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

706 DER FUEHRER'incorruptible' has always been regarded as the highest praise for astatesman.France began to feel the first symptoms of the economic depressionwhich reached her later than the other countries; her socialbackwardness was indisputable; the fact that she, who had once ledEurope's technical progress, was now far behind was clearly realized bydiscerning minds. The nation also felt that its foreign policy must havebeen faulty if fourteen years after 'the war to end all wars' the Germandanger had arisen again. Behind all this was the obscure realizationamong the people that the existing state was no longer equal to the tasksconfronting modern society; that a more decisive, more efficient andmore powerful government was required. The example of foreignfascism was contagious; Mussolini enjoyed great popularity in highFrench society, his Scritti e Discorsi were read with almost religiousdevotion. Many pamphlets and posters of the French Fascists clearlyfollowed the pattern set by the undermining, disparaging, slanderingagitation of German National Socialism, particularly in their attacksagainst the Jews, Negroes, and foreigners.Public irritation was finally brought to the point of explosion by ashady foreigner, a certain Alexander Stavisky, born in Russian Odessa.Stavisky's connections with French politicians; the public funds whichthey had put at his disposal and which he had embezzled; his suicide atthe last minute before his impending arrest, regarded by many as amurder engineered by the police agents sent to seize him; the violentand never-explained death of the judge who had directed theinvestigation of the case — all this was the immediate cause of thebloody riots of February 6, which had no visible leader, but wereobviously organized by the chiefs of the Action Vrangaise and the Croixde Feu. The avowed object of the attack was Daladier, who again hadbecome Premier a few days before. The rioters massed on the Place dela Concorde and tried to cross a bridge over the Seine in order to stormthe Parliament building. Everything depended upon whether adetermined leader of the defending troops, the Garde Mobile, woulddare to give the order to open fire. Such a leader was found in theperson of the Minister of the Interior, Eugene Frot, a fairly young man,who obtained Daladier's permission.