Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

20 DER FUEHRERGermany did it become the book of the hour. A respectable Britishnewspaper, the Morning Post, devoted a series of articles to it. Even theTimes demanded an investigation to determine what truth there was inthe Protocols. The same occurred in France. In Poland the Bishop ofWarsaw recommended the book's dissemination. The Protocols werepublished in America, in Italy, in Hungary, in Turkish and Arabic. Thestory of the circulation of The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion wouldseem to indicate the existence of an international network of secretconnections and co-operating forces, the actual aims of which did notbecome known to the world until twenty years later. And yet thisnetwork is described clearly enough in the Protocols themselves.Now the Thule Society prepared to act. They decided to kill PremierEisner. Kurt Eisner was a Socialist writer, the leader of the BavarianRevolution. On November 6, 1918, he was virtually unknown, with nomore than a few hundred supporters, more a literary than a politicalfigure. He was a small man with a wild gray beard, a pince-nez, and animmense black hat. On November 7 he marched through the city ofMunich with his few hundred men, occupied parliament and proclaimedthe republic. As though by enchantment, the king, the princes, thegenerals, and ministers scattered to all the winds. When the news came,the minister of war cried out: 'Revolution, oh, my God, and here I am,still in uniform!'Unlike Lenin, Eisner really was a Jew. Like Lenin, he had thepeasants and workers on his side, but all the educated classes, theofficers, officials, students against him; in such a case, there is nodifference between Christian and Jew. Belatedly the intellectuals grewashamed of their cowardice; they grew ashamed when they perceivedthat there was no danger. Their radical hatred found its embodiment inleagues like the Thule Society. While the Rosenbergs, the Hesses, theEckarts, and others whose names have been forgotten were stillplanning — such an act, after all, was dangerous — a man whom theyhad insulted and cast aside got ahead of them. The League had rejectedCount Anton Arco-Valley, a young officer, for being of Jewish descenton one side. Determined to shame his