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

THE BLOOD PURGE 739This was objectively false. The people were beginning to find theachievements of the regime which they had admired at first quitenormal and even to see its drawbacks. True, the number of unemployedcontinued to decrease; in March, Hitler was able to announce that2,700,000 out of 7,000,000 jobless had found employment. But once themiracle of decreasing unemployment had been recognized and accepted,the people felt even more bitter about the still wretchedly low wages.Hitler, who a year and a half ago had reproached von Papen forexpecting the workers to live on wages of a hundred marks a month,was now forced to admit that the wages of too many workers were stillaround that figure. Robert Ley, always open-hearted, called some of theGerman wages 'starvation wages'; but, he added, for the moment itcould not be otherwise.At this point Hitler and Goebbels had the unfortunate idea that moreabuse, ridicule, and persecution of the dissatisfied might improve thepopular mood and at the same time give a new goal and line to the partywhich had become purposeless. A campaign against the so-called'bleaters, alarmists, and professional critics' was opened in May. Hitlershouted: 'Only those have a right to criticize who can solve a problembetter. But we have attacked the solution of the German problem betterthan our opponents of the past and our critics of today.' Goebbelsechoed him: 'As we National Socialists are convinced that we are right,we cannot tolerate anyone beside us who declares that he, too, is right. ...' On May 2, Rohm, before his assembled sub-leaders, promised in hiscustomary tart tone that the S.A., because they were disciplined, would'fulfill every task given them by their Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, in thoroughand exemplary fashion.'The dissatisfied classes of the population were to be reminded of theirinsignificance and the S.A. of their importance and superiority. Ifanyone dared to say a deprecatory word about the new order on a streetcorner, life was made hard for him, to say the least. In a village nearMainz a housewife said to her milkman that actually nothing had as yetimproved in Germany; as a punishment she was forced, for manymonths, to appear every morning at party headquarters and say in a loudvoice: 'Much has been improved and even more will be improved inGermany.'