The Nazis Go Underground

The Nazis Go Underground
Curt Riess
THE
NAZIS GO
UNDERGROUND
by Curt Riess
Total Espionage
Underground Europe
High Stakes
The Self-Betrayed
The Invasion of Germany
The Nazis Go Underground
doubleday, doran and co., inc.
Garden City 1944 New York
[ FACSIMILE ELECTRONIC EDITION 2005]
To
Walter Winchell
Courageous Fighter Against
the Nazi Underworld
THIS BOOK IS
STANDARD LENGTH,
COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED,
MANUFACTURED UNDER WARTIME CONDITIONS
IN CONFORMITY WITH ALL GOVERNMENT
REGULATIONS CONTROLLING THE USE
OF PAPER AND OTHER MATERIALS
copyright, 1944
by curt riess
all rights reserved
printed in the united states

at
the country life press, garden city, n. y.
Contents
page
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
chapter
1. The Party Must Go On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
2. Those Who Paid Hitler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
3. Generals Never Give Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
4. The Nazis Look at Africa and Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
5. The Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
6. Zero Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
7. If I Were a Nazi Assigned to the U.S.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
8. Have They Gone Under Cover? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114
9. A. O. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
10. The Second Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
11. Germany Occupied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172
12. What Can We Do About It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
v
Introduction
AT THE end of August 1943 Dr. Alexander Loudon, Netherlands

Ambassador to Washington, made a most interesting forecast
about the outcome and aftermath of the war. He predicted that,
with defeat, the German General Staff, the Nazi leaders, and in
particular the Gestapo, would go underground to prepare for the
next war. As for this war, he said, the Nazis knew that they had
already lost it, and were willing and eager to get it over with.
The Ambassador was the first person to suggest such a develop-
ment. But in the months since he uttered his somewhat startling
prophecy similar hints have appeared with increasing frequency
in English, Swiss, and Swedish newspapers. Toward the end of
October 1943, for instance, the Swedish daily, Nydag, reported
that a vast organization all over Germany was preparing to go
underground when Germany is defeated; that the “General Staff”
of this “illegal Nazi party” had been established in Munich; that
secret radio stations, a clandestine press, and secret arsenals of
arms, ammunition, explosives, and sabotage material were being
prepared; that wholesale sabotage was to start in Germany in case
of an Allied occupation after defeat; that SS men were being
selected and trained as guerrillas.
Much of this and similar information could be traced to the
Grand Hotel in Stockholm, the most prolific rumor factory of
World War II, or to equally “reliable” sources in Portugal and
Switzerland. In a few cases it was established, however, beyond
doubt that the sources were inside Germany and that they were
extremely sound. It cannot be doubted that for some time the
Nazis have indeed been going underground.
Whom among the German people do we mean when we use the
term “the Nazis”? Certainly we must consider that the overwhelm-
ing majority of the Germans is to be included in this category. But
vii
viii introduction introduction ix
even if we figured on only 20 or 30 per cent of the entire German von Rundstedt have made speeches saying they considered the
population being real Nazis, it stands to reason that ten to twenty present struggle only a prelude to World War III and urging that
million men and women cannot easily go underground. Not even as much as possible should be destroyed now so that the occupied
the apparatus of the Nazi party, let alone the enormous apparatus countries cannot be rebuilt by the time Germany is ready to strike
of the Nazi state, could successfully make such an attempt. There- again.
fore, the coming Nazi underground can scarcely involve more than This book attempts to describe the plans and preparations the
a minute percentage of the entire Nazi gang. The Nazi govern- Nazis are making to go underground—in anticipation of World
ment can never go underground. But cadres can. The party will be War III. These plans are not quite so melodramatic and thrilling as
stamped out. But the movement will survive—underground. I the reports quoted from the Swedish newspaper. Still, they are
It can be done; and though it sounds incredible it is the logi- unusual and breath-taking and perhaps even more impressive be-
cal and reasonable thing for the Nazis to do. For, once the mili- cause behind them is felt the ice-cold determination of the Nazi
tary collapse of Germany is an accomplished fact, they cannot organizers. This iron will of theirs may not manifest itself in
hope to survive in any other way. The Allies have sworn to destroy sabotage and guerrilla warfare; it may not manifest itself at all—on
the Nazis. Even their own allies inside Germany, the generals and the surface. But that only means it is the more dangerous.
industrialists who created them, and who have gone such a long This book deals with facts, not dramatic and operatic specula-
way with them, mainly for reasons of political and economic expe- tions. It tells what has taken place; not what might have taken
diency, will try to dissociate themselves from the Nazis-on the place. It reveals and surveys what will take place if nothing unfore-
surface, at least. The German people as a whole, who flocked so seen occurs to disturb the careful plans of the Nazis.
eagerly to the swastika flag because it seemed to be the least risky Germany at war is by no means cut off from the rest of the world
and most promising step at the time, will try to denounce them to the degree most of us believe. There have been steady leaks, and
for precisely the same reason. Surrounded by enemies or potential there will continue to be leaks. There are trains connecting Ger-
enemies on all sides, the Nazis-or the Nazi cadres-have only one many with Switzerland, planes connecting Germany with Sweden
way open. They must hide; they must play dead; they must wait. and Turkey. Not everybody on these trains and planes can be
The Nazis themselves have known this for a long time, and have searched by the Gestapo all the time.
long made preparations for exactly such an eventuality. In fact, by It even happens occasionally that letters addressed to foreign
the time this book has reached its public their preparations will countries leave the Third Reich without being censored. This is
have progressed to the stage of readiness. The war may go on for due partly to the fact that most Nazi censors are badly overworked
some time, but as far as the future of the Nazi idea is concerned, and have given up reading every line. But it is also due to the fact
the war can be considered only as a delaying action which will not that certain censors do not want to read some messages, and even
only gain time for the preparation of the coming underground, but took steps to prevent their colleagues from reading them. In short,
also for the preparation of World War III. many of these censors have been extremely helpful in smuggling
In a way this is one and the same thing, since the ultimate goal intelligence out of Germany. Since the war censorship had been run
of the Nazis who continue after the defeat will be another war. by the army, but toward the end of 1942 the Gestapo moved in
World War III is by no means a product of the overheated im- and took over—there had been too many leaks in information.
agination of diehards among the Nazis. Even the most realistic Numerous arrests were made; but the very fact that the organiza-
among the German generals have begun to think and talk seriously tion was in process of change created a vacuum, so to speak, and
about it. General Otto von Stuelpnagel has already prepared a for almost three weeks letters left and entered Germany without
memorandum on the next war which the Algerian weekly Combat being censored. Since the Gestapo has taken charge of censorship
(November 28, 1943) printed. Field Marshals von Mannstein and it has become far more difficult to smuggle material out. And yet
x introduction introduction xi
it has not been entirely impossible to do so; intelligence officers predecessors—in fact, of most men who ever controlled Germany
and agents of countries fighting Hitler are still active among the —to dominate and rule the world.
Gestapo. In vain was all this said and written by those of us who saw the
It is no exaggeration to state that at this moment more than fifty ever-increasing danger. In vain were hundreds of books and
different intelligence services have agents inside Germany. Among articles published warning the world against coming events. The
them are, of course, those who work for the Allied and neutral world preferred to play deaf and dumb.
countries; but there are others who work for the underground The civilized world today has not yet overcome its desire to be
movements of occupied countries, and still others who work for deaf and dumb. While everybody who feels himself part of this
different political parties in different countries, for church groups, civilized world knows that the Fascists must be defeated in this
for certain industrialists, and so on. The material contained in this war, few realize that Fascism or Nazism will by no means be de-
book has, to a great extent, come from such sources. feated even after the war is won. There is still a struggle ahead.
The coming Nazi underground is by no means a movement—or The more we know this, the more clearly we understand it, the
threat—restricted to Germany proper. It will spread all over better our chance in the final battle against the enemies of freedom.
Europe; all over the world. It could not, indeed, hope for any pro-
longed existence if it were not able to count on assistance in our
hemisphere. Its organization in Argentina is all set up and wait- CURT RIESS
ing impatiently for the “go-ahead” signal. Almost the same may
be said of the numerous “collaborators” in the United States. It
has, therefore, become imperative to consider the possibilities and
potentialities of the coming Nazi underground movement in our New York
country. May 1, 1944
This book has a purpose beyond that of compiling sensational
evidence. Its main purpose is to warn. If nothing else the last fif-
teen years have proved that it is an ungrateful business to warn
the public against the Fascist danger. The world did not want to
be warned against the Nazis. First there was a general conspiracy
not to speak about the Nazis at all, and frightened people—first
in Germany, later in the entire world—believed that if Hitler
wasn’t mentioned he somehow would become non-existent. Then,
when it no longer was possible to bury him in silence, he and his
movement were ridiculed by saying it seemed evident that the
Nazis couldn’t get anywhere and that they didn’t intend to put into
practice all the things they threatened. When this illusion, too,
could no longer be maintained, the world decided to appease
Hitler. After all, people argued, there must be a limit to the de-
mands of the man.
But there wasn’t. Whatever the Nazis were offered, they asked
more. They demanded more because their real goal was what had
been the goal of their predecessors and the predecessors of their
1
The Party Must Go On
THE NAZIS went underground on May 16, 1943.
Before that day there had been many weeks of preliminary and
preparatory work—work done mainly inside the so-called Gestapo
building in the Prinz Albrechtstrasse, Berlin, where Himmler had
his headquarters on the second floor. But on May 16 the real work
began. On that day those who were in charge of it moved to a spa-
cious house, almost a little château, at 11 Koenigsallee in Berlin-
Grunewald. The whole estate, which had once belonged to a Jew-
ish banker and had been taken over by the Nazis before the out-
break of the war, comprised more than a square mile. The rebuilt
house contained large rooms on the first floor and a number of
small offices on the second floor. The left wing of the main build-
ing was occupied by General Werner Heissmeyer of the SS and his
staff, the right wing by General Fritz Kaltenbrunner of the SS. In
the large, well-kept garden that surrounded the house some of the
old trees had been cut off to make room for small office bungalows.
The archives were stored in a bombproof cellar.
I quote from a report: “It was the Intelligence Department of the
Gestapo which moved to 11 Koenigsallee on May 15 and 16. From
May 16 on the Intelligence Department of the Gestapo was split into
two parts. About half of the the officials went on as usual in the Prinz
Albrechtstrasse. The rest worked in Koenigsallee under Heissmeyer
and Kaltenbrunner. “
Strange orders began to issue from 11 Koenigsallee during the
following weeks, most of them unintelligible to those who received
them. It was, for instance, decreed that certain units within a cer-
tain government department should be dissolved and that other
new units should be formed in other departments. Minor officials
were suddenly transferred into departments for which they had
never worked. From September 1943 on these strange orders in-
creased. Some important departments were suddenly dissolved or
2 the nazis go underground t h e pa r t y m u s t g o o n 3
completely reorganized or merged with other departments. All cided that he wanted to have a Minister of Colonies, the general got
these orders were signed by Heinrich Himmler, who had by then the job. The police of the party was the SS (Elite Guard). The
become General Plenipotentiary of the Reich. secret police of the party was the SS Sicherheitsamt (Security De-
At 11 Koenigsallee everyone worked feverishly. They had better partment). Less than one year after Hitler had become Chancellor
means for preparing to go underground than any other potential the chief of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, had become chief of the
underground movement in the entire previous history of the world. police, and the chief of the Security Department of the SS had be-
They had all the machinery of the well-organized Nazi state. And come chief of the Gestapo (Secret State Police).
they had a great deal of time to prepare everything. They worked All this could be done without a hitch because the different de-
very hard, but they did nothing hastily, left nothing to chance. partments in the party had been organized parallel to the particular
Everything was thought through logically and organized to the last departments in the government (except in those cases in which
detail. Himmler planned with the utmost coolness. He chose for the such departments did not exist in the government and had to be
work only the best-qualified experts-the best qualified, that is, in created afterward, as in the case of the Propaganda Ministry). In
matters of underground work. brief: the apparatus of the party was simply transferred over to
the apparatus of the state.
What, exactly, does it mean to go underground? Now, when the party wished to go underground and still retain
It means that a person or a number of persons, a unit, a force, an its organization, all it had to do was simply to act in reverse order:
idea, a movement that had been visible before becomes invisible. that is, to transfer—or, more accurately perhaps, retransfer—the
It is no longer represented to the outside world. It has become apparatus of the state into the party apparatus—a not-too-difficult
anonymous. Its existence is known only by the effects of its actions. enterprise, since both apparatuses were still organized along
To go underground is for a single person, and even more so for parallel lines.
a large number of persons, first of all a question of organization. The underground organization of the Nazis, then, will be formed
The Nazis had always been very fond of and very good at or- by groups, units, departments, organizations parallel to those ex-
ganization. Long before Hitler took power the party was organ- isting in today’s state government. That does not mean that all the
ized down to the last detail. In fact, the party apparatus contained men at present working in the state apparatus will be shuttled over
a whole state machinery within itself. Like all other parties, it had into the parallel underground party apparatus. While some of the
experts for foreign policy, agriculture, commerce, et cetera. But, men from the state apparatus have been transferred into the
unlike other parties, the Nazi party had built up around these parallel party apparatus since the summer of 1943, in many in-
experts elaborate organizations which functioned exactly like gov- stances the very opposite transfer has been made, in order to place
ernment departments around a Minister. The parallelism became some “dependable “ men inconspicuously in the state apparatus
evident the moment the Nazis took over the government of Ger- in such a way that they may later be able to collaborate closely with
many. the parallel department in the underground. This, no doubt, will
Hitler was the leader of the party. In 1933 he became the Chan- make the work of the underground much easier.
cellor of the Reich, that is, leader of the government. The men who
had acted as his personal secretaries took charge of the chancellery. On the morning of November 9, 1942, an important conference
The party man who was the expert on agriculture in the party, had taken place in the private office of Heinrich Himmler in the
Walther Darré, became the Minister of Agriculture and his whole Brown House in Munich. Herr Himmler had given specific orders
office moved into his ministry. The Propaganda Chief of the party, that he did not want to be disturbed and that nobody was to be
Joseph Goebbels, became Propaganda Minister. The party expert admitted. Not even his most trusted lieutenants were present. He
on colonial questions was General Epp. And as soon as Hitler de- was all alone with Martin Bormann who, in 1941, had succeeded
Rudolf Hess as deputy leader of the National Socialist German one of the strongest forces inside the party. He also became one of
Workers’ party. its best-informed members. After Rudolf Hess went to England
There were a number of festivities going on in Munich at the and didn’t return, the men who had worked with him for so many
time, as was always the case on November 9. In 1942 it was nine- years, the countless little officials of the mammoth organization
teen years since Hitler had made his famous Beer Hall Putsch, his controlling the life of the party, began to wonder. Goebbels could
first attempt to assume power in Germany. It had been, to be sure, —perhaps—explain away the Hess flight to the mass of the Ger-
an ill-fated attempt; and it seemed shortly afterward as though the man people. He could not convince the men who had worked with
world would never hear of Adolf Hitler again—if, indeed, it had the former deputy leader that he had suddenly gone crazy. They
heard of him up to then. But little more than nine years later the had found Hess an extremely intelligent and dependable man.
same Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Now they were supposed to believe that he had become mentally
A symbolic date, this November 9. For this time, in 1942, things unbalanced and had gone on a suicidal trip. They guessed the
again looked very black for the Nazi party, perhaps even more secret of this trip; they took it for granted that Hess had gone to
hopeless than they had nineteen years ago. Two days before the England to talk peace. And that meant that the war was not going
Americans had landed in North Africa, and though Hitler had de- according to plan. Bormann learned about the misgivings of the
clared that Africa did not matter, nobody felt there was any reason party key men right away. To what extent he took them seriously,
to cheer about it. no one will probably ever know. But so much can be said: he must
As in 1923, the victory no longer seemed an assured thing. Now have known more about the doubts that existed inside the party
again it was the question of survival that assumed utmost im- than most of the other party big shots.
portance. It is said in party circles that nothing ever escapes Bormann. He
Later Himmler was quoted as summing up his talk with Bormann is much less colorful, and certainly less talented, than Hess. He has
to his most trusted lieutenants in these words: “It is possible that never produced as many ideas as did his predecessor, but he was
Germany will be defeated on the military front. It is even possible and is a thorough man. Nothing ever escapes Bormann. In a way he
that she may have to capitulate. But never must the National is even better informed than Himmler. While the secret police
Socialist German Workers’ party capitulate. That is what we have have, in the main, been interested only in what people do or intend
to work for from now on. “ to do, Bormann even knows what they are likely to think under
In spite of the fact that Bormann belongs to the handful of the given circumstances. He may not have known on November 9,
most important men of the Third Reich he is practically unknown 1942, that the war was being lost. But he knew that the key men of
to the great majority of the German people, to say nothing of the the party all over Germany harbored doubts and that these doubts
outside world. The few pictures show him to be a stocky, bulky were growing hourly.
man, with brownish hair and without distinguishing features of any It was only fitting that the initial conversation covering this sub-
kind, one who would blend into almost any background without ject should have taken place between Himmler and Bormann, for
being noticed twice. A member of the movement since before the these two men represented the party better than any other two men
1923 putsch, he had achieved so little prominence during the fight- that one might find within its ranks. Himmler symbolized the
ing years of the party that in 1935 he was not even mentioned in power of the party, Bormann the rank and file. Himmler repre-
the Führer-Lexikon, the Who’s Who of the party. Later, particu- sented the brains, Bormann the life blood of the party. Himmler
larly after he had taken Hess’s place, he had made himself known knew what was necessary, Bormann knew what was possible.
—and by no means agreeably so. In charge of the party chancellery,
he tried to grab for himself whatever he could, wherever he could: During the weeks following his conference with Bormann, Hein-
power, money, riches, and, above all, information, and soon became rich Himmler called many other meetings in which, besides Bor-
mann, such Nazi leaders as Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, epidemics started. There would be, above all, many kinds of re-
Fritz Kaltenbrunner, SS general and head of the Gestapo, and sistance against whoever would then be in charge running the
Konstantin Hierl, Reichsarbeitsfuehrer (Reich Workers’ Leader) country. Running Germany—because the front would be Germany.
took part. During these weeks Germany’s strategic situation, too,
was rapidly changing for the worse on every front. The Americans The preparatory work, then, had to be centralized. But there was
were advancing steadily in Africa; Rommel was being chased by some question as to where this centralization should be done.
General Montgomery. It seemed only a question of time now, and Should it be entrusted to one of Bormann’s organizations, the
very little time at that, until everything would be over with the Verbindungsstab (Liaison Staff) of the Führer, for instance, the
Afrika Korps. On the Russian front the Battle of Stalingrad was in machinery for which had been built up by Hess and in which key
its last stages. Those in the know had no illusions as to how it men of all party and state organizations were represented? Some of
would end. Dr. Goebbels spoke quite freely about it to a few hand- the Nazis were of the opinion that this might be an excellent idea.
picked newspaper owners whom he entertained in his private villa However, by the end of April.or at the latest by the beginning of
in Wannsee, near Berlin. “Only a miracle can save us, “ he declared. May 1943, the Gestapo, that is one of Himmler’s organizations, was
Even after this miracle had happened—even when the Russian definitely put in charge of the entire preparatory work for the Nazi
front had been somewhat stabilized, as the Führer proclaimed in underground after the war.
his speech of March 21, 1943—the party leaders who listened to There were several reasons for this move. Perhaps one of the main
his words knew that it would never be quite stabilized again, that no reasons was that Himmler, by dint of constantly simplifying
other front could be stabilized again for an indefinite time. They his organization and increasing its efficiency, had brought it to such
knew that the war was lost. In fact, all the plans they were de- a state of perfection that by now the Gestapo had become by far the
veloping even then were based on this certainty, and on the assump- best-organized machine within the Third Reich—a fact which
tion that Germany, or most of it at least, would be occupied for would facilitate the work considerably—while Bormann had hardly
many years after the war by English, American, and Russian troops changed the much less streamlined organizations which Hess had
mixed with units of the French, Czechoslovakian, Polish, and Nor- left him. It was probably the hope that Himmler’s great talent in
wegian armies. There would also be a civilian occupation. Every organizing would work miracles which finally got him the job. But
branch of the administration of Germany would be supervised or perhaps it was also the fact that Himmler wanted it; and the Police
controlled by Allied officials. This much the Nazis were convinced Minister could be strangely persistent when he wanted something
of by March 1943. They were determined to survive. And so they for himself.
started to plan for the future. These plans were based on the most
pessimistic of speculations. The Nazis did not intend to have their The world knows a great deal about Heinrich Himmler. And
new plan fail through the advent of some unforeseen turn for the still it knows very little. He has chiefly been known all over the
worst. Instead, they planned for the worst. If the worst did not world and particularly inside Germany and the occupied countries
happen, so much the better for the plan and for themselves. as the cruel police chief of the Third Reich. So much so that Dr.
While German propaganda boasted that the Russian front was Goebbels decided by the end of 1943 to distribute four million
being stabilized, the party leaders were busily stabilizing another picture post cards showing a smiling Himmler talking to children,
front. in order to prove that he is a human being even as you and I.
This new front was underground. But there are many sides to Himmler of which very few people
This new front would be a fighting front too. There would be have ever heard. Scarcely more than a few dozen men, for instance,
shooting and killing. There would be acts of sabotage: trains would have ever known anything about Himmler the scholar. The evi-
be derailed, buildings blown up, vital food supplies interfered with, dence of his particular study was probably destroyed on November
23, 1943, when British bombs laid in ruins the building in the Prinz the list propaganda minister for this secret order, whose membership
Albrechtstrasse. Himmler’s rooms contained a small but extremely list embraced many prominent people, including even a few pro-
specialized private library, consisting entirely of books dealing with gressive dukes and ministers of monarchic governments in Ger-
the subject of underground movements. There were volumes on many. Toward the beginning of the nineteenth century German
the intrigues of the Bourbons since 1789, on the Bonaparte move- governments, and particularly the Catholic Church, started to take
ment after 1815, on what happened in Prussia between 1806 and decisive actions against the order. As a result it became extremely
1812. There were Kotzebue’s works on the history of German dangerous to be an Illuminat. In spite of persecutions which after
orders, the writings of Lenin and Trotsky on the organization of Napoleon’s defeat were conducted mainly by Minister Metternich
underground movements, and those of Djershinsky—the first of Austria, then the leader of the reaction in Europe, the secret
efficient police organizer of the Bolshevists—as well as books on societies increased in size rather than otherwise. The most im-
the Ku Klux Klan, the Irish revolutionary movements, the Ger- portant of the newcomers to the movement was the group of the
man Free Corps, and Feme organizations of the early 1920s, et Carbonari which was founded in Italy in order to fight the tyran-
cetera. nical regime of the Italian princes in Naples, Florence, and other
That was what Heinrich Himmler has been interested in for a cities, as well as the Austrian Emperor, Metternich’s boss, who pro-
long time: underground movements of revolutionary character, tected these princes. The Carbonari were probably the inventors of
underground movements of forces and personalities who had been the main unit of our modern underground movements: the cell.
deprived of power and wanted to stage a comeback. All these books Their organization was divided into a number of baraccas (huts)
must undoubtedly have influenced Himmler. And thus they will none of which was supposed to have more than twenty members
influence the future strategy of the Nazi underground. Germans are or “good cousins, “ as they called themselves.
fond of thinking and acting in historical parallels. The Carbonari attempted several times to upset the various
The history of modern underground movements began about monarchic regimes in Italy, becoming so dangerously active that
one hundred and fifty years ago. The man who wrote about the finally belonging to their organization was declared to be high
first movement and the secret organizations involved in it was the treason. Among the Carbonari was a certain Louis Napoleon, who
German Count Adolf Franz Friedrich von Knigge. He called his was later to become Emperor of France and who at one time was
book, innocently enough, Über den Umgang mit Menschen (On almost arrested by the Austrians in a coup which, however, proved
Dealing with People). The title seemed to promise a book of unsuccessful. The leadership of the organization was finally trans-
etiquette, something like the one Emily Post wrote many years ferred from Italy to Paris, from which place the fight against re-
later. Sure enough, after a few years the publisher changed the action in other countries was to continue.
book into one of exactly that type, although it was on a somewhat Later the Carbonari split up into many groups, the most prom-
more profound and philosophical basis than its many successors inent members having decided to concentrate on Italy, where they
were. The original book, however, was no mere work on social eti- finally succeeded in bringing about a change. By that time a num-
quette. It contained the laws and rules of a secret society. In short, ber of secret societies and underground movements had also de-
its subject was how to deal with people in order to promote a veloped in Russia. Strangely enough, the early members of these
revolution, how to form the tactics and the strategy for revolts. societies were army officers. The first important group was called
The original edition, of 1788, can still be found in a few libraries. the Organization of the Decembrists, the name deriving from the
The secret society about which Knigge wrote was the organiza- month of December 1825, in which they attempted an open revolt
tion of the Illuminaten whose raison d’être was to fight against against the Czar. They were in close collaboration with a patriotic
the monarchic principle for the rights of the third estate and for the society in Warsaw whose aim it was to make Poland independent
idea of international brotherhood. Von Knigge was more or less —an attempt which was also frustrated by the Czarist troops.
In spite of the defeat of the Decembrists and their countless suc- Leipzig in 1814, and which also helped to deal him the final crush-
cessors Russia was from that time on the classic proving ground for ing blow at Waterloo.
all subsequent underground societies and movements in Europe. Strangely enough, among the underground movements for which
Prominent among them were the Nihilists and the Social Revolu- the Nazis, or at least a few of them, have always had a particular
tionaries, who succeeded in assassinating one Czar and several interest was the Communist underground of the early twentieth
princes, in spite of opposition of unbelievable cruelty from the century and the Trotsky underground in the late nineteen twenties
secret police. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the Social and early thirties. On one occasion, during the late twenties, Hitler
Democratic party was founded and for many years existed mainly himself asked a few of his lieutenants what they thought of Leon
underground. The revolt of 1905 and the revolution of 1917 were Trotsky. Since Trotsky was a Communist and a Jew on top of
the final outcome of these early Socialist attempts to do away with that, these lieutenants pretended to feel disgust and horror at the
a stupid, cruel, corrupt, and altogether antiquated system of gov- mere mention of his name. The Führer, however, did not agree
ernment. with them. “You should read his books, “ he barked. “We can
Between 1806 and 1812 Germany, or rather Prussia, had been the learn a lot from him. “
scene of still another underground movement. Napoleon had de- At least one of the Nazis besides Hitler did read Trotsky’s books
feated the Prussians and had instituted a rigid control over what and became very familiar with his ideas and methods of organiza-
was left of the Prussian Army. It was then that the Prussian War tion. That man, of course, was Himmler. He also knew many things
Minister, Scharnhorst, with his helpers Clausewitz and Gneisenau, about Trotsky’s methods, because Rudolf Hess and several other
decided to reorganize the army, although not openly, of course, men of the Hess organization were at different times in close
since Napoleon would have put a stop to that. It was the first army touch with the Russian Communist leader. The development of
underground movement ever to be attempted in modern times, and
the Trotsky movement may have given Himmler more than one
it became the pattern for the German underground movement
idea for the underground movement he is now working out. Trot-
after 1918.
sky was deprived of any direct power after his exclusion from the
Scharnhorst decided that in order to build up the new army it
would be necessary to re-educate the Germans. And he began by Russian Government. But even then he still retained considerable
seeing to it that the army, that is to say, he, as its representative, indirect power, because he did not lose contact with his adherents,
was put in charge of the plan of education in Prussian schools. This many of whom kept their key positions within the apparatus of
plan consisted mainly in promoting national feeling in the children the state. If, as frequently happened, one of these men was found
and in instructing them as fully as possible in matters which would out to be a conspirator against the Soviet Russian Government, all
help to make them good soldiers later on. He also caused com- he had to do was to say that he had been wrong, to repent, and in
plete lists to be drawn up of all those who were able to serve in an most cases he would be reinstalled and could continue exercising
army. These lists were compiled in a very simple manner: Every his subversive influence. It was thus that Trotsky, or, rather, Trot-
priest or minister was required to deliver a list of every pupil re- sky’s movement, continued to hold a great number of positions
ceiving religious instruction as soon as he became fourteen years party, within the army, within the secret police, and, above all,
old. This idea had been developed by the Count of Schaumburg- within the diplomatic service. It was at least theoretically possible
Lippe, a sovereign governing a tiny German state. Scharnhorst that the day would come when all these men would take over their
adopted the scheme, which became the basis of the system of uni- departments in which they were working. And thus, indeed, an
versal service. Thus it was that between 1806 and 1812, under underground movement could have taken over the whole govern-
Napoleon’s very nose, there was laid the foundation of a new Prus- ment and the running of the country without any great difficulty.
sian army which was to be in large part responsible for his defeat at And they would have succeeded if it had not been for the fact that
the men the Trotsky underground had to fight—Stalin, Molotov, was made. The larger part of the cells continued to be openly pro-
and Kaganovich—were men who themselves had formerly been Nazi and to indulge in all kinds of propagandistic activities, while
members of an underground and thus soon became suspicious of a few men withdrew themselves until the time when the Nazi party
what was being plotted against them. The final failure of the would be suspended, and the members who were officially known
Trotskyists did not prove, however, that the principle of their would not be able to continue their work.
organization had been wrong. On the contrary, the very fact of its But the danger passed, and the Nazis, instead of going under-
near success must have proved to Himmler, at least, that an underground, took over the state. And the only practical experience
ground would have ever so much more chance of ultimate success Himmler had was the supervision of the Nazi underground in
if it could put some of its men within the government or within Austria till Hitler took over that country in March 1938 too.
governmental departments of the regime it desired to do away However, Himmler was to have other experiences with under-
with. ground movements during the following years, though he was not
to enjoy them. He made the acquaintance of the anti-Nazi under-
But Himmler had not merely his books to draw ideas from. He ground movements in every single country into which the Nazis
also had his own experiences in the underground. marched: Czechoslovakia, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Norway,
In the first place, the Nazis themselves had once gone under- France, all over the Balkans, and Soviet Russia. In spite of his
ground. That was in 1923, after the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch Gestapo, in spite of an almost perfect organization, in spite of an
in Munich. Even Hitler had to disappear for some time after that army of Quislings and Nazi sympathizers, in spite of the unbe-
incident. Before his subsequent arrest he was able to get in touch lievably cruel means he used to combat these patriots, Himmler
with other members of the movement, who immediately started finally learned the truth of the famous words of Machiavelli: “The
to take measures to prevent the dispersion of the members of prince must be on his guard, for he can never so rob a man that
the then-outlawed Nazi party. The party did not have to stay there remains to him no knife by which he can avenge himself. “
underground for long that time. This does not mean that it could Being Himmler, it can be taken for granted that he also picked up
not have done so. It just happened that it was not necessary. The a few new tricks from the anti-Nazi underground movements he
republic- allowed its mortal foe to continue the fight against it was combating which he will use in due time in his own under-
openly. There was another time, only a short while before Hitler ground machine.
came to power, when it looked as though the Nazis would have In August 1943 Himmler became General Plenipotentiary of the
to go underground again. In 1931 and 1932 it was touch and go Reich and consequently outranked all the other cabinet ministers.
as to whether the Republican government would outlaw the party. The parallel between the government and the coming under-
Hitler at that time wanted to transfer the central organization of ground was thus established at the top. The General Plenipoten-
the party to the Free City of Danzig, where he would have been tiary of the Third Reich now became the General Plenipotentiary
out of the reach of the German police. Himmler and Konstantin of the underground—or vice versa.
Hierl were feverishly organizing cells which could continue their The work which had already been started could now go on at
work inside Germany. It may be interesting to note that the man an accelerated speed.
who helped them in this work was the former Communist Richard
Muchow, who had entered the Nazi party only in 1930. Who were the men in charge of the work of preparing for the
The over-all organization of which the cells were part was the new underground movement? The logical partner for Himmler,
Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation (National Socialist chief administrator of all state organizations, was Bormann, the
Organization of Shops). Whenever these cells became too big, chief administrator of all Nazi organizations. The third man to be
that is, as soon as they had more than ten members, a subdivision assigned to the task was Konstantin Hierl, Minister without Port-
folio, who has proved himself one of the best organizers in the vate desires. And what did they want for themselves? Power.
Third Reich. His title was Reicharbeitsfuehrer (Reich Workers’ Some of them, like Goering, were fond of showy uniforms, shining
Leader) and he had under his command ten thousand administra- medals, big spectacles. They wanted power to satisfy their vanity;
tive workers and a reservoir of many millions of young men and they wanted to play with their power, to let everybody know that
women. For some time-at least till March 1943—Bormann had they possessed it. Others, like Goebbels, wanted power in order
suggested Robert Ley, Minister of Labor and leader of the Arbeits- to be able to dominate people, to make them say and think what
front (Workers’ Front), but Himmler, or rather Himmler’s men, they wanted them to say and think, no matter what the people
had objected to Ley, on the grounds that the Arbeitsfront was too really thought and liked to say. Others, like Heydrich and Streicher,
uncertain and undependable an organization for underground pur- wanted power to satisfy an innate sadistic streak. Still others—
poses, since most of the German workers, although they had joined perhaps most of them—craved power because of the security that
either the party or the Arbeitsfront, were still considered rather they believed only power could confer.
leftist by the Gestapo. It is only logical that these men desired to keep their power,
Behind Himmler, Bormann, and Hierl a whole General Staff once they had achieved it. But how could they keep it? The prom-
was organized to do the preliminary work, among them the SS ise that the Nazi idyll would last a thousand years, that their chil-
Generals Werner Heissmeyer and Fritz Kaltenbrunner. Mention dren and grandchildren would take over from them, no longer
was also made of the possible role of the Minister of Armaments, seemed likely to be fulfilled by the end of 1942. It looked indeed
Munitions, and Production, Professor Albert Speer. very much as if the opposite would happen. If Germany did not
All these men were working with only one idea in mind: the win the war, would not the Allies make good their promise and
party must go on, no matter what happened. Gauleiter Wagner rid the world of the Nazis, or, as they were termed, the war
had expresses this idea on January 29, 1943, to a small gathering criminals? And even if they were not destroyed by the Allies, were
of party leaders in the Brown House in Munich, when he declared: these Nazis not threatened with annihilation at the hands of their
“If we win the war, it is the party that wins. If we lose this war, it own allies, the generals and industrialists who were eager to create
is the army that loses.” All of which was said with much more alibis for themselves, even before this final defeat? But the Nazis
punch in a slogan which Goebbels was to utter ten months later, did not want to be annihilated or liquidated. They did not want
toward the end of 1943: “No matter what happens to Germany, to disappear. They wanted very much to go on, to go on . . .
the party must go on.” They wanted to cling to the power they still possessed. But this
No matter what happens to Germany . . . That has been the power was shrinking in their own hands. The war was still being
leitmotiv of every meeting of the Nazi leaders since that first one fought on foreign soil, yet with every new day the power the
between Himmler and Bormann in November 1942, meetings of Germans wielded over the people of the occupied countries proved
which no mention has ever been made on the official radio or in to be more and more of an illusion. Their prestige in the neutral
any newspaper, but which have taken place with strange regu- countries was rapidly sinking.
larity in Berlin, Munich, Weimar, Badenweiler, and in any number They knew that something had to be done if they were not to
of small, almost unknown towns. lose this all-important power forever. Something had to be done,
No matter what happens to Germany . . . No, these Nazis who and now, before it was too late, before the war was finished.
were so concerned that the party and the Nazi ideology should Six months before he became Chancellor, Hitler had refused to
continue were not exactly idealists. They had always been more enter a coalition government and make compromises. At that
concerned with their own interests than with ideals. To them the time he had created a slogan: “All power to the party!” Now, in,
party and its principles existed, not for the benefit of the people 1943, this slogan was revived. But this time it had a different
as a whole, but for the satisfaction of their own personal and pri- meaning.
16 the nazis go underground t h o s e w h o pa i d h i t l e r 17
build his plants underground while there was still time. Sitting next
to Schroeder was Dr. Otto Fischer, chief of the Reichskreditanstalt.
At the other end of the table were Herr Krupp von Bohlen-Halbach
2 and Herr von Schnitzler, chairman of the board of directors of the
I. G. Farben. It seems that these two had already conferred before the
others joined them, and had agreed on a division of roles. Krupp said
something to the effect that there would be a great many changes, and
Those Who Paid Hitler that all of them would have to work together closely so that any “un-
pleasant complications” would be avoided. As to the changes necessary,
he himself would see to it personally that they were carried out inside
THE FOLLOWING IS from a letter written in Lisbon: Germany with the least possible disturbance to business, while Baron
von Schnitzler would try to use his many contacts abroad in order to
In the middle of May 1943 the leaders of German industry, Krupp assure some sort of collaboration with former friends in other countries.
von Bohlen-Halbach and Baron Georg von Schnitzler, called an impor-
tant meeting. It took place at Château Huegel, where the Krupps The letter does not state it specifically, but there seems to be no
reside. doubt that these words referred to the situation which would arise
after the war. It continued:
Château Huegel lies in the near vicinity of Essen. It is a large
house with high-ceilinged, cold rooms, almost always deserted. A All future changes discussed at the meeting centered around the idea
number of important meetings have taken place here in the past. of divorcing German industry as far as possible from Nazism as such.
It was here that the Kaiser consulted with leaders of the German Krupp and Schnitzler declared that it would be much easier for them
industry during the last war; here Herr von Krupp received to work after the war if the world were certain that German industry
was not owned and run by the Nazis. He said that Goering as well as
Friedrich Ebert, the Socialist President of the German Republic. other influential party men saw eye to eye with him on this, and would
It was here that Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reichsbank, consent to any arrangement that did not involve the prestige of the
presented the Young Plan to German industry in the spring of party.
1929, and here that he decided to torpedo this very plan which he
himself had negotiated, because the industrial leaders didn’t approve Since this meeting a number of such “arrangements” have be-
of it. It was from here, too, that Hitler set out to speak to the Krupp come known to the outside world. It has, for instance, been made
workers in 1936. public that such firms as Krupp, the Hamburg-America Line, and
The letter continued: the Norddeutscher Lloyd, which were for many years under state
control, have now by special law been returned to their original
Present at the meeting in May 1943 was fat Otto Pietzsch, the owners. Incidentally, these men did not lose any money as a result
owner of the biggest machine factory in Germany. He looked dis- of the original transaction. On the contrary, they made enormous
gusted, and talked disgustedly about the war. [Author’s Note: By sums out of it.
that time Tunis and Bizerte had been taken by the Allies, and Africa
had been rid of the Germans.] At about the same time—the end of 1943—a decree was issued
Herr von Schroeder tried to calm Pietzsch down, but Pietzsch be- which stated that all Nazi party officials must cease to have any
came very angry. Herr Hallersleben, president of the Vereinigte connection with private business concerns of any kind. Neutral
Kugellagerfabriken, also did not seem to be in the best of humor. He observers thought that this decree was aimed at counteracting the
muttered something to the effect that he could not be made responsi- growing resentment among the Germans against those Nazi offi-
ble for not delivering on time, since the English bombs had destroyed cials who were growing rich and fat from their business connec-
part of his factory, and complained because he had not been advised to tions. But the real reason was the pious hope that if the industries
were in the hands of industrialists instead of Nazi leaders, they Businessmen, then. But was not the language of the proclama-
might escape expropriation later. tion a strange language in the mouths of businessmen? Certainly
The question arises: why did the German industrialists, seeing the basic idea of the Pan-German League and its goal—world dom-
that the war was being lost, not make an honest effort to divorce ination by Germany—had no direct connection with the business
themselves from the Nazis? Why did they only fake such an at- of these men. But indirectly it had connection enough.
tempt? Why did they not desert them, instead of conspiring with Of course these men wanted to do business. But more important
them? to them was that this business should be a preparation for or a
There are many reasons for this. proof of Germany’s domination of the world. That is what they
One of the most important of these reasons is that, contrary to believed in and that is what they worked for. Deutschland über
what has been said on this subject in other countries, the indus- alles! They were patriots, if you want to call them so, albeit pa-
trialists have done very well under Hitler. He has liberated them triots of a strange and fanatical type, who believed decidedly in
from the “threat” of workers’ unions. Under him they have made Germany's right to become the leading country in the world, but
unbelievably huge sums of money, particularly through the re- who equally decidedly did not believe in the right of any non-
armament which had started without delay. And they have never German people to exist. Deutschland über alles! The trade-mark
had to pay taxes at all comparable to those paid by big business in “Made in Germany” became in their eyes a proof of superior
this country or in England-a fact which is too little known outside quality. Nay, more, it became in their ears a call to gather their
of Hitler Germany, though German big businessmen have always troops for the final attack upon the world. Everybody all over the
cited it in answer to the question why they helped Hitler into entire globe should use things “made in Germany.” Everything
power. Germany could make was better than anything anybody else could
But all these are only symptoms. More important than these produce. German engineers were the best. German goods were the
symptoms is the fact that the Nazis as a dynamic movement had best. German ideas were the best. German inventors were the best
assured German big businessmen of basic conditions far more —in fact, everything ever invented had been invented before by
favorable than those they enjoyed under the republic or even under Germans, though, to be sure, the world did not always acknowl-
the Kaiser. Could they wish for anything better than a world con- edge or even realize this fact.
stantly on the brink of new wars? German industrialists did business and wanted to do business.
There was, however, an even more basic reason for the German But they went about it in the way generals go about winning a war.
industrialists to dread the passing of Nazism and to collaborate in They used many tricks, as all businessmen do; but this was for
every way possible to facilitate its comeback, a reason which per- them only a question of tactics. Behind and above all these tactics
haps can be understood only if one understands precisely what a was a definite, never-changing common strategy, the goal of which
German industrialist is, what his innermost thoughts are, what he was to conquer the whole world. First with their goods. Later . . .
lives for-in short, what makes him tick. German industrialists have been just as imperialistic as German
generals—perhaps even more so. And they have always been in
Fifty years ago a society was founded in Germany which said very close contact with these generals, in many cases marrying into
in the announcement of its organization: “We shall be a conquer- their families. The industrialists supported the Kaiser whenever
ing people who take their portion of the world themselves and do he acted aggressively, and opposed him strongly when they thought
not seek to receive it through the grace and benevolence of another he was too much of an appeaser. (In fact, the Pan-German League
people.’’ This society called itself the Pan-German League. Among was founded mainly to counteract Kaiser Wilhelm’s occasional
the original founders and behind them were some of the leading pacifist moods.) They were behind General Ludendorff when he
German industrialists. declared total war on the whole civilized world. They were behind
the German General Staff clique when the latter started to build All this may seem strange to a non-German observer. But Ger-
up the army immediately after the armistice of 1918. They were man industrialists are strange men, because they are obsessed men.
in all the Nationalistic conspiracies against the democratic republic
and the Versailles Treaty, helping not only to finance illegal move- A few days after the meeting at Krupp’s residence Herr von
ments but even to hide away members of these movement’s who Schnitzler appeared in Madrid, having made the trip from Berlin
were sought for by the police of the republic. in. his own plane. He declared that he had escaped from Germany
The words they wrote fifty years ago still hold true. The spirit just ahead of the Gestapo, who were trying to arrest him. The
has not changed. They are still willing to take over the world or statement was original, to say the least. For a man trying to escape
“their portion of the world,” no matter what. We saw a sample of from the Gestapo, Spain scarcely seemed a logical asylum. Switzer-
how this works when German industrialists moved into Poland, land or Sweden would have been much healthier places to repair
France, Belgium, and the Balkans in the van of the German Army. to. And anyway, why should Herr von Schnitzler have had to fear
In a short time they will have moved out of these countries again, the Gestapo, since his son-in-law, Herbert Scholz, was one of its
and given up “their portion of the world,” but they hope to come leading officials?
back. And is there any way for them to come back if the Nazis No, there is no reason to believe a word of what Baron Schnitzler
don’t come back? said in those first interviews. And the world did not believe it. It
Of course there have been a number of misunderstandings be- was the case of Fritz Thyssen all over again.
tween German big business and the Nazi party, mainly caused by
a few ungrateful Nazis who tried to muscle in on the economic According to the most recent reports the Hotel Adlon on Ber-
royalists. But those are minor matters. From a long-range point of lin’s Unter den Linden has been hit by an Allied bomb. But at
view the industrialists are in the same boat with the Nazis. They least in 1943 and during the first months of 1944 this famous lux-
can’t afford the luxury of throwing the Fascists out. They must sink urious hotel palace was still doing business. And among its
or swim together; because, if the Nazis don’t come back, the in- permanent guests were Herr and Frau Fritz Thyssen. Yes, the
dustrialists’ dreams of world domination will be ended once and same Fritz Thyssen who had made the front pages of every news-
for all. And, incidentally, business will never be so good as it used paper all over the world during the first days of World War II.
to be under Hitler. It was on September 2, 1939, that two cars passed the Austro-
What, then, can the German industrialists do to help the Nazis Italian frontier near Villach and sped away in the direction of
get back into power? They can go underground along with the Switzerland. They carried Fritz Thyssen, the mighty German in-
Nazis. Of course it is quite a different proposition for industry to dustrialist, and his family. Two days later Thyssen made a state-
go underground than for a party to do so. Perhaps it would be ment in Switzerland in which he said that he had broken with the
more exact to say that German industry from now on will have to Nazis. This announcement created no small sensation throughout
lead a double life. As far as the outside is concerned the industri- the world, since Thyssen had been among the first big businessmen
alists will attend to their business and nothing else. But unofficially of Germany to help finance the Führer. He said that he had de-
they will go on collaborating with the outlawed Nazis. They will cided to leave Germany for many reasons, one of which was that
be very useful to the Nazi underground. They will find jobs for he regarded it as a crime to start this war, which he was sure Ger-
the many Nazis who must stay in Germany in order to attend to many would never win. But more than that, it seemed that Herr
their subversive activities. They will find key positions for the key Thyssen had at last become quite disgusted with the Third Reich
party men. They will finance the movement wherever and when- in general, having learned only at this comparatively late date
ever it is necessary. In short, they will do for the Nazis exactly what about the many crimes committed by the Nazi leaders
they did for the Nationalistic movements in the early twenties. Thyssen did not stay long in Switzerland but moved on to Paris,
in spite of the fact that technically, at least, he was an enemy alien many’s most fashionable hotel, the Adlon. And in spite of the fact
in France. But his many friends among the French industrialists that his fortune had been confiscated he seemed to be in no need.
took care of that. Later he moved on, to settle finally in a beauti- He was in steady contact with his old friend, Freiherr von Schroe-
ful house on the French Riviera. der, the very same man whom the Nazis had entrusted with
By that time the Nazis had taken action against him. He was ex- administering the large Thyssen holdings after their confiscation.
cluded from the party and deprived of his German citizenship. The flight of Fritz Thyssen was not a genuine one. And why
And, most important of all, his entire holdings inside Germany should Thyssen have fled Germany? True enough, one of his
were confiscated. They must have amounted to several hundred nephews, an Austrian monarchist, had died in a concentration
million marks. camp under suspicious circumstances. But surely Herr Thyssen
Thyssen used his stay at the Riviera to dictate his memoirs. must have known in 1939 that there were concentration camps in
What he had to say amounted to one tremendous indictment of Germany, and that people who were brought there sometimes died
the Führer. “Hitler deceived me as he has deceived the German rather suddenly. He had never protested against this state of
people as a whole and all men of good will,” he wrote. And: “My affairs, never protested against the assassination of thousands of
conscience is clear. I know that I have committed no crime. My Catholics and Jews.
sole mistake is that I have believed in you, our Leader, Adolf Hit- And how about Thyssen’s statement that he had been surprised
ler, and in the movement initiated by you.” Or: “Your new policy at Hitler’s decision to wage war? Is it possible that this industri-
is suicide . . . your new policy, Herr Hitler, is pushing Germany alist who had held a key position within the whole German re-
into the abyss and the German people into ruin.” armament business had not known that the Nazis wanted to start
Herr Thyssen had hardly finished his memoirs when the Ger- a war? He said that he was shocked when Hitler concluded his
mans invaded France. The German industrialist was in a perfect pact with Stalin. Is it believable that a man who belonged to the
strategic position to make a getaway. It was months before the innermost circle of the Nazis did not know that Hitler made this
Gestapo had time to repair to the Riviera to round up the most pact only to gain time, and that he never had any intention of
prominent anti-Nazis. By that time Thyssen could certainly have leaving Soviet Russia alone?
gone back to Switzerland, or via Portugal to the United States, or, No, Herr Thyssen’s statement did not hold water. Why, then,
even better, to South America, where he controlled many im- did the Nazis want him to leave Germany? There was an excellent
portant industrial interests. Since so many penniless refugees were reason for this.
able to make their getaway, certainly this millionaire, who had so At the start of the war nobody in Germany knew, or could know,
many excellent connections all over the world, could have suc- exactly how it would develop. There was at least a theoretical
ceeded with the greatest of ease. chance of Germany’s losing. The French Army still had the repu-
But he never budged from his Riviera villa. Toward the end of tation of being invincible. Let us suppose that Hitler’s attempt
1941 he was brought back to Germany. No informed person had to invade France had failed, that for some reason or other the Nazi
the slightest doubt that the Nazis would do away with the man war machine had broken down in 1940. (A great many experts
who had so grossly offended their Führer. It was only then that did believe that this would happen, even up to May 1940.) In such
Thyssen’s American publisher decided to print the manuscript he an event Messrs. Chamberlain and Daladier, who would have had
had written in his retreat on the Riviera. It appeared under the to make peace with Germany, certainly would not have been will-
title, I Paid Hitler. ing to negotiate with Hitler or with the Nazis, that much the
A short time later it was established beyond doubt by neutral Nazis knew. But they would undoubtedly have negotiated with
correspondents that Thyssen had neither been killed nor sent to a German industrialists of the conservative kind. Fritz Thyssen
concentration camp. He was, as a matter of fact, staying in Ger- would have been an ideal person not only to talk peace to, but to
take over the German government—for the time being. Neither Then came the swift collapse of France, and England seemed to
Chamberlain nor Daladier would have wanted to see a revolution be so completely incapable of organizing any resistance that the
break out inside Germany. And with a man like Thyssen in con- Nazis thought there was no longer any need for them to make
trol that danger could have been averted. preparations for going underground. And so they called Thyssen
Let us see who Herr Thyssen’s neighbors were during his stay back home.
on the Riviera. His villa was flanked by the house occupied by Sir,
Nevile Henderson? former British Ambassador to Berlin, a Tory of Two years after the fall of France, Heinrich Himmler probably
the purest water? and an appeaser if there ever was one. On the realized that it had been a mistake to recall Thyssen. But it was
other side of him lived Pierre Étienne Flandin? the well-known re- not too late then to try something else along the same line. And
actionary French politician, the man who represented the interests von Schnitzler’s trip to Madrid was precisely such an attempt.
of French industrialists of the Thyssen type. So the German “refu- Georg von Schnitzler was (and presumably still is) a pleasant-
gee” was really admirably placed in case things should go wrong looking man, rather tall, high-domed, swarthy, with a long, some-
with the war. what embarrassing nose. His was a rather unimpressive personality:
There is, incidentally, an earlier parallel in the history of the you were hardly aware of him when he was in a room; he could
Thyssen family to what Fritz Thyssen tried in 1939. Shortly after blend into almost any background.
America entered the war in 1917 a memorandum was circulated Schnitzler had always been rather popular, both nationally and
among a number of American big businessmen which dealt in a internationally. After the Nazis came to power it was frequently
critical manner with the Pan-German plans of the Kaiser. Its pointed out that the men in the I. G. Farben were not half so bad
author was said to be August Thysseny the father of Fritz. Later, as the rest of the German industrialists, and decidedly not Nazis.
in the early twenties? old Thyssen denied that he had written the Had Herr von Schnitzler not tried to keep his Jewish employees?
exposé He took his time, though, before he issued this disclaimer. And when he could do so no longer had he not attempted to place
And by the time he did so, things had gone back to normal in them in I. G. Farben branches abroad?
Germany, as far as the big industries were concerned. Industry That was true. But it was also true that these Jews had made
was once more in the saddle. But it is possible that if things had fortunes for I. G. Farben and that it was good business to retain
developed differently, if big business had not come back into its their services and also made for international good will, which any
own, August Thyssen might not have denied authorship of the German firm during the thirties could well use. It may be that
memorandum. For if there had been any serious likelihood of Schnitzler himself never became a member of the party; and it is
the German Revolution becoming a real revolution, the Allies, who quite certain that his predecessor, Dr. Karl Duisberg, definitely dis-
did not want such things to happen in Germany, might have begun liked the Nazis; but the president of the company, Dr. Matthias
searching for a strong man who was not too closely identified with Schmitz, had financed Hitler and had been a member of the party
the old Pan-Germanistic regime; and then the author of the for a long time, a fact which, incidentally, his American and Eng-
memorandum might have come in handy. lish business friends knew very well.
Perhaps it was such reflections that incited Fritz Thyssen to act So much for Schnitzler’s background. As for his trip to Madrid
as he did in 1939. in the spring of 1943, it had no connection at all with his being
In any case, his flight was phony? and his “break” with the Nazis hunted by the Gestapo. But it did have everything to do with the
was arranged in careful agreement with these same Nazis. And if the postwar plans of German industry. Schnitzler followed very closely
Nazis had disappeared in 1940, Thyssen would have been invaluable the line German industrialists had used after the defeat in 1918.
to them as their successor or, shall we say, as a regent who would Then they had been afraid that the Allies might take away their
care for the business of state until the time of their comeback. enterprises. In order to counteract such a move they therefore
proposed to their friends in France, Belgium, and England that chiefly General Karl Haushofer, a member of the society since 1930,
the latter should come in with them as equal partners; in other who devised an active and provocative policy for the society, and
words, they proposed to give away up to 50 per cent of their mapped out ways and means of using it for propaganda and in-
holdings if the other 50 per cent would stay in their hands. dustrial espionage. It turned out to be relatively easy to do this,
The deal did not come off in 1918, mainly because the German because the Deutsche Weltwirtschaftliche Gesellschaft nominated
industrialists recovered from their panic almost immediately after the German representatives in the International Chamber of Com-
the armistice. But as Herr von Schnitzler knew, this time inter- merce, which in turn provided intimate contacts with industrialists
national control of German industry would not be so lenient as of other countries.
it was after World War I, and therefore measures had to be taken Certain industrialists who were members of the society, among
immediately. His plan was again the proposal of a partnership of them Friedrich Krupp von Bohlen-Halbach, Otto Pietzsch, and
the 1918 type, the only condition he made being that Allied bomb- Dr. Otto Fischer chief of the Reichskreditgesellschaft, had been
ings of Germany should either stop or at least leave industrial very busy ever since the summer of 1943 trying to figure out what
plants alone. And that request seemed logical enough. For how the Deutsche Weltwirtschaftliche Gesellschaft could do to re-
could Allied industrialists partake in the benefits deriving from organize business affairs and disconnect them from the Nazis.
German business enterprises if there were no enterprises left after This, according to Herr von Schnitzler, would be accomplished by
the war? an outward divorce from the Nazi party and by replacing all the
Georg von Schnitzler did not stay very long in Madrid. Three Nazi machines of industry by those machines and organizations
weeks after his “flight” he was back in Berlin again. Somehow he which had existed before Hitler came to power. All of which, it was
must have made his peace with the Gestapo. More important, his thought, should certainly prove to benevolent bystanders that
mission was completed. everything was again as it used to be before Hitler.
But before he went back to Germany he made an appearance in The main industrial organizations of the pre-Hitler period were
Lisbon too. He met a few friends there and familiarized them with the Reichsverband der deutschen Industrie (National Federation
certain “changes of organization” which, he said, German indus- of German Industry) and the Vereinigte Arbeitgeberverbände
trialists were then contemplating. The details he gave showed how (United Federations of Employers), which were merged under
industry intended to carry through its plan of a faked divorce Hitler. Other pre-Hitler groups which are to be revived are the
from Nazism. To this end, von Schnitzler explained, German in- Wirtschaftspolitische Gesellschaft (Society of Economic Policy),
dustry would fall back on its old, pre-Hitler organization. The the Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (Society of Eco-
most important of the organizations, in fact, the center around nomic Science), the Technographische Gesellschaft (Techno-
which all future activities would be organized, would be the graphical Society), the Chemische Gesellschaft (Chemical Society),
Deutsche Weltwirtschaftliche Gesellschaft (German World Eco- the Bunsen Gesellschaft (Bunsen Society), et cetera.
nomic Society). All these organizations and many more have already been re-
This society had been formed in 1914, shortly before the outbreak vived, and additional groups will be established before the war
of World War I, with the idea of establishing a contact between is over. On the face of it all of them exist for the sole purpose of
leaders of German industry and industrial leaders abroad. It was scientific research; but the industrialists assume, and with good
born too late to be of any particular help during World War I. reason, that many of these scientific research bureaus will be badly
German industrialists remained isolated then, except for a few needed by the Allies in order that a Germany geared to war pro-
friends in neutral countries. And after the war, during the years of duction may quickly be shifted into a Germany functioning under
the Weimar Republic, it was hardly heard from. But this state of peaceful conditions. No matter what the final peace terms may be,
affairs changed completely after Hitler came to power. It was experts will be needed for the resettlement of the slave labor now
accumulated in Germany, and also perhaps for the hiring of Ger- who think they have gained squatters’ rights.” Behind this gen-
man workers to be sent abroad. Before any kind of reparation can eral warning was the very specific warning not to conclude any
be decided upon extensive research projects will have to be carried new cartel treaties with Germany, that is, with I. G. Farben.
on, in order to decide what there is still left to pay from, et cetera, After all, Lord McGowan, who is a member of the British House
et cetera. It is the cherished hope of the industrialists that the of Lords and the leading man of the Imperial Chemical Industries,
scientific organizations mentioned above will be used for just these the giant British cartel, had never left any doubt that he and his
purposes; and, needless to say, we will undoubtedly find installed American partners would seek and find a new working arrange-
in them a large number of persons who have been transferred from ment after the war with their former German partner, I. G. Farben.
industries and banks, persons who in the interest of big business Which means that Lord McGowan and his friends seem to be
must be kept in key positions, no matter what comes. convinced that there will be an I. G. Farben to deal with, and
All this is a perfect setup for keeping German industry in a don’t feel too badly about it, either. And since I. G. Farben is a
commanding position—a setup which in turn would be helpful if close ally of the Nazis, it will mean that the Nazis can depend on
some little business of sabotaging Allied plans was considered help from at least one Allied country, even though this help may
necessary. be given in all innocence.
It would be quite unfair to suspect honest businessmen of aiding
The intricate business of international cartels being what it is, the enemy during wartime. Nothing is further from the author’s
it is next to impossible to find out with absolute certainty exactly mind. But peacetime-that is something else again. And we must
how much the non-German business associates of German indus- not forget that Lord McGowan attended Hitler’s Nuremberg
trialists know about these plans and to what degree they are will- Party Congress in 1936. We must not forget, either, that this same
ing to co-operate in them. Certain only are these facts: Lord McGowan was one of the contributors to the cause of the
1. German industrialists have been working constantly on plans “pacifist” Rev. Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman, who declared, also in
which permit them to go underground in the way described above 1936: “I thank God for a man like Adolf Hitler.”
(that is, to put up a false front behind which nothing will change),
the entire project having been conceived in closest collaboration The men who met at Château Huegel in May 1943 were im-
with leading Nazi personalities, and for their benefit. mensely rich and extremely powerful. They had helped Hitler
2. Herr von Schnitzler and, as we shall see later, other repre- before he came to power and they have helped him ever since,
sentatives of German industries as well have at least attempted to directly and through their numerous international connections.
make contacts with their former business associates abroad in But their help was insignificant compared with what another man
order to propose a close collaboration and even a partnership for has done for Hitler. This man was not an industrialist but a
the postwar period. banker. While comfortably well off, he could not compare in per-
To what degree this proposed collaboration is already an ac- sonal wealth with the industrialists. But his personal influence and
complished fact while the war is still being fought is anybody’s his international connections were even more powerful and, to
guess. But would it matter whether this collaboration started yes- Hitler, far more helpful than theirs.
terday or will start the day after the armistice, so far as giving aid This man was Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, who, inci-
and comfort to the Nazis is concerned? dentally, is a good friend of Georg von Schnitzler and of most of
In January 1944 the American Government filed anti-trust the other industrialists.
charges against a huge British-American chemical cartel. It was For at least the last year or so Dr. Schacht has been living in a
officially stated at that time that “the world is not a private hunting suburb of Zurich in a beautiful house overlooking the famous lake.
preserve which can be divided at will between those monopolists When asked about his stay in Switzerland, Schacht said his doctors
had told him that it was necessary for his health. No stories of a more international confidence in him. Indeed, all through the
last-minute escape from the Gestapo for Dr. Schacht! He is too thirties not only Schacht but so many of the industrial collaborators
clever to resort to such an obviously faked excuse. of the Nazis assured, in private of course, that they were opposed
The story of his failing health did the trick much better, for of to anti-Semitism, that it seems as though these gentlemen had
course it was at once rumored that Dr. Schacht had broken with obtained special permission from Hitler to depart from the party
the Nazis and that he had to go to Switzerland for reasons of line, at least so far as that issue was concerned. If the world be-
health. And the time-honored tune was sung again, that Schacht lieved them, so much the better for Hitler. In any case, Hjalmar
had in reality never been a full-fledged Nazi, but a true German Schacht was not too outraged at the cruelties the Führer com-
patriot; and there was certainly nothing wrong in that. As a patriot mitted, first against the Jews, and later against whole nations. For
he had wanted to prevent Hitler from destroying Germany com- he remains to this very day Hitler’s personal adviser in matters of
pletely, and had therefore decided to play along with him, no finance. In December 1942 Schacht was appointed by Hitler head
matter how unhappy he felt about it and no matter how great the of a “Peace Negotiation Office.” He immediately established him-
personal sacrifice. Had he not proved his true feelings constantly self with a small staff of collaborators on Unter den Linden and
by opposing the persecution of Jews and Catholics? Had he not embarked upon an analysis of the possible and probable conse-
fiercely protested Hitler’s war plans? quences of this war for Germany. There were five possibilities that
So much for the rumors, the stories, the inside information he considered: German victory, negotiated peace, separate peace
spread by the international “wise guys.” But there is good reason (either with Britain and America or with Russia), collapse of Ger-
to believe that Schacht himself did everything to help such rumors many’s allies, and unconditional surrender. The famous financier
circulate. It made things easier for him. himself decided that Germany’s only chance of survival lay in a
Is Schacht, then, a Nazi? If the word has any meaning at all, he negotiated peace.
is one, indeed, and has been for a long, long time. Years before In March 1943 a Lisbon newspaper printed a report that Schacht
Hitler came to power he used his international reputation as a had been ousted from the party and was no longer an adviser to
sound banker and his excellent connections in the city of London Hitler. In the fall of 1943 more items of that kind appeared. By
and in Wall Street to undermine the credit of the fading republic then Schacht had, as a matter of fact, settled in Switzerland.
and to build up Hitler’s prestige. Long before Hitler took over, At that time, too, the first rumors about the so-called “Schacht
Schacht joined the party and obtained Hitler’s promise to make Plan” began to leak out from Switzerland and Lisbon. It was more
him president of the Reichsbank, which Hitler proceeded to do or less identical with the plan Herr von Schnitzler had proposed a
without delay in March 1933. During the following years Schacht few months before in Madrid and Lisbon: it foresaw the future
by his shrewd financial policy made German rearmament possible. collaboration of German and Allied big business. It also foresaw
He not only refused to pay back the foreign debts, but even froze an important role for German banks as clearinghouses for this type
the interest. And by numerous fraudulent tricks he succeeded in of collaboration. Its main distinguishing feature, however, was that
obtaining even more credit for Germany, until Hitler was ready Herr Schacht was going to direct the whole scheme. It was even
to strike. said that under certain conditions he might be willing to be second
It matters little that Herr Schacht quarreled many times with man in the new government if a colorful personality could be
the Nazis and that on occasion he resigned one or two of his jobs. found to front for him.
He never quarreled about matters of principle. And, his apologists Since Schacht was in on the plan of the industrialists to avert
to the contrary, he never officially opposed the persecution of the defeat, and since in so many respects he wanted exactly the same
Jews. That he voiced some opposition unofficially—what does that things these men wanted, it is a good guess that he also had the
mean? It probably means only that he hoped thus to establish same long-range ideas as they did about the comeback of the
Nazis. And why not? The type of financier he represents is just as friends abroad. For Dr. Schacht could be very useful to them, be-
much in need of a dynamic political movement as the German cause of his excellent connections. Many of these connections were
industrialists are. If there ever was a dynamic financier, Schacht never broken off, even after the war began. And Dr. Schacht had
was it. After all, why otherwise would he have gone over to Hit- his ways of continuing them if he so wished. He did not need
ler at a time when he had a perfectly safe position with the Weimar to employ any melodramatic devices; he did not have to resort to
Republic? coded letters to arrange secret meetings. He could meet his friends
Schacht was quite optimistic when he explained his plan. “They on the other side quite openly, during the meetings of the Bank
will need economists who understand how to run the finances of a for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.
country more than ever after this war. Otherwise, there will be This bank was founded in 1930 as part of the Young Plan by the
general confusion and Communism,” he told everybody in Zurich United States, England, Germany, France, and practically every
who wanted to listen. “And is there a better man around for such other country of Europe, including Lithuania and Albania, to serve
a job than I?” as a means of regulating the loan service connected with this agree-
There probably isn’t. And there also probably is no financier ment. The bank immediately declared itself extraterritorial. “The
who will stay in closer contact with the coming Nazi underground governments concerned . . . have declared the B.I.S. to be im-
or who will be more eager to serve it than Schacht. mune from any disabilities and from any restricted measures such
Shortly after Schacht had made his plan known some interesting as censorship, seizure, or confiscation in time of peace or war. . . .”
news came from London. The United Nations Commission for Any member of the bank could attend its meetings, that is travel
the Investigation of War Criminals had decided that Dr. Hjalmar to and from Basel, without restriction in times of war or peace.
Horace Greeley Schacht was not to be considered a war criminal. Thus Allied nationals could go to Basel even if they had to travel
The man who had made Hitler’s war possible, the man who through Nazi-occupied territory. And in Base1 itself during the
through years of international scheming, through years of borrow- numerous meetings American, English, French, and German
ing and bartering had enabled the Nazis to import the necessary financiers had to meet and talk to each other, as they have done
raw materials to manufacture arms, the man who knew better through the years, and as they are continuing to do at the present
than anybody else how many cannons and how many tanks each time. War or no war, business is business.
of his deals meant for Germany, the man who foresaw more clearly So Dr. Schacht, if he wished, had every opportunity to talk
than anybody else against whom these guns would be used, which directly or indirectly with banking representatives of the Allies.
country the tanks would invade—this man was not a war criminal! The most outstanding of them is a man who has been Schacht’s
And he does not even have the excuse, if there be such a thing closest friend for his entire lifetime—Montagu Norman, former
as an excuse for one who plans murders, that he believed in those governor of the Bank of England, whom Schacht until only very
crazy theories of world domination by the Master Race which the recently must have met frequently in Basel.
Nazis preached. Dr. Schacht never believed in anything except Mr. Montagu Norman, up to his retirement in April 1944 the
himself and in his right to do what he pleased. And it happened to greatest single power in British Finance, has long been in favor
please him to scheme and negotiate and trade and borrow so that of a Nazi regime, as far as Germany was concerned, of course. Un-
German soldiers could once more threaten civilization. doubtedly he was motivated only by the reflection that a pro-Nazi
Of course, if Schacht were declared a war criminal he could not course in Germany would be best for the British Empire. As his-
possibly be of use to the underground as a contact man. This tory proves, this was not a very intelligent view to take; but there
would be unfortunate for the Nazis. But it would be equally un- is nothing to prove that it might not have been his honest con-
fortunate for those who are interested in the ‘survival of the Nazis viction.
in any way—particularly for the German industrialists and their In any case, Montagu Norman has been aiding Hjalmar Schacht,
34 the nazis go underground generals never give up 35
and thus, of course, Hitler, for many years. In 1932 there was a Montagu Norman is by far the best friend Hjalmar Schacht has
meeting between him and Sir Henry Deterding in the United among international bankers. There is, however, no country in
States, at which the two discussed subsidies for the Führer and which Schacht cannot depend on the help of powerful men in the
possible ways of aiding him if he came to power. Early in 1934 banking business. And this includes the United States too. Wall
Norman met with more than a dozen outstanding financiers and Street has always thought highly of Dr. Schacht, and from a pro-
industrialists of England in his private office in the Bank of Eng- fessional angle there was every reason to do so.
land. Norman made a speech to the group in which he referred to How useful such connections were, and those of the German
the Nazis as a “great stabilizing force” which would come in handy industrialists, and what excellent results they could furnish even in
against Soviet Russia. Again Norman was in favor of financing the middle of the war, became evident, though not to the world at
Hitler. large, during the Allied invasion of Africa. Africa, and particularly
The same year, 1934, saw a number of conferences with Hjalmar Italy, was to prove, too, that still another group of men had an
Schacht in Badenweiler, a small German spa. At that time the excellent chance to play a decisive part in the underground to
British Government did not quite see eye to eye with the governor come. It was the German generals who.had realized even before
of the Bank of England. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, in par- the Nazis and the industrialists did that the war could never be
ticular, was less than lukewarm to the Hitler cause. During the won by Germany and were busily preparing their own survival.
years 1935 to 1937, however, more and more members of the gov-
ernment went over to Montagu Norman-first Defense Minister
Inskip, then Sir John Simon, and finally Neville Chamberlain,
Chancellor of the Exchequer. This move on Chamberlain’s part
proved to be a decisive factor in shaping his political career. A few 3
months later he became Baldwin’s successor.
In December 1938-after Czechoslovakia had been sold out at
Munich-Herr Schacht visited England. He was a guest at Montagu Generals Never Give Up
Norman’s house. No statement was issued concerning the purpose
of this visit-it was declared to be “purely personal.” One month
later this purely personal visit was returned by Norman when, on GENERALS usually know when a war is lost. The German gen-
his way to Basel, he stopped over in Berlin to see Dr. Schacht. erals had never been absolutely convinced that they could win
Again nothing definite leaked out about their conversations. It was World War II. They had only hoped to win it mainly because
rumored, however, that the two men were trying to form some Hitler had promised them that the enemy armies would suffer a
common policy of expanding markets for Germany and of set- moral collapse and that they themselves would not have to fight
tling Germany’s foreign debts. There were also rumors about a two-front war. The Western campaigns had taken precisely the
British export credits for Germany to the tune of $375,000,000, or course Hitler had predicted. But Russia was another story. The
thereabouts. German generals found out pretty early that it would not be a
Hitler himself, however, saw to the “extension of markets” for blitzkrieg. And that, the General Staff was convinced, meant they
Germany when, a few weeks later, he marched into Prague, con- could not win the war. The generals knew it long before Heinrich
trary to his promises at Munich. And shortly before the outbreak Himmler and Martin Bormann, or even the industrialists, did.
of World War II Montagu Norman did his friend Schacht an- Field Marshal Werner von Brauchitsch, the High Commander
other and presumably last service when he handed over to him of the German Army, knew it on October 15, 1941.
the Czech gold deposited in the Bank of England. At that time the German front had many salients and pockets
which were constantly in danger of being cut off by flank attacks. Russian Army had begun its first counteroffensive. The winter in
The German Army, therefore, had to choose between continuing Russia was now a dead certainty. On top of it all, on December 7
to attack or retreating and spending the winter behind fortifica- Japan had declared war on the United States, and it was only a
tions. question of days, perhaps hours, till Germany and America would
Von Brauchitsch was not a general of great vision. But he was be at war too.
a man who could judge a military situation when he saw one. And Such was the situation when Brauchitsch met his generals once
he could retain his judgment even in the face of the impressive more on December 9, 1941. That date may become historic, for it
advances the German Army had made in Russia during the first was on this day that the generals admitted quite openly to each
four months. He had a good memory. He remembered the spec- other that the war could no longer be won. Or, as one of them put
tacular advances of General von Kluck’s First Army in August it, “The Third Reich has lost the war.” And the others said it in
1914. The young Brauchitsch had been a liaison officer in that army. other words—all of them—von Bock, von Rundstedt, von Leeb,
He remembered in what an unbelievably short time the Germans von Kleist, von Mannstein, and the chief of staff, General Halder.
had rushed to the Marne and the Ourcq. And then came the defeat It was then that Brauchitsch decided to resign as commander in
at the Marne, and the war was lost, although it took four more chief, and that the others decided to decline to take over his job,
years to establish this accomplished fact. and with it the responsibility for the war, if the Führer should
Brauchitsch could not be deceived by impressive partial suc- offer it to them.
cesses. He knew that the timetable had not been kept, that the All of which meant that the generals, although well aware that
Russian Army had by no means been crushed, that it had by no the war was lost for Germany, had every intention of surviving it
means been prevented from deploying. All of which meant that the themselves.
war would not be over before the Russian winter would set in. And The generals intended to save themselves till after the war. Be-
Brauchitsch knew that the German Army was not equipped to cause thus, and only thus, could they hope to save the army, or,
spend a Russian winter fighting. what was the same thing, to maintain conditions favorable to a
Therefore, Brauchitsch was in favor of a retreat. rebuilding of the army. It was on this December 9, 1941, that they
On October 15 he had called a meeting of his outstanding gen- decided on the course they should take. They knew that there
erals to talk things over. However, the meeting did not develop was ample time to accomplish their plan before the final defeat.
according to his expectations. Hitler dropped in unexpectedly. But they did not intend to be surprised as they had been surprised
The generals all agreed with von Brauchitsch. They were unan- in 1918.
imous in their belief that the offensive should be discontinued in What could they do? What kind of preparations could they
the face of the ever-increasing strength of the Russian Army and make? They could demonstrate to Germany and to the world at
the approaching winter. Field Marshal von Bock even proposed large that they had had nothing to do with the planning of this
a withdrawal of some two hundred miles. Hitler objected vio- war; that they could not be blamed for anything, except for having
lently. He had no intention of going back, he had every intention done their duty as soldiers; they were worlds apart from that man
of going on with the war and of attacking a handful of other coun- Hitler, who was the only person to be blamed. How could they
tries in the near future. He did not want to lose his newly acquired make this clear beyond any chance of misunderstanding? By allow-
prestige as a military genius. A heated discussion ensued, and ing the Führer to assume the entire responsibility. By making him
harsh words were exchanged between some of the generals, partake over, officially, the job of High Commander.
ticularly Herr von Bock, and Hitler’s private advisers whom he Thus it was with some interest that the generals awaited Field
had brought along. But nothing definite was decided upon. Marshal von Reichenau’s reaction to such a plan. Reichenau had
Six weeks later Brauchitsch knew that he had been right. The excellent connections with the heads of the party-indeed, his
connections were too intimate for the taste of some of the generals. they had abandoned their Kaiser in 1918, in defiance of their oath
They wondered if Reichenau would not object to the idea of get- of loyalty, so that they themselves and the army could survive.
ting the army away from the Nazi party. But to their pleasant sur- They were willing and eager to do it again.
prise he proved to be completely of their opinion. He, too, felt In November 1918 it had looked much darker for them than it
that Hitler had made a decisive mistake, and that it was up to him did in 1942. Then they had to cope not only with a defeat, they
and the party members and not to the generals to pay for this had to cope with a revolution to boot.
mistake. On November 9, 1918, the day of the German Revolution, the
Things developed rather rapidly after that. Von Brauchitsch re- gentlemen in the general headquarters on the front were in a
signed officially on December 12, and Hitler soon found out that highly nervous state. They waited. There was a direct telephone
none of the other generals was willing to take over the job. But he line connecting the General Staff with the chancellery in Berlin.
and Himmler still counted on Reichenau. On December 23 the They waited. They wondered. Would the man who was now the
latter conferred with Himmler at Poltava in the Ukraine, at head of the provisory government of the republic, the former
which time Himmler made certain demands concerning the in- Socialist deputy Friedrich Ebert, answer the telephone if they
clusion of SS officers on all staffs, as well as the merging of the called him? In short, would he collaborate with the General Staff?
Army Intelligence Service with the Security Service of the SS. Or would he dismiss the men who represented everything the
Reichenau, if he agreed to these demands, was to become High Socialists had been fighting against and who, on top of it all, had
Commander. lost the war?
This was Himmler’s counterattack. Thus he hoped to strike a The chief of the General Staff, Wilhelm Groener, tried the line
deadly blow against the generals and their plan. If his demands and President Ebert answered. Friedrich Ebert was willing to col-
had been accepted, if the army had been infiltrated by SS men, it laborate with the generals. The Socialist wanted the officers to con-
would soon have become an instrument controlled more by tinue in service, to protect law and order in Germany. Against
Himmler than by the generals. If Reichenau had accepted the High whom? Naturally, against the people who had actually believed
Command, the plan of the generals to divorce themselves from the that a real revolution was on and that those who had been directly
Nazi cause could never have been carried through. or indirectly responsible for the war were to be driven from power.
On January 11 Reichenau informed Himmler that he would After the first conversation Ebert called back very soon. The
not take over the command, and that, furthermore, the army would man who answered his call was Major Kurt von Schleicher. How
under no condition accept the demands of the SS. Nobody could relieved he must have felt when the bell rang! How relieved Gen-
do such a thing to Himmler. He was not one to stand by and eral von Hindenburg and his comrades must have felt. So there
watch others make plans of which he did not approve. Five days wasn’t going to be any revolution. The Social Democrats really
later three officers of the SS, Fritz Leine, Paul Radunski, and Max didn’t want a change so much, after all. Did they?
Pelke, visited Reichenau’s headquarters. They left half an hour Major Kurt von Schleicher did not lose much time with such
later, declaring that Herr von Reichenau had suddenly suffered considerations. On the same day, on November 9, 1918, which has
a stroke and died. become the historic date of the German Revolution, he began to
lay his plans to fight the republic which he supposedly protected.
The generals were not discouraged. In any case, they had no On this very day he began to lay his plans to counteract the con-
choice. They had to act if they wanted to keep out of the disaster ditions of the armistice and whatever conditions the peace treaty
which they saw approaching. They were not interested in what might impose upon Germany. On this very day he started the
became of Hitler after the defeat, so long as they themselves sur- underground movement of the Imperial German Army.
vived. They had acted once before in precisely the same way when It was all very secret. It had to be, because it was a conspiracy
not only against the former enemies but a conspiracy against the formed what was to become famous as Schwarze Reichswehr.
very republic which the officers had sworn to defend and which, Thus the following picture presented itself: visible to the world
incidentally, paid the salaries of those officers; a conspiracy in at large there was the relatively small German Reichswehr. In-
which the Army Ministry of the republic collaborated gleefully for visible, that is, underground, there was the Schwarze Reichswehr.
many years to come. A few disturbing facts leaked out here and Both these armies were led and controlled by the same officers. The
there. A few courageous journalists wrote of what was going on ultimate control of both was exercised by the Army Ministry of
behind the scenes. A few convinced republicans were murdered, the German Republic.
while others were accused of high treason and put into prison. The In fact, the illegal Schwarze Reichswehr was just as thoroughly
government, in spite of the fact that it knew better, declared again organized as the regular army. In 1922 so-called Erfassungsabteil-
and again that there was not one iota of truth in the current ungen (Collecting Departments) were created within the Black
rumors about the existence of a number of secret armies, a so- Reichswehr. The officers of each military district were thus able
called Schwarze Reichswehr (Black Army) in Germany. Such talk, to assemble personal files on all men of military age—precisely
they said, was all propaganda paid for by France and possibly by what had been forbidden by the Versailles Treaty. And from these
Poland. But in spite of these pretenses and excuses there were such files they were able to build up a certain reserve of the regular
secret armies. As for the official army, the one permitted by the Reichswehr, a thing which was also forbidden by the Treaty.
Treaty of Versailles, it never had quite come down to the number Within the Department of Operations of Military District IA a
of men it was supposed to contain. Schleicher had seen to that. new department called IAP was created, under the somewhat inno-
And he had also seen to it that this small army of the new republic cent name of Truppenuerstaerkung (Troop Reinforcement). The real
was extremely unrepublican. He had taken care that this army task of this department was to run the Black Reichswehr and
should contain only nationalist and supernationalist elements who to form the liaison between it and the regular Reichswehr. The
were waiting impatiently for the day when they could turn against leading men in this Truppenverstaerkung were von Bock and von
the republic, against its democratic representatives, and, of course, Rundstedt, who were later to become the leading generals in
later against the whole world, to take revenge for the war lost World War II.
in 1918. The Schwarze Reichswehr comprised the scum of Germany:
Little troops and units began to spring up here and there which youthful delinquents, would-be assassins, perverts, hysterical
had no connection with the regular army, although the arms they “patriots.” The gentlemen in the Republican Army Ministry later
possessed could only have been obtained from the army proper. had to admit this; and they also had to admit that, as things stood
These troops, so Schleicher explained, should not be disarmed, be- then, the spirit of the Black Reichswehr very often carried over into
cause they protected the country against the communist danger the regular Reichswehr. This, they acknowledged, was indeed re-
which, he asserted, though without presenting the slightest evi- grettable, but under the circumstances—meaning the “communistic
dence in proof of his assertion, was growing steadily from day to threat” and perhaps also the fact that the French and the Polish
day. armies were so much stronger—they insisted that nothing could
But it was not the communist danger, it was those troops which be done about it.
grew from day to day. During the year 1922 many of them sprang Perhaps nothing could be done; but, if so, it was mainly because
up near the eastern frontier. Their main task was to gather the these supernationalistic elements represented precisely the type
war material which, according to the Treaty of Versailles, should of men the army needed for the underground preparations for
have been destroyed or surrendered, to get it in good shape, another war.
and to hide it. Some of these groups had fancy names; most How right the generals were to put up with them the world was
of them were later to be known as the “Free Corps”; all of them to see fifteen years later.
In 1918 the generals had been surprised by the military events as Erich von Mannstein. This general was little known outside of
well as by the so-called German Revolution. They had to act army circles. He had been chief of Rundstedt’s staff during the
quickly, they had to improvise. Fortunately for them, Kurt von Polish campaign and in France he had commanded the corps
Schleicher) who was the brains behind the Black Reichswehr, was which made the break-through at the Somme. In the initial stages
a genius at improvising. All the same, this time the generals had of the Russian war he had been in command of the Ukrainian
no intention of being caught napping again. Army after General von Schober had been killed by guerrillas. He
After Brauchitsch’s resignation in December 1941 many things had proved himself an excellent soldier, and nothing but a soldier.
had happened. Hitler had removed von Bock, von Leeb, von Precisely the type of man the generals were looking for.
Rundstedt, and von Kleist from their posts after they had ex- Mannstein was then in his fifties. He was of only medium height,
pressed their unwillingness to take over the responsibility, and had reaching hardly to the shoulders of most of the other generals. His
made himself acting commander in chief, just as the generals had face was dominated by a strong, energetic nose. The eyes were al-
hoped he would. Buty of course, this was no solution of the gen- most hidden behind heavy lids. His light blond hair had become
erals’ own problems. gray and thin. Mannstein had never been a talker. Now, since both
Some of them, including von Rundstedt and von Bock, met his sons had died on the Russian front, he had become almost
again on March 10, 1942, in the Army Ministry in Berlin. They de- completely silent. Perhaps the most interesting feature about him
cided to create certain cadres or organizations most necessary in was his long, fine hands, the hands of a musician, which became
rebuilding the army in the future. This preparatory work was to strangely alive when they moved about on a General Staff map. It
be done through Department AIV (a branch of the Auslands- is said that Hitler found it impossible to establish a personal con-
abteilung of the War Ministry) and the Demobilization Depart- tact with this general. When he visited him at his headquarters,
ment of the General Staff. The work in Department AIV was en- Mannstein would sit down at the piano and for hours play Bach
trusted to Major General Werner Graberg, while that in the fugues. Hitler, who is a great lover of the more spectacular music
Demobilization Department was handed over to Colonel Richard of Wagner, is said to have been slightly uneasy on these occasions.
Delius. In addition to these two men they called upon General The tenth son of the impoverished Prussian artillery General von
Georg Thomas, one of Goering’s most intimate collaborators, who Levinsky would hardly have dreamed in his youth that sometime
had a post in the Ministry of Economics. Thomas, of whom it had he might be thought of by the General Staff clique as a possible
been said repeatedly that he had resigned, was considered one of head man in the Fourth Reich. Of course he was to become an
the most brilliant minds dealing with economic problems in Ger- officer, that much he knew always. But when his father died sud-
many. denly on his East Elbian estate during harvesttime, it was doubtful
None of these men could be considered a real successor to if he could even afford a cadet school. Then fate intervened in the
Kurt von Schleicher. Perhaps the generals had thought of Field person of a wealthy neighbor, who took the boy into his home,
Marshal Reichenau for this position. But Reichenau had died of gave him a splendid education, and finally adopted him. The
apoplexy. Who, then, was going to be the man in whose hands all neighbor’s name was Baron Georg von Mannstein.
the threads would converge, the real power of the new army under- The adopted son of Mannstein could easily afford the somewhat
ground movement to be, the unofficial leader of the enterprise exclusive cadet school of Lichterfelde. He was a good pupil, but
about to be started? During the March meeting in Berlin Field far from spectacular. He could not compare with his comrade
Marshal von Rundstedt suggested that it might work out best if, Fedor von Bock, who was a few years older and who proved to be
for the moment, they should designate a man whom for military one of the most brilliant pupils Lichterfelde had ever seen. No)
reasons the Nazis could not dispense with as they had dispensed Mannstein was not brilliant. But he was dependable. After he had
with Reichenau. He then brought forward the name of General gone through Lichterfelde he became lieutenant in the Guard
Grenadier Regiment of Potsdam, one of the most expensive and Hindenburg. He had no desire to go down with the Führer. He
most snobbish regiments in Europe then. His foster father sent him was—dependable.
generous amounts of money, but he hardly touched them. He was And best of all for their purpose, he was indispensable to Hitler
not interested in social activities. He was interested only in be- and to the Nazis. For he had become popular. The man in the
coming a good soldier. During World War I he was wounded street knew that it was Mannstein who had saved him from the
twice. After the armistice he was sent to the Allgemeines Trup- Russians. It was an open secret that Hitler had not dared to inter-
penamt (German Troop Department), actually nothing but a fere with Mannstein’s plans. He had kept the situation in hand
camouflage for the General Staff that had been outlawed by Ver- for many decisive weeks without the Führer and without the party
sailles. Later on he undertook many trips to Russia for the purpose intervening. Was it not logical that he would be capable of doing
of studying the unorthodox organization of the Red Army. it again?
Rundstedt’s tip proved to be excellent. During the summer of It seems quite obvious that the Führer himself sensed the impli-
1942 Mannstein became almost famous. He was responsible for cations of Mannstein’s victory, or, to be more precise, of Mann-
the victory of Sevastopol. And, happily for him, he was not mixed stein’s successful retreat. After a silence of many months Hitler
up in the catastrophe of Stalingrad—a catastrophe which threat- spoke again for the first time, on March 21, 1943, on the occasion
ened to develop into a collapse of the entire German front in of the Heldengedenkfeier (Heroes’ Memorial Day) at the Zeughaus
Russia. In February 1943 Hitler was no longer able to stem the Museum, which only a few months later was to be completely de-
disaster. And lo and behold! The generals one and all suggested to stroyed by British bombs.
him that Mannstein should be called in to save the situation, or at Those who heard him speak on that day reported that he was
least as much of it as could be saved. The moment he took com- a changed man. Even his voice seemed to be different. Reporters
mand it became evident that the German Army was once more referred to it as “shell-shocked.” It was as though Hitler were
under competent leadership. The front was at least temporarily searching for words, as though he was not quite sure when to
re-established. Counteroffensives were undertaken. On March 12, raise his voice and when to let it drop.
1943, Mannstein recaptured Kharkov. The disaster which had been Was Hitler really changed? And if so, what had changed him?
so imminent was avoided for the time being. Now an organized Did he, too, know that the war was lost? How much of the truth
retreat was possible, precisely the type of retreat the German gen- had the men around him dared divulge to him?
erals had been demanding in vain for so many months. German By early 1943 Hitler had become perhaps the most isolated man
military experts spoke about Mannstein’s performance, not with- inside the Third Reich, Every report was rewritten before it was
out justification, as “the miracle of the Donets.” given to him. He no longer saw the newspapers, though, to be
There was still another reason why the generals thought Mann- sure, they contained little enough genuine information. He saw
stein was the right man to deal with a somewhat misty future. He only clippings. The reason for all these precautionary measures
was almost the only one of them who had succeeded in keeping was that nobody around Hitler fancied the hysterical outbreaks to
out of the innumerable quarrels between the party and the army. which he was so addicted, and nobody wanted him to have any
He had never been party to the countless intrigues. He had also more brainstorms or intuitions of the kind which had already cost
been lucky enough to avoid military discussions with the Führer the army so dearly in Russia.
himself, and had thus been able to do his work without being But it was then and still is an open question whether Hitler
hampered. And he was the man to continue to do his work if given shared the pessimism of Himmler and Bormann, or whether he
half a chance. The generals knew Mannstein was no sentimental would have done so even if they had told him the truth. It is prob-
fool. Hitler was for him the head of the state, no more, no less. He able that he would not have believed that the war was lost, because
served him as the generals had served the Kaiser, Ebert, and he did not want to believe it. Hitler had been in tight spots before.
Many times, before he came to power, it had looked as though had fought for more than four years. The explanation of that
the party was definitely finished. But Hitler never lost his nerve anomalous situation was, of course, expediency. The men of the
in such moments, because he believed so firmly in what he calls old regime were experienced in their jobs, and knew well how to
his “stars.” And it may very well be that he will go on believing ‘keep the country in order; the republicans, on the other hand,
in his stars for a long time to come. were still greenhorns at governing, and could create only disorder
How much did Hitler know of Himmler’s plan? Probably noth- and unrest.
ing. He would have seen in such a plan an admission of defeat, The revolution had brought to life so-called soldiers’ soviets. The
and that would have been sufficient to make him tear it up. How Allied command in the Rhineland suspended both them and the
much did he know of the plan of his military leaders? He might workers’ soviets during the very first days of the occupation, and
have suspected something. He knew his history. He certainly had declined to have any dealings with representatives of leftist parties,
not forgotten how the generals had betrayed the Kaiser in 1918. or to discuss with them any problems, such as that of feeding the
Himmler had sent a first warning to the generals when he population, though these leftists happened to be of the same parties
liquidated von Reichenau. Had they understood it? Certainly. But that ran the Berlin government. On the contrary, the Allies de-
how were they going to stop Himmler from repeating this warn- manded that only men should be sent to them who had held their
ing, and, in general, from interfering with their plans? jobs before the revolution.
A showdown had to come. It did come, but not until September That this strange state of affairs actually existed is proved by
1943. many documents. There is, for instance, the report of Colonel I. L.
Hunt, in charge of all civil affairs of the Third American Army in
The German generals wanted to make the world believe that the Rhineland. Hunt wrote:
they were not Nazis. Most of all, they wanted the Allies to take
such a view. They could hope to rebuild their army at some future Most of the ex-Imperial officers throughout Germany remained at
date, long after the end of World War II, if some of them were able their posts. In occupied territory their retention of office was made a
to convince the Allies that they could be trusted. condition of the armistice. . . . The political institutions with which
the American Army came into contact during the occupation were,
Is there a chance for the generals to fool the Allies so grossly? without exception, those of the old regime.
It does not seem so hopeless as one might believe. History proves
that the generals had actually a chance. Did the Allies do anything According to Colonel Hunt it all worked out fine:
in 1918 and the following years to stop the rebuilding of the Ger-
man Army, which had already proved such a threat to them during The requirement of the armistice that the civil government in the
occupied zone should continue to be conducted by the old German
more than four years of bloody warfare? Undoubtedly they could officials assured a continuance in office of experienced and competent
have done something about it. There were Allied control com- men. . . . No case of an official declining to continue his duties was
missions all over Germany. Certain parts of the country, particu- brought to the attention of the Third Army Headquarters. . . . The
larly the Rhineland, were occupied. To be sure, there was no AMG autocratic nature of the Prussian civil service peculiarly fits in to adapt
then, but the English and American officers had the right to inter- itself to the wishes of an occupying military force.
fere to a certain extent in the administration of the occupied terri-
tories. These officers had only one desire: They wanted law and And:
order where they were stationed. And law and order, according to In the first days of the occupation, the ideas of the great middle class
them, was something which evidently could not be guaranteed by were being revolutionized under the pressure of internal disorder and
representatives of the newly born republic, but only by representa- the opinion of the outside world. This was unfortunate, since it was
tives of the old regime—by the very men against whom the Allies to this body of public opinion that Germany would have to turn if
48 the nazis go underground the nazis look at africa and italy 49
she were to erect a stable democratic government. Hence in many saying—that this time there would have to be a long intermission
cases our arrival was welcomed by the ex-Imperial officials, who during which they could do nothing but keep quiet. They said that
regarded our coming as being of great assistance in enforcing their this period might last from two to five years, and that any attempt
authority, which had been weakened by the revolution. . . . Paragraph to form a militant underground group within that period would
5 of the armistice (stipulation that occupied territories should contin-
ue to be administered by their local authorities) was so interpreted by
be suppressed with much bloodshed. Also every attempt would be
both Germany and the Allies that “local authorities” meant officials suppressed in which any personality known as a former Nazi had
of the old regime. As a result, the armies of occupation had a thor- his hand. The generals realized that it might be better for them to
oughly capable group of officials to carry out their orders and wishes. have no dealings with anybody who was compromised bv a too-
violent Nazi past.
Thus the Allies, instead of helping the Germans to break the Therefore, the generals decided, the Nazis had to disappear
yoke of the German military clique and of the equally reactionary from sight. And the sooner the better. only thus would the gen-
and nationalistic civil officials of Imperial Germany, did everything erals have a chance—and a good one—to co-operate with the
to keep these men in control. And why should not the same thing future AMG. Only thus could they hope to convince the officers
that happened then happen again after this war? When the gen- of the occupying enemy armies that they, and only they, could do
erals first met toward the end of 1941 they must indeed have felt the job of keeping law and order, and that they could be trusted.
that there was no reason why it should not happen again. They had The events during the occupation of Africa and, even more, the
only to convince the Allies that again they and only they could developments which followed the Allied invasion of Italy were to
guarantee law and order. Therefore, all that the German generals prove their point.
needed to do to save themselves from the catastrophe and to get
another chance for another underground army movement with the
goal of still another world war was to see to it that no real revolu-
tion occurred once the defeat became a certainty; to insure that
calm and order would prevail.
The generals had no illusions. They figured that after this defeat
4
not only part but the whole of Germany would be occupied, and
that on top of this the winners would exercise a certain influence
on whoever would form the German government. If the Russians
Nazis Look at Africa and Italy
were in charge of the occupation the government would, of course,
be a leftist one; if the Anglo-American influence were predominant THE GERMANS WERE BEATEN in Africa. They had had to
it would be a more conservative regime. However, the main thing, relinquish Sicily. And the very fact of our invasion of the Italian
the generals felt, was to create some kind of working arrangement mainland exploded the carefully built up myth of the impregnable
with the occupying troops themselves, the AMG. If that could be Festung Europa. Still, from a long-range point of view—and such
done it would not be too difficult to obtain certain concessions, or a view is the only one that interests us here—Africa was a victory
at least to keep certain men in some of the key positions. for the German industrialists, and thus, indirectly, for the Nazis.
No, the generals had no illusions. They knew that they could And Italy transformed itself into a victory for the German gen-
not organize groups of resistance and Free Corps as openly as they erals far beyond any tactical or strategic issues of this war. And
had done after the last war. The Allies would not permit them- thus again it brought advantage to the Nazis, or to the Nazi under-
selves to be duped twice in the same way. The generals believed— ground to come.
and in particular von Bock and von Rundstedt went on record as In order to understand this and, in particular, the conclusions
the Nazis must have drawn from their examination of the invasion stayed in their jobs, although they had been violently anti-American
of Africa and the occupation of Italy it may be a good idea to re- and continued to be so.
examine the facts ourselves. Now Mr. Murphy no longer could find time for seeing the old
doctor or any of the men he had conferred with so frequently
Extensive preparations were made for our landing in Africa, some before. In the meantime Admiral Darlan was assassinated. Officers
of them of a rather romantic nature. Robert Murphy of the State and officials who had been imprisoned by the army of five hundred
Department was very busy during the weeks preceding the land- and forty men during the night of the landings, and who had
ing. He made his headquarters in the house of a Jewish physician, begged on their knees for their lives, saw their chance for revenge
Dr. Henri Aboulker, in Algiers, where he met a great number of now. Finally every one of the group who had helped the Americans,
the doctor’s friends, most of them confirmed de Gaullists, most of including old Dr. Aboulker, was arrested by the French secret
them Jews. One of them owned the beach villa to which General police. It was said that they were plotting to assassinate General
Mark Clark came in a submarine to confer about details of the in- Giraud.
vasion. These men were to organize a few hundred of their friends, During the following weeks members of French Fascist organ-
furnish them with arms which the United States Government had izations who had hidden out when the Americans came in re-
sent for the purpose of seizing such strategic points as the tele- appeared on the streets and in the cafes and made no secret of the
graph office, the police department, the power plants, and to arrest fact that they were still on the side of Marshal Pètain and against
any of the leading French officers who they thought might be the Americans. The Service d’Ordre de la Legion, the French
likely to offer any resistance. Among these was Admiral Darlan. counterpart of the SS, was even accepted with open arms by our
While the plan did not succeed entirely, since the Americans Army Intelligence. Their intelligence service turned over the names
landed many hours later than they were scheduled to, the enormous of many “suspicious” persons, whom the Americans proceeded to
confusion caused by the presence of the five hundred and forty arrest. Most of these were actually de Gaullists or Jews, none of
armed men in the city of Algiers, and their arrest of so many im- whom belonged to Fascist organizations.
portant officers, caused enough distraction to facilitate the Amer- In the meantime Mr. Murphy had arranged for M. Marcel Pey-
ican landing considerably. routon, one of the most faithful of the French collaborationists, to
Then, immediately after the landing, a lot of things began to go to Algiers. It seemed, in short, that everyone who had helped us
look quite different in Algiers as well as elsewhere. The de Gaul- to land was being punished, while everyone who had worked
lists had risked their lives to help the Americans; but it was Ad- against us was being encouraged.
miral Darlan, who had fought General de Gaulle and his followers
so mercilessly, who was put in power by us. The Jews had done When we landed in Africa, General Giraud was there ready to
their utmost to make our invasion possible; but when anti-Semitic assume the command of the French troops. Soon it became known
French officers who had not aided us demanded that the Jewish that the general was not the choice of the Frenchmen who were
interpreters who had facilitated our landing operations be ousted, eager to liberate themselves. He had never shown any partiality
the interpreters were promptly chased out of the ports. Frenchmen for democracy; he had always been a reactionary and a loyalist.
who had shown enthusiasm when the Americans landed were put On top of this he was-even for a long time after the invasion—a
into prison. Many citizens who had fought for the Americans lost man who believed in Marshal Pètain and who wanted to serve the
their jobs, while French officers who had fought against them were old marshal.
promoted. Two police officers who had actively assisted the Allies At first it seemed as though General Giraud had been selected
during the landing were arrested because they had not told their by the governments in Washington and London as “the liberator.”
superior officers of the imminent invasion. The superior officers However, the real instigators of this choice were French industrial-
ists, the brothers de Wendel, Peyrimoff de Fontennelles, Pierre of the invasion who were not supposed to know about it, among
Étienne Flandin, Pierre Pucheu, and others, not to speak of the them Schacht, Herr von Schroeder, and, of course, Baron von
dozens of generals and hundreds of minor officers who arrived in Schnitzler. And only a few days after the news leaked out the two
Africa at the time General Giraud did. German-French trusts in North Africa began to transfer all avail-
When we landed in Africa we found there quite a sizable group able money from their banks in Paris to branches of the Banque
of Frenchmen who usually did not reside in that part of the world. de Paris and the Union Parisienne in Algiers and Morocco. At the
We also found many billions of francs in African banks which had same time other French enterprises poured money into North
not been there a short time before. There had been a leak some- Africa. One who transferred large sums was Francois de Wendel,
where, and a few French industrialists—or were they German?— regent of the Banque de France and head of the Wendel steel cor-
had not been slow to profit from it. poration, and also, it should be noted, a close friend of Fritz
The story goes back to November 1941 when a Franco-German Thyssen.
trust was formed to control African raw-material bases. This trust By October 1942, only a few weeks before the invasion, about
was capitalized at eight million francs. Fifty-one per cent of its nine billion francs had been transferred from France proper to
shares were taken over by I. G. Farben, the rest by leading French North Africa. Among those who arrived along with the money was
chemical concerns. Both the German Government and Vichy ap- the rightist politician Pierre Étienne Flandin, who in 1940 had been
proved. The Nazi press proclaimed that a new economic era had living next to Fritz Thyssen at the Riviera, and who was now on
begun with the creation of this new enterprise. the board of directors of both Franco-German North African
Soon afterwards another Franco-German trust, the French Trans- trusts. Later, Pierre Pucheu arrived too. They went to North
African Company, was formed, the shareholders being two leading Africa to assure Robert Murphy that they would collaborate with
French banks, which in turn were owned by the Deutsche Bank in the occupation authorities in every way possible. Whether or not
Berlin as well as by a number of German industrial firms. Thus this offer was made with certain reservations, whether or not a
ever since the end of 1941 French North Africa was industrially compromise had been reached, shortly after North Africa was in
as well as financially under the complete control of Germany. our hands the American administration offered to exchange those
Then, sometime during 1942, an important Frenchman found billions of francs at seventy-five francs to the dollar—an extremely
out about the invasion plans. He spoke of it to one of the top men in favorable rate, since at that time the franc had fallen to one hundred
the Comté de Forges (an association of leading mining industries), and fifty francs and more to the dollar. Still, Pucheu and Flandin
a certain Pierre Pucheu, who was also a director of the Banque and a dozen or two other French industrialists and bankers who
Worms in Paris, which had participated in the French Trans- had arrived with them didn’t think that was enough, and they
African Company and of which the Deutsche Bank held the finally persuaded Mr. Murphy to fix the official rate at fifty francs
majority of shares. Banque Worms also represented the interests to the dollar.
of the Schroeder Bank at Cologne (the same Schroeder who had Thus, the French industrialists and bankers had succeeded in
started financing Hitler with money from the German heavy in- transferring many millions of dollars to a place of safety. Or had
dustries in 1928). Pucheu talked about the impending invasion to they? Perhaps it was not they who owned this money. As a matter
a number of bankers, among them Briart de Boisanger, who had of fact, it wasn’t. It was the Germans who held a majority of the
close contacts with I. G. Farben and other German industrial enter- shares of these Franco-German trusts and therefore it was they
prises. Boisanger was also a Vichy representative on the board of who owned the money, or most of it, and had thus succeeded in
directors of the Bank of International Settlements in Basel, where getting it safely out of war-torn Europe and exchanged into good
he was in constant touch with Hjalmar Schacht. American dollars. Hence the excellent deal engineered by Pucheu
Thus, via Pucheu and Boisanger, a great many people learned and Flandin brought them a few additional millions.
Nor is this all. The French industrialists residing today in Africa, changed much in Italy since the “moronic little King” was still in
these fronts for the German industrialists and bankers, are not at power. It may have been bad judgment not to use Mussolini’s
all satisfied with merely having saved their money. They are wor- downfall more effectively for propaganda purposes, but what the
ried because things have not gone exactly as they had hoped. Their Office of War Information said could not be contested, in spite of
main source of grievance is de Gaulle, who does not feel himself all the criticism it evoked, including certain remarks made by
bound by arrangements concluded before he reached Africa. It is President Roosevelt himself.
for this reason that these French industrialists, led by Francois and The moronic little King had been an accessory to the crime of
Guy de Wendel, have, since the arrest of Pucheu and Flandin, Fascism for more than twenty years. He had seen what Mussolini
tried hard to become more Free French than the Free French, did, and he had approved of it. He had tolerated the persecution
making several attempts to approach groups of the opposition in- of Italian workers and liberals and the political assassination of
side France, and offering them money for the purpose of building socialists. He had said “Yes” to the unprovoked attack on Abyssinia
up an army which they then would control and which they could and the rape of Albania. He had collaborated with Hitler and had
use in many ways. Perhaps to outmaneuver the Free French. . . . entertained no qualms about the persecution of the Jews. He had
Much has changed since de Gaulle and his Free French began to thrust the knife into the back of France and had participated in
act. A great number of French Fascists who seemed to triumph the crime against Greece. He had sent his troops into Spain and
after we had completed our landings are now in prison. Many of into Russia, his planes against England. He was among those most
those men who were then sent to prison as reward for their col- responsible for the Italian atrocities in Yugoslavia and Greece. And
laboration with the Americans and English today occupy important now, suddenly, he was no longer Fascist? True, he no longer
positions. Flandin and Peyrouton are under arrest, and Pucheu has wanted any part of Mussolini, but the reason for that change of
been executed. It does not look as though the Free French are going heart was that Mussolini had lost the war. Victor Emmanuel had
to respect the German money which is safeguarded in Africa in the cut himself off from Mussolini in order to save himself and his
accounts of those two French-German trusts! throne.
But it took a long time for de Gaulle to get to Africa and estab- As for the man whom he had appointed Prime Minister, Marshal
lish himself there. And before that happened the intelligence Pietro Badoglio, possibly he never had been a true friend of
service of the coming Nazi underground undoubtedly had plenty Fascism; but he had collaborated with Fascism, just as the German
of opportunity to assemble a large number of interesting and vital generals had collaborated with Nazism without being Nazis them-
facts. Encouraging ones too. After all, what could be more hearten- selves. Was he to be forgiven for this collaboration? Was he to be
ing to a Nazi underground than to see our army intelligence col- forgiven for the unspeakable war crimes which were committed
laborating with the intelligence department of a Fascist organiza- by him and under him against Abyssinia?
tion? Though it must have-been unfortunate in their eyes that de
Gaulle finally intervened, they still had time to place some of their On September 10, 1943, Field Marshal von Rundstedt, von Kleist,
more important agents securely in places where they may not be von Mannstein, von Brauchitsch who was acting as an adviser to
found out for many years to come. Mannstein, and von Kluge met with Heinrich Himmler and Martin
And what had been done in Africa could be repeated elsewhere. Bormann on the estate of Prince Pueckler near Kottbus, fifty miles
It has been repeated, as a matter of fact, in Italy. from Berlin.
Things were decidedly taking a turn for the worse. On Septem-
On July 25, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III announced that ber 3 General Eisenhower had made his secret treaty with Marshal
Mussolini had resigned. On the same evening the United States Badoglio about Italy’s dropping out of the war. The German Am-
Office of War Information broadcast that this resignation had not bassador in Rome had vainly attempted to get a definite promise
from the marshal to continue fighting at the side of Germany. On trusted the generals profoundly. But he could not liquidate all of
September 8 the Italian armistice was made official. them as he had liquidated von Reichenau. After all, the Nazis did
The King and his marshal were to deliver the fleet and the entire need the generals. They wanted time, which means that they
army, Rome and the whole of middle Italy. Furthermore, they wanted the war to be prolonged as much as possible. And that
promised that the north of Italy would be so severely shaken by could not be done without the generals.
upheavals and revolts against the Germans that in no time at all During the meeting of September 10 Bormann put his cards on
the entire country would be in Allied hands. That is what was the table. A report from Zurich tells of the episode as follows:
agreed before the armistice was concluded on September 3, 1943.
Then nothing except the fleet was delivered. Badoglio could not The generals were informed of the intentions of the Nazis. It was
hold Rome; the army never came over to the Allies; and the revolts their first inkling of what Himmler and company intended to do
after the defeat. They learned with deep misgivings of these projects.
in north Italy never assumed sufficient dimensions to endanger the They grasped what the Nazis were driving at: to create a maximum
Germans. The new Italian government could not even keep amount of disorder and uncertainty in Germany; to wage continuous
Mussolini in prison. Hitler saw to that. And on December 27 Gen- underground warfare against the occupying troops and powers as well
eral Eisenhower had to admit: “The surrender did not give us all as against the German people.
we had hoped for.”
The German generals did not yet know all of this when they met This was the precise opposite of what the generals desired in
with Himmler and Bormann at Prince Pueckler’s estate on Septem- order to work out their long-range plan of an army underground
ber 10, 1943. Some of the details of the Allied-Italian bargain be- which was to start many years after the armistice.
came known only much later. But the generals knew enough to
prove to them that their position was by no means desperate. The Field Marshals von Kluge and von Mannstein put their foot down
little King and Badoglio had collaborated for years and years with in no uncertain way. Von Kluge in particular declared that the Nazi
plans and projects could not be considered seriously. That would
Fascism and still they were not considered Fascists by the Allies. never do. The army would not stand for it.
Why, then, should the generals be considered Nazis? The main
thing was to put some distance between themselves and Hitler. What could the army do about it? It was to be seen during the
When the day of the final defeat came, the situation must be clear following weeks that the army could do something very decisive
beyond doubt. Nobody, least of all the Allies who had pledged the about it, because during these following weeks strange reports
liquidation of Hitler and his gang, must have any reason to believe found their way out of Germany. They appeared in Czecho-
that the generals were Nazis. After all, they were not. They had slovakian underground newspapers and in Swiss periodicals. They
merely collaborated with the Nazis. . . . even found their way via Stockholm papers to the London dailies.
On the other hand, the generals needed the Nazis for later. Or These reports said that Heinrich Himmler “had been instructed to
at least they needed some kind of popular movement in order to establish cadres immediately for the underground cells of an illegal
create their army underground. They knew that alone they could Nazi party to exist fully ramified and equipped. . . .” It was also
never hope to control the masses to the extent that was necessary said that “plans had been completed for violence and terror . . . to
if they were to stage a successful comeback. They well knew that start as soon as the war was over.” In particular it was rumored
the people had no love for the army, and would refuse to follow that “two to three secret divisions of SS men had been established
it blindly. That is why they had had to enter into the mésalliance and were being trained in guerrilla tactics. . . . Factories, power
with the Nazis in the late twenties. That is why they would have plants, waterworks would be destroyed . . . communications would
to enter some similar mesalliance again in the near future. be smashed, food depots be blown up.” Other accounts spoke of
On their side, the Nazis, particularly Heinrich Himmler, dis- “secret radio stations, a clandestine press, and secret arsenals of
arms and ammunitions. New Free Corps were quoted with names AMG was, indeed, behaving exactly as the generals had foresee
such as “Goetz von Berlichingen” and “Georg von Frundsberg.” it would.
At least in one case it has been established that it was Field To be sure, the Allies did not collaborate with the Fascist lead-
Marshal von Kluge himself who arranged for this intelligence to ers or with very prominent persons too deeply stained with a Fascist
leak out. There was method in this madness. The generals simply past. They even arrested some of them. But they did collaborate
wanted to put a stop to the Nazi plans which, if they were ever with the great majority of the Fascist officials, from the mayors of
executed, would have immediately cancelled out their own hopes an occupied town down to the last clerk. And, of course, they also
and plans. collaborated with military men who had been Fascists as long as
And the generals succeeded in putting a stop to the Nazi plans Fascism was doing well. In fact, they did not even seem to have
—temporarily, at least. “The upshot of the meeting of September 10 any objection to Marshal Badoglio, although for twenty years that
and several conversations which continued during the following gentleman had been one of the chief military exponents of Fascism.
weeks between Heinrich Himmler and Field Marshals von Mann- They evidently believed him when he said it was all a mistake and
stein and von Kluge was that the Nazis made up their minds to lie that he was no longer interested in politics. But was it really so?
low—least for the time being.” Had Marshal Badoglio become converted to democratic ideals? Did
Why did Heinrich Himmler give in? There are several possible he, after he went over to the Allies, honestly try to break with his
explanations. He may have recognized that he was unable to carry Fascist past?
through the somewhat melodramatic underground plans without He did not. He never made any statement in favor of democratic
the help and against the opposition of the generals. He may have ideas. He never spoke about the pecessity for a new order. He
become convinced that their long-range plan had more chance of never renounced his past. On the contrary, he made nostalgic re-
success. A third explanation, however, seems the most plausible marks, to American journalists of all people, about the Abyssinian
one. Himmler had never seriously thought of putting into practice war. Those were the days! It never occurred to the marshal that
the blueprint for an underground movement which would be based those were the days when Fascism had begun its series of attacks
on a terroristic concept. At least it was not his idea to base the on other countries. No, Marshal Badoglio had not changed. Even
entire movement on its ability to blow up bridges and railway sta- after his surrender to the Allies he declared proudly, again in an
tions and do a lot of sniping. Such features might have a good effect interview with Americans, that he was the third oldest marshal
on the Germans and might even be useful, on occasions. But the alive, the older ones being the German Marshal von Mackensen
real Himmler plan was less melodramatic and more practical. Why, and the French Marshal Pètain. It never occurred to him that
then, did Himmler have to be “convinced” by the generals? The under the changed conditions it was at least somewhat tactless to
answer is simple. He allowed himself to be persuaded in order to bring up these names as objects of veneration. It never occurred to
get them to collaborate with him. By threatening first to follow a him, because as far as he was concerned nothing had changed
plan which, if executed, would have ruined their plans, and then much.
by apparently slowly giving in he reached not a compromise but One of the first things Badoglio had to attend to was the selection
precisely what he needed: to have them on his side. of a chief of staff. He chose for this position General Mario Roatta.
Roatta thus became the man in charge of the reorganization of the
If there was any need to prove that the plan of the generals was army in southern Italy. He set out on this business in the early part
realistic, the events in Italy following the unconditional surrender of September 1943. By the middle of November it was established
of Marshal Badoglio furnished such a proof. during a debate in the House of Commons that this was the same
Italy was, then, in a way the dress rehearsal for the German gen- General Roatta who had been responsible for extreme atrocities in
erals. What happened there was a valid demonstration that the Yugoslavia. It was he who had ordered the torturing and killing of
countless patriotic Serbs; he who had given orders to shoot every Hindenburg had had to wait six years before he was brought back
Serb in uniform who had no identification card with him; he who to power in Germany, while Messe had had to wait only a few
had arranged for the beating up of the patriots in Montenegro and months.
the crucifying of those in Herzegovina. None of the leading The cases of Roatta and Messe have proved to the German mili-
American or British military men had opposed his appointment. It was tary clique that it can depend on the occupying forces for support,
only after violent protests by our Yugoslav Allies that Roatta was if and when the occupation of Germany becomes an established
forced to resign on November 13. Six weeks, in which this con- fact. The generals don’t have to get upset so long as they can guar-
firmed Fascist could begin rebuilding a new organization within antee to the AMG or whoever will be in charge that there will be no
the Italian Army; six weeks in which he could place any number of disorder, no acts of revolt, let alone a revolution. Since the Amer-
“dependable” men in key positions; six weeks in which he could ican and English military men have trusted so completely the
dispose of genuine anti-Fascists who would later prove “incon- Italian generals who fought against them even up to the day before
venient”; six weeks during which the foundation for a really demo- they surrendered, and who had, after all, come over to them by an
cratic army could have been laid. And then he was out. act of treason pure and simple, why will they not trust the Ger-
Once again Badoglio had to look for a chief of staff. And again mans the same way?
he had a splendid idea. What he needed, so he declared, was a Heretofore Roatta and Messe had been no more than two names
popular man, a war hero. Such a man would pull together the to the German military clique. Now they became a confirmation
somewhat bewildered Italian troops. And he pointed his finger un- to the generals that they were on the right track. There now seemed
waveringly in the direction of Marshal Giovanni Messe, who had to be no reason why their plans for a German future should, not
been taken prisoner by the Allies during the African campaign. work out.
Marshal Messe was, of course, immediately liberated and returned
to Italy. Field Marshal von Mannstein, then, was to be the German
How the German generals must have grinned when they learned Badoglio or Roatta or Messe. And why not? He had been less in-
of this new appointment! Perhaps Marshal Messe was not a Fascist. volved with the Nazi party than the three above-mentioned signori
But he was a symbol of Italian aggression. He had achieved popu- had been with Fascism. And last but not least he had proved him-
larity as “Victor of Tunis,” and retained it in spite of having lost self to be an excellent military man, while the military qualities of
Tunis and much more territory afterward. But he was an old and his Italian confreres were of a somewhat doubtful nature. They
tried reactionary military man, a man who represented exactly the had promised a lot to the Allies and had delivered nothing. Mann-
same school of thought as that to which the German generals be- stein could deliver—at least as long as he chose to do so. Or as long
longed. For him such things as democracy and liberty and justice as the Nazis chose to let him make decisions.
were simply words. And from the moment he took over as chief of There is no certainty whatever that the newly formed alliance of
the General Staff he did everything he could to hamper the actions September 10, 1943, will last. One day Himmler may decide that
of the genuine Italian democrats and anti-Fascists, and to reinstate the generals are betraying the party, after all. And then Mannstein
or keep in power the out-and-out Fascists, or the men who could may receive an unexpected and unexplained visit from a few SS
be depended upon to steer Italy toward a future reactionary and officers and die suddenly of “apoplexy.”
anti-democratic course. Whether or not the generals have entirely given up their idea of
How the German generals must have laughed! History was re- divorcing themselves from Hitler, nobody can say for certain. Only
peating itself. A beaten general was called back into power, though four weeks after the meeting with Himmler and Bormann a num-
the course of the country was supposed to have been changed com- ber of German generals spoke up precisely to this effect. But these
pletely. It was the story of Hindenburg all over again—only that men were not informed of the latest developments. They had been
Russian prisoners of war since Stalingrad. Still, what they said was for die bombing of German cities, the death of women and child-
so remarkably in tune with what the other generals had said and ren. . . .
thought, in strictest privacy, of course, that no room is left for any
doubts as to just how deeply the idea of betraying Hitler has in- Major General Lattman shouted:
filtrated into the mind of the average high officer. Never did we take an oath to make Hitler or even ourselves masters
The speeches and statements referred to were made on the occa- of Europe. We only pledged ourselves to be loyal if we had to fight
sion of the foundation of the Bund Deutscher Offiziere (Associ- for Germany. But he to whom we pledged loyalty made our oath a
ation of Commissioned German Officers) in Soviet Russia on lie. . . . Understand the necessity of the hour. Create a basis for an
October 11 and 12, 1943. armistice and peace. Lead the army back to the frontier. Prevent the
The invitation for the formation of the Association was more than dissolution and disbanding of the army and of the Reich. Save the
clear. It said among other things: Wehrmacht as an instrument of peace for the new Germany.
Every thinking German officer knows that Germany has lost the Such was the general tenor of the speeches. No, the German
war. . . . The men in the government know it, too, those who have officers no longer had anything to do with Hitler. It was he who
brought about this whole miserable situation. Hitler and his regime was responsible for all the misery of the world including the misery
are fully responsible before history for the wrong decisions that will of the officers themselves. Never mind what happened to him. But
lead Germany into the abyss if the people and the army do not force the army had to be saved. The army which had so faithfully fol-
a reverse course. . . . Hitler as a statesman has brought together the lowed the Führer, which had permitted him to create havoc and
most powerful states of the world into an overwhelming coalition throw a whole world in despair must be left alone.
against Germany. Hitler as a general has led the German Wehrmacht
into the gravest defeats. . . . The officers imprisoned in Soviet Russia spoke their minds with
remarkable frankness. Of course they could say anything as long as
General of the Artillery Walter von Seydlitz, who presided at the Stalin didn’t mind (which apparently he didn’t). They didn’t have
first meeting, said: to take into consideration how Himmler felt about it. He couldn’t
reach them.
The goal is to end the war soon and to prepare the peace. The re-
moval of the Hitler regime is the preliminary condition. It renders It was not only the German generals who had reason to be con-
possible the creation of a peaceful government based upon the confi- tent with what was happening in Italy. The German industrialists,
dence of the people and to avoid more useless bloodshed by a truce, too, must have approved heartily of the way in which things were
and it makes possible, as proof of our peaceful intentions, to lead back shaping up south of the Po. Their friends, the masters of Italian
the Wehrmacht to the frontiers and to preserve it for the people. An
honorable peace can be in store only for a people whose Wehrmacht is industry, were doing quite nicely, thank you. In fact, as far as they
not disintegrated. It is the urgent need of the hour to conclude a truce were concerned, it was Algiers all over again. To name just one:
to anticipate the disintegration of the Wehrmacht. Alberto Pirelli, one of Mussolini’s early backers, and an official in
the Fascist government, was left completely unmolested. The
Colonel yon Hooven, who made the main report, declared among Allies didn’t seem to care that he had been one of the main organ-
other things: izers of the Fascist Confederation of Industrialists and a member
It is not we who have become disloyal. It is Adolf Hitler who has
of the Grand Fascist Council.
miserably misused the confidence which the German people put in Pirelli is one of the leading industrialists of the world. He has
him. By heedlessly provoking this war, by challenging the whole numerous plants in Italy for the manufacture of all kinds of rubber
Western world to conflict with Germany, by daring to fight Russia products, wire, and cables. He also possesses sources for the ma-
against the advice of all the experts, he alone has the responsibility terial which goes into these products. His company has subsidiaries
in Yugoslavia, Rumania, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, France, for a general acquittal of Fascists. They know too well that an
Portugal, Spain, England, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, and the Dutch honest? sincere elimination of disloyal Fascists will sooner or later
East Indies. Up to 1939 all these properties were owned by a Bel- reach certain exalted ranks.” In vain did six anti-Fascist parties,
gian holding company which Pirelli organized to evade high taxes liberals as well as Socialists and Communists, demand that the
in Italy. Then? evidently afraid of the approaching war, he shifted King abdicate. It did not matter that Badoglio and his men had no
his properties to the care of a Swiss holding company. When Eng- intention of abandoning the Fascist spirit after they hady in name
land and the United States compiled their black lists he was able only, dropped Fascism. Lord Rennell of Rodd, the head of the
to keep his subsidiaries in Latin America off these lists. This was Allied control machinery, a prominent financier and former friend
easy enough. The Swiss holding company merely had to deposit of Schacht and of Pirelli and other Fascist industrialists, did every-
bonds with the Bank of England as security for the promise not to thing he could to see to it that the regime was kept in power.
do business with the enemy. The amount deposited in bonds was Anti-Fascists who had formed armed units to combat Fascism
about $50,000—a tiny fraction of the business which Pirelli did were forced by Badoglio to wear the King’s insignia. In disgust they
every year with the enemy. In April 1943, when the President of tore off their uniforms and went home. Workers in north Italy
Brazil wanted to take Pirelli’s possessions over as enemy proper- who had organized numerous uprisings and who had taken to
ties, the British Embassy in Rio de Janeiro protested that the guerrilla fighting decided that it was no use. Prominent liberals in
Pirelli Company was neutral property. It may be added that Pirelli’s Bari were arrested because they demanded the abdication of the
companies are closely interwoven with the I. G. Farben. Yes, it was King. Mass meetings in the University of Naples which were called
Algiers all over again. for the same purpose were dissolved. Liberal papers were sup-
pressed. Count Sforza received a severe warning for holding a
Africa was the first step, but anybody can make mistakes in the meeting for which he had neglected to obtain a permit.
beginning. By the time we went into Italy? we should have learned In short, we did everything possible to keep in power those who
from those initial mistakes. Africa was, politically, a vacuum. Our had fought us. Count Sforza said about the generals who did the
leaders might have believed, and perhaps did) that they would find dirty work there? “They despise the Allies in their hearts, but prob-
there Fascist and semi-Fascist forces to the exclusion of any others. ably will be given congressional medals.” The knowledge of what
But Italy was no vacuum. It was known to us long before we moved was going on in Italy must have pleased the leaders of the Nazi
in that Fascism was on the decline? that the vast majority of the undergound enormously. Here was the perfect setup in which to
Italian people were outraged at the Fascist leaders and were willing plant their men.
to fight for their liberation. They planted them. Perhaps they did not need to plant any
Why didn’t we use these outraged masses? Why did we not in- around the King or Badoglio because there were enough Fascists
vade Italy, or, better still, Sicily with an Italian legion? Why, after or former Fascists close to them to assure any degree of collabora-
the invasion of Sicily, did we not form legions of anti-Fascists? tion with the Nazi underground in the years to come. Theoretically,
Were we afraid to collaborate with the people of Italy? whom we that idea contradicted the original Nazi plan of not working in
had encouraged in countless propaganda broadcasts to risk their close contact with known Fascists. But? then, that plan had been
all for liberty? Were we draid of the revolutionary flame we had conceived only in order to protect the movement. Wherever, as in
been so busy kindling? Italy, the Fascists themselves were protected, there was no possible
Evidently we were. In vain did Count Sforza, after his arrival in risk in collaborating with them. These Fascists centered mainly
Italy, demand that the King and Badoglio be ousted. In vain did he around the headquarters of General Antonio Basso near Naples.
cry, on October 22, “The evil comes from the circles of the King Basso had ordered flags raised all over Naples to celebrate the
where everything is tried, even in the trickiest ways, to set a stage King’s birthday and had criticized the dean of the University,
Adolfo Omodeo, for a speech in which he honored General Clark Later on, after the war, the Nazi underground will pretend that
without mentioning the King. The dean replied that he was not the Nazis really would have introduced Socialism if given half a
sure whether an American general would like being mentioned in chance. Or even Communism.
the same breath with the Emperor of Ethiopia and the King of There will probably be some people who will believe even that.
Albania.
In April 1944 the picture changed somewhat. Following sugges- During the few months of our occupation of Italy there have
tions by the Russians, the Italian government was placed on a been too many examples of how easily our men can be duped and
broader basis, embracing all Italian parties. It is probable that since used as tools by scheming Fascists. This is as true of very high
then some of the Fascist collaborators have been driven out of their officers as of the ordinary soldiers. The Americans as well as the
key positions. However, they have had ample time to lay the English are fundamentally unsuspecting, and the Fascists know
groundwork for what is to come. quite well that their only chance of survival is to convince the
This was one side of the picture. The other side was that numer- Allies that they have been really nice, innocent people all along.
ous men and women traveled from the north of Italy to the south They are actually trained in carrying through such deception, while
and found shelter in towns and villages there. Among them were the English and Americans are not adept at seeing through their
agents loyal to Mussolini who told the southern population that lies.
conditions were much better in the northern part of the country, Washington knew for some time that we would come up against
that Mussolini had instituted revolutionary methods, that big such a situation if and when we invaded Europe. The last time
estates were being divided up among the people, wages had in- enemy territory was occupied and administered by American
creased, and that the food supply was superior to that in the south. troops—the Rhineland after the armistice of 1918—was an impro-
In a few cases these propagandists were caught by the intelligence vised affair. Colonel I. L. Hunt, the same officer who after the last
services of the Allies. war wrote a report on the collaboration of the occupying forces
It was soon found out that it was not Mussolini who had sent with the Imperial officials and officers of the Imperial Army also
those agents, but the Germans. This is understandable enough, for made a report to the War Department expressing the hope that the
the coming Nazi underground Italy is important in two respects. United States Army might never again be found unprepared for
In the first place, it is an ideal proving ground for finding out just the important duties of military government. This report was taken
how much the Nazi underground will be able to get away with up again shortly before America entered World War II, and among
when Germany is occupied; what type of agent can remain above the measures which were subsequently decided upon was the
ground and collaborate with the occupying authorities, and who foundation of a school for the training of experts for administrative
will have to disappear; how much the Allies will swallow and duty in occupied territories.
when and where precisely they will begin to catch on. The method of instruction in this school was set forth in a War
Then, of course, Italy has the added importance of being a logical Department release of May 15, 1943, as follows:
ally for the Nazi underground five or ten years hence. No matter
what happens otherwise, Italy will have a hard time after this war, The course at the School of Military Government is divided into
which means that there will be a great many disgruntled and un- three parts:
happy people-there are plenty of them already. The neo-Fascist I. A lecture program designed to acquaint the students with the
regime of Mussolini, when it increased wages and divided big principles of military government, military courts, proclamations,
ordinances, state and municipal governments, international law and
estates, acted, of course, under pressure. The workers of Milan public administration in general; and also to acquaint students with
and other northern Italian cities had walked out—actually the first detailed conditions and characteristics of the countries and regions
time that strikes had been carried through under a Fascist regime. which may be occupied.
68 the nazis go underground the plan 69
2. Foreign-language studies. ing Fascists were very rich; the anti-Fascists were very poor. The
3. A program of practical problems whereby the class, divided into leading Fascists could speak English; most of the anti-Fascists
small committees, actually prepares the plans for the setting up of could not. The leading Fascists belonged to the same stratum of
military governments in certain cities, countries, and regions. society as the high-ranking American and English officers. They
The reports made by these committees have a double value. They
are useful as an applied method of instruction, and also as a basis for
were comfortable, poised, and calm. They emanated an air of ease
plans which may be put into effect when called for. and order. The anti-Fascists were nervous, haunted, worn out. Our
Methods and procedures of our enemies are studied, not for the men were there to “preserve order among a disaffected or confused
purpose of patterning our military government after the harsh and people,” to quote Robert P. Patterson, Undersecretary of War.
inhuman character of the military governments of Germany and Hence they naturally found it easier to collaborate with the people
Japan, but rather to acquaint the students of our School of Military who seemed least confused.
Government with the conditions under which the peoples of con- Much of this may repeat itself when we go into Germany. There,
quered territories are now living and furnish examples of what not too, the better classes will be pleasanter to deal with than the small
to do when our Army moves into enemy territory. numbers of dispersed and haunted anti-Nazis, especially since these
better people-who, of course, “had only become members of the
Our men are trained to be nice and understanding. In fact, the
Nazi party because they were forced to do so”—will be so fervently
“military government should be just, humane, and as mild as prac-
in favor of having law and order enforced.
ticable, and the welfare of the people governed should always be
They always were. And if the Nazis, the ones who have to go
the aim of every person engaged therein.”
underground, had the slightest doubt about their strategy after the
There is no need to say that all this is excellent, that the idea
occupation of Germany, they must have learned from Italy that law
of this training school and many of the words spoken in it will
and order, indeed, are the best things for Germany, too—a Ger-
live long after this war as an example of the moral superiority of
many which wants to turn Nazi again.
democracy.
But is it enough? Does it suffice to be nice to conquered people?
It does if the conquered people want peace and are happy to col-
laborate. But it is certainly not enough if the conquered people,
or even only some of them, use defeat merely as a means of pre-
paring a comeback, or a sinister conspiracy, or a new war. In order
5
to be able to see through such opponents—and there are many
such to be encountered in Italy—our men should be trained in
psychological warfare, and in psychology proper.
The Plan
Some of our highest officers have fallen for Fascists and Nazis
because these Fascists and Nazis seemed to be decent people and
knew the right psychological approach. Our men have been duped THE HAND-PICKED STAFF selected personally by Heinrich
because they judged the people they encountered, their enemies Himmler worked hard in the offices at 11 Koenigsallee to complete
of yesterday, from an Anglo-American point of view. They be- the preparations necessary for building up and perfecting the ma-
lieved those men to be motivated by the same wishes and desires, chine which would have to function underground after the defeat.
likes and dislikes, by which they themselves are controlled. Himmler himself supervised and controlled their work from his
There is no use going into details here. A rich man is usually headquarters in Prinz Albrecht Strasse, at least up to November
more suave, genial, easier to approach, than a poor man. The lead- 1943, when British bombs destroyed most of the building. Martin
Bormann divided his time between his headquarters at the chancel-
lery, Himmler’s office, and Koenigsallee. And from his desk at the has been working ever since the spring of 1943 at organizing them.
Ministry of Economics Konstantin Hierl contributed some very They will have a great many new features, as compared with the
interesting detail work which was to become an integral part of cells of 1931-32. The main new feature will be, to use Hierl’s
the whole scheme. phrase, “complete decentralization.” There will be no connection
Hierl, born in Bavaria in 1875, finished World War I as a mem- between the different cells, no go-betweens, for many years after
ber of the Bavarian General Staff on the Western front. After the the party has submerged. The important thing for the members
armistice he was called to Berlin, where he prepared regulations of these cells, according to Hierl, is to keep alive, to stay where
for the new army. He also participated in the numerous fights of they are, and to wait patiently.
the Reichswehr against the workers’ uprisings in the early years of The members of the cells will not know anything about the
the republic. He wrote a book about these experiences called Con- members of any other cells, nor even that any other cells exist.
duct of War with Improvised Armies, which was published in Only a few leaders who will not be in Germany will have complete
1923. Later he became prominent in the Schwarze Reichswehr. He knowledge of how many men are available and where they are.
entered Hitler’s party in the early twenties. And only they can get in touch with these men whenever it be-
In order to provide cadres for the army, Hierl hit on the idea of comes necessary.
creating a youth labor service—a kind of “improvised army” which Cells will comprise no more than three to six men. Only in a
would become a part of the universal service obligatory for every very few exceptional cases will cells of ten men be permitted, and
young German. He organized this “improvised army” soon after that only later. In the beginning, according to Hierl, no such ex-
Hitler achieved power. In 1939 this Minister without Portfolio was ception will be made, no unnecessary risks taken. Himmler and
Secretary of State for the Labor Service and, as organizer of the Hierl hope that in this way between 200,000 and 300,000 men will
Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labor Service), controlled more than two be hidden away within German plants, factories, city administra-
million male and almost three million female workers. tions, et cetera.
In July 1943 he made an interesting statement to his most trust-
ed lieutenants in the Labor Service in Munich: Himmler’s over-all plan divides itself into two parts, one dealing
The party achieved its utmost power and its greatest influence dur-
with ways and means for the government to go underground, the
ing its legal period when it was centrally ruled. Never was a party other with ways and means for the party to go underground.
more efficiently centralized than ours. The principle for the illegal As to the government, the following system has been worked
period which will come after the war must, however, be utmost de- out:
centralization. In fact, we must decentralize to such a degree that we Out of the countless offices or subdepartments of each ministry
must seem to have disappeared. The one hundred men who formerly two or three departments have been chosen in which underground
marched through the street or attended a meeting will then be found work will be continued after the end of this war. These depart-
in one hundred different plants or offices in one hundred different ments, all of them outwardly of a harmless nature, have been filled
cities. Only thus can we survive. with dependable Nazis, and new men who hav; been trained in
Decentralization means the application of the system of cells. underground work are constantly being added. Each department
To work out the theoretical part of installing them was the task of will be infiltrated with at least ten cells consisting of two persons
Herr Hierl. each, a so-called A-man and a so-called B-man. The A-man is sup-
He had organized a similar system of cells for the party in the posed to keep the contact with the higher-ups and the government,
years 1931 and 1932. These secret cells never had to go into action the B-man with the undeground, that is, the illegal part of the
at that time, because the party was not forced underground. But movement. Each such government department has, furthermore,
they will have to go into action this time. And Konstantin Hierl been duplicated in such a way that for each man there exists a re-
serve man who may supplant him at any given time for any reason ment Technical Institute), Chemisch-Technische Reichsanstalt
whatsoever. (Institute for Chemical Technology), and the Reichsanstalt fuer
The following departments have been chosen for this type of Erdbebenforschung (Institute for Seismology).
infiltration (the list does not pretend to be complete—for obvious It may seem strange that such departments should exist within
reasons): the framework of the-Ministry of Culture. But they do; and they
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Kulturpolitische Abteilung (Cul- have precious little to do with Goethe, Bach, or Beethoven. They
tural Department). furnish the ideal contact point between the Nazis and industry.
Ministry of the Interior: Kommunalabteilung (Communal De- The Ministry of Economics, which would seem to be the logical
partment). Gesundheitsamt (Department of Health). Landesver- department for such a contact, will not be used for this purpose at
messungsamt (Department of Surveys). all. This would be too obvious. The Ministry of Culture will also
Ministry of Economics: the Statistisches Reichsamt (Statistical supervise and create a great number of cultural clubs all over Ger-
Department), which in a way will become a center of its own whose many which will be excellently suited to serve as fronts for the
function will be discussed later. Grubensicherheitsamt (Mining Nazis.
Security Department).
Ministry of Labor: Sozialversicherungsamt (Social Insurance De- While some kind of official government with its many depart-
partment). Wohlfahrtspflegeamt (Public Welfare Department). ments will go on existing, the party will be suppressed, no matter
Reichsversicherungsamt (Government Insurance Department). what power occupies Germany after the war. The party, therefore,
Ministry of Justice: Reichsbahngericht (Railway Court). Reichs- will be forced to employ a different system to go underground. It
patentamt (Government Patent Office). is not possible to plan for the continued existence of the party by
Air Ministry: Amt fuer Wetterdienst (Department of Meteor- transferring the main activities into departments of the party which
ology). This department will be under direct supervision of the have been more or less harmless; for each and every department of
underground army to be. the party will be dissolved as soon as the war is over, or even
Ministry of Posts: Reichspostzentralamt (Central Post Office). before.
Reichsdructerei (Government Printing Office). Himmler, Bormann, and Hierl have decided, therefore, to dupli-
Ministry of Traffic: Reichskanalamt (Department of Canals). cate some of the important departments of the party. These du-
Ministry of Agriculture: Landwirtschaftliche Versuchsanstalt plications will start to work the moment the official party ceases to
(Department for Agricultural Experiments). exist. Only the most integral and necessary departments will thus
Ministry of Culture: the Nazis will attempt to use this entire survive underground. And they will carry on only their most im-
ministry for their underground. For some time it has been rumored portant functions. Everything has already been simplified as much
that this ministry is really not Nazi at all. Many anti-Nazis firmly as possible, and this process of simplification is still going on.
believe, and even assert, that it is opposed to everything the Propa- So far the following departments have been duplicated and are
ganda Ministry does. The Propaganda Ministry, of course, will ready for underground work:
have to be sacrificed; but the Nazis hope that the occupying 1. Rassenpolitisches Amt (Department of Race Politics).
powers will believe the lie that the Ministry of Culture represents 2. Amt fuer Sippenforschung (Department for the Study of
the spirit of Goethe, Bach, and Beethoven and must not be dis- Ancestry).
turbed in its attempts to re-educate the Germans. The Ministry of 3. Amt fuer Schrifttum (Department of Publications).
Culture will also function as a means of contact between the Nazi 4. Auslandsorganisation (League of Germans Abroad).
underground and certain industrialists. The departments partic- 5. Amt fuer kulturellen Frieden (Department for Cultural
ularly suited to this purpose are: Technische Reichsanstalt (Govern- Peace).
6. Kommission fuer Wirtschaftspolitik (Department for Political posts and positions which will be of such decisive importance later
Economics). on, is SS General Fritz Kaltenbrunner. This young Austrian is six
7. Kommission fuer Hochschulpolitik (Department for Uni- feet tall, with dark brown hair and blue eyes and a heavy, awkward
versities). figure which has earned him the nickname “Gorilla Kaltenbrun-
8. Beauftragter fuer staatsrechtliche Fragen (Commissioner for ner.” He has been very little in the public eye, in spite of the fact
Questions of State Jurisdiction). that he has been director of the Gestapo ever since the death of
9. Beauftragter fuer Siedlungswesen (Commissioner of Resettle- the “late-lamented” Reinhard Heydrich.
ment). His curriculum vitae shows that he is the right man for this
10. Beauftragter fuer Wirtschaftsfragen (Commissioner for Eco- difficult job. Kaltenbrunner, in spite of his youth, is an old hand
nomic Problems). at underground organization. In the early nineteen thirties he or-
11. Sachbearbeiter fuer Arbeitsbeschaffung (Expert for Provi- ganized the Nazi students at the University of Vienna, who de-
sion of Work). voted themselves to attacking and beating up Jewish students.
12. Sachbearbeiter fuer aussenpolitische Fragen (Expert on Their particular specialty was to throw their victims down the
Questions of Foreign Politics). many stone steps which led to the main entrance of the university.
13. Sachbearbeiter fuer Wissenschaft (Expert on Science). While still a student Kaltenbrunner and his comrades from the
14. Sachbearbeiter fuer Musikfragen (Expert on Music). university formed the SS Sturm 89, an organization which accepted
15. Vertrauensmann fuer Fragen der Volksgesundheit (Deputy as members only the most savage and beastly rowdies. Among
for Public Health Problems). those who joined the group were two of Kaltenbrunner’s personal
All these departments which have been duplicated thus are part chums, Otto Planetta and Franz Holzweber, who were later to be
of the Bormann machine. The obvious conclusion to be drawn hanged for the murder of Chancellor Dollfuss. That was during
from this is that only this machine is to be saved and all the other the putsch of 1934, in which SS Sturm 89 took a leading part.
departments and machines—more than twenty—such as the Gaus,
After the failure of the 1934 putsch Kaltenbrunner had a chance
the propaganda setup, the Reichsorganisationsleitung, et cetera,
to prove his talents for underground work. He distributed the
are to be sacrificed.
members of his organization over the whole of Austria. Two or
All the cells or underground departments of the government as
well as of the party will be under the supervision and direction of three would form a cell within a town, a plant, or a farm, under
the underground Gestapo organization and in particular of its strict orders not to get in touch with other cells. For more than a
intelligence department. Each of these cells or departments will year, till the fall of 1935, Kaltenbrunner made no move at all to
contain at least one or two Gestapo cells, the identity of whose get in touch with his men. When he did finally investigate he
members will be entirely unknownto any of the other Nazis. This found that in almost all cases the cells had survived and their mem-
should be relatively easy, since the men used for this purpose will bers had found work and lodging.
be chosen, not from among the Gestapo men already known, but It was then that he began to transfer these cells into organiza-
from an entirely new crop of members unknown to either the Nazi tions of the Austrian Republic, particularly into the newly formed
underground or the German people in general, to say nothing of the Vaterlaendische Front, a semi-Fascist group behind Chancellor
representatives of the occupying powers or the AMG. Schuschnigg.
Some time after the Anschluss, during which Kaltenbrunner’s
The man who has been busy—at least ever since May 16, 1943— organization proved itself of great help to Hitler, Himmler trans-
in devising and building these departments and cells, in selecting ferred Kaltenbrunner to Gestapo headquarters, where he soon
and rejecting possible candidates for each of those hundreds of became the right-hand man of Heydrich.
So much for Kaltenbrunner’s past. It proves him to be an expert which saboteurs and intelligence men were prepared for their dif-
in the organization of the underground. ficult work abroad.
However, the task which had confronted him in Austria could In November 1940 Heissmeyer made an official statement in
not be compared with the task that he set out to fulfill in the which he declined to give out any information about these schools.
spring of 1943: the manning of cells in countless organizations, the (Had anybody asked him to give such information?) All he said
distribution of dependable men to key positions all over the Reich was, “It is our most important goal to train young men for a dan-
—in a word, the shaping of the underground army. gerous and hard life and to school them to make the heaviest
Next to Kaltenbrunner the most important man at 11 Koenigs- sacrifices for the Führer and for the Third Reich.”
allee is SS General Werner Heissmeyer—by no means a stranger It is self-evident that the Heimschulen became very important in
to Allied counterespionage services. He has for many years been in the plan for the coming Nazi underground. They were the logical
charge of the saboteurs who were sent to foreign countries. It was place forthe training of the young men who would form the basis
he who dispatched the eight saboteursin U-boats to the United of this movement. Formerly the thirty-five Heimschulen instructed
States in 1942—to name only one of his many accomplishments. their pupils mainly in foreign languages and foreign habits in how
Himmler once said: “All the SS should look as Heissmeyer to use explosives and how to commit acts of sabotage, preferably
looks.” It must be admitted that he is really extremely handsome. without explosives and in the most untraceable way. In the spring
Very tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, and with regular features, he of 1943 the curriculum of these schools was changed slightly. This
is one of the few prominent Nazis on whose lips the word “race” was logical, for since the leaders of the Third Reich no longer
does not sound funny. expected to win this war, they now began to put the accent on the
He looks romantic and, indeed, he is. He has been a daredevil work that would have to be done after the war. Instead of de-
all his life. As a young lieutenant in World War I he carried out veloping spies and saboteurs, these schools were put to the task of
more than three hundred dangerous patrols, some of which led developing workers for the coming underground.
him deep into enemy territory. After the war he became one of This was true not only of the Heimschulen but of all the Poli-
the most prominent members of the Free Corps and of the Feme tische Erziehungsanstalten (Institutions for Political Education),
organizations which engaged in killing Germans of the opposition such as the Adolf Hitlerschulen, the Ordensburgen, and the
and those “traitors” who favored fulfilling the obligations of the Fuehrerschulen, which altogether have produced about 25,000 pros-
Treaty of Versailles and collaborating with the rest of the world. pective leaders annually.
A Nazi since 1922, he was used during the late twenties mainly as According to the Swedish daily Aftontidningen of October 13,
a party spy in workers’ unions. It is said-though this may be one 1943, the Nazi Ordensburgen were teaching their pupils how to
of the many romantic rewritings bf Nazi party history—that in behave “if extremely great distress should afflict the country.” This
order to do this job it was necessary for him to disguise himself report did not, of course, tell the whole story. While there will
and that on several occasions he was in great danger of death. still be many changes in months to come, it seems pretty certain
General Heissmeyer had his headquarters at 11 Koenigsallee for that the role of all the schools named above can be divided as
more than three years before May 16, 1943. It was there that he follows:
organized what has become known abroad as the sabotage school. 1. The Adolf Hitlerschulen are doing mainly preparatory work.
Officially his office organized and ran the Deutsche Heimschulen They train relatively young pupils not to lose faith in case of defeat
(German Home Schools). These home schools—the German word and a general disaster. In short, they provide the reservoir from
says no more than does the English translation—had, as a matter which the underground will have to be fed perhaps ten years
of fact, nothing at all to do with the home. They were schools in hence.
2. The Heimschulen prepare the rank and file of the Nazi underg- into the final battles of the war. But far more important than this
round of tomorrow. The accent of their training is on prepara- is another very potent argument: these young men, many of them
tion for certain roles, such as, for instance, the role of a farmer, a now still children, have never known the hard times of the Nazi
specialized worker, et cetera. They also give a special course in party. They have lived the greater and the most decisive part of
acquiring certain German dialects which will make it possible for, their lives in a period when it was very easy to be a Nazi and very
let us say, a Bavarian to go underground in Saxony or in Hamburg dangerous not to be one. It is still an open question how these
without being recognized by his manner of speech. boys will behave at a time when it will be extremely dangerous
3. The Ordensburgen, which up to now have been used for the to be a Nazi. It is and always will be doubtful how they will con-
training of what was supposed to be the elite of the young Nazis, form to party discipline at a time when much will depend on their
the coming Führers, are now devoting themselves to preparing personal initiative, and when it will be impossible for the party
agents of the Nazi underground who will have to go abroad. These to supervise the actions of each member as closely as it has done
agents will have to be physically fit young men who are better in the past.
than average at a number of sports, and who speak a number of The so-called old guard, however, is experienced and tried.
foreign languages fluently and, if possible, at least one without any Many of them worked for the party during the time when it was
trace of accent. They are also taught how to wear clothes properly, without funds and was outlawed in many parts of Germany. Many
and how to behave in a number of countries in such a way as not of them have shown great personal initiative and valuable talent
to be immediately recognized as having been “made in Germany.” in improvisation. Almost all of them have proved dependable,
Such is the curriculum that has been in force for some time past in even under the greatest stress.
two of the Ordensburgen: Vogelsang in Pomerania and Sonthofen The old guard—that does not mean the old men. It means men
in Bavaria. between the ages of thirty and forty. Among the younger “old”
4. The Ordensburg Kroessinsee in East Prussia has been con- guard certain vintages are preferred by the leaders, as, for instance,
verted into what is called a Versuchsanstalt (Experimental Sta- those men who entered the party in 1931, at the age of eighteen.
tion). It is typically German that the leaders of the coming under- They are called, for short, vintage 18/31. Other preferred vintages
ground leave nothing to chance. Before Rommel took his troops are 18/32, 19/31, 18/30. There is probably a reason why these
to Africa he had them trained for years in the so-called Tropen- men have been put on the preferred list. Germans are systematic.
institut in Tuebingen, where they learned how to endure extreme In any case, many members of these vintages have been sent to
heat and other conditions which they would have to encounter in Heimschulen for re-training during the later part of 1943.
the desert. Evidently Kroessinsee has for some time been the place
where Heissmeyer has been trying out how the future members of It goes without saying that the over-all plan for a Nazi under-
the Nazi underground will stand up under the many handicaps ground sketched on the preceding pages does not pretend to be
they will have to endure. So far nothing definite about the Ver- complete. Under present conditions it is, of course, impossible to
suchsanstalt has leaked out. The world will learn in due time get a complete blueprint out of Germany. In any event, that blue-
exactly how much the soldiers of the Nazi underground will be print is probably known to only very few people; and, furthermore,
capable of enduring. it is very likely still undergoing constant changes.
The important thing to be stated here is that such a blueprint
In spite of all this training they are giving the youth for future has been worked out, and that the Nazis, and particularly the men
underground purposes, the leaders do not depend primarily upon stationed at 11 Koenigsallee, are working feverishly to put it into
these young people in the first place, many of them will be dead effect. They are working feverishly because they have to meet a
at the zero hour, because many of them will have been thrown deadline. The deadline is the day when the Germans, or the great
80 the nazis go underground zero hour 81
majority of them, will realize that the war is lost, and that it would
be better for them to stop it today than tomorrow.
It is difficult, even almost impossible, to predict when this mo-
ment will come. Undoubtedly the extensive Allied air raids over 6
Germany are helping to bring it nearer. The bombings of Berlin
during the last weeks of 1943 and the first weeks of 1944 have made
the capital a “dead city,” to quote a Swedish newspaperman. But Zero Hour
Germans can take a lot of punishment. And the Nazis have been
at great pains to create the impression that the bombings of Ger-
man cities have no influence on the outcome of the war. NO MATTER when the war against Germany ceases, no matter
Among their psychological tricks, particularly interesting is the when the final defeat of the Nazis becomes a reality, the Nazis
establishment of underground workrooms somewhere in Berlin themselves will not be taken by surprise. They will have had ample
for one hundred and fifty architects who, according to Nazi propa- time to prepare down to the last detail.
ganda, are drawing plans for rebuilding Berlin—a project which How will their plan work? How will the leadership of the party
is supposed to take seven and one half years from the day the war and the government keep in touch with things, control and direct
ends—the implication being that Berlin will be rebuilt immediately them after both groups have gone underground? The government,
after the war, because with the Germans victorious there will be as we have seen, will have contact men in many government de-
no reason to attend to anything else first. Another of their tricks partments. But there will be only a few hundred of them, together
is the constant building of monuments in memory of some recent with those in the underground party apparatus. They will be in
victory. These monuments are, of course, put up in order to con- danger of complete isolation unless they are able to collaborate
vince the Germans that the war has consisted mainly of German closely with much larger groups of men installed in what one may
victories. Paradoxically enough, among those monuments are even call strategic positions all over Germany.
some celebrating victories in North Africa. Let me, for better understanding, quote from a report about cer-
All these tricks serve to postpone the moment when the man in tain activities of SS General Kaltenbrunner:
the street-if any streets are left by that time-will realize that
the war has been lost by Hitler. But this moment will come, Some time ago all the municipal fire departments were reorganized,
and on that day the Nazi underground must have all its preparations as a result of complaints that the old system did not function fast
enough to combat the effects of the new raids. Hence many new dis-
complete and must begin to function—-underground. tricts were formed, and me alarm system changed, and in many cases
When wil this moment come? The answer may perhaps be con- the fire department was divided into the fire police proper and a
tained in the words of a report which recently arrived from Swit- reserve. In some Gaus, where the new organization seemed to be
zerland: “The end will come on the day when the Gestapo or the taking too much time, Gestapo officials appeared and investigated and
SS will have to shoot at German women and children.” saw to it that things were stepped up.
There was nothing strange about that. In war things have to be
stepped up. If there are investigations after the war nobody will be
astonished that the Gestapo intervened. But the real reason why Kal-
tenbrunner sent his men there was to determine exactly who was
going to be in charge of the reserve organization or to put his men
in charge of it. . . .
Gestapo men also appeared in a number of waterworks, changing
the crews rather suddenly, sending some of the old hands to the Rus-
sian front and replacing them with new men, all of them unknown in Nazis they don’t recognize as such. For they will not be able
the particular district. In most cases the reason given for the changes to administer the country, even for a week, without using the
was that the work could be done by fewer men; and, indeed, in most already existing machines and apparatuses of administration. These
cases fewer men were installed. But in at least three cases more men machines are full of Nazis, unknown, anonymous. If they should
were installed than had been there before.
all be removed, everything would break down: supply, transport,
Such goings on seem more mysterious than they actually are. It the mails, electricity, gas, water. The heads of departments, the
is logical that the organizations chosen as a hideout and field of prominent Nazis, will either disappear of their own free will or
activity for the members of the underground must be of a type be fired by the occupation authorities. But that is the only radical
which is likely to survive military defeat, revolution, and occupa- change that the latter can make. Any more would bring indescrib-
tion. In a word, they must be necessities within the nation’s life. able confusion and general disorder.
And the fire departments and waterworks are undoubtedly such There are a great number of irreplaceable bureaus and organiza-
necessities. tions which no AMG will want to touch. For example, the numer-
It was Kaltenbrunner’s idea to have all technicians working in ous health departments, every organization which helps protect
public utilities undergo a training course in anti-sabotage prepared public health, will have to go on functioning. If there is any inter-
by the Gestapo. It seemed a logical thing to do. After all, why ference with them, the whole country, and this includes invading
should the men who were responsible for light, water, or electricity troops, might be swept by epidemic.
not know how to protect themselves against sabotage? But this Naturally it is in all the existing organizations that Nazis will
was not what they learned in the Gestapo course. They were taught first try to hibernate at the end of the war, when they must play
mainly how to behave in order that they might appear to be merely dead. They will be in fire departments and in utilities; they will
harmless and decent workers while they carried on their own sit in tax collectors’ offices-an important strategic position, be-
secret activities, and how to avoid creating suspicion if and when cause it is these offices that will furnish the lists from which the
they might be investigated for political reasons. Allies will determine reparations payments; and they will fill the
The anti-sabotage department of the Gestapo will, of course, offices of food-distributing agencies whose task it will be to avert
vanish completely before the party goes underground. Later on famine after the war.
nobody will ever be able to find out which of the workers have As far as the public health setup is concerned, it has already
been trained there. been organized for underground purposes. Werner Hilgenfeld,
Closely associated with Kaltenbrunner in creating the under- head of the Gesundheitsamt (Public Health Department)? has re-
ground cells was Major Gustav Hoepfner. Deputy director of the organized a great many of its subdepartments, installing in them
Statistisches Reichsamt, Hoepfner was the man who could easily new Nazi cells which will serve the underground. The depart-
provide Kaltenbrunner with details of utilities and other machines ments thus infiltrated are:
within the state in which men can be replaced without endanger- 1. Department for the Mentally Ill.
ing the continuation of the particular plant or waterworks or fire 2. Department for Cancer and Diabetes.
department concerned. 3. Department for Drug Addicts.
4. Department for Venereal Diseases.
In 1919 the Allied troops that marched into the Rhineland co- 5. Department of Food Inspection.
operated with the representatives of the old regime. In 1943 they 6. Department for Tuberculosis.
did the same thing in North Africa and in Italy. And though they 7. Department for Disinfection.
will not want to co-operate with those they know as Nazis in Ger- 8. Department for Epidemics.
many, they may be forced by necessity to co-operate with those 9. Department of Hospitals.
In other departmentsy such as the Department for Pre-Natal slipped into the new setup. In this connection it is interesting to
Carey Department for Cripples, Department of Health Resorts, no note that quite a few new men have been reported to have entered
such cells have yet been organized. Hilgenfeld perhaps believes the Oberlindober organization lately, the arrangements with the
they may be suspendedy or even completely dissolved. War Ministry having been made, so it is said, by Oberlindober
There are, in additiony numerous organizations of public wel- himself.
farey including the hospitalsy which will serve as hideouts for the The German Red Cross, too, may play a doubtful part within
Nazis. Certain organizations which existed before Hitler, but this whole postwar setup. It must not be forgotten that the German
which disappeared or were merged with others under his regime, Red Cross has become a Nazi organization during the past ten
may be re-established. The Reichszentrale fuer Gesundheitsdienst years. The active president, Dr. Grawitz, is not only an intimate
(Reich Central Organization for Health Service), for instance, friend of Hitler, but in his spare time an SS Brigadefuehrer. His
which has existed only on paper since 1933, has been revived since closest collaborators are Dr. Hornemann, who has the title of a
October 1, 1943. Others will follow. General Hauptfuehrer and Dr. Blumberg, who calls himself Gen-
The question of what to do with the men crippled in this war eralfuehrer. It is not a coincidence that these supposed angels of
presents possibilities for Hilgenfeld. As we have seen, he has not mercy carry such military titles and that there are other equally
included the Department for Cripples in his underground scheme, military titles in the new Red Cross setup, among them Oberstfeld-
for the Nazis seem to believe that no existing welfare organization fuehrer and Feldfuehrer. Furthermore, every prominent Gauleiter
for war cripples will be allowed to continue after the occupation and Nazi mayor has some kind of position or title within the Red
is complete. The Allies will be particularly suspicious of the influ- Cross. And last, but not least, the Nazis themselves have boasted,
ences to which those cripples may be exposed; but something will in official statements, that they have reorganized the Red Cross in
have to be done about them, and since there will be more than a such a way as to fit it into the organization of the army. Thus the
million permanently disabled men in Germany, an enormous ad- German Red Cross has long ceased to be an independently func-
ministrative apparatus must be constructed to care for them. tioning machine. It is part of the army; and, even more, it has
At present there is in existence an organization comprising all become part and parcel of the Nazi party.
German war cripples. Its head is Hanns Oberlindobery who was And the head of the German Red Cross, the Duke of Coburg-
the head of a similar organization called the War Veterans’ Aid Gotha, one of the most violent Nazis, has excellent connections
Society, after World War I. In the thirties Oberlindober gained in- abroad—so excellent, in fact, that when he visited Washington in
ternational importance as the leader of the War Veterans’ Asso- 1940, when the Germans there were already being boycotted, for
ciations. Oberlindober himself made extensive travels to France the rape of Poland had aroused public opinion against them—he
and other neighboring countriesy posing as a pacifist and staging cut quite a figure in Washington society. The Nazis are counting
touching scenes of international fraternization. Too late it became on the duke’s international relations to help them after the war.
known to the French secret service that he used his organizations With him at its head the German Red Cross, they believe, will be
as an apparatus for espionage. able to survive in its present form, since the Allies, or so they fondly
It can be assumed that Oberlindober himself will disappear after hope, will look upon him as a Red Cross official rather than as a Nazi.
the defeat. He has become much too notorious. It may also be Thus the German Red Cross would form an ideal front for the
assumed that his organizations will not be allowed to continue in coming Nazi underground. Indeed, it would be something special
their present form. However, whatever administrative apparatus within thrnew setup. The whole organization would be able to
may be set up to take care of German war cripples after the war, continue its existence lock, stock, and barrel. Unlike the govern-
the need for so-called experts will be great and thus opportunity ment agencies and party departments it would thus constitute a
will be offered for a number of “neutral” Oberlindober men to be perfectly legal setup within an illegal setup. A daring idea, but
one which, given international sentiment as to the real purpose of ready a group of law-enforcing officers who were apparently com-
the Red Cross, has an excellent chance of succeeding. And there pletely non-political and who could be used by the AMG. It is
would, of course, be no difficulty then in supplying any number of into this Landwacht that Himmler has been sending men of his
valuable and dependable Nazis with “neutral jobs” within the Red Elite Guard.
Cross. Himmler also believes that the Criminal Police and the regular
However, if this Nazi plan to use the Red Cross should not uniformed police will not be dissolved, since these departments
prove feasible the leading men of the German Red Cross will have never been completely identified with the party. It is difficult
assign a cast of understudies to take their parts. These men will indeed to run a country or even a city without the help of a long-
say: “Yes, we have been Nazis, but now we are working for the established criminal police or regular police force. The smooth
Red Cross and we are much too busy to think of the past.” It is, working of a criminal police depends on personal contacts de-
of course, true that there will be much Red Cross work to be done veloped over a long period of time, on an army of tipsters and stool
after the war: exchange of prisoners, the transport of hundreds of pigeons, on the intimate knowledge of the habits and hideouts of
thousands of men, helping families in destroyed cities all over the the criminals. Only in extreme cases will occupying authorities fail
world. It will be almost impossible for the International Red Cross to use old hands in police matters. Hence here, too, will be a spot
to do this work without its German branch. Thus this branch can in which a few thousand SS men can neutralize themselves. Un-
provide an ideal front for the Nazi underground. doubtedly Himmler has already taken measures to plant some of
his best men in the Criminal Police and the regular uniformed
Another ideal place will be the police. police.
Herr Himmler has been quoted as saying that no AMG could In almost all cases so far only the older SS men have been trans-
possibly dissolve the entire German police without throwing Ger- planted. The SS possesses two reserve formations: In Reserve I are
many, and thus Europe, into complete chaos. He is probably right. men between thirty-five and forty-five years. But this reserve exists
He is also right when he says, as he has done so often, that within on paper only, since most men over thirty-five have been sent to
the police the SS comprises the most dependable forces of the the front. Reserve II, however, is quite large. It comprises SS men
Nazi party. It is, therefore, the SS which Himmler will try to save. over forty-five years who have seen more than twelve years of
But, on the other hand, the SS will be the first unit to be dissolved active service—in short, the oldest fighters, men ideally suited to
by the Allies and SS leaders will be arrested and shot. future underground work. It is from this reserve that Himmler has
Here, then, is the plan which Himmler has evolved in order to chosen the men to be sent into the Landwacht and into the crim-
save as many as possible of his dependable men: A great many of inal and uniformed police, particularly in southern Germany. Only
these 250,000 or 300,000 are to be taken out of the SS proper and in exceptional cases have these men been told why they have been
incorporated in police troops which may escape suspension. Such transferred and what they will have to do later. They have merely
groups will be the Criminal Police, the Ordnungspolizei (regular been informed that they were chosen because the Führer is certain
uniformed police) the Landjaeger (gendarmes in the open coun- that they will be loyal to the party under any condition, and that
try), and the Feuerschutzpolizei (Fire Police). Himmler wants them to stay at their posts, no matter what.
About nine months ago Himmler reorganized the gendarmes All in all, Himmler hopes to have five thousand to seven thou-
into a new organization called Landwacht (County Guards) whose sand separate cells of former SS members. These men will leave
supposed duty it is to prevent disorders in villages and towns. It the SS for good. Some of them will even leave the party, so as to
is made up of the natives of each particular district and is sup- be completely neutralized. These latter may officially disavow the
posed to be a non-political organization. Anybody who volunteers party before public witnesses, who can be used later to testify how
is accepted. Himmler’s idea in forming the Landwacht was to have anti-Nazi they have been for a long time.
When Himmler first presented this plan to his collaborators, schaft became the refuge for hundreds of officers and soldiers after
many of them thought that he was too optimistic and that the the last war and served as a front for the training of many secret
AMG would never use any police formations which had existed military groups. In fact, it became part of the Black Army. Its sud-
under the Hitler regime. The army’s representative, Colonel den growth was explained to the outside world as being necessi-
Delius, is said to have declared that the occupying powers would tated by the increase in crime and petty thefts in postwar Germany.
rather risk disorder than work with the Hitler police. If such dis- Under Hitler these Wach-und Schliessgesellschaften existed in
order occurred, he stated, the AMG might try to appeal to name only. But during the summer of 1943 certain branches were
“responsible Germans” to organize an improvised police force revived in Berlin, Breslau, Dresden, and Leipzig. And other
which could guarantee law and order. branches will undoubtedly be formed.
Similar improvised organizations, called Einwohnerwehren, for The obvious idea is that though the AMG may dissolve all police
policing the streets of German cities were formed during the revo- formations, and even though they may not permit neutral Ein-
lution of 1918-19. Although organized for the ostensible purpose wohnerwehren to exist, they will certainly have nothing to say
of combating the Communist danger, they were at the same time against the continuation of an organization of watchmen to guard
used also as collecting centers for discharged officers and conspir- stores and houses. This means that a few thousand of the more im-
ing nationalists, and thus served as feeding organizations to the portant Nazis and army men will be provided with safe hideouts.
Black Reichswehr. Another equally useful organization, also As for the cells that are being organized within the administra-
founded during the revolution, was the Technische Nothilfe tion of the state railways, the mails, the tax-collecting offices, and
(Technical Emergency Squad). Outwardly this was an organiza- the consumers’ unions-since it is to be expected that the heads of
tion of citizens trained to take over the waterworks, power plants, each and every one of these departments will be dismissed and in
the running of sspply trains at the time when the radical workers many cases arrested-valuable Nazis are being installed in them
walked out on strike, crippling all public service and endangering as personal secretaries, stenographers, and file clerks. These people
many human lives. This organization, too, was in close contact will be in extremely important positions when the head men are
with the illegal army. dismissed, for any new director of a post office or a railway station
Colonel Delius proposed to repeat this old device of 1918-19 on must depend on the personnel of his predecessor. He cannot at-
a nationwide scale. In all German cities, officers too old for service, tempt to do his job without the help of those who know the rou-
or who had perhaps been discharged on account of wounds, were tine.
to be dispatched to similar organizations, in no way affiliated with In this connection it is quite interesting to learn that the Civil
the party and apparently strictly neutral. After the war they would Affairs Branch of General Eisenhower’s Expeditionary Force has
come out in the open and put themselves at the disposal of the made preparations to dig up German civil servants of long standing
AMG as improvised groups of armed citizens who could guarantee “who joined the Nazis to keep their jobs” and who after the occu-
law and order. pation may be allowed to retain their present posts. It was officially
Such groups have already been started. Konstantin Hierl, as well stated that “not everybody who belongs to the Nazi party will be
as the War Ministry, has furnished lists of suitable men. removed.” It was, furthermore, pointed out that any German,
There are any number of other organizations in which officers, before he is permitted to hold a federal, state, or municipal job,
non-commissioned officers, and military experts might be placed. must first satisfactorily answer a questionnaire and among the
One of them is the so-called Wach-und Schliessgesellschaft, answers put down the reasons why he joined the Nazi party. Each
founded fifty years ago as an organization on a national scale to will be warned that a false declaration will make him liable to
supply private enterprises, such as department stores, and apart- twenty years in prison. A strange mentality, indeed, which wants
ment houses, with night watchmen. This Wach-und Schliessgesell- to believe that those who are willing to rebuild the Third Reich
all over again and who in the case of their admitting the tiuth The name of Professor Albert Speer was mentioned for the first
would be faced with death, concentration camp, or starvation, will time in reports dealing with the numerous conferences of Himm-
be frightened by a prison term if ever they should be found out. ler and company toward the end of October 1943. These reports
That naïveté is what the Nazis are counting on. only that he would play a decisive part in future activities.
The date seems to imply that it was the influence of the generals
If one discards the possibility that the German police organiza- which obtained him this “honorary mention.” His selection would
tions will be allowed to continue in existence—and it is extremely seem to have been a logical one, too, since Speer, though one of
unlikely that whoever occupies Germany will allow it—the largest the leading Nazis, is much less Nazi than any of the others.
single machine, almost made to order to serve as a hideout or point Albert Speer, a pleasant-looking man of agreeable, conservative
of assembly for the rank and file of the Nazis, is the vast organiza- bearing, not yet forty, is one of the youngest of the Nazi big shots.
tion of Albert Speer who, in addition to being head of the Muni- He grew up in southern Germany, studied architecture in Munich,
tions Ministry, also supervises the so-called Autobahnen (High- and entered the party in 1932. He first became Hitler’s protégé
ways) built by the famous engineer Fritz Todt. These highways, when the Führer saw and admired his designs for some party
the most modern in all Europe, which made Hitler’s rapid troop buildings. Later he drew the plans for other important Nazi build-
deployments possible, will be indispensable after the war. The ings, among them the new chancellery in Berlin. For some time
AMG will need them to make shipments across Germany. Accord- he took no part in political matters. This interest came to him only
ing to German statistics, about fifty thousand to seventy-five thou- later, when he was called upon to draw up blueprints for the Sieg-
sand men are necessary to administer and control this complicated fried Line. Afterward he built the fortifications on the French
net of roads and tunnels. The same number of men will be needed and Norwegian coast which became famous under the name of
to direct shipping on the numerous rivers and canals. The water- Festung Europa. After the death of Minister Todt, Speer took over
ways, too, are under Speer’s supervision. the supervision of Todt’s organization—consisting of engineers
Thus Speer now controls roughly 300,000 officials, employees, and technicians for building roads, fortifications, railways, airports,
and workers inside Germany. If life inside Germany is not to be et cetera, and showed great talent in making it even more efficient
brought to a standstill, his organization cannot be demolished com- and more streamlined than it had been planned. All these talents,
pletely. A minimum of 100,000 men will be needed to keep traffic together with the fact that he never had been guilty of an act
going on water and on land. There is, therefore, a good chance which could cause his conviction as a war criminal, made him
that the AMG will not altogether suspend Speer’s organization. possible for “the day after.”
It will be said that it is not even a Nazi organization, that it com- There was, however, still another reason for choosing Speer for
prises technicians, engineers, and a great number of workers who this post. While he was building the European fortifications hun-
joined one of the Nazi workers’ organizations only by compulsion. dreds of millions of dollars had gone through his hands. Many of
Thus Speer’s empire becomes the ideal terrain for the incorpora- these millions had never been used for the fortifications. Further-
tion of additional thousands of Nazi cells. more, all the big European firms and contractors who wanted con-
Organization of these cells began on August 1, 1943. Again Kon- tracts for the Festung Europa found that they had to give bribes
stantin Hierl did most of the work. The army, too, had its fingers to Minister Speer personally. Thus Speer had apparently amassed
in this pie: it discharged a large number of engineers and sent a huge fortune-but had he really? All these moneys, more than
them into the Speer organization. thirty million dollars in all, had been transferred abroad, mainly
This makes Albert Speer a rather important personality. And to Argentina. Obviously not for Speer, who needs very little per-
that is precisely what he is going to be within the framework of sonally- he himself lives very simply and spends frugally—but for
the underground-to-be. the party, which would need it one day. In short, Speer had helped
to build up the vast fortune that the coming Nazi underground character, long before Hitler came to power. Although Rudolf
will need. Hess always seemed interested in her and her work, the Führer
Is he, therefore, not the logical man to dispose of this fortune was not impressed by her. Only in 1934, when Fraulein Lydia
when the time comes? Gottschesky, whom Hitler had appointed leader of the Nazi
Is he, perhaps, the man destined to be the Führer of the under- women, suddenly became insane, was he finally persuaded to ap-
ground? The word Führer, in this connection, has not so much point Frau Scholtz-Klink in her place. He has never had to repent
the meaning of a figurehead, of a man whose personality must this choice. German women have been among the most ardent
inspire enthusiasm and loyalty, but the meaning of a practical and supporters of the Nazi regime ever since Frau Scholtz-Klink be-
shrewd manager. The Nazis will need such a manager when they came their leader.
go underground-a man who will not have to go into hiding, but, Among the tasks of women in the coming Nazi underground
on the contrary, can be used by the occupying forces; a man who on which Frau Scholtz-Klink has to concentrate must be:
controls the largest of the absolutely vital organizations, for the 1. Replacement of compromised women leaders by unknown
time after the war; a man, finally, with excellent connections in women.
army circles, and, necessarily, with industry too. Albert Speer 2. Replacement of Nazi women’s organizations by organiza-
might be just the right man. tions of a professional or social character, such as cooking and
He will bear close watching. sewing circles, or clubs for women swimmer, women accountants,
women doctors, et cetera.
Whichever of the organizations discussed here will be left in- 3. Replacement of compromised men by women in the under-
tact—whether it be the welfare organizations or the hospitals, the ground.
Criminal Police or the machinery of Speer, the railroads or the 4. Psychological preparation of the women for the time when
utilities that will be most active in the coming Nazi underground the party will be illegal: it will be doubly important then for
—one thing is certain: the women will have to play a large part women to be behind their men, to encourage them in their work,
in its activities. Since it is practically certain that the Allies will not et cetera.
sentence any women as war criminals except in proved cases of 5. Special training of stenographers, typists, filing clerks,
capital crimes, there will be little reason for the leading person- et cetera—in short, of all female personnel likely to be used either
alities of the women organizations to disappear and be replaced by by the occupying powers (AMG) or by a future German govern-
unknown personalities, although the organizations themselves will, ment.
of course, undergo a change. 6. The training of young girls, or rather their preparation for
Whatever is to be the specific part of the women in the whole the time when Germany is occupied by hundreds of thousands of
setup, they are now being organized by the “Leader of German foreign soldiers. After the last war, during the occupation of the
Women,” Frau Gertrude Scholtz-Klink. In this connection it may Rhineland, if a German girl had anything to do with an American
be interesting to note that Frau Scholtz-Klink in 1940 married a or English soldier, not to speak of intimate relations, it was con-
certain August Heissmeyer, Reich Inspector of Military Acad- sidered by the family and the entire community as outrageous
emies, who is a distant relative of Werner Heissmeyer. However, behavior incompatible with “German honor.” This time such
no proof has come to my attention that Werner Heissmeyer and “outrageous behavior” will not only be encouraged, but practically
Frau Scholtz-Klink are collaborating for the future of German demanded, by the Nazis, no matter what the official stand on this
Nazism. particular problem is. The reason is that young German girls
The lady in question was a violent nationalist and the leader of a entering into intimate relations with foreign soldiers may well
number of women’s organizations, some of them of almost military convince these soldiers that the German sare by no means the
bad people they are pictured; that the Nazi’s, too, had their good great number of men have lately transferred these men into the
points. In short, these German girls are being trained as dis- SA. Such transfers have been put on record and by the time the
seminators of Nazi propaganda. Allies invade Germany, there will be hosts of such files and
7. The training of women who will be logical contacts between dossiers. These files will not be burned but will, on the contrary,
the underground movement or certain cells of the underground be placed in the hands of the AMG and other authorities.
party and circles of influence, such as big business, industries, The underground will not oppose any revolts that may be at-
cartels, foreign politicians, et cetera. tempted by the SA men against Allied administrations or armies
Perhaps this last category will be the most important one, and of occupation. Neither will it oppose a bloody suppression of such
the one which will have to do the most necessary work for the revolts by the authorities. In this way it will get rid of a great
Nazi underground. However, few of the women who will be en- deal of ballast and establish confidence in the minds of AMG
gaged in such activities will come from the rank and file of the officers. At the same time the idea of revenge will be planted in
party or from the many departments and organizations which are the mind of average Germans.
under the control of Frau Scholtz-Klink. They will come rather The other large group of men which the party wants to dis-
from more pleasant milieus, such as former diplomatic circles, pense with is the group which inside Germany is generally called
industry, and big business. Only comparatively few women are the Maerzgefallenen (Those Who Fell in March).
needed. In September 1930 the Nazi party comprised only about 250,000
listed members. Even in January 1933, shortly before Hitler took
Once the entire preparatory work is done; once all the Nazis over, it had only about a million members. But after Hitler be-
selected and trained for the underground work have been assigned came Chancellor, particularly in March 1933, practically every
to their particular posts; once the gigantic reshuffling all over German wanted to climb on the bandwagon. Old party members
Germany has been completed and the new machinery is ready to who had fought and suffered during the twenties were disgusted
start, a great many Nazis will find themselves out in the cold. with these sudden converts to the Nazi cause, whom they re-
For the future Nazi party will be a small one. The underground garded as distinctly inferior to themselves. They referred scorn-
machine must of necessity be a wieldy one. It must not carry too fully to these upstarts as the Maerzgefallenen, an expression orig-
much ballast. Hence its crew must be limited. Those who cannot inally coined in reference to the one hundred and eighty-seven
be taken underground may not know it yet. They may not even revolutionaries who died on March 18, 1848, in Berlin.
learn it for some time to come. But their fate is already decided. The inner circle of the party never considered these upstart
Among the Nazis who will be thrown overboard, the SA Maerzgefallenen anything but opportunists who could not be de-
(Storm Troops) form the most prominent group numerically. pended upon. It was decided, therefore, not to give them any
The SA ceased playing an important role after the blood purge of opportunity to betray the party. This time the party will betray
1934, which ended the life not only of its chief of staff, Ernst them. Now they are being flattered and honored as loyal Nazis:
Roehm, but of most of its subleaders. Ever since then it has been they are given medals and decorations. But in their files it will be
carried along more for its nuisance value (the army has always recorded that they are wonderful Nazis who committed the most
been wary about the SA) than for any other reason. Roehm’s suc- shocking crimes out of loyalty to the Führer and the party. These
cessor, Viktor Lutze, did not play any role to speak of. After his files will not be destroyed. Thus the Maerzgefallenen will cer-
death Wilhelm Schepman became chief of staff of the SA. Unlike tainly be taken care of by the Allies. They will also live on as
Lutze, Schepman belongs in Himmler’s inner circle. Hence it martyrs in the eyes of the German people.
may be assumed that he knows what the fate of the SA is to be. Meanwhile, they are useful. They work hard, and thus replace
Party groups and party organizations which must get rid of a many of those officials and party members who can no longer at
tend to their various jobs because they are busy preparing the For instance, look at the members of the Ministry of Foreign
underground. Affairs, Undersecretary Luther and his right-hand man Buettner.
How far this double play with the Maerzgefallenen can go is They suddenly disappeared from their jobs in the spring of 1943.
evident from an order given early in the summer of 1943. Sud- It was said that they had been involved in some dubious real-
denly it was decreed that party insignia should no longer be worn estate transactions. Up to that time unsound transactions or out-
by any civilian members of the party, the reason given, within right thefts by prominent members of the Third Reich had cer-
the party, being that the public was becoming incensed over the tainly never seemed to interfere with their activity or their use-
many Nazis who were not at the front. After about two months fulness to the party. Then it was rumored that these two men were
another decree was issued which again allowed but did not order anti-Nazis. This may be true, but if so, wasn’t it a bit late to dis-
the wearing of the insignia. Of course the Maerzgefallenen, who cover it only in 1943? And anyhow, well-informed sources have
have always felt a certain inferiority, immediately put them on always stated that Luther and Buettner are loyal Nazis.
again with great pride. However, many of the Nazis of much The only explanation, then, is that their dismissal has been
earlier vintage no longer identified themselves thus in the eyes of arranged in order to give them an alibi for the future.
the public. This sort of thing has been going on for a long time. Several
The purpose behind this subterfuge is obvious. A year hence intelligence services have commented on the sudden disappearance
many Germans may have forgotten that certain men once wore of important personalities from political and party life. And it
the party insignia. Perhaps it will work. In any case those who has become quite the accepted thing to everybody in Germany.
wear the insignia until the eve of an Allied invasion of Germany But what has not yet become known is that all this also applies
will have a hard time of it. to a much greater number of anonymous persons all over Ger-
many, those on the second and third levels of the Nazi strata.
Bormann and Himmler have stated their hope of getting These unknown personalities may be used later by the under-
200,000 to 300,000 men underground. Compared to the large size ground. Party functionaries who may be known locally, but cer-
of the party this is a small number indeed. But an underground tainly not nationally, can easily be transferred to another city or
movement of 200,000 or 300,000 trained men, who know exactly town, where they will suddenly appear as anti-Nazis.
what they have to do, who will make few mistakes and can profit The party helps in their masquerades. These men get new docu-
by all the mistakes the other side makes, can achieve a great deal. ments which “prove” that they have always been anti-Nazi. Notes
While everything has been done and is being done to denounce are inserted in their personal files saying they must be watched on
the Nazis whom the underground wants to throw overboard, no account of their anti-Hitler attitudes and “unworthy” behavior.
effort is being spared to make the lives of the prospective under- Some of them will undoubtedly be sent to concentration camps
ground Nazis as secure as possible. for crimes which they have never committed, but which will make
A great deal has been written lately about certain Nazis who them look dependable in the eyes of the Allies; some have per-
have fallen out with Hitler. Rumors have suggested that there haps already succeeded in joining anti-Nazi circlesand are pre-
have been at least a hundred of them. We have heard that Baldur tending to conspire against Hitler. Later on they will be able to
von Schirach, for instance, former Youth Führer and later chief use such activities as alibis.
Nazi of Vienna, has escaped abroad. Similar rumors have been Some may stage assaults on prominent Nazis, perhaps even on
spread about a number of officials of the Ministry of Foreign Af- Hitler himself. Toward the end of 1943 and at the beginning
fairs and, of course, many ambassadors and ministers. In some of 1944 the so-called secret reports of leading Nazis said the
cases these men may really have decided to leave the sinking ship. Führer was in danger and that plots loomed against him and his
But in many cases all they wanted was to create such an impression. intimates. Strangely enough, these reports found their way abroad,
though in former years no instance of such nervousness was ever- aid the organizers of the coming underground in any way possible.
made known to the world. The reason for this is obvious: The Most people feel that Dr. Goebbels is a coward who will try to
leaders of Germany have never been afraid that the Führer might gave his skin. I believe that Goebbels is, above all, a cynic, Here
be assassinated; and it is a good guess that they are not afraid of it is a man who for a decade has done exactly what he has dreamed
now. If they really did fear such a coup they would certainly be of doing all his life. The frustrated intellectual who failed in his
careful not to let it be known to the world. On the other hand, all career as a newspaperman, playwright, and author, has for more
this talk will make the record of those who are supposed to be the than ten years dictated to the whole of Germany and, during the
plotters just that much more realistic. last three years, to all of Europe, what to write, what not to write,
what to play, what to say on the radio. He has had the great
And what are the chances for survival of the Nazis of the first triumph—from, of course, his own point of view—of making
order—Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, and the others? people think and feel exactly as he has wanted them to think and
There is no chance of their going underground. They are too feel. True, he has not entirely succeeded; his lies could not deceive
well known, too easy to discover. They may survive—but only if all of the people all the time. But he has done well enough, every-
they can get out of Germany in time. thing considered. Furthermore, he has had a wonderful time of it,
For some of them there is such a chance of escape. There are what with direct avenues of approach to many beautiful ac-
always U-boats ready to take them to Japan, if that country is still tresses. . . .
in the war, or to Argentina. There are planes to take them to What is there left for a man like Goebbels? What could life
Spain, Switzerland, or Sweden. Yes, most of them may be able to possibly mean to a man who has thrived until now on his power
save themselves. It will depend only on the means at their dis- over the thoughts of seventy million people, if he should have to
posal and circumstances at the moment of decision. live out his years in a faraway country? He has millions outside
But will all of them want to save themselves? This depends on of Germany. But what does money mean to him? Goebbels will be
their characters. Some of them will want to save themselves for a cynic to the very end. He will decide that he has seen and done
the simple reason that they want to go on living, no matter what. and had everything—and will shoot his brains out.
They may not be at all interested in the coming underground Goering, on the other hand, may try to save himself. He enjoys
movement; perhaps all along they have been Nazis simply because life and, because he wants to continue to live pleasantly, he will
they loved power and a good life. Yet others, for the very reason run away. He has many connections outside Germany. Every-
that they love only power and a luxurious life, and now see them where, even in this country, there are people who think that he is
slipping away from them, may decide they don’t want to go on not so bad as Hitler. Furthermore, he is tremendously rich, and has
living. most of his money salted away in neutral countries. So why should
Contrary to the general opinion, I think Goebbels will be among he not use his private plane to land somewhere in Sweden on the
the second group. The little Propaganda Minister has an im- estate of one of his good friends, or, better still, take a U-boat and
portant job in the preparation of the underground. Needless to say, arrive at the ranch of one of his many friends in Argentina, a ranch
since it is necessary to the conspirators that the war last as long as which probably is his property anyhow?
possible, the maintaining of German morale has become a neces- Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, though a full-fledged
sity of the first order. But Dr. Goebbels does more. In April 1944 Nazi, can go on living even after the party is overthrown. Accord-
he was appointed City President of Berlin and armed with powers ing to informed sources he already possesses several estates in
superseding those of the mayor and of any other municipal official. neutral countries. Ribbentrop may not wait till the last moment
Which means that he can reorganize anything connected with the to reach them.
running of the capital without outside interference. Thus he can Other prominent Nazis are less fortunate. Men like the head of
100 the nazis go underground if i were a nazi assigned to the u.s.a 101
the Workers’ Front, Robert Ley, or the numerous Gauleiters, such But even if Hitler should decide differently he will have no
as Dr. Erich Koch, and the like, will have no place to go. Never- choice. He will not survive the downfall of his regime. He must
theless, they may try to save their lives. Whether they succeed or die. And if he does not commit suicide, the leaders of the Nazi
not will depend partly on when they decide they are through and underground themselves will see to it that he perishes. True, they
partly on Heinrich Himmler. need the Führer for the future Nazi underground. But the Führer
One can well imagine the Gestapo informing Himmler of the they need for that future is a dead Führer.
moves of all those who will want to get away; and one can see For they must create a legend, the legend of a great and noble
Himmler taking great pleasure in arresting a few of his former leader. Once the Nazis manufactured a beautiful legend with noth-
intimate friends just as they climb into the plane that could trans- ing to work on but the dead pimp, Horst Wessel.
port them to safety. While Hitler is alive such a legend could never be started. Once
As to Martin Bormann and Generals Heissmeyer and Kalten- he is dead, the Nazis will do with him what they did with Horst
brunner, it is not likely that they will be able to get out alive. Nor Wessel.
will most of the men who are working today at 11 Koenigsallee
in Berlin.
Himmler himself is said to be resigned to dying inside Germany.
At least nothing is known of any attempt on his part to save his
skin. However, it may very well be that the underground has de- 7
cided that he is too important an organizer to be sacrificed and that
behind his back secret measures are being taken to save him at the
last minute. If I Were a Nazi Assigned
But there is one man who will never be saved, no matter what.
That man is Adolf Hitler. The Führer is not the type to run away—
contrary to the belief of many who have never forgotten that he
to the U.S.A.
did throw himself down on the street during the famous march
to the Feldherrnhalle (Putsch of 1923) when soldiers began to use ON NOVEMBER 30, 1943, the senator from North Dakota, Gerald
their machine guns against the Nazis, and that he finally ran away Prentice Nye, made a speech in the United States Senate in which
to hide himself. But that was only good horse sense then. He had a he complained bitterly about certain newspapermen who had falsi-
good chance for a comeback and didn’t want to spoil it. This time fied statements made by him during a stay in Chicago. In an at-
he will not have a good chance for a comeback, and therefore tempt to state what precisely he had said, he went on record as
flight would be sheer cowardice. He will not flee. He has drama- follows:
tized himself to such a degree that he could never see himself
involved in a humiliating escape and exile. In answer to questions concerning Fascism and its future, I said
People who know Hitler personally, or who know enough about precisely this, and in direct language that could not be misunderstood
him to judge what his final reactions may be, are unanimous in by those who would have wished to be fair and to report all that was
their belief that he will fight to the last, that he will go on fighting said, not just a part of what was said, not something that had not
even when German resistance is crumbling around him, and that been said at all. Asked if Fascism was not essentially militaristic and ag-
he will finally flee to his famous Eagle’s Nest on the Kehlstein gressive, I responded with these exact words:
“Not more essentially aggressive and militaristic than have been
near Berchtesgaden. The Eagle’s Nest could easily hold off be- other forms of government we have known in this world.”
siegers for a long time. Then Hitler will blow the whole thing up. I believe then came an inquiry as to whether Fascism would endure
after we had won this war, and my response was to this effect, if not In 1936 he fathered the Neutrality Law, which Congress passed.
in these exact words: It made exports of arms or ammunition to any belligerent country
“If Germany and Italy want that form of government, then under illegal. In 1937 Nye made an important speech on the occasion of
our policy of self-determination they should have Fascism. It is hard the dinner of the American League against War and Fascism
for me to believe that the people of Germany and Italy would tolerate which, to say the least, was a very leftist organization. In the same
more of it after what Fascism had brought to them. Maybe the United year he attempted to change the Neutrality Law in such a way that
Nations will have to afford safeguards that will insure the people of
Germany and Italy an honest chance to express their choice in reach-
America could sell arms to the Spanish Loyalists whom he re-
ing their determination.” garded as the representatives of real democracy. He did not succeed
That was the sum and substance, the total of what I said that would in that. But he did succeed in convincing conservative circles that
seem to have afforded the rank misrepresentation which has been he had become a dangerous revolutionary. Yale University did not
reported and which I have been quoting at length. I let the record allow him to make a speech there, and when he campaigned for
stand right here. reelection in 1938 he was aided by a non-partisan committee
If this sort of reasoning of mine threatens our civilization, makes formed by such liberals as Senator Norris, Charles Beard, and
me a Fascist, gives aid and comfort to the enemy, constitutes a white- Bruce Bliven, editor of the New Republic.
wash of Fascism or an advocacy of Fascism for America, then of Then, suddenly, he underwent a complete change which has
course I am guilty of all that has been charged against me. been one of the great mysteries of American politics. Only three
months after his re-election he spoke against President Roosevelt’s
It was a long way between such a stand and the ideas of the foreign policy—at a meeting of the German-American Bund. He
young senator who arrived in Washington in 1925, a man of not had found a new base from which to operate. He demanded in the
yet thirty-three with a serious and energetic face and eyes whose Senate that the United States not open their doors to Jewish
color defied definition. This young man, who had been nominated refugees from Germany and Austria. And everything the senator
senator by his governor after the elected senator died suddenly, has said since then has been precisely what the Nazis would have
had not been easily acceptable to the rest of the Senate. He was wanted him to say if they had exercised any influence on him.
a liberal, even a radical, an admirer of the elder La Follette, and the To quote from his speeches after Hitler attacked Poland in Sep-
more conservative senators were a bit suspicious of him. Finally, tember 1939 and during the following years:
after many days of debating the legal aspect of Nye’s nomination, “Britain is the greatest aggressor in modern history.” “Britain’s
he was admitted to the Senate. The New York Times complained impending doom ought not to alarm us.” “I oppose aid to a Russia
in an editorial that this was “a bad day’s work.” populated by thieves, human butchers, and murderers of religion.”
Nye became one of the most liberal senators in Washington. “If Hitler should be victorious, there is no reason to think he would
Though a Republican, from 1932 on he was on the side of the New contemplate retaliatory actions.” “The Robin Moor is sunk. The
Dealers in almost all decisive questions. In 1934 he became chair- British might have done it. I would be very much surprised if
man of a Senate committee to investigate the earnings of the muni- Germany had.”
tions industry during the last war and the possible role the men From February 1940 on, when he became a member of the Senate
behind this industry had played in bringing it about. The investi- Foreign Relations Committee, he voted against all measures pro-
gation was an enormous success for Nye, who made the country posed by the government for the defense of the United States.
conscious of the fact that indeed a few men had made enormous On July 31, 1941, he made his first anti-Semitic speech, thunder-
fortunes out of the bloody fight. Thus the senator almost auto- ing against foreign-born film producers and against the Jews, who,
matically became the leader in what may be termed “the fight for he maintained, were the leaders in the movement against him. He
peace.” His followers comprised many liberals and even leftists. also demanded an investigation of the moving-picture industry,
mentioning among other reasons that this industry was not im- to talk to Senator Nye. The point is that if he acted logically, he
partial because it had engaged in propaganda against Fascism. would try.
On December 7, 1941, he spoke at a meeting of the America First
Committee in Pittsburgh. Before he began a reporter handed him a The Nazi underground will have to send a great number of
telegram with the news of Pearl Harbor. He read it, shrugged, and agents to every country in the world, or use those already abroad.
said, “This should be confirmed,” and then made his speech. The But they will also try to make use of men and women everywhere
same evening he said that Pearl Harbor was exactly what England who allow themselves to be thus used. They need not be Nazis
had planned for the United States and that the President had themselves to be useful to the Nazis. Undoubtedly Senator Nye
pushed America into the catastrophe. cannot be called a Nazi; neither could Senator Burton K. Wheeler.
And though he voted the next day for declaration of war on But both these men have allowed themselves to be made use of
Japan, he did not change the views he had stated on the platform by the Nazis. For many years, almost since the beginning of World
of the German-American Bund. War II, German propaganda broadcasts have been quoting from
Consciously or unconsciously, Senator Nye has done a lot for the speeches made by these senators. This does not necessarily mean
Nazis and their sympathizers in this country. He is one of the few that what the senators had to say was wicked. It only means that
Americans who have been praised in Hitler’s organ in the United the coming Nazi underground must logically consider the senators
States, the Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter. It is no mere co- potential aids.
incidence that in many cases when Nazi agents, seditionists, or
American Fascists were arrested, Nye’s speeches were found in If I were a Nazi working underground in the United States after
their possession. Evidently these men felt that Senator Nye could this war, whom would I try to reach? What could I hope to gain
be regarded as an ally. through such a contact? In what way could the man I tried to reach
All of which means that the coming Nazi underground must be of help to my movement?
believe that in Senator Nye it possesses a potential ally, and an ex- Let us, for a few minutes, dwell on a hypothetical situation. It
tremely valuable one. After ally he has come out for everything they was mentioned before that the Ordensburg Sonthofen, which was
stand for and against everything they are against. What more can set up to create new Führers, is now training the agents of the
they ask than a senator who defends thirty men and women in- coming underground who will go abroad. No details are available
dicted by the Department of Justice as enemy agents, or at least as to what these pupils have to learn. But it stands to reason that
sympathizers, as Nye did in January 1944? For even if these men they will have to know a great deal about personalities who may
and women are not sentenced because of technicalities, there can sympathize with the Nazi movement later on. Let us suppose they
be no doubt in anybody’s mind, least of all in a Nazi’s mind, where have to pass an examination—Germans are so thorough!—and that
they stand. SS General Werner Heissmeyer has arrived in Sonthofen to in-
An agent of the Nazi underground working in this country after terrogate the pupils personally. Let us picture such a scene.
the war would perhaps refrain from getting in touch with any of Heissmeyer: “And whom would you attempt to get in touch
those thirty indicted seditionists. It might get him unwanted pub- with if you were in the United States, Gerhard Mueller?”
licity. But if he had any sense at ally he certainly would try to reach Mueller: “I would try to reach Fritz Kuhn!”
the senator who stood by those seditionists so courageously, and Heissmeyer: (with disgust): “Mueller will be shipped to the
who stands for everything they represent, the senator who prac- Russian front. Why is this answer so completely idiotic, Schulze?”
tically confirmed the right of existence for a Nazi underground Schulze: “Because Kuhn is too much identified with our move-
with his speech of November 30. ment. Even if he should remain in the United States after the war,
Of course the underground agent may not succeed in getting he certainly could not put us in touch with any important people.”
Heissmeyer: “Very well. And whom would you pick, Walther the general continues.) “Knackebacher mentioned this Senator—
Frimel?” eh—Reynolds. Now, what do you know about Reynolds, Neu-
Frimel: “I might try to reach Charles Lindbergh. Of course Mr. burger?”
Lindbergh has not made any public statements since the United Neuburger: “Senator Robert Rice Reynolds of North Carolina
States went to war, but he has never repudiated the wonderful has a long record of co-operating with outright pro-Fascist and anti-
things he said about the Luftwaffe and the Führer nor did he ever Semitic groups. He owns a newspaper, the American Vindicator,
return the medal Marshal Goering gave him. Nor has he protested which propagandizes anti-alien and anti-labor laws. He is violently
against being quoted in our newspapers and in our broadcasts.” opposed to President Roosevelt, he is an extreme ‘nationalist’ and
Heissmeyer: “Not bad, not bad at all! And you, Knackebacher, isolationist. He is what the Americans would call a colorful per-
whom would you try to reach if you had to specialize, let us say, sonality. Born sixty years ago, he ran away from home at the age of
in congressmen?” fourteen and has worked at many different trades. He broke mules
Knackebacher (rapidly, with closed eyes, as though he had been in Florida. He was a patent-medicine spieler in Chicago, a book
memorizing it for a long time): “Roy O. Woodruff, Fred Bradley, salesman in Ohio, a professional wrestler, editor of a physical-
Dewey Short, Paul W. Shafer, John E. Rankin, Harold Knutson, culture magazine, manager of a roller-skating rink, and the author
William P. Lambertson, Stephen A. Day, Martin Dies, Hamilton of a number of travel books. He has made many trips to foreign
Fish, Clare E. Hoffman.” (He takes a deep breath.) “My reason is countries, often working his way on boats. During the last war he
that all of these men have been collaborating with the so-called did not go with his company to France, but played in a vaudeville
American nationalist groups, that is, groups who have been attack- sketch Captain Bob of the National Guard somewhere in the state
ing all our enemies, such as Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill, Mr. of Louisiana. He made several unsuccessful attempts to become
Stalin, the Jews, et cetera, and never our leaders or any of our United States senator, but only succeeded in 1932, when his ex-
basic ideas. As to the senators . . .” tremely unorthodox campaign showed that he was still a vaudeville
Heissmeyer: “Come, come now, Knackebacher, you must not try actor. He toured the state, going to the small farmers and peasants
to get next to the whole American Congress. Give Oskar Braun a acting the poor man and ridiculing the senator against whom he
chance too. Well, Braun?” was running, a man called Morrison, whom he charged with liv-
Braun (in dismay): “I was sick when we learned about the ing in great luxury in the best Washington hotel. In 1938, when he
Senate!” campaigned again, he gave the same performance but added some-
Heissmeyer: (furious): “A German is never sick. Send him to thing new. He decided to come out against the danger of the
the African front immediately.” (There is a dead silence.) “Ach so! alien in the United States. This was relatively safe, since there were
I mean the Italian front, of course.” almost no aliens at all in his state and there are not any even now.
Knackebacher (seeing his chance): “And the senators who can Ever since then . . .”
be depended upon by the American nationalist movements are Heissmeyer: “Go on, von Zizewitz.”
D. Worth Clark, Rufus C. Holman, W. Lee O’Daniel, David I. Von Zizewitz: “Ever since then—ever since then—ever since
Walsh, Gerald P. Nye, Burton K. Wheeler, and Robert Rice Rey- then—– Oh yes! Ever since then Mr. Reynolds has been discover-
nolds.” ing his love for our leaders. Shortly before the war, coming back
Heissmeyer: (overwhelmed): “Thank you, Knackebacher, the from Europe, he told the Senate: ‘The dictators are doing what is
Führer will be proud of you. I will arrange for your passage to best for their people. Hitler and Mussolini have a date with destiny.
Argentina next week. There you will find further orders. Do write It’s foolish to oppose them, so why not play ball with them?’ On
us a post card from the United States-after the war, of course.” January 31,1939, he announced the organization of his own group,
(Everybody shouts “Heil Hitler!” After Knackebacher has left, called The Vindicators, with the program of (1) Keep America 108
out of the war. (2) Register and fingerprint all aliens. (3) Stop who complains that “if you love Christ and love America, you’ve
immigration for the next ten years. (4) Deport all criminal and got to prove you are not a traitor,” who promises to retire all
undesirable aliens. (5) Banish all foreign ideas. On February 5, Roosevelts from public life, send Wendell Willkie to Moscow,
1939, he gave an interview to the Voelkischer Beobachter in which make Henry Wallace a milkman in China, and return the Jews to
he said, ‘I am glad to be able to state without the least hesitation Jerusalem. But he is not an anti-Semite, oh no! “I have tried and
that I am absolutely against the United States waging war for the tried to convince the Jews that I am their friend. But it seems that
purpose of protecting Jews anywhere in the world.’” I have failed. What can I do?” There will undoubtedly be a great
(Everybody applauds and shouts “Heil Hitler!” There are also deal of amusement in Sonthofen when Reverend Smith is quoted.
mingled cries of “Heil Reynolds!” After order is restored, von Of course the boys in Sonthofen, if they have learned their
Zizewitz continues.) lesson, will know that the reverend is not a conspirator or traitor
Von Zizewitz: “Later the senator went into the business of anti- to the American cause. ‘It just so happens that his whole political
Semitism, claiming that it was not the result of Fascism but solely conception is based on the probably justified assumption that there
the fault of the Jews. Said he: will be disorder and dissatisfaction in the United States after this
“ ‘Anti-Semitism is distinctly a manifestation of the resentment war and that he and his friends may profit from such a state of
of the Christian, the Moslem, and other peoples to the determina- affairs.
tion of the Jew to live among others as a race apart, condoning “Wait till the boys come back!” is his second word. And this is
practices abhorrent to his neighbors. precisely the ideal state of affairs for the Nazi underground to begin
“‘The well-meaning Gentile does the Jew a disservice by en- its work, the more so if Reverend Smith and his friends increase this
couraging him to believe anti-Semitism is the result of causes which general confusion after the war by their demagogic demands. Is not
do not exist, rather than to point out exactly what are the real the fourteen-point program of the America First party the ideal
causes and to urge the Semite to make those corrections that only blueprint for the creation of more confusion? It demands better
he can make.’ times for everybody and promises aid to industry and workers, to
“Well, Mr. Reynolds said a lot of other nice things. But unfor- the little businessmen and farmers.
tunately in October 1941 he married an extremely rich woman and General Heissmeyer: “What does this program remind you of?”
ever since then has been living a very luxurious life, much more so The Pupils: “It reminds us of the original program of the Na-
than Mr. Morrison, his predecessor. And it looks as though he will tional Socialist Workers’ party as composed by our Führer!”
not be re-elected in 1944. That would be too bad. There is, of (It is just as well that Knackebacher has already left for Argen-
course, a chance that he will become President of America. It is an tina. He is so thorough that he might have added tactlessly that
outside chance, though. It is the suggestion of Gerald L. K. Smith, none of the promises contained in this program were ever carried
former collaborator of the late and lamented Huey Long, that Mr. out, nor were they intended to be carried out.)
Reynolds should run on the ticket of the America First party
which Smith founded. . . .” The list itself of men and women of importance in the United
States on whom the coming Nazi underground hopes it can rely
And then, likely as not, General Heissmeyer will want to know would probably fill a book.
about Gerald L. K. Smith, who has claimed that he has enrolled
more than three million in his America First party and who has Among the many dossiers kept in the Propaganda Ministry there
predicted that this is just the beginning. Some of the trainees at are extensive files containing everything the American press has
Sonthofen will give all the details about Reverend Smith, who says had to say on any subject. These files are extremely important for
that he is “just a natural, old-fashioned Christian American,” and Propaganda Minister Goebbels, because they tell him how he
should conduct his psychological warfare against America. Pre- went against Mr. Roosevelt: “Most people thought he was not
sumably the most important of these files have been sent via South conducting the war as it would have been managed if America had
America to 11 Koenigsallee in order to give leads to the agents of been foremost in his mind. His emphasis on the European war and
the future underground. his relative neglect of the war against Japan were evidence of the
Let us open one of these files containing clippings from one controlling influence that his Allies wield over him. His free-
American daily and notes about this paper. handed giving away of our substance was regarded as sympto-
There is an editorial under the date of May 15, 1932, demanding matic of a desire to win good will for himself abroad and by this
that Fort Sheridan be abandoned, and that the Great Lakes Naval means to become head of a world government.”
Training Station be abolished. Why should America prepare for It may very well be that enclosed in the files we find notes point-
war? ing out how such statements concur with all the ideas the Nazis
There is a copy of a telegram from the year 1940 signed by the have ordered their agents to disseminate in the United States. They
owner of the paper and addressed to a European correspondent were told to spread distrust of the government and its leaders; to
who predicted that the Nazis would shortly invade Rumania. It create doubts in their British and Russian allies; to criticize every-
reads: “Your fantastic Rumanian story, hysterical tone, and your thing, and thus create the impression that everything was done
recent cable and other vagaries indicate that you, along with very badly; to tell the Americans that it is more important for them
Knickerbocker, Mowrer, and others, are victims of mass psychosis to fight Japan than to fight Hitler; that they are being cheated
and are hysterically trying to drag the United States into war. Sug- by the lend-lease arrangement, and that while they feed other
gest you join Foreign Legion or else you take rest cure in sani- countries they will soon starve.
tarium in neutral country until you regain control of your nerves So the Nazis must be quite satisfied with what the files of that
and recover confidence in yourself. Until then file no more.” particular newspaper show them, and they must feel very hopeful
There is a clipping dated December 24, 1941, covering the as to the possible help such a newspaper may lend to them after
Atlantic meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt: “From that the war. If they have the slightest doubt, they will drop it after
conference came little except theatricality. The event was planned they have found out that this newspaper has for a long time been
as Hollywood plans a supercolossal production.” a favorite source of quotation not only for Hitler’s late American
There is another clipping from January 24, 1942, protesting organ, the Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter, but also for a num-
against air-raid precautions in New York City. “Under the pre- ber of small-time sheets and magazines formerly owned by persons
tense of air-raid precaution, a dictatorship has been established in who are today either in jail for their close collaboration with Hitler,
New York City such as never has been dreamed of on this con- or who have at least been indicted as seditionists. Among them are
tinent. Fiorello LaGuardia has recruited a political force of 235,000 Liberation, the Galilean, and Roll Call, magazines published by
air-raid wardens. There is no legal curb on the conduct of the ward- William Dudley Pelley, now serving a jail sentence for sedition;
ens in pushing the citizenry around or insulting and molesting Scribner’s Commentator, edited by Ralph Townsend, convicted as
women. . . . New York is now almost . . . completely under the an unregistered Japanese agent; Publicity, a newspaper published
tyrant’s heel.” by Elmer J. Garner, under Federal indictment for sedition; the
A clipping of March 31, 1942: “Influence on public affairs in this Broom, a newspaper published by Leon de Aryan, now under
country . . . by the families whose daughters have married into Federal indictment for sedition; Patriotic Research Bureau News
British nobility . . . how effectively some of these people are Letter, edited by Elizabeth Dilling, now under Federal indictment
working to break down the American republic and re-establish for sedition; X-Ray, a newspaper published by Court Asher, now
America as a British colony.” under Federal indictment for sedition; Industrial Control Reports,
Or a clipping commenting on the November 1943 election which a news service edited by Tames True, under Federal indictment
for sedition; America in Danger, a newsletter published by Charles denied that it had given out any information. Whereupon the
B. Hudson, under Federal indictment for sedition. editors pretended that the accurate list of Japanese ships involved
And Father Coughlin’s late Social Justice; and, of course, Gerald had been figured out in the Chicago office by simple deduction.
L. K. Smith’s magazine, the Cross and the Flag. This is hard to believe, since some of the basic information was so
secret that it was never included in any printed catalogue of war-
The paper which has this astonishing and interesting record is ships.
the Chicago Tribune. The man who runs it is Colonel Robert Even this second lifting of a military secret does not mean that
Rutherford McCormick. the Chicago newspaper was guilty of high treason. Undoubtedly it
This is not the entire story. There are innumerable other items had no such objective. Undoubtedly it regards it as its patriotic
which should have endeared this newspaper to the Nazis. There is, duty to publish such items, because they embarrass a government
for instance, the famous report of December 4, 1941, which which the Chicago Tribune thinks is a bad government. That
appeared on the front page under the banner line “F.D.R.’s War fighting the government with such means automatically provides
Plans!” It was an account of secret War Department studies of the enemy with valuable information is something which evidently
production requirements for national defense in case of a war with cannot be avoided. It is just too bad—but definitely not so in the
Germany. It was the lifting of a military secret if there ever was eyes of the leaders of the coming Nazi underground, who can look
one, and it was a dangerous thing to do. It could have had serious forward to a lot of involuntary help from such a newspaper, just as
consequences since the war actually did break out three days later. involuntary, of course, as the aid and comfort it gave the enemy
And when Hitler declared war on the United States he used, by publishing the items mentioned above.
among other things, the publication of this article as a reason.
Hitler acted as though he didn’t know that the General Staff of If I were a Nazi working underground in the United States
every army in the world had to make studies of requirements for after this war, whom should I try to reach?
any number of cases of war, just in case. This was precisely the I most certainly should try to get in touch with those men who,
attitude that Colonel McCormick took. By publishing these studies during the war, when it was dangerous to come out openly with
he tried to create the impression that the Government of the Nazi slogans or to promote ideas which were first publicized by
United States was preparing a war of aggression against Hitler. In the Fascists and Nazis, followed the Fascist and Nazi lines. I
short, it was not so much what he published that helped Hitler would make contact with them regardless of whether they fol-
but the fact that he published it and the slant he gave it. When lowed such a line because they believed in it or because they
Secretary of War Stimson, referring to this matter, demanded wanted to help the Nazi cause, and regardless of whether they
angrily, “What do you think of the patriotism of a man or a news- have acted from what they considered purely patriotic motives or
paper that would take those confidential studies and make them whether they got their orders from somebody outside the United
public to the enemies of this country?” he told only half of the States.
story. What did the Nazis think of the usefulness of a man or a I would try to work with them, because surely those who were
newspaper that was furnishing them with such an excellent alibi? not afraid to work for the Nazi cause at a time when their country
Then, hardly six months after Pearl Harbor, almost the same was fighting those who have been identified with that cause will
thing happened all over again. The Chicago Tribune published a not be afraid to work for the same cause once peace is established
story on the Battle of Midway which disclosed to the Japanese and the risk of such activities has become practically nil.
Imperial Staff that we knew in advance of the size and strength of But if I were a Nazi working underground in the United States
the approaching Japanese fleet. The newspaper explained that it after this war, I should have an even greater variety of men and
had been using the sources of the Naval Intelligence. The Navy organizations to collaborate with. I should at least make an attempt
114 the nazis go underground have they gone under cover? 115
at such collaboration with those who up to Pearl Harbor followed Some of them have to keep silent and inactive for the simple
the Nazi line and who since then have lain low. reason that they happen to be in prison for their pro-Fascist activi-
Or have they lain low? ties. Such is the case of George Hill, secretary of Representative
Hamilton Fish, who perjured himself concerning his relations with
the Nazi agent George Sylvester Viereck; or Laura Ingalls, the
8 speaker for America First, who was discovered to have been in the
pay of the Nazis; or George Christian, the commander of the
Crusader White Shirts, who was convicted of sedition; or Ralph
Have They Gone Undercover? Townsend, the editor of Scribner’s Commentator, and a paid Japa-
nese agent; or “Count” Anastase Vonsiatsky, who was unmasked
as a German and Japanese spy; or the publisher William Dudley
Pelley. The Bund leader Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze. Virgil Chandler
ON DECEMBER 17, 1943, Francis P. Moran, former Christian and Parker Sage, who incited race riots. George Deatherage, the
Front leader in Boston, Massachusetts, was given a testimonial former head of the Knights of the White Camellia. Hundreds of
dinner by some seventy-five friends and former members of the names could be added. . . . The list is endless.
Front organization, which was disbanded in 1942. Moran had been
ordered to report for active service on December 27. On Wednesday, March 22, 1944, Reverend Charles E. Coughlin
Said he: “I make no claim to liking the idea.” He added that if made quite an interesting speech. He said that Soviet Russia had
he were killed in service his friends should not consider him a hero, a great future under Stalin; that Stalin would restore full religious
because he was only obeying orders and not acting voluntarily. His freedom; that Stalin had changed much of Communism, that
parting remark was, “Twenty-four hours after the war is over and Allied forces would free China from the Japanese; that Catholics
I am out of the service I will send every one of you my personal should co-operate with Jews and Protestants; that Hitler was no
greetings and we will get together again.” good.
They will get together again, regardless when and how the war In fact, speaking of Hitler and denouncing the American Com-
will end. They will get together again and, of course, not for the munists, he declared: “They were praising Hitler when we con-
sole purpose of saying hello to each other. They will get together demned him.”
again in order to go on working or fighting for what they have But had Father Coughlin ever condemned Hitler? Or was he
been working and fighting for before. just talking for the benefit of the FBI agents who were sitting in
They are waiting. Not only the relatively few friends and col- the audience of the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak,
laborators of Francis Moran, but thousands and tens of thousands Michigan? Perhaps this is the correct explanation of the speech,
of men and women all over the country. They have been waiting since it was in such decided contrast to what the same Father
since Pearl Harbor, when their organizations disbanded, because Coughlin had said only a week before—when no FBI agents were
it then became a risky thing to say or write openly that one stood present. At that time he said, “It matters not what military force
for everything Hitler stood for. They are waiting, and they are wins this war.” Then he had predicted that America would have
quite frank about it. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investiga- to fight the “yellow hordes”—China, Japan, and even Russia, which
tion, when questioning members of organizations disbanded since was “four fifths Mongolian.” Then he had made quite definite
Pearl Harbor, have frequently received such answers as: “Of anti-Semitic statements, urging his followers to “put away your
course, while the war is going on, we have to keep silent. But the cowardice and stop hiding behind a false tolerance which they
war won’t take forever. And then we will speak up again.” are trying to sell you.” He added: “Would you be tolerant—you
fathers and mothers-if someone defiled your little daughter?” Orient for a good many years. Now we’ve got it. It’s time we
That was what his followers had come to listen to on March realized something of what we’re up against.”
22. But they were quite disappointed. They had hoped to hear some March 23, 1942: “How long will this war be pursued by America?
more cracks against the Russians, the English, the New Dealers, Will Americans graciously bow down to all the totalitarian decrees
and particularly against the Jews and Negroes. After the second which will restrict their sugar, their motorcars, their oil, their
speech they felt let down. “He didn’t have the old fire tonight,” apparel, their way of life, and their pocketbooks simply to satisfy
one of the father’s female admirers declared. “He sure didn’t.” the ambitions of those who translate victory to the complete over-
Perhaps Father Coughlin hasn’t the old fire any more or perhaps throw of their enemies? Or will the American people want to
he has merely become more careful. After all, it would be some- listen to reason and terminate a war which no one can win com-
what risky, to put it mildly, to say now the things he used to say pletely, and which Americans can lose completely?”
in former years. Take, for instance, the statement he made to the Father Coughlin was no longer saying such things in 1943 and
magazine writer Dale Kramer on September 19, 1936: “It is Fascism 1944. By then his newspaper Social Justice was no longer appearing
or Communism. We are at the crossroads. I take the road to and his organizations had dissolved. Or had they? Skeptical re-
Fascism.” Or to quote from his newspaper, Social Justice: “Democ- porters had no difficulty in finding out that at the beginning of
racy! A mockery that mouths the word and obstructs every effort 1944 he was still maintaining close contacts with “skeleton Chris-
on the part of an honest people to establish a government for the tian Front cells in Brooklyn, Queens, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, and
welfare of the people. Democracy! A cloak under which to hide many Midwestern towns.”
the culprits who have built up an inorganic tumor of government But though Father Coughlin may be relatively silent, other prin-
that is sapping away the wealth of its citizens through confiscatory cipal leaders of the Coughlinist movement are not. James McDer-
taxation.” “The Rome-Berlin Axis is a great political rampart mott still edits the Gaelic American, which has constantly preached
against the spread of Communism. As such the Rome-Berlin Axis the Coughlin gospel. The chief columnist of this paper is still
is serving Christendom in a peculiarly important manner.” Father Edward Lodge Curran, who some time in 1943 held an
Before Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia Father Coughlin wrote: “Anniversary Mass” celebrating the anniversary of Coughlin’s
“‘If the rest of the world is inclined to draw the conclusion that entering the priesthood. The paper still inveighs against “inter-
Germany under military pressure has menaced others, it is a gross national bankers,” against our Allies, and for Franco’s Spain.
distortion of facts,’ declared Reich Führer Adolf Hitler . . . it seems Also still in existence is another offshoot of the Coughlinite
to Social Justice that Chancellor Hitler’s own words are a better movement, the American Rock party, headed by William Goodwin.
indication of Germany’s attitude toward the rest of the world than Only lately discontinued is the Catholic International, another
many columns of prejudiced editorial comment.” clerical Fascist publication edited by David Gordon, who used to
On December 14, 1941: “The famous words: ‘We planned it that publish a pornographic humorous magazine in which he said “Yes”
way,’ uttered by Mr. Roosevelt, are as applicable to our participa- to everything-or almost everything-Hitler promoted. Still ap-
tion in this world war as anything he has accomplished in his three pearing, too, is a newsletter, the Malist, edited by F. H. Sattler in
terms as President.” Meriden, Connecticut, which fights the Masons and the Jews, who
On February 23, 1942: “Was Pearl Harbor an accident? Was the “control the United Nations” exactly as Father Coughlin did. This
scuttling of the Normandie an accident? Was the diabolical pro- list, too, could be continued-ad nauseam. Father Coughlin may be
gram of government meddling an accident? Or was all this planned silent, or at least cautious. But he has never disappeared completely
that way? Planned from within; planned by men who prated of from the scene. His organizations have never completely dissolved.
democracy while blueprinting chaos.” And the same thing is true of most of those organizations which
March 23, 1942: “We have been out looking for a war with the disbanded after Pearl Harbor.
Shortly after Japan attacked us, between five and six hundred a great number of “German Nationalists.” In fact, the men in the
organizations with pro-Fascist leanings all over America went out key positions who were influential in getting Hitler into power
of existence. That, at least, is what the record says. But a great were not Nazis. They were just “German Nationalists.”
number of new organizations came into existence. Not immedi- The Nazis learned in 1933 that “Nationalists” are their best
ately after Pearl Harbor, of course, but pretty soon after, everything allies. They learned it again in Spain, where the “Nationalist
considered. They assumed different names. Judging from these Franco” was their friend; and again in Norway, where the “Na-
names they had been founded to promote many completely differ- tionalist Quisling” worked for them; and again in France, where
ent things. Their names would seem to indicate that the members the “Nationalist Pétain” collaborated with them.
were in the main businessmen who had become worried about the What, from the point of view of a Nazi, is wrong with an Amer-
value of the American dollar; or mothers who were anxious that ican Nationalist?
their sons should have a fair break in the war and after the war;
citizens whose one wish was to preserve the Constitution of the If I were a Nazi preparing the coming underground at 11
United States and safeguard the rights which it gives to all Amer- Koenigsallee in Berlin, what would I think about the numerous
ican citizens; clergymen who wanted nothing but to bring a sinful nationalist organizations in the United States?
nation back into the fold of the Church. We have met SS General Kaltenbrunner, leader of a nationalist
But what’s in a name? movement in Austria. Kaltenbrunner has loads of files. Certainly
The leaders of these new organizations and the men and women he must have canvassed the future possibilities in the United
who are running them are, without a single exception, the leaders States. We may assume that he has elaborate dossiers on each and
of the organizations which disbanded after Pearl Harbor. But why, every nationalist organization in America for further reference.
then, did they dissolve their organizations? Wasn’t it because it And even if his intelligence service has furnished him with only
occurred to them that now, when America is a party to this war, scanty data about the most important organizations, even if his
the activities of their organizations, the very fact of their existence files contain nothing but what any trained reporter in the United
even, are illegal? This is, indeed, the only possible explanation. But States could find out about them without going to any trouble,
if these organizations are illegal, how can it be anything but a surely these dossiers would be far from discouraging to him.
fraud to revive them even though under another name? This is how these dossiers may look:
Of course there are certain differences between the old organiza- The Citizens USA Committee, headed by William G. Grace.
tions and the new ones. For instance, the members no longer Grace was active before Pearl Harbor. The committee is a direct
“Heil Hitler”—at the meetings, that is. But they are quite open in successor to The Citizens Keep America out of the War Com-
their isolationism, their anti-Semitism, their contempt for democ- mittee, disbanded after Pearl Harbor. Meetings with an attend-
racy. They fight racial equality and any form of world co-operation. ance up to 2,000 every Friday night in Chicago. Secretary is Earl
They say that Roosevelt is responsible for World War II, they Southard, also organizer for Gerald L. K. Smith’s America First
want no part of the Four Freedoms. They don’t want to feed the party. Among the speakers many German-Americans. Subjects of
world after the war, but they are perfectly willing to feed Ger- meetings: America is going to let German children starve after
many. And above all they are afraid of the “Communist danger.” this war as after the last. The people who sheltered and hid the
They think that President Roosevelt’s re-election must be pre- U-boat saboteurs are not traitors. Italy, Germany, and Hungary
vented at all costs, and that we should negotiate a peace with are the victims of too much democracy. Internationalism is a blood
Hitler now, no matter what becomes of our Allies. relative of treason; isolationism never is treason. Lindbergh would
No, they don’t “Heil Hitler” openly. They are “American Na- be preferable to Roosevelt as the commander-in-chief. The FBI
tionalists.” Before Hitler came to power in Germany there were is as bad as the Gestapo, if not worse. Committee puts out miscel-
laneous leaflets declaring this war to be a fight between nationalism Bulletin, edited by Alice Rand de Tarnowski in Barrington,
and internationalism. Illinois, which fights “internationalism, the Four Freedoms, the
The Republican Nationalist Revival Committee is almost undis- United States Government.”
tinguishable from Mr. Grace’s group. Its president is P. H. Moyni- The Church League of America, run by George Washington
han, active before Pearl Harbor, secretary to Grace. Group has had Robnett, active before Pearl Harbor. Robnett is in great distress be-
Senator Gerald P. Nye and Congressman Stephen Day as guest cause America may be taken over by “atheistic Communism.” Rob-
speakers; asked Colonel R. R. McCormick of the Chicago Tribune nett also speaks at Citizens’ USA Committee. Group publishes
to run for President of the United States. In meetings Churchill’s miscellaneous handbills, also a mimeographed periodical News and
and Roosevelt’s names are hissed and booed, the Führer’s name Views, dealing with the Communist menace in the school system.
never. Puts out numerous handbills. Also distributes literature of Patriotic Research Bureau, an organization of Elizabeth Dilling,
other nationalist movements. who was very active before Pearl Harbor. Edits extensive monthly
The Institute of American Economics, before Pearl Harbor bulletin, mimeographed, proving that the Communists and the
called the Midwest Voluntary Federation. Two of the founders of Jews who, it says, are identical, control the United States, while
the institute, Otto Brennerman and Donald McDaniel, under in- patriotic Christians are the victims of a horrible plot to upset the
dictment for sedition. Co-operates closely with Mr. Grace’s out- republic. Mrs. Dilling sent out literature in Congressman Hamilton
fits. Guest speakers, Senator Burton K. Wheeler and Congressman Fish’s franked envelopes, postage free.
Clare Hoffman. Round Table Luncheons, run by William H. Stuart, who fre-
Constitutional Americans, a new group headed by George T. quently appears at meetings of groups already mentioned. Stuart
Foster and his wife, Mary Leach, secretary to Mrs. Elizabeth Dill- edits bulletin Heard and Seen, announcing important meetings of
ing. Mrs. Leach active before Pearl Harbor. Group, according to all nationalistic groups in Chicago, plugging nationalist leaders,
Foster, “not opposed to having friendly relations to any other telling the readers for whom to vote.
country.” Pro-Franco, anti-Roosevelt, who, according to them, is a American Vigilant Intelligence Federation, offices in the build-
“Communist and controlled by Jewish bankers.” Mrs. Roosevelt is ing of the Chicago Tribune. Reputedly a research organization;
denounced as having received a painting by Goya as a gift from run by Harry Jung, former labor spy, then anti-Semite, collaborator
the enemies of Franco. The British are responsible for Pearl of William Dudley Pelley, active before Pearl Harbor. Quoted by
Harbor. Among the literature a reprint of a speech made in Con- the Chicago Tribune as an authority on Communism, puts out
gress by John E. Rankin, who said that the race riots of 1943 in numerous periodicals, leaflets, booklets, and occasionally books.
Detroit were fomented by “communistic Jews,” who “go around The Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, run by S. A. Ackley,
here and hug and kiss these Negroes, dance with them, inter- active before Pearl Harbor. Till a short time ago William J.
marry with them. . . .” Cameron, employee of Henry Ford, worked with this group. Based
The Serviceman’s Reconstruction Plan went out of business in on racist theory. Says Anglo-Saxons are God’s chosen people, but
1943, was founded by Joe McWilliams, who called Hitler “the great- is against Great Britain and for isolationism. Jesus was not a Jew
est man who ever lived.” McWilliams later was indicted on charges but an Israelite, as were all of His disciples except Judas, who was
of conspiring to set up a Nazi regime in the United States. Mc- a Jew. Negroes created by God to do menial work. Publishes
Williams very active before Pearl Harbor. Organization was magazine Destiny, on slick paper in color, many illustrations.
financed by Alice Rand de Tarnowski, a Chicago socialite whose Source of financing unknown.
former husband is a captain in the Army. She eloped with a soldier
before going through the formality of getting a divorce. The soldier SS General Kaltenbrunner would find notes on organizations
passed bad checks, is now in prison. Group published Postwar which may come in useful under the heading, “Chicago,” because
all these organizations are domiciled there. Chicago, therefore, must They must get a lot of fun out of shouting themselves hoarse, some
be considered the center of “nationalistic” organizing in the United kind of satisfaction. In fact, the whole atmosphere must remind
States. But there are many other organizations which do not center him of Germany and of the ecstasy of the women there when they
in Chicago. are allowed to shout “Heil Hitler!”
There are, for instance, the so-called “Mothers’ Groups,” which Still another one of Knackebacher’s (probable) notes:
were extremely active in combating democracy before Pearl Harbor, The Mothers of Sons Forum, Cincinnati, Ohio, headed by Mrs.
and which all closed up shop afterward. But not for too long. In Lucinda Benge. Group active before Pearl Harbor. Regular meet-
1943 most of them were active again. ings at which women become hysterical at the slightest provoca-
They hold numerous meetings all over the United States, and it tion. Some of the statements made at the meetings (they must
is self-evident that these meetings have been covered by Nazi delight Knackebacher): “Roosevelt has ordered the New Testa-
agents. It would not be at all surprising to learn that, for instance, ment taken away from our servicemen.” “Vichy France is being
our old friend Knackebacher has been dispatched to take a look at fought by our government because it is opposed to Jews.” Meeting
these “Mothers.” And, being as thorough as he is, he would take a was addressed by Elizabeth Dilling, who said, “The Jews called
good look. Jesus a bastard and claimed that his mother was immoral. Inter-
And he would find out and immediately report to SS General nationalists are fast getting hold of this country.” Mrs. Benge edits
Kaltenbrunner that many of these “Mothers” are not mothers at a mimeographed bulletin full of anti-Semitic poems. Quotes: “Our
all; that most of them are middle-aged and not very attractive. objectives are the downfall of the British and of the Jews. The Jews
Knackebacher would wonder at the odd way in which they are should be run out of the United States and of all civilized coun-
dressed, in clothes which must have been out of fashion even when tries, just as they were run out of Germany. . . . What are our
they were new. And as to their hats—– Oh well! Knackebacher boys fighting for? To establish a world superstate dominated by
will wonder if these monstrosities perhaps may have something to Jews, under the leadership of the British Crown?”
do with the secret weapon he has heard so much about. We, the Mothers, Mobilize for America. Run by Mrs. Clark Van
And then he will learn of: Hyning, of Chicago, active long before Pearl Harbor. Many mem-
The Informed Voters of America, offices in Los Angeles, sends bers marched with Mrs. Elizabeth Dilling to Washington to ask
out copies of ex-Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin’s speech “Some Congress to “keep us out of the war” and impeach President Roose-
Questions about Pearl Harbor,” blaming President Roosevelt for velt. Group had many ties to Coughlin. Was publicized in Social
the war with Japan. Copies are being sent out under the congres- Justice. Now considers Father Coughlin a “persecuted Christian.”
sional frank of Senator Nye. They are being sent to the nearest kin Distributes literature of Mrs. Dilling. Puts out a small newspaper,
of war casualties. Among the leaders of the groups is Mrs. Frances the Woman’s Voice, condemning Jews, Communists, international
Sherrill, who before Pearl Harbor ran the Los Angeles branch of bankers, all of which they say are the same. (They have terrible
the National Legion of Mothers of America. One of its leaders was voices, though, thinks Knackebacher. It is fine when they damn the
Laura Ingalls, convicted Nazi agent. Reds, curse the Jews, and shout of Mr. Rosenfeld and what have
Another one of Knackebacher’s notes: you, but I wonder if they ever were young.)
The American Defense League, headed by Mrs. J. Henry Orme, Crusading Mothers of Pennsylvania, headed by Mrs. John Brown,
supposed to co-operate with Mrs. Sherrill. The group was active of Colwyn, Pennsylvania, active before Pearl Harbor. Opposed to
before Pearl Harbor. Mrs. Orme used to co-operate with the “World Government,” which would make the United States “a slave
National Legion of Mothers, members of German-American Bund, to international politics.” Sends leaflets to senators and rep-
salesmen of Social Justice. Perhaps Knackebacher will add some- resentatives imploring them to “preserve your republic.” According
thing about the strange frustrated look on the faces of the women. to Mrs. Brown, aim of the group is to break the “stranglehold of
the international bankers.” Distributes copies of anti-Semitic Next to the Mothers’ clubs two other organizations have been
speeches, articles, pamphlets. able to spread all over the United States. One is a string of so-called
Mothers of America, later called American Mothers. Headed by “money” organizations such as the Green-Back party, the Amer-
Mrs. Murray Knowles, Detroit, Michigan, close associate of Gerald ican Army for the Abolition of Poverty, the Money-righters, and
L. K. Smith, often appearing with him on the same platform. the Constitutional Money League of America. These groups are
Smith wrote about her, as “a student of the world government interested in economic theories only to a relatively small degree
conspiracy . . . perhaps no one is better informed on world-gov- and in money only to the extent needed to aid them in disseminat-
ernment propaganda than Mrs. Knowles.” Adding, “Mrs. Knowles ing propaganda for things which have nothing at all to do with
is working with several members of Congress who are interested in money or economics, but very much to do with Hitlerism, “nation-
her projects.” alism,” and the fight against international bankers, Jews, and, of
American Women against Communism, New York. Headed by course, Mr. Roosevelt.
Mrs. A. Crossey Morrison, active before Pearl Harbor in combating The second group consists of numerous “Gentile leagues” or-
“Communism.” Group distributes a leaflet, Free Speech, defending ganized throughout the Midwest by isolationists, who have gone
persons under Federal indictment for sedition. Leaflet has been on record as being in favor of a negotiated peace. The leagues are,
praised by Earl Southard, organizer for Gerald L. K. Smith’s of course, anti-Semitic. They want a “Gentile peace,” they ask their
America First party, and secretary of Chicago’s Citizens USA followers to “buy Christian,” they intend “to halt growing Jewish
Committee. power.” The most important of them is the Gentile Co-operative
Knackebacher is thorough. He searches the whole country for Association in Chicago, which hopes to attain a membership of
Mothers’ groups. There is no group which can escape him. He sits 5,000,000; this organization urges Gentiles “to do all in their power
in at the meetings in little badly aired rooms among those horrible to win the war first on the home front.’’ It campaigns for “the
hats and strange dresses, listening to the shouting that goes on boosting of Gentile products, the perpetuation of Gentile business
and feeling rather satisfied. That is how it began in Germany, he ethics and ownership, and the returning of Gentile servicemen
may remember—if he is old enough. Mr. Rosenfeld . . . the back to their old jobs.” The group is run by Eugene R. Flitcraft,
damned Jews who are responsible for everything. . . . How many active long before Pearl Harbor. Another anti-Semitic club is the
Jews are there in America anyhow? Four million, five million? Gentile League of Wisconsin with headquarters in Watertown,
Well, how could so few be responsible for everything? But these headed by Arthur Friede, who asks his followers “to combat those
women are too dumb to find out . . . or maybe they have no de- forces seeking to undermine the American way of life”—the Jews,
sire to find out. . . . of course. Donald Shea, associate of many Japanese and German
And Knackebacher notes other groups, such as the Blue Star propagandists, has been reorganizing this Gentile League which
Mothers in Flint, Michigan, the National Women’s party in Mil- collaborates closely with the Mothers’ groups.
waukee, Wisconsin. He even finds out about a group called the
Pistol-Packin’ Mommas in Urbana, Illinois. “Well, I’ll be damned!” Also of interest to Berlin-particularly in view of the coming
Knackebacher murmurs. “These Americans are really crazy. Time underground fight of the Nazis-must be the Fundamentalist
they get a Hitler. . . .” Protestants, who have a considerable following in Michigan, Kan-
And he ends his notes on the Mothers’ groups, jotting down that sas, Colorado, and Minnesota. To be sure, some of the Funda-
in the beginning of 1944 plans were being made to get together a mentalists are among the most courageous fighters for democracy,
national convention of all the American Mothers’ clubs and organi- but a great many of them are definitely pro-Hitler. Their reason
zations in Chicago. Fifty clubs comprising more than twenty thou- for this stand is that Fundamentalists do not believe in freedom of
sand followers were contacted. religion, and they do believe that the Jews should be punished
because they killed Christ. They say that Hitler has been sent by Gerald L. K. Smith, addressed Chicago’s Citizens USA Commit-
God to “save Christianity and destroy atheistic Communism.” To tee, combats the Jews, our government, our Allies.
many of them Japan is the “oriental outpost of Christianity” des- He is backed by Harvey Springer, Winrod’s friend.
tined to save Asia from the danger of a “Communistic China.” Other Fundamentalists who have been fighting the Jews, the
Most prominent among those pro-Fascist Fundamentalists is, of Administration, “Communism,” or simply “modernism” are:
course, Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith. Almost equally prominent is Ger- Harry Grube of Mobile, Alabama; R. M. Parr of Detroit, Michigan;
ald B. Winrod, active long before Pearl Harbor, now under Federal Glen Smith of Palmer Lake, Colorado; S. J. Greear of Denver,
indictment for sedition, but still preaching, still running his Bible Colorado; C. K. Peterson of Phoenix, Arizona; Dennis Brown of
school, still editing his magazine, the Defender. He is also busy Greeley, Colorado; W. C. Love of Hazel Park, Michigan.
publicizing the speeches of congressmen who have been supporting The list of men and women who, while not directly connected
indicted alleged seditionists. with or leading any of the “nationalistic” groups mentioned above,
Winrod’s friend, Harvey Springer, and a close associate of Ger- share their ideas is enormous. There is the wife of the late Senator
ald L. K. Smith, is pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle in Englewood, Ernest Lundeen, who makes speeches before different groups,
Colorado, teaches in various “Bible schools,” and edits the news- always anti-Roosevelt, always anti-Semitic, never anti-Hitler. She
paper The Western Voice. Strongly anti-Semitic, anti-British, and is quite good-looking and many times it has been said before or
pro-Fascist, he and his newspaper have been praised by Senator after her appearance that it would be so much better to have a
Robert Rice Reynolds and Congressman John H. Folger. pretty woman in the White House, such as Mrs. Lundeen, than the
Then there is William D. Herrstrom, Fundamentalist minister in wife of “That Man.” There is Carl Mote, president and general
Minneapolis, an associate of Winrod and editor of Bible News manager of the Northern Indiana Telephone Company, who
Flashes, which are opposed to Roosevelt, the British, the Russians, thinks Wendell Willkie is a Communist, declares that we are going
the Jews, and international co-operation. Herrstrom also wrote to have “famine” in America and that “it was planned that way.”
books of the same type. He doesn’t want any part of democracy. He edits a small peri-
The Christian American Association of Houston, Texas, must odical called America Preferred, demanding that all immigration
also be termed a Fundamentalist organization. It is headed by should be barred for twenty-five years, and that aliens who came
Winrod’s friend Harry Hodge of Beaumont, Texas, who knows here during the last twenty-five years should be deported.
Martin Dies well and is supposed to have interceded with the Dies There is Joseph Kamp, who runs the Constitutional Educational
Committee not to investigate Winrod. (It’s a rumor and it may not League in New York, a close friend of Lawrence Dennis, an enemy
be true. But don’t forget what you are reading here is what SS Gen- of anybody he considers a Communist, which includes everybody in
eral Kaltenbrunner will, as likely as not, have in his files. Sure, the United States Government, and who also is convinced that
Nazi files contain a lot of rumors.) The Christian American Asso- America is facing a famine in the near future.
ciation is run by Vance Muse and Lewis Valentine Ulrey, demands There is Walter Steele, the editor of the National Republic and
anti-strike legislation. the National Republic Lettergrams, a favorite witness of the Dies
Englewood, Colorado, is the home of a National Organization of Committee on the activities of “Communists, Socialists, anarchists,
Christian Youth, which, in the beginning of 1944, was still by way atheists, pacifists.”
of being established. It will be run by Kenneth O. Goff, who was a And there are countless others who feel the same way, who talk
Communist till 1939, but, according to his own statement, “became the same way, who have been feeling and talking the same way
a Christian” when the Communist party ordered him to Moscow since long before Pearl Harbor. The list which has been compiled
and asked him to leave his wife at home. Some time in 1943 he here is by no means complete. Probably no list could be complete,
joined the Fundamentalists. He occasionally collaborated with because hardly a day passes that does not see a new agitator or
sympathizer springing up somewhere or other. The same goes for Powers constitute no real danger to the national existence and se-
the “nationalistic” groups, whose number grows from day to day. curity of the United States or any of its territorial possessions.
Undoubtedly the Nazi files are as complete as humanly possible in j. The Axis Powers are fighting to free the world from domina-
this respect. Undoubtedly there is not one nationalist and not one tion by Communism and International Jewry, and to save Chris-
Mother, not a Fascist Fundamentalist or an anti-Semitic founder tianity, hence the United States should give no aid and comfort
of a new league on whom the Nazis do not have files. They have to the enemies of the Axis.
so many Knackebachers working for them. k. The cause of the Axis Powers is the cause of justice and mo-
A few of the enormous number of Nazi sympathizers in this rality; they have committed no aggressive act against any nation and
country-only thirty-were indicted as seditionists by the United are fighting a solely defensive war against British imperialism,
States Government at the beginning of 1944. American capitalists, and the desire of American public officials to
rule the world, hence any act of war against them is unjust and
Among Kaltenbrunner’s files stored away under the heading immoral on the part of the United States.
“North America” one may find the following interesting compila- l. The nations opposed to the Axis plan to use American lives,
tion: money, and property to defend their decadent systems of govern-
a. Democracy is decadent; a National Socialist or Fascist form ment.
of government should be established in the United States. m. The participation of the United States in the war has been
b. A National Socialist revolution is inevitable if we are to rid deliberately planned by our leaders with the ultimate aim of pro-
our country of its decadent democracy. moting our enslavement by British imperialism and International
c. The Government of the United States, the Congress, and pub- Communism.
lic officials are controlled by Communists, International Jews, and n. The public officials of the United States of America are trying
deliberately to provoke war with peaceful nations, such as Ger-
plutocrats.
many, Italy, and Japan, who are seeking only to live at peace with
d. The Democratic and Republican parties and their candidates
the rest of the world.
for public office are tools of International Jewry, and do not rep-
o. President Roosevelt and Congress, through a surreptitious
resent the will of the American people. and illegal war program against the Axis Powers, sold out the
e. The acts, proclamations, and orders of the public officials of United States and forced the Axis Powers to wage war upon us.
the United States and the laws of Congress are illegal, corrupt, p. President Roosevelt, by his warmongering policies, is draining
traitorous, and in direct violation of the Constitution of the United dry the resources of the United States to save Communist China,
States. imperialist Britain, and atheistic Russia from inevitable defeat.
f. The United States is governed, not by the duly-elected repre- q. Our program of giving American arms and equipment to
sentatives of the people, but by a group of alien-minded persons foreign nations results in United States military and naval forces
opposed to American principles and ideals and seeking to over- being inadequately armed and equipped and in their being ex-
throw the Constitution of the United States. posed to terrible slaughter.
g. President Roosevelt is reprehensible, a warmonger, liar, un- r. The public officials of the United States are knaves who have
scrupulous, and a pawn of the Jews, Communists, and plutocrats. deliberately concealed the truth that our unprepared boys, racked
h. President Roosevelt is a Jew and is working with Interna- by disease and slaughtered like sheep, will be dumped in a million
tional Jewry against the interests of the people of the United foreign graves to buy a valueless victory.
States. s. The whole war is the result of a Jew-sponsored money-making
i. The activities and territorial acquisitions and plans of the Axis scheme to bleed the United States Treasury.
t. As the result of incompetence and corruption in public office, What, then, had the defendants done in order to accomplish the
the United States is unprepared to wage war against the Axis objectives of the-Nazi party in the United States? According to the
Powers, who have the best-equipped and most powerful military indictment they had, through “oral, written, and printed state-
establishment in the world. ments, representations and charges,” asserted the very things which
u. The present war is a dishonest war waged at the expense and are printed above and which sound so much as if Goebbels had
measured in the blood and dollars of the people of the United concocted them.
States solely for the benefit of and to insure the continuance of Perhaps he had.
world domination by “International Bankers,” “International Capi- Among the thirty indicted were: Joseph E. McWilliams, George
talists,” “Mongolian Jews,” “Communists,” and “International E. Deatherage, William Dudley Pelley, E. J. Parker Sage, Gerald
Jewry.” B. Winrod, Elizabeth Dilling alias Frank Woodruff Johnson,
v. The Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor was deliberately in- Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, Lawrence Dennis.
vited by the public officials of the United States, in order to involve
the United States in a foreign war. It will interest SS General Kaltenbrunner very little whether the
w. The war with Japan was deliberately provoked by the insane, thirty persons indicted for sedition are sentenced or exonerated as
unjust, aggressive, and traitorous policies of officials of the United the Chicago Tribune, the Senators Nye, Reynolds, Wheeler, the
States. Congressmen May, Rankin, Hamilton Fish, et al., have demanded.
x. An honorable and just peace could be brought about speedily It will interest him little whether all the charges are correct or not,
were it not for the opposition of Communists, International Jewry, or whether they can be proved or not. And since we are viewing
and war profiteers. these men and women exclusively from the point of view of those
who are preparing the coming Nazi underground, it does not in-
What is this document? Was it composed by Dr. Goebbels for the terest us here either.
use of Nazi agents working in the United States? No. This docu- The point is, if it is true that the men and women indicted for
ment was composed by the United States Department of Justice as sedition have disseminated and spread the slogans and propaganda
part of the indictment of the thirty seditionists. lies quoted above, they would be the ideal collaborators for Nazi
The indictment itself said: underground agents in the future-after the war, when collabora-
tion with Nazi agents can no longer be regarded as high treason.
In 1933 the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also known If they were not guilty of disseminating treasonable propaganda,
as the N.S.D.A.P. and the “Nazi Party,” came into power in Germany a Nazi underground agent would have to find other men and
upon a program publicly announced by its leaders to destroy democ- women who are willing to spread such ideas or who have already
racy throughout the world and to establish and aid in the establish- done so.
ment of National Socialist or Fascist forms of government in place of And that should not be difficult, because the thirty indicted per-
the forms of government then existing in the United States of America sons are an infinitesimally small group compared to the number of
and other countries. As a means of accomplishing their objectives,
those who are saying and spreading these lies. That is why SS
the said Nazi party and its leaders carried on a systematic campaign
of propaganda designed and intended to impair and undermine the General Kaltenbrunner would hardly mourn them if they were
loyalty and morale of the military and naval forces of the United sent to prison for a number of years. They can easily be replaced.
States of America and of other countries. The . . . defendants joined All of them, with the exception of Lawrence Dennis. It is safe
in this movement and program and actively co-operated with each to assume that any Nazi who hopes to work in the United States
other and with leaders and members of the said Nazi party to accom- after the war must view the indictment of Mr. Dennis with noth-
plish the objectives of said Nazi party in the United States. ing short of dismay. Here is the real intellectual leader of Ameri-
can Fascism. Here is the man who for many years has presented sought the help and collaboration and even the membership of
the isolationists, the Anglophobes, the pro-Hitlerites with the best men and women who had been closely connected with pro-Fascist
slogans. Here is the man who must be considered the prime Fascist and pro-Nazi agents, among them former members of the Bund.
American philosopher, and on such a high intellectual plane that In at least one instance it sent an invitation to a German alien to
he has even been accepted by liberal circles as an intellectual, of attend a meeting. The letter began: “We do not know how long
course. you will be in Ellis Island nor whether you are free to come and
And Lawrence Dennis was very careful not to get mixed up with go from there, but if you are free we would like to have you come
the authorities. Had he not explicitly stated that he was opposed to our meeting on December 30.”
to anti-Semitic measures? Had he not asserted that on the occa- The addressee could not attend, however. He was being de-
sion of a visit to the Third Reich in 1937 he had told the Nazis that tained on Ellis Island as a dangerous enemy alien, according to
he did not approve of the persecutions of the Jews? Had he not our Department of Justice a potential danger to the safety of the
tried to keep away from the gangsterism and rowdyism of Fascism United States. Otherwise he would undoubtedly have been fer-
and Nazism? vently in favor of peace—now.
But aside from him, every other indicted pro-Fascist if sentenced
can easily be supplanted by one or five or ten others. The same is They want peace now. They want it now because the war has
true of any of the groups named here should the moment ever come entered a stage where it is a dead certainty that Hitler and his
when one or even all of them have to go out of existence, for hard- gang will be defeated. They will not stop the war, of course. It is
ly a day goes by that a new group with pro-Fascist and pro-Nazi not up to a few hundred groups in the United States, it is not even
leanings does not spring up. up to all the people of the United States to stop this war. And
The last one, and the one perhaps more dangerous than any of
nobody knows that better than the Nazis. But they also know that
the others, is the Peace Now Movement, which suddenly emerged
each such movement, each man or woman shouting at the top of
from nothing early in 1944. This organization, as its name implies,
their voices for “Peace Now!” and against everything the Nazis
advocates a negotiated peace with Germany and Japan—now. It is
run, for all practical purposes, by Miss Bessy Simon, active long have been shouting against, weakens our war effort and thus pro-
before Pearl Harbor as the manager of the Washington office of the longs this war. And that means much for the coming underground
America First Committee. The chairman is Dr. George W. Hart- movement of the Nazis. What the men in Berlin need now is
mann, once a Socialist, who now feels that “if we continue fighting? time.
we’ll get one dictator instead of another, Stalin instead of Hitler” What they will need afterward is friends. And whom can they
—precisely what Goebbels has been telling the world for the past consider as friends after this war if it is not the men and women
two years. He also stated that we were “tricked” into the war who in their numerous organizations and newspapers, meetings
because Roosevelt and Churchill faced Japan with the choice of and handbills, have been spreading all these Nazi slogans even
war or “economic slavery of the United States of America.” while the war was going on? What more could they wish for as a
The Peace Now Movement answers as follows the question basis for the work of their underground agents after the war than
whether we can do business with Hitler: “Most ordinary business such organizations, newspapers, and magazines?
transactions in America today take place between suspicious cor- Peace Now? With the countless facilities at the disposal of Nazi
porations or individuals. Nations can do the same. If we entice the underground agents after the war; with restrictions against free
German people with a fair set of terms? they will force Hitler to speech and a free press removed completely then, the fight will
accept them whether he likes them or not.” only have been begun-the hard, merciless, bloody fight of the Nazi
Amusingly enough, the Peace Now Movement from its very start underground here, in the very heart of the United States.
134 the nazis go underground a. o. 135
We are asked to make peace with the Nazis. Peace now. But the These American citizens of German descent are included in the
Nazis-will they ever make peace with US? 1 calculations of the schemers in Berlin.
To understand the immense problem of the loyalties and dis-

loyalties of German-Americans it is necessary to review their his-
9 tory—or, rather, the history of their relations with the Fatherland.
For a long time, at least until after the founding of the German
Empire in 1871, German emigrants to this country kept up prac-
A. O. tically no relations at all with the Fatherland. A man who left
Germany was no longer considered German by his fellow country-
men. Even after 1871 this attitude did not change, except for a
few resentful remarks about “deserters.” Bismarck, for example,
ONLY in exceptional cases have the Nazis ever used German citi- declared, “A German who discards his Fatherland like a worn coat
zens or former German citizens as agents in the United States. is no longer German to me. I have no interest in him.” And the
This is only logical. A man or a woman with a German accent Kaiser coined the famous phrase concerning “those runaways who
would have small chance indeed of convincing a gathering of even have shaken the dust of their country from their feet.” To the
the most stupid people that, in advocating America’s isolationism official representatives of the German Empire, German-Americans
or withdrawal from the war now, he is motivated solely by patriotic were either dangerous revolutionaries or descendants of such un-
feelings for America. But, then, the Nazis have never depended trustworthy people.
solely on Germans for propaganda purposes in the United States- The history of the German-Americans justifies this attitude: The
There have always been plenty of Americans who, sometimes with- first settlers-from 1670 on-came chiefly because they longed for the
out knowing what they were doing, performed such duties will- freedom of religious worship they could no longer enjoy in the
ingly. Take, for example, the case of the Nazi agent George little German states where they were born. They were followed by
Sylvester Viereck, who, by fraternizing with certain senators and large numbers of immigrants who sought better economic condi-
congressmen, got them to say exactly what he had been paid by tions. Some of these latter were the victims of unscrupulous travel
Hitler to say, without himself coming out in the open. It was agents and had to work for years under the most difficult condi-
easier that way; it was smoother; and it was certainly much more tions in order to pay off the expenses of their immigration. During
effective. the Revolutionary War many German soldiers were sold to the
In almost all of the “nationalistic” groups in the United States, English by their sovereigns and were sent over here to fight against
too, German-Americans have either played no role at all or have the Colonials. Numbers of these soldiers remained here as settlers
been, for the most part, mere17 benevolent spectators, becoming at the close of the war. Early in the nineteenth century, particularly
active participants only when some group could not assemble a after the failure of the 1848 revolts in Germany and Austria, new
sufficiently impressive number of American members. This does waves of immigrants arrived from there. These were mostly men
not mean, of course, that the German-Americans in this country who were unwilling to live in countries run by reactionary and dic-
are inactive in movements which help the Nazis, or that they can tatorial princes. Many of this latter group found it much more
be disregarded by those who are looking out for possible collabora- difficult to acclimate themselves to their new surroundings than
tors in the coming Nazi underground. Very much to the contrary! had those who came before. For while the latter had been mainly
1A workers, who quickly settled down in small towns and villages and
considerable part of the material on the activities of American pro-Fascist and
“Nationalistic” groups was furnished by Friends of Democracy. on farms, and soon became an integral part of the communities in
which they lived, the new arrivals were intellectuals who preferred methods they used to show this interest were so effective that in
to remain in the cities, and thus were not so rapidly absorbed into the minds of the former immigrants the whole picture of Germany
their new surroundings. Furthermore, they were filled with a began to change. While in the United States things looked hope-
definite determination to return someday to their homeland, “to less to them, dynamic forces (they were told) were at work in the
chase away all kings, priests, and moneybags from Europe with homeland making things better; and in all their misery they had
the help of an army of a hundred thousand men.” Many of them at least the consolation of being proud of their homeland. So much
did stay here, nevertheless, and became some of the best and most the more so since the Nazis gave them to understand that the
valuable citizens of the United States-and some of the most demo- German-Americans, too, as well as the Germans themselves, would
cratic minded. They, too, became American, just as the English, benefit from the new glory and prosperity of the Third Reich. It is
Irish, and Italian immigrants became American. small wonder, then, that with the growing successes of Hitler dur-
After 1871 the German immigration changed its character. Of ing the thirties, the pride of these German-Americans in Hitler,
those who came afterward, the majority were interested in the in Germany, in being a German or the descendant of a German,
apparently limitless possibilities offered by the rapidly developing grew by leaps and bounds. There was, of course, a group of liberal
American industries. A smaller percentage were sons of good fam- or leftist German-Americans to whom Hitler Germany imme-
ilies, “black sheep,” who, having disgraced their family name by diately became enemy Number One to a much greater degree than
gambling away a fortune, by being involved in a scandal, by marry- to most 100-per-cent Americans. But this group was small.
ing a woman whom society did not consider “acceptable” or even It became smaller and smaller as, during the thirties, Nazi propa-
by actually having served a prison term, came to this country in ganda agents did their utmost to win over the German-Americans.
the hope of making a fresh start here. It is interesting to note that There were two motives behind their increased activity: They
German propaganda played up this part of the German immigra- hoped to influence American public opinion to such a degree that
tion to this country to such an extent that most of those remaining Hitler would be able to negotiate extensive loans in the United
in Germany became firmly convinced that the United States was States, and they also hoped that in the world war they knew was
populated almost entirely by such black sheep. This belief dis- coming America would remain neutral. They expected to achieve
couraged them from coming here themselves—which was precisely all this by winning over the German-Americans, who, in turn, were
the intent of the propaganda. to influence the rest of the Americans in favor of Hitler.
The complete lack of interest in German-Americans on the part The Nazi agents did all they could. They bolstered the pride of
of official Germany continued throughout World War I. Whatever the German-Americans by telling them that they and only they
the Germans tried to accomplish by propaganda or later by sabo- were the real Americans, since the Viking, Leif Ericsson, with
tage in the United States was done without the German-Amer- thirty-three comrades had discovered America long before Co-
icans. And even after the Kaiser had gone and the Weimar lumbus had. Of course Leif Ericsson was not exactly a German but
Republic came into existence nothing changed, for a time, at least, he was Nordic, at least. And then they told them that there were
as far as the relations between the homeland and the former immi- really fifty million Germans in the United States, which made
grants were concerned. them almost the majority. How this figure was arrived at is still a
A change did come in 1929, however. It was in that year that mystery; but the Nazis have always regarded a German as a Ger-
the depression began in the United States, and the middle class, in man, no matter whether or not he took other citizenship. Thus
which the largest part of the German immigrants is to be found, they even regarded families like the Astors or the Willkies as still
suffered considerably. It was then that the Nazis, still many years German.
before they came to power, began to interest themselves in Ger- Then the German-Americans were swamped with letters and
mans living abroad, particularly the German-Americans. The post cards from home. Business was thrown their way wherever
possible. They were invited to come “home” at reduced rates, and large numbers of saboteurs into this country via U-boats, never
when they did go back they were treated like princes during their materialized because of the breakdown of Nazi organizations here.
stay. There are, of course, Nazis who, in spite of the dangers and
handicaps (mainly the relentless activities of the FBI), have con-
Almost from the beginning the Nazis wanted to see practical tinued to work for Hitler. Outwardly they have changed, have
results for the money they spent. As early as 1933 an organization become come patriotic citizens. They are the most ardent of air-raid
was founded in New York, that called itself the Friends of the New wardens; the most successful with their victory gardens; they buy
Germany. This society which was, in a way, the predecessor of the War Bonds in great quantities, sometimes more than they can
Bund, was actually nothing but a front for Nazi agents. afford-one might well ask at this point where they get the money
The leaders of the organization immediately made it clear that for such activities? They can be found at patriotic meetings,
Berlin was not satisfied merely to have Nazi sympathizers in the gatherings of the Red Cross, and War-Bond rallies. They have
United States. If these people were sincere Nazis, they must do found the perfect front.
something.What could these little German-Americans do for Hit- They have even gone so far as to denounce each other con-
ler? They could give information. If they didn’t have any they stantly, and have had each other investigated by the FBI as “sus-
could look for it. In brief, it was their “patriotic duty” to become pects’’—an ingenious device, since one who denounces another as
spies. a Nazi creates for himself a certain prestige with the authorities.
Which is precisely what many of them became, though perhaps And since those denounced are careful not to do anything to which
the word “spy” is a bit too melodramatic in this connection. These the authorities could possibly object, either at the time of the
little people all over America were not given the task of uncover- pending investigation or for some time afterward, they, too, may
ing military secrets, important plans, or new gun models. No, the hope to escape surveillance.
Nazis had other ideas as to how these people should be used. Eco- It is impossible to state with any degree of accuracy how many
nomic and business intelligence, they knew, was just as important German-Americans are still working for the Nazis today. To give
as military information. What Germany wanted was to arrive at a an idea of how many of them are organized, though on the surface
minute knowledge of every available resource of a country which quite innocently, it may be stated that the register of German-
might be decisive in time of war. And she proposed to use the American clubs and associations comprises one hundred and fifty-
thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of German-Americans here six pages, and that on each page there is an average of thirty clubs
to make the exhaustive study which would yield her that informa- and associations. This means that there are roughly 5,000 such
tion. organizations where Nazis can gather without arousing undue sus-
And then war came. The German-Americans had done a great picion since to all appearances the activities are entirely innocent,
deal of espionage up to the time of Pearl Harbor. Up to then their purpose largely social: members bowl, eat sauerkraut and
such activities involved practically no risk. But now it was dif- sausages, and drink beer, and appear to be completely unpolitical.
ferent. It began to be dangerous to engage in such work. Under
duress the espionage organization which Hitler’s agents had built While many of the Nazis among the German-Americans have
in this country did not stand up too well. Deprived of their lead- grown fearful and are now inactive, they have not really changed
ers, who were arrested by the FBI or sent to camps for enemy aliens at all. At heart they are still Nazis, and the underground that is in
and faced with long prison terms and perhaps execution, many of process of preparation can depend upon them once this war is
the rank and file simply forgot about their duties as Nazis. Berlin over and the laws which make it so dangerous to work for another
must have viewed these sudden changes of heart with dismay. country no longer are operative. The Nazi underground will also
There is little doubt that many schemes, such as the plan to ship depend upon those formerly active Nazis now inactive because
they have been interned for the duration. People in this country But in every state on this globe there are, among the Germans or
who have ad a chance to study what is going on in our intern- people of German descent, Nazi sympathizers and potential or
ment camps for dangerous enemy aliens are unanimous in saying real Nazi agents.
that the internees there are no less Nazi now than they were before The mass organization of Nazi sympathizers in foreign countries
their arrest. through the party has from the beginning been the business of the
The United States, in an overgenerous interpretation of the A.O—the Auslandsorganisation (League of Germans broad) .
Geneva Convention for prisoners of war, has allowed these people The A.O. was not founded by the Nazis. It came into existence
to run their prison camps as a Nazi state within our country. They in 1881 under the name of Verein fuer Deutschtum im Ausland
may heil Hitler; may refuse to have anything to do with non- (Association for Teutons Abroad). Later the German School Club,
Aryans—Jews or American Negroes; may arrange entertainments with branches all over the world, merged with this organization.
which mock the institutions and the leading personalities of the Then in 1917, in the middle of World War I, the Auslandsinstitut
democracies; and they may even punish those of their own number (Institute for Foreign Countries) was organized in Stuttgart. After
who either have been always anti-Nazi or have come to doubt the war still another organization, the Protective League for Ger-
the value of the Hitler religion. mans in Frontier Regions and Abroad, established itself in Berlin
This state of affairs would not be so bad if, after the war, these with branch offices in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. And
men and women could be deported to Germany. But there is little finally there were the dozens of special organizations that were
chance of this since, outwardly at least, Germany will then become established in regions lost to Germany by the Versailles Treaty—
strictly anti-Nazi and the men who will be running the German the League of Baltic Germans, the League of Alsatians, the League
government will have to make a real show of their anti-Nazi con- of Sudeten Germans, to name only a few.
viction by putting all confirmed Nazis into a concentration camp. All these organizations were supernationalistic, and none of
This gives the prisoners interned here the right to appeal against them recognized the flag of the republic, let alone the fact that
being sent back to Germany; and the United States, being a hu- Germany had lost the war. There were sound economic reasons for
mane country, will probably let them stay. such a stand. The Germans in the surrendered provinces had lost
But many of these Nazis are not taking any chances. They are most of their former property. The Germans living overseas had
thorough. It is a fact, though it has never been published, that lost a great deal of prestige.
many of the internees find ways and means to meet their wives Thus it was no problem for the Nazis, long before they came
and have intercourse with them. The reason for this procedure— to power, to put their men or men they trusted into these leagues.
which, incidentally, is strictly against the law—is that a child may At a party meeting in Hamburg it was decided to set up Nazi cells
thus be produced, a child which, having been born on American within all these organizations. That was in 1930. One year later
soil, cannot be deprived of its American citizenship; and parents Rudolf Hess formed a special Foreign Department of the Reichs-
of such an American citizen are very difficult to deport. leitung (Reich Leadership) of the National Socialist party, which
All of which means that we can be quite certain of having these established card files on every member who lived abroad or tra-
“dangerous enemy aliens” with us after this war. And that is what veled abroad. This was the basis of the gigantic files which the
the coming Nazi underground is counting on. A.O. was to organize later.
In the spring of 1934 the Führer declared before a congress of
The German-Americans, numerous as they are, constitute only a delegates of Germans living abroad: “You are listening posts. Far
small part of the Germans or former Germans living abroad. from the front you must prepare certain undertakings. You must
There is not a land to which Germans have not immigrated. In prepare our own groundwork for the attack. Consider yourselves
certain countries they have been assimilated more, in others less. under orders. Military law applies to you.”
At the same time Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, a young member of the Landesamt II will cover South America, with Spain and Portugal
party born in England of a German father, was appointed chief of thrown in.
the A.O. into which all the other organizations and societies of Landesamt III will cover the Far East, Australia, England, and
Germans living abroad had by now been merged. In 1935 the A.O. Ireland as well as Canada and the United States.
moved from Hamburg to Berlin. By 1937 it had more than 700 In addition to these three Landesaemter Hess and Ehrich have
employees. Before the war broke out this number had doubled. It created eight organizations which will work independently of the
had by then become an important party agency, and one of the Landesaemter to keep together representatives of certain profes-
best functioning organizations of the Third Reich, boasting mil- sions- former Germans, of course, who may thus be of help to the
lions of members all over the world and warehouses full of files coming underground whether they know it or not. These groups
and dossiers concerning these members and with their connec- are: The Businessman Abroad, The Worker Abroad, The Official
tions. Its basic idea, its ever-repeated slogan was: “Once a German and Employee Abroad, The Educator Abroad, The Lecturer
always a German.” Abroad, The Student Abroad, The Woman Abroad, Youth
The A.O. laid the groundwork for the coming Nazi under- Abroad. All of which looks innocent enough. Seemingly there
ground by organizing an army of million of sympathizers all over should be no harm in letting former Germans organize along pro-
the world, and it is of the greatest importance to the underground fessional lines. Let them drink beer and sing German songs and
that the A.O. go on functioning. However, there is not the slightest talk shop if they so desire. So much the better for the Nazis if
doubt that the Allies will suspend and dissolve this organization, these groups dispersed all over the world do seem harmless—so
which has proved its nuisance value in almost all the Allied coun- much the easier for the Nazi underground to use them s fronts or
tries. Hence the A.O. will have to go underground too. as willing or unwilling helpers in years to come. The sillier all
Bohle’s deputy in the organization has been for some time this looks to the rest of the world, the better for the Nazis.
Alfred Hess. Little is known about him—which is probably pre-
cisely what he wants. For some time now he, along with the One of the countries in which the A.O. has worked with particu-
Gauamtsleiter Emil Ehrich, another of Bohle’s collaborators, has lar success is Argentina. There it has been able to operate without
been reorganizing the A.O. any disguise or front. All of the more than 200,000 Argentine Nazis
Hess and Ehrich should have no trouble staying alive and out of are members, not of an Argentine suborganization of the Nazi
prison, for nobody will dream of accusing them of being war party, but of the German party itself, and hold membership cards
criminals. Therefore, they will be able to conduct the organization signed by Robert Ley, leader of the German Workers’ Front—
or organizations destined to take the place of the A.O. which means, quite obviously, that Berlin considered, and still con-
This is the plan they have worked out for the period after the siders, Argentina not so much an independent foreign country as
defeat: a German Gau.
Up to now the A.O. was divided into eight Landesaemter (Ter- Such conditions are likely to become worse ten or twenty years
ritorial Bureaus) covering northern and eastern Europe; Western hence.
Europe; southeastern Europe; Italy, Switzerland, and Hungary; Main points of support in the long-range Nazi strategy in Argen-
Africa; North America; South America; Far East, Australia, Eng- tina are the countless German schools there. These schools have
land, and Ireland. These eight departments will be compressed the same rights and privileges as Argentina’s. In them the children
into three: of German immigrants not only learn the German language but are
Landesamt I will cover the whole of Europe with particular ac- taught Hitlerism pure and simple. The books used in these schools
cent on the now neutral countries of Sweden, Switzerland, and are “donated” by the German Embassy. Hitler’s picture hangs in
Turkey. every classroom. “Heil Hitler” is the obligatory greeting. The
pupils are forbidden to speak to Jews. They are told that the —SA men—under the command of 274 trained group leaders.
Germans belong to a race superior to other races; that they have These storm troopers, though not trained for military purposes,
been chosen to dominate other nations; that the National Socialist could nevertheless be considered as reserves. They had sworn
culture is superior to all other cultures; that democracy is a lie; loyalty to the Führer “until death.”
that—and this may be the most important of all—every German This army experienced a considerable increase in man power
must stick to the National Socialist idea “whether it wins or loses.” shortly after the beginning of the war, to be precise after De-
These schools have been in operation for ten years now. They cember 18, 1939, when 965 officers and sailors of the pocket battle-
number among their former pupils a great many of the most active ship Graf Spee, which had been scuttled, arrived in Buenos Aires.
Nazi agents in South America today. And the teachers do not These men were, of course, interned. But that did not mean much,
restrict their activities to German schools. They also teach foreign since they were at liberty to leave camp, live and work where they
languages in Argentine state schools, and thus command an influ- wished, in return for their word of honor not to leave Argentine
ence over the cultural life of the nation from which the Nazis have soil. Most of their “work” consisted in training and advising Hit-
profited and from which the Nazi underground will profit. All ler’s private army in Argentina.
these Nazi teachers must, in fact, be regarded as full-fledged Soon a strange thing happened to the crew of the Graf Spee.
agents. So effective has been their influence that some of the While according to the records none of them actually died, their
wealthiest and most prominent citizens of Argentina have for some number diminished during the next two years from 965 to 845; in
time been sending their children to German schools because, they short, 120 of them skipped Argentina, in spite of having given their
say, the latter are so much better than the state schools. Among word of honor to remain. If the Argentine government ever com-
those who adhere to this curious practice are even a number of plained about this breach of faith no notice was taken of the fact
Argentinian inspectors whose duty it is to supervise all schools by the outside world, though all of those who had fled went back
impartially and to issue licenses to them. Such being the case, we to Germany—by no means an easy feat—and, once repatriated,
will see more and more German schools in Argentina. continued to do their not-inconsiderable bit for the Fatherland.
The army of German Nazi sympathizers in Argentina comprises Could all this have been achieved without the aid of the Nazi
German farmers, whom the Nazis helped by purchasing their forces in Argentina?
products, and German businessmen who were granted a monopoly The escape of the Germans was, indeed, not a series of discon-
over exports from and imports into Germany. nected individual acts, but part of a well-organized plan which had
The word “army” may also be taken quite literally. Since 1936— been worked out by the German Naval Attache in Buenos Aires,
more than three years before the outbreak of World War II—every Dietrich Niebuhr.
male German living in Argentina has been informed that he need Perhaps even more interesting than the escape of the Graf Spee
not go back to Germany to do his military service. He could fulfill men is the story of those who did not escape. Little has ever been
his obligations to the Fatherland by entering one of the countless said or written about these men who still live in Argentina. On the
party storm troops that had been organized in Argentina. These surface all seems to be in perfect order, but if one looks more
storm troops were divided into infantry, cavalry, and air force. closely one discovers some rather interesting facts.
Those who were sent to the cavalry received thorough technical Many of these men stayed on, not so much because they had
and practical training in tank warfare. The troopers assigned to given their word of honor to stay, but because they were not con-
the air force were trained by German pilots and engineers in the sidered valuable enough to be shipped back to Germany. Some
employ of South American air lines controlled by Nazi Germany. decided to look for work outside the camp—a move their com-
By the end of 1939 the Nazi army inside Argentina numbered rades did not approve of. They also chose to become friendly with
more than 8,000 men. In addition there were 64,000 storm troopers natives of Argentina—another move frowned upon by their fellow
prisoners. When these lone wolves decided to marry Argentine associations and groups all over the world are members of this
girls and applied for Argentine citizenship, they were declared “Club of Clubs,” and their addresses, which are duly recorded in
traitors and every tie between them and the other Nazis was the little booklet, will tell the new arrivals in Argentina—and in
broken. other countries too—where to go to meet friends.
But are they traitors to the Nazi cause? This much is certain: But perhaps all this secrecy will not even be necessary in Argen-
these men are going to stay in Argentina and are, on the face of it, tina. Up to the time of the official break with Germany—early in
anti-Nazis. They will have no difficulty later in getting in touch 1944—the official headquarters of all Nazi undercover activities
with other anti-Nazi Argentinians. They will be trusted, they will was the German Embassy, a paradoxical situation, it is true; but
acquire valuable connections. All of which will be extremely useful then the Nazi underground there has always operated much too
to the coming Nazi underground once this war is over. If only a openly to deserve that name. It still does. The fact that Argentina
dozen of the men who have “deserted” can be depended upon by as broken off relations with Germany by no means implies that
the Nazi underground, they will have proved themselves more the work of the Nazis has become more difficult. The very govern-
valuable than their comrades, who after their return may have ment which once broke off relations with Germany was more pro-
manned U-boats and have sunk some thousands of tons of Allied Nazi than its predecessors. German espionage agents and German
shipping. Gestapo agents were still working in Argentina at the beginning
of 1944 and they will continue their work. Pro-Nazi and anti-
One of the tasks of the Nazi underground in Argentina will be Semitic newspapers still appear, and pro-democratic ones are still
to take care of the Nazi big shots who will flee from a doomed being suppressed. This will not change either. Indeed, the situation
Germany. The U-boats are already waiting. I do not refer here to in Buenos Aires is such that the Nazi underground works openly
the five to ten leading men of the party and of the government, but while those who fight it must work underground. The Nazis have
the second- and third-line men, for instance, the twenty Reichs- good friends and strong ones. They are sitting in the government
leiter (Reich Leaders) and the members of the Verbindungsstab and in the key positions, controlling the whole country.
(Liaison Staff) of the Führer. According to intelligence from This is not so much the doing of the A.O., which can reach and
Buenos Aires preparations have already been made for their recep- control only Germans and former Germans, and is in any case a
tion and housing. All of them—altogether about 400 to 450— mass organization. It is, rather, the doing of Count Kurt von Lux-
who are expected to seek refuge in Argentina possess passports of burg.
South American states. Some of them are supposed to become Ar-
gentine citizens immediately, and here again definite preparations For a long time the German Ambassador, Baron Edmund von
to this end are already completed. This would make it difficult, if Thermann, was suspected of being the head of the Nazi conspiracy
not impossible, for the Allies to demand their extradition as war not only in the Argentine but in the whole of South America. In
criminals. 1941 a great stir was made about secret messages he is said to have
Lesser party officials will take their chances on getting out of received through a special short-wave set. Liberal Argentinians
Germany on South American passports, and of finding space on protested against his remaining in Argentina and accused him
passenger boats traveling from Spain to Argentina. Once arrived, openly of conducting a fifth column. It is true that most of the
they will have to make contact with the underground themselves. activities concerning the Nazi movement in Argentina were con-
This should not be too difficult, however. Among other things they ducted from the embassy. But the baron was only a front. The man
will have in their possession a little booklet which will help them behind him was Count von Luxburg.
a lot. This booklet was published by a typical German institution The name Luxburg is not unfamiliar to those who still remem-
called the Verein der Vereine (The Club of Clubs). All German ber World War I. Up to 1917 the count was German Ambassador
in Buenos Aires. During those years he suffered a great deal from of millions from Germany and occupied countries to Argentina.
the repercussions caused by the sinking of Argentine ships by Ger- Under his direction they also administer numerous large accounts
man U-boats. Then one day in 1917 he had a brain storm. If the ostensibly belonging to Argentinian citizens, but in reality moneys
ships attacked by German U-boats could be sunk without leaving which will be used for financing the Nazi underground.
a trace, and no member of the crew left to tell the tale later—well, These banks, too, serve as fronts for operations involving Swiss
nobody could blame the Germans. He wrote a letter to Berlin in and Swedish holding companies which own the majority of shares
which he advocated that in the future ships should be spurlos in industrial enterprises in Germany or Hitler-occupied Europe—
versenkt (sunk without leaving a trace). Unfortunately for him, operations which have become so complicated and involved that it
the British got hold of that “humane” document and published it. will be difficult ever to find out exactly which Nazi owns what—
Argentina broke off relations with Germany and the count was and even then it won’t help. Because as far as international law
forced to leave. goes the Nazi in question will not own a cent. Argentinian citizens
But in 1925 he came back, settled down, became a citizen, and will be the owners.
waited. When Hitler came to power, von Luxburg began organ- The vaults of these banks are full of stocks and bonds as well
izing the Nazi underground in Argentina. He did a good job, for as of gold and jewels belonging to Nazis or to the party—stolen
he had grown older and wiser since 1917. He no longer wrote in- goods which have mostly been transported in U-boats.
discreet letters but worked in the shadow and allowed others to Then there are the officers of the Argentine Army who, as recent
take the limelight. events show, are completely under the influence of Luxburg or of
Luxburg has connections all over Argentina. There are, for in- other Nazis, and who have been working hard to help the Nazi
stance, the powerful landowners. They are much under the control cause in Argentina, fomenting revolts against the government
of Luxburg, and with good reason. Ever since 1925, the year when whenever it seemed to be in danger of falling in line with the rest
Luxburg arrived there, Argentina has shipped enormous quantities of the Americas and becoming part of the anti-Nazi front.
of wheat to Germany, payment being made either in blocked To keep up good relations with the Argentine Army involves
marks or German industrial stocks. Since Germany did not need considerable sacrifice on the part of the Nazis. At least up to the
gold to pay for the wheat, she could sell much of it to other coun- beginning of 1944 and probably even now arms have been sent from
tries, thus building up a reserve of foreign exchange with which Germany to Argentina. This can be done easily enough by way of
she could buy vital war materials. This explains why both the Spain. The arms and ammunition are declared as Spanish goods.
Nazis as well as the Argentinians have kept completely silent Thus the transaction seems to be a simple matter of two neutral
about the whole transaction. countries doing business with each other.
If Germany should lose the war, these particular Argentine in- There is, of course, always the possibility that in spite of the
vestments will have to be written off as valueless—a terrific blow efforts of the Argentine Army the country will finally go over to
indeed, since the price of five million tons of wheat is at stake. It the Allies and declare war on Germany. But even that would not
is for this reason that the Argentine landowners will go to any change much. The coming Nazi underground has already estab-
lengths to help Germany avert final defeat, which, as far as the pres- lished itself so strongly that, aside from temporary setbacks, noth-
ent is concerned, means that they will collaborate with Luxburg, ing much can happen to it. Even if a genuine Argentine revolution
and no holds barred. And after defeat their only chance of saving should throw those who collaborate with Luxburg out of their key
some of their money will be to continue this collaboration. positions, it would mean only that the German underground will
Then there are the Argentinian banks, which are and will con- have to work underground in Argentina—for a little while at least.
tinue to be on extremely good terms with Luxburg because they
handle for him, among other German business affairs, the transfer
150 the nazis go underground the s e c on d f r on t 151
contact and negotiate with men he considered capable of over-
throwing the democratic and constitutional regime. It was he who
10 ordered Eberhard von Stohrer, the military attaché in Madrid dur-

ing World War I, to talk business with such men as General José
Sanjurjo, who had tried a putsch in 1932; Gil Robles, a rightist and
Jesuit political leader; Juan March, one of the richest men of Spain
The Second Front and a financier of all Fascist activity; General Goded, the first of
the generals who started the revolt of 1936, and, of course, General
Francisco Franco.
It is probably von Faupel who must be considered the victor in
THE MAN who must be credited with inspiring the Argentine the bloody Spanish war. Indeed, informed circles in Madrid be-
Army with pro-German and pro-Nazi feelings is General Wilhelm lieve that Faupel is today the real master of Spain. As such he is
von Faupel. He had quite an international career. In 1900 he went one of the key men of the Nazi underground being prepared
to China as a member of the military legation, later going in the today. And his position will grow even more important the closer
same capacity to Moscow. In 1911 he joined the staff of the Argen- the moment of Germany’s collapse approaches. For Spain will be
tine War College in Buenos Aires. Back in Europe during the war, one of the most important countries to which this underground
he distinguished himself on the Western front, but in 1921 he movement can deploy. Not only will it serve as a haven for those
returned to Buenos Aires, where he obtained the job of military who must leave Germany in a hurry; not only will it be of im-
counselor to the inspector general of the Argentine Army. He did mense importance to the German industrialists who will be able
a thorough job. He not only taught the army men his military to conduct their various complicated enterprises via Spain and
theories, but also influenced them politically. For five years he Argentina; but conditions in Spain today are such that an active
stayed in Buenos Aires, where he placed many other German offi- and militant Nazi underground organization can flourish there
cers. When he left, the little Argentine Army was not only without its existence even being suspected from the outside.
immensely improved but could be considered a dependable ally It does exist already. The front behind which it has been built is
of Germany if and when Germany struck again. the Falange, originally an organization of rowdies and gangsters
Von Faupel later took other posts: he trained the Brazilian organized and led by the son of the late Spanish dictator, José An-
Army, and then the armed forces of Peru. Hating the republic pas- tonio Primo de Rivera. From 1935 on, General von Faupel pro-
sionately, he did not return to Germany until the Nazis were about ceeded to present this group of criminals and killers with political
to take power. But while he was away he had kept up excellent leadership, political ideals, and goals. They were glorified as the
relations with industrialists such as Fritz Thyssen, Georg von storm troopers of Spanish Fascism although up to then most
Schnitzler, and Herr von Schroeder. After all, these gentlemen had Fascist groups had been unwilling to do any business with the
elaborate interests in Latin America. And so had von Faupel. In Falangists. This, too, was Faupel’s work. He recruited young men
fact, he boasted openly among German military and industrial everywhere, particularly in South and Central America, and saw to
men that he could conquer the whole of Latin America. it that the Falange was built up around them into an international
But the key to Latin America had always been and still was organization with branch offices all over the world. For a long time
Spain. And that is why the general had to conquer Spain first. He almost no one realized that behind the Spanish and South Ameri-
conquered it. If it can be said of any single person that he is re- can rowdies, Nazi saboteurs or propagandists were doing their
sponsible for the Spanish civil war, it must be said of General dirty work. It was only in 1943 that a few reporters dug up and
Wilhelm von Faupel, It was he who sent his agents into Spain to published facts which proved the close connection between the
Falange and the Nazis. This should have been a tip-off as to how now to replenish the reservoir. Perhaps a few were replaced by
important the Falange will be for the Nazis once the Nazi organi- new men. But if the world believes these reports of the waning
zations become legally non-existent. In addition, there are many friendship with the Nazis then it will not feel so angry at Franco.
influential people in the United States and in England of strictly If Franco does not like the Nazis any more the world will like
anti-Nazi leanings who have, nevertheless, discovered a soft spot Franco better.
in their hearts for the Falange. Even as late as the beginning of But if Franco cannot keep himself in power then it is vital for
1944 three American foreign correspondents published statements the Nazis to have somebody in power on whom they can depend,
to the effect that the Falangists were almost harmless, and cer- just as they now depend on Franco. Of course anybody who comes
tainly not so dangerous as the Nazis. to power in Spain after Franco will—at least for some time—be re-
The Falange, then, will become the logical collecting center for garded as an improvement by the world in general and particularly
those of the rank and file of the militant Nazi organizations who by the Allies and other democracies, no matter what happens under
will want to go away or may be able to leave Germany. such a regime, no matter how much it facilitates the activities of
the Nazi underground.
General von Faupel was perhaps one of the first to realize that If the Loyalists should gain control again in Spain it would mean
the war was lost for Germany. As early as April 20, 1942, he had a a colossal defeat for the Nazi underground, because certainly it
talk with General Franco, and later commented on this conversa- could not hope to get any protection then, and, more, it could not
tion in a letter, in which he noted that the Spanish dictator no even hope to survive there. The Nazis know that a Loyalist come-
longer seemed sure of a German victory. Neither, Faupel added, back must be prevented. On the other hand, a monarchistic revolu-
was he, though he had not seen fit to discuss his own misgivings tion, a return to a failure of the past might not be popular, either
with the Spaniard. with the Spanish people or with the world. But if a monarchist
Since then, Faupel has been busy making arrangements against coup could be disguised as an anti-Nazi coup—that would be quite
the time when the defeat becomes an accomplished fact. another thing.
There are two possibilities with which the Nazi underground This is the course the Nazis have decided upon if Franco can’t
must reckon in Spain: either General Franco will be strong enough stay in power: They will stage a monarchist anti-Nazi coup d’état.
to retain his power, or he will be chased out. If he stays in power When a Bourbon again mounts the Spanish throne, everybody will
the Nazis certainly have nothing to fear, which is why they are try- be convinced that the end of Franco will be the end of the Nazis
ing very hard to see to it that he does remain in power. in Spain.
What can the Nazis do about this? Since most of the criticism This is a clever scheme, and Wilhelm von Faupel and his cohorts
of Franco is directed toward his friendship with the Nazis, obvi- have lost no time in helping to bring about such a state of affairs.
ously the logical thing for him to do is to make the world believe The man who has evidently been chosen to play their game is
that he and they are no longer on very good terms. This has, in General Juan Beigbeder, an officer in the Spanish Army. In 1942 he
fact, already been insinuated. Official but uncensored news reports went to London, and in 1943 he came to the United States as the
have issued from Spain, indicating that since December 1943 and chief of a military mission, making it plain in both countries that he
January 1944 the Nazis have sent thousands of new agents into had broken off relations with the Franco regime.
that country. Why? Evidently because they were no longer certain He had met Eberhard von Stohrer during World War I and was
of Franco’s friendship. This sensational news was printed all over concerned in a conspiracy to involve Spain in the war on the side
the world. of Germany. In 1934, while he was military attaché in Berlin, he
There was nothing to the story. Germany has had so many agents conferred with von Faupel, and the two men worked in close col-
in Spain for so many years that nothing decisive had to be done laboration throughout the entire Spanish civil war. Now he is in
Washington, working hard to convince everybody that only a to tell the world that the Nazis must be driven out of Spain and
Spanish king can save Spain from the Germans. that this can be done only by restoring the monarchy.
Another important personality who wants to restore the Spanish Faupel has gone so far as to form a cabinet to take over after the
monarchy for exactly the same reason is Count Francisco de Jor- monarchist coup. Jose Maria Gil Robles, a so-called enemy of
dana, at present Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs. Toward the Franco, will be Prime Minister; General Orgaz, Minister of War;
end of 1943 he made it his business to receive three prominent General Juan Beigbeder, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
American journalists, all of whom assured their readers that Jor-
dana was a nice man, opposed to the Falange and anxious to sup- In order to carry through his complicated and exciting Spanish
press it as a group of gangsters and killers. However, he did not game, General von Faupel needed an apparatus. This apparatus
explain why it was that, in spite of such views, he tripled the was the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin. The general became its
allocation of funds for the Falange from $15,400,000 in 1943 to head early in 1934. Up to then the institute had been run on a
$47,500,000 in 1944. Nor did he explain why he permitted whole purely scholarly basis as a cultural clearinghouse between Germany
units of the Falange to be incorporated into the Spanish Army. and Latin America. Now it was revamped. Five sections were
Maybe he would have answered that this was the way to do away created, covering every one of the South and Central American
with the Falange. But it seems more logical to assume that the states. In each of these countries the institute installed several
effect will be the opposite. bureaus. On the surface these bureaus were interested only in
No, Jordana is hardly the anti-Nazi he now pretends to be. matters of culture and education. Their real purpose, however, was
For more than twenty-five years he has been closely connected with to use the great influence of Spanish circles, particularly the aris-
the Fascist Juan March, perhaps the most valuable collaborator tocracy, to further German interests everywhere in Latin America.
Wilhelm von Faupel has in Spain. March is also a close friend of Thus it was only logical that the institute, which originally had no
Georg von Schnitzler, with whom he is associated in many busi- connection whatsoever with Spain, came to work more and more
ness enterprises and cartels. I. G. Farben owns shares in many of closely with the Spanish Fascists. And through this collaboration
Juan March’s companies, and the prominent Madrid lawyer the institute became, almost automatically, the logical organization
Thomas Peire is working for Juan March as well as for I. G. Farben. where contacts could be established and kept alive, not only with
Count Ralph Jordana, the twenty-five-year-old son of the Foreign Spanish industrialists, leading bankers, and army officers, but also
Minister, is employed in his office. with important personalities in other countries who were not
Still another man now playing the role of an anti-Franco man primarily interested in or connected with South America.
is one of his former closest friends, the enormously rich José An- What this institute and its employees all over the world accom-
tonio Sandroniz, who was given the post of Spanish Ambassador plished in the thirties was originally intended to be the task of the
to Venezuela as a reward for his aid to Franco throughout the civil Internationale Gesellschaft fuer Raumforschung (International
war. Suddenly he resigned his post and went back to Europe. He Society for Space Research), an instrument of Professor Haushofer
settled in Switzerland, taking quarters close to those of Spanish and his pupils. But after Haushofer acquired such unwelcome
monarchist circles. Supposedly informed persons in London and notoriety the plan was discarded, and the Internationale Gesell-
Washington whisper that Sandroniz broke with Franco because schaft fuer Raumforschung confined itself to proposing and dis-
he could not stand the Nazis. cussing geopolitical programs and publishing essays which nobody,
But Franco did not seem to mind. And a few months later “with the possible exception of Professor Haushofer, could under-
Sandroniz went back to work for the Spanish dictator as an envoy stand.
with General de Gaulle in Algiers, where he has ample opportunity The Ibero-American Institute continued to do the task for which
it had been founded, namely, to bring about better cultural rela- too, must put out its periscope. Only it must have more than one.
tions between Germany and the South American states. But be- The periscopes of an underground movement are the contact men.
hind this harmless front a lot of things went on which the These men must not appear to have any connection, let alone
founders of the institute never dreamed. sympathy, with the movement. This would not only endanger them
There is a strong possibility that later, once the Nazis have gone but render them useless. It is, therefore, to their interest as well as
underground, a great many things will continue to go on behind to the interest of the movement that they have an alibi. They should
the front of the Ibero-American Institute. Again the men who run be “ousted” as Thyssen was in 1939. Or they should be “thoroughly
it will not even suspect what is actually going on. For, naturally, disgusted and fed up,” as Herr von Schnitzler was in 1943. Or
General von Faupel will be out and so will his intimate col- they should be “through with Hitler,” as Dr. Schacht pretended to
laborators. But many of them will stay behind: minor, apparently be, also in 1943.
harmless employees, sitting in dusty rooms working on elaborate Industrialists and bankers with international connections are
reports that deal with the most involved cultural problems. ideally suited to become the “periscopes.” So are diplomats and
But they are not so harmless, and they will continue what they former diplomats, because they also have vast international con-
have been doing for the last few years. Thus the institute will be nections. Of course a man like Count von Luxburg may have
within the framework of the coming underground, what it has identified himself too closely with the Nazi regime or with the
been within the setup of the Nazi regime. It will not only estab- Nazi underground in Argentina to be of much use for the time
lish and keep contact between German Nazis and their helpers in after the war. But there are others.
Spain and South America, it will establish and hold on to that con- There is, for instance, Richard von Kuehlmann.
tact all over the world. It will constitute an enormous net of con- Sometime in 1942 Richard von Kuehlmann, a retired German
Foreign Office man, wrote an article which appeared in the
tacts, a net covering the entire globe—something like the A.O., only
Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung called “The Diplomacy of the Na-
on a higher and more selective level.
tions.” It was a historical essay which could not possibly have hurt
The A.O. will be there to keep the masses in line. The Ibero-
the Nazi cause. Hence everyone was completely amazed when the
American Institute will be there to keep contact with foreign lead- Propaganda Ministry stepped in and suppressed the issue of the
ers and subleaders, chosen from prominent personalities all over newspaper in which that article appeared. And, again to the gen-
the world. The A.O. will be an instrument of the underground eral astonishment, Herr von Kuehlmann seemed to take the inci-
party abroad. The Ibero-American Institute will be an instrument dent very seriously. He packed up and removed himself to Stock-
co-ordinating the work abroad of a selected group of agents who holm, from which vantage point of safety he announced that he had
outwardly no longer have any connection with the party, but who fled on the advice of his good friend Hjalmar Schacht. He also
will in reality work for the Nazis. The A.O will be the first front seemed disturbed about the Nazi regime in general and the horrible
in the battle to come, the Ibero-American Institute the second things which had been happening in Germany and all over Europe.
front. It surely must have seemed strange to those who listened that he
In order to operate under water to best advantage, a submarine had begun to have such misgivings only after almost ten years of
must make use of its periscope. There is no sense in its remaining the Nazi regime. It must have sounded like Thyssen in 1939 all
submerged, poised for attack, if its captain has no chance to find over again. But he stuck to his tune.
out what is happening above water. He can act successfully only if Let us look a bit more closely at this friend of Dr. Schacht’s.
he has information on when and where to act. Some thirty years ago Richard von Kuehlmann was very much in
The same is true of underground movements. An underground the international limelight. He was then first counselor of the Ger-
movement, too, needs information. An underground movement, man Embassy in London, where he prepared a German-English
treaty which might have settled many questions, or at least eased again, Schacht might have arranged the whole business—and for a
many difficulties. very good reason: it would render Kuehlmann acceptable to the
But things moved too fast for Kuehlmann. Before the treaty was Allies; to such an extent that he might even become eligible for
signed an Austrian archduke was shot at Sarajevo and World War I a post in the postwar German government. After all, Kuehlmann
began. During the war Kuehlmann was Ambassador to Turkey, can remind the Allies of his pre-Hitler record. He can claim that
and in 1917 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs. As such he he never collaborated with the Nazis—that, in fact, the Nazis ob-
fought against Ludendorff and the Pan-Germanistic clique. He was jected to him. Will he not have the evidence of his forced “flight”
working in the direction of a negotiated peace. He even hoped to from Germany to prove it?
convince the Kaiser—behind Ludendorff’s back, of course—that The evidence, though, is not clear any more because Richard von
the Germans would have to give up occupied Belgium—an almost Kuehlmann suddenly returned to Germany again. That was in
revolutionary point of view for any member of the imperial gov- December 1943. What had happened? Something must have gone
ernment. When he made a speech before the Reichstag in which wrong. A ridiculously small thing happened—or rather failed to
he said that arms could not win the war for Germany, Ludendorff happen—and all the calculations were upset. Richard von Kuehl-
demanded and obtained his immediate dismissal. mann had been left without money in Stockholm. The Reichsbank,
However, Kuehlmann was not so opposed to Pan-Germanistic no longer under the leadership of his friend Schacht, had stopped
ideas as his speech may indicate. After all, he concluded the peace sending him his monthly “allowance.” Probably some minor clerk
of Brest Litovsk with the Bolsheviks whereby he annexed a large made a mistake. In any case, Richard von Kuehlmann, who had fled
part of Russia. And if he had been a really progressive or liberal the Nazi terror, but who was not willing to move out of his apart-
man, he would have had a chance to work for the newly created ment in the Grand Hotel in Stockholm and face the terror of a
republic. He was still young. Instead, he retired to his estates, where furnished room, decided that enough was enough. But apparently
he administered the large industrial holdings of his children, served matters were ironed out somehow because by spring 1944 he was
on the board of directors of several industrial firms, wrote a few back again in Stockholm.
books on diplomacy and one bad novel. When Hitler came to As to promoting Richard von Kuehlmann: he would make a
power, he did not budge. He did not leave the country. He never perfect front. This man, who has been finished for a long time as
spoke against the Nazis in any way. Did he consider that his career far as politics are concerned, who is completely burned out, will
was finished? Or was he waiting? And if so, waiting for what? be nothing but a puppet dancing to the tune of his master, Hjalmar
Then in 1942 came his break with the Nazis and his flight to Schacht. But Kuehlmann would make a puppet with good con-
Sweden. nections, with much international good will to his credit—in short,
One possible explanation for his exile is, of course, that he does he would be very useful.
not want to be mixed up in the final general catastrophe. But why, There are countless other men in the German diplomatic service
then, did he wait until the Nazis banned one of his articles before now or men retired from the diplomatic corps, who would fit
making his escape? Would it not have been more logical to get into such a role just as well as Kuehlmann. There is, for instance,
away before he had attracted attention? On the other hand, why the paunchy and bespectacled Dr. Hans Luther, once Prime Min-
did the Propaganda Ministry suppress a perfectly innocent his- ister under the German Republic, later president of the Reichs-
torical essay? There seems to be only one explanation: the Nazis bank, from which job he was kicked out by Hitler in order to make
wanted to furnish Richard von Kuehlmann with an alibi. room for Dr. Schacht. Luther was then sent as Ambassador to
As to Schacht: He may actually have saved Kuehlmann, as the Washington, but was soon replaced. The general consensus then
latter claimed he did—indeed he had in the past occasionally saved was that Luther had not been active enough in the Nazi cause.
other people who were in danger of being arrested. But then, This “objection” to him on the part of the Nazis is something he
will be able to use as a point in his favor after the German defeat, unwillingly, join the group of those men who consciously work
He will also be able to remind the Allies of the fact that ever since for the comeback of the Nazis. Thus the front men may become
he was recalled from Washington he has been in retirement— the contact men.
apparently too disgusted with the Nazis to work for them any Take, for instance, the case of Dr. Wilhelm von Schoen, former
longer. German Ambassador to Chile, for many years a leading figure in
But was Luther really so disgusted, or is this only a blind? And the South American intrigues of the Nazis. He was one of those
have the Nazis been keeping him in reserve for a moment when who collaborated closely with Dr. Kurt Heinrich Rieth, one of the
they would have to put to the fore a man who appears to be most effective German agents, who arrived in South America in
through with them, but on whom they can depend to serve them March 1941, later going to the United States, where he was finally
as an international contact, as they did when they dispatched him arrested. In the same year Schoen was found to be conspiring with
to Washington? Fascist leaders in Chile with the goal of overthrowing the govern-
Another minor diplomat who may be used in the same way as ment. Compromising documents and even extensive caches of arms
Luther is Herr von Scherbenberg, son-in-law of Dr. Hjalrnar were found in houses of prominent German citizens. Some of the
Schacht, currently employed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Chilean newspapers bluntly demanded that the German Ambas-
an economic adviser. This young man who, under the republic, sador be made to leave.
had been a member of the Social Democratic party, had never been However, he stayed on until Chile broke off its relations with
in favor with the Nazis. Still, Schacht’s influence was strong enough Germany in 1943. And then he did a very strange thing: he de-
to keep him in the Foreign Ministry and away from the concentra- manded asylum in Chile for himself and several of his collabo-
tion camps where other Socialists were taken. Schacht’s influence rators, saying that he did not want to return to Germany—the im-
was even sufficient to keep him in his job after Schacht himself had plication, of course, being that he was strongly opposed to the
“fallen in disgrace.” Not only that, but Scherbenberg was even sent regime there, and that he would have to face the consequences of
on a special mission to Stockholm. On his return he was suddenly that opposition if and when he went back. However, when Schoen
arrested-the reason given was that he had talked too much; that, was told by the Chilean Government that he could not stay there,
among other things, he had spoken openly against the Nazis. but might instead have himself interned for the duration in the
Well, if he can keep up his alibi, Hjalmar Schacht may have in United States, he thought it over and decided to go back to Ger-
him still another trump card for the future. many after all. And then, shortly after his return to Germany, he
left the Fatherland again, this time to settle in Switzerland.
Such front men as Kuehlmann, Luther, and Scherbenberg may It is obvious that the reasons Schoen gave for wanting to stay in
not always know what goes on behind their backs. They may not Chile were false. If he was opposed to Nazism, if he was afraid to
know that they are puppets in a game far too big for their limited face German authorities, he certainly had twice the reason to be
conception. They may not know that without them, without such afraid of them after he had made his demand to the Chilean Gov-
fronts, the Nazi agents would have a very difficult time indeed get- ernment—a step which was discussed in the entire world press.
ting themselves established so that they can start their work abroad. Surely, if this demand had not been made in connivance with the
They may be innocent, difficult though that is to believe. But once German government he would have had to face the most serious
the whole scheme begins to work they may awaken to the realiza- consequences upon his return. Since he actually did return, and
tion that they have been working for the benefit of the Nazi apparently suffered no ill consequences, there is every reason to
underground. Then they may also discover that they are involved believe that the Nazis were in on the whole matter from the start.
in something from which there is no escape. They may find that However, some of Schoen’s collaborators did not go back to Ger-
they are no longer their own masters. And they may, willingly or many. Those who decided to stay in Chile will bear watching,
especially after the war is over. They may be ideal contact men for like bottomless pools of inky blue. In spite of her moderate cir-
the coming underground. cumstances, she always managed to dress well, owing to a knack
Front man or contact man, both have the same function within she possessed for copying the Paris creations of her more fortunate
the scheme of the underground. They both have to camouflage the friends.
movement and arrange for contacts with influential men or organ- The Schnitzlers lived first in Frankfurt, later in Munich, and
izations. Some of them may not know what they are doing. Some finally in Berlin. They had many friends, most of them Jews or
of of them may accomplish their purpose by just being there, with- half Jews. The Schnitzlers were by no means anti-Semites. Indeed,
out doing anything. Some of them may be used constantly, others at that time such an attitude would scarcely have been advan-
may be called upon only for special assignments. tageous for a business career. (In all fairness it should be added,
All of them will help to keep the Nazi movement alive and to however, that Lilly von Schnitzler, at least up to 1938, occasionally
prepare for its comeback. went out of her way to be kind to her former Jewish friends.)
Lilly knew how to approach the right people at the right mo-
Next to the diplomats and industrialists it is the women, or ment, and she constantly pushed her less-ambitious husband ahead.
rather certain women, who may play an important part as fronts or Occasionally, it must be admitted, she also interested herself in the
contacts-or, occasionally, even as intelligence officers of the careers of other men-that is, when she became interested in the
underground. In most cases it will be women closely connected men themselves. Such was the case with the young Austrian Prince
with diplomats or industrialists, or, even better, women connected Anton Rohan, who edited a European review. Lilly decided to
with both. Such a woman is Lilo Scholz, born Lilo von Schnitzler, manage him. It was her influence which caused several prominent
the daughter of Georg von Schnitzler, and wife of a former French politicians, among them Aristide Briand, to become active
Secretary to the German Ambassador in Washington, D.C. in Rohan’s behalf.
It might be more just to say that she is the daughter of Lilly There were two Schnitzler daughters. Lilo looked very much
von Schnitzler for, indeed, she is the daughter of her mother. And like her mother. She, too, was tall and blonde and fragile, but her
beautiful blue eyes were much harder than Lilly’s. And according
it might, therefore, be a good thing, before we talk about her, to
to an intimate friend of her mother, “Lilo lacked the fluid grace-
have a look at this remarkable mother.
fulness with which her mother moved in a salon.” Somehow she
When Lilly became engaged to the young Herr von Schnitzler
was more robust. She had boundless vitality and she soon became
more than thirty years ago, her father is said to have remarked, very direct in her methods. Perhaps, as the source quoted above
“Lilly could have done better than this man; he will never get suggests, she wanted to “out-Lilly” Lilly. In any case Lilo was not
very far.” very discreet. She had different affairs at the tender ages of seven-
Schnitzler’s father-in-law had a valid reason for such a remark teen and eighteen. As far as can be judged from the outside there
even though he did not prove to be a very good prophet. For was never any deep love involved. Lilo’s affairs were invariably
Georg von Schnitzler was a quiet and unassuming man who never with prominent men who might be useful to her someday. She was
aspired to a big position. It did look as if Lilly might indeed have generous, even occasionally using her charms for the benefit of the
done better. But any man she married would have made a big Fatherland. Such was the case shortly before Hitler came to power,
career. Lilly was the sort of woman to see to that. The career of her when she visited Premier Tanner in Finland and aided the Ger-
husband has been more her work than his. man diplomatic corps in its work considerably.
Lilly von Schnitzler, who must now be about sixty, was extremely Lilly von Schnitzler was not exactly happy when, shortly after
beautiful as a young woman—a tall, almost fragile blonde with Hitler’s rise to power, Lilo became an almost steady guest at the
strange dark eyes which, according to those who know her, were chancellery. At that time Hitler was not yet entirely accepted by
Berlin society. Still, Lilly was philosophical about it. It was per- tures in Finland she had only become that much more experienced
haps just as well to be on the inside-one never could tell. and thus that much more entertaining. . . .
Lilo’s presence in Hitler’s house was due mainly to the fact that Later, after Scholz had been transferred to Boston as Consul
a certain Herbert Scholz was in love with her. And Scholz, in turn, General and his connections with the Gestapo began to be men-
was close to SA chief Ernst Roehm. In 1934, when Lilo declared tioned in the press, things became less pleasant for Lilo, and on her
that she was going to marry Scholz, the announcement created occasional visits to Washington she found that she was no longer
considerable surprise in Berlin society. Perhaps Lilly, too, was sur- the favorite she had formerly been.
prised because Herr Scholz was, after all, a “nobody.” But she cov- After all, during those last months before President Roosevelt
ered up for her daughter. She said: “What can one do? It is the closed the German consulates and the Scholzes had to go back to
great love, you know.” Germany it was next to impossible for Washington society to re-
Then came the blood purge which ended Roehm’s career so ceive Nazis. Washington had already decided to be pro-British.
abruptly. Many of his friends and followers were liquidated. Scholz Still, once the war is over things may be different, quite differ-
left Berlin in a hurry, hiding out in Bavaria in the vicinity of ent. Lilo Scholz and others of her type will always get by, in.one
Chiemsee. When he finally turned up again it was mainly due to way or another. Of course, in order to become persona grata again
Schnitzler’s influence that nothing happened to him. And it was in social and diplomatic circles she may have to part with Herr
Schnitzler who finally arranged for his son-in-law to enter the Scholz. But that may not be too great a sacrifice. At the present
foreign service. writing it is said that the Scholzes are no longer on friendly terms.
A year later Herbert Scholz turned up in Washington as First The great love is finished. Swedish friends of the Schnitzlers have
Secretary to the Ambassador, armed with special instructions from been heard to remark that the husband has, after all, been a great
Heinrich Himmler. During his stay in America he was one of the disappointment to Lilo. So are all the Nazis, probably.
key Gestapo men in this country, at one time perhaps the key man. Assuming that Lilo Scholz will take up after the war where she
But then people knew nothing about that part of his business. left off in 1941—and we may assume precisely that—where would
Washington society was delighted with the young Scholzes. Cer- that leave the Nazis? In a rather interesting spot, actually. Lilo
tainly Herbert Scholz was good-looking, pleasant to talk to, and, may not be very much worried about the future fate of the party.
except for his distressing habit of wearing his SS uniform on She is probably interested only in what becomes of herself. And
festive occasions, he seemed quite all right. He played a good game this is where the Nazis come in. Because they know enough about
of tennis and of golf, he was an efficient cocktail mixer. But it was Lilo Scholz and have enough compromising information about her
Lilo who really turned the trick. The beautiful young woman in their hands to make life in the grand world of diplomacy or
simply brought Washington to its knees. She became enormously society rather difficult for her.
popular; she was invited everywhere. Even President Roosevelt Of course none of these files may ever become known to the
was delighted with her when she was introduced to him at a White outside. They may all be kept a secret between the Nazis and
House reception. beautiful Lilo, which will enable the Nazis to ask little services
There was more to Lilo’s popularity than met the eye. She was from Lilo; and the chances are that she will satisfy them. She will
not only a charming woman who knew how to entertain well, and have to satisfy them—or else.
whom it was pleasant to have at parties. Maybe most of the Wash- There is a great deal that a woman like Lilo Scholz can do for
ington crowd thought that was all, and the chances are most of the Nazis. She can inform them as to the general setup in inter-
them still think so. But it was not all, by any manner of means. national diplomacy, not the official setup, of course, but about what
Lilo’s marriage to Herr Scholz had not changed her basic strategy is going on behind the scenes. She can promote a new man whom
of influencing people or of getting information. Since her adven- the Nazis may want to send somewhere. She can create good will
for toward such a man or toward a specific issue. And Lilo may do then again she may not have changed her views at all, no matter
much more. She may be used to find out things about public figures what she says. On the other hand, she may really have changed her
in other countries, or about specific plans of other countries. In views, but may be forced to do some things and to find out about
short, she could become what is generally known as an espionage certain matters because, after all, the party has many a hold on her.
agent. Lilo Scholz, Aglaja von Chapeau Rouge, and perhaps another
dozen or two young ladies scattered over the international scene
Lilo Scholz may thus become one of the most efficient agents may easily do the trick. In some cases the ladies in question may
of the Nazi underground during the years to come. But she is only have to perform services for the Nazis because the secret files con-
one case out of many. For the last five years or so there have been tain material which they would not want to be made known. In
frequent instances of marriages between members of old and ac- the case of some of them, their relationship to the Nazi party may
cepted families and the new “aristocracy” of the party. Such unions easily be deduced from their past. In most instances, however, no
may prove “useful” later. Marriages between representatives of old relationship will be apparent, and the woman involved will vio-
and good names and those which are too new in power to inspire lently disclaim any sympathy for the Nazi cause.
much confidence are not a device invented by the Nazis. This sort These latter will be the most dangerous cases.
of thing has happened in every century and all over the world. In
former times, however, this device was used only occasionally. Th Gestapo possesses much information about certain person-
The Nazis have put these political marriages on the basis of mass alities which should make it downright impossible for them to
production, so to speak. They have thus been able to assure com- try to break with the Nazis. They are involved for the rest of their
parative security to a great number of their leading male and lives. The secret files constitute a sword of Damocles forever hang-
female members in the event that the party should no longer be ing over their heads.
able to protect them. Nor is much imagination required to guess the identity of the
Take, for instance, the case of beautiful young Aglaja, daughter people those files deal with. Not only do they include the names
of Hermann Neubacher, of Vienna, who, before the Anschluss, of most of the German industrialists, but also some of the promi-
spent a long time in a concentration camp on account of his Nazi nent English, French, and American businessmen who have so
activities and was later, for some time, mayor of Vienna. This ardently tried to perpetuate the Hitler system. Also certain
young daughter of his married Herr von Chapeau Rouge, a minor politicians of the Allied nations. As to the type of information
official in the Foreign Office, a young man from a good old family. contained in the files: one can find anything there—the report of
He was supposed to be rather anti-Nazi and definitely not a mem- a confidential meeting where everything discussed was off the
ber of the party. The marriage which took place in Bucharest record; a story of certain deals never meant to be known to the
became an important society affair, and Goering and all the other outside world; private scandals that were hushed up with the
Nazi big shots sent presents. Immediately afterward Herr Neu- greatest difficulty; a black spot in the life of a married woman;
backer’s son-in-law began to be promoted. Chapeau Rouge is now sex habits and inclinations of various individuals, et cetera.
with von Papen in Ankara. These files are voluminous. Many of them will be preserved, in
As a man who has never been pro-Nazi he will probably be able order to provide information for the underground workers, if and
to continue in the Foreign Office after the war. He may even play when there should be any need to make contact with personalities
an important part there. And his wife will be in a very useful posi- outside the movement proper. Some of these files have been stored
tion, as far as the party is concerned. Of course she may no longer in bomb-proof cellars—this transfer has not been carried through
be the determined Nazi she once was when as a comparative to any great extent yet, because Professor Speer and his engineers
youngster she went with her father to the concentration camp. And have been too busy building underground munitions works which
of course, enjoy a priority—or they have been shipped abroad. because they were bad, but because the British Intelligence was
Up to the beginning of 1944 there was no difficulty in getting even cleverer than he. But his machine is still working.
copies of the files out of Germany. They were sent by diplomatic According to German newspapers, Papen’s relations with Adolf
mail or in diplomatic moving vans to Madrid, Lisbon, Berne, and Hitler have not been of the best since the end of 1942. At various
Stockholm. They were stored, not in the embassies, but in ware- times there have been hints that he was on the point of being
houses belonging to nationals of the country to which they were ousted.
sent, where in all probability they will never be looked for. Some In the summer of 1943 he made two decisions. One was to invite
of the most important files were translated into code. These coded his daughter and his son to the embassy in Ankara for a short vaca-
dossiers will not leave Germany but will be hidden away in some tion. The “short vacation” has turned out to be a rather lengthy one,
safe place. They contain mainly the names of Germans who have as it happens, for his son and daughter have stayed there ever since.
officially never played a part in the Nazi party, but who have, never- The second decision was to do something about his mining inter-
theless, collaborated with Hitler, and who would be compromised ests in the Saar region. He arranged for the formation of a Swiss
forever if the contents of the files became known to the outside holding company to take over these interests. And Schacht saw to it
world. that this business was properly carried out.
The Nazis will have no difficulty in finding men who will be The implication in these two moves was, of course, that Papen
able to handle this gigantic blackmail in the future. Perhaps their no longer felt safe and feared the Nazis might take reprisals against
best card, particularly when it comes to playing this game of black- his family or that they might take over his possessions if he re-
mail on an international scale, is Franz von Papen, Nazi Am- fused to come back. Another logical conclusion seems to be that
bassador to Turkey. This feared and unscrupulous diplomat be- Herr von Papen, no longer believing in a German victory, wanted
longs among those who, though not 100-per-cent Nazi, did a great his family to be outside the danger zone, and wanted his property
deal to bring Hitler into power and to keep him there. It was to be as far as possible outside the reach of the Allies.
Papen who arranged the first treaty Hitler ever signed—the Con- In any case, during the summer of 1943 Papen began to tell peo-
cordat with the Pope in 1933. It was he who prepared the rape of ple on whose indiscretion he could depend that the Nazis were
Austria in 1938. And since 1939, as Ambassador to Turkey, he has doomed. He did not seem too sad about this, and it looked to those
been busily engaged in trying to keep Turkey from joining the who talked to him as though in his mind there were only two
Allies. In all his deals and intrigues he has shown himself not only alternatives : the doom of the Nazis or the doom of Herr von Papen.
as a shrewd diplomat, but as a ruthless and completely cynical Where does that leave Papen? It makes it possible for him to
blackmailer whenever the occasion presented itself. But that is by point out after the fall of Hitler that he has been anti-Hitler for
no means all he has done. During the five years of his stay in some time, so much so that he feared for the safety of his family.
Ankara he has built an enormous espionage and propaganda net Such a declaration would, he reasons, make him acceptable to the
covering the whole Near East. Three times the British Intelligence Allies. Papen is so convinced that this will happen that he has al-
working hand in glove with the Turkish police was able to smash ready made his plans for the future German government. He has
his organization, three times he built it up again. Some of his best suggested names of outstanding Catholic dignitaries who might
agents were arrested, others simply disappeared. But he continued. play a decisive role in postwar Germany. This sounds logical
One wall of his study is covered with an enormous map of the enough, since he himself is a Catholic. But those who know him
territory that stretches from the Black Sea to the Indian Ocean. In are aware that Papen is at odds with the Catholic dignitaries sug-
this study he planned the revolution in Iraq and the revolution in gested by him, who fought Nazism in Germany during a period
Syria and the revolts in Egypt; here it was that he tried to get the when Papen was doing everything to aid it. But then Papen’s plan
Arabs to take up arms against the English. His plans failed, not does not include himself as a member of the government. All he
wants is to retain a certain amount of influence and a certain The former editor in chief of the same paper, Rudolf Kircher, has
standing which will enable him to keep his finger in many pies, and also taken residence in Turkey, where he had been vacationing. He
will thus enable the Nazi underground to keep its fingers in the was supposed to go back to Berlin in December 1943, but changed
same pies. For no matter what we may hear about von Papen’s his mind. It was by no means a coincidence that two of the most
quarrels with the Nazis he will go on working for them. And he prominent newspapermen in Nazi Germany happened to have
will not be just another “periscope” or front, or not even a contact chosen Ankara as a place of “refuge.”
man. His will be one of the key positions. The machine which he
has built up so carefully will go on working, the only difference There have been many foreign correspondents among the in-
being that instead of working for the Nazi state it will work for telligence officers of the Third Reich and some of them were very
the Nazi underground. While Papen himself may play the part of successful. Dr. Goebbels felt, and rightly so, that a trained news-
the nice old conservative who is happy to be done with the Nazis— paperman has many opportunities which an average citizen does
which would make it easy for him to take up with his friends in not possess. The coming underground, too, will need an intelli-
other countries again—the men under him will continue to con- gence service. Of course it will not be able to use the known Nazi
spire in the Near East and engage in espionage and sabotage. They journalists, especially those who have been revealed as intelligence
will create disturbances, possibly a crisis for the British Empire. officers, as, for instance, the Ankara correspondent of the Deutsches
It may very well be that Papen’s Ankara machine will be the head- Nachrichtenbureau, Dr. Walther Brell.
quarters from which the entire future strategy against the British On the other hand, newspapermen who have gone on record as
Empire will be mapped out and from which it will be directed. We having broken off with Hitler, such as Count Anton von Knyp-
may hear of incidents or revolutions in India or of anti-British hausen of the Hamburger Fremdenblatt and Edward Schaper of
riots in China-and these things and countless others will have the Berliner Boersenzeitung, both of whom are stationed in Hel-
happened because somebody in Ankara pushed a button. But even sinki, will certainly create no undue suspicion.
then it will be difficult to prove that it was Herr von Papen who It is much too early to say for sure where the center of the in-
pushed that button. telligence service of the underground will be located. Probably the
Nazis themselves don’t know that yet. It may be in Ankara, or
In January 1944 the assistant to the German military attaché in perhaps in Lisbon, or it may be somewhere in Switzerland. The
Ankara, Dr. Erich von Vermehren, suddenly left his office and went identity of the man who will be in charge of the intelligence
to the British Embassy with material which proved to be extremely service, however, is pretty well established. It is Emil Rasche, a
useful to the Allied war effort. It so happened that this man had tall, handsome man, who until the summer of 1943 was First Secre-
been working for the British Secret Service for more than a year tary of the foreign section of the Press Department in the Foreign
before. In brief, there is not the slightest doubt that he is a bona Office. Even then Rasche was an employee of the Gestapo. It is not
fide worker on our side. Such desertions may happen as the war known where he is working at present, though it may be assumed
draws toward an end, but they may not always, as in this case, that, wherever he is, he works hand in glove with 11 Koenigsallee.
be bona fide desertions. Sometimes they may be staged. But it is known that he is in control of certain intelligence units
Perhaps some staged flights have already taken place. Ankara is in Lisbon, Zurich, and Stockholm, which operate behind the front
just now a place to which a lot of “fugitives” are repairing. Toward of bookshops and magazine-selling enterprises. These outfits are
the end of 1943 there arrived in that city a certain Dr. Kurt Rey, working today for the Third Reich, but there is every indication
formerly of the editorial staff of the Frankfurter Zeitung, who for that they will continue their work later on for the underground.
more than ten years had written and edited along Nazi lines. Now For the coming underground will need to gather a great variety
he had suddenly become disgusted with the Nazis and “escaped.” of intelligence. It will need to know exactly what the powers that it
172 the nazis go underground germa n y oc c up ie d 173
must consider as enemies are doing or intend to do. It cannot afford shut down any number of plants, organizations, or offices which
to be in the dark. In fact, later on there will be a number of in- might serve as hideouts for Nazis. They may shut down hospitals
telligence services covering different countries and working for if need be. They don’t mind confusion and disorder. If they think
different departments of the underground, for the government as that they will deal Nazism a deathblow by closing power stations,
such or for the party, for the A.O. or for the Ibero-American In- large German cities will go without light. In brief, if the Russians
stitute. take over in Germany, many of the ruses planned by the Nazi
Espionage is not an art practiced for art’s sake. It is the gather- underground will have been in vain.
ing of information in preparation for war. The coming Nazi under- The same thing will happen if the armies of the now-occupied
ground will have to organize a world-wide net of espionage, or countries should go into Germany. The Czechs, the Poles, the Nor-
rather a whole series of espionage systems, because the Nazi under- wegians, the French won’t be easily deceived. They know plenty
ground means war. In the last analysis the coming Nazi under- about underground methods. Neither the Americans nor the Brit-
ground is war in itself—or, to change a phrase of Clausewitz—the ish will be so dangerous to the Nazis as the Russians and the now-
continuation of war with different means. enslaved peoples. We know little of the technique of underground
work. We will try to be fair, we will see to it that the war criminals
get a chance to defend themselves, we will be considerate—and will
11 lose time thereby. As to shutting off the waterworks or closing the

hospitals—no, that would never do.
It is not only of decisive importance to the Nazi underground
Germany Occupied who occupies Germany after the war; how the war itself ends is
equally important. If the country has to be conquered foot by foot;
if many cities, towns, and villages are laid in ruins before the Ger-
man Army surrenders, the psychological situation will be far more
THE COMING NAZI UNDERGROUND is war itself. If we favorable for the Nazi underground than if Germany gives up be-
want to get a clear picture of how this war will be waged, it is neces- fore the invasion. The average German will hate the invading
sary to differentiate between short-range tactics and long-range enemy in proportion to the amount of harm the latter inflicts. On
strategy. the other hand, to have meted out to them even a small proportion
The strategy of the comeback which may be put into effect ten of the cruel punishment that they themselves have visited con-
or fifteen years hence depends largely on what the world will be stantly on other defenseless countries might arouse a certain amount
like ten or fifteen years hence. As for the short-range tactics, they, of fear and respect for the Allies in the minds of many Germans.
too, will depend on what happens. But since the choice of what So much so that they may not feel prepared to aid a movement
may take place inside Germany during the last stage of the war which will lead the country into another war.
and immediately afterward is limited, the choice of tactics the There is also the possibility that even though the greater part of
underground can employ is limited too. the army will give up before the actual invasion, certain units may
The worst thing which could possibly happen to the Nazi under- fight on. There may be free German movements inside Germany,
ground is a decisive Russian victory, with the Russians alone oc- nationalistic guerrillas and partisans. Some cities may be defended
cupying part or perhaps the whole of Germany. The Bolsheviks in the manner of Stalingrad, especially in places where the ma-
know from their own experience that it does not pay to be forgiv- jority of the population has reason to believe that it is less likely
ing. So they will be ruthless. They will shoot one hundred people to be killed by the enemy than shot in the back by the Gestapo.
in order to be sure of liquidating ten dangerous ones. They will Some groups of partisans may try to fight on in the mountains
and in the woods—though aside from the Bavarian Alps there are The Baltikum adventure (so named from the fact that its centers
no mountains to speak of in Germany and men defending them- of activity were in the Baltic States) came to naught partly because
selves there would not be able to hold out for long against heavy the French Prime Minister Clemenceau saw through the ruse and
artillery. demanded that the generals call their men back, but also because
The advantage of such holdouts, however, will be that confusion actually there was no need for the generals to go to so much
will reign, and during this period of confusion some men can dis- trouble. They found that they could nurse their armies under the
appear. They may go underground, in the literal sense of the word. very eyes of the republic itself.
That is, they could lead an illegal existence for years to come. That A repetition of the Baltikum adventure, on a larger European
this can be done has been proved in recent years not only inside the scale, perhaps, would by no means depend solely on the last-ditch
occupied countries, but also in Germany proper, whence depend- fighters who make their escape during the final confusion. It will
able reports have come to us about Germans, particularly Jews, depend—as in 1919—on soldiers who while their armies are re-
who, while fighting the Hitler regime, have for years led such treating to Germany decide to stay in these countries and hide out.
underground existences. By demolishing city halls and other ad- Or on the Germans who have already settled in these countries
ministrative buildings where birth records are kept the Nazis during the war. Indeed, a great many Germans have settled in the
could make it relatively easy for a considerable number of people Baltic States and, according to reports, have been welcomed there.
to go underground. After the war they may be citizens of these states, in which case it
Then, too, many of these last-ditch fighters may escape across the will be difficult to get them to leave. Also a great number of Ger-
frontiers into a neutral country. Switzerland, for instance, is ideally mans have gone to the Balkans. In February 1944 a report from
situated for such a purpose. It is easy to get into Switzerland by Switzerland said that 700,000 bombed-out Germans would be
way of the Bavarian and Austrian Alps. Of course such escapes settled in Hungary. How many of them will go back to Germany?
would be organized down to the last detail. Once over the frontier, And, finally, how many of the soldiers whom Hitler poured into
the fugitives might be disarmed and perhaps put into internment Hungary and the Balkans in March 1944 will return? How many
camps. But Switzerland would hardly extradite them. And in due of them have been sent there for the specific purpose of not re-
time they could make their way to other countries—to join others turning?
who will want to continue the fight for Hitlerism. As far as the Baltic states of Lithuania, Esthonia, and particu-
With enough active fighters outside Germany proper, the Nazi larly Finland are concerned, it is evident that the political setup in
underground may revive an experiment which the army attempt- those countries at present is one which will aid the Nazis. If Russia
ed after the defeat of 1918: the so-called Baltikum adventure. has her way, however, these governments will disappear and no
Nazi sympathizer will have control of things to come. If, on the
This project was planned by the German military leaders in other hand, we Americans have our way, the independence of
1917; when they began to consider the possibility of eventual de- “little democratic Finland,” for instance, will be guaranteed. And
feat. Their plan then was to leave units of German soldiers in once if this happens Baron von Mannerheim, the man who helped the
occupied and conquered territories instead of taking them back to German generals with their Baltikum adventure in 1919 to 1921
Germany. Such a procedure was feasible because in certain terri- and who has proved a dependable friend of the Nazis up to now,
tories—Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland, for example—sympathizers will stay in power. And there is no doubt but that Mannerheim
with the German cause were at the top; these men were supposed would work hand in glove with the Nazi underground movement.
to naturalize the German soldiers who stayed there; and thus a cer- Spain, too, might become a hideout for last-ditch fighters—pos-
tain part of the German Army could have continued its existence sibly the ideal one. Here is where the Falange comes in, if it then
outside of Germany proper. still exists. There is nothing to prevent Nazi guerrilla fighters from
getting themselves Spanish passports and joining the ranks of the numerically will be formed by those who, to all outward appear-
Falange. Or they may join the Spanish Army, as members of the ances, were never Nazis at heart, but who had to go along with the
Blue Division returning from the Russian front. It will be easy. party for reasons of bread and butter or because otherwise they
The ideal place for these Nazi partisans to escape to and to re- might have been thrown into concentration camps. A great num-
assemble would be Argentina because of its enormous ranches, ber of civil officials are in this category, as are also a great number
many of which are owned by Nazi sympathizers or by German of German officers (except for the topnotchers, of course). These
Nazis themselves. Argentina, however, may be difficult to get to men have a good reason for pretending to come over to our side:
during the last stages of the war and immediately afterward. they don’t want to lose the right to their pensions.
This again presents a parallel with 1918. After the last war the
The Nazi guerrillas and partisans who hold out in Germany until German Republic decided to pay pensions to all imperial officials
the zero hour will have a great nuisance value. They will take up and the officers of the army and the navy. In the minds of German
much of the Allies’ time and energy, as long as they are still active. Socialists and Democrats the officers had done their duty; they
It will undoubtedly take months, perhaps the better part of a year, could not be blamed for the war, and that was that. It never oc-
to dispose of them. And also certain organizations of the early curred to them that they were thus feeding their worst enemies.
twenties which featured political assassinations may spring up If Germany does not go Communist, there is an overwhelming
again in order to prevent those Germans who are eager to col- likelihood that this time pensions will again be paid. Indeed, the
laborate with the Allies from betraying the guerrillas. Nazis are counting on it. It is undoubtedly because of these
But it is not the guerrillas or their aides who will make up the pensions that the officer corps of the German Army and the Navy
dangerous part of the Nazi underground. It is, rather, those who have become so unbelievably large. There are today about 700
will not make trouble openly; those who will seem to co-operate admirals in Germany, almost twice as many as there are in the
with the AMG; those who, in order to demonstrate their good will, United States Navy, although the German fleet hardly exists any
may quite conceivably betray the guerrillas and become stool longer. The amusing and revealing feature about this situation is
pigeons for the AMG—in minor matters, of course. that, while the German fleet has steadily grown smaller and
This peaceful Nazi underground will have various ways and smaller, the number of admirals has just as steadily grown larger
means of establishing am aura of confidence. Undoubtedly some of and larger. As for the army, it may have between 4,000 and 5,000
the “peaceful collaborators” will even support separatist move- marshals and generals. Including colonels, there will be about 20,000
ments or Allied plans to create such movements. Nothing would commissioned German officers who will get pensions large enough
be more favorable for a Nazi underground than a split-up of the for them to live on. With their incomes assured, the recipients
unified German administration into many state administrations. In will be able to devote their time and energies to something else.
the first place, such a solution would create fierce resentment And to what better activity could they devote their time and
among the Germans—and it is on this resentment that the Nazi energy, so they must think, than to make Germany once more a
underground must live and grow for years to come. But even more strong and feared nation? That is what the Nazis count on. It is
important than the resentment such a change would arouse is the why the Nazis have promoted these officers—so that they can live
fact that while it will be difficult for the Allies to survey and con- without worrying about their daily bread and butter. The Nazi
trol a central administration of Germany, it would be next to im- underground will take full advantage of them.
possible for them to watch a number of administrations. They There must be no misunderstanding: not all of these officers
would supply the Nazis with literally thousands of chances to place are Nazis. Indeed, many are not. Most of them have not even any
their people in unobtrusive key positions. definite ideas, let alone definite plans, as to how to achieve Ger-
Among the “peaceful collaborators” the most prominent group many’s comeback. They are just good Germans—or at least what
they believe to be good Germans. They think that Germany should whenever he makes a statement, it is never very hard on the Nazis,
be strong, should have a strong army and navy and that all the but rather against anti-Nazis. About the beginning of 1944, for in-
features of the Hitler regime which, in the last analysis have stance, he spoke over the radio against those refugees who had
brought about this war, should be retained. taken a stand in favor of punishing German war criminals. In the
While the United States Government, unlike Moscow, has not typical arrogant manner of a German officer he flatly accused them
yet given the German officers in American prison camps a chance either of being Communists or of being moved by personal resent-
to speak their minds, we are nevertheless informed by some former ments and eager for personal revenge. Those who were against
German officers living at liberty in this country precisely what the him, he stated, were “Communists” or “stooges of the late Comin-
German officers’ corps thinks, and what kind of future its mem- tern who partly changed their name though not their spots.”
bers would like for Germany. Take, for instance, Gottfried Trevi- Treviranus made it clear that he wished the English and Americans
ranus, who with his fifty-six years and white hair is still a handsome to occupy Germany for a long time so that law and order might be
and elegant man, and always looks a bit the officer in mufti. He was guaranteed there. It was evident that he was afraid leftists might
an officer in the last war, the successful commander of a German disturb an otherwise idyllic state of affairs. He did not seem afraid
torpedo boat. After the war he went into politics, joining the right- that the Nazis, once thrown out of power, might also be a threat
ist and conservative Deutschnationale party, which for almost ten to law and order. In certain meetings with Wall Street representa-
years carried the main burden of the opposition against the tives he suggested that Germany’s heavy industries, including her
Weimar Republic. Even as a politician Treviranus remained the war industries, be kept intact in order to prevent unemployment
German officer. In 1930 he joined the Bruening Cabinet. Rightist and economic instability, adding that these industries could per-
circles felt that he had gone to the left, but if he did so at all it haps help in the defeat of Japan.
was only a mild change. He fell with Bruening, but still retained Mr. Treviranus not only tried to exercise his influence in Wall
excellent connections with rightists such as Baron von Gayl, Min- Street, he was also active in Washington, though of course back-
ister of the Interior under Franz von Papen. When Hitler took stage. Still he has been in on numerous conferences with officials
over he waited, in the firm conviction that the Nazis wouldn’t last. to discuss various plans for the future of Germany.
He waited almost too long. And Treviranus is not the only émigré who has sat in on such
He was among those who were supposed to be purged on that Washington conferences. Other personalities thus honored have
now-famous—or, rather, infamous—June 30, 1934. Not having the not, as one might think, included those men who actively fought
slightest suspicion of what was in store for him, he was in the Hitler from the first, and who warned constantly against him and
middle of a tennis match on his private court in the west end of the rising danger of war. Not at all! They have included only per-
Berlin when he saw Elite Guard men arriving in a car and entering sons who either have kept themselves completely neutral or who
his villa. He understood immediately what this meant, climbed over tried to collaborate with Hitler until they found it impossible,
the fence of the tennis court, and ran away as he was, clad in white mainly because Hitler found it impossible to go on with them. The
trousers, racket still in hand. For almost two weeks he remained most prominent among them is Dr. Ernst Hanfstaengl, nicknamed
hidden in Berlin. Then he made his way to London. In spite of this ‘Putzi,” for fifteen years one of the closest of Hitler’s friends, until
attempt on his life by the Nazis he never made a statement against for some yet undisclosed reason he decided to leave Germany. At
them, nor did he join any party or movement with anti-Nazi aims. the beginning of the war he was arrested in England and put in a
He kept quiet, and was officially out of politics, although he began Canadian internment camp. Evidently, the Canadian authorities
to fraternize with certain English politicians who later were called were not quite certain that he had become a genuine anti-Nazi.
members of the Cliveden set. Eventually he came to Canada and American authorities, though, must have been convinced because
finally to America. Up till now he has kept out of the limelight, but they asked his release and invited him to Washington. For the
last two years he has been living in a luxurious home outside the ing the Reichstag fire—all of which seems to indicate that he was
capital and acting as an expert adviser on German affairs. Depend- completely independent of any Nazi influence.
able sources have it that Hanfstaengl is mainly busy in devising Some of his supporters in Washington have even pointed out
lists of German cabinets. He has already proposed more than that Bumke occasionally—in private, of course—disagreed with cer-
twenty different German governments. tain features of Hitler’s policy, such as the persecutions of the Jews.
It seems, indeed, as though everybody except the very highest
How about the German government after Hitler? It stands to Nazis has disapproved of Hitler’s anti-Semitic activities. At least
reason that it will be of the utmost importance to the Nazi under- everybody says so—now—though they were very careful to conceal
ground that no man or no group of men who are sincerely anxious their disapproval while the atrocities were being committed.
to do away with the Nazis and who have sufficient energy to carry In any case, Erwin Bumke has never opened his mouth to pro-
it out their intentions shall take over. And as far as can be seen now, test against what was going on in Germany. At best he was silent.
there is little danger that such men will be called upon to form a But remaining at his post as the highest judge of Germany could
new German government. The lists that so far have been suggested not mean anything but silent approval of what was going on: ap-
to the State Department in Washington and to 10 Downing Street proval of the murder of thousands of people; approval of the ban-
do not contain a single name whose bearer has been known as a ishing of hundreds of thousands to concentration camps; approval
militant anti-Fascist. (If the Russians, too, have pondered over of replacing a sound system of justice by a caricature devised along
such lists they have not made anything known. Therefore, their the lines of the slogan: Justice is anything that is good for the
prospective candidates, if any, cannot be discussed here.) Germans.
Anglo-American lists seem to feature as the coming man in Ger- No, this quiet, unobtrusive Bumke never had the makings of an
many many one Dr. Erwin Bumke, president of the Reichsgericht anti-Nazi. Indeed, the Reichsgericht, while it was under his con-
(Supreme Court) of Germany, a man widely unknown inside as trol during the years of the republic, was the most reactionary in-
well as outside of Germany. He is sixty-four years old, and enjoyed stitution in the whole country. It was here that Hitler’s prede-
a normal career under the Kaiser and under the republic. He had cessors, the political assassins, were exonerated. It was here that
become President of the Reichsgericht before Hitler came to power charges against certain high officials of German justice, friends of
and was not chased out of his job. A medium-sized, white-haired Bumke, who later admitted gaily that they had conspired with the
man of smooth behavior, he has always preferred to stay out of the Nazis against the republic, were dismissed. It was here that revela-
limelight. tions were quashed which might have made things difficult for the
Those who have passionately aided his candidacy have pointed still-struggling Nazi party. It was here that one of the great journal-
out that if we make him the successor to Hitler, we would auto- ists of all time, Carl von Ossietzky, a man who constantly warned
matically re-establish the constitution of the Weimar Republic, ac- against the dangers of Fascism, was sentenced, for high treason—
cording to which the president of the Supreme Court is the auto- because he had published details about the conspiracies of the Black
matic successor to the president of the Reich in case of the latter’s army. Scarcely free again, he was rearrested by the Nazis as soon as
demise. they came to power. Later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
But this, of course, is only one of the reasons why Bumke while he was being held in a concentration camp. He was to die
seems the logical man of the hour in Washington. His supporters shortly after his release, a victim of Nazi brutality.
tell us that he has never been mixed up with the Nazi movement Perhaps Herr Bumke is not a Nazi. But he certainly is guilty of
as such; that he was not in any way party to the reform of German a great crime: he was weak when his job demanded strength; he
“justice” which took place under Hitler; that he presided over the compromised when the occasion demanded decision.
court that exonerated the Bulgarian Communists accused of start- A weak man, a man of compromises—that is exactly what the
Nazis will want, a man who to all outward appearances will be for many years he was an admiring follower of Adolf Hitler. Not a
opposed to all Nazi ideas, but who will actually remain what he has word did he have to say against the Führer and all the horrors he
always been: a reactionary, unable ever to break away from the perpetrated, up to 1933. It was only then that he disagreed—with
influence of the people he has lived with all his life—the reaction- remarkable courage it must be admitted. He decided to leave the
aries. A man who cannot possibly have any understanding of any- party, thus depriving himself of great advantages which every old
thing new. A man who will aid the Nazis as in the twenties he member was certain of, and expose himself to great danger. Yes,
helped the Black Reichswehr and the numerous conspirators. A he had courage. He was probably the only Nazi who left the party
man who will imprison for high treason any newspaperman who, in the year 1933.
he fears, might later reveal the conspiracies of the Nazi under- But as far as his quarrels with Hitler go, they do not include the
ground, as he imprisoned Carl von Ossietzky. whole Nazi philosophy. Niemoeller objected only to certain fea-
tures, certain events, certain personalities. If Hitler had left religion
The other man who has been mentioned for the job of President alone, Niemoeller would never have fought him. If instead of try-
of Germany after the war is Pastor Martin Niemoeller. ing to make his friend Pastor Mueller head of the Church, Hitler
This man presents a much more complicated problem than had chosen a better churchman, or if he had left the choice to the
Bumke. For, unlike the judge, in the past he has definitely come out churchmen themselves, Martin Niemoeller would have been de-
against the Nazis. The world remembers it. He protested violently lighted. He said so himself.
against Hitler’s interference in Church matters. He tried to protect How limited Niemoeller’s divergencies with Hitler are became
non-Aryan priests of the Protestant Church when they were in obvious at the beginning of the war, in September 1939. The pastor
danger of being removed from their pulpits. He organized strong had by then been in prison for many years. He had repeatedly de-
Christian resistance all over Germany to Hitler’s attempt to give clined offers of freedom under the condition that he give up preach-
the Protestant Church a leader in the person of the former army ing. It was his constant contention that he must tell the world what
chaplain, Ludwig Mueller, one of the most problematical figures of he thought of Hitler. But now, when Hitler began his war against
the Third Reich. He wrote and delivered sermons in his little the world, this no longer seemed important. It seemed more im-
church in an elegant suburb of Berlin which caused everybody to portant to help Hitler win the war. The martyr to his faith volun-
fear that he might be arrested any Sunday. He was finally arrested teered—as a submarine commander. Which means that he has
and, though the court acquitted him of all the trumped-up charges hardly changed since 1914.
that were made against him, he was put in a concentration camp— If Niemoeller were to become the head of the German govern-
where he still is as far as anyone knows. ment, he certainly would do away with all those features of the
This is one side of the picture. But there is another one. Martin Hitler regime which he has so violently and courageously pro-
Niemoeller comes from one of the most reactionary families in Ger- tested against. But he would not take the initiative in doing away
many. A former navy officer, he was one of a group of the most with any of the features of that regime against which he has not
Pan-Germanistic men in the navy. During World War I he became protested, and with which he is in complete accord.
a successful and famous U-boat commander. The revolution made Niemoeller was a Nazi from the very beginning and he will al-
him a bitter man. He was against everything it represented, for ways remain a Nazi. He has never fought against the political
everything the old German Empire had represented. He became philosophy of Nazism as such, which means that if he attained
prominent among the young men who formed illegal military units. power the illegal representatives of this philosophy will possess in
He enlisted as a member of the Black Reichswehr. him a good and powerful friend.
Today it is conveniently forgotten by those who sponsor him Which makes the choice of Niemoeller as the coming man in
that he was one of the first members of the Nazi party and that Germany an almost ideal opportunity for the Nazi underground.
What applies to Niemoeller applies as well to all the men on the hind and around them a great number of men who seem willing,
lists compiled by the Anglo-Americans of those who should be in- even eager, to collaborate with the AMG and the occupying au-
cluded in a future German government. Some of these men are thorities in order to retain their positions. Behind them innumer-
former Nazis who later decided to quit the party. Perhaps they able front organizations and Nazi cells biding their time, waiting,
have even deserted the very idea of Nazism. Among such men are lying low. And finally, at least during the first period of occupa-
Otto Strasser, who broke with Hitler because Nazism was not tion, the relatively small group or groups of those who wage active
revolutionary enough; and Hermann Rauschning, who broke with resistance, the guerrillas and partisans.
Hitler because Nazism was not conservative enough. There are By the time this resistance has died out, the Nazi cells will slowly
others who have-never been genuine Nazis, such as Dr. Hjalmar begin to become active. Nothing spectacular will happen—at least
Schacht, who used the Nazis and let himself be used by them, and not for a long time. Rumors will be circulated. Nervousness will be
Dr. Otto Meissner, who was something of a glorified personal artificially increased all over Germany. Criticism of what the occu-
secretary to the first President of the republic, Ebert, and to his pation authorities are doing, and of the collaborating government,
successors, Hindenburg and Hitler. He has been able to play many will become louder. Slogans will spring up. The general discontent
instruments and to be on many sides. So have any number of other and resentment will not be allowed to die down even if, after the
men who are now being mentioned for posts in the future German first months, the hardships of the occupation diminish. A subtle
government; Franz von Papen and Erwin Plank, one of the great type of sabotage will be carried through. Not that there will be any
intriguers in the Army Ministry during the time of the republic, explosions or killings; nothing much will happen—which in itself
for example. There are still other men who have been mentioned as is a kind of sabotage too. Nothing much will come of the recon-
possible members of a German government; for instance, Gott- struction of Germany. Things just won’t move. Nothing will get
fried Treviranus and his former chief Heinrich “Bruening who, done; or, if done, it will only make things worse. From a general
while definitely on a higher level than the rest of the candidates, is, impression of confusion people will gradually arrive at the certainty
after all, the man who proved himself completely unable to stem that things are in a bad state. Not only will there actually be a bad
the Nazi tide. Why, then, should he prove himself more capable mess, but they will be made to feel that there is. They will be made
of doing so this time? to feel that nothing is getting better, that Germany will never re-
All of these men, including Bruening, will be palatable or even cover and never get anywhere again, unless something—anything
welcome to the Nazi underground because none of them will be —is done.
overeager to do anything drastic about the underground. None of Then the people will being to whisper of the good old times—
them will want to hurt any former friends. And most of them by which they will mean the times under Hitler.
would not even dare to risk doing so, because the Nazis will be in There is no telling in what measure or at what speed this sort
possession of files containing information which, if known to the of thing will grow. It is logical to assume that if the government of
rest of the world, would make life very unpleasant for these men. Germany and the AMG act in a way that makes it easy for the
If any one of these men heads a future German government or Nazi underground to exist and infiltrate everywhere, the whisper-
becomes a member of such a government, the Nazi underground ing campaign against them will be conducted with great caution.
has little to worry about. It can bide its time. For the underground has no reason to want a revolt against such
convenient authorities too soon. If, on the other hand, the govern-
Let us sum up: ment should prove disappointing to the Nazis, criticism and dis-
The picture in Germany immediately after the war would be satisfaction will increase by leaps and bounds. But even if the
somewhat as follows: at the top a few “decent, neutral” statesmen underground should thus be able to achieve a change in the gov-
who, at first sight, seem to have no connection with the Nazis. Be- ernment, that does not mean that it will take over the government
itself. Not by a long shot. This final goal is not to be reached for the civilian morale at home played any part in the formulation of
many years-not until the world has had time to forget what the that decision. But only two years later a whispering campaign
Nazis did in Germany the last time. Otherwise there might be an began about the stab in the back. No proof was ever offered that
international intervention which would throw them out of power such a stab had been administered, or, if so, how it had been ad-
before they really got settled. ministered. It wasn’t necessary. The Germans wanted to believe
that their army was unbeatable. If this belief could be bolstered up
In this business of psychological warfare the right type of prop- by the myth that its defeat was caused by trickery, so much the
aganda is, of course, of greatest importance. Dr. Goebbels himself better. Thus the slogan of the stab in the back fell on fertile
will not be around to contribute his splendid ideas. The man who ground. Rumor became news; news became history. Future gen-
seems to be chosen as his successor, as far as the underground is erations of historians may well speculate as to whether or not
concerned, is a propaganda expert called Leopold Gutterer, a Hitler could ever have succeeded in pushing the German people
former newspaperman, who has been lately an undersecretary in into World War II, if they had not been firmly convinced that they
the Propaganda Ministry. In April 1944 he was relieved of his post had not lost World War I, or that, in fact, they could not be beaten
by the Führer “for reasons of health” and appointed chairman of at all.
the board of directors of the Ufa Film, holding company of all There is no reason why the fairy tale of the stab in the back
German moving-picture concerns. Sometime toward the middle should not be used once more; why it should not be said again that
of 1935 he wrote an article in the Zeitschrift fuer Politic, in which Germany won the war against a world of enemies, against an in-
he remarked that you can disarm a nation, but you can never dis- credible superiority in raw materials, man power, and money, and
arm propaganda. For propaganda, he said, can be made without that then again she was betrayed, stabbed in the back. This time
control of the press or of the radio. Effective propaganda can be Italy will be the guilty one. If Italy had not concluded an armistice,
made, he emphasized, even in the most subjugated country, and the enemy would never have been able to beat Germany. Why,
under the most adverse circumstances. even after the collapse of Italy, Germany was strong enough to
The question of the right slogans will loom important in the occupy Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Slovakia singlehanded.
propaganda ministry of the underground. After the last defeat, in But, of course, the stab in the back was deadly. It was the old
1918, the question of the right slogans was of great importance too. German tragedy: the unbeatable hero Siegfried being slain by the
At that time the General Staff itself attended to finding them, coward Hagen who drives a spear into the soft spot between his
setting aside a special office where ideas were to be worked out, shoulder blades.
which should explain to the German people that Germany had This will be the chief slogan. Others will be grouped around it:
not been defeated by the enemy. The legend of the “stab in the “America’s gold against German women and children.” Or: “The
back” administered to the army by Socialist Jews and misguided world assassinates German culture.” Or: “Asia will rape Europe.”
civilians in general was the first and most successful slogan to be How great a part the Jews will play as the villains in these new
composed in the special office of the General Staff. It made its way slogans does not seem certain yet. After the Jews inside Germany
all over Germany and all around the world. have been almost completely exterminated it may be difficult to
The defeat of Germany in 1918 was a real military defeat. Rarely arouse public ire against them. Then, too, anti-Semitic slogans may
has any historical fact been more obvious. The record cannot be arouse international suspicion again, and the underground will
misconstrued or explained away. It was Generals Hindenburg and want to avoid for a long time everything which might link it to
Ludendorff themselves who, in October 1918, demanded that an the Hitler regime.
armistice be concluded, since they could no longer guarantee to But inside Germany the name of Hitler and the memory of his
hold the front. There is no record anywhere that consideration of deeds will not be allowed to die. Forgotten will be the fact that he
188 the nazis go underground what can w e do a b out it ? 189
was responsible for the death of millions of young German men,
that he brought Germany down to ruin and disaster, that he
dragged the world back to barbarism. It will be remembered that
under him Germany became the most powerful country in the
world, that at one time it held all of Europe under its sway, that
12
it once gained control of a large part of Soviet Russia, and that it
even brought proud England almost to her knees.
It is not difficult to deceive posterity about “heroes” of former
What Can We Do About It?
times. Napoleon, who betrayed the Revolution; who threw France
into countless devastating wars; who is responsible for the death
of the flower of France; who—notwithstanding his great genius— ONLY about ten years ago Adolf Hitler made the modest claim
brought France to ruin; who—notwithstanding his numerous con- that the Third Reich would last one thousand years. While it
quests—left France smaller than she had been when he came into always seems unwise to make such long-range predictions, it
power, will always be remembered as a great success, as a man who looked at that time as though the Third Reich might have a rea-
brought glory and riches to his country. Hitler, who really should sonably long life. Perhaps not exactly a thousand years, but at least
not be compared with Napoleon, will be remembered for precisely from thirty to fifty.
the same things. Are the thousand years up now? It would be wrong to make a
But, of course, he has to be dead first. flat statement. The Nazi regime which is about to fall may come
Since it is probable that Hitler will perish in his Eagle’s Nest, back. The thousand years, or at least a part of it, can still be con-
his body may never be found. Yet even if he should end in a less tinued later. And the Third Reich after it goes underground can-
spectacular way it will be rumored later that it was not Hitler who not be counted as completely out of the running.
ended thus but a double or a stand-in and that Hitler’s body was How long it will take for the Nazis to come back, to emerge on
never found. German history knows many cases of heroes whose the surface—it they succeed in their aims—is a question which
bodies were never found. It helps Germans to dream of such heroes cannot be answered at all. Even under the most favorable circum-
sleeping somewhere inside a mountain, perhaps waiting for the stances- that is, most favorable for them-it will take ten or fifteen
day when they will come out again. It is a good guess that there years. Even then it would be a blitzkrieg, an underground blitz-
will be such a Hitler legend before long. If there isn’t, the propa- krieg with somewhat different conceptions of time.
ganda ministry of the underground will have missed a good The Italian underground needed a half century to achieve its
chance. goal, the Irish a whole century, the Bonapartists thirty-five years,
and the Russian Socialists twenty-five. The Russians needed two
lost wars to bring about their revolution. The Nazis cannot wait
for another lost war. They want to come to power so that they can
start World War III.
This may take a long time. A whole generation may pass before
they will emerge again. Hence the tactics of the first hour will mat-
ter less than the grand strategy they adopt for the duration of the
underground. And the slogans of the first few years will not be
enough to keep the followers of the underground in line over a
long period of time. Something less short-lived will be necessary,
particularly since the Nazis will not be able to use their best Another feature of the Japanese religion they stress is the neces-
mediums of propaganda: parades, uniforms, music, mass meetings, sity to have faith to believe implicitly, sometimes even without
speeches. regard for reality or fact. This, Das Schwarze Korps wrote, the
Something that strikes deeper than slogans is needed: a religion, Germans must do. Finally, the Nazi paper quoted a somewhat free
perhaps. And, interestingly enough, it is a new religion which translation of the song of the unknown Japanese soldier as follows:
seems to be in the making in Germany during these days before the
final collapse. The Nazis have not entered into this new venture If you fall
without some preparation. For more than ten years they have done Your high praise is sung
everything they could to alienate the masses from the Church. And your glory is greatest
They have worked out a whole Führer cult, they have flirted with When the time of your fall comes.
the heathen creed of the old Germans and with a misunderstood
Is it a coincidence that ever since the summer of 1943 the Ger-
pantheism. Then they discovered that it might be their best bet
man youth in school has been taught a new song which, referring
to adopt for Germany the Japanese state religion, the so-called cult
to the Nibelungen Saga, goes as follows:
of Tenno.
Das Schwarze Korps, Himmler’s SS weekly, on November 25, We mount the thunderheads of war,
1943, published articles in which the German and the Japanese Valhalla is our destined place,
faiths were discussed and compared at great length. “We have The earth be shattered to the core,
often during this war admired our courageous and heroic ally in When falls the master race.
the Far East. We have envied him his creed, in which God and his When Etzel forced the Nibelung band,
people, according to their mythical origin, are a unity, and accord- His house crashed down in fire,
ing to which every single Japanese knows himself to be eternally So shall Europe flaming stand,
reborn after his death and raised to become a Godlike hero.” When German men expire.
If the Germans were ever to believe in this and if they thus fol-
lowed the Japanese line to the end in its complete contempt for To sum up: with the collapse of Germany imminent, with an
danger and its lack of fear of death, the underground would profit. underground struggle ahead which will cost dearly in human lives,
It would assure courageous fighters who might willingly die for the Nazis are trying everything to make death fashionable; in fact,
the movement, and it would also mean that those who survive to make a religion of it. What the underground needs is fanatics
could not easily be discouraged. Therefore, Das Schwarze Korps who believe implicitly in the duty of dying and thus living on for
stressed the fact that even those who are dead participate in events the Führer so that he may eventually come back.
on earth. “As the souls of the dead loved ones do not cease to
participate in life here on earth, the souls of the imperial fore- So much for the psychological strategy. As to the military strat-
fathers, too, take part in it.” Here is the link to Hitler, the Hitler- egy of this total underground war now in preparation, it will be
legend-to-come and, generally speaking, the idea, or rather the dictated by the final goal. This goal is the same as it has always
promise, that the leader or any successor of the leader will be there been: domination of the world by Germany.
to watch his loyal ones. In general, Das Schwarze Korps has done In the future, Germany or the underground may not have a
everything to emphasize the fact that the Tenno and the Führer choice of allies. They will have to collaborate with whoever is
are identical. “Tenno is the concrete part of the idea of the empire willing to accept them. Since it seems pretty obvious that Soviet
. . . he is the reason for the unity of culture and politics of the Russia will not want to collaborate with Fascism under cover, the
empire. . . .” greater probability is that at some future date Germany will revive
the now much publicized idea that she is the safeguard of the machines, and we can always say that those which we do not restore
world against Bolshevism. How the world will react to such ma- were destroyed by enemy bombardments. We should immediately
neuvers, to what degree other countries or their governments will prepare as camouflage a list of such objects destroyed by Anglo-
help the Nazis back to power in order to fulfill their “mission” of American bombs.
fighting Bolshevism, remains to be seen. Certain countries, or Marshal von Rundstedt made a speech in the War Academy in
forces in those countries, will undoubtedly become the logical Berlin in which he argued along much the same line:
allies of the Nazi underground—the Finnish circles around Baron
von Mannerheim, for instance, or the Polish colonels’ clique, which The destruction of neighboring people and their riches is indis-
once so ardently fought for everything the Nazis fought for and pensable to our victory. One of the great mistakes of 1918 was to spare
which, except for the fact that it was thrown out of its own coun- the civil life of the enemy countries, for it is necessary for us Germans
try, has not changed at all. to be always at least double the number of the peoples of contiguous
No matter, however, who falls in with the Nazis and who does countries. We are therefore obliged to destroy at least a third of their
inhabitants. The only means is organized underfeeding, which in this
not (for it may be that Mannerheim or the Polish colonels will not case is better than machine guns.
have so much to say after this war) the final result of any alliance
with the Nazis will be war—World War III. Marshal von Mannstein, in a confidential circular to brigade
commanders September 17, 1943, advised that “our pillage should
This is no mere speculation, no mere daydream. Even today, be methodical and organized. It is necessary to import above all
while World War II is still being fought, the more realistic Ger- commodities of little weight representing great value, such as
man generals are discussing what must be done to prepare a new jewelry, precious metals and stones, cultural objects, books, linen,
war. In November 1943 the Algerian weekly Combat published a stamps, et cetera, in order to sell them easily and transform them
few remarks of these generals. General Otto von Stuelpnagel even into monetary deposits in inviolable places.”
composed a lengthy memorandum on the war to come. He wrote: Perhaps the most astonishing fact about such statements is that
What does a provisional defeat matter to us if, because of the they were made at all. German generals are not in the habit of
destruction of man power and material which we will have been able going on record as to what they think. However, there is no doubt
to inflict on our enemies and neighboring territories, we have ob- that they think and feel in such a way, and that they are in com-
tained a margin of economic and demographic superiority greater plete agreement with Himmler and the rest of the gang: that they
than before 1939? The conquest of the world will require numerous are planning another world war.
stages, but the essential is that the end of each stage brings us an To transmute such plans into reality the Nazis must once more
economic and industrial potential greater than that of our enemies.
With the war booty which we have accumulated, the enfeebling of come into power.
two generations of the man power, the destruction of the industries;
of our neighbors and that which we can save of our own, we shall Who, then, are the men and women who will form the prospec-
be better placed to conquer in twenty-five years than we were in tive army of the underground, the army which in due time will
1939. The interval of twenty-five years is a limited interval, for that emerge above ground to try once more what Hitler tried before?
is the time which will be required for Russia to repair the destruction we They will be everywhere. From the point of view of the under-
have visited on her. ground, all Germany will be considered fertile ground from which
We do not have to fear peace conditions analogous to those which
we have imposed because our adversaries will be always divided and to draft men.
disunited. Our enemies recognize already that the 1920 formula, “Ger- Everything that happens to Germany in the last stages of this
many will pay,” lacked sense and worth. We will furnish them some war and afterward will throw the majority of the Germans into
brigades of workers, we will restore some art objects or out-of-date what may be termed a defensive psychological situation. Once
more they will feel that they are being enslaved—because they Churchill. These people, who had been thrown out of Germany,
have not been allowed to enslave the world. who had been told so uncompromisingly by the German people,
Many of the returning soldiers will be disillusioned because they or at least by representatives of the vast majority of the German
saw victory snatched away from them just as it was almost in their people, that they were no longer wanted, now suddenly became
grasp. Among the embittered ones will be, for example, the many patriotic Germans. They were outraged. They wrote letters to
officers who have not served long enough to be eligible for pen- American newspapers declaring that German territory must not
sions. Unable to work in another profession, they will slowly de- fall into Polish hands. This, they declared, would be the most ter-
teriorate. There will be the disappointed German aviators who rible thing that could possibly happen in a world in which so many
thought they were masters of the world and who will now have to terrible things had already happened. Did,these men protest as a
come down to earth in every sense of the word and take up unit when German troops marched into Poland? They did not.
dreary little jobs far beneath what they had envisioned before. Did they protest when German troops marched into France, into
There will be the prisoners of war returning from other countries. the Balkans, or into Russia? They did not. Did they sign state-
Far from being disgusted with the Nazi regime which cost them so ments condemning the Anschluss of Austria, the rape of Czecho-
dear, far from working for a better and genuinely democratic Ger- slovakia? They did not. But now they felt they had to protest.
many, these returned prisoners will be more Nazi than ever before. Being the political master minds they are, they of course have no
For this the underground may thank the English and American conception of what such a statement means to the Nazis. It means
governments who, in their almost superhuman fairness, are keep- not only strengthening the Nazi position now, since people all over
ing to the letter of the Geneva Convention and do not interfere the world will say that for once the Nazis may be right in protest-
in any way with the lives of their prisoners of war. It is impossible ing because, after all, did anti-Nazis not join them in the protest?
for these prisoners to become acquainted with any ideas that are But it means also-and this is much more important for the future
opposed to the Nazi doctrine, for they are kept under the strictest —that it will become progressively more difficult for an outsider to
discipline by their camp “Führers”; they read only what the Führer see where the Nazi front ends and where the anti-Nazi front
approves of; and are permitted to think only what the Führer ap- begins. Nothing that such “patriotic refugees” have said these last
proves of even to the point where, in some cases, those who did not years, particularly since it has been certain that Germany will lose
obey the strict Nazi discipline were murdered by their fellow the war, is detrimental to a Nazi party preparing to go under-
prisoners. ground. It is exactly this kind of talk, this kind of indignant
Then there will be the average Germans, who will feel that they patriotism, in which these men excel, that enables the Nazis to keep
have been treated badly because some part of the old Reich, per- in the background while others pull the chestnuts out of the fire for
haps East Prussia, is no longer German. In due time they will them. If German industries are left intact, not because Herr Schacht
believe that the war which was started by Hitler in order to take or Herr von Schnitzler demand it, but because anti-Nazi refugees
over most of Europe was actually initiated by the other side in demand it; if East Prussia remains within the Reich, not because
order to take East Prussia or other territories away from Germany. Field Marshal von Mannstein demands it but because the Hitler
How easy it is to promote such ideas has been demonstrated by victims desire it, so much the better for the Nazis. Because if they
the behavior of some refugees in the United States who are strictly are not forced to make their demands openly, but can get others
anti-Nazi but who have, nevertheless, been unable to keep from to do their dirty work for them, these demands will have a much
protesting violently when they thought Germany might lose some greater chance of being fulfilled. As far as the record goes, they will
of her territories after this war. A typical reaction of that sort set not be Nazi stipulations at all, but rather the ardent expressions of
in after the Russians had suggested that the Poles take over East the desires of anti-Nazis.
Prussia—an idea which seemed quite reasonable to Winston Hence it must clearly be understood that the Nazi underground
certainly has every interest in keeping such men in the public eye, made Europe what it is are far stronger than Hitler’s forces. The
They are extremely useful. fact that the underground movements in all the occupied countries
If in no other way they serve admirably to camouflage the work of are characteristic and representative of the traditions, the basic
the underground. A group formed by men who have fled from Hitler conditions, the ideas alive in those countries before the war, is
Germany could never be pronounced Nazi. Would not a group of decisive proof that those basic conditions and those ideas are
such German patriots be the perfect setup for a Nazi to use as a stronger than Hitler.
front? Membership would afford the Nazi agent who joins a great What makes all these underground movements so important,
measure of security. It would also provide him with excellent con- far beyond Hitler, is the fact that they are the logical, and only
tacts. In short, it is made to measure for an agent of the coming remaining expression of a world that, though “conquered,” is still
Nazi underground. very much alive. As Europe has remained Europe, Germany will
Thus even anti-Nazis may unsuspectingly become part of the remain Germany. The Nazi underground will be nothing funda-
army behind the Nazi underground. mentally new, though once the world takes notice of its existence
Then there will be the youth. Young boys and girls who have it will be acclaimed or cursed as a new threat, danger, or achieve-
never witnessed the terrors of the Hitler regime will be easily per- ment. In the last analysis it is nothing but the whole of Germany
suaded that everything was wonderful while the Führer was still with all its talents and faults, its violence, arrogance, and strange
there. Conditions will be bad inside Germany for a long time to inferiority complexes, its eternal wish to be free and its eternal
come, and the youth will feel that matters should be changed. Ger- desire to dominate the world: a Germany which has gone under-
man schools will find ways and means to foster such an impression ground—a Germany which, according to its philosopher Johann
in them. In history courses teachers—always pillars of Pan-Ger- Gottlieb Fichte, believes “The world will one day be healed
manism—will talk about the glorious victories of the Führer. These through the German spirit.”
victories will be celebrated, perhaps in great secrecy, which makes Or as the modern German philosopher, Moeller van den Bruck,
them all the more romantic-but Hitler’s defeats will never be the man who coined the expression “Third Reich,” once said of
mentioned. Youth groups, such as the German equivalent of the the Germans: “It is our mission to give the world no rest.”
Boy Scouts, will keep the Hitler cult alive. Sport clubs will also be
active. What can we do about it?
In short, the whole of Germany may be regarded as a prospec- Lately there has been an avalanche of opinion on “what to do
tive army of the Nazi underground. Every German who feels and with Germany.” There is Ernest Hemingway’s idea of sterilizing
acts in a way that can be termed patriotic is a potential member of the Germans and Dorothy Thompson’s fervent desire to trust them
such a prospective army. and give them another chance. There are Lord Vansittart’s ex-
tremely well-written essays on the eternal German threat; there
What Hitler and his men did to Europe has been a strong were the many books by former foreign correspondents, all of
enough motive for the growth of many different underground whom demanded stern measures against the Germans because, as
movements there. Reality, indeed, has thus created a new reality— one of them, Sigrid Schultz, said, they will “try it again.” There is
or so it seems. But are these underground movements really some- Louis Nizer’s fine analysis of the small value adhering to treaties
thing new? What has happened? Nothing much has happened signed by Germany. There are George Bernard Shaw’s amusing
except that a Europe which existed before the war has continued observations about things that should not be done with Germany
to exist. Only, since it could not exist openly, it had to go under- and H. G. Wells’s exasperated comments on what had to be done.
ground. All of Europe submerged. There are numerous plans for disarming the country, destroying its
But Europe did not change. It could not, because the forces that war industries, re-educating the Germans, and supervising the
schooling system. There are the English and American newspapers possible to re-educate the German people? Or may we hope that
asking their readers how Germany should be treated after the war, the Germans have learned from events and that what they have
and the countless answers to that disputable question; and there gone through or will go through will change them? Is it conceiv-
are the Gallup polls taken on different potential measures to be able that the very few really militant anti-Nazi Germans will
used against the vanquished Nazis. gather around them enough followers to enable them to control
Practically all that has been said and written on this subject so the German mind and run Germany in such a way that the world
far represents only private opinion. No government has yet made need not again be exposed to the German threat ten or twenty
a definite statement about what it intends to do, though Moscow years hence? Or will the Germans always disavow the leaders who
has dropped certain hints. Perhaps the most “official” plan yet to want to lead them in the right direction and follow blindly those
get into print is the well-known revelation of Kingsbury Smith who lead them and the world into war and disaster?
about what the United States State Department is planning to do One thing seems obvious:we must strengthen the ranks of the
about Germany. It is the plan for the AMG, involving American anti-Nazis inside Germany. Even if it is not possible to turn the
so-called Gauleiters for Germany, and a long period of re-education country over to them we must give them an opportunity to show
while Germany is occupied. Many arguments were advanced what they can do. Even if the country must be occupied—and it
in favor of the plan, the chief one being that it would prevent un- must-we should make it clear to the Germans that they ought to
rest and revolution. Smith also revealed that collaboration with the settle their own affairs, and this in a way that will guarantee the
German Junkers was not considered out of the question. peace of the world.
The publication of this plan, the validity of which was neither Fascism is nothing but the primitive though somewhat disguised
confirmed nor denied by the State Department, was a sensation desire for power. In order to succeed, the Nazi underground, like
for the Allied public. It could hardly have caused as great a sen- the Nazi party twenty years ago, has to promise everything to
sation in the intelligence department of the Gestapo. After all, everybody. For there is no leading idea unifying the army of the
German intelligence must have known for some time about the Nazi underground; there are only the hopes of its many soldiers
Army School of Military Government at Charlottesville, Virginia. of gaining something for themselves—and many of their goals
What will we do with Germany? The very question is in itself automatically exclude each other. There is a deep abyss running
badly put. It sounds as though Germany, after losing the war, will through the Nazi underground. If we can widen it, if we can show
be at our mercy. This may be the case for a short time, perhaps, the German people that this whole movement is nothing but an
but only for a short time. To believe otherwise would be to revive enormous fraud, all schemes for a Nazi future will collapse.
the illusion of 1918 all over again. The main question is not what In order to achieve this end we must have an idea, where the
we will do with Germany. It is, rather, what will Germany do with Nazis have not. We must be untiring in our efforts to make this
us? And the next question is: How best can we prevent Germany idea real and workable.
from carrying out her plans? Can it be done by introducing a
regime of terror? Can it be done by forgiving the German people, Rudolf Hess said at the Party Congress of 1937 in Nuremberg
and starting appeasement all over again? Can it be done by tech- that the whole world knew the old order was ended; that a new
nical devices, such as occupation for ten or twenty years, by control order must be created. He went on to say that he believed the Nazi
of transportation or utilities, by closing frontiers and keeping Ger- order was that new order.
many in quarantine? Can it be done by doing business with Ger- As it turned out, this Nazi order was but a continuation of the
many or not doing business with Germany? Can it be done by ex- old disorder, in more barbaric terms. But Hess was quite right
ercising strict control over raw materials imported into Germany? when he said that the old order was ended. He was right to a much
By supervising German newspapers, theaters, and radio? Is it greater degree than he probably knew himself. How otherwise was
it possible that the little Nazi party could grow so fast? How was changed as far as the world is concerned. Mr. Churchill is still of
it possible that gangsters who never denied their gangster methods the opinion that the British Empire should be preserved precisely
could take power? How was it possible that they almost succeeded as it was when he was born. The overwhelming majority of infl-
in conquering the world? uential Americans still believe that the United States should be run
In a world where things are in reasonable order, the Nazis could according to the principles and by methods which were effective
never have come to power. They did come to power because some- and fair a generation or two ago.
thing was wrong with a world in which millions of people in every This war will bring about a change as far as the relation of the
country were out of work, where they went hungry while in other strength of the different powers is concerned. But that is not
countries millions of bushels of wheat and grain were poured into enough. It is not enough that Germany will be weak for many
the ocean; where millions suffered from over-industrialization of years to come, and Soviet Russia strong. That France will have to
their country while even more millions were denied the benefits be rebuilt and America will have to feed the world. Any result
derived from basic industries; where whole countries sank to a which is subject to changes in itself—and Germany will not always
subhuman standard of life because they were not rich enough to stay weak—guarantees nothing. It is not the relative strengths of
import the necessary raw materials, and others suffocated in gold the different powers that must change, but the relations of the
and had to bury it deep in the ground. human beings within all the countries of this world. Some call it
And the Nazis will come to power again if that something which revolution. Some call it a new order. Whatever we call it, it must
is wrong with the world is not remedied. If we can make our world come about.
a better world, the Nazis will disappear into the abyss of history. If it does not, the Nazi underground will live and flourish. In
The English, French, and Americans were pleased in 1918 to due time it will make itself felt far beyond the borders of Ger-
think that they had prevented a genuine revolution in Germany. many. It will certainly make itself felt in this country—and no
They were unhappy that they could not prevent a genuine revolu- ocean will be broad enough to stop it.
tion in Russia. Twenty-five years later millions of French, English, For Nazism or Fascism is by no means an Italian or German
and American soldiers had to fight a second time against Germany. specialty. It is as international as murder, as greed for power, as
Many of these soldiers have died because there had not been a injustice, as madness. In our time these horrors were translated
German revolution in 1918. Yet millions of Allied soldiers will into political and cultural actuality in Italy and in Germany first.
live because Russia did go through a revolution. The next time . . .
We, the Allies, have not yet understood this lesson. We still If we don’t stamp out the Nazi underground, it will make itself
seem to be afraid lest a revolution break out in the Fascist coun- felt all over the world; in this country too. We may not have to
tries. We want Hitler and Mussolini out of the way, but we don’t wait ten years, perhaps not even five.
feel that the German, French, and Italian industrialists should For many years in the past we closed our eyes to the Nazi threat.
suffer unduly. We are willing to crush the Nazis, but we are most We must never allow ourselves to close them again. The danger to
unwilling to hurt those who have made them possible. We have the world, to this country will not diminish. But it is possible to
understood that certain changes are necessary, but we have not yet fight this danger if we know it, if we remain aware of its existence.
understood that a complete change is necessary.
The only way the coming Nazi underground can be crushed That is why this book was written.
before it is strong enough to rear its head is to introduce a new
order. In Germany—and outside of Germany. The Nazis came to
power, not because something was wrong with Germany, but be-
cause something was wrong with the world. Nothing has yet
Index
Aboulker, Dr. Henri, 50, 51 Bach, Johann Sebastian, 43, 72, 73

Ackley, S. A., 121 Badoglio, Pietro, 55, 56, 58-61, 64, 65
Adolf Hitlerschulen, 77 Baldwin, Stanley, 34
Agriculture, Ministry of, 72 Baltikum, 174
Air Ministry, 72 Bank for International Settlements, 33
Allgemeines Truppenamt (German Troop Banque de Paris, 53
Department), 44 Banque Worms, 53
AMG (Allied Military Government), 46, Basso, Antonio, 65
48, 49, 59, 61, 74, 83, 86-90, 93, 959 Beard, Charles A., 103
176, 185, 198 Beauftragter fuer Siedlungswesen (Com-
America First, 104, 119, 124 missioner of Resettlement), 74
America in Danger, 112 Beauftragter fuer staatsrechtliche Fragen
America Preferred, 127 (Commissioner for Questions of State
American Army for the Abolition of Pov- Jurisdiction), 74
erty, 125 Beauftragter fuer Wirtschaftsfragen (Com-
American Defense League, 122 missioner for Economic Problems), 74
American Mothers, 124 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 72, 73
American Rock party, 117 Beigbeder, Juan, 153, 155
American Vigilant Intelligence Federation, Benge, Lucinda, 123
121 “Berlichingen, Goetz von,” 58
American Vindicator, 107 Berliner Boersenzeifung, 171
American Women against Communism, Bible News Flashes, 126
124 Bismarck, Otto von, 135
Amt fuer Kulturellen Frieden (Department Bliven, Bruce, 103
for Cultural Peace), 73 Blue Star Mothers, 124
Amt fuer Schrifttum (Department of Pub- Blumberg, Generalfuehrer Dr., 85
lications), 73 Bock, Fedor von, 36, 37, 42, 43, 48
Amt fuer Sippenforschung (Department Bohle, Ernst Wilhelm, 142
for the Study of Ancestry), 73 Boisanger, Bréart de, 52
Amt fuer Wetterdienst (Department of Bonaparte, 8
Meteorology), 72 Bormann, Martin, 3-5, 7, 13, 14, 35, 45,
Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, 121 55-57, 61, 69, 96, 100
Aryan, Leon de, 111 Bourbons, 8
Asher, Court, 111 Bradley, Fred, 106
Astor family, 137 Brauchitsch, Werner von, 35-38, 42, 55
Auslandsinstitut (Institute for Foreign Brell, Dr. Walther, 171
Countries), 141 Bremerman, Otto, 120
Auslandsorganzsation, A. O. (League of Briand, Aristide, 163
Germans Abroad), 73, 141, 143, Broom, 111
147, 156 Brown, Dennis, 127
Autobahnen, 90 Brown, John, 123
203
204 index index 205
Bruck, Moeller van den, 197 Culture, Ministry of, 72, 73 Fish, Hamilton, 106, 115, 121, 131 Grace, William G., 119, 120
Bruening, Heinrich, 178, 184 Curran, Edward Lodge, 117 Flandin, Pierre-Étienne, 24, 52, 53, 54 Graf-Spee, 145
Buchman, Dr. Frank N. D., 29 Flitcraft, Eugene R., 125 Grand Fascist Council, 63
Buettner, L., 97 Daladier, Edouard, 23, 24 Folger, John, 126 Grawitz, Dr. S. S., 85
Bumke, Erwin, 180-82 Darlan, Admiral Jean, 50, 51 Fontenelles, Peyrimoff de, 52 Greear, S. J., 127
Bund Deutscher Offiziere (Association of Darré, Walter, 2 Food Inspection, Department of, 83 Green-Back party, 125
Commissioned German Oficers), 62 Day, Stephen A., 106, 120 Ford, Henry, 121 Groener, Wilhelm, 39
Bunsen Gesellschaft (Bunsen Society), 27 Deatherage, George, 115, 131 Foreign Affairs, Ministry of, 72 Grube, Harry, 127
Businessman Abroad, 143 Decembrists, 9, 10 Foster, George T., 120 Grubensicherheitsamt (Mining Security
Defender, the, 126 Franco, Francisco, 117, 119, 120, 151-53 Department), 72
Cameron, William J., 121 Delius, Richard, 42, 88 Frankfurter Zeitung, 170 Gutterer, Leopold, 186
Cancer and Diabetes, Department for, 83 Dennis, Lawrence, 127, 131, 132 Free Corps, 8, 40, 76
Free French, 54 Halder, Franz, 37
Carbonari, 9 Destiny, 121 Hallersleben, H. von, 16
Catholic International, 117 Deterding, Sir Henry, 34 Free Speech, 124
French Trans-African Company, 52 Hamburg-America Line, 17
Chamberlain, Neville, 23, 24, 34 Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 157 Hamburger Fremdenblatt, 171
Chandler, Virgil, 115 Deutsche Bank, 52 Friede, Arthur, 125
Friends of Democracy, 134 Hanfstaengl, Ernst, 179, 181
Chapeau Rouge, Aglaja von, 166, 167 Deutsche Heimschulen (German Home Hartmann, George W., 132
Chapeau Rouge, Herr von, 166 Schools), 76-79 Friends of the New Germany, 138
“Frundsberg, Georg von,” 58 Haushofer, Professor Karl, 27, 155
Chemisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (In- Deutsche Weltwirtschaftliche Gesellschaft Health Resorts, Department of, 84
stitute for Chemical Technology), 73 (German World Economic Society), 26 Fundamentalist Protestants, 125
Heard and Seen, 121
Chemische Gesellschaft (Chemical Soci- Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter, 104, Gaelic American, 117 Heissmeyer, August, 92
ety), 17 111 Galilean, the, 111 Heissmeyer, Werner, 1, 14,76, 77, 92, 100,
Chicago Tribune, 112, 113, 120, 121, 131 Deutsches Nachrichtenbureau, 171 Garner, Elmer J., 111 105, 108, 109
Christian American Association of Houst- Deutschnationale party, 178 Gau, 74, 81 Hemingway, Ernest, 197
-on, 126 Dies, Martin, 106, 126, 127 Gauleiters, 198 Henderson, Nevile, 24
Christian Front, 114, 117 Dilling, Elizabeth, 111, 121, 123, 131 Gaulle, de, Charles, 50, 54, 154 Herrstrom, William D., 126
Christian, George, 115 Disinfection, Department for, 83 Gayl, Baron Ferdinand von, 178 Hess, Alfred, 142, 143
Church League of America, 121 Djerzhinsky, Felix, 8 Geneva Convention, 140, 194 Hess, Rudolf, 4, 5, 7, 11, 93, 141, 199
Churchill, Wiiston, 106, 110, 120, 132, Dollfuss, Engelbert, 75 Gentile Co-operative Association, 125 Heydrich, Reinhard, 15, 75
195, 201 Drug Addicts, Department for, 83 Gentile League of Wisconsin, 125 Hierl, Konstantin, 6, 12-14, 70-73, 88, 90
Citizens Keep America out of the War Duisberg, Karl, 25 Gentile Leagues, 125 Hilgenfeld, Werner, 83, 84
Committee, 119 German-American Bund, 103, 104, 122 Hill, George, 115
Ebert, Friedrich, 16, 39, 44, 184
Citizens’ U.S.A. Committee, 119, 121, 124, German School Club, 141 Himmler, Heinrich, 1-5, 7-14, 25, 35, 38,
Economics, Ministry of, 72, 73
127 Gestapo (Secret State Police), 5, 7, 13, 21, 45, 46, 55-58, 61, 63, 69, 71, 73, 75,
Educator Abroad, 143
Clark, D. Worth, 106 26, 80, 81, 82, 100, 119, 167, 173 76, 86, 87, 88, 94, 96, 98, 100, 190, 193
Ehrich, Emil, 142, 143
Clark, Mark, 50, 66 Gestapo, Intelligence Department of, 1 Hindenburg, Paul von, 45, 60, 61, 184,
Einwohnerwehren, 88
Clausewitz, Karl von, 10, 172 Gesundheitsamt (Department of Health), 186
Eisenhower, Dwight I., 55, 56, 89
Clemenceau, Gorges, 175 72, 83 Hitler, Adolf, 2, 4, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18,
Epidemics, Department for, 83
Cliveden set, 178 Giraud, Henri Honoré, 51, 52 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34,
Erfassungsabteilung (Collecting Depart-
Coburg-Gotha, Karl Eduard, Duke of, 85 Gneisenau, Neidhardt von, 10 36, 37, 38, 43, 45, 46, 56, 61, 75, 80, 90,
ment), 41
Combat, 192 Goded, General, 151 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 103, 107,
Constitutional Americans, 120 Falange, 151, 152, 154, 175, 176 Goebbels, Joseph, 2, 5-7, 14, 15, 98, 99, 108, 111, 112, 114, u5, 116, 117, 118,
Constitutional Educational League, 127 Fascist Confederation of Industrialists, 63 109, 131, 132, 171, 186 126, 132, 137, 138, 139, 140, 143, 149.
Constitutional Money League of America, Faupel, Wilhelm von, 150-56 Goering, Hermann, 15, 42, 98, 99, 106, 157, 158, 159, 163, 164, 168, 169, 174,
125 FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), 166 175, 179, do, 181, 183, 184, 185, 187,
Coughlin, Charles E., 112, 115, 116, 117, 114, 115, 119, 138, 139 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, 72, 73 188, 189, 193, 196, 197, 200
123 Feldhermhalle (Putsch of 1923), 100 Goff, Kenneth O., 126 Hodge, Harry, 126
Cripples, Department for, 84 Festung Europa, 49, 91 Goodwin, William, 117 Hoepfner, Gustav, 82
Cross and the Flag, The, 112 Feuerschutzpolizei (Fire Police), 86 Gordon, David, 117 Hoffman, Clare E., 106, 120
Crusader White Shirts, 115 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 197 Gottschesky, Lydia, 93 Holman, Rufus C., 106
Crusading Mothers of Pennsylvania, 123 Fischer, Dr. Otto, 17, 27 Graberg, Werner, 42 Holzweber, Franz, 75
206 index index 207
Hooven, Col. von, 62 Ku Klux Klan, 8 Mackensen, August von, 59 Nihilists, 10
Hornemann, Dr. Generalhauptfuehrer, 85 Kuehlmann, Richard von, 157-60 M a e r z g e f a l l e n e (Those Who Fell in Nizer, Louis, 197
Hospitals, Department of, 83 Kuhn, Fritz, 105 March), 95, 96 Norddeutscher Lloyd, 17
Hudson, Charles B., 112 Kulturpolitische Abteilung (Cultural De- Malist, 117 Norman, Montagu, 33-35
Hunt, I. L., 47, 67 partment), 72 Mannerheim, Baron Carl G. E. von, 175, Normandie, 116
Hyning, Mrs. dark van, 123 Kunze, Gerhard Wihelm, 115, 131 192 Norris, George, 103
Mannstein, Erich von, 37, 43-45, 55, 57, Nyc, Gerald Prentice, 101-6, 120, 122,
Ibero-American Institute, 155, 156 Labor, Ministry of, 72 58, 61, 193, 195 131
I. G. Farben, 17, 25, 20, 52, 64, 154 La Follette, Robert, 102 March, Juan, 151, 154
Illuminat, 8, 9 La Guardia, Fiorello H., 110 May, Andrew J., 131 Oberlindober, Hanns, 84
Industrial Control Reports, 111 Lambertson, William P., 106 Meissner, Otto, 184 O’Daniel, W. Lee, 106
Informed Voters of America, 122 Landesamt (Territorial Bureau) of the Mentally Ill, Department for the, 83 Official and Employee Abroad, 143
Ingalls, Laura, 122 A. O., 142, 143 Messe, Giovanni, 60, 61 Omodeo, Adolfo, 66
Inskip, Sir Thomas, 34 Landesvermessungsamt (Department of Metternich, Prince Clemens W. L., 9 Ordensburgen, 77, 78
Institute of American Economics, 120 Surveys), 72 Midwest Voluntary Federation, 120 Ordnungspolizei (regular uniformed po-
Interior, Ministry of, 72 Landjaeger (gendarmes in the open coun- Molotov, Vicheslav, 12 lice), 86
Internationale Gesellschaft fuer Raum- try), 86 Money Righters, 125 Orgaz, General, F. y, 155
forschung (International Society for Landwacht (County Guards), 86, 87 Montgomery, Sir Bernard, 6 Orme, I. Henry, 122
Space Research), 155 Lundwirtschaftliche Versuchsanstalt (De- Moran, Francis P., 114 Ossietzky, Carl von, 181, 182
partment for Agricultural Experiments), Morrison, A. Crossey, 124
Johnson, Frank Woodruff, 131 72 Morrison, P. S., 107, 108 Pan-German League, 18, 19
Jordana, Francisco de, 154 Leach, Mary, 120 Mote, Carl, 127 Papen, Franz von, 166, 168-70, 178, 184
Jordana, Ralph de, 154 League of Alsatians, 141 Mothers of America, 124 Patriotic Research Bureau, 121
Junkers, 198 League of Baltic Germans, 141 Mothers of Sons Forum, 123 Patriotic Research Bureau News Letter,
Justice, Ministry of, 72 League of Sudeten Germans, 141 Mowrer, Edgar Ansel, 110 111
Lecturer Abroad, 143 Moynihan, P. H., 120 Patterson, Robert P., 69
Kaganovich, Lazar, 12 Leeb, Wihelm Ritter von, 37, 42 Muchow, Richard, 12 Peace Negotiation Office, 31
Kaltenbrumer, Fritz, 1, 6, 14, 75, 76, 81, Leif Ericsson, 137 Mueller, Ludwig, 182, 183 Peace Now Movement, 132, 133
82, 100, 119, 121, 122, 126, 131 Leine, Fritz, 38 Murphy, Robert, 50, 51, 53 Peire, Thomas, 154
Kamp, Joseph, 171 Lenin, Nicolai, 8 Muse, Vance, 126 Pelke, Max, 38
Kircher, Rudolf, 171 Levinsky, General A. von, 43 Mussolini, Benito, 55, 56, 66, 107, 200 Pelley, William Dudley, 111, 115, 121,
Kleist, Paul von, 37, 42, 55 Ley, Robert, 14, 100, 143 131
Kluck, Alexander von, 36 Liberation, 111 Napoleon, 9, 10, 188 Pétain, Henri Philippe, 51, 59, 119
Kluge, Ewald von, 55, 57, 58 Lindbergh, Charles A., 106, 119 National Legion of Mothers of America, Peterson, S. K., 127
Knickerbocker, H. R., 110 Long, Huey, 108 122 Peyrouton, Marcel, 51, 54
Knigge, Count Adolf Franz Friedrich von, Louis Napoleon, 9 National Organization of Christian Youth, Pietsch, Otto, 16, 27
8 Love, W. C., 127 126 Piielli, Alberto, 63, 65
Knights of the White Camellia, 115 Ludcndorff, Erich, 19, 158, 186 National Republic, 127 Pistol-Packin’ Mommas, 124
Knowles, Murray, 124 Lundeen, Ernest, 127 National Republic Lettergrams, 127 Planetta, Otto, 75
Knutson, Harold, 106 Lundeen, Mrs. Ernest, 127 National Socialist German Workers’ Party, Planck, Erwin, 184
Knyphausen, Anton von, 171 Luther, F., Undersecretary, 97 4, 12, 20, 27, 109, 130 Politische Erziehungsanstalten (Institu-
Koch, Erich, 100 Luther, Hans, 159, 160 Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorgan- tions for Political Education), 141
Kommission fuer Hochschulpolitik (De- Lutze, Victor, 94 isation (National Socialist Organization Post, Emily, 8
partment for Universities), 74 Luxburg, Count Kurt von, 147, 148, 149, of Shops), 12 Posts, Ministry of, 72
Kommission fuer Wirtschaftspolitik (De- 157 National Women's party, 124 Postwar Bulletin, 120, 121
partment for Political Economics), 74 Neubacher, Aglaja, 166 Pre-Natal Care, Department for, 84
Kommunalabteilung (Communal Depart- McCorrnick, Robert Rutherford, 112, 120 Neubacher, Hermann, 166 Propaganda Ministry, 72
ment), 72 McDaniel, Donald, 120 New Republic, 103 Protective League for Germans in Frontier
Kotzebue, August von, 8 McDermott, James, 117 News and Views, 111 Regions and Abroad, 141
Kramer, Dale, 116 McGowan, Lord L., 29 Nibelungen Saga, 191 Publicity, 111
Krupp von Bohlen-Halbach, Gustav, 16, McWilliams, Joe, 120, 131 Niebuhr, Dietrich, 145 Pucheu, Pierre, 52, 53
17, 21, 27 Machiavelli, Niccolò, 13 Niemoeller, Martin, 182-84 Pueckler, Prince L. H., 55, 56
208 index index 209
Quisling, Vidkun, 13, 119 Roehm, Ernst, 94, 164 Schwarze Reichswehr (Black Army), 40 Thomas, Georg, 42
Rohan, Prince Anton, 163 182 Thompson, Dorothy, 187
Radunski, Paul, 38 Scribener’s Commentator, 111, 115 Thyssen, August, 24
Roll Call, 111
Rankin, Jeannette, 122 Service d’Ordre de la Legion, 51 Thyssen, Fritz, 21-25, 53, 150, 157
Rornmel, Erwin, 6
Rankin, John E., 106, 120, 131 Serviceman’s Reconstruction Plan, 120 Todt, Fritz, 90, 91
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 120
Rasche, Emil, 171 Seydlitz, Walter von, 62 Townsend, Ralph, 111, 115
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 55, 103, 106,
Rassenpolitisches Amt (Department of Sforza, Count Carlo, 64, 65 Traffic, Ministry of, 72
110, 111, 112, 116, 118, 119, 120, 122,
Race Relations), 73 Shafer, Pad W., 106 Treviranus, Gottfried, 178, 179
123, 125,126,128, 129, 132, 164,165
Rauschning, Hermann, 184 Shaw, George Bernard, 197 Tropeninstitut, 78
Round Table Luncheons, 121
Red Cross, German, 85, 86 Sherrill, Frances, 122 Trotsky, Leon, 8, 11
Red Cross, International, 86 Rundstedt, Gerd von, 37, 42-44, 48, 55,
193 Short, Dewey, 106 True, James, 111
Reichenau, Walter von, 37, 38, 42, 46, 57 Simon, Bessy, 132 Truppenverstaerkung (Troop Reinforce-
Reichsanstalt fuer Erdbebenforschung (In- Simon, Sir John, 34 ment), 41
SA (Storm Troops), 94, 95, 145
stitute for Seismology), 73 Smith, Gerald L. K., 108, 109, 112, 119, Tuberculosis, Department for, 83
Sachbearbeiter fuer Arbeitsbeschafflung
Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labor Service), 124, 126, 127
(Expert for Provision of Work), 74
70 Smith, Glen, 127 Ufa Film, 186
Sachbearbeiter fuer aussenpolitische Fragen
Reichsarbeitsfuehrer (Reich Workers’ Smith, Kingsbury, 198 Ullrey, Lewis Valentine, 126
(Expert on Questions for Foreign
Leader), 14 Social Democratic party (Russia), 10 Union Parisienne, 53
Policy), 74
Reichsbahngericht (Railway Court), 72 Social Justice, 112, 116, 117, 122, 123 United Nations Commission for the In-
Sachbearbeiter fuer Musikfragen (Expert
Reichsdruckerei (Government Printing Of- Social Revolutionaries, 10 vestigation of War Criminals, 32
on Music), 74
fice), 72 Socialversicherungsamt (Social Insurance
Reichsgericht (Supreme Court), 180 Sachbearbeiter fuer Wissenschajt (Expert
on Science), 74 Department), 72 Vansittart, Lord Robert G., 197
Reichskanalamt (Department of Canals), Southard, Earl, 119, 124 Vaterlaendische Front, 75
72 Sage, Parker, 115, 131
Sandroniz, José Antonio, 154 Soviet Russian Government, 11 Venereal Diseases, Department for, 83
Reichsleiter (Reich Leader), 146 Speer, Albert, 14, 90-92 Verbindungsstab (Liaison Staff) of the
Reichsleitung (Reich Leadership of the Sanjurjo, José, 151
Sattler, F. H., 117 Springer, Harvey, 126, 127 Führer, 7, 146
National Socialist party), 141 SS (Elite Guard), 3, 51, 57, 80, 86, 87, Verein der Vereine (Club of Clubs), 146
Reichsorganisationsleitung, 74 Schacht, Hjalmar Horace Greeley, 16, 29-
35, 65, 157-60, 169, 184, 195 164, 190 Verein fuer Deutschwm in Ausland (As-
Reichspatentamt (Government Patent Of- SS Security Department, 3 sociation for Teutons Abroad), 141
fice), 72 Schaper, Edward, 171
Scharnhorst, Gerhard von, 10 SS Sturm 89, 75 Vereinigte Arbeitgeberuerbaende (United
Reichspostzentralamt (Central Post Of- Stalin, Joseph, 12, 23, 63, 106, 115, 132 Federations of Employers), 27
fice), 72 Schaumburg-Lippe, Count Friedrich von
Statistisches Reichsamt (Statistical Depart- Vermehren, Erich von, 170
Reichsverband der deutschen Industrie 10
ment), 72, 82 Versuchsanstalt (Experimental Station),
(National Federation of German Indus- Schepman, Wilhelm, 94
Stede, Walter, 127 78
try), 27 Scherbenberg, H. von, 160
Stimson, Henry, 112 Vertrauensmann fuer Fragen der Volks-
Reichsversicherungsamt (Government In- Schirach, Baldur von, 96
Stohrer, Eberhard von, 151, 153 gesundheit (Deputy for Public Health
surance Department), 72 Schleicher, Kurt von, 39, 40, 42
Strasser, Otto, 184 Problems), 74
Reichszentrale fuer Gesundheitsdienst Schrnitz, Matthias, 25
Streicher, Julius, 15 Victor Emmanuel III, 54-56, 64, 65
(Reich Central Organization for Health Schnitzler, Georg von, 16, 17, 21, 25-29,
Stuart, William H., 121 Viereck, George Sylvester, 115
Service), 84 31, 53, 150, 154, 157, 162-64, 195
Student Abroad, 143 Vindicators, The, 108
Rennell of Rodd, Lord, 65 Schnitzler, Lilly von, 162-64 Voelkischer Beobachter, 108
Schnitzler, Lilo von, 162-66 Stuelpnagd, Otto van, 19
Republican Nationalist Revival Commit- Vonsiatsky, Anastase, 115
tee, 120 Schober, General K. von, 43 Tanner, V., 163
Rey, Kurt, 170 Schoen, Wilhelm von, 161 Tarnowski, Alice Rand de, 120, 121 Wach-und Schliessgesellschaft, 88
Reynolds, Robert Rice, 106-8, 126, 131 Scholtz-Klink, Gertrude, 92-94 Technische Nothilie (Technical Emergency Wagner, Adolf, 14, 100
Ribbentrop, Joachim von, 99 Scholz, Herbert, 21, 164, 165 Squad), 88 Wagner, Richard, 43
Rieth, Kurt Heinrich, 161 Scholz, Lilo, 162-66, 167 Technische Reichsanstalt (Government Wallace, Henry, 109
Rivera, José Antonio Primo de, 151 School of Military Government, 67, 198 Technical Institute), 72 Walsh, David E., 106
Roatta, Mario, 59-61 Schroeder, W. von, 16, 17, 23, 53, 150 Technographische Gesellschaft (Techno- War Veterans’ Aid Society, 84
Robin Moor, 103 Schuschnigg, Kurt von, 75 graphical Society), 27 War Veterans’ Association, 84
Robles, Gil, 151, 155 Schultz, Sigrid, 197 Tenno, 190 We the Mothers Mobilize for America, 123
Robnett, George Washington, 121 Schwarze Korps, Das, 190, 191 Therman, Baron Edmund von 147 Wells, H. G., 197
210 index
Wendel, Francois de, 52-54 Wohlfahrtspflegeamt (Public Welfare De-
Wendel, Guy de, 52, 54 partment), 72
Wessel, Horst, 101 Woman’s Voice, 123
Western Voice, The, 126 Women Abroad, 143
Wheeler, Burton K., 105, 106, 120, 131 Woodruff, Roy O., 106
Wilhelm 11, 16, 18, 19, 24, 44, 46, 135, Worker Abroad, 143
136, 158, 180
Willkie, Wendell L., 109, 127, 137 X-ray, 111
Winrod, Gerald B., 126, 131
Wirtschaftspolitische Gesellschaft (Society Yale University, 103
of Economic Policy), 27 Young Plan, 16, 33
Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Youth Abroad, 143
(Society of Economic Science), 27 Zeitschrift fuer Politic, 186

The Nazis Go Underground - Curtis Reiss 1944

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1. The Party Must Go On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

2. Those Who Paid Hitler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

3. Generals Never Give Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

4. The Nazis Look at Africa and Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

5. The Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

6. Zero Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

7. If I Were a Nazi Assigned to the U.S.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

8. Have They Gone Under Cover? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114

10. The Second Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150

11. Germany Occupied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172

12. What Can We Do About It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189

AT THE end of August 1943 Dr. Alexander Loudon, Netherlands

To understand the immense problem of the loyalties and dis-

10 ordered Eberhard von Stohrer, the military attaché in Madrid dur-

11 lose time thereby. As to shutting off the waterworks or closing the

Aboulker, Dr. Henri, 50, 51 Bach, Johann Sebastian, 43, 72, 73

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