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

318 DER FUEHRERGermans in foreign countries. In Czechoslovakia: Germans, revoltagainst the state. It is an auxiliary troop of France. In South Tyrol:Germans, comply with the state. You are the bridge between Germanyand Italy; train your sentiments for the great mission that is yours. Notyour destiny is the primary matter, but the destiny of a great peoplewhich you must serve.'The day of the young faces, the day of a new Ypres will come soon:When the German youth, 'driven by the boyish instincts that make themsearch for new forces, embodying in themselves ninety-nine per cent ofthe best Aryan blood, led upward to the leadership of the Germanpeople' — when this youth gets its great day, 'the world will see withadmiration that the German people, even externally, will assume thosetraits of character again which justify us in saying that our history is theworld's history.' Then the leadership of Fascism will no longer be inItaly, but in National Socialist Germany, and a new reality will rise upbeside which even the reality of the most realistic alliance pales: thereality of the inner German revolution.'Then reality will keep step with this iron revolutionary process, thenthe hour will come in which world history will again be weighed to seewhether the weights have not changed. Then France will be set into oneside of the scale, while the new Germany steps into the other, and by theforce of her own worth she will lower the tray. Our prayer to the Lord isonly this: Lord, we do not ask you to help us, only watch to see that theweighing is done fairly, and the sword is our weight.' (1928.)There was hardly a doubt that the German weight would be theheavier one. In March, 1928, France reduced military service to oneyear, lower than it had ever been before. Then the country began tobuild that supposedly impregnable defensive line, named after AndreMaginot, Minister of War. A war-weary nation wanted to shut itself offsecurely from war. But in March, 1929, an unnamed French generalwrote in a Swiss newspaper:Demagogic madness has led us to the absurd conception of defensivewar. During the World War we had to promise parliament never againto take the offensive. As far as results, that is,