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

734 DER FUEHRERardice. Rohm sent out memoranda to the other National Socialistleaders, pointing out that the S.A. were practically 'defenseless' in thehands of the 'commune of murderers,' since they had been sent homeand forced to turn in their revolvers. In July, 1933, in order to reassurethe trembling heroes, Hess warned: 'We are far from intending to treatthe enemy with mildness'; and as Hess was a specialist in handlinghostages and had often said that in political struggles ten innocentpeople had to suffer for one guilty one, he proclaimed now: 'that everymurder of a National Socialist committed by a Communist or Marxistwould be expiated tenfold by Communist or Marxist leaders.'The widening gulf between the S.A. and the people became particularlyapparent during the elections, when the National Socialistpropaganda tried to blur the differences between the party and themasses as much as possible. Hess denied in moving tones that 'Germanswho did not belong to the National Socialist Party must be consideredsecond-class Germans.' Then, as though frightened by his own daring,he immediately corrected this statement, admitting that a category ofGermans existed 'which deserved particular recognition: the category ofold fighters.' These old fighters, he said, had risked death for theirFuhrer year after year and 'played the same part in the domestic struggleas the front-line soldiers in the World War.' The other NationalSocialists must not imagine that they are as valuable, must not demand'to be put on the same level as the old fighters and raised above theirfellow countrymen.' Hess went so far as to grant that people who hadnot joined the party after the seizure of power because they did not wantto seem to be jumping on the bandwagon 'were not among the worst.'But then he was again frightened of having perhaps said too much, andadded hastily: 'I do not mean at all to accuse all those who joined theNational Socialist Party after January 30, 1933, of lack of character andfoolish opportunism.'Because these men of 'after January 30,' men of normal usefulnessand efficiency, to some extent had again taken the reins into their hands,the S.A. grumbled about a second revolution, although Hitler hadforbidden his partisans even to use the term 'revolution.' On November5, 1933, before fifteen thousand National Socialist