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

692 DER FUEHRERplace. Actually it was the same situation that occurred in France in1851, when Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, after having dissolvedParliament, shed blood in the streets, organized mass executions anddeportations, nevertheless obtained ninety per cent of the votes for themaintenance of his rule: the voters realized that they had no choice, thata protest could only harm them personally and in no case help theircause; if they did not give their vote to the established power, theywould give it only to impotence. The attraction of established power hasalways been great even in 'secret' plebiscites; in 1933, the German voterwho voted Yes gave his vote not only to power, but allegedly to peace.In fact, Germany was now the country which repeated the word'peace' most consistently and most loudly; she even made the mostdefinite and tangible peace proposals to her neighbors; and in hervarious pronouncements a general peace plan gradually began to takeshape. The peace plans of the other countries had not withstood thestorm of German opposition; America had retreated; thus the frontwhich had imposed an eight-year waiting period on Germany, in orderto stop the race for armaments, collapsed. On November 7, Goringagain visited Mussolini and handed him a letter from Hitler; one daybefore the German plebiscite, Count Sorragna, the Italian delegate inGeneva, declared that henceforth Italy would limit herself to the role ofobserver at the Disarmament Conference. How completely Germanyand Italy had brought their methods into harmony was evident fromSorragna's remark that continued consultations would only bar the wayto future diplomatic negotiations between individual powers. Italy'swithdrawal from the dying Disarmament Conference gave it the coup degrace', this was so obvious to everyone that Arthur Henderson, itsBritish chairman, declared that he would resign, although in the end hedid not.Thus, Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations hadstrengthened her position after a few weeks; and the German voter feltthis, too. In the plebiscite of November 12, the German peoplesupported their Chancellor and what he called his peace plans; morethan ninety per cent of them or — depending on the methods ofcalculation— almost ninety per cent voted Yes. Ninety per cent