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

562 DER FUEHRERNevertheless, elections were to be held. A people which had beendeprived of all liberties should voluntarily say yes to all this. SeftonDelmer, correspondent of the London Daily Express, asked Hitlerwhether the present suspension of personal freedom in Germany wouldbecome permanent. Hitler replied: 'No! When the Communist danger iseliminated, the normal order of things will return. Our laws were tooliberal to enable me to dispose of this underworld suitably and quicklyenough. But I myself desire only too urgently that the normal situationshall be restored as soon as possible. But first we must put an end toCommunism.'There remained only one party of any size that was neither thedeclared enemy of the government nor explicitly associated with it. Thiswas the Center. On the day after the Reichstag fire, it met to consider acourse of action. Crime was openly ruling Germany; none of these menbelieved that the Communists had set the fire. Kaas, however, putthrough a resolution that for the present the Center should 'hold itspeace,' and not openly accuse the government of incendiarism andfalsehood. A few words of veiled though unmistakable doubt, publiclyuttered by Bruning, were all that the Center Party said about theReichstag fire.Before the ashes of the Reichstag building were cold, the air waveswere alive with National Socialist voices blaring forth details about themurderous, incendiary plans of the Communists, that had beenfrustrated just in time; S.A. men rushed about in trucks, drunken withvictory and roaring threats at the people; in the cellars of the S.A.barracks, woolen blankets stifled the cries of victims. In a public speechGoring cried: 'My measures will not be weakened by juridical scruplesor bureaucracy. My work is not to administer justice, but only to destroyand exterminate.' This was the mood governing the elections. Outsidethe polls, giant posters screamed: 'Your vote for Adolf Hitler!' or,'Stamp out Communism! Crush Social Democracy!' Other placards,here and there, advocated a so-called 'Black, White, and Red FightingFront.' This, for practical purposes, was the old German NationalistParty, led by Hugenberg, Papen, and Franz Seldte of the Stahlhelm. Ofother parties the voter saw and heard next to nothing; the SocialDemocrats made no speeches and issued no literature. In many smallerlocalities, the