classes found themselves briefly with a better standard of living and greater possibilities for work. What they did not realise was that Hitler was building an economic miracle on sand: it was a short-term device. Ordinary people were in any case more concerned with their jobs and families than with politics, and they were pleased to see Germany’s status raised among the nations again. If they were not Jewish and could prove that back as far as all their grandparents, if they were not married to Jews, if they closed their minds to the racist and warmongering aspects of Party propaganda, they could relax. There would be nothing in the newspapers or on the new, widely available and carefully controlled wireless to disturb them. [30]
At the outset virtually all those who joined the Regular Army during its development were loyal to Hitler. The reintroduction of conscription in March 1935 was popular with the Army top brass. In September of that year, the infamous Nuremberg Laws directed against the Jews were promulgated in the face of very little protest within Germany. As always, the Nazis introduced the new measures gradually, but most were in place within two years, and they covered everything from various degrees of ‘Jewishness’ — dependent on how many Jewish grandparents one had — to control of work (Jewish doctors were demoted to ‘medical practitioners’, for example, and only allowed to treat fellow Jews), restriction of shopping hours, use of parks, swimming pools, cinemas and other public places, the banning of wireless sets and, most cruelly, the forbidding of pets to Jews. In November there were mass trials of Communists and Social Democrats, just as the Communists and Social Democrats in exile in Paris were discussing the possibility of working together.
Hitler was on the crest of a wave and he was not going to pause at this point. In March 1936 he sent the Army into the demilitarised Rhineland. This was a crucial action, and definitive proof of Hitler’s gambler tactics. In ordering the occupation, he went against his military advisers, who feared a confrontation with France at which Germany would have to step down. This would have been the case in fact, and the German Forces’ commanders had sealed orders to do so if it came to it. But the French government was weak and about to fall, and it lost precious time by consulting Britain. For its part, Britain, under its Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, was inclined to be sympathetic to Germany’s right to ‘go into her own back garden’.
In Germany, it was a hugely popular move, particularly among those industrialists who had backed Hitler and now saw their investment paid off. A plebiscite three weeks later gave Hitler (officially at least) 99 per cent of the public’s backing. Meanwhile, sales of Mein Kampf had outstripped those of any other book and made him a rich man. By 1940, nine million copies had been printed.
In August, the Olympic Games were held in Berlin — a venue decided on before Hitler came to power. The capital was redecorated for the occasion, and except for huge swastika banners everywhere the Nazis kept the profiles of their military and racist ambitions low. The red glass-fronted boxes in which copies of the violently anti-Semitic magazine Der Stürmer were displayed disappeared from street corners, as did all public notices directed against Jews. No country boycotted the Games, though there were mutterings on the American Olympic Committee, and, as they were magnificently organised, they were a great success and provided another feather in Hitler’s cap. His famous show of ill-temper at Jesse Owens’ success raised fewer eyebrows then than it would now, and any protestors (for there were some) who attempted to convey the truth of what was really going on to the foreign athletes or the press were quickly tidied up by the Gestapo.
The last athlete had barely boarded his train home before the anti-Semitic laws were back in
At the outset virtually all those who joined the Regular Army during its development were loyal to Hitler. The reintroduction of conscription in March 1935 was popular with the Army top brass. In September of that year, the infamous Nuremberg Laws directed against the Jews were promulgated in the face of very little protest within Germany. As always, the Nazis introduced the new measures gradually, but most were in place within two years, and they covered everything from various degrees of ‘Jewishness’ — dependent on how many Jewish grandparents one had — to control of work (Jewish doctors were demoted to ‘medical practitioners’, for example, and only allowed to treat fellow Jews), restriction of shopping hours, use of parks, swimming pools, cinemas and other public places, the banning of wireless sets and, most cruelly, the forbidding of pets to Jews. In November there were mass trials of Communists and Social Democrats, just as the Communists and Social Democrats in exile in Paris were discussing the possibility of working together.
Hitler was on the crest of a wave and he was not going to pause at this point. In March 1936 he sent the Army into the demilitarised Rhineland. This was a crucial action, and definitive proof of Hitler’s gambler tactics. In ordering the occupation, he went against his military advisers, who feared a confrontation with France at which Germany would have to step down. This would have been the case in fact, and the German Forces’ commanders had sealed orders to do so if it came to it. But the French government was weak and about to fall, and it lost precious time by consulting Britain. For its part, Britain, under its Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, was inclined to be sympathetic to Germany’s right to ‘go into her own back garden’.
In Germany, it was a hugely popular move, particularly among those industrialists who had backed Hitler and now saw their investment paid off. A plebiscite three weeks later gave Hitler (officially at least) 99 per cent of the public’s backing. Meanwhile, sales of Mein Kampf had outstripped those of any other book and made him a rich man. By 1940, nine million copies had been printed.
In August, the Olympic Games were held in Berlin — a venue decided on before Hitler came to power. The capital was redecorated for the occasion, and except for huge swastika banners everywhere the Nazis kept the profiles of their military and racist ambitions low. The red glass-fronted boxes in which copies of the violently anti-Semitic magazine Der Stürmer were displayed disappeared from street corners, as did all public notices directed against Jews. No country boycotted the Games, though there were mutterings on the American Olympic Committee, and, as they were magnificently organised, they were a great success and provided another feather in Hitler’s cap. His famous show of ill-temper at Jesse Owens’ success raised fewer eyebrows then than it would now, and any protestors (for there were some) who attempted to convey the truth of what was really going on to the foreign athletes or the press were quickly tidied up by the Gestapo.
The last athlete had barely boarded his train home before the anti-Semitic laws were back in
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