THYSSEN IN EXILE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 180, 1 July 1940, Page 6

THYSSEN IN EXILE

SURE OF GERMAN RUIN Having carried out his promise?} in his last letter to Hitler that, if the latter did not make his letters known to the people of Germany, lie would make them known to the world, Fritz Thyssen, Germany's leading industrialist, has now made these letters available for publication in the United States. He intends to reside with his daughter in Argentina until the war is over; lie is sure Germany will lose. He will then, he says, take steps to recover his property, of which he was deprived by Hitler's order. The correspondence discloses some diverting facts. For instance,, Hitler's order, confiscating the Thyssen industrial plants and his real estate, was taken under the law of 1933 providing for the confiscating of Communist property. Thyssen's letter to Hitler had condemned his acts, mainly his conclusion of a ; pact with Communism. Thyssen joined the National So- 1 cialist Party in 1923 at the invitation of Ludendorff. He believed it was the only salvation from Communism. Now he realises that he j helped push Germany into Nihilism. ] He broke with the party when, over his spirited protests, it attacked . the Catholics, of whom he was one; when it robbed and tortured the Jews. When Poland was invaded, he protested, saying: "A war will make Germany dependent on Russia for raw materials; she will lose her position as a world Power." Three '• daj r s later he left for Switzerland. ; i Abyfcs and Perdition. Thyssen's letter to Hitler, which resulted in a warrant being issujed 1 for his arrest, said, inter alia: — "In my own house you pronounced the ultimate goal of the movement. "It was to lead back to the monarchy. 'Leadership of the Germans and monarchy,' you said, 'are essentially identical.' "Your new ally is still the same Russia, of which your intimate adviser, Mr Keppler, Secretary of , State in the Foreign Office, said, as late as May ? 1939, that she must , become German as far as the borders of the Ural. "Your new policy is driving Germany into an abyss and the German nation into perdition. It will terminate in a finis gennaniae. Think of the oath you swore in . Potsdam to uphold the Constitution. Give back to the Reich a free Parliament, to the German nation freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, and freedom of speech." On learning from the German newspapers that he and his wife had been denationalised, Thyssen wrote to the Reichminister of the Interior, lodging a. formal protest. 'I left Germany," he added, "because the immunity granted to the Reichstag by the Constitution did not seem to be safeguarded any more. Neither the con-warrant issued for my arrest, nor my expatriation will keep me from fuifilling my obligations ast a member if the Reichstag; as such I feel that [ have to account to no one but the .Icrman nation."