GERMAN BOOK OF DESTINY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 397, 2 April 1937, Page 3

GERMAN BOOK OF DESTINY

STORY OF HITLER’S “MEIN KAMPF.”

GUIDE FOR FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY.

Germany is rapidly becoming a land of surprises which send shivers down the blacks of the rest of the world, writes Otto D. Tolischus from, Berlin in the New York Times. Tjie rulers of the Third Reich have adopted surprise and the fait accompli as the best strategy in political struggle, and thus are revolutionising the old rules of politics and diplomacy in much the same v|.y that Napoleon revolutionised the rules of warfare in his day. The surprises, ’. hich are usually accompanied by the blare of trumpets and the tramp of marching men, not only startle the world and discomfort politicians. 1 and diplomats of the old school; they also puzzle many who find the words and actions of the National Socialist regime mysterious, quixotic, contradictory, and often inexplicable so far as any immed'ate purpose is concerned.

The ruthlessness with which the regime established its power, annihiliated parliamentary intitutions, not only crushed all opposition but also suppressed all independent views land thoughts in the name of “higher democracy’’; the restraints imposed upon churches, the elimination of Masonic lodges, labour unions, abd similar institutions, and the “coordination” of all other organisations in the name of national unity; the ostracism of Jews in the name of racial mysticism; the creation of the most effective military machine in Europe in the name of national security; recklessness in national expenditures in the name of unemployment relief at the expense of foreign, creditors, and now as the latest accomplishment, the violent oratorical blasts against Bolshevism in the name of a “better Europe”—all these are actions and policies which no

longer fit the usual framework of either domestic or international policies, but in their summation exceed anything attempted at one and the same time by any other regime. Yet all these National Socialist words, acts and slogans, so difficult to reconcile, are merely manifestations 1 of a definite, carefully-workei out programme so Vast in scope, that when it Was first announced, it was ridiculed as the fantastic dream of a frenzied visionary. Now that the programme has Men put into effect to such an extent as to represent the most, potent political force in the world to-day, it must be taken seriously, and l the knowledge of the programme is essential to an understanding of events in Germay. That programme, was laid down by no less an authority that Hitler himself in his book, “Mein Kampf, meaning “My Struggle,” which has literally become the political Bible of the German people, and the key to the policy of the Third Reich. It is a book which has already made history. It formulated, ti e National Socialist idea which to-day rules Germany and, in .the hopes of his followers, will some day rule more; it recreated the National Socialist movement after its collapse under the Reichswehr bullet,s bef< re the Feldherrn in Munich in 1923, re-established Hitler’s authority over the many factions into which it three lenedi to split, and kept the movement alive when all its other expressions were suppressed. The proceeds from this book financed Hitler and hie followers until they were big enough to command the support of those anxious to climb on the bandwagon It bias been the source book for all National Socialist propaganda and speechmaking, and to-day is the gufda of foreign and domestic policy which has already redrawn the political map of Europe and aims at redrawing its territorial map as well.

There is only one other book comparable with “Mein Kampf”—-Kail Marx’s “Das Kapital,” the Bible of Socialism and Bolshevism, those movements which National Socialism set out to conquer and lumps together under the name of “marxism.” Two Million Copies. “Mein Kampf”—Hitler’s only book —has already sold more than 2,500,000 copies and has teen translated into 10 languages, including the Chinese. It is a tome of 782 closelyprinted pages. To emphasise its similitude to the Bible, the Reich League of German Government Officials presented Hitter on his last birthday with a unique copy of hie work; seven graphologists laboured tor 11 months to transcribe it by hand on 965 pages of “leather parchment” in the script of the medieval Bible, producing a volume that has been bound in iron and weighs no less than 7CT pounds. In content "Mein Kampf” is 10 per cent, autobiography, 90 per cent, dogma, and 100 per cent, propaganda. Every word in it. every fact recorded, or view expressed, has been included, not for the sake of the record, or for the sake of abstract truth, but solely for the propagandist- effect. Judged by its success, it is the outstanding- propagandistic masterpiece of the age. Like Machiavelli’s "The Prince,” Hitler’s work is amazing for the bold frankness with which it casts aside .all moral considerations in the interest of public expediency, on the principle that the end justifies the means. “Success.” he writes, "is the only earthly j’udge of right or Wrong.” a dictum reiterated' by thousands of Nazi speakers, led by Dr Paul Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. Force, terror, battle, conquest, “one-sided assertions,” racial hatred and racial egoEsm are thus lumped together with mysticism, patriotism, and social justice as equally acceptable means □f rallying the masses to the Nazi standard. Two Volumes. The book itself consists of two volumes. The first was written in 1924 in the fortress of Dandsberg am Lech, where Hitler was serving .a term of "honorary confinement” for his attempted Putsch in 1923. Here, in perfect liberty, he typed on his little typewriter, or dictated to Rudolph Hess, his secretary, and now deputy for party affairs, “A Reckoning” in which he showed up the mistakes and failures of the Kaiser's Government, flayed the existing republican regime which had quashed his movement and finally -defended and justified his own course and sounded a trumpet, call for further action. Tlhe volume ends on a. note of triumph when, describing the first successful mass meeting of his career. Hitler wrote; “A fire was lit out of Whose heat must some day come the sword that will regain fo.r the German Siegfried freedom, and for the German nation life.” When Hitler came to power, one of the first things he did was to abolish such ‘ honorary confinement” for political opponents, so that never while he rules will such a book come out of a German fortress. The second volume was written in

1926, in Berchjesgnden, where, already at liberty, lie repeated and intensified the doctrines of the first volume and worked out especially ;he principles of National Socialist foreign policy. The General Scheme, The general scheme for the accomplishment of this task, at’ outlined in the book, may be briefly summarised as follows: Germany must grow strong at home by ruthl ssiy eradicating all Jewish, pacifistic, and Marxist elements; by destroying Parliament, political parties and "all other agencies for divergent thought, and by controlling the rest, especially the Press, by uniting tie German people through a racial superiority doctrine on the one hand and through a “socialism” of social equalisation on. the other; by training and hardening the whole population; by abolishing the “prostitution of love" and replacing it with an increased' birthrate; and finally, by building up as strong a military force as possible. On the basis of this regained strength, which makes Germany valuable as an ally, she must- then pursue a purposeful foreign policy; she must always keep friendship with Great Britain, even at. the cost of surrendering all naval rivalry, colonies, and world trade, in order to concentrate German energies on Continental expansion in which, the reconquest of territories lost it the World War would be merely a minor Incident. that might satisfy old “bourgeois" sentiments but not National Socialist ambitions, which enviage far more—namely, the unification of all European Germans, within the borders of a greater Reich, the coordination of all Germans in the world In the services of that Reich, the oeyuisition of new territory at 'the expense of Russia and the B&ltic border States, and finally the destruction of France, “the implacable, deadly enemy of the German people.” His course is depicted as the only sure means of establishing peace in Europe—a German peace, of course; after it has succeeded, and not before, can Germany concern herself with her place in the world at large.

The Vision of Russia. Even the startling violence of Hitler’s and Goebbels’s attacks on Bolshevism and the equally startling vision pictured by Hitler of what he could do “if the Ural, with its immeasurable raw material, Siberia, with its rich forests, and the Ukraine, with its immeasurable grain fields lay within Germany,” were fashioned long ago In this book, which denounces the Bolshevist leaders as "common, blood-spotted criminals, the scum of humanity,” which pictures Russia as a State originally organised by Germanic masters ruling over an inferior Slavic race, but now, unfortunately, fallen into the hands of Bolshevist Jews from whom it must be saved by the German sword and plough. To make this possible, argues tile book, France must be destroyed in order to safeguard Germany’s back, because to maintain herself France must ever seek to smash and dissolve Germany —and the author is candid enough to admit that, if he had been Clemenceau at Versailles, he would have done just what Clemenceau did. But -how to obtain so vast an objective? The book outlines three methods: propaganda, diplomacy, force. By use of all three of them the first part of the programme is virtually completed—namely, the attainment of power domestic coordination, and the preparation of the German people, including their rearmament. The larger part of the programme outlined in the book, for which all that has been done so f»r is intended to be merely preparation, still awaits fulfilment —if it is still part of the programme. Obviously, German foreign policy, heretofore, largely defensive, has gone over to the offensive. -Since its diplomacy has failed bo far to obtain the desired allies, the National Socialists are backing it up with their most effective weapon, propaganda. With it they have declared a holy war against “Jewish Bolshevism” and under that banner they are -carrying the Nazi campaign against Russia beyoed the borders of the Reich, seeking to force all nations to line up with Germany by mobilising their public opinion at home. Thus the Communist International finds its counterpart in a "Fascist International.”