HITLER'S GUARD

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 122, 25 May 1937, Page 6

HITLER'S GUARD

TAKES OVER POLICE

PURELY A NAZI BODY

Official Germany observed recently "The Day of the German Police," which in outward appearance is a propagan- ' distic effort to make the police popular with the masses but in its deeper significance initiated a drastic reorganisation of the German police force into . a purely {National Socialist force de- , signed to protect the Nazi regime and ' propagate, its philosophy, writes Otto • D. Tolischus from Berlin to the "New : York Times." ■/.'■■'.' : : The propagandists programme was j carried through in typical National , Socialist style under the motto "The r Police, Your Friend and Helper." . There were flags and parades, the [ entire police force turned out to col,- , lect donations for the National Social- • ist Winter Relief Fund, police officers appeared in the "schools to show the L children how tocross .the streets, safely, many of the poorer children were the ' dinner .guests; of individual : police j formations,, and in twelve .public 1 squares children were permitted . to , ride on police horses while a police- . man himself swung a collection box ' .among,the amused spectator's.:'-,. Alto- ; gether this part of the programme was • pronounced a great success.; :_'■. ' The day's more important aspect -was emphasised by copious formal statements and interviews issued by Colonel General Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, chief of the polii tical police, and many other: important police commanders, the crux of : which was that the entire German ; police force was being taken over by : the black-coated S.S. or Hitler Elite Guard, which in; the, future1 willfurnishv.all' police ■ recruits, both ; officers . and men. .-.'■' , ; . ■ . ' Chancellor Hitler himself. symbolised his sanction of ■this- merger by be- ; stowing upon the police,,members who i are already Elite .Guard .;m.embers. the right to wear'on .their, police uniforms . two .S. runes, the old Germahic letters already being.worn by,-the.Elite GuarS, which officially symbolise "Sieg" . or : victory but are also regarded by many as anti-Semitic signs. With this new police organisation ' new work.seems to have been-found for both the brown-shirted Storm Troops and the black-coated Elite Guard. Both were fighting organisations during the Nazis' struggle for power, and both became something of a problem after victory had been obtained. Now, however, new and separate functions are being given to both. -, .'.'■■ :),.«m» The Elite Guard, • which heretofore has furnished merely the Gestapo or secret police, but which from the very first was something of a National Socialist military police,for the Storm Troops arid as such furnished the firing squads that executed the opposition Storm Troop leaders on June 30, 1934, is being converted into, a police \of the whole German people. ..;.'■■■ . v The Storm Troops, on the other hand, are' being organised into".so-called Werkscharen, or shop squads, which will form a sort of Nazi shop police designed to .instill the proper National Socialist enthusiasm- in -, the- workers but, above all, to keep them in" order, nip in the'bud any signs, of .dissatisfac-. tion, squelch all secret agitators, prevent sabotage, and break incipient strikes, which have been multiplying lately. '■; ..' . ■' :. ' ; : - >.'? .The new police reorganisation was prepared'by<the appointment of Mr. Himmler to .the post of Commander of.the German Police, but heretofore the German Police had been merely, a headquarters ■organisation^-': It! isj' how being extended downward to the last man until it will have replaced. the police forces of the still-existing States, ' Which are scheduled for an early demise. • ■ ■■'■■■''..■ In that respect, the police move is a further step in the reorganisation of Germany by the federation of some twenty Federal States into one centralised State under Hitler. But it also, signifies . that,. Herr Himmler and his Elite Guard have finally won out in their effort to obtain control over all the German police forces. Colonel/Ernst Roehm and ihis ■ Storm Troops, who sought' to obtain control over the German Army, ended before a firing squad.' ' ' ' ■" .;■ v. The importance of the new development to the. German people' lies in the fact ..that the Elite Guard is, the most radical among'all the National Socialist' organisations. It prides itself'on being the advance guard of the National Socialist philosophy in its most, uncompromising form;