WITNESS TO HISTORY
Michael Walsh
CHAPTER 4
HITLER, THE VOTE WINNER
75 Million Germans say "YES" to One Nation, One People, One Leader.
"No democratic Government in the world can submit itself to a popular vote in greater trust and with greater confidence than can the National Socialist Government of Germany." -- Adolf Hitler, 30th January, 1935.
The election on July, 31st, 1932 was a victory for the National Socialists. They polled 13,574,000 votes and with 38% of the total votes cast legitimately and democratically became the largest Party in the Reichstag with 230 seats. The Social Democrats had 133 seats and the Communists 89. On January 30th, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.
At the polls of March, 5th, the NSDAP polled 17,277,180 votes; an increase of 5.5 million bringing their voting percentage up to 44%, which when placed in coalition with the Nationalists led by Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg who had polled 3,136,760 votes, showed an overwhelming majority of Germans had in free and open elections made their preference for German nationalism clear.
Immediately after his appointment as Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, in his first appeal to the German nation on February, 1st, 1933, asked to be allowed just four years in order to carry out the task of national reconstruction. He repeated the same request when a few days later, when at a speech in the Berlin Sportpalast, he said:
"During fourteen years the German nation has been at the mercy of decadent elements which have abused its confidence. During fourteen years those elements have done nothing but destroy, disintegrate and dissolve. Hence it is neither temerity nor presumption if, appearing before the nation today, I ask: German nation, give us four years time, after which you can arraign us before your tribunal and you can judge me!"Allow me four years, and I swear to you, as truly as I have now undertaken my duties, I will depart. It is not for any reward or benefit that I have taken office, but only for your sake. It has been the greatest decision of my whole life.
"I cannot rid myself of my faith in my people, nor lose the conviction that this people will resuscitate again one day. I cannot be severed from the love of a people that I know to be my own. And I nourish the conviction that the hour will come when millions of men who now curse us will take their stand behind us to welcome the new Reich, our common creation born of a painful and laborious struggle and an arduous triumph -- a Reich which is the symbol of greatness, honour, strength, honesty and justice."
True to his word, on March 29th, 1936, the German nation was given as promised the opportunity to express their approval or disapproval of the National Socialist state. It was an entirely free election without fear or intimidation with adequate provision made for monitoring by neutral observers.
THE OUTCOME
TOTAL QUALIFIED VOTES: 45,453,691TOTAL VOTES CAST: 45,001,489 (99%)
VOTES 'NO' OR INVALID: 540,211
VOTES FOR HITLER'S NSDAP: 44,461,278 (98.8%)
Small wonder that of all the books written and documentaries produced on the Third Reich, none dare to publish facts such as these. As someone wisely said; 'history is the propaganda of the victors.'
GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE
The National Socialist electoral system was not based on the parliamentary system but was nonetheless democratic. Of the parliamentary system of government, Hitler was scathing:
" . . . a turbulent mass of people, all gesticulating and bawling against one another, with a pathetic old man shaking his bell and making frantic efforts to call the House to a sense of dignity by friendly appeals, exhortations and grave warnings. I could not refrain from laughing." -- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p.53
"Several weeks later I paid a second visit. This time the house presented an entirely different picture, so much so that one could hardy recognise it as the same place. The hall was practically empty. They were sleeping in the other rooms below. Only a few deputies were in their places, yawning in each other's faces. One was speechifying. A Deputy Speaker was in the chair. When he looked round it was plain that he felt bored." -- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p.53
"As a contrast to this kind of democracy we have the German democracy, which is a true democracy; for here a leader is freely chosen and is obliged to accept full responsibility for all his actions and omissions. The problems to be dealt with are not put to the vote of the majority; but they are decided upon by the individual, and as a guarantee of responsibility for those decisions he pledges all he has in the world and even his life." -- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p.61
The National Socialist system of government was largely based on referenda in which the really important issues of the day were debated and voted upon by the German people. When, for instance, Adolf Hitler felt it necessary to prove the German nation's sincerity in its peaceful intentions, he called for an election combined with a plebiscite (referendum) that stated:
"It is not for my own sake that I asked for this national vote, but for the sake of the German people. It is not I who require such a vote of confidence to strengthen and sustain me; it is the German people who require a Chancellor supported by such confidence before the world. For I am nothing my fellow-countrymen, but your mouthpiece, and do not wish to be anything but the representative of your life and the defender of your vital interests." -- Adolf Hitler.
"The German Government and the German nation are united in the sincere wish to examine and solve dispassionately, be means of negotiations, all pending questions with all other nations, including Germany's former adversaries. The German Government and the German nation are prepared to conclude long term continental pacts of non-aggression with the object of securing peace, the economic prosperity, and the general reconstruction of Europe." Adolf Hitler
This general election and plebiscite took place on November 12th, 1933. Of a total of 43,491,575 votes recorded, 40,632,628 were cast in favour of the Government, this being a majority of 95%.
HITLER THE VOTE WINNER (THE SAAR REGION)
The Versailles Treaty deprived Germany of the Saar territory, falsely claiming as justification that the region was historically French and with a French population of 150,000. In fact, the French population was just 2,000. For every French citizen in the Saar, there were 250 Germans.
On January, 13th, 1935, two years after the election of Adolf Hitler, free elections observed by international observers were held in which the electorate were asked whether they wished to remain as French citizens or would prefer to become part of the Third Reich.
IN FAVOUR OF UNIFICATION WITH GERMANY: 477,119THOSE FAVOURING NO CHANGE: 46,513
IN FAVOUR OF REMAINING FRENCH: 2,124
There was a 90.5% majority in favour of reunification with Germany. Yet another election the propagandists choose to ignore for reasons transparent.
HITLER THE VOTE WINNER (AUSTRIA)
On March 13th, 1938, the Austrian Government enacted a constitutional law concerning a plebiscite for the reunion of Austria with the Third Reich. On 18th, March, 1938, Hitler dissolved the Reichstag and announced conformity with the plebiscite which was announced on April, 10th, 1938. The peoples of both nations were to be given the opportunity to decide for or against unification with Hitler's Germany.
AUSTRIA: THE RESULTS
ENTITLED TO VOTE: 4,474,138ACTUAL VOTE: 4,460,778 (99.07%)
TOTAL VALID VOTES: 4,455,015
VOTES IN FAVOUR OF UNIFICATION: 4,443,208 (99.73%)
VOTES AGAINST UNIFICATION: 11,807
SPOILT PAPERS: 5,763
GERMANY: THE RESULTS
ENTITLED TO VOTE: 45,073,303ACTUAL VOTE 44,872,702 (99.55%)
TOTAL VALID VOTES 44,803,096
VOTES IN FAVOUR OF UNIFICATION 44,362,667 (99.02%)
VOTES AGAINST UNIFICATION 440,429
SPOILT PAPERS 69,606
OBSERVATIONS:
"Most foreign observers present in Vienna that day accepted that the polling had been free from any open intimidations." (Gordon Brook-Shepherd. British writer)
"The crisis of March, 1938 (which led to the Anschluss) was provoked by Schuschnigg, the Austrian Chancellor, not by Hitler." (A.J.P. Taylor. British Historian)
"He (Chamberlain) had no difficulty in recognising where this injustice lay. There were six million Germans in Austria to whom national reunification was still forbidden by the Peace Treaties of 1919. Three million Germans in Czechoslovakia whose wishes had never been consulted; three hundred and fifty thousand people in Danzig who were notoriously German." (A.J.P. Taylor)
"The German Army was invading Austria, or rather was marching in to the general enthusiasm of the people." (A.J.P. Taylor)
"The pull of sentiment, language and history, reinforced by the material advantages offered by becoming part of a big nation, was strong enough to waken a genuine welcome when the frontier barriers went down and the German troops marched in garlanded with flowers . . . there was a widespread sense of relief, even amongst those who were far from being Nazis." (Alan Bullock. Historian)
"Chamberlain's conduct towards Germany . . . had never been dictated by a consciousness of military weakness but exclusively by the religious idea that Germany must have justice, and that the injustice of Versailles must be made good." (Prime Minister Chamberlain's Press Officer)
"It (Munich) was a triumph for all that was best and most enlightened in British life; a triumph for those who had preached equal justice between peoples, a triumph for those who had courageously denounced the harshness and the shortcomings of Versailles." (A.J.P. Taylor. The Origins of the Second World War)" Hitler had a plausible case to argue when he claimed that the Anschluss was only the application of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination." -- Alan Bullock
THE SUDETENLAND:
"The worst offence (of the Versailles Treaty) was the subjection of over three million Germans to Czech rule." (H.N. Brailsford. Leading Left-Wing Writer. 1920)
". .. in early 1939 the problem of Czechoslovakia -- the rump, polyglot state created at Versailles, comprising many central European ethnic populations -- continues to dominate European affairs. Hitler backs the aspirations for independence from the Czechs of the Slovaks, the biggest minority within the artificial Czech state." (Count Jerzy Potocki, Polish Ambassador)
Coincidentally, on the very day I include this relevant quotation (31st, January, 1993), 54 years on from the Fuhrer's recommendation, the Czech and Slovak people of their own free will took Hitler's advice and separated themselves from each other, amidst much rejoicing. During the same period (1939) Lord Halifax warned that Hitler intended to establish an independent Ukrainian state.
Is it not interesting that these paragons of the democratic process and signatories of the Atlantic Charter, who had set themselves up as the guarantors of small nations' independence, should have been so alarmed when that Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians and others too, opted for independence. How ironic also that this was Adolf Hitler's advice.
"There has never been a government in Germany which had a better right to claim that it represented the broad masses of the people than has the National Socialist Government. The elections held on November, 12th, 1933, when 95% of the valid votes recorded by the German people were given for Herr Hitler and his policy, proved that the German people unanimously back the German Government." Dr. Joseph Goebbels
THE ECONOMIC MIRACLE:
The following figures are typical of the increase in German production, progress and living standards between 1932 and 1937, and are taken from a three hour reported addressed by the German Chancellor.
"In 1932, before National Socialism acquired power, the German national income amounted to 45.2 milliard Reichsmarks. . . and in 1937 reached the round figure of 68 milliard Reichsmarks. In contrast to this increase in income the general cost of living index remained practically unchanged. In other words, while the national income increased by nearly 50% the increase in the general cost of living rose by only 4%."
Five years of National Socialist industrial and economic activity show that:
Paper manufacture has increased by 50%The manufacture of diesel oil has increased by 66%
The production of coal has increased by 68%
The production of oil fuel has increased by 80%
The production of mineral oil has increased by 90%
The production of artificial silk has increased by 100%
The production of Kerosene has increased by 110%
The production of steel has increased by 167%
The production of lubricating oil has increased by 190%
"The production of petrol and other motor fuels increased by 470%. Aluminium production by 570% and the production of Zellwoille by 2,500%."
"We have been successful in increasing our foreign trade in imports from 4.2 to 5.5 milliard Reichsmarks and in exports from 4.9 milliard in 1933 to 5.9 milliard Reichsmarks in 1937."
"After the USA, Germany today is once more the leading steel producing country in the world." -- Adolf Hitler
THE FOLLOWING NUMBER OF VEHICLES WERE LICENSED:
1932 193756,400 motorcycles 234,000 motorcycles
41,100 motor cars 216,000 motor cars
7,000 commercial vehicles 50,600 commercial vehicles
"Whereas in 1937 roughly five times as many motor vehicles were licensed as in 1932, the export of motor cars has increased eightfold as compared with the same year."
"In 1932 German inland shipping conveyed 73.5 million tons which increased to 130 million tons in 1937."
"German ocean shipping conveyed 36 million tons in 1932 and 61 million tons in 1937. The idle tonnage that was laid up along the rivers Elbe and Weser and along the German coast has completely disappeared."
"German shipbuilding yards had orders for 22,000 tons in 1932. At present they have orders on hand for a total tonnage of 1,120,000 tons for merchant shipping alone."
ROADS: "For the maintenance and development of German roads, including the super highways, the following sums have been spent.
1932: 440 million Reichsmarks1933: 708 million Reichsmarks
1935: 1325 million Reichsmarks
1937: 1450 million Reichsmarks
". . . the displacement of earth by far exceeds the building achievement of the Panama Canal.""The following large bridges were built. 6 bridges over the Rhine, 4 over the Elbe, 2 over the Oder, 3 over the Danube, 1 over the Weser, and 1 over the Pregel. In addition, 3,400 further bridges were built in connection with the super highways."
"Every year a thousand kilometres of motor-roads will be opened until the greatest work in the history of mankind is completed." (Adolf Hitler)
"340,000 houses were built in 1937 -- twice the number built in 1932. Altogether 1,400,000 houses have been put on the housing market since the National Socialists acquired power.
"In 1932, only 19 out of every 1,000 people in Germany owned cars as compared with 41 in France and 37 in Great Britain; today, however, the figure for Germany is 35 in every 1,000 as compared with 51 per 1,000 in France and Great Britain.
"Total industrial production in Germany is today 144% greater than in 1932. Even the peak year of 1929 was exceeded as early as 1936, while today about 30% more industrial goods are produced than in 1929. The production of capital goods has risen much more strongly than has the production of consumption goods, being now four times as great as in 1932 and more than one and a half times as great as 1929.
"Progress in the field of domestic raw material production has been even greater. Iron ore production has risen from an average of 843,000 metric tons for the first three months of 1932 to 1,226,000 metric tons in the first three months of 1938. This means an increase of 45%. Furthermore there has been great progress in domestic oil production. In 1938, staple fibre production has reached 155,000 metric tons as compared with 5,400 metric tons in 1933 and 102,000 metric tons in 1937." (Adolf Hitler)
"In the sphere of economic life all action must be governed by one law; capital serves industry, and industry serves the people." -- Adolf Hitler"German economic salvation has been brought about solely through the efforts of the German people and the experience they have gained. Countries abroad have contributed nothing to this." -- Adolf Hitler
"Germany's economic salvation was due solely to the nation's own efforts under its own leadership." - Adolf Hitler
"We have made it possible, without gold and without foreign exchange, to maintain the value of the German mark. Behind the German mark stands the German capacity for work, while some foreign countries, suffocated by gold, have been compelled to devalue their currencies." (Adolf Hitler)
"Today in May, 1938, the world around us suffers from the anxiety which the unemployment of millions brings with it. In Germany we begin to be anxious because we have not enough workmen." (Adolf Hitler)
CRUSH THE COMPETITION:
Germany's reduced dependency upon imports and its phenomenal increase in productivity and exports provided Germany with an economic and social advantage with which neither Britain, the USA and the USSR could compete. Furthermore, severe social deprivation, the effect of the Great Depression, social unrest and economic uncertainty in these countries were in contrast to Germany which was experiencing an economic and social miracle. Germany had to be destroyed.
Hitler was well aware that Britain and America would seek to resolve their problem by initiating a trade war that would destroy Germany and grab its markets.
"The war was not just a matter of the elimination of Fascism in Germany, but rather of obtaining German sales markets." (Winston Churchill. Fulton. March 1946)
Hitler said that he understood that Germany's economic prosperity caused problems, and put forward a proposal that soon, after steps being taken for mutual disarmament. There would be an exchange of opinions on the economic situation in Europe.
"Britain was taking advantage of the situation to go to war against Germany because the Reich had become too strong and had upset the European balance." (Ralph Franklin Keeling)
ON WAR BEING DECLARED:
"Uneasiness ruled in the House of Commons. A delegate of the Labour Party met with the British Foreign Minister Halifax on September 2nd, (1939) in the lobby of Parliament. 'Do you still have hope?' he asked. 'If you mean hope for war,' answered Halifax, 'then your hope will be fulfilled tomorrow.' 'God be thanked!' replied the representative of the British Labour Party. (Professor Michael Freund)
"In Britain, Lord Halifax was reported as being 'redeemed'. . . "He ordered beer. We laughed and joked." (H. Roth. Are We Being Lied To?)
"Germany is too strong. We must destroy her." (Winston Churchill, November 1936 to US General Wood.)
"I believe now that Hitler and the German people did not want war. But we declared war on Germany, intent on destroying it, in accordance with our principle of balance of power, and we were encouraged by the 'Americans' around Roosevelt." (Sir. Hartley Shawcross. British Attorney General)
INTERNATIONAL TRADE:
"You will be visiting Japan, where goods that are flooding the world's markets are being manufactured under entirely different labour conditions. That will, one day also apply to Russia. The powers-that-be in Moscow will, if necessary, allow part of the populace to starve in order to maintain the export trade." (Adolf Hitler, Paris Soir, January 26th 1936)
In fact, such was the reason and result of the Ukrainian famine; artificially created by 'Uncle Joe Stalin' precisely for that purpose, the effects of which led to an estimated 30 million Russian deaths.
"I want bread and work for my people. And certainly I do not wish to have it through the operation of credit guarantees, but through permanent labour, the products of which I can either exchange for foreign goods or for domestic goods in our internal commercial circulation."Germany has an enormous number of men who not only want to work but also to eat. I cannot build the future of the German nation on the assurances of a foreign statesman or on any international help, but only on the real basis of steady production, for which I must find a market at home and abroad." (Adolf Hitler, Paris Soir, January 26th, 1936)
The terms of the Versailles Treaty and various other trade restriction impositions had put Germany at a trading disadvantage. Hitler's Germany however turned the tables by adopting a system of trade-barter. In this way he effectively eliminated the international financiers and fixers, corroding their influence and giving Germany the trading advantages. The German system was so obviously superior that this unfortunately made war even more inevitable.
"The Nazi phenomenon arose from the German desire to avenge the defeat of 1918 and to find a place in the sun for the most dynamic of European nations." (Hon. Major General Khub Chand. Indian statesman and diplomat. Doenitz at Nuremberg. A re-Appraisal)
"The reproach that world trade is declining as a result of the German method of barter trade can, if it is correct at all, only be addressed to those who are to blame for this development. They are those countries who by means of their currency manoeuvres arbitrarily destroy every fixed relationship between individual currencies in accordance with their own egotistical requirements.
"In these circumstances however the German system of exchanging something that has been turned out as an honest job of work for something equally honestly produced is a far more straightforward way of doing business than by payment in foreign currency, which a year later is devalued by so much percent." (Adolf Hitler. 6th Anniversary Speech)
"Joining with Samuel Untermeyer in calling for a war against Germany, Bernard Baruch, at the same time, was promoting preparations for war against Germany. 'I emphasised that the defeat of Germany and Japan and their elimination from world trade would give Britain a tremendous opportunity to swell her foreign commerce in both volume and profit." - - Samuel Untermeyer, The Public Years, p.347
"It is likely that Germany's successful competition through bilateral agreements and the banking nations desire to liquidate such interest-free competition was an important factor in the United States and Britain promoting war against Germany." (Conrad Grieb. American Manifest Destiny and the Holocausts, Examiner Books, N.Y 1979)
"After the last war, informal attempts were made to stabilise currencies but they failed. . . competitive currency depreciation led to other forms of economic warfare. . . new currency tricks restricted and burdened trade. They must certainly be counted as a contributory cause of the great depression. And they were the first phase of the tragic war in which we are now engaged." (Henry Morgenthau, Secretary to the (US) Treasury)
UNEMPLOYMENT DEFEATED:
By 1938, unemployment was a thing of the past, and even the retired had to be induced back to accommodate the needs of German's economic and productive success:
"When in the course of the last few years unemployment disappeared in Germany and turned into an even greater shortage of labour, it was impossible for the government to view this impassively, since otherwise there was a danger that some industrial branches would be compelled to restrict their production. . .
"Labour reserves today in Germany can be secured by the employment of additional female labour, later retirement, and employment of superfluous independent workers as wage earners in industry. But these reserves are relatively small so that the question arises how to increase efficiency of labour." (Congressman Hamilton Fish)
"At the end of February, 1933, registered unemployment was 6,014,000. The corresponding figure for 1934 was 3,374,000. . . . It has been achieved in part by using Government credit to stimulate employment, in part by a general drive under the direction of the Nazi Party, and in part by a genuine business recovery." (H. Powys-Greenwood, Hitler's First Year)
"The wage of a people has meaning only when it arises from production. Every increase in production should benefit the whole people and raise the people's standards of living." (Adolf Hitler)"Life is not a problem of financial speculations, but always only a problem of work. The folk community does not exist on the fictitious value of money, but on the results of productive labour, which is what gives money its value. This production, and not a bank or gold reserve, is the first cover for a currency." (Adolf Hitler)
"In the course of carrying through our program for which we have calculated four years, two and one-quarter million out of 6 million unemployed have already received employment again within a period of eight short months." (Adolf Hitler)
THE REICHSTAG FIRE:
"The German people have no reason to envy the rest of the world an acquisition of any kind. But what would the world say about Germany if we had held a farcical trial for the benefit of a criminal who had attempted to set fire to the British Houses of Parliament, a trial which could have had no other object but to place British justice and her legal administration below the level of such a scoundrel." (Adolf Hitler)
GERMAN EQUALITY WITH OTHER NATIONS:
"I wish and will continue to wish, that the German people should learn that by reason of practical examples afforded by their ability and work, they are not a second-rate or inferior people in comparison with others. On the contrary they are their equals according to all true standards of values and therefore entitled to equal rights in all respects." (Adolf Hitler)
Next -- Chapter 5 -- LIFE IN HITLER'S GERMANY