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

582 DER FUEHRERnot the Jewish race which fell a victim to the bestial cruelty of the S.A.,it was the persecution of the Jews that produced the strongest reactionabroad.The National Socialists declared that here again the influence ofJewish world power was at work. The true reason lay deeper. Up till thistime, foreign countries, as well as the German public, had been lulled bythe National Socialists in the comfortable faith that 'things would not beso bad'; that the anti-Jewish agitation was not meant so seriously; thatthe breaking of interest slavery was not meant seriously; that the warspeeches were not meant seriously. Now it turned out that this was a lie.The anti-Semitic agitation was meant seriously — perhaps the warspeeches as well. The persecution of political enemies — bestial as itwas — was still part of the political struggle; but the attack on the Jewswas an assault on a peaceful group. The ambassadors of foreign powersuttered polite warnings; Hugenberg and Papen apparently tried torestrain Hitler; Hjalmar Schacht spoke with his habitual bluntness; itwas fortunate for Hitler that he had so devoted a personal admirer inReichswehr Minister von Blomberg. Hitler had to find a way out, andwhat a way he found!On March 26, Goebbels wrote in his diary:In the night I go to Berchtesgaden, whither the Leader has summonedme. Up there in the mountain solitude he has pondered the whole matterfully and has come to a decision. We shall make headway against theforeign lie only if we get our hands on its originators or at leastbeneficiaries, those Jews living in Germany who have thus far remainedunmolested. We must, therefore, proceed to a large-scale boycott of allJewish business in Germany. Perhaps the foreign Jews will think betterof the matter when their racial comrades in Germany begin to get it inthe neck.This was a sudden, unexpected attack on the Jewish world power, atfirst not foreseen by Hitler himself; at the same time a test of theexistence of such a Jewish world power. Presumably Goebbels believedin it no more in 1933 than in 1925; this is implied by his carefullychosen words about 'originators or at least beneficiaries.' But Hitler, inthe depth of his feeling, if not of his intelligence, was