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

584 DER FUEHRERsoul of indecency; that he himself ecstatically wallowed in filth andmade libertinism his religion. Now that he had come to power inNuremberg, he went so far as to clip the hair of girls who had beenfriendly with Jews and publicly exhibit the couples in amusement parks;in his domain, Jewish prisoners were forced to eat grass which hadpreviously been befouled; in a public speech, he boasted of havingpersonally thrashed a defenseless prisoner. With all this, Streicher spokeand acted aloud what Hitler secretly thought and desired; his Sturmer,Streicher claimed, was the only newspaper which the Leader read fromcover to cover, including the rather detailed drawings of Christian girlsbeing raped by Hebrew voluptuaries; with his concentration on thepornographic aspects of racism, Streicher was the embodiment ofHitler's subconscious. This grimacing faun was now raised from hissemi-obscurity and shown to the world as the face of NationalSocialism.It was the true face, and herein lay the strength of this policy, for ingeneral no strong policy can be carried out secretly in the long run. Thiswas the appearance of a world type which meant to carry on a worldstruggle, to unite the 'Aryans of all countries.' It was the prematurebeginning of a long-term propaganda: the Jews have attacked us, we arconly defending ourselves; the Jews incite the world against Germany —Germany doesn't want to harm the world in any way; it is they whodesire the struggle, not we; peaceful peoples are the tools and thevictims — against our will. The various excuses were lies, but as to thegreat aim, there could be no deception: it was spiritual world conquest.Here and there an inept thrust might fail; but a powerful policy does notconquer by individual thrusts, but by persistent pursuit of its aim andconstant — though not always successful — adaptation tocircumstances. In fourteen years of political struggle, Hitler had mademany mistakes and false steps, but through errors and failures he hadnevertheless become a force attracting greater and greater successes.Prematurely driven by circumstance, he now initiated a new and powerfulpolicy with a small failure.To destroy the German Jews economically at one stroke soon provedimpossible. The most benevolent supporters, the best foreign friends,gave warning. The United German Societies in New York