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

THE BLOOD PURGE 725quite as powerful. Had not a saboteur like Frick been for years the headof the political police in Bavaria? Had not Hess, with the support of thisBavarian police, been able to spy upon his own party? That is why inBavaria the party and the state merged more rapidly and moreintimately than in Goring's domain. One of Rohm's subordinatesassumed the direction of the entire Bavarian police apparatus — thiswas Heinrich Himmler, who in his capacity of Reichsfuhrer of the S.S.was subject to the orders of the chief of staff of the S.A.Here was an extraordinary confusion. The National Socialists had'conquered power,' but the struggle between the state and the partycontinued. Hitler's way of describing this was that 'things were left togrow organically'; the stronger, he implied, would win, and this washow it should be. Nevertheless, some thought, the Fuhrer had clearlysaid that the party commanded the state! No, Goebbels contradictedthem publicly; the Fuhrer had not said 'the party' but 'we'; and 'we' weresomething different — only the party comrades whom the Fuhrer hadappointed to commanding posts. But how many were they? And whowere they? Almost all of them were Hitler's tools or the tools of histools; but people like Rohm, Feder, Rosenberg, and Streicher held noimportant government posts.Among the most bitterly disappointed of the National Socialists wasHitler's personal favorite, the lawyer, Hans Frank, who had hoped tobecome Minister of Justice over the whole Reich. There was a stain onthe escutcheon of this Frank, whose unsatisfied ambition was written inhis face all his life. His father, who had also been a lawyer, had beensentenced to prison for embezzlement several years before; he had beendisbarred, but still practiced law, taking care of his son's juridicalbusiness while pretending to be his bookkeeper. No sooner had Hitlercome to power than Frank Senior was readmitted to the Munich barwith full honors. There were National Socialist dignitaries with worseblots on their names, but they did not demand to be made Ministers ofJustice, of all things. It is true that in Bavaria, where the party's OldGuard flaunted themselves more impudently than in the capital of theReich, Frank and his friends disregarded all delicate scruples, and theyoung man became Minister of Justice of that small country.