Germany was no such fortress in the face of the Nazi menace. But then the Church is human. Bonhoeffer wrote: ‘The exceptional necessity calls for freedom of responsibility. There is no law here behind which personal responsibility can seek shelter. Hence there is no law to compel the person responsible...’ The loneliness implicit in that conclusion was something which every member of the Resistance had to accept.
Chapter Four – Lost Illusions
As the Nazis built up their strength, so the illusion that their regime would not last long faded. Once political opposition was gone, and with Hitler applauded abroad — despite the loud protests of Germans already in exile — the Party dug in and the task of dislodging it became much harder. The Party swastika flag became the National flag; the greeting ‘Heil Hitler’ became obligatory, not only as the way of signing off a letter, but also replacing ‘Good day’. The salute spread — there was even a Nazi etiquette booklet which instructed one when and how far to stretch out one’s arm, and when it was permissible to use the left arm. The salute spread everywhere: only a handful of Army officers didn’t use it. Although the brownshirts of the SA became less common (the SA was relegated to the position of an auxiliary political police force), the black uniforms of the SS were seen more and more frequently. SS units were garrisoned all over Germany, as ready to protect Hitler against his own people as against foreign attackers. It became less and less possible to ignore the threat of war.
Still nothing happened. The question why is hard to answer. The Nazis had made no secret of their plans. Even before Hitler became Chancellor there had been the Potempa incident, and a year before that secret Nazi documents were discovered at Boxheim, which gave details of an administration that proposed the death sentence for practically every offence against the State, and rationing measures that effectively deprived the Jews of food. They had been drawn up by Werner Best, later Hitler’s Commissioner for Occupied Denmark. They presented the State with a prima facie case for high treason. Nothing was done. The mood of the period — indeed of any similar period, before, since or to come — is perfectly expressed in Martin Niemöller’s bitter poem:
When the Nazis came for the Communists
I was silent.
I wasn’t a Communist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats
I was silent.
I wasn’t a Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Trade Unionists
I was silent.
I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Jews
I was silent.
I wasn’t a Jew.
When the Nazis came for me
There was no one left
To protest.
Hitler took advantage of chaos and uncertainty, and by encapsulating the hopes and fears of the little man — and all his resultant and attendant prejudices — by exploiting and personifying them, and by making as much noise as possible of any political success he had, he bullied and pushed his way to power. True, the soil he grew in was fertile, but he would never have succeeded if he had not been allowed to. He gives us the impression of being an irresistible force: but he was not. He was on thin enough ice in the early thirties not to have withstood Resistance from within Germany, and up until 1938 from outside. He was a terrible accident of history: the wrong man at the right time; if there is no unified protest against such people, they win. In the case of Germany, a combined Social Democrat/Communist stand would have crushed him; but that could not happen. The Weimar Republic governments, heavily chained by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, were usually liberal and usually weak. The few strong statesmen they threw up died young. Meanwhile Imperial Germany cast a long shadow, and Hitler stepped out of it.
But one must not present Hitler merely as a demon who somehow seduced the German people into mass insanity. The working
Chapter Four – Lost Illusions
As the Nazis built up their strength, so the illusion that their regime would not last long faded. Once political opposition was gone, and with Hitler applauded abroad — despite the loud protests of Germans already in exile — the Party dug in and the task of dislodging it became much harder. The Party swastika flag became the National flag; the greeting ‘Heil Hitler’ became obligatory, not only as the way of signing off a letter, but also replacing ‘Good day’. The salute spread — there was even a Nazi etiquette booklet which instructed one when and how far to stretch out one’s arm, and when it was permissible to use the left arm. The salute spread everywhere: only a handful of Army officers didn’t use it. Although the brownshirts of the SA became less common (the SA was relegated to the position of an auxiliary political police force), the black uniforms of the SS were seen more and more frequently. SS units were garrisoned all over Germany, as ready to protect Hitler against his own people as against foreign attackers. It became less and less possible to ignore the threat of war.
Still nothing happened. The question why is hard to answer. The Nazis had made no secret of their plans. Even before Hitler became Chancellor there had been the Potempa incident, and a year before that secret Nazi documents were discovered at Boxheim, which gave details of an administration that proposed the death sentence for practically every offence against the State, and rationing measures that effectively deprived the Jews of food. They had been drawn up by Werner Best, later Hitler’s Commissioner for Occupied Denmark. They presented the State with a prima facie case for high treason. Nothing was done. The mood of the period — indeed of any similar period, before, since or to come — is perfectly expressed in Martin Niemöller’s bitter poem:
When the Nazis came for the Communists
I was silent.
I wasn’t a Communist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats
I was silent.
I wasn’t a Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Trade Unionists
I was silent.
I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Jews
I was silent.
I wasn’t a Jew.
When the Nazis came for me
There was no one left
To protest.
Hitler took advantage of chaos and uncertainty, and by encapsulating the hopes and fears of the little man — and all his resultant and attendant prejudices — by exploiting and personifying them, and by making as much noise as possible of any political success he had, he bullied and pushed his way to power. True, the soil he grew in was fertile, but he would never have succeeded if he had not been allowed to. He gives us the impression of being an irresistible force: but he was not. He was on thin enough ice in the early thirties not to have withstood Resistance from within Germany, and up until 1938 from outside. He was a terrible accident of history: the wrong man at the right time; if there is no unified protest against such people, they win. In the case of Germany, a combined Social Democrat/Communist stand would have crushed him; but that could not happen. The Weimar Republic governments, heavily chained by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, were usually liberal and usually weak. The few strong statesmen they threw up died young. Meanwhile Imperial Germany cast a long shadow, and Hitler stepped out of it.
But one must not present Hitler merely as a demon who somehow seduced the German people into mass insanity. The working
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