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

308 DER FUEHRERChosen average men in positions of mastery. That is the meaning ofthe S.S., which represents the model of National Socialist education.These men are not — and are not supposed to be — great individuals,but 'good material' for the fabrication of a race, as Chamberlain put it.Therefore, their 'honor is loyalty'; that is, obedience toward the few whoreally rule and lead. 'Few flames burn in Germany,' Goebbels once saidof these top personalities, naturally counting himself among them; 'therest are only illumined by their glow' — he wrote these words ofcontempt in his diary after returning from a meeting of party officials(1932), where he had seen the good material assembled.The S.S. was stamped forever by the reason for its founding: Hitler'sneed to control an undisciplined party by founding a new party. TheNational Socialist despises his fellow-Germans, the S.A. man the otherNational Socialists, the S.S. man the S.A. men. His task is to superviseand spy on the whole party for his leader. The first service code of theS.S. lists among its tasks, protection of the Fuhrer, a promotion ofunderstanding within the ranks; information service. The last two termsmean espionage within and outside the party.In 1930, Hitler surprised a circle of his friends by asking them if theyhad read the just-published autobiography of Leon Trotzky, the greatJewish leader of the Russian Revolution, and what they thought of it. Asmight have been expected, the answer was: 'Yes . . . loathsome book . . .memoirs of Satan. . . .' To which Hitler replied: 'Loathsome? Brilliant! Ihave learned a great deal from it, and so can you.' Himmler, however,remarked that he had not only read Trotzky but studied all availableliterature about the political police in Russia, the Tsarist Ochrana, theBolshevist Cheka and G.P.U.; and he believed that if such a task shouldever fall to his lot, he could perform it better than the Russians.With this in mind he drilled his troop, imbued it with his Fuhrer'sarrogance and contempt of humanity, thus arming its men with themoral force to massacre their own people as well as foreigners, and toregard this as absolutely necessary. At a time when the party still meantnothing, Himmler's service regulations ordered that once a month atleast the men must attend a confi-