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THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 17, 1938
"MY STRUGGLE BEGINS"
Hitler's Own Story
of the Nazi Rise
Hitler says "Terror in the workshop and the factory, at meetings and at mass demonstrations - is always accompanied by 'success so long as it is not met by an equally powerful force of counter- terror."
In Vienna before the war, Hitler himself had suffered intimida- tion from the Socialist trade union bosses. He did not, so much hate them as despise the "dumb cowards" who bowed beneath it. Of course, it was good enough for them. The mind of the mass of the people, he says contemptuously in Mein Kampf, is not receptive of anything that savours of half-measures of weakness. Like a woman, they want to be dominated.
"MEIN KAMPF"
Hitler at a reunion of old fighters for the National Socialist cause. The celebration was held in the famous Munich beer cellar, from where the Storm Troops set out in 1923 to march on Berlin. The "putsch" failed and landed Hitler in gaol.
So Hitler's complaint against the to the hospital to tell the whole ter- Red dictatorship of the streets was rible story. All was over The Kaiser simple: he was not the dictator. was in flight. The army was in Party," grandiose designation of a of the enemy. Why, if a man sees He determined to rectify that. rout. Four years of sacrifce, pri- group of six,. one of the thousand evil he must stand up and work It was 1918. Four years of bat- vation, starvation, thirst and splinters of political opinion. openly for ita cure, not work
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tle had rolled over the Western wounds, of duty done of the death In the course of the meeting one "silently!" If he fails in this he is Front. Hitler, the Austrian of two million Germans, all vain, of the speakers, "a professor," rose a weakling cowardly, or lazy, or volunteer who served in the ranks all useless. "I blushed with bur- to speak. He advocated the seces- merely incapable, in any case de- of the Bavarian army, was a cor- ning age and shame. What was sion of Bavaria from the German spicable. But there you are; that is poral home on leave. The man the pain in my eyes in comparison Reich, arguing that then Bavaria- how "silent workers" always react, who wrote of his years at the front with this misery? Hatred rose in my Austria could be created and a bet- as though they knew God knows "With pride and sorrow I think of heart I saw the abominable, de-
ter peace secured from the Allies. what. the greatest and most unforgetta- praved criminals who had delivered
Thereupon "the detective" leapt "Every agitator with the guts to ble part of my life on earth.", saw Germany to this! With Jews there to his feet and lashed the unfor- stand up to his opponents in the now with bittler shame the decay is no bargaining-there is merely tunate orator so savagely that "the tavern and defend his views boldly of the rear. He heard German the hard 'Either-or.'
chairman ran out of the building does more than a thousand of such soldiers boast of cowardice and "I resolved to become a politi- like a drenched poodle before I had sneaking insidious hypocrites!”. scrimshanking. He felt sick. The cian."
done." The Committee asked him So out on to the streets! One black, rotting pestilence crept for-
to join.
year after Hitler took over the man- ward into the trenches themselves. Revolution swept Germany. The This did not quite suit Hitler, agement of the German Workers' WHEN HITLER WENT BLIND
Socialists set up a Republic. It was who wanted no ready made party, Party the first mass meeting was On the night of October 13 Hit- accepted by the 'middle classes. but one of his own. Curiosity, how held. Naturally the name infuriat- ler's unit came under the drum-fire When the Communists sought to ever, was too strong. He attended ed the Marxists, who claimed that of British gas shells in front of carry through a second, bolshevist, the next meeting, and as he sat they alone could speak for the work- Ypres. Near midnight a number revolution in Berlin the Socialist there he reasoned: This absurd ers. So Hitler further improved on of his comrades dropped out-some chiefs called in the Reichswehr, little group may be the start after matters, re-naming it the National- for ever.
Pain scorched Hitler's armed the ex-officers and shot down
all. The smaller the thing now Socialist German: Workers' Party. eyes. About seven o'clock he the rising.
the sooner it can be whipped into The mass meeting was Hitler's. tottered rearwards, blinded, report- In Bavaria Kurt Eisner seized shape. It is still possible to fix weapon. He was the genius-agita- ing himself for the last time in the power, set up a Soviet State. Ber- its character, aim and method. The tor who saw that the spoken word war.. Darkness fell on him, During lin sent its victorious Pink Guard older parties are too big, too rigid far outstripped the written many days Hitler. dwelt in night. down to Munich. The Red Repub-
Two days more of agonised medi- paganda. The orator could get AT Then one morning sailors arrived lic collapsed.
tation and fierce heart searching, his crowd. He could shift, adapt, in lorries calling on all to revolt. Hitler rejoined his unit, his eyes and Hitler was ready. They sent develop, point his arguments in ac- Cries Hitler scornfully, "A few restored. He was sent to the re- him a ticket "Number Seven," and cordance with their mood. And he Jewish youths were the leaders in serve battalion. He became 2 the Nazi Party was born. the struggle for the 'freedom, "political instructor." He not only beauty and dignity' of our national imparted official ideas to his com- Nobody had ever heard of Hitler, life. Not one of them had ever rades, he began to develop his own. his colleagues or the. "German been to the front."
In the course of his inquiries he at- Workers' Party." They tried des Ten days of agony and humilia tended, in the role of detective, the perately once a month, and then tion, and then the old pastor came meeting of the "German Workers', once a fortnight, to hold a meeting. manded the heads of the "criminals
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could receive back from them the great waves of mass emotion which he would subsequently re-emit.
Hitler spoke now once a week. He thundered about the lie of War Guilt, denounced Versailles, de-
The invitations were typed out by of November" who had betrayed the A. Hitler. He tells how he delivered fighting troops, the eternal valiant 80 of them round the town. The steel helmets, and signed a slave party then sat back and waited for peace. "Violent methods of speech the crowds to appear. After put- were found suitable, and indeed ting off the opening for an hour necessary." the chairman was obliged to start Steadily he grew in power and proceedings. The audience con- stature as an orator, acquiring force sisted of the original seven mem- and pathos, gesture and under.
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bers. "We poor devils subscribed standing. The audience heard al- what we had.," says Hitler, and ways the same play, but how super- they advertised in the newspapers. bly did the actor vary the interpre- This time 111 turned up. Hitler tation! And they drew comfort and spoke second. He proved to himself. a sense of comradeship from sitting what he had instinctively believed or standing packed close together. -that he could speak. After half an They submitted themselves to the hour the audience were cheering, magic of mass suggestion. They left Better, they subscribed 800 marks. the meeting fortified in heart, their The advance on the citadel had be- doubts cast away. gun.
DEMOCRATS LIKE BORED
CARD PARTIES.......
"THE AGITATOR WITH GUTS”
Before long Hitler had taken over Haw! Haw! Did you ever attend the duties of secretary and organ- a meeting of the democratic parties? iser. Before much longer he had. Look at them, jeers Hitler. They re- annexed the office of chairman, He semble rather a bored card party did it because he lived every mo- than a gathering of people who have ment of his waking life for this just put throught a great revolution business alone. Food and sleep. They declaim or read their clever, were a matter of indifference, even clever speeches, avoiding all vigor- contempt. He felt the same senti- ous- expression. Here and there a ment towards most of his collea feeble professional joke is dragged gues, vague, woolly; hesitant, in,, at which the gentlemen on the
Still more did he scorn those who platform dutifully guffaw-not offered help as "silent sympath- loudly, but encouragingly, with isers." What scum! Hitler meant to gentlemanly, reserve. The whole be violent, for only by counter-vio- audience dozes. in a trance, with lence could be overcome the violence (Continued on Page 11.)