionally loyalty was centered in a person: the form of the State was a monarchy, and power did not lie with an irresponsible majority. Thus the Jew saw that here it was possible for an enlightened despotism to arise based upon the army, the bureaucracy, and the masses of the people still unaffected by the Jewish poison.
The intelligentsia at that time was almost exclusively German, big business and the new industries were in German hands, while the last reservoir of a people's strength, the peasantry, was throughout healthy. In such conditions if, as industry grew, a fourth estate was formed in the towns, there was the danger that this fourth estate might ally itself with the monarchy, and thus with its support there might arise a popular monarchy or a popular 'Kaisertum' which would be ready and willing to give a mortal blow to those powers of international supra-State finance which were at that time beginning to grow in influence. This was not impossible: in the history of Germany princes had from time to time found themselves forced, as in Brandenburg, to turn against the nobility and seek popular support.
But this possibility constituted a grave danger for Jewry. If the great masses of the new industrialized workmen had come into Nationalist hands and like a true social leaven had penetrated the whole nation, if the liberation of the different estates had followed step by step in an organic development and the State had later looked to them for support, then there would have been created what many hoped for in November, 1918, viz., a national social State. For Socialism in itself is anything but an international creation. As a noble conception it has indeed grown up exclusively in Aryan hearts: it owes its intellectual glories only to Aryan brains. It is entirely alien to the Jew.
The Jew will always be the born champion of private capital in its worst form, that of unchecked exploitation.... Voltaire, as well as Rousseau, together with our German Fichte and many another - they are all without exception united in their recognition that the Jew is not only a foreign element differing in his essential character, which is utterly harmful to the nature of the Aryan, but that the Jewish people in itself stands against us as our deadly foe and so will stand against us always and for all time.
The master-stroke of the Jew was to claim the leadership of the fourth estate: he founded the Movement both of the Social Democrats and the Communists. His policy was twofold: he had his 'apostles' in both political camps. Amongst the parties of the Right he encouraged those features which were most repugnant to the people - the passion for money, unscrupulous methods in trade which were employed so ruthlessly as to give rise to the proverb 'Business, too, marches over corpses.' And the Jew attacked the parties of the Right. Jews wormed their way into the families of the upper classes: it was from the Jews that the latter took their wives. The result was that in a short time it was precisely the ruling class which became in its character completely estranged from its own people.
And this fact gave the Jew his opportunity with the parties of the Left. Here he played the part of the common demagogue. Two means enabled him to drive away in disgust the whole intelligentsia of the nation from the leadership of the workers. First: his international attitude, for the native intelligence of the country is prepared to make sacrifices, it will do anything for the life of the people, but it cannot believe in the mad view that through the denial of that national life, through a refusal to defend the rights of one's own people, through the breaking down of the national resistance to the foreigner, it is possible to raise up a people and make it happy. That it cannot do, and so it remained at a distance.
And the Jew's second instrument was the Marxist theory in and for itself. For directly one went on to assert that property as such is theft, directly one deserted the obvious formula that only the natural wealth of a country can and should be common property, but that that which a man creates or gains through his honest labor is his own, immediately the economic intelligentsia with its nationalist outlook could, here too, no longer co-operate: for this intelligentsia was bound to say to itself that this theory meant the collapse of any human civilization whatever. Thus the Jew succeeded in isolating this new movement of the workers from all the nationalist elements....
More and more so to influence the masses that he persuaded those of the Right that the faults of the Left were the faults of the German workman, and similarly he made it appear to those of the Left that the faults of the Right were simply the faults of the so-called 'Bourgeois,' and neither side noticed that on both sides the faults were the result of a scheme planned by alien devilish agitators. And only so is it possible to explain how this dirty joke of world history could come to be that Stock Exchange Jews should become the leaders of a Workers Movement. It is a gigantic fraud: world history has seldom seen its like.
And then we must ask ourselves: what are the final aims of this development?
So soon as millions of men have had it hammered into them that they are so oppressed and enslaved that it matters not what their personal attitude may be to their people, their State, or economic life, then a kind of passive resistance must result, which sooner or later will do fatal damage to the national economy. Through the preaching of the Marxist economic theory the national economy must go to ruin. We see the results in Russia: the end of the whole economic life of the State: the handing over of the community to the international world of finance. And the process is furthered through the organization of the 'political strike.' Often there are no adequate economic grounds for a strike, but there are always political grounds and plenty of them.
And to this must be added the practical political sabotage of the State, since the thought of the individual is concentrated on the idea of international solidarity. It is clear that a nation's economic life depends upon the strength of a national State: it does not live on such phrases as 'Appeasement of the peoples' or 'Freedom of the Peoples.'
At the moment when no people supports the economic life of a nation, ready to give it its protection, at that moment economic life collapses. The breaking in pieces of a nation's strength is the end of a nation's prosperity, the national existence must cease altogether.
And one can see constantly how wonderfully the Stock Exchange Jew and the leader of the workers, how the Stock Exchange organ and the journal of the workers, co-operate. They both pursue one common policy and a single aim. Moses Kohn on the one side encourages his association to refuse the workers' demands, while his brother Isaac in the factory incites the masses and shouts, 'Look at them! they only want to oppress you! Shake off your fetters....'
His brother takes care that the fetters are well and truly forged. The Stock Exchange organ seeks without intermission to encourage fevered speculation and unparalleled corners in grain and in the food of the people, while the workmen's newspaper lets off all its guns on the masses, telling them that bread is dearer and this, that, and the other is dearer: up Proletarians! endure it no longer-down with . . .
How long can this process last? It means the utter destruction not only of economic life, but of the people. It is clear that all these apostles who talk their tongues out of their heads, but who spend the night in the Hotel Excelsior, travel in express trains, and spend their leave for their health in Nice - these people do not exert their energies for love of the people. No, the people is not to profit, it shall merely be brought into dependence on these men. The backbone of its independence, its own economic life, is to be destroyed, that it may the more surely relapse into the golden fetters of the perpetual interest-slavery of the Jewish race. And this process will end when suddenly out of the masses someone arises who seizes the leadership, finds other comrades and fans into flame the passions which have been held in check and looses them against the deceivers.
That is the lurking danger, and the Jew can meet it in one way only - by destroying the hostile national intelligentsia. That is the inevitable ultimate goal of the Jew in his revolution. And this aim he must pursue; he knows well enough his economics brings no blessing: his is no master people: he is an exploiter: the Jews are a people of robbers. He has never founded any civilization, though he has destroyed civilizations by the hundred. He possesses nothing of his own creation to which he can point.
Everything that he has is stolen. Foreign peoples, foreign workmen build him his temples, it is foreigners who create and work for him: it is foreigners who shed their blood for him. He knows no 'people's army': he has only hired mercenaries who are ready to go to death on his behalf. He has no art of his own: bit by bit he has stolen it all from the other peoples or has watched them at work and then made his copy. He does not even know how merely to preserve the precious things which others have created: as he turns the treasures over in his hand they are transformed into dirt and dung. He knows that he cannot maintain any State for long. That is one of the differences between him and the Aryan. True, the Aryan also has dominated other peoples. But how? He entered on the land, he cleared the forests; out of wildernesses he has created civilizations, and he has not used the others for his own interests, he has, so far as their capacities permitted, incorporated them into his State and through him art and science were brought to flower. In the last resort it was the Aryan and the Aryan alone who could form States and could set them on their path to future greatness.
All that the Jew cannot do. And because he cannot do it, therefore all his revolutions must be 'international.' They must spread as a pestilence spreads. He can build no State and say 'See here, Here stands the State, a model for all. Now copy us!' He must take care that the plague does not die, that it is not limited to one place, or else in a short time this plague-hearth would burn itself out. So he is forced to bring every mortal thing to an international expansion. For how long? Until the whole world sinks in ruins and brings him down with it in the midst of the ruins.
That process today in Russia is practically complete. The whole of present-day Russia has nothing to show beyond a ruined civilization, a colony ripe for development through alien capital, and even this capital in order to supply resources in labor for its practical work must introduce Aryan intellects, since for this again the Jew is useless. Here, too, he is all rapacity, never satisfied. He knows no ordered economy, he knows no ordered body of administrators. Over there in Russia he is laying his hands on everything. They take the noble's diamonds to help 'the People.' The diamonds then stray into foreign societies and are no more seen. He seizes to himself the treasures of the churches, but not to feed the people: oh no! Everything wanders away and leaves not a trace behind. In his greed he has become quite senseless: he can keep hold of nothing: he has only within him the instinct for destruction, and so he himself collapses with the treasure that he has destroyed.
It is a tragic fate: we have often grown excited over the death of a criminal: if an anarchist is shot in Spain we raise a mighty howl over 'the sacrifice of valuable human blood' . . . and here in the East thirty million human beings are being slowly martyred - done to death, some on the scaffold, some by machine guns . . . millions upon millions through starvation.... A whole people is dying, and now we can perhaps understand how it was possible that formerly all the civilizations of Mesopotamia disappeared without a trace so that one can only with difficulty find in the desert sand the remains of these cities. We see how in our own day whole countries die out under this scourge of God, and we see how this scourge is threatening Germany, too, and how with us our own people in mad infatuation is contributing to bring upon itself the same yoke, the same misery.
We know that the Revolution which began in 1918 has covered perhaps but the first third of its course. Two things, however, there are which must scourge it forward upon its way: economic causes and political causes. On the economic side, the ever-growing distress, and in the political sphere, are not nearly all Germans in their hearts - let each one admit it - in despair when they consider the situation which leaves us quite defenseless in face of a Europe which is so hostile to Germany? AND WHY IS EUROPE HOSTILE? WE SEE HOW OVER THERE IN THIS OTHER EUROPE IT IS NOT THE PEOPLES WHICH AGITATE AGAINST US, IT IS THE SECRET POWER OF THE ORGANIZED PRESS WHICH CEASELESSLY POURS NEW POISON INTO THE HEARTS OF THESE PEOPLES.
And who are then these bandits of the press? The brothers and the relatives of the publishers of our own newspapers. And the capital source which provides the energy which here - and there - drives them forward is the Jewish dream of World Supremacy.
Today the idea of international solidarity has lost its force, one can still bring men out of the factories, but only by means of terrorism. If you ask for an honest answer the worker will confess that he no longer believes in this international solidarity. And the belief in the so-called reasonableness of the other peoples has gone too. How often have we been told that reason will lead them not to be too hard with us: true, reason should have moved them thus, but what did move them had nothing to do with reason. For here there is no question of the thought of reasonable peoples: it is the thought of a wild beast, tearing, raging in its unreason, that drives all of them to the same ruin as that to which we ourselves are driven.
So the masses of the people in Germany are becoming, in the political sphere, completely lost. Yet here and there people are beginning to get some practice in criticism. Slowly, cautiously, and yet with a certain accuracy the finger is being placed on the real wound of our people. And thus one comes to realize: if only this development goes on for a time, it might be possible that from Germany the light should come which is destined to light both Germany and the world to their salvation. And at that point the everlasting lie begins to work against us with every means in its power....
It is said, if one criticizes the state of affairs to which we have been brought today, that one is a reactionary, a monarchist, a pan-German. I ask you what would probably have been the state of Germany today if during these three years there had been no criticism at all? I believe that in fact there has been far, far too little criticism. OUR PEOPLE UNFORTUNATELY IS MUCH TOO UNCRITICAL, OR OTHERWISE IT WOULD LONG AGO HAVE NOT ONLY SEEN THROUGH MANY THINGS, BUT WOULD HAVE SWEPT THEM AWAY WITH ITS FIST! The crisis is developing towards its culmination. The day is not far distant when, for the reasons which I have stated, the German Revolution must be carried forward another step. The leaders know all too well that things cannot always go on as they are going today. One may raise prices ten times by 100 per cent, but it is doubtful if in the end even a German will accept a milliard of marks for his day's wage if in the last resort with his milliard-wage he must still starve. It is a question whether one will be able to keep up this great fraud upon the nation. There will come a day when this must stop - and therefore one must build for that day, before it comes.
And so now Germany is reaching that stage which Russia has drunk to the lees. Now in one last stupendous assault they will finally crush all criticism, all opposition, no, rather whatever honesty is still left to us, and that they will do the more rapidly the more clearly they see that the masses are beginning to understand one thing - National Socialist teaching.
Whether for the moment it comes to them under that name or under another, the fact is that everywhere more and more it is making headway. Today all these folk cannot yet belong to a single party, but, wherever you go, in Germany, yes almost in the whole world, you find already millions of thinking men who know that a State can be built only on a social foundation and they know also that the deadly foe of every social conception is the international Jew.
Every truly national idea is in the last resort social, i.e., he who is prepared so completely to adopt the cause of his people that he really knows no higher ideal than the prosperity of this - his own - people, he who has so taken to heart the meaning of our great song 'Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles,' that nothing in this world stands for him higher than this Germany, people and land, land and people, he is a Socialist! And he who in this people sympathizes with the poorest of its citizens, who in this people sees in every individual a valuable member of the whole community, and who recognizes that this community can flourish only when it is formed not of rulers and oppressed but when all according to their capacities fulfill their duty to their Fatherland and the community of the people and are valued accordingly, he who seeks to preserve the native vigor, the strength, and the youthful energy of the millions of working men, and who above all is concerned that our precious possession, our youth, should not before its time be used up in unhealthy harmful work - he is not merely a Socialist, but he is also National in the highest sense of that word.
It is the teaching of these facts which appears to the Jews as leaders of the Revolution today to constitute a threatening danger. And it is precisely this which more than anything else makes the Jew wish to get in his blow as soon as possible. For one thing he knows quite well: in the last resort there is only one danger which he has to fear-and that danger is this young Movement.
He knows the old parties. They are easily satisfied. Only endow them with a few seats as ministers or with similar posts and they are ready to go along with you. And in especial he knows one thing: they are so innocently stupid. In their case the truth of the old saying is proved afresh every day: 'Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first strike with blindness.' They have been struck with blindness: therefore it follows that the gods wish to destroy them. Only look at these parties and their leaders, Stresemann and the rest of them. They are indeed not dangerous. They never go to the roots of the evil: they all still think that with forbearance, with humanity, with accommodation they can fight a battle which has not its equal in this world. Through gentleness they think that they must demonstrate to the enemy of the Left that they are ready for appeasement so as to stay the deadly cancerous ulcer through a policy of moderation.
No! A thousand times No! Here there are only two possibilities: either victory or defeat!
What today is the meaning of these great preparations for the decisive battle on the part of bolshevist Judaism?-
To make the nation defenseless in arms and to make the people defenseless in spirit.
Two great aims!
Abroad Germany is already humiliated. The State trembles before every French Negro-captain, the nation is no longer dangerous. And within Germany they have seen to it that arms should be taken away from the decent elements of the people and that in their stead Russian-Jewish-bolshevist bands should be armed. Only one thing remains still to do: viz., the muzzling of the spirit, above all the arrest of the evil 'agitators' - that is the name they give to those who dare to tell the people the truth. Not only are their organizations to be known to all, but the masses are to be incited against their persons. Just as the Jew could once incite the mob of Jerusalem against Christ, so today he must succeed in inciting folk who have been duped into madness to attack those who, God's truth! seek to deal with this people in utter honesty and sincerity. And so he begins to intimidate them, and he knows that this pressure in itself is enough to shut the mouths of hundreds, yes, of thousands. For they think, if I only hold my tongue, then I shall be safe in case they come into power. No, my friend. The only difference will be that I may hang perhaps still talking, while you will hang - in silence. Here, too, Russia can give us countless examples, and with us it will be the same story.
We know that the so-called 'Law for the Protection of the Republic' which comes from Berlin today is nothing else than a means for reducing all criticism to silence. We know, too, that no effort will be spared so that the last outstanding personalities - those who within Germany foresee the coming of disaster - shall in good time disappear. And to that end the population of North Germany will be scourged into opposition to Bavaria with every lie and every misrepresentation that comes to hand. Up there they have the feeling that in one corner of the Reich the spirit of the German people is not yet broken. And that is the point to which we National Socialists have to grapple ourselves. We National Socialists are, God's truth! perhaps the most loyal, the most devoted of all men to our German Fatherland. For three years we have waged a war, often against death and devil, but always only for our German Fatherland. We got so far that at the last, as crown of all our labors, we had to land in prison. But in spite of everything there is one thing we would say: We do make a distinction between a Government and the German Fatherland. When today here in the Landtag or in the Reichstag at Berlin some lousy half-Asiatic youth casts in our teeth the charge that we have no loyalty to the Reich, I beg you do not distress yourselves. The Bavarian people has sealed its loyalty to the Reich with its countless regiments which fought for the Reich and often sank under the earth two or three times. We are convinced, and that in the last resort is our one great faith, that out of this bitterest distress and this utter misery the German Reich will rise again, but not as now, not as the offspring of wretchedness and misery - we shall possess once again a true German Reich of freedom and of honor, a real Fatherland of the whole German people and not an asylum for alien swindlers. There is today constant talk about 'Federalism,' etc. I beg you not to abuse the Prussians while at the same time you grovel before the Jews, but show yourselves stiff-necked against the folk of Berlin. And if you do that, then you will have on your side in the whole of Germany millions and millions of Germans, whether they be Prussians or men of Baden, Wurttembergers, men of Saxony, or Germans of Austria. Now is the hour to stand stiff-necked and resist to the last!
We National Socialists who for three years have done nothing but preach - abused and insulted by all, by some mocked and scorned, by others traduced and slandered - we cannot retreat! For us there is only one path which leads straight ahead. We know that the fight which now is blazing will be a hard struggle. It will not be fought out in the court of the Reich at Leipzig, it will not be fought out in a cabinet at Berlin, it will be fought out through those factors which in their hard reality have ever up to the present time made world history. I heard recently in the speech of a minister that the rights of a State cannot be set aside through simple majority decisions, but only through treaties. BISMARCK ONCE USED DIFFERENT LANGUAGE ON THIS SUBJECT: HE THOUGHT THAT THE DESTINIES OF PEOPLES COULD BE DETERMINED NEITHER THROUGH MAJORITY DECISIONS NOR THROUGH TREATIES, BUT ONLY THROUGH BLOOD AND IRON.
On one point there should be no doubt: we will not let the Jews slit our gullets and not defend ourselves. Today in Berlin they may already be arranging their festival-dinners with the Jewish hangmen of Soviet Russia - that they will never do here. They may today begin to set up the Cheka - the Extraordinary Commission - in Germany, they may give it free scope, we surrender to such a Jewish Commission never! We have the conviction, firm as a rock, that, if in this State seven million men are determined to stand by their 'No' to the very last, the evil specter will collapse into nothingness in the rest of the Reich. For what Germany needs today, what Germany longs for ardently, is a symbol of power, and strength.
So as I come to the end of my speech I want to ask something of those among you who are young. And for that there is a very special reason. The old parties train their youth in the gift of the gab, we prefer to train them to use their bodily strength. For I tell you: the young man who does not find his way to the place where in the last resort the destiny of his people is most truly represented, only studies philosophy and in a time like this buries himself behind his books or sits at home by the fire, he is no German youth! I call upon you! Join our Storm Divisions! And however many insults and slanders you may hear if you do join, you all know that the Storm Divisions have been formed for our protection, for your protection, and at the same time not merely for the protection of the Movement, but for the protection of a Germany that is to be. If you are reviled and insulted, good luck to you, my boys! You have the good fortune already at eighteen or nineteen years of age to be hated by the greatest of scoundrels. What others can win only after a lifetime of toil, this highest gift of distinguishing between the honest man and the brigand, falls as a piece of luck into your lap while you are but youths. You can be assured that the more they revile you, the more we respect you. We know that if you were not there, none of us would make another speech. We know, we see clearly that our Movement would be cudgelled down if you did not protect it! You are the defense of a Movement that is called one day to remodel Germany in revolutionary fashion from its very foundations in order that there may come to birth what perhaps so many expected on the ninth of November: a German Reich and a Germanic and, so far as in us lies, a German Republic.
Every battle must be fought to the end - better that it come early than late. And he ever stands most securely who from the first goes to the fight with the greatest confidence. And this highest confidence we can carry with us in our hearts. For he who on our side is today the leader of the German people, God's truth! he has nothing to win but perhaps only everything to lose. He who today fights on our side cannot win great laurels, far less can he win great material goods - it is more likely that he will end up in jail. He who today is leader must be an idealist, if only for the reason that he leads those against whom it would seem that everything has conspired.
But in that very fact there lies an inexhaustible source of strength. The conviction that our Movement is not sustained by money or the lust for gold, but only by our love for the people, that must ever give us fresh heart, that must ever fill us with courage for the fray.
And as my last word, take with you this assurance: if this battle should not come, never would Germany win peace. Germany would decay and at the best would sink to ruin like a rotting corpse. But that is not our destiny. We do not believe that this misfortune which today our God sends over Germany has no meaning: it is surely the scourge which should and shall drive us to a new greatness, to a new power and glory, to a Germany which for the first time shall fulfill that which in their hearts millions of the best of our fellow countrymen have hoped for through the centuries and the millennia, to the Germany of the German people!
. . . ECONOMICS is a secondary matter. World history teaches us that no people became great through economics: it was economics that brought them to their ruin. A people died when its race was disintegrated. Germany, too, did not become great through economics.
A people that in its own life [volkisch] has lost honor becomes politically defenseless, and then becomes enslaved also in the economic sphere.
Internationalization today means only Judaization. We in Germany have come to this: that a sixty-million people sees its destiny to lie at the will of a few dozen Jewish bankers. This was possible only because our civilization had first been Judaized. The undermining of the German conception of personality by catchwords had begun long before. Ideas such as 'Democracy,' 'Majority,' 'Conscience of the World,' 'World Solidarity,' 'World Peace,' 'Internationality of Art,' etc., disintegrate our race-consciousness, breed cowardice, and so today we are bound to say that the simple Turk is more man than we are.
No salvation is possible until the bearer of disunion, the Jew, has been rendered powerless to harm.
1. We must call to account the November criminals of 1918. It cannot be that two million Germans should have fallen in vain and that afterwards one should sit down as friends at the same table with traitors. No, we do not pardon, we demand - Vengeance!
2. The dishonoring of the nation must cease. For betrayers of their Fatherland and informers the gallows is the proper place. Our streets and squares shall once more bear the names of our heroes; they shall not be named after Jews. In the Question of Guilt we must proclaim the truth.
3. The administration of the State must be cleared of the rabble which is fattened at the stall of the parties.
4. The present laxity in the fight against usury must be abandoned. Here the fitting punishment is the same as that for the betrayers of their Fatherland.
5. WE MUST DEMAND A GREAT ENLIGHTENMENT ON THE SUBJECT OF THE PEACE TREATY. WITH THOUGHTS OF LOVE? NO! BUT IN HOLY HATRED AGAINST THOSE WHO HAVE RUINED US.
6. The lies which would veil from us our misfortunes must cease. The fraud of the present money-madness must be shown up. That will stiffen the necks of us all.
7. AS FOUNDATION FOR A NEW CURRENCY THE PROPERTY OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT OF OUR BLOOD MUST DO SERVICE. If families who have lived in Germany for a thousand years are now expropriated, we must do the same to the Jewish usurers.
8. WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE EXPULSION OF ALL JEWS WHO HAVE ENTERED GERMANY SINCE 1914, and of all those, too, who through trickery on the Stock Exchange or through other shady transactions have gained their wealth.
9. The housing scarcity must be relieved through energetic action; houses must be granted to those who deserve them. Eisner said in 1918 that we had no right to demand the return of our prisoners - he was only saying openly what all Jews were thinking. People who so think must feel how life tastes in a concentration camp!
Extremes must be fought by extremes. Against the infection of materialism, against the Jewish pestilence we must hold aloft a flaming ideal. And if others speak of the World and Humanity we say the Fatherland - and only the Fatherland!
...IN THE Bible we find the text, 'That which is neither hot nor cold will I spew out of my mouth.' This utterance of the great Nazarene has kept its profound validity until the present day. He who would pursue the golden mean must surrender the hope of achieving the great and the greatest aims. Until the present day the half-hearted and the lukewarm have remained the curse of Germany....
To the half-heartedness and weakness of the parties in Parliament was added the half-heartedness of Governments... Everything stood under the sign of half-heartedness and lukewarmness, even the fight for existence in the World War and still more the conclusion of peace. And now the continuation of the half-hearted policy of those days holds the field. The people, inwardly united in the hard struggle-in the trenches there were neither parties nor Confessions-has been torn asunder through the economics of profiteers and knaves. Appeasement and the settlement of differences would certainly soon be there if only one were to hang the whole crew. But profiteers and knaves are, of course, 'Citizens of the State,' and what is more important still, they are adherents of the religion which is hallowed by the Talmud.
EVEN TODAY WE ARE THE LEAST LOVED PEOPLE ON EARTH. A world of foes is ranged against us and the German must still today make up his mind whether he intends to be a free soldier or a white slave. THE ONLY POSSIBLE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH A GERMAN STATE CAN DEVELOP AT ALL MUST THEREFORE BE: THE UNIFICATION OF ALL GERMANS IN EUROPE, education towards a national consciousness, and readiness to place the whole national strength without exception in the service of the nation. . . .
NO ECONOMIC POLICY IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT A SWORD, no industrialization without power. Today we have no longer any sword grasped in our fist-how can we have a successful economic policy? England has fully recognized this primary maxim in the healthy life of States; for centuries England has acted on the principle of converting economic strength into political power, while conversely political power in its turn must protect economic life. The instinct of self preservation can build up economics, but we sought to preserve World Peace instead of the interests of the nation, instead of defending the economic life of the nation with the sword and of ruthlessly championing those conditions which were essential for the life of the people.
Three years ago I declared in this same room that the collapse of the German national consciousness must carry with it into the abyss the economic life of Germany as well. For liberation something more is necessary than an economic policy, something more than industry: IF A PEOPLE IS TO BECOME FREE IT NEEDS PRIDE AND WILL-POWER, DEFIANCE, HATE, HATE, AND ONCE AGAIN HATE....
The spirit comes not down from above, that spirit which is to purify Germany, which with its iron besom is to purify the great sty of democracy. To do that is the task of our Movement. The Movement must not rust away in Parliament, it must not spend itself in superfluous battles of words, but the banner with the white circle and the black Swastika will be hoisted over the whole of Germany on the day which shall mark the liberation of our whole people.
. . . IN OUR view, the times when there was no 'League of Nations' were far more honorable and more humane.... We ask: 'Must there be wars?' The pacifist answers 'No!' He proceeds to explain that disputes in the life of peoples are only the expression of the fact that a class has been oppressed by the ruling bourgeoisie. When there are in fact differences of opinion between peoples, then these should be brought before a 'Peace Court' for its decision. But he does not answer the question whether the judges of this court of arbitration would have the power to bring the parties before the bar of the court. I believe that an accused ordinarily only appears 'voluntarily' before a court because, if he did not, he would be fetched there.
I should like to see the nation which would allow itself to be brought before this League of Nations Court in the case of a disagreement without external force. In the life of nations, what in the last resort decides questions is a kind of Judgment Court of God. It may even happen that in case of a dispute between two peoples - both may be in the right. Thus Austria, a people of fifty millions, had most certainly the right to an outlet to the sea. But since in the strip of territory in question the Italian element of the population was in the majority, Italy claimed for herself the 'right of self-determination.' Who yields voluntarily? No one! So the strength which each people possesses decides the day. ALWAYS BEFORE GOD AND THE WORLD THE STRONGER HAS THE RIGHT TO CARRY THROUGH WHAT HE WILLS.
History proves: He who has not the strength - him the 'right in itself' profits not a whit. A world court without a world police would be a joke. And from what nations of the present League of Nations would then this force be recruited? Perhaps from the ranks of the old German Army? THE WHOLE WORLD OF NATURE IS A MIGHTY STRUGGLE BETWEEN STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS - AN ETERNAL VICTORY OF THE STRONG OVER THE WEAK. There would be nothing but decay in the whole of Nature if this were not so. States which should offend against the elementary law would fall into decay. You need not seek for long to find an example of such mortal decay: you can see it in the Reich of today....
. . . Before the war two States, Germany and France, had to live side by side but only under arms. It is true that the War of 1870-1 meant for Germany the close of an enmity which had endured for centuries, but in France a passionate hatred against Germany was fostered by every means by propaganda in the press, in school textbooks, in theaters, in the cinemas. . . . All the Jewish papers throughout France agitated against Berlin. Here again to seek and to exploit grounds for a conflict is the clearly recognizable effort of world Jewry.
The conflict of interests between Germany and England lay in the economic sphere. Up till 1850 England's position as a World Power was undisputed. British engineers, British trade conquer the world. Germany, owing to greater industry and increased capacity, begins to be a dangerous rival. In a short time those firms which in Germany were in English hands pass into the possession of German industrialists. German industry expands vastly and the products of that industry even in the London market drive out British goods.
The protective measure, the stamp 'Made in Germany,' has the opposite effect from that desired: this 'protective stamp' becomes a highly effective advertisement. The German economic success was not created in Essen alone but by a man who knew that behind economics must stand power, for power alone makes an economic position secure. This power was born upon the battlefields of 1870-71, not in the atmosphere of parliamentary chatter. Forty thousand dead have rendered possible the life of forty millions. When England, in the face of such a Germany as this, threatened to be brought to her knees, then she bethought herself of the last weapon in the armory of international rivalry - violence. A press propaganda on an imposing scale was started as a preparatory measure.
But who is the chief of the whole British press concerned with world trade? One name crystallizes itself out of the rest: Northcliffe - a Jew! . . . A campaign of provocation is carried on with assertions, libels, and promises such as only a Jew can devise, such as only Jewish newspapers would have the effrontery to put before an Aryan people. And then at last 1914: they egg people on: 'Ah, poor violated Belgium! Up! To the rescue of the small nations - for the honor of humanity!' The same lies, the same provocation throughout the entire world! And the success of that provocation the German people can trace grievously enough!
WHAT CAUSE FINALLY HAD AMERICA TO ENTER THE WAR AGAINST GERMANY? WITH THE OUTBREAK OF THE WORLD WAR, WHICH JUDAH HAD DESIRED SO PAASSIONATELY AND SO LONG, ALL THE LARGE
JEWISH FIRMS OF THE UNITED STATES BEGAN SUPPLYING AMMUNITIONS. They supplied the European 'war-market' to an extent which perhaps even they themselves had never dreamed of - a gigantic harvest! Yet nothing satisfied the insatiable greed of the Jew. And so the venal press which depended upon the Stock Exchange kings began an unparalleled propaganda campaign. A GIGANTIC ORGANIZATION FOR NEWSPAPER LYING WAS BUILT UP. AND ONCE MORE IT IS A JEWISH CONCERN, THE HEARST PRESS, WHICH SET THE TONE OF THE AGITATION AGAINST GERMANY.
The hatred of these 'Americans' was not directed solely against commercial Germany or against military Germany. It was directed specially against social Germany, because this Germany had up to that time kept itself outside of the principles which governed the world trusts. The old Reich had at least made an honorable attempt to be socially-minded. We had to show for ourselves such an initiative in social institutions as no other country in the wide world could boast. . . . This explains why, even in Germany itself, the 'comrades' under Jewish leadership fought against their own vital interests. This explains the agitation carried on throughout the world under the same watchword.
For this reason the Jewish-democratic press of America had to accomplish its masterpiece - that is to say, it had to drive into the most horrible of all wars a great peace-loving people which was as little concerned in European struggles as it was in the North Pole: America was to intervene 'in defense of civilization,' and the Americans were persuaded so to do by an atrocity propaganda conducted in the name of civilization which from A to Z was a scandalous invention the like of which has never yet been seen - a farrago of lies and forgeries. Because this last State in the world where social aims were being realized had to be destroyed, therefore twenty-six peoples were incited one against the other by this press which is exclusively in the possession of one and the same world people, of one and the same race, and that race on principle the deadly foe of all national States.
Who could have prevented the World War? Not the Kul- tursolidarität, the 'solidarity of civilization,' in whose name the Jews carried on their propaganda: not the so-called World Pacifism - again an exclusively Jewish invention. Could the so-called 'Solidarity of the Proletariat?' . . . All the wheels stand silent, still, If that be your strong arm's will.... The German wheel on November 9, 1918, was indeed brought to a standstill. The Social Democratic party in its principal organ, Vorwärts, declared in so many words that it was not in the interest of the workers that Germany should win the war. . .
Could the Freemasons perhaps stop the war? - this most noble of philanthropic institutions who foretold the good fortune of the people louder than anyone and who at the same time was the principal leader in promoting the war. Who, after all, are the Freemasons? You have to distinguish two grades. To the lower grade in Germany belong the ordinary citizens who through the claptrap which is served up to them can feel themselves to be 'somebodies,' but the responsible authorities are those many-sided folk who can stand any climate, those 300 Rathenaus who all know each other, who guide the history of the world over the heads of Kings and Presidents, those who will undertake any office without scruples, who know how brutally to enslave all peoples - once more the Jews!
Why have the Jews been against Germany? That is made quite clear today - proved by countless facts. They use the age-old tactics of the hyena - when fighters are tired out, then go for them! Then make your harvest! In war and revolutions the Jew attained the unattainable. Hundreds of thousands of escaped Orientals become modern 'Europeans.' Times of unrest produce miracles. Before 1914 how long would it have taken, for instance, in Bavaria before a Galician Jew became - Prime Minister? - Or in Russia before an anarchist from the New York Ghetto, Bronstein (Trotsky), became - Dictator? Only a few wars and revolutions - that was enough to put the Jewish people into possession of the red gold and thereby to make them masters of the world.
Before 1914 there were two States above all, Germany and Russia, which prevented the Jew from reaching his goal - the mastery of the world. Here not everything which they already possessed in the Western democracies had fallen to the Jews. Here they were not the sole lords alike in the intellectual and economic life. Here, too, the Parliaments were not yet exclusively instruments of Jewish capital and of the will of the Jew. The German and the genuine Russian had still preserved a certain aloofness from the Jew. In both peoples there still lived the healthy instinct of scorn for the Jew, and there was a real danger that in these monarchies there might one day arise a Frederick the Great, a William I, and that democracy and a parliamentary regime might be sent to the devil.
So the Jews became revolutionaries! The Republic should bring them to wealth and to power. This aim they disguised: they cried 'Down with the monarchies!' 'Enthrone the sovereign people!' I do not know whether today one could venture to call the German or the Russian people 'sovereign.' At least one cannot see any trace of it! What the German people can trace, however, what every day stands in the most crass form before its eyes, is debauchery, gluttony, speculation ruling unchecked, the open mockery of the Jew....
So Russia and Germany had to be overthrown in order that the ancient prophecy might be fulfilled. So the whole world was lashed into fury. So every lie and propaganda agency was brutally set in action against the State of the last - the German - idealists! AND THUS IT WAS THAT JUDAH WON THE WORLD WAR. OR WOULD YOU WISH TO MAINTAIN THAT THE FRENCH, THE ENGLISH, OR THE AMERICAN 'PEOPLE' WON THE WAR? THEY, ONE AND ALL, VICTORS AND VANQUISHED ARE ALIKE DEFEATED: one thing raises itself above them all: the World Stock Exchange which has become the master of the people.
WHAT GUILT HAD GERMANY HERSELF FOR THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR? HER GUILT CONSISTED IN THIS: THAT AT THE MOMENT WHEN THE RING CLOSED ABOUT HER EXISTENCE GERMANY NEGLECTED TO ORGANIZE HER DEFENSE WITH SUCH VIGOR THAT THROUGH THIS DEMONSTRATION OF HER POWER EITHER THE OTHERS, DESPITE THEIR ABOMINABLE PURPOSES, WOULD HAVE BEEN ROBBED OF THEIR WILL TO STRIKE, OR ELSE THE VICTORY OF THE REICH WOULD HAVE BEEN ASSURED.
The guilt of the German people lies in this: that when in 1912 a criminal Reichstag in its unfathomable baseness and folly had refused to allow the raising of three army corps the people did not create for itself those army corps in the Reichstag's despite. With these additional 120,000 men the Battle of the Marne would have been won and the issue of the war decided. Two million fewer German heroes would have sunk into their graves. Who was it who in 1912 as in 1918 struck its weapons from the hands of the German people? Who was it that in 1912, as in the last year of the war, infatuated the German people with his theory that if Germany throws down her arms the whole world will follow her example - who? - the democratic-Marxist Jew, who at the same hour incited and still today incites the others to arm and to subjugate 'barbarous' Germany.
But someone may perhaps yet raise the question whether it is expedient today to talk about the guilt for the war. Most assuredly we have the duty to talk about it! For the murderers of our Fatherland who all the years through have betrayed and sold Germany, they are the same men who, as the November criminals, have plunged us into the depths of misfortune. We have the duty to speak since in the near future, when we have gained power, we shall have the further duty of taking these creators of ruin, these clouts, these traitors to their State and of hanging them on the gallows to which they belong. Only let no one think that in them there has come a change of heart. On the contrary, these November scoundrels who still are free to go as they will in our midst, they are, even today, going against us. From the recognition of the facts comes the will to rise again. Two millions have remained on the field of battle. They, too, have their rights and not we, the survivors, alone. There are millions of orphans, of cripples, of widows in our midst. They, too, have rights. For the Germany of today not one of them died, not one of them became a cripple, an orphan, or a widow. We owe it to these millions that we build a new Germany!
. . . I REJECT the word 'Proletariat.' The Jew who coined the word meant by 'Proletariat,' not the oppressed, but those who work with their hands. And those who work with their intellects are stigmatized bluntly as 'Bourgeois.' It is not the character of a man's life which forms the basis of this classification, it is simply the occupation - whether a man works with his brain or with his body. And in this turbulent mass of the hand-workers the Jew recognized a new power which might perhaps be his instrument for the gaining of that which is his ultimate goal: World supremacy, the destruction of the national States.
And while the Jew 'organizes' these masses, he organizes business, too, at the same time. Business was depersonalized, i.e., Judaized. Business lost the Aryan character of work: it became an object of speculation. Master and man were torn asunder . . . and he who created this class division was the same person who led the masses in their opposition to this class division, led them not against his Jewish brethren, but against the last remnants of independent national economic life.
And these remnants, the bourgeoisie which also was already Judaized, resisted the great masses who were knocking at the door and demanding better conditions of life. And so the Jewish leaders succeeded in hammering into the minds of the masses the Marxist propaganda: 'Your deadly foe is the bourgeoisie; if he were not there, you would be free.' If it had not been for the boundless blindness and stupidity of our bourgeoisie the Jew would never have become the leader of the German working-classes. And the ally of this stupidity was the pride of the 'better stratum' of society which thought it would degrade itself if it condescended to stoop to the level of the 'Plebe.' The millions of our German fellow countrymen would never have been alienated from their people if the leading strata of society had shown any care for their welfare.
You must say farewell to the hope that you can expect any action from the parties of the Right on behalf of the freedom of the German people. The most elementary factor is lacking: the will, the courage, the energy. Where then can any strength still be found within the German people? It is to be found, as always, in the great masses: THERE ENERGY IS SLUMBERING AND IT ONLY AWAITS THE MAN WHO WILL SUMMON IT FROM ITS PRESENT SLUMBER AND WILL HURL IT INTO THE GREAT BATTLE FOR THE DESTINY OF THE GERMAN RACE.
The battle which alone can liberate Germany will be fought out with the forces which well up from the great masses. Without the help of the German workingman you will never regain a German Reich. Not in our political salons lies the strength of the nation, but in the hand, in the brain, and in the will of the great masses. Now as ever: Liberation does not come down from above, it will spring up from below.... If we today make the highest demands upon everyone, that is only in order that we may give back to him and to his child the highest gift: Freedom and the respect of the rest of the world....
The parties of the Right have lost all energy: they see the flood coming, but their one longing is just for once in their lives to form a Government. Unspeakably incapable, utterly lacking in energy, cowards all - such are all these bourgeois parties and that at the moment when the nation needs heroes -not chatterers.
In the Left there is somewhat more energy, but it is used for the ruin of Germany. The Communists on principle reject the discipline imposed by the State: in its stead they preach party discipline: they reject the administration of the State as a bureaucracy, while they fall on their knees before the bureaucracy of their own Movement. There is arising a State within the State which stands in deadly enmity against the State which we know, the State of the community of the people. This new State ultimately produces men who reject with fanaticism their own people so that in the end Foreign Powers find in them their allies. Such is the result of Marxist teaching....
What we want is not a State of drones but a State which gives to everyone that to which on the basis of his own activity he has a right. He who refuses to do honest work shall not be a citizen of the State. The State is not a plantation where the interests of foreign capital are supreme. Capital is not the master of the State, but its servant. Therefore the State must not be brought into dependence on international loan capital. And if anyone believes that that cannot be avoided, then do not let him be surprised that no one is ready to give his life for this State. Further, that greatest injustice must be corrected which today still weighs heavily upon our people and upon almost all peoples. If in a State only he who does honest work is a citizen, then everyone has the right to demand that in his old age he shall be kept free from care and want. That would mean the realization of the greatest social achievement.
. . . WHAT we need if we are to have a real People's State is a land reform.... We do not believe that the mere dividing up of the land can by itself bring any alleviation. The conditions of a nation's life can in the last resort be bettered only through the political will to expansion. Therein lies the essential characteristic of a sound reform.
And land [Grund und Boden], we must insist, cannot be made an object for speculation. Private property can be only that which a man has gained for himself, has won through his work. A natural product is not private property, that is national property. Land is thus no object for bargaining.
Further, there must be a reform in our law. Our present law regards only the rights of the individual. It does not regard the protection of the race, the protection of the community of the people. It permits the befouling of the nation's honor and of the greatness of the nation. A law which is so far removed from the conception of the community of the people is in need of reform.
Further, changes are needed in our system of education. We suffer today from an excess of culture [Ueberbildung] Only knowledge is valued. But wiseacres are the enemies of action. What we need is instinct and will. Most people have lost both through their 'culture.' We have, it is true, a highly intellectual class, but it is lacking in energy. If, through our overvaluation of mechanical knowledge, we had not so far removed ourselves from popular sentiment, the Jew would never have found his way to our people so easily as he has done. What we need is the possibility of a continuous succession of intellectual leaders drawn from the people itself.
Clear away the Jews! Our own people has genius enough - we need no Hebrews. If we were to put in their place intelligences drawn from the great body of our people, then we should have recovered the bridge which leads to the community of the people.
AGAIN, WE NEED A REFORM OF THE GERMAN PRESS.
A press which is on principle anti-national cannot be tolerated in Germany. Whoever denies the nation can have no part in it. We must demand that the press shall become the instrument of the national self-education.
FINALLY WE NEED A REFORM IN THE SPHERE OF ART, LITERATURE, AND THE THEATER. The Government must see to it that its people is not poisoned. There is a higher right which is based on the recognition of that which harms a people, and that which harms a people must be done away with.
And after this reform we shall come to recognize the duty of self-preservation. A man who says: 'I deny that I have a right to defend my personal life' has thereby denied his right to exist. TO BE A PACIFIST ARGUES A LACK OF CONVICTION, A LACK OF CHARACTER. For the pacifist is indeed ready enough to claim the help of others, but himself declines to defend himself. It is precisely the same with a people. A people which is not prepared to protect itself is a people without character. We must recover for our people as one of its most elementary principles the recognition of the fact that a man is truly man only if he defends and protects himself, that a people deserves that name only if in case of necessity it is prepared as a people to enter the lists. That is not militarism, that is self-preservation.
THEREFORE WE NATIONAL SOCIALISTS STAND FOR COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE FOR EVERY MAN. If a State is not worth that - then away with it! Then you must not complain if you are enslaved. But if you believe that you must be free, then you must learn to recognize that no one gives you freedom save only your own sword. What our people needs is not leaders in Parliament, but those who are determined to carry through what they see to be right before God, before the world, and before their own consciences - and to carry that through, if need be, in the teeth of majorities. And if we succeed in raising such leaders from the body of our people, then around them once again a nation will crystallize itself... It is the pride of our Movement to be the force which shall awake the Germany of fighters which yet shall be.
. . . IF THE first of May is to be transferred in accordance with its true meaning from the life of Nature to the life of peoples, then it must symbolize the renewal of the body of a people which has fallen into senility. And in the life of peoples senility means internationalism. What is born of senility? Nothing, nothing at all. Whatever in human civilization has real value, that arose not out of internationalism, it sprang from the soul of a single people. When peoples have lost their creative vigor, then they become international Everywhere, wherever intellectual incapacity rules in the life of peoples, there internationalism appears. And it is no chance that the promoter of this cast of thought is a people which itself can boast of no real creative force - the Jewish people....
So the first of May can be only a glorification of the national creative will over against the conception of international disintegration, of the liberation of the nation's spirit and of its economic outlook from the infection of internationalism. That is in the last resort the question of the restoration to health of peoples . . . and the question arises: Is the German oak ever destined to see another springtime? And that is where the mission of our Movement begins. We have the strength to conquer that which the autumn has brought upon us. Our will is to be National Socialists - not national in the current sense of the word - not national by halves. We are National Socialist fanatics, not dancers on the tight-rope of moderation!
There are three words which many use without a thought which for us are no catch-phrases: Love, Faith, and Hope. We National Socialists wish to love our Fatherland, we wish to learn to love it, to learn to love it jealously, to love it alone and to suffer no other idol to stand by its side. We know only one interest and that is the interest of our people.
We are fanatical in our love for our people, and we are anxious that so-called 'national governments' should be conscious of that fact. We can go as loyally as a dog with those who share our sincerity, but we will pursue with fanatical hatred the man who believes that he can play tricks with this love of ours. We cannot go with governments who look two ways at once, who squint both towards the Right and towards the Left. We are straightforward: it must be either love or hate.
We have faith in the rights of our people, the rights which have existed time out of mind. We protest against the view that every other nation should have rights - and we have none. We must learn to make our own this blind faith in the rights of our people, in the necessity of devoting ourselves to the service of these rights; we must make our own the faith that gradually victory must be granted us if only we are fanatical enough. And from this love and from this faith there emerges for us the idea of hope. When others doubt and hesitate for the future of Germany - we have no doubts. We have both the hope and the faith that Germany will and must once more become great and mighty.
We have both the hope and the faith that the day will come on which Germany shall stretch from Koenigsberg to Strassburg, and from Hamburg to Vienna.
We have faith that one day Heaven will bring the Germans back into a Reich over which there shall be no Soviet star, no Jewish star of David, but above that Reich there shall be the symbol of German labor - the Swastika. And that will mean that the first of May has truly come.
. . THERE are two things which can unite men: common ideals and common criminality. We have inscribed upon our banner the great Germanic ideal and for that ideal we will fight to the last drop of our blood. We National Socialists have realized that from the international cesspool of infamy, from the Berlin of today, nothing can come to save the Fatherland. We know that two things alone will save us: first, the end of internal corruption, the cleansing out of all those who owe their existence simply to the protection of their party comrades. Through the most brutal ruthlessness towards all party officials we must restore our finances. It must be proved that the official is not a party man, but a specialist! The body of German officials must once more become what once it was. But the second and the most important point is that the day must come when a German government shall summon up the courage to declare to the Foreign Powers: 'The Treaty of Versailles is founded on a monstrous lie. We refuse to carry out its terms any longer. Do what you will! If you wish for war, go and get it! Then we shall see whether you can turn seventy million Germans into serfs and slaves!'
If cowards cry out: 'But we have no arms!' that is neither here nor there! When the whole German people knows one will and one will only - to be free - in that hour we shall have the instrument with which to win our freedom. It matters not whether these weapons of ours are humane: if they gain us our freedom, they are justified before our conscience and before our God. When the eyes of German children look questioning into ours, when we see the suffering and distress of millions of our fellow-countrymen who without any fault of theirs have fallen into this frightful misfortune, then we laugh at the curses of the whole world, if from these curses there issues the freedom of our race.
But since we know that today the German people consists for one-third of heroes, for another third of cowards, while the rest are traitors, as a condition of our freedom in respect of the outside world we would first cleanse our domestic life. The present 'United Front' has failed in that task. The day of another 'United Front' will come. But before that there must be a day of reckoning for those who for four and a half years have led us on their criminal ways. The domestic battle must come before the battle with the world without - the final decision between those who say 'We are Germans and proud of the fact' and those who do not wish to be Germans or who are not Germans at all. Our Movement is opposed with the cry 'The Republic is in danger!' Your Republic of the Ninth of November? In very truth it is: the November-Republic is in danger! How long, think you, you can maintain this 'State? . . .
Our Movement was not formed with any election in view, but in order to spring to the rescue of this people as its last help in the hour of greatest need, at the moment when in fear and despair it sees the approach of the Red Monster. The task of our Movement is still today not to prepare ourselves for any coming election but to prepare for the coming collapse of the Reich, so that when the old trunk falls the young fir-tree may be already standing. The Via dolorosa of Germany from Wirth, by way of Cuno to Stresemann, will end in the dictatorship of a Jewish lord of finance.... WE WANT TO BE THE SUPPORTERS OF THE DICTATORSHIP OF NATIONAL REASON, OF NATIONAL ENERGY, OF NATIONAL BRUTALITY AND RESOLUTION. GERMANY CAN BE SAVED ONLY THROUGH ACTION, WHEN THROUGH OUR TALKING HERE THE BANDAGE HAS BEEN TORN FROM THE EYES OF THE LAST OF THE BEFOOLED. It is from our Movement that redemption will come - that today is the feeling of millions. That has become almost a new religious faith! And there will be only two possibilities: either Berlin marches and ends up in Munich, or Munich marches and ends up in Berlin! A bolshevist North Germany and a nationalist Bavaria cannot exist side by side, and the greatest influence upon the fortunes of the German Reich will be his who shall restore the Reich.... Either Germany sinks, and we through our despicable cowardice sink with it, or else we dare to enter on the fight against death and devil and rise up against the fate that has been planned for us. THEN WE SHALL SEE WHICH IS THE STRONGER: THE SPIRIT OF INTERNATIONAL JEWRY OR THE WILL OF GERMANY.
. . THE Republic was founded to be a milk-cow for its founders - for the whole parliamentary gang. It was never intended to be a State for the German people, but a feeding ground, as pleasant and as rich a feeding-ground as possible. There never was any thought of giving to the German people a free State: the object was to provide a mob of the lowest scoundrels with an obliging object for their exploitation. The fruit of the honest work of other folk has been stolen by those who themselves have never worked. And if we refuse to grasp the facts, the outside world knows better. The outside world despises the representatives of this November-Republic! Neither in society nor in the meetings of diplomats are they regarded as equals, much less as men of character.
Think of Lloyd George - this man with the single fanatical idea - that England must be led to victory. There comes up to him one of the 'November men' of whom he knows: 'My people would have been defeated if your people by you had not been...' How will Lloyd George receive him? Surely with unspeakable contempt! For he knows what we can only guess, how in the war the millions of gold poured into Germany, how they began to take effect, how great associations of traitors were formed through foreign gold - through his gold. And now he sees face to face the man to whom before he paid out the Judas-wage. What do you think Lloyd George will do? He can only spit at the sight. Never can any one of the 'November criminals' represent Germany before the world! . . .
The Republic, by God! is worthy of its fathers. For hardly was the first deed of shame committed when there followed the second - one dishonor after another! One can scarcely believe any longer that there was once a time when one could speak of the Germans as the first people in the world.
The essential character of the November-Republic is to be seen in the comings and goings to London, to Spa, to Paris and Genoa. Subserviency towards the enemy, surrender of the human dignity of the German, pacifist cowardice, tolerance of every indignity, readiness to agree to everything until nothing more remains. This November Republic bore the stamp of the men who made it. The name 'November criminals' will cling to these folk throughout the centuries....
How are States founded? Through the personality of brilliant leaders and through a people which deserves to have the crown of laurel bound about its brows. Compare with them the 'heroes' of this Republic! Shirkers, Deserters, and Pacifists: these are its founders and their heroic acts consisted in leaving in the lurch the soldiers at the front, in stopping reinforcements, in withholding from them munitions, while at home against old men and half-starved children they carried through a revolutionary coup d'etat. They have quite simply got together their November State by theft! In the face of the armies returning wearied from the front these thieves have still posed as the saviours of the Fatherland! They declared the Pacifist-Democratic Republic. On the other hand I ask: What can be the only meaning of loyalty to the State? The loyalty of heroes! This Revolution has dishonored the old heroes on whom the whole earth had looked with wonder; it allowed the scum of the streets to tear off their decorations and to hurl into the mire all that was sacred to the heroes of the front line. And how does the Republic honor now the new heroes? Schlageter? By warrants for his arrest.
Pacifism as the idea of the State, international law instead of power - all means are good enough to unman the people. They hold India up to us as a model and what is called 'passive resistance.' True, they want to make an India of Germany, a folk of dreams which turns away its face from realities, in order that they can oppress it for all eternity, that they may span it body and soul to the yoke of slavery....
In the economic sphere this Revolution has proved to be an immense misfortune. The districts which were most important for the feeding of our people were lost and districts which are the condition for the feeding of the nation have been treasonably alienated. And what did the Revolution not prophesy for us in the political sphere? One heard of the right of Self-Determination of Peoples, of the League of Nations, of Self-Government of the People. And what was the result? A World Peace, but a World Peace over a Germany which was but a field of corpses. Disarmament, but only the disarmament of Germany, with Germany looting its own resources. Self-determination, yes, but self-determination for every Negro tribe: and Germany does not count as a Negro tribe. League of Nations, yes: but a League of Nations which serves only as the guarantor for the fulfillment of the Peace Treaty, not for a better world order which is to come. And government by the people - for five years past no one has asked the people what it thinks of the act of November of the year 1918: at the head of the Reich there stands a President who is rejected by the overwhelming majority of the people and who has not been chosen by the people. Seventeen million Germans are in misery under foreign rule.
Hardly ever in five years has so much been torn away from the German nation as in these years of the so-called successful Revolution. We have been rendered defenseless: we are without rights: we have become the pariahs of the world. What are our organs of government today but organs for executing the will of foreign tyrants? . . .
We were given a Free State which never deserved the name of 'free.' Then they called it a 'People's State.' But think you that bankers can form a government which befits a 'People's State'?
In fact the Revolution made three changes in our State: it internationalized the German State, the economic life of Germany, and the German people itself. Thereby Germany has been turned into a colony of the outside world. Those who were fed with the ideal of the International were in fact placed under the 'Diktat' of the International. They have their international State: today international finance is king....
While the masses were still told lies about 'socialization,' the economic life of Germany was in fact socialized, not by the German people, but by the outside world....
Through the internationalization of the nation itself in the end a people ceases to be master of its own fate: it becomes the puppet of alien forces.
Is that, now, a People's Revolution? Is such a construction a People's State? No, it is the Jews' Paradise.
. . . AMIDST all the crises under which we suffer and which do but present a single connected picture, perhaps that which the people feels most acutely is the economic crisis. The political crisis, the moral crisis, are only very rarely felt by the individual. The average man sees in the experiences of his day not that which affects the community as a whole but for the most part only that which strikes himself. Therefore the present has only very rarely any consciousness of political or moral collapse, so long as this collapse does not extend in one way or another into economic life. For when this happens it is no longer a question of some abstract problem that can perhaps be observed or studied in its effect on others, but one day the individual himself will be caught hold of by this question, and the more intimately such a crisis begins to influence his own life, the more clearly does he come to recognize that existing conditions cannot remain as they are. Then all of a sudden people talk of economic distress, of economic misery, and then, starting from this distress, one can awaken an understanding for that other distress which otherwise is wont to remain for a long time hidden from the individual man.
It is not enough to say that the German economic distress is a phenomenon resulting from a world crisis, from a general economic distress, since, of course, exactly in the same way every other people could plead the same excuse, could adduce the same reason. It is clear that even so this distress cannot have its roots all over the world, those roots must always be found within the life of peoples. And though only one thing is probably true - that these roots are perhaps the same in the case of many peoples - yet one cannot hope to master this distress by the mere statement that the presence of a certain distress is a feature of the age; rather it is clearly a necessity to disclose these roots in the internal life of a single people and to cure the distress there where one can really effect a cure.
Unfortunately it is precisely the German who is only too inclined at such times, instead of looking at his own internal life, to let his gaze range into the far distance. Our people has been so long falsely taught to think in international terms that even in such a distress as the present it tends to treat this problem, too, from international points of view. And the result is that many of us simply cannot believe that perhaps it might be possible to remedy such a misfortune in some other way than by international methods. And yet that is an error. It is natural that international infirmities which afflict all peoples in one way or another must be removed by the peoples who suffer from them, but that in no way alters the fact that every people must wage this battle on its own behalf, and above all that no single people can be liberated from this distress by international methods if it does not for its own part take the necessary measures. These measures can, of course, find their place within the framework of international measures, but one's own action must not be made dependent upon the action of others.
The crisis in German economics is not merely a crisis which is expressed by our economic statistics, but it is above all a crisis which can also be traced in the internal course of our economic life, in the character of its organization, etc. And here we can indeed speak of a crisis which has hit our people more severely than other peoples. It is the crisis which we see in the relations between capital, economics, and people. This crisis is particularly obvious in the relations between our workmen and the employers. Here the crisis has been more acute than in any other country in the world....
The first cause lies in the alteration in the form of business organization which determined the character of our economics. That cause may be traced throughout the world precisely as in Germany....
The gradual alienation of classes which we in Germany experienced led to the appearance on the one side of the special interests of the employers and on the other side the special interests of the employed. This was the beginning of our unhappy economic development. When one had once started on this road, of necessity the two sides became ever more widely separated. Here a law governs human affairs: when one has once chosen the wrong road this road always leads one further from reason.
On the contrary, the road led necessarily to further alienation and this tendency, as I said, was favored by the depersonalization of property. And I might almost say that this process was apparently still further encouraged and strengthened on scientific grounds. There gradually arose an ideology which believed that it could permanently support the conception of property even though those who derived any practical profit from the conception no longer represented more than a minimal percentage of the nation. And on the other hand there arose the view that, since there was now only so small a percentage of those who enjoyed property, the conception of private property as such should be abandoned....
When one has once started on this course, then logically the employers will in turn form their organization. And as a matter of course these two organizations will not pursue their own ends in mutual toleration, but they will maintain their apparently separate interests with those weapons which are given them: viz, lockouts and strikes. In this warfare sometimes one and sometimes the other side will conquer. But in either case it is the whole nation which will have to pay the cost of this warfare and suffer the damage. And the final result of this development is that these organizations as they build themselves up, considering the passion of the German for bureaucratization, will continuously become more unwieldy and their personnel will grow constantly larger. And at length the organization will no longer serve the interests of its creators, but these will be subservient to the organization, so that the warfare is continued in order that the existence of the organization may be justified, even though at times reason suddenly comes and says; 'The whole affair is madness; the gain when compared with the sacrifices is positively ludicrous. If you reckon up the sacrifices which we make for the organization they are far greater than any possible profit.' Then the organizations in their turn will have to prove how necessary they are by stirring up the parties to fight each other. And then it may even be that the two organizations come to an understanding, when once they have realized the situation.
The second reason is the rise of Marxism. Marxism, as a conception of the world with disintegration for its aim, saw with keen insight that the trade-union movement offered it the possibility in the future of conducting its attack against the State and against human society with an absolutely annihilating weapon. Not with any idea of helping the worker -what is the worker of any country to these apostles of internationalism? Nothing at all! They never see him! They themselves are no workers: they are alien litterateurs, an alien gang! . . .
One had to inoculate the trade union with the idea: You are an instrument of the class war and that war in the last resort can find its political leaders only in Marxism. What is then more comprehensible than that one should also pay one's tribute to the leadership? And the tribute was exacted in full measure. These gentlemen have not been content with a tithe: they demanded a considerably higher rate of interest.
This class war leads to the proclamation of the trade union as simply an instrument for the representation of the economic interests of the working classes and therewith for the purposes of the general strike. Thus the general strike appears for the first time as a means for exercising political power and shows what Marxism really hoped to gain from this weapon - not a means for the salvation of the worker, but on the contrary only an instrument of war for the destruction of the State which opposed Marxism. To prove to what lengths this whole madness could go we Germans have an unprecedented example, as frightful as it is instructive, in the War.
We can add only one remark: Had the German trade unions been in our hands during the War, if they had been in my hands and had they been trained with the same false end in view as was in fact the case, then we National Socialists would have placed the whole of this gigantic organization at the service of the Fatherland. We should have declared: We recognize, of course, the sacrifices entailed; we are ready ourselves to make those sacrifices; we do not wish to escape, we want to fight with you on the same terms; we give our destiny and our life into the hand of Almighty Providence just as the others must do. That we should have done as a matter of course. For, German workmen, we should have said, you must realize: It is not the fate of the German State which is now to be decided, not of the Empire as a constitutional form, not of the monarchy; it is not a question of capitalism or militarism; it is the existence of our people which is at stake and we German workmen make up seventy per cent of this people. It is our fate which is to be decided!
That is what should have been known then, and it could have been known. We should have known it....
It was a crime that this was not done. It was not done because it would have violated the inner meaning of Marxism, for Marxism wanted only the destruction of Germany. . . . For since the days of November, 1918, millions of Germans have held the view that it was the fault of the German workingman which caused the country's collapse. He who himself had made such unspeakable sacrifices, he who had filled our regiments with the millions of their riflemen - he as a class was suddenly made collectively liable for the act of the perjured, lying, degenerate destroyers of the Fatherland. That was the worst that could have happened, for at that moment for many millions in Germany the community of the people was shattered....
The third cause of this fatal development lay in the State itself. There might have been something which could perhaps have opposed these millions and that something would have been the State, had it not been that this State had sunk so low that it had become the plaything of groups of interested parties. It is no mere chance that this whole development runs parallel with the democratization of our public life. This democratization tended to bring the State directly into the hands of certain strata of society which identified themselves with property as such, with big business as such. The masses increasingly got the impression that the State itself was no objective institution standing above parties, that in particular it was no longer the incorporation of any objective authority, but that it was itself the mouthpiece of the economic will and of the economic interests of certain groups within the nation, and that even the leadership of the State justified such an assumption. The victory of the political bourgeoisie was nothing else than the victory of a stratum of society which had arisen as the result of economic laws....
While it is natural that amongst soldiers he only can be a leader who has been trained for that post, it was by no means a matter of course that only he should be a political leader who had been trained in that sphere and had besides proved his capacity; gradually the view gained ground that membership of a certain class which had arisen as the result of economic laws carried with it the capacity to govern a people. We have come to realize the consequences of this error. The stratum of society which claimed for itself the leadership has failed us in every hour of crisis and in the nation's hour of supreme difficulty it collapsed miserably.... Let no one say to me: 'No other course was possible.' It was only for these leaders that no other course was possible....
We must penetrate to the inner causes of the collapse with the resolution that these inner causes shall be removed. I believe that immediately we must begin at the point where in the last resort a beginning must today be made - we must begin with the State itself. A NEW AUTHORITY MUST BE SET UP, AND THIS AUTHORITY MUST BE INDEPENDENT OF MOMENTARY CURRENTS OF CONTEMPORARY OPINION, ESPECIALLY OF THOSE CURRENTS WHICH FLOW FROM A NARROW AND LIMITED ECONOMIC EGOISM. THERE MUST BE CONSTITUTED A LEADERSHIP OF THE STATE WHICH REPRESENTS A REAL AUTHORITY, an authority independent of any one stratum of society. A leadership must arise in which every citizen can have confidence, assured that its sole aim is the happiness, the welfare, of the German people, a leadership which can with justice say of itself that it is on every side completely independent. People have talked so much of the past Age of Absolutism, of the absolutism of Frederick the Great, and of the Age of Popular Democracy, our Parliamentary Epoch. Regarded from the standpoint of the people the earlier period was the more objective: it could really more objectively safeguard the interests of the nation, while the later period continuously descended more and more to the representation merely of the interests of individual classes.
Nothing can prove that more clearly than the mere conception of a class war - the slogan that the rule of the bourgeoisie must be replaced by the rule of the proletariat. That means that the whole question becomes one of a change in a class dictatorship, while our aim is the dictatorship of the people, i.e., the dictatorship of the whole people, the community.
And further it is essential that one should sweep away all those forces which consciously abuse human weaknesses in order with their help to carry into execution their deadly schemes. When fourteen or fifteen years ago and over and over again since then I declared before the German nation that I saw my task before the bar of German history to lie in the destruction of Marxism, that was for me no empty phrase, that was a sacred oath which I will keep so long as I draw breath. This confession of faith, the confession of faith of an individual, through my effort has become the confession of faith of a mighty organization....
We must accordingly wage our battle without any compromise whatsoever against the force which has eaten at the heart of our German people during the last seventeen years, which has inflicted on us such fearful injuries and which, if it had not been conquered, would have destroyed Germany. Bismarck once declared that liberalism was the pacemaker for social democracy. And I do not need in this place to say that social democracy is the pacemaker for communism. But communism is the pacemaker for death - the death of a people - downfall. WE HAVE BEGUN THE FIGHT AGAINST COMMUNISM AND WE SHALL WAGE IT TO THE END. As so often in German history, it will once more be proved that the greater the distress, the greater is the power of the German people to find its way upwards and forwards. This time, too, it will find the way; indeed, I am convinced that it has already found it.
Thus the unification of the German Workmen's Movement has a great moral significance. When we complete the reconstruction of the State which must be the result of very great concessions on both sides, we want to have two parties to the contract facing each other who both are in their hearts on principle nationally minded, who both look only to their people, and who both on principle are ready to subordinate everything else in order to serve the common weal. Only if that is possible from the first can I believe in the success of our efforts. It is the spirit from which efforts spring that helps to decide the issue. There must be no conquerors and no conquered; our people must be the only conqueror - conqueror over classes and castes, and conqueror over the interests of these single groups in our people! And thereby we shall come naturally to a nobler conception of work.... But the Movement which I and my fellow-fighters represent will, nothing daunted, exalt the word 'Worker' till it becomes the great title of honor of the German nation....
Personally, I am against all honorary titles, and I do not think that anyone has much to accuse me of on this score. What is not absolutely necessary for me to do, that I do not do. I should never care to have visiting cards printed with the titles which in this earthly world of ours are given with such ceremony. I do not want anything on my gravestone but my name. All the same, owing to the peculiar circumstances of my life, I am perhaps more capable than anyone else of understanding and realizing the nature and the whole life of the various German castes. Not because I have been able to look down on this life from above but because I have participated in it, because I stood in the midst of this life, because fate in a moment of caprice or perhaps fulfilling the designs of Providence, cast me into the great mass of the people, amongst common folk. Because I myself was a laboring man for years in the building trade and had to earn my own bread. And because for a second time I took my place once again as an ordinary soldier amongst the masses and because then life raised me into other strata of our people so that I know these, too, better than countless others who were born in these strata. So fate has perhaps fitted me more than any other to be the broker - I think I may say - the honest broker for both sides alike. Here I am not personally interested; I am not dependent upon the State or on any public office; I am not dependent upon business or industry or any trade union. I am an independent man, and I have set before myself no other goal than to serve, to the best of my power and ability, the German people, and above all to serve the millions who, thanks to their simple trust and ignorance and thanks to the baseness of their former leaders, have perhaps suffered more than any other class.
I have always professed that there is nothing finer than to be the advocate of those who cannot easily defend themselves. I know the masses of my people, and there is only one thing which I should always wish to say to our intellectuals: Every Reich that is founded only on the classes which represent intellect and intelligence has weak foundations. I know this intellect, always so subtle, always inquiring, but also always uncertain, always hesitating, vacillating from side to side - never steadfast! He who would construct a Reich on these intellectual classes alone will find his building insecure. It is no chance that religions are more stable than constitutional forms. Generally they tend to sink their roots deeper into the soil; they would be unthinkable in the absence of the masses of the people. I know that the intellectual classes fall all too easily a victim to that arrogance which measures the people according to the standards of its knowledge and of its so-called intelligence; and yet there are things in the people which very often the intelligence of the 'intelligent' does not see because it cannot see them. The masses are certainly often dull, in many respects they are certainly backward, they are not so nimble, so witty, or intellectual; but they have something to their credit - they have loyalty, constancy, stability....
Because I know this people better than any other, and at the same time know the rest of the people, I am not only ready in this case to undertake the role of an honest broker but I am glad that destiny can cast me for the part. I shall never in my life have any greater reason for pride than when at the end of my days I can say: I have won the German workingman for the German Reich.
THE great epoch which for fourteen years we awaited has now begun. Germany is awake now....
I can say with pride, comrades of the SA and SS, that if the whole German people now was possessed of the spirit which is in us and in you, then Germany would be indestructible. Even without arms, Germany would represent an unheard-of strength through this inner will tempered like steel. It is true that this equality which is realized in you was realized only at the cost of that freedom of which others spoke. We have, too, adopted the principle of leadership, the conception of authority. That was a heavy sacrifice at a time when the whole people was running after the illusion of democracy and parliamentarianism, when millions believed that the majority was the source of a right decision. It was at this time that we began resolutely to build up an organization in which there was not one dictator but ten thousand. When our opponents say: 'It is easy for you: you are a dictator'- we answer them, 'No, gentlemen, you are wrong; there is no single dictator, but ten thousand, each in his own place.' And even the highest authority in the hierarchy has itself only one wish, never to transgress against the Supreme authority to which it, too, is responsible. We have in our Movement developed this loyalty in following the leader, this blind obedience of which all the others know nothing and which gave to us the power to surmount everything. For fourteen years we were assailed; the attempt was made to bend and break us by cunning, chicanery, and violence, by malice and terror, by everything imaginable. But this instrument of blind obedience remained unbroken, remained steadfast. All we endured was but tests from which we emerged stronger than ever.
In addition we have fostered the virtue of bravery. Today millions are pouring into our ranks. But the greater part of them must learn now what this brown army has practiced for years; they must all learn to face what tens of thousands of our comrades have faced, and have paid for with their blood, their lives.
We have succeeded out of our own free wills in once more inculcating in our people the courage which dares to attempt a task in the face of a world of foes.
Were the discipline of this Movement not so firm, those who today complain of the sacrifices demanded of them would have even more of which to complain. For what we fighters have gained does not compare to the amount of persecution we suffered. Let the bellyachers realize that, wherever they are. The Movement trains itself in this perfect discipline for the sake of Germany, to save our people from being cast down in the eyes of the world to the level of their opponents.
We have also utilized the virtue of persistence, of unwearying patience....
It was this virtue which made you, and therefore us, unconquerable, and which saved the nation. Fourteen years of struggle. It seems as though fate had saved up so terribly many victims especially for the last year of the struggle. Our Brown Shirts prohibited, the members tortured, terror heaped upon terror, and in the end the dissolution of the organization. It was a terribly sad time, and I know how hard it was for many to keep their faith that after all the hour would come at last. We almost doubted justice and providence. Then came the turning point, and battle after battle. Once more many doubted, and some even were beaten down by their doubt. And then came the time when we had to say 'No,' when for the first time it seemed that the way to power was opening before us, tempting us: and yet despite this we had to remain hard and say 'No, it is not possible in that way.' And for a second time the doors seemed to open and for the second time we had to say 'No, impossible.' And then at the third time the hour came and that was given to us which we could not but desire, which we had a right to desire, and at last the National Socialist Movement entered into the great period of its historic action....
We have now won power in Germany, and it is up to us to win the German people, to incorporate the people within the power. We must build the millions of our working men of all classes into a close community. This is a struggle which will again take years; but it is necessary if the 600,000 men of today are some day to be the six, eight, ten millions we need. Here, too, we know that if we rest, we rust, that if we stand still, we will retreat....
If in the future you continue to stand behind me as one man, in loyalty and obedience, no power in the world will be able to destroy this Movement. It will continue its victorious course. If you preserve the same discipline, the same obedience, the same comradeship and the same unbounded loyalty in the future - then nothing will ever extinguish this Movement in Germany. This is the request I make of you, for myself and in the name of all the comrades who are no longer among us....
Our National Socialist Movement, the SA and SS: Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil!
IN NOVEMBER, 1918, Marxist organizations seized the executive power by means of a revolution. The monarchs were dethroned, the authorities of the Reich and of the States removed from office, and thereby a breach of the Constitution was committed. The success of the revolution in a material sense protected the guilty parties from the hands of the law. They sought to justify it morally by asserting that Germany or its Government bore the guilt for the outbreak of the War.
This assertion was deliberately and actually untrue. In consequence, however, these untrue accusations in the interest of our former enemies led to the severest oppression of the entire German nation and to the breach of the assurances given to us in Wilson's fourteen points, and so for Germany, that is to say the working classes of the German people, to a time of infinite misfortune....
The splitting up of the nation into groups with irreconcilable views, systematically brought about by the false doctrines of Marxism, means the destruction of the basis of a possible communal life.... It is only the creation of a real national community, rising above the interests and differences of rank and class, that can permanently remove the source of nourishment of these aberrations of the human mind. The establishment of such a solidarity of views in the German body corporate is all the more important, for it is only thereby that the possibility is provided of maintaining friendly relations with foreign Powers without regard to the tendencies or general principles by which they are dominated, for the elimination of communism in Germany is a purely domestic German affair.
Simultaneously with this political purification of our public life, the Government of the Reich will undertake a thorough moral purging of the body corporate of the nation. The entire educational system, the theater, the cinema, literature, the Press, and the wireless - all these will be used as means to this end and valued accordingly. They must all serve for the maintenance of the eternal values present in the essential character of our people. Art will always remain the expression and the reflection of the longings and the realities of an era. The neutral international attitude of aloofness is rapidly disappearing. Heroism is coming forward passionately and will in future shape and lead political destiny. It is the task of art to be the expression of this determining spirit of the age. Blood and race will once more become the source of artistic intuition....
Our legal institutions must serve above all for the maintenance of this national community. The irremovableness of the judges must ensure a sense of responsibility and the exercise of discretion in their judgments in the interests of society. Not the individual but the nation as a whole alone can be the center of legislative solicitude. High treason and treachery to the nation will be ruthlessly eradicated in the future. The foundations of the existence of justice cannot be other than the foundations of the existence of the nation.
The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, is creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound revival of religious life.
The advantages of a personal and political nature that might arise from compromising with atheistic organizations would not outweigh the consequences which would become apparent in the destruction of general moral basic values. The national Government regards the two Christian confessions as the weightiest factors for the maintenance of our nationality. It will respect the agreements concluded between it and the federal States. Their rights are not to be infringed. But the Government hopes and expects that the work on the national and moral regeneration of our nation which it has made its task will, on the other hand, be treated with the same respect....
Great are the tasks of the national Government in the sphere of economic life.
Here all action must be governed by one law: the people does not live for business, and business does not exist for capital; but capital serves business, and business serves the people. In principle, the Government will not protect the economic interests of the German people by the circuitous method of an economic bureaucracy to be organized by the State, but by the utmost furtherance of private initiative and by the recognition of the rights of property....
The Government will systematically avoid currency experiments. We are faced above all by two economic tasks of the first magnitude. The salvation of the German farmer must be achieved at all costs....
Furthermore, it is perfectly clear to the national Government that the final removal of the distress both in agricultural business and in that of the towns depends on the absorption of the army of the unemployed in the process of production. This constitutes the second of the great economic tasks. It can only be solved by a general appeasement, in applying sound natural economic principles and all measures necessary, even if, at the time, they cannot reckon with any degree of popularity. The providing of work and the compulsory labor service are, in this connection, only individual measures within the scope of the entire action proposed....
We are aware that the geographic position of Germany, with her lack of raw materials, does not fully permit of economic self-sufficiency for the Reich. It cannot be too often emphasized that nothing is further from the thoughts of the Government of the Reich than hostility to exporting. We are fully aware that we have need of the connection with the outside world, and that the marketing of German commodities in the world provides a livelihood for many millions of our fellow-countrymen.
We also know what are the conditions necessary for a sound exchange of services between the nations of the world. For Germany has been compelled for years to perform services without receiving an equivalent, with the result that the task of maintaining Germany as an active partner in the exchange of commodities is not so much one of commercial as of financial policy. So long as we are not accorded a reasonable settlement of our foreign debts corresponding to our economic capacity, we are unfortunately compelled to maintain our foreign-exchange control. The Government of the Reich is, for that reason, also compelled to maintain the restrictions on the efflux of capital across the frontiers of Germany....
The protection of the frontiers of the Reich and thereby of the lives of our people and the existence of our business is now in the hands of the Reichswehr, which, in accordance with the terms imposed upon us by the Treaty of Versailles, is to be regarded as the only really disarmed army in the world. In spite of its enforced smallness and entirely insufficient armament, the German people may regard their Reichswehr with proud satisfaction. This little instrument of our national self-defence has come into being under the most difficult conditions. The spirit imbuing it is that of our best military traditions. The German nation has thus fulfilled with painful conscientiousness the obligations imposed upon it by the Peace Treaty, indeed, even the replacement of ships for our fleet then sanctioned has, I may perhaps be allowed to say, unfortunately, only been carried out to a small extent.
For years Germany has been waiting in vain for the fulfillment of the promise of disarmament made to her by the others. It is the sincere desire of the national Government to be able to refrain from increasing our army and our weapons, insofar as the rest of the world is now also ready to fulfill its obligations in the matter of radical disarmament. For Germany desires nothing except an equal right to live and equal freedom.
In any case the national Government will educate the German people in this spirit of a desire for freedom. The national honor, the honor of our army and the ideal of freedom must once more become sacred to the German people!
The German nation wishes to live in peace with the rest of the world. But it is for this very reason that the Government of the Reich will employ every means to obtain the final removal of the division of the nations of the world into two categories. The keeping open of this wound leads to distrust on the one side and hatred on the other, and thus to a general feeling of insecurity. The national Government is ready to extend a hand in sincere understanding to every nation that is ready finally to make an end of the tragic past. The international economic distress can only disappear when the basis has been provided by stable political relations and when the nations have regained confidence in each other.
For the overcoming of the economic catastrophe three things are necessary:
1. Absolutely authoritative leadership in internal affairs, in order to create confidence in the stability of conditions.
2. The securing of peace by the great nations for a long time to come, with a view to restoring the confidence of the nations in each other.
3. The final victory of the principles of common sense in the organization and conduct of business, and also a general release from reparations and impossible liabilities for debts and interest.
We are unfortunately faced by the fact that the Geneva Conference, in spite of lengthy negotiations, has so far reached no practical result. The decision regarding the securing of a real measure of disarmament has been constantly delayed by the raising of questions of technical detail and by the introduction of problems that have nothing to do with disarmament. This procedure is useless.
The illegal state of one-sided disarmament and the resulting national insecurity of Germany cannot continue any longer.
We recognize it as a sign of the feeling of responsibility and of the good will of the British Government that they have endeavored, by means of their disarmament proposal, to cause the Conference finally to arrive at speedy decisions. The Government of the Reich will support every endeavor aimed at really carrying out general disarmament and securing the fulfillment of Germany's long-overdue claim for disarmament. For fourteen years we have been disarmed, and for fourteen months we have been waiting for the results of the Disarmament Conference. Even more far-reaching is the plan of the head of the Italian Government, which makes a broad-minded and far-seeing attempt to secure a peaceful and consistent development of the whole of European policy. We attach the greatest weight to this plan, and we are ready to co-operate with absolute sincerity on the basis it provides, in order to unite the four Great Powers, England, France, Italy, and Germany, in friendly co-operation in attacking with courage and determination the problems upon the solution of which the fate of Europe depends.
It is for this reason that we are particularly grateful for the appreciative heartiness with which the national renaissance of Germany has been greeted in Italy....
In the same way, the Government of the Reich, which regards Christianity as the unshakable foundation of the morals and moral code of the nation, attaches the greatest value to friendly relations with the Holy See, and is endeavoring to develop them. We feel sympathy for our brother nation in Austria in its trouble and distress. In all their doings the Government of the Reich is conscious of the connection between the destiny of all German races. Their attitude toward the other foreign Powers may be gathered from what has already been said. But even in cases where our mutual relations are encumbered with difficulties, we shall endeavor to arrive at a settlement. But in any case the basis for an understanding can never be the distinction between victor and vanquished.
We are convinced that such a settlement is possible in our relations with France, if the Governments will attack the problems affecting them on both sides in a really broadminded way. The Government of the Reich is ready to cultivate with the Soviet Union friendly relations profitable to both parties. It is above all the Government of the National Revolution which feels itself in a position to adopt such a positive policy with regard to Soviet Russia. The fight against communism in Germany is our internal affair in which we will never permit interference from outside....
We have particularly at heart the fate of the Germans living beyond the frontiers of Germany who are allied with us in speech, culture, and customs and have to make a hard fight to retain these values. The national Government is resolved to use all the means at its disposal to support the rights internationally guaranteed to the German minorities.
We welcome the plan for a World Economic Conference and approve of its meeting at an early date. The Government of the Reich is ready to take part in this Conference, in order to arrive at positive results at last. . . .
. . . IN FOURTEEN years the system which has now been overthrown has piled mistake upon mistake, illusion upon illusion. And that is also true for our foreign policy. Only since the time when through our Movement the world has been shown that a new Germany of resolution and resistance is arising - only since then are we once more regarded with other eyes. If today in Geneva a people fights side by side with us for the freedom of Europe, it is we who have first formed this friendship and not the representatives of the former system.
And now Staatspräsident Bolz says that Christianity and the Catholic faith are threatened by us. And to that charge I can answer: In the first place it is Christians and not international atheists who now stand at the head of Germany. I do not merely talk of Christianity, no, I also profess that I will never ally myself with the parties which destroy Christianity. If many wish today to take threatened Christianity under their protection, where, I would ask, was Christianity for them in these fourteen years when they went arm in arm with atheism? No, never and at no time was greater internal damage done to Christianity than in these fourteen years when a party, theoretically Christian, sat with those who denied God in one and the same Government.
I would ask whether the economic policy of this now superseded system was a Christian policy. Was the inflation an undertaking for which Christians could answer, or has the destruction of German life, of the German peasant as well as of the middles classes, been Christian? . . . When these parties now say: we want to govern for a few more years in order that we can improve the situation, then we say:
No! now it is too late for that! Besides, you had your fourteen years and you have failed. In fourteen years you have proved your incapacity - from the Treaty of Versailles by way of the various agreements down to the Dawes and Young plans. Herr Bolz, too, has given his support to the Young Plan while I have always opposed it.
If today we are told that we have no program, then I answer that for the last two years this other Germany has lived only by making inroads on our thought-world. All these plans for the creation of work, for labor service, etc.- they are not the work of Staatspräsident Bolz, they come from our program of reconstruction from which they have taken them over imperfectly and incompletely.
We are convinced that the restoration to health of our people must start from the restoration to health of the body politic itself, and we are persuaded of the truth that the future of our people, as in the past so now, lies first of all in the German peasant. If he perishes, our end has come; if he survives, then Germany will never go under. There lie the strength and the source of our people's life, the source of our renewal. The towns would not exist at all, if the peasant did not fill them with his blood. The dweller in our countryside may be primitive, but he is healthy.
. . . We want, too, to restore to the German intelligentsia the freedom of which it has been robbed by the system which has hitherto ruled. In parliamentarianism they did not possess this freedom. We want to liberate Germany from the fetters of an impossible parliamentary democracy - not because we are terrorists, not because we intend to gag the free spirit. On the contrary, the spirit has never had more violence done to it than when mere numbers made themselves its master.
No, our wish is that responsible folk should once more be brought together so that every class and every individual should be given that authority over those below and that responsibility towards those above which are essential if one is to build up the life of a community. We do not want so to educate the nation that it lives for ideas and artificial constructions; we want to test all ideas and constructions to discover how far they are capable of serving the nation's life.
I will not build myself a villa in Switzerland, nor will I lay claim to any fund with which to fight criminality in this election campaign. Then after four years people shall judge whether the policy of ruining Germany has come to an end, whether Germany is rising once again.
MORE than fourteen years have passed since the unhappy day when the German people, blinded by promises from foes at home and abroad, lost touch with honor and freedom, thereby losing all. Since that day of treachery, the Almighty has withheld his blessing from our people. Dissension and hatred descended upon us. With profound distress millions of the best German men and women from all walks of life have seen the unity of the nation vanishing away, dissolving in a confusion of political and personal opinions, economic interests, and ideological differences. Since that day, as so often in the past, Germany has presented a picture of heartbreaking disunity. We never received the equality and fraternity we had been promised, and we lost our liberty to boot. For when our nation lost its political place in the world, it soon lost its unity of spirit and will....
We are firmly convinced that the German nation entered the fight in 1914 without the slightest feeling of guilt on its part and filled only with the desire to defend the Fatherland which had been attacked and to preserve the freedom, nay, the very existence, of the German people. This being so, we can only see in the disastrous fate which has overtaken us since those November days of 1918 the result of our collapse at home. But the rest of the world, too, has suffered no less since then from overwhelming crises. The balance of power which had evolved in the course of history, and which formerly played no small part in bringing about the understanding of the necessity for an internal solidarity of the nations, with all its advantages for trade and commerce, has been set on one side. The insane conception of victors and vanquished destroyed the confidence existing between nations, and, at the same time, the industry of the entire world.
The misery of our people is horrible to behold! Millions of the industrial proletariat are unemployed and starving; the whole of the middle class and the small artisans have been impoverished. When this collapse finally reaches the German peasants, we will be faced with an immeasurable disaster. For then not only shall a nation collapse, but a two-thousand-year-old inheritance, some of the loftiest products of human culture and civilization.
All about us the warning signs of this collapse are apparent. Communism with its method of madness is making a powerful and insidious attack upon our dismayed and shattered nation. It seeks to poison and disrupt in order to hurl us into an epoch of chaos.... This negative, destroying spirit spared nothing of all that is highest and most valuable. Beginning with the family, it has undermined the very foundations of morality and faith and scoffs at culture and business, nation and Fatherland, justice and honor. Fourteen years of Marxism have ruined Germany; one year of bolshevism would destroy her. The richest and fairest territories of the world would be turned into a smoking heap of ruins. Even the sufferings of the last decade and a half could not be compared to the misery of a Europe in the heart of which the red flag of destruction had been hoisted. The thousands of wounded, the hundreds of dead which this inner strife has already cost Germany should be a warning of the storm which would come....
In those hours when our hearts were troubled about the life and the future of the German nation, the aged leader of the World War appealed to us. He called to those of us in nationalist parties and leagues to struggle under him once more, in unity and loyalty, for the salvation of the German nation. This time the front lines are at home. The venerable Reichsprasident has allied himself with us in this noble endeavor. And as leaders of the nation and the national Government we vow to God, to our conscience, and to our people that we will faithfully and resolutely fulfill the task conferred upon us.
The inheritance which has fallen to us is a terrible one. The task with which we are faced is the hardest which has fallen to German statesmen within the memory of man. But we are all filled with unbounded confidence for we believe in our people and their imperishable virtues. Every class and every individual must help us to found the new Reich.
The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and co-operation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life....
Turbulent instincts must be replaced by a national discipline as the guiding principle of our national life. All those institutions which are the strongholds of the energy and vitality of our nation will be taken under the special care of the Government.
The National Government intends to solve the problem of the reorganization of trade and commerce with two four-year plans:
The German farmer must be rescued in order that the nation may be supplied with the necessities of life....
A concerted and all-embracing attack must be made on unemployment in order that the German working class may be saved from ruin....
The November parties have ruined the German peasantry in fourteen years.
In fourteen years they have created an army of millions of unemployed. The National Government will, with iron determination and unshakable steadfastness of purpose, put through the following plan:
Within four years the German peasant must be rescued from the quagmire into which he has fallen.
Within four years unemployment must be finally overcome. At the same time the conditions necessary for a revival in trade and commerce are provided.
The National Government will couple with this tremendous task of reorganizing business life a reorganization of the administrative and fiscal systems of the Reich, of the Federal States, and the Communes.
Only when this has been done can the idea of a continued federal existence of the entire Reich be fully realized....
Compulsory labor-service and the back-to-the-land policy are two of the basic principles of this program.
The securing of the necessities of life will include the performance of social duties to the sick and aged.
In economical administration, the promotion of employment, the preservation of the farmer, as well as in the exploitation of individual initiative, the Government sees the best guarantee for the avoidance of any experiments which would endanger the currency.
As regards its foreign policy the National Government considers its highest mission to be the securing of the right to live and the restoration of freedom to our nation. Its determination to bring to an end the chaotic state of affairs in Germany will assist in restoring to the community of nations a State of equal value and, above all, a State which must have equal rights. It is impressed with the importance of its duty to use this nation of equal rights as an instrument for the securing and maintenance of that peace which the world requires today more than ever before.
May the good will of all others assist in the fulfillment of this our earnest wish for the welfare of Europe and of the whole world.
Great as is our love for our Army as the bearer of our arms and the symbol of our great past, we should be happy if the world, by reducing its armaments, would see to it that we need never increase our own.
If, however, Germany is to experience this political and economic revival and conscientiously fulfill her duties toward the other nations, one decisive step is absolutely necessary first: the overcoming of the destroying menace of communism in Germany. We of this Government feel responsible for the restoration of orderly life in the nation and for the final elimination of class madness and class struggle. We recognize no classes, we see only the German people, millions of peasants, bourgeois, and workers who will either overcome together the difficulties of these times or be overcome by them. We are firmly resolved and we have taken our oath. Since the present Reichstag is incapable of lending support to this work, we ask the German people whom we represent to perform the task themselves.
Reichspräsident von Hindenburg has called upon us to bring about the revival of the German nation. Unity is our tool. Therefore we now appeal to the German people to support this reconciliation. The National Government wishes to work and it will work. It did not ruin the German nation for fourteen years, but now it will lead the nation back to health. It is determined to make well in four years the ills of fourteen years. But the National Government cannot make the work of reconstruction dependent upon the approval of those who wrought destruction. The Marxist parties and their lackeys have had fourteen years to show what they can do. The result is a heap of ruins.
Now, people of Germany, give us four years and then pass judgment upon us. In accordance with Field Marshal von Hindenburg's command we shall begin now. May God Almighty give our work His blessing, strengthen our purpose, and endow us with wisdom and the trust of our people, for we are fighting not for ourselves but for Germany.
. . . IF TODAY the National Socialist Movement is regarded amongst widespread circles in Germany as being hostile to our business life, I believe the reason for this view is to be found in the fact that we adopted towards the events which determined the development leading to our present position an attitude which differed from that of all the other organizations which are of any importance in our public life. Even now our outlook differs in many points from that of our opponents....
I regard it as of the first importance to break once and for all with the view that our destiny is conditioned by world events. It is not true that our distress has its final cause in a world crisis, in a world catastrophe: the true view is that we have reached a state of general crisis, because from the first certain mistakes were made. I must not say 'According to the general view the Peace Treaty of Versailles is the cause of our misfortune.' What is the Peace Treaty of Versailles but the work of men? It is not a burden which has been imposed or laid upon us by Providence. It is the work of men for which, it goes without saying, once again men with their merits or their failings must be held responsible. If this were not so, how should men ever be able to set aside this work at all? I am of the opinion that there is nothing which has been produced by the will of man which cannot in its turn be altered by another human will.
Both the Peace Treaty of Versailles together with all the consequences of that Treaty have been the result of a policy which perhaps fifteen, fourteen, or thirteen years ago was regarded as the right policy, at least in the enemy States, but which from our point of view was bound to be regarded as fatal when ten or less years ago its true character was disclosed to millions of Germans and now today stands revealed in its utter impossibility. I am bound therefore to assert that there must of necessity have been in Germany, too, some responsibility for these happenings if I am to have any belief that the German people can exercise some influence towards changing these conditions.
IT IS ALSO IN MY VIEW FALSE TO SAY THAT LIFE IN GERMANY TODAY IS SOLELY DETERMINED BY CONSIDERATIONS OF FOREIGN POLICY, that the primacy of foreign policy governs today the whole of our domestic life. Certainly a people can reach the point when foreign relations influence and determine completely its domestic life. But let no one say that such a condition is from the first either natural or desirable. Rather the important thing is that a people should create the conditions for a change in this state of affairs.
If anyone says to me that its foreign politics is primarily decisive for the life of a people, then I must first ask: what then is the meaning of the term 'Politics'? There is a whole series of definitions. Frederick the Great said: 'Politics is the art of serving one's State with every means.' Bismarck's explanation was that 'Politics is the art of the Possible,' starting from the conception that advantage should be taken of every possibility to serve the State - and, in the later transformation of the idea of the State into the idea of nationalities, the Nation. Another considers that this service rendered to the people can be effected by military as well as peaceful action: for Clausewitz says that war is the continuation of politics though with different means. Conversely, Clemenceau considers that today peace is nothing but the continuation of war and the pursuing of the war-aim, though again with other means. To put it briefly: politics is nothing else and can be nothing else than the safeguarding of a people's vital interests and the practical waging of its life-battle with every means. Thus it is quite clear that this life-battle from the first has its starting-point in the people itself and that at the same time the people is the object - the real thing of value - which has to be preserved. All functions of this body formed by the people must in the last resort fulfill only one purpose - to secure in the future the maintenance of this body which is the people. I can therefore say neither that foreign policy nor economic policy is of primary significance. Of course, a people needs the business world in order to live. But business is but one of the functions of this body-politic whereby its existence is assured. But primarily the essential thing is the starting-point and that is the people itself....
It is therefore false to say that foreign politics shapes a people: rather, peoples order their relations to the world about them in correspondence with their inborn forces and according to the measure in which their education enables them to bring those forces into play. We may be quite convinced that if in the place of the Germany of today there had stood a different Germany, the attitude towards the rest of the world would also have been different, and then presumably the influences exercised by the rest of the world would have taken a different form. To deny this would mean that Germany's destiny can no longer be changed no matter what Government rules in Germany....
And as against this conception I am the champion of another standpoint: three factors, I hold, essentially determine a people's political life:
First, the inner value of a people which as an inherited sum and possession is transmitted again and again through the generations, a value which suffers any change when the people, the custodian of this inherited possession, changes itself in its inner blood-conditioned composition. It is beyond question that certain traits of character, certain virtues, and certain vices always recur in peoples so long as their inner nature - their blood-conditioned composition - has not essentially altered. I can already trace the virtues and the vices of our German people in the writers of Rome just as clearly as I see them today. This inner value which determines the life of a people can be destroyed by nothing save only through a change in the blood causing a change in substance. Temporarily an illogical form of organization of life or unintelligent education may prejudice it. But in that case, though its effective action may be hindered, the fundamental value in itself is still present as it was before. And it is this value which is the great source of all hopes for a people's revival, it is this which justifies the belief that a people which in the course of thousands of years has furnished countless examples of the highest inner value cannot suddenly have lost overnight this inborn inherited value, but that one day this people will once again bring this value into action. If this were not the case, then the faith of millions of men in a better future - the mystic hope for a new Germany - would be incomprehensible. It would be incomprehensible how it was that this German people, at the end of the Thirty Years War, when its population had shrunk from eighteen to thirteen and one-half millions, could ever have once more formed the hope through work, through industry, and capacity to rise again, how in this completely crushed people hundreds of thousands and finally millions should have been seized with the longing for a re-formation of their State. . . .
I said that this value can be destroyed. There are indeed in especial two other closely related factors which we can time and again trace in periods of national decline: the one is that for the conception of the value of personality there is substituted a levelling idea of the supremacy of mere numbers - democracy - and the other is the negation of the value of a people, the denial of any difference in the inborn capacity, the achievement, etc., of individual peoples. Thus both factors condition one another or at least influence each other in the course of their development. Internationalism and democracy are inseparable conceptions. It is but logical that democracy, which within a people denies the special value of the individual and puts in its place a value which represents the sum of all individualities - a purely numerical value - should proceed in precisely the same way in the life of peoples and should in that sphere result in internationalism. Broadly it is maintained: peoples have no inborn values, but, at the most, there can be admitted perhaps temporary differences in education. Between Negroes, Aryans, Mongolians, and Redskins there is no essential difference in value. This view which forms the basis of the whole of the international thought-world of today and in its effects is carried to such lengths that in the end a Negro can sit as president in the sessions of the League of Nations leads necessarily as a further consequence to the point that in a similar way within a people differences in value between the individual members of this people are denied. And thus naturally every special capacity, every fundamental value of a people, can practically be made of no effect. For the greatness of a people is the result not of the sum of all its achievements but in the last resort of the sum of its outstanding achievements. Let no one say that the picture produced as a first impression of human civilization is the impression of its achievement as a whole. This whole edifice of civilization is in its foundations and in all its stones nothing else than the result of the creative capacity, the achievement, the intelligence, the industry, of individuals: in its greatest triumphs it represents the great crowning achievement of individual God-favored geniuses, in its average accomplishment the achievement of men of average capacity, and in its sum doubtless the result of the use of human labor-force in order to turn to account the creations of genius and of talent. So it is only natural that when the capable intelligences of a nation, which are always in a minority, are regarded only as of the same value as all the rest, then genius, capacity, the value of personality are slowly subjected to the majority and this process is then falsely named the rule of the people. For this is not rule of the people, but in reality the rule of stupidity, of mediocrity, of half-heartedness, of cowardice, of weakness, and of inadequacy....
Thus democracy will in practice lead to the destruction of a people's true values. And this also serves to explain how It is that peoples with a great past from the time when they surrender themselves to the unlimited, democratic rule of the masses slowly lose their former position; for the outstanding-achievements of individuals which they still possess or which could be produced in all spheres of life are now rendered practically ineffective through the oppression of mere numbers. And thus in these conditions a people will gradually lose its importance not merely in the cultural and economic spheres but altogether, in a comparatively short time it will no longer, within the setting of the other peoples of the world, maintain its former value. . . .
And to this there must be added a third factor: namely, the view that life in this world, after the denial of the value of personality and of the special value of a people, is not to be maintained through conflict. That is a conception which could perhaps be disregarded if it fixed itself only in the heads of individuals, but yet has appalling consequences because it slowly poisons an entire people. And it is not as if such general changes in men's outlook on the world remained only on the surface or were confined to their effects on men's minds. No, in course of time they exercise a profound influence and affect all expressions of a people's life.
I may cite an example: you maintain, gentlemen, that German business life must be constructed on a basis of private property. Now such a conception as that of private property you can defend only if in some way or another it appears to have a logical foundation. This conception must deduce its ethical justification from an insight into the necessity which Nature dictates. It cannot simply be upheld by saying: 'It has always been so and therefore it must continue to be so.' For in periods of great upheavals within States, of movements of peoples and changes in thought, institutions and systems cannot remain untouched because they have previously been preserved without change. It is the characteristic feature of all really great revolutionary epochs in the history of mankind that they pay astonishingly little regard for forms which are hallowed only by age or which are apparently only so consecrated. It is thus necessary to give such foundations to traditional forms which are to be preserved that they can be regarded as absolutely essential, as logical and right. And then I am bound to say that private property can be morally and ethically justified only if I admit that men's achievements are different. Only on that basis can I assert: since men's achievements are different, the results of those achievements are also different. But if the results of those achievements are different, then it is reasonable to leave to men the administration of those results to a corresponding degree. It would not be logical to entrust the administration of the result of an achievement which was bound up with a personality either to the next best but less capable person or to a community which, through the mere fact that it had not performed the achievement, has proved that it is not capable of administering the result of that achievement. Thus it must be admitted that in the economic sphere, from the start, in all branches men are not of equal value or of equal importance. And once this is admitted it is madness to say: in the economic sphere there are undoubtedly differences in value, but that is not true in the political sphere. IT IS ABSURD TO BUILD UP ECONOMIC LIFE ON THE CONCEPTIONS OF ACHIEVEMENT, OF THE VALUE OF PERSONALITY, AND THEREFORE IN PRACTICE ON THE AUTHORITY OF PERSONALITY, BUT IN THE POLITICAL SPHERE TO DENY THE AUTHORITY OF PERSONALITY AND TO THRUST INTO ITS PLACE THE LAW OF THE GREATER NUMBER - DEMOCRACY. In that case there must slowly arise a cleavage between the economic and the political point of view, and to bridge that cleavage an attempt will be made to assimilate the former to the latter - indeed the attempt has been made, for this cleavage has not remained bare, pale theory. The conception of the equality of values has already, not only in politics but in economics also, been raised to a system, and that not merely in abstract theory: no! this economic system is alive in gigantic organizations and it has already today inspired a State which rules over immense areas.
But I cannot regard it as possible that the life of a people should in the long run be based upon two fundamental conceptions. If the view is right that there are differences in human achievement, then it must also be true that the value of men in respect of the production of certain achievements is different It is then absurd to allow this principle to hold good only In one sphere - the sphere of economic life and its leadership - and to refuse to acknowledge its validity in the sphere of the whole life-struggle of a people - the sphere of politics. Rather the logical course is that if I recognize without qualification in the economic sphere the fact of special achievements as forming the condition of all higher culture, then in the same way I should recognize special achievement in the sphere of politics, and that means that I am bound to put in the forefront the authority of personality. If, on the contrary, it is asserted - and that, too, by those engaged in business - that in the political sphere special capacities are not necessary but that here an absolute equality in achievement reigns, then one day this same theory will be transferred from politics and applied to economic life. But in the economic sphere communism is analogous to democracy in the political sphere. We find ourselves today in a period in which these two fundamental principles are at grips in all spheres which come into contact with each other; already they are invading economics.
To take an example: Life in practical activity is founded on the importance of personality: but now gradually it is threatened by the supremacy of mere numbers. But in the State there is an organization - the army - which cannot in any way be democratized without surrendering its very existence. But if a Weltanschauung cannot be applied to every sphere of a people's life, that fact in itself is sufficient proof of its weakness. In other words: the army can exist only if it maintains the absolutely undemocratic principle of unconditional authority proceeding downwards and absolute responsibility proceeding upwards, while, in contradistinction to this, democracy means in practice complete dependence proceeding downwards and authority proceeding upwards. But the result is that in a State in which the whole political life - beginning with the parish and ending with the Reichstag - is built up on the conception of democracy, the army is bound gradually to become an alien body and an alien body which must necessarily be felt to be such. It is for democracy an alien world of ideas, an alien Weltanschauung which inspires the life of this body. An internal conflict between the representatives of the democratic principle and the representatives of the principle of authority must be the inevitable consequence, and this conflict we are actually experiencing in Germany....
So in the same way the education to pacifism must of necessity have its effect right through life until it reaches the humblest individual lives. The conception of pacifism is logical if I once admit a general equality amongst peoples and human beings. For in that case what sense is there in conflict? The conception of pacifism translated into practice and applied to all spheres must gradually lead to the destruction of the competitive instinct, to the destruction of the ambition for outstanding achievement. I cannot say: in politics we will be pacifists, we reject the idea of the necessity for life to safeguard itself through conflict - but in economics we want to remain keenly competitive. If I reject the idea of conflict as such, it is of no importance that for the time being that idea is still applied in some single spheres. In the last resort political decisions are decisive and determine achievement in the single sphere....
To sum up the argument: I see two diametrically opposed principles: the principle of democracy which, wherever it is allowed practical effect is the principle of destruction: and the principle of the authority of personality which I would call the principle of achievement, because whatever man in the past has achieved - all human civilizations - is conceivable only if the supremacy of this principle is admitted.
The worth of a people, the character of its internal organization through which this worth of a people may produce its effect, and the character of a people's education - these are the starting-points for political action: these are the foundations for the success of that action....
That the evidences of a crisis should today spread over almost the entire world is comprehensible when one considers that the world has been opened up and mutual relations have been strengthened to an extent which fifty, eighty, or a hundred years ago appeared scarcely possible. And yet, despite this fact, one must not believe that such a state of affairs is conceivable only now, in the year 1932. No, similar conditions have been experienced more than once in the history of the world. Always when relations between peoples produced conditions such as these, the malady affecting these peoples was bound to spread and to influence the position of all.
It is, of course, easy to say: we prefer to wait until there is a change in the general position, but that is impossible. For the position which faces you today is not the consequence of a revelation of God's will, but the result of human weaknesses, of human mistakes, of men's false judgments. It is but natural that there must first be a change in these causes, that men must first be inwardly transformed, before one can count on any alteration in the position.
That conclusion is forced upon us if we look at the world today: we have a number of nations which through their inborn outstanding worth have fashioned for themselves a mode of life which stands in no relation to the life-space - the Lebensraum - which in their thickly populated settlements they inhabit. We have the so-called white race which, since the collapse of ancient civilization, in the course of some thousand years has created for itself a privileged position in the world. But I am quite unable to understand this privileged position, this economic supremacy, of the white race over the rest of the world if I do not bring it into close connection with a political conception of supremacy which has been peculiar to the white race for many centuries and has been regarded as in the nature of things: this conception it has maintained in its dealings with other peoples. Take any single area you like, take for example India. England did not conquer India by the way of justice and of law: she conquered India without regard to the wishes, to the views of the natives, or to their formulations of justice, and, when necessary, she has upheld this supremacy with the most brutal ruthlessness. Just in the same way Cortez or Pizarro annexed Central America and the northern states of South America, not on the basis of any claim of right, but from the absolute inborn feeling of the superiority of the white race. The settlement of the North American continent is just as little the consequence of any claim of superior right in any democratic or international sense; it was the consequence of a consciousness of right which was rooted solely in the conviction of the superiority and therefore of the right of the white race. If I think away this attitude of mind which in the course of the last three or four centuries has won the world for the white race, then the destiny of this race would in fact have been no different from that, say, of the Chinese: an immensely congested mass of human beings crowded upon an extraordinarily narrow territory, an over-population with all its unavoidable consequences. If Fate allowed the white race to take a different path, that is only because this white race was convinced that it had the right to organize the rest of the world. It matters not what superficial disguises in individual cases this right may have assumed, in practice it was the exercise. . . .
. . . THIS election means that the circle is now complete. And the question at this time is: what are the aims of this opposition and its leaders?
It is a fight for an idea - a Weltanschhauung: and in the forefront stands a fundamental principle: Men do not exist for the State, the State exists for men. First and far above all else stands the idea of the people: the State is a form of organization of this people, and the meaning and the purpose of the State are through this form of organization to assure the life of the people. And from this there arises a new mode of thought and thus necessarily a new political method.
We say: a new mode of thought. Today our whole official political outlook is rooted in the view that the State must be maintained because the State in itself is the essential thing; we, on the other hand, maintain that the State in its form has a definite purpose to fulfill and the moment that it fails to fulfill its purpose the form stands condemned. Above everything stands the purpose to maintain the nation's life - that is the essential thing and one should not speak of a law for the protection of the State but for the protection of the nation: it is of this protection that one must think.... In the place of this rigid formal organization - the State - must be set the living organism - the people. Then all action is given a new untrammelled freedom: all the formal fetters which can today be imposed on men become immoral directly they fail to maintain the people, because that is the highest purpose in life and the aim of all reasonable thought and action.
If today our action employs among its different weapons that of Parliament, that is not to say that parliamentary parties exist only for parliamentary ends. For us Parliament is not an end in itself, but merely a means to an end . . . we are not on principle a parliamentary party - that would be a contradiction of our whole outlook - WE ARE A PARLIAMENTARY PARTY BY COMPULSION, UNDER CONSTRAINT, AND THAT COMPULSION IS THE CONSTITUTION. The Constitution compels us to use this means. It does not compel us to wish for a particular goal, it only prescribes a way - a method, and, I repeat, we follow this way legally, in accordance with the Constitution: by the way laid down through the Constitution we advance towards the purposes which we have set before us.
Never can Constitutions determine for all time the content of a purpose, especially when this content is not identical with the vital rights of a people. If today the Constitution admits for its protection laws which are headed, 'Laws for the Protection of the Republic,' then it is demonstrated that the most which our present Constitution can prescribe is nothing but the protection and the maintenance of a form, and that does not touch the maintenance of the nation, of a people. This purpose is therefore free: this is the goal which we proclaim and to which we shall attain. . .
From blood, authority of personality, and a fighting spirit springs that value which alone entitles a people to look around with glad hope, and that alone is also the condition for the life which men then desire. And when that is realized, then that too is realized for which today the political parties strive: prosperity, happiness of the individual, family-life, etc. First will come honor and then freedom, and from both of these happiness, prosperity, life: in a word, that state of things will return which we Germans perhaps dimly saw before the War, when individuals can once more live with joy in their hearts because life has a meaning and a purpose, because the close of life is then not in itself the end, since there will be an endless chain of generations to follow: man will know that what we create will not sink into Orcus but will pass to his children and to his children's children. And so this victory which we have just won is nothing else than the winning of a new weapon for our fight.... IT IS NOT FOR SEATS IN PARLIAMENT THAT WE FIGHT, BUT WE WIN SEATS IN PARLIAMENT IN ORDER THAT ONE DAY WE MAY BE ABLE TO LIBERATE THE GERMAN PEOPLE....
Do not write on your banners the word 'Victory': today that word shall be uttered for the last time. Strike through the word 'Victory' and write once more in its place the word which suits us better - the word 'Fight.'
. . . I WAS always particularly anxious to secure that Parteitag should on principle never be used for the settlement of personal disputes. Such disputes must certainly be settled in one way or another, but just as certainly the Parteitag which once in the year should unite the whole Movement, is not the fitting day for such a settlement. Neither is it the place at which to seek to clarify unripe and uncertain ideas. Neither the length of time available at such a gathering nor its nature admits of giving to it the character of a Council. And it must never be forgotten that in all such cases or those similar to them great decisions have not been made at such Councils: on the contrary, for the most part, world-history pursues its course without paying any attention to them. World-history, like all events of historical significance, is the result of the activity of single individuals - it is not the fruit of majority decisions....
The Christianity of Hitler revealed in his speeches and proclamations

Compiled by Jim Walker

Originated: 27 Feb. 1997
Additions: 21 Nov. 2005

Through subterfuge and concealment, many of today's Church leaders and faithful Christians have camouflaged the Christianity of Adolf Hitler and have attempted to mark him an atheist, a pagan cult worshipper, or a false Christian. However, from the earliest formation of the Nazi party and throughout the period of conquest and growth, Hitler expressed his Christian support to the German citizenry and soldiers. In the 1920s, Hitler's German Workers' Party (pre Nazi term) adopted a "Programme" with twenty-five points (the Nazi version of a constitution). In point twenty-four, their intent clearly demonstrates, from the very beginning, their stand in favor of a "positive" Christianity:

24. We demand liberty for all religious denominations in the State, so far as they are not a danger to it and do not militate against the morality and moral sense of the German race. The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within and without us, and is convinced that our nation can achieve permanent health from within only on the principle: the common interest before self-interest.

Hitler's speeches and proclamations, even more clearly, reveal his faith and feelings toward a Christianized Germany. Nazism presents an embarrassment to Christianity and demonstrates the danger of faith. The following words from Hitler show his disdain for atheism, and pagan cults, and reveals the strength of his Christian feelings:


My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.... When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom to-day this poor people is plundered and exploited.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech on 12 April 1922

[Note, "brood of vipers" appears in Matt. 3:7 & 12:34. John 2:15 depicts Jesus driving out the money changers (adders) from the temple. The word "adders" also appears in Psalms 140:3]


It will at any rate be my supreme task to see to it that in the newly awakened NSDAP, the adherents of both Confessions can live peacefully together side by side in order that they may take their stand in the common fight against the power which is the mortal foe of any true Christianity.
-Adolf Hitler, in an article headed "A New Beginning," 26 Feb. 1925

We are a people of different faiths, but we are one. Which faith conquers the other is not the question; rather, the question is whether Christianity stands or falls.... We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity... in fact our movement is Christian. We are filled with a desire for Catholics and Protestants to discover one another in the deep distress of our own people.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Passau, 27 Octover 1928, Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

We are determined, as leaders of the nation, to fulfill as a national government the task which has been given to us, swearing fidelity only to God, our conscience, and our Volk.... This the national government will regard its first and foremost duty to restore the unity of spirit and purpose of our Volk. It will preserve and defend the foundations upon which the power of our nation rests. It will take Christianity, as the basis of our collective morality, and the family as the nucleus of our Volk and state, under its firm protection....May God Almighty take our work into his grace, give true form to our will, bless our insight, and endow us with the trust of our Volk.

-Adolf Hitler, on 1 Feb. 1933, addressing the German nation as Chancellor for the first time, Volkischer Beobachter, 5 Aug. 1935, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]


Except the Lord built the house they labour in vain.... The truth of that text was proved if one looks at the house of which the foundations were laid in 1918 and which since then has been in building.... The world will not help, the people must help itself. Its own strength is the source of life. That strength the Almighty has given us to use; that in it and through it we may wage the battle of our life.... The others in the past years have not had the blessing of the Almighty-- of Him Who in the last resort, whatever man may do, holds in His hands the final decision. Lord God, let us never hesitate or play the coward, let us never forget the duty which we have taken upon us.... We are all proud that through God's powerful aid we have become once more true Germans.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in March 1933

[Note, "Except the Lord built the house, they labour in vain" comes from Psalms 127:1 ]


The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, are creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound revival of religious life.... The National Government regard the two Christian Confessions as the weightiest factors for the maintenance of our nationality. They will respect the agreements concluded between them and the federal States. Their rights are not to be infringed.... It will be the Government's care to maintain honest co-operation between Church and State; the struggle against materialistic views and for a real national community is just as much in the interest of the German nation as in that of the welfare of our Christian faith. The Government of the Reich, who regard Christianity as the unshakable foundation of the morals and moral code of the nation, attach the greatest value to friendly relations with the Holy See and are endeavouring to develop them.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933

The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc, because it recognized the Jews for what they were".... I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the church and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions.
-Adolf Hitler, 26 April 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]


We want honestly to earn the resurrection of our people through our industry, our perseverance, our will. We ask not of the Almighty 'Lord, make us free'!-- we want to be active, to work, to agree together as brothers, to strive in rivalry with one another to bring about the hour when we can come before Him and when we may ask of Him: 'Lord, Thou seest that we have transformed ourselves, the German people is not longer the people of dishonour, of shame, of war within itself, of faintheartedness and little faith: no, Lord, the German people has become strong again in spirit, strong in will, strong in endurance, strong to bear all sacrifices.' 'Lord, we will not let Thee go: bless now our fight for our freedom; the fight we wage for our German people and Fatherland.'
-Adolf Hitler, giving prayer in a speech on May Day 1933


This is for us a ground for satisfaction, since we desire that the fight in the religious camps should come to an end... all political action in the parties will be forbidden to priests for all time, happy because we know what is wanted by millions who long to see in the priest only the comforter of their souls and not the representative of their political convictions.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to the men of the SA. at Dormund, 9 July 1933 on the day after the signing of the Concordat.


National Socialism has always affirmed that it is determined to take the Christian Churches under the protection of the State.... The decisive factor which can justify the existence alike of Church and State is the maintenance of men's spiritual and bodily health, for it that health were destroyed it would mean the end of the State and also the end of the Church.... It is my sincere hope that thereby for Germany, too, through free agreement there has been produced a final clarification of spheres in the functions of the State and of one Church.
-Adolf Hitler, on a wireless on 22 July, the evening before the Evangelical Church Election

The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with the new Germany means the acknowledgement of the National Socialist state by the Catholic Church. This treaty shows the whole world clearly and unequivocally that the assertion that National Socialism [Nazism] is hostile to religion is a lie.
-Adolf Hitler, 22 July 1933, writing to the Nazi Party (quoted from John Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope"

Among the congregations of the Protestant confessions there has arisen in the "German Christians' a movement that is filled with the determination to do justice to the great tasks of the day and has aimed at a union of the Protestant state churches and confessions. If this question is not really on the way towards a solution, in the judgement of history no false or stupid objections will be able to dispute the fact that this service was rendered by the volkisch movement at a time when, unfortunately, just as in the Roman Church, many pastors and superintendents without reason have opposed the national uprising in the most violent, indeed, often fanatical, way.
-Adolf Hitler, in a radio address on 22 July 1933 to the German people after a performance of Wagner's Christian allegory Parsifal in Bayreuth. [from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]


We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin on 24 Oct. 1933

[This statement clearly refutes modern Christians who claim Hitler as favoring atheism.]


I believe that Providence would never have allowed us to see the victory of the Movement if it had the intention after all to destroy us at the end.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to old members of the Party at Munich on 8 Nov. 1933


The German Church and the People are practically the same body. Therefore there could be no issue between Church and State. The Church, as such, has nothing to do with political affairs. On the other hand, the State has nothing to do with the faith or inner organization of the Church. The election of November 12th would be an expression of church constituency, but not as a Church.
-Adolf Hitler, answering C. F. Macfarland about Church & State (in his book, The New Church and the New Germany)


While we destroyed the Centre Party, we have not only brought thousands of priests back into the Church, but to millions of respectable people we have restored their faith in their religion and in their priests. The union of the Evangelical Church in a single Church for the whole Reich, the Concordat with the Catholic Church, these are but milestones on the road which leads to the establishment of a useful relation and a useful co operation between the Reich and the two Confessions.
-Adolf Hitler, in his New Year Message on 1 Jan. 1934


Imbued with the desire to secure for the German people the great religious, moral, and cultural values rooted in the two Christian Confessions, we have abolished the political organizations but strengthened the religious institutions.
-Adolf Hitler, speaking in the Reichstag on 30 Jan. 1934


It would have been more to the point, more honest and more Christian, in past decades not to support those who intentionally destroyed healthy life than to rebel against those who have no other wish than to avoid disease. Moreover, a policy of laissez faire in this sphere is not only cruelty to the individual guiltless victims but also to the nation as a whole.... If the Churches were to declare themselves ready to take over the treatment and care of those suffering from hereditary diseases, we should be quite ready to refrain from sterilizing them.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech on 30 Jan. 1934


We have experienced a miracle, something unique, something the like of which there has hardly been in the history of the world. God first allowed our people to be victorious for four and a half years, then He abased us, laid upon us a period of shamelessness, but now after a struggle of fourteen years he has permitted us to bring that period to a close. It is a miracle which has been wrought upon the German people.... It shows us that the Almighty has not deserted our people, that He received it into favour at the moment when it rediscovered itself. And that our people shall never again lose itself, that must be our vow so long as we shall live and so long as the Lord gives us the strength to carry on the fight.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to the "Old Guard" of the Party at Munich on 19 March, 1934


The National Socialist State professes its allegiance to positive Christianity. It will be its honest endeavour to protect both the great Christian Confessions in their rights, to secure them from interference with their doctrines (Lehren ), and in their duties to constitute a harmony with the views and the exigencies of the State of to-day.
-Adolf Hitler, on 26 June 1934, to Catholic bishops to assure them that he would take action against the new pagan propaganda


No, it is not we that have deserted Christianity, it is those who came before us who deserted Christianity. We have only carried through a clear division between politics which have to do with terrestrial things, and religion, which must concern itself with the celestial sphere. There has been no interference with the doctrine (Lehre ) of the Confessions or with their religious freedom (Bekenntnisfreiheit ), nor will there be any such interference. On the contrary the State protects religion, though always on the one condition that religion will not be used as a cover for political ends....
National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary it stands on the ground of a real Christianity.... For their interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of to-day, in our fight against a Bolshevist culture, against atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for a consciousness of a community in our national life... These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles! And I believe that if we should fail to follow these principles then we should to be able to point to our successes, for the result of our political battle is surely not unblest by God.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech at Koblenz, to the Germans of the Saar, 26 Aug. 1934


So far as the Evangelical Confessions are concerned we are determined to put an end to existing divisions, which are concerned only with the forms of organization, and to create a single Evangelical Church for the whole Reich....
And we know that were the great German reformer [Martin Luther] with us to-day he would rejoice to be freed from the necessity of his own time and, like Ulrich von Hutten, his last prayer would be not for the Churches of the separate States: it would be of Germany that he would think and of the Evangelical Church of Germany.
-Adolf Hitler, in his Proclamation at the Parteitag at Nuremberg on 5 Sept. 1934

[Note, Martin Luther provided Germany with the seeds of violent antisemitism. Learn about Martin Luther's dirty little book.


What we are we have become not against, but with, the will of Providence. And so long as we are true and honourable and of good courage in fight, so long as we believe in our great work and do not capitulate, we shall continue to enjoy in the future the blessing of Providence.
-Adolf Hitler, at Rosenheim in Bavaria, 11 Aug. 1935


Only so you can appeal to your God and pray Him to support and bless your courage, your work, your perseverance, your strength, your resolution, and with all these your claim on life.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Frankfurt on 16 March 1936


In this world him who does not abandon himself the Almighty will not desert. Him who helps himself will the Almighty always also help; He will show him the way by which he can gain his rights, his freedom, and therefore his future.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Hamburg on 20 March 1936


Providence has caused me to be Catholic, and I know therefore how to handle this Church.
-Adolf Hitler, reportedly to have said in Berlin in 1936 on the enmity of the Catholic Church to National Socialism


I believe in Providence and I believe Providence to be just. Therefore I believe that Providence always rewards the strong, the industrious, and the upright.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to National Socialist women at the Nuremberg Parteitag of 1936 [11 Sept. 1936]


So long as they concern themselves with their religious problems the State does not concern itself with them. But so soon as they attempt by any means whatsoever-- by letters, Encyclica, or otherwise-- to arrogate to themselves rights which belong to the State alone we shall force them back into their proper spiritual, pastoral activity.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech delivered in Berlin on the May Day festival, 1937


We National Socialists, too, have deep in our hearts our own faith. We cannot do otherwise. No man can mould the history of peoples or of the world unless he has upon his will and his capacities the blessing of Providence.
-Adolf Hitler, to Nazi leaders on 2 June 1937, as reported by a correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph"


I will never allow anyone to divide this people once more into religious camps, each fighting the other....
You, my Brown Guard, will regard it as a matter of course that this German people should go only by the way which Providence ordained for it when it gave to Germans the common language. So we go forward with the profoundest faith in God into the future. Would that which we have achieved have been possible if Providence had not helped us?
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Regensburg on 6 June 1937


If we pursue this way, if we are decent, industrious, and honest, if we so loyally and truly fulfill our duty, then it is my conviction that in the future as in the past the Lord God will always help us. In the long run He never leaves decent folk in the lurch. Often He may test them, He may send trials upon them, but in the long run He always lets His sun shine upon them once more and at the end He gives them His blessing.
-Adolf Hitler, at the Harvest Thanksgiving Festival on the Buckeburg held on 3 Oct. 1937


This Winter Help Work is also in the deepest sense a Christian work. When I see, as I so often do, poorly clad girls collecting with such infinite patience in order to care for those who are suffering from the cold while they themselves are shivering with cold, then I have the feeling that they are all apostles of a Christianity-- and in truth of a Christianity which can say with greater right than any other: This is the Christianity of an honest confession, for behind it stand not words but deeds.
-Adolf Hitler, speaking of the Winter Help Campaign on 5 Oct. 1937


Remain strong in your faith, as you were in former years. In this faith, in its close-knit unity our people to-day goes straight forward on its way and no power on earth will avail to stop it.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Coburg on 15 Oct. 1937


In this hour I would ask of the Lord God only this: that, as in the past, so in the years to come He would give His blessing to our work and our action, to our judgement and our resolution, that He will safeguard us from all false pride and from all cowardly servility, that He may grant us to find the straight path which His Providence has ordained for the German people, and that He may ever give us the courage to do the right, never to falter, never to yield before any violence, before any danger.... I am convinced that men who are created by God should live in accordance with the will of the Almighty.... If Providence had not guided us I could often never have found these dizzy paths.... Thus it is that we National Socialists, too, have in the depths of our hearts our faith. We cannot do otherwise: no man can fashion world-history or the history of peoples unless upon his purpose and his powers there rests the blessings of this Providence.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Wurzburg on 27 June 1937


National Socialism is not a cult-movement-- a movement for worship; it is exclusively a 'volkic' political doctrine based upon racial principles. In its purpose there is no mystic cult, only the care and leadership of a people defined by a common blood-relationship.... We will not allow mystically-minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else-- in any case something which has nothing to do with us. At the head of our programme there stand no secret surmisings but clear-cut perception and straightforward profession of belief. But since we set as the central point of this perception and of this profession of belief the maintenance and hence the security for the future of a being formed by God, we thus serve the maintenance of a divine work and fulfill a divine will-- not in the secret twilight of a new house of worship, but openly before the face of the Lord.... Our worship is exclusively the cultivation of the natural, and for that reason, because natural, therefore God-willed. Our humility is the unconditional submission before the divine laws of existence so far as they are known to us men.
-Adolf Hitler, in Nuremberg on 6 Sept. 1938.

[Christians have always accused Hitler of believing in pagan cult mythology. Here he clearly expresses his stand against cults and reinforces his Christian views.]


The National Socialist Movement has wrought this miracle. If Almighty God granted success to this work, then the Party was His instrument.
-Adolf Hitler, in his proclamation to the German People on 1 Jan. 1939


Amongst the accusations which are directed against Germany in the so called democracies is the charge that the National Socialist State is hostile to religion. In answer to that charge I should like to make before the German people the following solemn declaration:
1. No one in Germany has in the past been persecuted because of his religious views (Einstellung), nor will anyone in the future be so persecuted.... The Churches are the greatest landed proprietors after the State... Further, the Church in the National Socialist State is in many ways favoured in regard to taxation, and for gifts, legacies, &c., it enjoys immunity from taxation.
It is therefore, to put mildly-- effrontery when especially foreign politicians make bold to speak of hostility to religion in the Third Reich.... I would allow myself only one question: what contributions during the same period have France, England, or the United States made through the State from the public funds?
3. The National Socialist State has not closed a church, nor has it prevented the holding of a religious service, nor has it ever exercised any influence upon the form of a religious service. It has not exercised any pressure upon the doctrine nor on the profession of faith of any of the Confessions. In the National Socialist State anyone is free to seek his blessedness after his own fashion.... There are ten thousands and ten thousands of priests of all the Christian Confessions who perform their ecclesiastical duties just as well as or probably better than the political agitators without ever coming into conflict with the laws of the State.... This State has only once intervened in the internal regulation of the Churches, that is when I myself in 1933 endeavoured to unite the weak and divided Protestant Churches of the different States into one great and powerful Evangelical Church of the Reich. That attempt failed through the opposition of the bishops of some States; it was therefore abandoned. For it is in the last resort not our task to defend or even to strengthen the Evangelical Church through violence against its own representatives.... But on one point it is well that there should be no uncertainty: the German priest as servant of God we shall protect, the priest as political enemy of the German State we shall destroy.
-Adolf Hitler, a speech in the Reichstag on 30 Jan. 1939

[That last sentence sums up Hitler's stand on the priesthood. Rather than standing for atheism, as today's Christians would like, Hitler attacked the priesthood only if they stood in Hitler's political path.]


If positive Christianity means love of one's neighbour, i.e. the tending of the sick, the clothing of the poor, the feeding of the hungry, the giving of drink to those who are thirsty, then it is we who are the more positive Christians. For in these spheres the community of the people of National Socialist Germany has accomplished a prodigious work.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech to the "Old Guard" at Munich on 24 Feb. 1939

The first step of the process can be traced to 1921, when The German Church--Sunday Paper for the German Volk began to appear. It had the objective of ridding the German church of the Old Testament and re-interpreting the heroic sacrifice of Jesus on the cross along the lines of German mysticism. Clergy in the state churches were elected, and by the 1930s the Nazi party worked to install its own candidates. Church parties like "The Church Union for Positive Christianity and German Nationality" and "The Evangelical National Socialists" began to be formed. Hitler began to unite these parties into the "Faith Movement of German Christians" in 1932, led by Joachim Hossenfelder who liked to call it "The Storm Troops of Jesus Christ." In actuality, the church was encouraged to view Adolph Hitler as the one that God had raised for the salvation of the German nation. Faith was based on the "Spirit of Luther" and was to have a heroic piety. Sanctification was defined as keeping Germany "racially pure," and was to be a duty of the church.
When the new church leaders had their first meeting, they responded with enthusiastic "Heils" to the words of the brown-shirted Dean Grell, who expressed the need for a German faith and a German God. Eventually, even words like "Amen" and "Hallelujah" would be eliminated from the liturgy because of their Jewish etymology.
The Protestant Reich Church was formed by Adolf Hitler in 1933, by merging 29 regional churches into one church. The founding of the church was the result of work by the German Christians. It was based on Nazi ideas of creating a "positive Christianity", namely purifying Christianity of any Jewish elements including even the Old Testament, an idea which had existed in Christianity since the time of Marcion of Sinope, but the Protestant Reich Church did so for racial more than theological reasons. Soon after its founding, the religion portrayed Jesus as an "Aryan" and had eliminated the Old Testament in its entirety. Ludwig Müller was elected "Reich Bishop".
Although initially supported by the regime, the Nazis eventually lost interest in the experiment after it failed to supplant or absorb traditional Christianity. After 1937, relations between the Reich Church and the Nazi government began to sour.
During the war, Alfred Rosenberg (a prominent member of the neo-pagan Thule Society) drew up a thirty-point program for a new "National Reich Church", which he hoped could replace Christianity entirely following victory in the war:
· The National Reich's Church of Germany categorically claims the exclusive right and the exclusive power to control all churches within the borders of the Reich; it declares these to be national churches
· The German people must not serve the National Reich Church. The National Reich Church is absolutely and exclusively in the service of but one doctrine: race and nation.
· The field of activity of the National Reich Church will expand to the limits of Germany's territorial and colonial possessions.
· The National Reich Church does not force any German to seek membership therein. The Church will do everything within its power to secure the adherence of every German soul. Other churches or similar communities and unions particularly such as are under international control or management cannot and shall not be tolerated in Germany.
· The National Reich Church is determined to exterminate irrevocably and by every means the strange and foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany in the ill-omened year 800.
· The existing churches may not be architecturally altered, as they represent the property of the German nation, German culture and to a certain extent the historical development of the nation. As property of the German nation, they are not only to be valued but to be preserved.
· The National Reich Church has no scribes, pastors, chaplains or priests but National Reich orators are to speak in them.
· National Reich Church services are held only in the evening and not in the morning. These services are to take place on Saturday's with solemn illumination.
· In the National Reich Church German men and women, German youths and girls will acknowledge God and his eternal works.
· The National Reich Church irrevocably strives for complete union with the state. It must obey the state as one of its servants. As such, it demands that all landed possessions of all churches and religious denominations be handed over to the state. It forbids that in future churches should secure ownership of even the smallest piece of German soil or that such be ever given back to them. Not the churches conquer and cultivate land and soil but exclusively the German nation, the German state.
· National Reich Church orators may never be those who today emphasize with all tricks and cunning verbally and in writing the necessity of maintaining and teaching of christianity in Germany; they not only lie to themselves but also the German nation, goaded by their love of the positions they hold and the sweet bread they eat.
· National Reich Church orators hold office, government officials under Civil Service rules.
· The National Reich Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany as well as the publication of Sunday papers, pamphlets, publications and books of a religious nature.
· The National Reich Church has to take severe measures in order to prevent the Bible and other christian publications being imported into Germany.
· The National Reich Church declares that to it, and therefore to the German nation, it has been decided that the Fuhrer's "Mein Kampf" is the greatest of all documents. It is conscious that this book contains and embodies the purest and truest ethics for the present and future life of our nation.
· The National Reich Church has made it its sacred duty to use all its energy to popularize the coeternal "Mein Kampf" and to let every German live and complete his life according to this book.
· The National Reich Church demands that further editions of this book, whatever form they may take, be in content and pagination exactly similar to the present popular edition.
· The National Reich Church will clear away from its altars all crucifixes, Bibles and pictures of Saints.
· On the altars there must be nothing but "Mein Kampf", which is to the German nation and therefore to God the most sacred book, and to the left of the altar a sword.
· The National Reich Church speakers must during church services propound this book to the congregation to the best of their knowledge and ability.
· The National Reich Church does not acknowledge forgiveness of sins. It represents the standpoint which it will always proclaim that a sin once committed will be ruthlessly punished by the honorable and indestructible laws of nature and punishment will follow during the sinner's lifetime.
· The National Reich Church repudiates the christening of German children, particularly the christening with water and the Holy Ghost.
· The parents of a child (or if a new born child) must only take the German oath before the altar which is worded as follows: The man: "In the name of God I take this Holy oath that I the father of this child, and my wife, are of proven Aryan descent. As a father, I agree to bring up this child in the German spirit and as a member of the German race". The women: "In the name of God I take this Holy oath that I (name) bore my husband a child and that I its mother am of proven Aryan descent. As a mother, I swear to bring up this child in the German spirit and as a member of the German race". The German diploma can only be issued to newly born children on the strength of the German oath.
· The National Reich Church abolishes confirmation and religious education as well as the communion the religious preparation for the communion. The educational institutions are and remain the family, the schools, the German youth, the Hitler youth, and the Union of German girls.
· In order that school graduation of our German youth be given an especially solemn character, all churches must put themselves at the disposal of German youth, the Hitler youth and the Union of German girls on the day of the state's youth which will be on the Friday before Easter. On this day the leaders of these organizations exclusively may speak.
· The marriage ceremony of German men and women will consist of taking an oath of faithfulness and placing the right hand on the sword. There will not be any unworthy kneeling in National Reich Church ceremonies.
· The National Reich Church declares the tenth day before Whit Sunday to be the national holiday of the German family.
· The National Reich Church rejects the customary day of prayer and atonement. It demands that this be transferred to the holiday commemorating the laying of the foundation stone of the National Reich Church.
· The National Reich Church will not tolerate the establishment of any new clerical religious insignia.
· On the day of its foundation, the Christian cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals and chapels within the Reich and its colonies and it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol of Germany the "Hakenkreuz" (swastika).
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history of anti-Semitism
Wikipedia
history of anti-Semitism
This is a partial chronology of hostilities towards or discrimination against the Jews as a religious or ethnic group. See main article Anti-Semitism for etymology, roots, traits and disputes on what is sometimes called "the longest hatred."[1]
Here we note significant events in the history of anti-Semitism: as well as important anti-Semitic actions, we also give events in the history of anti-Semitic thought, actions taken to combat or relieve the effects of anti-Semitism, and events that affected the prevalence of anti-Semitism in later years.
Ancient animosity towards Jews
A fellow editor requested that someone provide references or sources for the information in this section.
3rd century BCE
Manetho, a Hellenistic Egyptian chronicler and priest, alleges that Moses was not a Jew, but an Egyptian renegade priest called Osarseph, and portrays the Exodus as the expulsion of a leper colony.
175 BCE-165 BCE
Antiochus Epiphanes sacks Jerusalem, calls Judaism "inimical to humanity", prohibits brit milah, confiscates copies of Torah and erects an altar to Zeus in the Second Temple after plundering it. (See also Maccabees, Hanukkah)
2nd century BCE
Mnaseas of Patros, a Greek author, reports that the Jews worship a donkey's head in the Holy of Holies. This legend was repeated by Apollonius Molon, Democritus, Apion, and Plutarch.
19
Roman Emperor Tiberius expels Jews from Rome. Suetonius Tranquillus, in Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Vol 3, Tiberius, Section 36, says that Tiberius "suppressed all foreign religions... . He distributed the Jewish youths, under the pretence of military service, among the provinces noted for an unhealthy climate; and dismissed from the city all the rest of that nation as well as those who were proselytes to that religion [335], under pain of slavery for life, unless they complied." Josephus, in his Jewish Antiquities (18.3.5), likewise says that Tiberius "ordered all the Jews to be banished out of Rome," taking "four thousand men out of them, and sent them to the island Sardinia; but punished a greater number of them, who were unwilling to become soldiers, on account of keeping the laws of their forefathers. Thus were these Jews banished out of the city ..." Cassius Dio writes about Tiberius, "As the Jews flocked to Rome in great numbers and were converting many of the natives to their ways, he banished most of them." (Roman History, 57.18.5a)
37-41
Thousands of Jews killed by mobs in Alexandria (Egypt), as recounted by Philo of Alexandria in Flaccus.
50
Jews ordered by Roman Emperor Claudius "not to hold meetings", in the words of Cassius Dio (Roman History, 60.6.6). Claudius later expelled Jews from Rome, according to both Suetonius ("Lives of the Twelve Caesars", Claudius, Section 25.4) and Acts 18:2.
66-73
Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans is crushed by Vespasian and Titus Flavius. Titus refuses to accept a wreath of victory, as there is "no merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their own God". (Philostratus, Vita Apollonii). The events of this period were recorded in detail by the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus. His record is largely sympathetic to the Roman view, and hence is considered a controversial source. Josephus describes the Jewish revolt as being led by "tyrants," to the detriment of the city, and of Titus as having "moderation" in his escalation the Siege of Jerusalem (70).
1st century
Fabrications of Apion in Alexandria, Egypt, including the first recorded blood libel. Juvenal writes anti-Jewish poetry. Josephus picks apart contemporary and old anti-Semitic myths in his work Against Apion. (e-text at Project Gutenberg)
Late 1st–early 2nd century
Tacitus writes anti-Jewish polemic in his Histories (book 5). He reports on several old myths of ancient anti-Semitism (including that of the donkey's head in the Holy of Holies), but the key to his view that Jews "regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies" is his analysis of the extreme differences between monotheistic Judaism and the polytheism common throughout the Roman world.
115-117
Thousands of Jews are killed during civil unrest in Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrenaica, as recounted by Dio Cassius' History of Rome (68.31), and Eusebius' Historia Ecclesiastica (4.2), and papyrii.
c. 119
Roman emperor Hadrian bans circumcision, making Judaism de facto illegal.
c. 132-135
Hadrian constructs a pagan temple to Jupiter at the site of the Temple in Jerusalem, builds Aelia Capitolina among ruins of Jerusalem and crushes the Bar Kokhba's revolt. Judea is wiped off the map and renamed into Palestine; Jews are left dispersed and stateless.
167
The first recorded accusation of deicide. Melito of Sardis publishes a sermon On the Passion, in which he blames the Jews for the persecution and death of Jesus, absolves Pontius Pilate and the Romans from guilt or responsibility. At a time when Christians were widely persecuted, Melitos speech was an appeal to Rome to spare Christians.
The 4th century
A fellow editor requested that someone provide references or sources for the information in this section.
306
The Synod of Elvira bans intermarriage between Christians and Jews. Other social intercourses, such as eating together, are also forbidden.
315-337
Constantine I the Great enacts various laws regarding the Jews: Jews are not allowed to own Christian slaves or to circumsize their slaves. Conversion of Christians to Judaism is outlawed. Congregations for religious services are restricted, but Jews are also allowed to enter the restituted Jerusalem on the anniversary of the Temple's destruction.
325
First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. The Christian Church separates the calculation of the date of Easter from the Jewish Passover: "We desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews... How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded."
361-363
Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate, a pagan, allows the Jews to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt" and to rebuilt the Temple.
386
John Chrysostom of Antioch writes eight homilies Adversus Judaeos (lit: Against the Judaizers). See also: Christianity and anti-Semitism#The Church Fathers.
388
A Christian mob incited by the local bishop plunders and burns down a synagogue in Callinicum. Theodosius I orders punishment for those responsible, and rebuilding the synagogue at the Christian expense. Ambrose of Milan insists in his letter that the whole case be dropped He interrupts the liturgy in the emperor's presence with an ultimatum that he would not continue until the case was dropped. Theodosius complies.
399
The Western Roman Emperor Honorius calls Judaism superstitio indigna and confiscates gold and silver collected by the synagogues for Jerusalem.
The 5th century
A fellow editor requested that someone provide references or sources for the information in this section.
415
Jews are accused of ritual murder during Purim. Christians in Antioch, and Magona confiscate or burn synagogues. Bishop Cyril of Alexandria forces his way into the synagogue, expels the Jews and gives their property to the mob. Prefect Orestes is stoned almost to death for protesting.
418
The first record of Jews being forced to convert or face expulsion. Severus, the Bishop of Minorca, claimed to have forced 540 Jews to accept Christianity upon conquering the island.
419
The monk Barsauma (subsequently the Bishop of Nisibis) gathers a group of followers and for the next three years destroys synagogues throughout the Palestine.
429
The East Roman Emperor Theodosius II orders all funds raised by Jews to support schools be turned over to his treasury.
439 Jan 31
Code of Theodosius, the first imperial compilation of laws. Jews are prohibited from holding important positions involving money, including judicial and executive offices. The ban against building new synagogues is reinstated. The anti-Jewish statutes apply to the Samaritans. The Code is also accepted by Western Roman Emperor, Valentinian III.
451
Sassanid ruler Yazdegerd II of Persia's decree abolishes the Sabbath and orders executions of Jewish leaders, including the Exilarch Mar Nuna.
465
Council of Vannes, Gaul prohibited the Cristian clergy from participating in Jewish feasts.
The 6th century
A fellow editor requested that someone provide references or sources for the information in this section.
519
Ravenna, Italy. After the local synagogues were burned down by the local mob, Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great orders the town to rebuild them at its own expense.
529-559
Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great publishes Corpus Juris Civilis. New laws restrict citizenship to Christians. These regulations determined the status of Jews throughout the Empire for hundreds of years: Jewish civil rights restricted: "they shall enjoy no honors". The principle of Servitus Judaeorum (Servitude of the Jews) is established: the Jews cannot testify against Christians. The emperor becomes an arbiter in internal Jewish matters. The use of the Hebrew language in worship is forbidden. Shema Yisrael ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one"), sometimes considered the most important prayer in Judaism, is banned as a denial of the Trinity. Some Jewish communities are converted by force, their synagogues turned into churches.
535
The First Council of Clermont, Gaul prohibits Jews from holding public office.
538
The Third Council of Orléans, Gaul forbids Jews to employ Christian servants or possess Christian slaves. Jews are prohibited from appearing in the streets during Easter: "their appearance is an insult to Christianity". A Merovingian king Childebert approves the measure.
576
Clermont, Gaul. Bishop Avitus offers Jews a choice: accept Christianity or leave Clermont. Most emigrate to Marseille.
587
King Reccared of Visigothic Spain bans Jews from slave ownership, intermarriage and holding positions of authority, and Reccared also declares that children of mixed marriages must be raised Christian.
589
The Council of Narbonne, Gaul forbids Jews from chanting psalms while burying their dead. Anyone violating this law is fined 6 ounces of gold.
590
Pope Gregory I defends the Jews against forced conversion.
The 7th century
A fellow editor requested that someone provide references or sources for the information in this section.
610-620
Visigothic Hispania After many of his anti-Jewish edicts were ignored, king Sisebur prohibits Judaism. Those not baptized fled. This was the first incidence where a prohibition of Judaism affected an entire country.
614
Fifth Council of Paris decrees that all Jews holding military or civil positions must accept baptism, together with their families.
615
Italy. The earliest referral to the Juramentum Judaeorum (the Jewish Oath): the concept that no heretic could be believed in court against a Christian. The oath became standardized throughout Europe in 1555.
629 Mar. 21
Byzantine Emperor Heraclius with his army marches into Jerusalem. Jewish inhabitants support him after his promise of amnesty. Upon his entry into Jerusalem the local priests convince him that killing Jews is a good deed. Hundreds of Jews are massacred, thousands flee to Egypt.
Frankish King Dagobert I, encouraged by Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, expels all Jews from the kingdom.
632
The first case of officially sanctioned forced baptism. Emperor Heraclius violates the Theodosian Law, which protected them from forced conversions.
681
The Twelfth Council of Toledo, Spain orders burning of the Talmud and other "heretic" books.
682
Visigothic king Erwig begins his reign by enacting 28 anti-Jewish laws. He presses for the "utter extirpation of the pest of the Jews" and decrees that all converts must be registered by a parish priest, who must issue travel permits. All holidays, Christian and Jewish, must be spent in the presence of a priest to ensure piety and to prevent the backsliding.
692
Quinisext Council in Constantinople forbids Christians on pain of excommunication to bathe in public baths with Jews, employ a Jewish doctor or socialize with Jews.
694
17th Council of Toledo, Spain. King Ergica believes rumors that the Jews had conspired to ally themselves with the Muslim invaders and forces Jews to give all land, slaves and buildings bought from Christians, to his treasury. He declares that all Jewish children over the age of seven should be taken from their homes and raised as Christians.
The 8th century
A fellow editor requested that someone provide references or sources for the information in this section.
717
Caliph Omar II introduces discriminatory regulations against the dhimmi, among them for Jews to wear a special yellow garb.
722
Byzantine emperor Leo III forcibly converts all Jews and Montanists in the empire into mainstream Byzantine Christianity.
The 9th century
A fellow editor requested that someone provide references or sources for the information in this section.
807
Abbassid Caliph Harun al-Rashid orders all Jews in the Calipate to wear a yellow belt, with Christians to wear a blue one.
820
Agobard, Archbishop of Lyon, declares in his essays that Jews are accursed and demands a complete segregation of Christians and Jews. In 826 he issues a series of pamphlets to convince Emperor Louis the Pious to attack "Jewish insolence", but fails to convince the Emperor.
898-929
French king Charles the Simple confiscates Jewish-owned property in Narbonne and donates it to the Church.

The 11th century
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1008-1013
Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah issues severe restrictions against Jews in the Land of Israel. All Jews are forced to wear a "golden calf" (made of wood) around their necks. On Oct. 18 1009 he destroys the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but the French "historian" Raoul Glaber blames the Jews. As a result, Jews were expelled from Limoges and other French towns.
1012
One of the first known persecutions of Jews in Germany: Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor expels Jews from Mainz.
1016
The Jewish community of Kairouan, Tunisia is forced to chose between conversion and expulsion.
1032
Abul Kamal Tumin conquers Fez, Morocco and decimates the Jewish community, killing 6,000 Jews.
1050
Council of Narbonne, France forbids Christians to live in Jewish homes.
1066 Dec 30
The entire Jewish community of Granada came under the riotous siege resulting in 4,000 deaths and the destruction of most property. The community quickly recovered, only to fall again at the hands of the Almoravides lead by Iban Iashufin in 1090, bringing the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain to end.
1078
Coucil of Gerona decrees Jews to pay taxes for support of the Catholic Church to the same extent as Christians.


Jews (identifiable by Judenhut) are being massacred by Crusaders.1250 French Bible illustration
1096
The First Crusade. Three hosts of crusaders pass through several Central European cities. The third, unofficial host, led by Count Emicho, decides to attack the Jewish communities, most notably in the Rhineland, under the slogan: "Why fight Christ's enemies abroad when they are living among us?" Eimicho's host attacks the synagogue at Speyers and kills all the defenders. Another 1,200 Jews commit suicide in Mayence to escape his attempt to forcibly convert them; see German Crusade, 1096. Attempts by the local bishops remained fruitless. All in all, 5,000 Jews were murdered. St. Bernard attempts to stop further atrocities: "Whoever makes an attempt on a life of a Jew, sins as if he had attacked Jesus himself."
The 12th century
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1107
Moroccan Almoravid ruler Yoseph Ibn Tashfin orders all Moroccan Jews to convert or leave.
1143
150 Jews were killed in Ham, France.
1144 March 20 (Passover)
The first blood libel. Jews of Norwich are accused with both ritual murder after a boy (William of Norwich) is found dead with stab wounds. The legend gets turned into a cult, William acquires status of martyr saint and crowds of pilgrims bring wealth to local church. In 1189, Jewish deputation attending coronation of Richard the Lionheart is attacked by the crowd. Pogroms in London follow and spread around England. On Feb 6 1190 all the Norwich Jews found in their houses were slaughtered, except few who found refuge in the castle.
1148-1212
The rule of the Almohads. Only Jews who had converted to Christianity or Islam are allowed to live in Granada. One of the refugees was Rambam (AKA Maimonides) who settled in Fez and later in Fustat near Cairo.
1165
forced mass conversions in Yemen
1171
Blois, France: 31 Jews burned at the stake for blood libel.
1179
The Third Lateran Council, Canon 26: Jews are forbidden to be plaintiffs or witnesses against Christians in the Courts. Jews are forbidden to withhold inheritance from descendants who had accepted Christianity.
1180
Philip Augustus of France after four months in power, imprisons all the Jews in his lands and demands a ransom for their release. In 1181 he annuls all loans made by Jews to Christians and takes a percentage for himself. A year later, he confiscates all Jewish property and expels the Jews from Paris. He readmits them in 1198, only after another ransom was paid and a taxation scheme was set up to procure funds for himself.
1189
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa orders priests not to preach against Jews.
1190 Mar. 16
500 Jews of York massacred after 6-day siege by departing Crusaders, backed by a number of people indebted to Jewish money-lenders. York Masssacre
1190
Saladdin takes over Jerusalem from Crusaders and lifts the ban for Jews to live there.
1198 Aug
Saladdin's nephew al-Malik, caliph of Yemen, summons all the Jews and forcibly converts them.
The 13th century
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Judensau at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Regensburg
13th century
Germany. Appearance of Judensau: obscene and dehumanizing imagery of Jews, ranging from etchings to Cathedral ceilings. Its popularity lasted for over 600 years.
1215
The Fourth Lateran Council headed by Pope Innocent III declares: "Jews and Saracens of both sexes in every Christian province and at all times shall be marked off in the eyes of the public from other peoples through the character of their dress." (Canon 68). See Judenhut. The Fourth Lateran Council also noted that the Jews' own law required the wearing of identifying symbols. Pope Innocent III also reiterated papal injunctions against forcible conversions, and added: "No Christian shall do the Jews any personal injury...or deprive them of their possessions...or disturb them during the celebration of their festivals...or extort money from them by threatening to exhume their dead."
1222
Council of Oxford: Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton forbids Jews from building new synagogues, owning slaves or mixing with Christians.
1232
forced mass conversions in Marakesh.
1235
Blood libel at Fulda, Germany. Pope Gregory IX issues a bull denouncing mob violence against Jews. In 1247, Pope Innocent IV repudiates accusations of the ritual murder of Christian children by Jews. This denunciation of the blood libel is repeated in 1272 by Pope Gregory X, who also rules that thereafter any such testimony of a Christian against a Jew could not be accepted unless it is confirmed by another Jew.
1236
Crusaders attack Jewish communities of Anjou and Poitou and attempt to baptize all the Jews. Those who resisted (est. 3,000) were slaughtered.
1240
Duke Jean le Roux expels Jews from Brittany.


Talmud is burned while a non-heretical book is floating above the fire. A 15th century painting
1240
Disputation of Paris. Pope Gregory IX puts Talmud on trial on the charges that it contains blasphemy against Jesus and Mary and attacks on the Church. In 1242 24 cart-loads of hand-written manuscripts were burned in the streets of Paris.
1242
James I of Aragon orders Jews to listen to conversion sermons and to attend churches. Friars are given power to enter synagogues uninvited.
1244
Pope Innocent IV orders Louis IX of France to burn all Talmud copies.
1250
Zaragoza: death of a choirboy Saint Dominguito del Val prompts ritual murder accusation. His sainthood was revoked in the 20th century but reportedly a chapel dedicated to him still exists in the Cathedral of Zaragoza.
1254
Louis IX expels the Jews from France, their property and synagogues confiscated. Most move to Germany and further east, however, after a couple of years, some were readmitted back.
1255
King Henry III of England, protector of the Jews, sells his rights to the Jews to his brother Richard for 5,000 marks.
c. 1260
Thomas Aquinas publishes Summa Contra Gentiles, a summary of Christian faith to be presented to those who reject it. The Jews who refuse to convert are regarded as "deliberately defiant" rather than "invincibly ignorant".
1263
Disputation of Barcelona.
1264
Pope Clement IV assigns Talmud censorship committee.
1267
In a special session, the Vienna city council forces Jews to wear Pileum cornutum (a cone-shaped headdress, prevalent in many medieval illustrations of Jews). This distinctive dress is an addition to Yellow badge Jews were already forced to wear. Christians are not permitted to attend Jewish ceremonies.
1267
Synod of Breslau orders Jews to live in a segregated quarter.
1275
King Edward I of England passes anti-Jewish statute forcing Jews over the age of seven to wear an identifying Yellow badge, and making usury illegal (linked to blasphemy), in order to seize their assets. Scores of English Jews are arrested, 300 hanged and their property goes to the Crown. In 1280 he orders Jews to be present at Dominicans preaching conversion. In 1287 he arrests heads of Jewish families and demands their communities to pay ransom of 12,000 pounds.
1278
The Edict of Pope Nicholas III requires compulsory attendance of Jews at conversion sermons.
1279
Synod of Ofen: Christians are forbidden to sell or rent real estate to or from Jews.
1282
John Pectin, Archbishop of Canterbury, orders all London synagogues to close and prohibits Jewish physicians from practicing on Christians.
1283
Philip III of France causes mass migration of Jews by forbidding them to live in the small rural localities.
1285
Blood libel in Munich, Germany results in the death of 68 Jews. 180 more Jews are burned alive at the synagogue.
1287
A mob in Oberwesel, Germany kills 40 Jewish men, women and children after a ritual murder accusation.
1289
Jews are expelled from Gascony and Anjou.
1290 July 18
Edict of Expulsion: Edward I expels all Jews from England, allowing them to take only what they could carry, all the other property became the Crown's. Official reason: continued practice of usury.
1291
Philip the Fair publishes an ordinance prohibiting the Jews to settle in France.
1298
German knight Rindfleisch leads massacres of thousands of Jews in 146 localities.
The 14th century
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1305
Philip IV of France seizes all Jewish property (except the clothes they wear) and expels them from France (approx. 100,000). His successor Louis X of France allows French Jews to return in 1315.
1310
Synod of Mainz defines adoption by a Christian of Judaism or return by a baptized Jew to the faith of his fathers as a heresy.
1320
Shepherds' Crusade attacks the Jews of 120 localities in southwest France.
1321
King Henry II of Castile forces Jews to wear Yellow badge.
1321
Jews in central France falsely charged of their supposed collusion with lepers to poison wells. After massacre of est. 5,000 Jews, king Philip V of France admits they were innocent.
1322
King Charles IV expels Jews from France.
1333
forced mass conversions in Baghdad
1336
Persecutions against Jews in Franconia and Alsace led by lawless German bands, the Armleder.
1348
European Jews are blamed for the Black Death. Charge laid to the Jews that they poisoned the wells. Massacres spread throughout Spain, France, Germany and Austria. More than 200 Jewish communities destroyed by violence. Many communities have been expelled and settle down in Poland.
1348
Basel: 600 Jews burned at the stake, 140 children forcibly baptized, the remaining city's Jews expelled. The city synagogue is turned into a church and the Jewish cemetery is destroyed.
1359
Charles V of France allows Jews to return for a period of 20 years in order to pay ransom for his father John II of France, imprisoned in England. After few extensions, on Nov 3, 1394 his son Charles VI of France expels all Jews from France.
1386
Wenceslaus, Holy Roman Emperor, expels the Jews from Swabian League and Strasbourg and confiscates their property. On March 18, 1389, a Jewish boy is accused of plotting against a priest. The mob slaughters approx. 3,000 of Prague Jews, destroys the city's synagogue and Jewish cemetery. Wenceslaus insists that the responsibility lay with the Jews for going outside during the Holy Week.
1391
Violence incited by Archdeacon of Ecija Ferrand Martinez, results in over 10,000 murdered Jews. The Jewish quarter in Barcelona is destroyed. The campaign quickly spreads throughout Spain (except for Granada) and destroys Jewish communities in Valencia and Palma De Majorca.
1399
Blood libel in Posen.
The 15th century
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1411
Oppressive legislation against Jews in Spain as an outcome of the preaching of the Dominican friar Vicente Ferrer.
1413
Disputation of Tortosa, Spain, staged by the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, is followed by forced mass conversions.
1420
All Jews are expelled from Lyons.
1421
Persecutions of Jews in Vienna, known as Wiener Gesera (Vienna Edict), confiscation of their possessions, and forced conversion of Jewish children. 270 Jews burned at stake. Expulsion of Jews from Austria.
1422
Pope Martin V issues a Bull reminding Christians that Christianity was derived from Judaism and warns the friars not to incite against the Jews. The Bull was withdrawn the following year on allegations that the Jews of Rome attained it by fraud.
1431
German Knight Saufleisch massacres Jews of Madrid upon entering the city.
1434
Council of Basel, Sessio XIX: Jews are forbidden to obtain academic degrees and to act as agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians.
1435
Massacre and forced conversion of Majorcan Jews.
1438
Establishment of mellahs (ghettos) in Morocco.
1447
Casimir IV renews all the rights of Jews of Poland and makes his charter one of the most liberal in Europe. He revokes it in 1454 at the insistence of Bishop Zbigniew.
1449
The Statute of Toledo introduces the rule of purity of blood discriminating Conversos. Pope Nicholas V condems it.
1463
Pope Nicholas V authorizes the establishment of the Inquisition to investigate heresy among the Marranos. See also Crypto-Judaism.
1473-1474
Spain. Massacres of Marranos of Valladolid, Cordoba, Segovia, Ciudad Real.


Simon of Trent blood libel. Illustration in Hartmann Schedel's Weltchronik, 1493
1475
A student of the preacher Giovanni da Capistrano, Franciscan Bernardino de Fletre, accuses the Jews in murdering an infant, Simon. The entire community is arrested, 15 leaders are burned at the stake, the rest are expelled. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V confirmed Simon's cultus. Saint Simon was considered a martyr and patron of kidnap and torture victims for alomst 500 years. In 1965, Pope Paul VI declared the episode a fraud, and decanonized Simon's sainthood.
1481
The Spanish Inquisition is instituted.
1487-1504
Bishop Gennady exposes the heresy of Zhidovstvuyshchy (Judaizers) in Eastern Orthodoxy of Muscovy.
1490
Tomás de Torquemada burns 6,000 volumes of Jewish mansucripts in Salamanca.
1491
The blood libel in La Guardia, Spain, where the alleged victim Holy Child of La Guardia became revered as a saint.
1492 Mar. 31
Ferdinand II and Isabella issue General Edict on the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain: approx. 200,000. Some return to the Land of Israel. As many localities and entire countries expel their Jewish citizens (after robbing them), and others deny them entrance, the legend of the Wandering Jew, a condemned harbinger of calamity, gains popularity.
1492 Oct. 24
Jews of Mecklenburg, Germany are accused of stabbing a consecrated wafer. 27 Jews are burned, including two women. The spot is still called the Judenberg. All the Jews are expelled from the Duchy.
1493 Jan. 12
Expulsion from Sicily: approx. 37,000.
1496
Forced conversion and expulsion of Jews from Portugal. This included many who fled Spain four years earlier.
1498
Prince Alexander of Lithuania forces most of the Jews to forfeit their property or convert. The main motivation is to cancel the debts the nobles owe to the Jews. Within a short time the trade grounds to a halt and the Prince invites the Jews back in.
The 16th century
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Jews from Worms, Germany wear the mandatory yellow badge. A moneybag and garlic in the hands are an anti-semitic stereotype. 16th century drawing
1505
Ten Ceské Budejovice Jews are tortured and executed for killing a Christian girl; later, on deathbed, shepherd confesses to fabricating the accusation.
1506 April 19
A marrano expresses his doubts about miracle visions at St. Dominics Church in Lisbon, Portugal. The crowd, led by Dominican monks, kills him, then ransacks Jewish houses and slaughters any Jew they could find. The countrymen hear about the massacre and join in. Over 2,000 marranos killed in three days.
1509 August 19
A converted Jew Johannes Pfefferkorn receives authority of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor to destroy the Talmud and other Jewish religious books, except the Hebrew Bible, in Frankfurt.
1510 July 19
Forty Jews are executed in Brandenburg, Germany for allegedly desecrating the host; remainder expelled. November 23. Less-wealthy Jews expelled from Naples; remainder heavily taxed. 38 Jews burned at the stake in Berlin.
1511 June 6
Eight Roman Catholic converts from Judaism burned at the stake for allegedly reverting.
1516
The first ghetto is established, on one of the islands in Venice.
1519
Martin Luther leads Protestant Reformation and challenges the doctrine of Servitus Judaeorum "... to deal kindly with the Jews and to instruct them to come over to us". February 21. All Jews expelled from Ratisbon/Regensburg.
1520
Pope Leo X allows Jews print Talmud in Venice
1527 June 16
Jews are ordered to leave Florence, but the edict is soon rescinded.
1528
Three judaizers are burned at the stake in Mexico City's first auto da fe.
1535
After Spanish troops capture Tunis all the local Jews are sold into slavery.


Bookcover of On the Jews and Their Lies
1543
In his pamphlet On the Jews and Their Lies Martin Luther advocates an eight-point plan to get rid of the Jews as a distinct group either by religious conversion or by expulsion:
"...set fire to their synagogues or schools..."
"...their houses also be razed and destroyed..."
"...their prayer books and Talmudic writings... be taken from them..."
"...their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb..."
"...safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews..."
"...usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them..." and "Such money should now be used in ... the following [way]... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed [certain amount]..."
"...young, strong Jews and Jewesses [should]... earn their bread in the sweat of their brow..."
"If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs."
1540
All Jews are banished from Prague.
1545
Lutherans raid and loot synagogue in Berlin. Jews subsequently expelled.
1546
Martin Luther's sermon Admonition against the Jews contains accusations of ritual murder, black magic, and poisoning of wells. Luther recognizes no obligation to protect the Jews.
1547
Ivan the Terrible becomes ruler of Russia and refuses to allow Jews to live in or even enter his kingdom because they "bring about great evil" (quoting his response to request by Polish king Sigismund).
1550
Dr. Joseph Hacohen is chased out of Genoa for practicing medicine; soon all Jews are expelled.
1553
Pope Julius III forbids Talmud printing and orders burning of any copy found. Rome’s Inquisitor-General, Cardinal Carafa (later Pope Paul IV) has Talmud publicly burnt in Rome on Rosh Hashanah, starting a wave of Talmud burning throughout Italy. About 12,000 copies were destroyed.
1554
Cornelio da Montalcino, a Franciscan Friar who converted to Judaism, is burned alive in Rome.
1555
In Papal Bull Cum nimis absurdum, Pope Paul IV writes: "It appears utterly absurd and impermissible that the Jews, whom God has condemned to eternal slavery for their guilt, should enjoy our Christian love." He renews anti-Jewish legislation and installs a locked nightly ghetto in Rome. The Bull also forces Jewish males to wear a yellow hat, females - yellow kerchief. Owning real estate or practicing medicine on Christians is forbidden. It also limits Jewish communities to only one synagogue.
1557
Jews are temporarily banished from Prague.
1558
Recanati, Italy: a baptized Jew Joseph Paul More enters synagogue on Yom Kippur under the protection of Pope Paul IV and tries to preach a conversion sermon. The congregation evicts him. Soon after, the Jews are expelled from Recanati.
1559
Pope Pius IV allows Talmud on conditions that it is printed by a Christian and the text is censored.
1563 February
Russian troops take Polotsk from Lithuania, Jews are given ultimatum: embrace Russian Orthodox Church or die. Around 300 Jewish men, women and children were thrown into ice holes of Dvina river.
1564
Brest-Litovsk: the son of a wealthy Jewish tax collector is accused of killing the family's Christian servant for ritual purposes. He is tortured and executed in line with the law. King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland forbids future charges of ritual murder, calling them groundless.
1565
Jews are temporarily banished from Prague.
1566
Antonio Ghislieri elected and, as Pope Pius V, reinstates the harsh anti-Jewish laws of Pope Paul IV. In 1569 he expels Jews dwelling outside of the ghettos of Rome, Ancona, and Avignon from the Papal States, thus ensuring that they remain city-dwellers.
1586
Pope Sixtus V forbids printing of the Talmud.
1590
Jewish quarter of Mikulov burns to ground and 15 people die while Christians watch or pillage. King Philip II of Spain orders expulsion of Jews from Lombardy. His order is ignored by local authorities until 1597, when 72 Jewish families are forced into exile.
1593 Feb. 25
Pope Clement VIII confirms the Papal bull of Paul III that expels Jews from Papal states except ghettos in Rome and Ancona and issues Caeca et obdurata ("Blind Obstinacy"): "All the world suffers from the usury of the Jews, their monopolies and deceit. ... Then as now Jews have to be reminded intermittently anew that they were enjoying rights in any country since they left Palestine and the Arabian desert, and subsequently their ethical and moral doctrines as well as their deeds rightly deserve to be exposed to criticism in whatever country they happen to live."
The 17th century
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1603
Frei Diogo Da Assumpacao, a partly Jewish friar who embraced Judaism, burned alive in Lisbon.
1608
The Jesuit order forbids admission to anyone descended from Jews to the fifth generation, a restriction lifted in the 20th century. Three years later Pope Paul V applies the rule throughout the Church, but his successor revokes it.
1612
The Hamburg Senate decides to officially allow Jews to live in the city on the condition there is no public worship.


Expulsion of the Jews from Frankfurt on August 23, 1614: "1380 persons old and young were counted at the exit of the gate"
1614
Vincent Fettmilch, who called himself the "new Haman of the Jews", leads a raid on Frankfurt synagogue that turned into an attack which destroyed the whole community.
1615
King Louis XIII of France decrees that all Jews must leave the country within one month on pain of death.
1615
The Guild led by Dr. Chemnitz, "non-violently" forced the Jews from Worms.
1619
Shah Abbasi of the Persian Sufi Dynasty increases persecution against the Jews, forcing many to outwardly practice Islam. Many keep practicing Judaism in secret.
1624
Ghetto established in Ferrara, Italy.
1632
King Ladislaus IV of Poland forbids Anti-Semitic print-outs.
1648-1655
The Ukrainian Cossacks lead by Bohdan Chmielnicki massacre about 100,000 Jews and similar number of Polish nobles, 300 Jewish communities destroyed.
1655
Oliver Cromwell readmits Jews to England.
1664 May
Jews of Lvov ghetto organize self-defense against impending assault by students of Jesuit seminary and Cathedral school. The militia sent by the officials to restore order, instead joined the attackers. About 100 Jews killed.
1670
Jews expelled from Vienna.
1678
forced mass conversions in Yemen.
The 18th century
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1711
Johann Andreas Eisenmenger writes his Entdecktes Judenthum ("Judaism Unmasked"), a work denouncing Judaism and which had a formative influence on modern anti-Semitic polemics.
1712
Blood libel in Sandomierz and expulsion of the town's Jews.
1727
Edict of Catherine I of Russia: "The Jews... who are found in Ukraine and in other Russian provinces are to be expelled at once beyond the frontiers of Russia."
1734
1736: The Haidamaks, paramilitary bands in Polish Ukraine, attack Jews.
1742 Dec
Elizabeth of Russia issues a decree of expulsion of all the Jews out of Russian Empire. Her resolution to the Senate's appeal regarding harm to the trade: "I don't desire any profits from the enemies of Christ". One of the deportees is Antonio Ribera Sanchez, her own personal physician and the head of army's medical dept.
1744
Frederick II The Great (a "heroic genius", according to Hitler) limits Breslau to ten "protected" Jewish families, on the grounds that otherwise they will "transform it into complete Jerusalem". He encourages this practice in other Prussian cities. In 1750 he issues Revidiertes General Privilegium und Reglement vor die Judenschaft: "protected" Jews had an alternative to "either abstain from marriage or leave Berlin" (Simon Dubnow).
1744 Dec
Archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa orders: "... no Jew is to be tolerated in our inherited duchy of Bohemia" by the end of Feb. 1745. In Dec. 1748 she reverses her position, on condition that Jews pay for readmission every ten years. This extortion was known as malke-geld (queen's money). In 1752 she introduces the law limiting each Jewish family to one son.
1762
Rhode Island refuses to grant Jews Aaron Lopez and Isaac Eliezer citizenship stating "no person who is not of the Christian religion can be admitted free to this colony."
1768
Haidamaks massacre the Jews of Uman, Poland.
1771
Voltaire calls Jews "deadly to the human race", promotes racial antisemitism.
1775
Pope Pius VI issues a severe Editto sopra gli ebrei (Edict concerning the Jews). Previously lifted restrictions are reimposed, Judaism is suppressed.
1782
Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II abolishes most of persecution practices in Toleranzpatent on condition that Yiddish and Hebrew are eliminated from public records and judicial autonomy is annulled. Judaism is branded "quintessence of foolishness and nonsense". Moses Mendelssohn writes: "Such a tolerance... is even more dangerous play in tolerance than open persecution".
1790 May 20
Eleazer Solomon is quartered for the alleged murder of a Christian girl in Grodno.
1790
"To Bigotry No Sanction, to Persecution No Assistance" (George Washington's Letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island)
1790-1792
Destruction of most of the Jewish communities of Morocco.
1791
Catherine II of Russia confines Jews to the Pale of Settlement and imposes them with double taxes. Pale of Settlement
The 19th century
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1805
Massacre of Jews in Algeria.
1815
Pope Pius VII reestablishes the ghetto in Rome after the defeat of Napoleon.
1819
A series of anti-Jewish riots in Germany that spread to several neighboring countries: Denmark, Poland, Latvia and Bohemia known as Hep-Hep Riots, from the derogatory rallying cry against the Jews in Germany.
1827 August 26
Compulsory military service for the Jews of Russia: Jewish boys under 18 years of age, known as the Cantonists, were placed in preparatory military training establishments for 25 years. Cantonists were encouraged and sometimes forced to baptize.
1835
Oppressive constitution for the Jews issued by Czar Nicholas I of Russia.
1840
The Damascus affair: false accusations cause arrests and atrocities, culminating in the seizure of sixty-three Jewish children and attacks on Jewish communities throughout the Middle East.
1844
Karl Marx praises Bruno Bauer's essays containing demands that the Jews abandon Judaism, and publishes his work On the Jewish Question: "What is the worldly cult of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly god? Money... Money is the jealous God of Israel, besides which no other god may exist... The god of the Jews has been secularized and has become the god of this world", "In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism."
1853
Blood libels in Saratov and throughout Russia.
1858
Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish boy whom a maid had baptised during an illness, is taken from his parents in Bologna, an episode which aroused universal indignation in liberal circles.
1862
Polish Jews are given equal rights. Old privileges forbidding Jews to settle in some cities are abolished.
1871
Speech of Pope Pius IX in regard to Jews: "of these dogs, there are too many of them at present in Rome, and we hear them howling in the streets, and they are disturbing us in all places."
1878
Adolf Stoecker, German anti-Semitic preacher and politician, founds the Social Workers' Party, which marks the beginning of the political anti-Semitic movement in Germany.
1879
Heinrich von Treitschke, German historian and politician, justifies the anti-Semitic campaigns in Germany, bringing anti-Semitism into learned circles.
1879
Wilhelm Marr coins the term Anti-Semitism to distinguish himself from religious Anti-Judaism.
1881-1884
Pogroms sweep southern Russia, propelling mass Jewish emigration: about 2 million Russian Jews emigrated in period 1880-1920.
The Russian word "pogrom" becomes international.
1882
The Tiszaeszlár blood libel in Hungary arouses public opinion throughout Europe.
1882
First International Anti-Jewish Congress convenes at Dresden, Germany.
1882 May
A series of "temporary laws" by Czar Alexander III of Russia (the May Laws), which adopted a systematic policy of discrimination, with the object of removing the Jews from their economic and public positions, to "cause one-third of the Jews to emigrate, one-third to accept baptism and one-third to starve."
1887
Russia introduces measures to limit Jews access to education, known as the quota.
1891
Blood libel in Xanten, Germany.
1891
Expulsion of 20,000 Jews from Moscow, Russia. The Congress of the United States eases immigration restrictions for Jews from the Russian Empire. (Webster-Campster report)
1893
Karl Lueger establishes anti-Semitic Christian Social Party and becomes the Mayor of Vienna in 1897.


The treason conviction of Alfred Dreyfus.
1894
The Dreyfus Affair in France. In 1898 Émile Zola publishes open letter J'accuse!
1895
A. C. Cuza organizes the Alliance Anti-semitique Universelle in Bucharest, Romania. (Do not confuse with reformist Romanian ruler Alexander John Cuza).
1899
Houston Stewart Chamberlain, racist and anti-Semitic author, publishes his Die Grundlagen des 19 Jahrhunderts which later became a basis of National-Socialist ideology.
1899
Blood libel in Bohemia (the Hilsner case).
The 20th century
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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church adhered to a distinction between "good anti-Semitism" and "bad anti-Semitism". The "bad" kind promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent. This was considered un-Christian because the Christian message was intended for all of humanity regardless of ethnicity; anyone could become a Christian. The "good" kind criticized alleged Jewish conspiracies to control newspapers, banks, and other institutions, to care only about accumulation of wealth, etc. Many Catholic bishops wrote articles criticizing Jews on such grounds, and, when accused of promoting hatred of Jews, would remind people that they condemned the "bad" kind of anti-Semitism. A detailed account is found in historian David Kertzer's book The Popes Against the Jews.


The victims of a 1905 pogrom in Dnipropetrovsk
1903
The Kishinev pogrom: 49 Jews murdered.
1905
The first appearance of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Russia.
1911
The Blood libel trial of Menahem Mendel Beilis in Kiev.
1915
The World War I prompts expulsion of 250,000 Jews from Western Russia.
1917-1921
Attacked for being revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries, unpatriotic pacifists or warmongers, religious zealots or godless atheists, capitalist exploiters or bourgeois profiteers, masses of Jewish civilians (by various estimates 70,000 to 250,000, the number of orphans exceeded 300,000) were murdered in pogroms in the course of Russian Civil War. Out of estimated 900 mass pogroms:
· about 40% were perpetrated by the forces led by Simon Petlyura fighting for Ukrainian directorate. Its president Vladimir Vinnichenko was quoted as saying: "The pogroms will cease when Jews will cease to be Communists",
· 25% by the Green Army and various nationalist and anarchist gangs,
· 17% by the White Army, especially forces of Anton Denikin,
· 8.5% by the Red Army. (Source: Solzhenitsyn 200 Years Together)
1919-1922
Soviet Yevsektsiya (the Jewish section of the Communist Party) attacks Bund and Zionist parties for "Jewish cultural particularism". In April 1920, the All-Russian Zionist Congress is broken up by Cheka led by Bolsheviks, whose leadership and ranks included many anti-Jewish Jews. Thousands are arrested and sent to Gulag for "counter-revolutionary... collusion in the interests of Anglo-French bourgeoisie... to restore the Palestine state." Hebrew language is banned, Judaism is suppressed, along with other religions.
1920
The Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920 of old Yishuv, incited by Haj Amin Al-Husseini.


The Protocols issued by Russian emigrants in Paris, 1927
The idea that the Bolshevik revolution was a Jewish conspiracy for the world domination sparks worldwide interest in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In a single year, five editions are sold out in England alone. In the US Henry Ford prints 500,000 copies and begins a series of anti-Semitic articles in The Dearborn Independent newspaper.
1921 May 1-4
Jaffa riots in Palestine.
1921-1925
Outbreak of Anti-Semitism in USA, lead by Ku Klux Klan.
1925
Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.
1929 August 23
The ancient Jewish community of Hebron destroyed in the Hebron massacre. Hebron Massacre
1933-1941
Persecution of Jews in Germany rises until they are stripped of their rights not only as citizens, but also as human beings. It is also during this time in which Anti-Semitism reached an all-time high.[2]
· Law against Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities
· Law for the Reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service (ban on professions)
1934
2,000 of Afghani Jews expelled from their towns and forced to live in the wilderness.
1935
Nuremberg Laws introduced. Jewish rights rescinded. The Reich Citizenship Law strips them of citizenship. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor:
· Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden.
· Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden.
· Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or kindred blood as domestic servants.
· Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colors. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colors.


Juden UnerwÜnscht Jews not welcome here. Black on red