Into the Darkness : An Uncensored Report from Inside the Third Reich at War 

by Lothrop Stoddard

1940

Chapter 17: I See Hitler

To meet and talk with Adolf Hitler, “Der Fuehrer” of the Third Reich, was naturally an outstanding item in my professional program when I went to Germany. I have already recounted how, my very first evening in Berlin, I met Herr Hewel, one of Hitler’s confidential men. I did not fail to discuss the matter with him, but his reaction was not encouraging. For a long time past, he said, the Fuehrer had been seeing very few foreigners except diplomats in his official capacity as Chancellor of the Reich. Since the outbreak of war, no non­official foreigner had been received; nor was such an audience then in contemplation. However, Herr Hewel expressed interest in my plans and promised to see what could be done.

The officials of the Foreign Office and the Propaganda Ministry with whom I had introductory talks during the next few days were equally dubious. They flatly told me that, while an audience was remotely possible, an interview was out of the question. Let me explain that, in journalistic parlance, the two terms have a widely different meaning. An interview is granted with the express understanding that much of what is said will be permitted publication in the press, though certain remarks made during the conversation may be withheld as being “off the record.” In an audience, on the contrary, everything said is “off the record” unless specific permission to publish certain remarks is granted. But there was no chance that such an exception would be made to me, because, when the current war broke out, a rule was adopted that any audience with the Fuehrer which might be given was with the clear proviso that no word spoken by him should be quoted. That logically excluded newspapermen, since for them an unquotable audience would have no professional meaning.

It looked as though I was up against a stone wall, but when I analyzed those conversations, I thought I saw a possible way through. Just one American writer had seen Hitler in the preceding two years. He was Albert Whiting Fox, well known for his magazine and press feature articles. After three months of diligent effort, Fox had seen Hitler shortly before the war. And, from what was told me, I gathered that Fox succeeded mainly because his purpose was to present a picture of Hitler the Man and his surroundings, rather than to get a statement of the Fuehrer’s views on politics or other controversial matters.

The Nazi officials liked that idea, because they favored anything which would present the human side of their Leader to the outer world. More than one of his close associates expressed regret to me that the foreign public knew and thought of him only in his official capacity ­ occasionally declaiming over the radio, but otherwise an aloof, mysterious figure whom his enemies depicted as sinister, even inhuman. Indeed, these informants went on to say that they would have long since accorded reputable foreign writers and journalists permission to make first­hand studies of Hitler and his environment but for the opposition of the Fuehrer himself. It seems that Hitler dislikes having his intimate personality and private life thus publicized. He feels it would be undignified, and prefers being known to the outer world for what he officially says and does.

Realizing how these officials felt, I concentrated along that line. I pointed out that, though I had come to Germany as a journalist, I was there also with the intention of gathering material for a book and for lectures to the American public. In those latter capacities,  the ban on quoting Hitler’s remarks were to me relatively immaterial. An audience would serve almost as well, if I were permitted to describe the circumstances and portray the man himself as I saw him. It is to these arguments that I ascribe chiefly the audience which, after two months, was granted me. Indeed, this audience, the only one granted a non­official foreigner since the beginning of the war, was given me explicitly in my capacity, not as a journalist, but as a writer of books and public speaker.

The memorable day was Tuesday, December 19, 1939. Shortly before one o’clock in the afternoon, a shining limousine drew up in front of the Hotel Adlon and a handsome young officer in dove­gray Foreign Office uniform ushered me to the waiting car. Driving down the Wilhelmstrasse, the car slowed before the Chancery and blew a peculiar note on its horn. Like most public buildings erected under the Third Reich, the new Chancery is severely plain on the outside, with a high doorway flush with the wall and normally always closed. In response to the summons, however, the halves of the entrance opened immediately, and the car drove slowly inside.

What a contrast to the plain exterior! I found myself in a large paved courtyard. Opposite the gate was a broad flight of stone steps flanked by two impressive gray stone figures. The flight led up to an entrance. On the steps stood several lackeys in blue ­and­ silver liveries, while near the entrance doorway was a knot of high officers in regulation gray­green uniforms. Through the entrance I glimpsed a foyer ablaze with electric light from crystal chandeliers.

Emerging from my car, I walked up the steps, to bows and salutes, and entered the foyer, where more lackeys took charge of my hat and overcoat. I was here greeted by a high official with whom I walked through the foyer into a magnificent hall, without windows but electrically lighted from above. This lofty hall, done in light ­red marble inlaid with elaborate patterns, reminded me somehow of an ancient Egyptian temple.

At its further end, more steps led up to an enormously long gallery of mirrors lighted by numerous sconces on the left ­hand wall. Since this gallery was set at a slight angle, the effect upon me was of intense brilliance; much more so than a straight perspective would have afforded.

About half­way down the long gallery I observed a door on the right­hand side, before which stood a pair of lackeys. Through this door I passed, to find myself in a large room which, I was told, was the ante­chamber to the Fuehrer’s study. In it were about a dozen high officers to whom I was introduced and with some of whom I chatted for some moments.

The whole build­up thus far had been so magnificent and the attendant psychic atmosphere so impressive that by this time I really did not know what to expect. I had the feeling that I was being ushered into the presence of a Roman Emperor or even an Oriental Potentate. The absurd thought crossed my mind that I might find Der Fuehrer seated on a throne surrounded by flaming swastikas.

At that moment I was bidden to the Presence. Turning left, I passed through double doors and entered another large room. To my right hand, near the doorway, was an upholstered sofa and several chairs. At the far end of the room was a flat ­topped desk from behind which a figure rose as I entered and came towards me. I saw a man of medium height, clad in a plain officer’s tunic with no decorations save the Iron Cross, black trousers, and regulation military boots. Walking up to where I had halted near the doorway, he gave me a firm handshake and a pleasant smile. It was the Fuehrer.

For an instant I was taken aback by the astounding contrast between this simple, natural greeting and the heavy magnificence through which I had just passed. Pulling myself together, I expressed in my best German my appreciation of the honor that was being shown me, calling him Excellency, as foreigners are supposed to do. Hitler smiled again at my little speech, motioned to the sofa, and said:

“Won’t you sit down?“,

himself taking the nearest chair about a yard away from me. My German evidently made a good impression, for he complimented me upon my accent, from which he inferred that I had been to Germany before. I assured him that he was correct, but went on to say that this was my first view of the Third Reich. To which he replied, with a slight shake of the head:

“A pity you couldn’t have seen it in peacetime.“

The conversation of about twenty minutes which followed these preliminaries naturally cannot be repeated, because I had given my word to that effect. Hitler, however, told me no deep, dark secrets. ­ Heads of States don’t do that sort of thing with foreign visitors. I think it is no breach of my agreement to say that much of his talk dealt neither with the war nor politics but with great rebuilding plans which the war had constrained him temporarily to lay aside. His regretful interest in those matters seemed to show that he still had them very much in mind.

Even more interesting than what Hitler said was his whole manner and appearance. Here I was, in private audience with the Master of Greater Germany, and able to study him at close range. Needless to say, I watched intently his every move and listened with equal intent­ness to his voice. Let me try to depict as clearly as possible what I observed.

There are certain details of Hitler’s appearance which one cannot surmise from photographs. His complexion is medium, with blond ­brown hair of neutral shade which shows no signs of gray. His eyes are very dark­ blue. Incidentally, he no longer wears a cartoonist’s mustache. It is now the usual “tooth­brush” type, in both size and length. As already remarked, his uniform is severely plain and seemingly of stock materials.

In ordinary conversation, Hitler’s voice is clear and well­ modulated. Throughout the audience he spoke somewhat rapidly, yet never hurriedly, and in an even tone. Only occasionally did I detect a trace of his native Austro-­Bavarian accent. The audience was not a monologue. Although naturally he did most of the talking, Hitler gave me plenty of chances to ask questions and put in my say. He did not at any time sharply raise his voice. Only when discussing the war did it become vibrant with emotion; and then he dropped his voice almost to an intense whisper. He made practically no gestures, sitting for the most part quietly, with one hand resting on the arm of his chair and the other lying relaxed in his lap.

Hitler’s whole appearance was that of a man in good health. He certainly did not look a day older than his fifty years. His color was good, his skin clear and un­wrinkled, his body fit and not over­weight. He showed no visible signs of nervous strain, such as pouched eyes, haggard lines, or twitching physical reactions. On the contrary, appearance, voice, and manner combined to give an impression of calmness and poise. I am well aware that this description tallies neither with current ideas nor with reports of other persons who have seen and talked with him. Very likely those reports are just as true as mine, since Hitler is said to be a man of many moods. Perhaps I saw him on one of his good days; perhaps, he intended to make a particular impression upon me. All I can do is to describe accurately what I myself saw and heard.

Three other persons were present during this audience. First of all, there was Herr Schmidt, the official interpreter, present at all meetings of the Fuehrer with foreigners and reputed to be master of many languages. This time his services were not needed, so Herr Schmidt sat quietly beside me on the sofa without uttering a word the entire time. Equally silent were the other two, who sat in chairs some little distance away. They were Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and Herr Hewel, who had done much to bring the audience about. Hitler terminated the conversation by rising, shaking hands again, and wishing me success in the balance of my stay in Germany. He then turned back to his desk, whither von Ribbentrop had already gone and where two other men were standing. At some point during the interview a photograph had been taken of Hitler and myself in conversation. So unobtrusively was this done that I was not aware of it at the moment. The first thing I knew about it was when a copy was presented to me with the Fuehrer’s compliments as a souvenir of the occasion. Since it was given me with the express understanding that it was not for publication, I cannot reproduce it here, as I should like to have done. I regret this, for it shows an interesting pose and would have helped greatly to visualize what I have attempted to describe.

From this audience emerge two outstanding contrasts. First, as already indicated, that between the magnificently staged approach and the simple, undramatic, almost matter ­of­ fact meeting with the man himself. Very likely this contrast was also deliberate staging. Anyhow, it made a striking effect.

The second notable contrast which occurred to me was that of this audience with Hitler and one I had years ago with his fellow­ dictator, Mussolini. The two audiences were complete opposites. There isn’t much stage­ setting in reaching Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia. The dramatic build­up really begins when you go through a little ante­chamber door and find yourself in an immense room, darkened by half ­closed blinds, and with no furniture except a desk and a couple of chairs at the far end of the room. From behind that desk rises Mussolini, just like Hitler, but there the resemblance abruptly ends; for, instead of coming to meet you, you have to walk all the way across the room to him.

However, from the very start, you feel that Mussolini is intensely human. You get the fact that he is interested in you as a person. Also you sense that he is trying to sell you, not only his ideas but also himself. He wants to win your interest and admiration, and to attain that he employs the arts of a finished actor ­ uses his big, compelling eyes; thrusts out his chin; aims to semi-­hypnotize you. It’s all very intriguing. Perhaps, to an Anglo­Saxon, it’s a bit too obvious. But it flatters your ego, just the same.

Nothing like that with Hitler. Though always pleasant and courteous, he makes no obvious attempt to impress or win you. When he talks, his eyes get a far­away look, and he sometimes bows his head, speaking abstractedly, almost as though to himself. Whatever he may be to his friends and intimates, I came away feeling that, however interested Hitler may be in people collectively, he is not interested in the average individual, as such. Of course, that is a personal impression. After all, I was just a foreign journalist who meant nothing to him or his scheme of things, and whom he had seen only on the advice of subordinates. But the same was true of Mussolini, who had shown a personal interest.

Another factor: personal charm. Mussolini has it. At least, he turns it on even in casual audiences. I felt his magnetic aura when I was two yards away from him. I didn’t get any such psychic reaction from Hitler neither did I get any emotional “lift” from his conversation. This was perhaps the most surprising thing in my whole audience with him, because all that had been told me pointed to the exact opposite. My very first evening in Berlin, Herr Hewel had descanted to me on the inspirational value of personal contact with the Fuehrer, and all who were closely connected with him spoke in the same way. Dr. Ley, for instance, described at great length the need of continuous personal contact with Hitler, not only for specific advice but even more to drink in and be inspired by the constant creative emanations from the Fuehrer’s constructive genius. For instance, Ley said that Hitler had once said to him:

“If you wait until I summon you about something, then it is already too late.“

As a matter of fact, the Nazi inner circle foregathers with Hitler almost every day, especially at lunch time. The mid­day pause in Berlin’s official life is admittedly timed to this in time luncheon­ period.

Now I do not attempt to explain this seeming contradiction between my personal impression and that of all privileged Nazis.  At first, I thought their statements on this matter was a sort of “Party Line.” Yet the idea was expressed in so many diverse ways and with such differences in detail that I am inclined to think they really meant what they said. It’s just one of those mysteries that you run into so often in present­day Germany. Like the Third Reich which he has created, what you first see in Hitler by no means indicates all that lies behind.

One last aspect connected with this audience ­ its rigid confidentiality. Long before I saw Hitler, I had had to give my word of honor that everything he might say when I saw him would be kept scrupulously “off the record.” As the time for the audience approached, everybody concerned said to me in substance:

“You know, by recommending you, we have in a sense vouched for you. If there should be any misunderstanding on your part, it would be ­ most embarrassing for us.“

I was given to understand that the Fuehrer felt strongly on the matter.

The climax to all this came when I returned to the Adlon after my audience and found a message from Herr von Ribbentrop, stating that he would like to see me later that same afternoon. At the hour appointed he received me and wasted no time getting to the point.

“You understand, of course, Dr. Stoddard,” said he, “that today’s interview with the Fuehrer must not be quoted in any way.“

I was slightly nettled. “Mr. Minister,” I answered, “long before this audience, I informed your subordinates and the officials at the Propaganda Ministry of my journalistic experience and my reliability for keeping a confidence and keeping my given word. I assume your subordinates have informed you favorably.“

“Of course, of course,” replied von Ribbentrop hurriedly.

“But,” even this is not the whole story. Three days after my audience with Hitler I left for a Christmas holiday at Budapest, Hungary. Magyar newspaper colleagues of mine in Berlin had telephoned their editors I was coming, and naturally the audience had made me “news.” So two editors of leading Budapest papers promptly gave me a fine luncheon, after which they proceeded to interview me with the introductory remark:

“Now let’s hear all about your interview with Hitler.“

“Gentlemen,” I had to tell them, “before I say another word, please understand that it was not an interview but an audience, and that everything said was very much ‘off the record.’ You must give me your word that, in whatever I say, you will publish this statement textually. If you agree, I will tell you what the Fuehrer looked like and under what circumstances I saw him.“

They agreed, and, like good Magyar gentlemen, they did just what they promised. Their press accounts were, of course, promptly transmitted to Berlin. I knew nothing about it till I got back ten days later. Then I did, because officials met me with unusual cordiality.

“What nice statements you made in Budapest,” was the general refrain.

Thenceforth, all doors seemed to be open to me. In my last month in Berlin I got my most important interviews. Which would seem to indicate that, in Germany as elsewhere, keeping faith is a good thing at least for a journalist to do.

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Into the Darkness : An Uncensored Report from Inside the Third Reich at War 

by Lothrop Stoddard

1940

Chapter 16: In a Eugenics Court

Nothing is so distinctive in Nazi Germany as its ideas about race. Its concept of racial matters underlies the whole National Socialist philosophy of life and profoundly influences both its policies and practices. We cannot intelligently evaluate the Third Reich unless we understand this basic attitude of mind. Unfortunately such understanding is not easy, because the whole subject has been so obscured by passion and propaganda.

I have long been interested in the practical applications of biology and eugenics ­ the science of race­betterment ­ and have studied much along those lines. During my recent stay in Germany I supplemented this academic background by first­hand investigation, including discussions with outstanding authorities on the subject. These included both official spokesmen such as Reichsministers Frick and Darre, and leading scientists ­ Eugen Fischer, Fritz Lenz, Hans Guenther, Paul Schultze­Naumburg, and others. Through their recommendations I was able to sit beside the judges during a session of the Eugenic High Court of Appeals.

As is well known, the Nazi viewpoint on race and the resultant policies are set forth by Adolf Hitler himself in the pages of Mein Kampf, the Bible of National Socialism. The future Fuehrer therein wrote:

“It will be the duty of the People’s State to consider the race as the basis of the community’s existence. It must make sure that the purity of the racial strain will be preserved. It must proclaim the truth that the child is the most valuable possession a nation can have. It must make sure that only those who are healthy shall beget children and that there is only one infamy: namely, for parents who are ill or show other defects to bring children into the world. But on the other hand it must be branded as reprehensible to refrain from giving healthy children to the nation. Herein the State must come forward as the trustee of a millennial future, in face of which the egotistic desires of individuals count for nothing. Such individuals will have to bow to the State in such matters.

“In order to achieve this end the State will have to avail itself of modern advances in medical science. It must proclaim that all those people are unfit for procreation who are afflicted with some visible hereditary disease, or are the carriers of it; and the State must adopt practical means of having such people rendered sterile. On the other hand the State must make sure that the healthy woman will not have her fertility restricted through a financial and economic system of government which looks on the blessing of children as a curse to their parents. The State will have to abolish the cowardly and even criminal indifference with which the problem of social provision for large families is treated, and it will have to be the supreme protector of this greatest blessing that a people can boast of. Its attention and care must be directed towards the child rather than towards the adult.“

When we analyze Hitler’s pronunciamento we observe that he is here dealing with two very dissimilar things. The first of these concerns differences between human stocks. Hitler assumes that such differences are vitally important and that “the purity of the racial strain” must be preserved. Therefore, logically, crossings between them are an evil. This is the Nazi doctrine best described as racialism.

The interesting thing is that Hitler does not here stop to labor the point. He takes it for granted as self­evident and passes on to other matters which he treats in detail. These concern improvements within the racial stock, that are recognized everywhere as constituting the modern science of eugenics, or race ­betterment.

The relative emphasis which Hitler gave racialism and eugenics many years ago foreshadows the respective interest toward the two subjects in Germany today. Outside Germany, the reverse is true, due chiefly to Nazi treatment of its Jewish minority. Inside Germany, the Jewish problem is regarded as a passing phenomenon, already settled in principle and soon to be settled in fact by the physical elimination of the Jews themselves from the Third Reich. It is the regeneration of the Germanic stock with which public opinion is most concerned and which it seeks to further in various ways.

There are one or two German ideas about race which, it seems to me, are widely misunderstood abroad. The first concerns the German attitude toward Nordic blood. Although this tall, blond strain and the qualities assumed to go with it constitute an ideal type in Nazi eyes, their scientists do not claim that Germany is today an overwhelmingly Nordic land. They admit that the present German people is a mixture of several European stocks. Their attitude is voiced by Professor Guenther when he writes:

“The Nordic ideal becomes for us an ideal of unity. That which is common to all the divisions of the German people is the Nordic strain. The question is not so much whether we men now living are more or less Nordic; the question put to us is whether we have the courage to make ready, for future generations a world cleansing itself racially and eugenically.“

Another misconception is that the Nazis regard the Jews as a distinct race. To be sure, that term is often used in popular writings and many ignorant Nazis may believe it, but their scientific men do not thus defy obvious anthropology. They therefore refer to the Jews as a Mischrasse. By this they mean a group which, though self­ consciously distinct, is made up of several widely diverse racial strains. It is because most of those strains are deemed too alien to the Germanic blend that the Nazis passed the so­called Nuremberg Laws prohibiting intermarriage between Jews and Germans.

Without attempting to appraise this highly controversial racial doctrine, it is fair to say that Nazi Germany’s eugenic program is the most ambitious and far ­reaching experiment in eugenics ever attempted by any nation.

When the Nazis came to power, Germany was biologically in a bad way. Much of her best stock had perished on the battlefields of the Great War. But those war losses were surpassed by others during the post­war period, due to the falling birth­rate. Economic depression, mass­unemployment, hopelessness for the future, had combined to produce a state of mind in which Germans were refusing to have children. The birth­rate dropped so fast that the nation was no longer reproducing itself. Furthermore, the lowest birth­rates were among those elements of highest social value. The learned and professional classes were having so few children that, at this rate, they would rapidly die out. At the other end of the scale, the opposite was true. Morons, criminals, and other anti­social elements were reproducing themselves at a rate nine times as great as that of the general population. And those lowest elements were favored in their breeding by the welfare measures of the Weimar regime. Statistics indicate that it cost far more to support Germany’s defectives than it did to run the whole administrative side of Government ­ national, provincial, and local.

As the Nazis saw it, they had a two­fold task: to increase both the size and the quality of the population. Indiscriminate incentives to big families would result largely in more criminals and morons. So they coupled their encouragements to sound citizens with a drastic curb on the defective elements. That curb was the Sterilization Law.

The object of the statute is set forth in its official title: An Act for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring. The grounds for sterilization are specifically enumerated. They are: (1) Congenital Mental Deficiency; (2) Schizophrenia, or split personality; (3) Manic­Depressive Insanity; (4) Inherited Epilepsy; (5) Inherited (Huntington’s) Chorea; (6) Inherited Blindness; (7) Inherited Deafness; (8) Any grave physical defect that has been inherited; (9) Chronic alcoholism, when this has been scientifically determined to be symptomatic of psychological abnormality.

It should be understood that all these defects and diseases have been proven to be hereditary by scientists throughout the world. It was estimated that at least 400,000 persons in Germany were known to be subjects for sterilization. But the law specifically forbids sterilization for any non­hereditary cause. Even mentally diseased persons, habitual criminals, and ordinary alcoholics cannot be sterilized. Each case up for sterilization must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt before special district courts, and appeals from their verdict can be taken, first to a regional court of appeals, and ultimately to the High Appellate Court sitting in Berlin.

Such are the provisions of the Sterilization Law. So many charges have been made outside Germany that it is being used to sterilize politically undesirable persons that I particularly welcomed the opportunity to study at first­hand the High Court’s proceedings. Parenthetically it should be noted that the term “sterilization” does not mean castration. The law specifically prescribes methods which involve only a minor operation and result in no diminution of sexual activity other than incapacity to produce offspring.

Germany’s Eugenic Supreme Court sits in an impressive building at Charlottenburg, one of Berlin’s western suburbs. I arrived just as court was opening. On the bench sat a regular judge in cap and gown. At his right was the celebrated psychopathologist, Professor Zutt, a typical savant with mild blue eyes and a Vandyke beard. At the judge’s left was a keen­eyed younger man who was a specialist in criminal psychology and beside whom I sat during the proceedings. All three courteously explained points to me at frequent intervals.

Since this was the court of last resort, all matters came up to it on appeal from lower courts, and thus tended to be “hairline” cases. The thing that struck me most was the meticulous care with which these cases had already been considered by the lower tribunals. The dossier of each case was voluminous, containing a complete life­history of the subject, reports of specialists and clinics, and also exhaustive researches into the subject’s family history. In reaching its decision, the High Court not only consulted the records of the case but also personally examined the living subjects themselves.

The first case I saw looked like an excellent candidate for sterilization. A man in his mid­thirties, he was rather ape-­like in appearance ­ receding forehead, flat nose with flaring nostrils, thick lips, and heavy prognathous jaw. Not vicious ­looking, but gross and rather dull. His life­history was mildly anti­social ­ several convictions for minor thefts and one for a homosexual affair with another boy when a lad. In early manhood he had married a Jewess by whom he had three children, none of whom had showed up too well. That marriage had been dissolved under the Nuremberg Laws. He was now seeking to marry a woman who had already been sterilized as a moron. The law forbids a non­sterilized individual to marry a sterilized person; so he was more than willing to be also sterilized. The lower court recommended sterilization.

All three members of the High Court interrogated the man at length. Questions disclosed the fact that he conducted a newspaper delivery route in the suburbs, that he was able to run this simple business satisfactorily, and that he answered the Court’s queries with a fair degree of intelligence. The Court concluded that sterilization had not been proven mandatory and sent back the case for further investigation.

Case Two was obviously unbalanced mentally, though not an asylum case. Swinging a cane like a fine gentleman, he entered Court with an “air,” which went incongruously with his shabby­ genteel clothes and the battered felt hat tucked under his left arm. There was no doubt that he should be sterilized. The lower courts had decided he was either a schizophrenic or a manic­depressive, and both defects came under the law. But which of the two it was had to be clearly determined before the operation could be legally performed. This man wanted to marry an unsterilized woman, so he was strongly opposed to sterilization. His case­ history showed two prolonged mental breakdowns, irrational violent quarrels, and queer actions. Ten years previously he had evolved a plan for a Utopian State and had been arrested when he tried to lay it personally before President Hindenburg. He answered questions intelligently, revealing education, but he got excited easily; and his eyes, which were never normal, became wild on such occasions. The Court inclined to think him a manic­ depressive, but they also detected schizophrenic symptoms. Since they were not absolutely sure, the case was remanded for further clinical investigation.

Case Three was an eighteen ­year ­old girl. A deaf­mute, she talked through an interpreter. She was obviously not feeble­ minded, but had a poor family record. The parents, who also appeared, were most unprepossessing. Her case had first come before the lower court two years ago. It then decided against sterilization because no hereditary deafness was shown in the family record. Recently it had recommended sterilization because several unfortunate hereditary factors in the family had been disclosed by further investigation. The High Court ordered the girl sent to a clinic for observation. It also ordered more research into the family record.

Case Four was a seventeen­ year ­old girl. The issue was feeble­ mindedness. She certainly looked feebleminded as she sat below the bench, hunched in a chair, with dull features and lackluster eyes. Left an orphan at an early age, she had had a haphazard upbringing. The record showed her to have been always shy, backward, and unable to keep up with normal schooling.

At present she was employed as helper in a cheap restaurant. When her case first came before the lower court, its verdict was: Wait and see. Perhaps this is a case of retarded intelligence due to environmental factors, which will ripen later. But it did not ripen; so there were further hearings, at which two specialists had disagreed.

The members of the High Court examined this poor waif carefully and with kindly patience. She had no knowledge of or interest in even the most elementary current events. For instance,  she barely knew there was a war going on. But the psychologist discovered that she was able to make change for small customers’  bills in her restaurant and that she could perform other duties of her humble job. So the Court finally concluded that, despite her most unprepossessing appearance and her simple, childlike mind, she was not a moron within the meaning of the law and therefore should not be sterilized.

There were other cases that day, all conducted in the same painstaking, methodical fashion. I came away convinced that the law was being administered with strict regard for its provisions and that, if anything, judgments were almost too conservative. On the evidence of that one visit, at least, the Sterilization Law is weeding out the worst strains in the Germanic stock in a scientific and truly humanitarian way.

To turn from negative to positive eugenics, the first active measure for increasing both the quantity and quality of the population was the Law for the Promotion of Marriages. I have already mentioned the young Friesian milker and his wife who were enabled to furnish a home through a 1,000 ­Mark Government loan, 25 per cent of which was canceled on the birth of each child born to them. These loans are made to young couples, not in cash, but in the form of certificates for household goods; before being eligible for the loan, the couple must have passed medical and mental tests proving that they are sound, healthy stock. Since the law went into effect, more than 900,000 such loans have been made.

Another population stimulus was official grants ­in­ aid to large families in poor circumstances. This was later expanded to a regular system of child­ allowances. The taxation laws were likewise revised to lighten the burdens which large families tend to bear. An example of this is the tax on salaries, which is 16 per cent for the unmarried and 10 per cent for a married man without offspring, but which decreases with each child until it vanishes after four children have been born. In all measures requiring official loans or allowances, only sound, healthy persons can benefit. It should be understood that these specific measures dovetail with all those social­welfare and public health activities discussed in previous Chapters. Thus the entire system is permeated with the eugenic point of view.

These stimuli to population growth have produced remarkable results. In 1933, the year when the Nazis came to power, only 957,000 children were born ­ far below the reproductive rate for the nation. The very next year births had shot up to 1,197,000, and they increased steadily until, when the war broke out, they were running about 1,300,000 annually. This is entirely contrary to the general trend in other countries of Western and Northern Europe, where average birth rates are low, with slight changes during the past decade. Even Mussolini was unable to get as good results from his efforts at increasing Italy’s population until he recently copied several measures from the Reich. And we should remember that Fascism seeks quantity production, without the eugenic requirements for quality that are in force in Germany.

Before closing this survey, we should note the psychological aspect of Nazi population policy. The rulers of the Third Reich do not stop with laws and economic regulations. They realize that, for the full attainment of their goal, ideology must be mobilized. So the German people is systematically propagandized for the upbuilding of what may be described as a racial and eugenic consciousness. Here, for instance, are the Ten Commandments for the Choice of a Mate. Couched in the exhortatory form of the German Du, this new racial decalogue is brought so constantly to the attention of every German youth and maiden that they must know it by heart.

Here is the text:

1. Remember that thou art a German! All that thou art, thou owest, not to thine self, but to thy people. Whether thou wiliest it or no, thou belongest thereto; from thy people hast thou come forth. In all thou doest, bethink thee whether it be to thy people’s best advancement.

2. Thou shalt maintain purity of Mind and Spirit! Cherish and foster thy mental and spiritual capacities. Keep far from thy mind and soul whatsoever is instinctively foreign to them, what is contrary to thy true self, what thine inner conscience rejects. Seeking after money and worldly goods, after quick preferment, after material pleasures, may often lead thee to forget higher things. Be true to thine own self, and before aught else be worthy of thy future life­mate.

3. Keep thy body clean! Maintain the good health received from thy parents, in order to serve thy people. Guard against expending it uselessly and foolishly. A moment’s sensual gratification may lastingly wreck thine health and heritable treasure whereon thy children and children’s children have a compelling claim. What thou demandest from thy future life­ partner, that must thou demand of thyself. Remember that thou art destined to be a German Parent.

4. Being of sound stock, thou shalt not remain single! All thy qualities of body and spirit perish if thou diest without heirs. They are a heritage, a donation from thine ancestors. They exist as a chain, of which thou art but a link. Durst thou break that chain, save under stern necessity? Thy life is straitly bound by time; family and folk endure. Thy hereditary estate of body and spirit prospers in thy waxing offspring.

5. Marry only for love! Money is perishable stuff and ensures no lasting happiness. Where the divine spark of love is absent, there can no worthy marriage endure. Wealth of heart and soul is the foundation of a lasting, happy union.

6. As a German, choose a mate only of thine own or kindred blood! Where like meets like, there rules true unison. Where unlike races mix, there is discord. Mixing racial stocks which do not harmonize leads to the degeneracy and downfall of both strains and peoples. The more unlike the mixtures, the faster this takes place. Guard thyself from such ruin! True happiness springs only from harmonious blood.

7. In choosing thy mate, consider the ancestry! Thou weddest not alone thy mate but also thy life­ partner’s forebears. Worthy descendants are to be expected only where worthy ancestors went before. Gifts of mind and spirit are just as much inherited as the color of hair and eyes. Bad traits are bequeathed precisely like lands or goods. Naught in the whole world is so precious as the seeds of a gifted stock; noxious seeds cannot be transformed into good ones. Wherefore, marry not the one worthy member of a bad family.

8. Health is the prerequisite for even outward beauty! Health is the best guarantee for lasting happiness, for it is the basis for both external charm and inward harmony. Demand of thy mate medical assurance of fitness for marriage, as thou thyself must also do.

9. In marriage seek, not a plaything but a help mate! Marriage is not a transient game but a lasting union. The supreme aim of marriage is the raising of healthy offspring. Only by the union of beings who are like in spirit, body and blood can this high goal be attained, to the blessing of themselves and their people. For each race has its own ethos; so like souls can alone endure together.

10. Thou shalt desire many children! Only by engendering at least four children can the continuance of thy people be assured. Only by having an even larger number can the greatest possible proportion of the merits inherited from thine ancestors be surely handed down. No child wholly resembles another. Each child inherits different traits. Many gifted children greatly enhances the worth of a people and are the surest guarantees for its future. Thou wilt soon pass away; what thou givest to thy descendants endures. Thy people liveth forever!

What an amazing mixture of idealisms and propaganda! This Marital Decalogue is a striking instance of the Nazi attitude and methods.

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Into the Darkness : An Uncensored Report from Inside the Third Reich at War 

by Lothrop Stoddard

1940

Chapter 15: Socialized Health

“The treatment given a tuberculous patient is partly determined by his social worth. If he is a valuable citizen and his case is curable, no expense is spared. If he is adjudged incurable, he is kept comfortable, of course, but no special effort is made to prolong slightly an existence which will benefit neither the community nor himself. Germany can nourish only a certain amount of human life at a given time. We National Socialists are in duty bound to foster individuals of social and biological value.“

It was the official in charge of the Tuberculosis Section of the Public Health Service headquarters who spoke. He was an earnest young man with reflective eyes and a precise manner of speech. His was only one of many departments devoted to the combating of every notable Germanic ill, from cancer to flat feet. Here the myriad strands of a nationwide organization head up in a big building near Nollendorfplatz.

I had become accustomed to elaborate publicity methods in all the national headquarters of Governmental or Party institutions, but I think this one deserves the prize. The whole building was one series of exhibits, while the detailed educational literature was all­inclusive. As usual, I was given a liberal sampling, sent next day to my hotel. They went to swell a collection of data which filled a hand­trunk by the time I left Germany.

I have that public health literature spread out before me as I write. There are some twenty pamphlets, dealing with general or special topics, including a detailed bibliography of the best books available in the entire field. Some of the pamphlets are illustrated with cuts and diagrams. I note especially the one dealing with foot troubles, which contains a whole series of exercises. Then there are several single­sheet “dodgers.” Here is one entitled: Advice to Pregnant Women. This consists of a series of wood­ cuts. First, the things she should do: Sponge­bath on arising; take a quiet walk; wear proper clothes ­ as indicated; brush her teeth before retiring; take a good sleep in a comfortable bed. Now the don’ts: heavy lifting; high reaching; bending long over the washtub; bending low to get into that bottom drawer; standing too long a time; drinking and smoking; wearing high­heeled shoes; getting shaken up ­ as on a motorcycle; finally, losing one’s temper. At the bottom of the sheet, proper articles of diet are visualized. Others in this pictorial series cover matters like Preparation for Motherhood, and Care of the Baby.

The pamphlets deal with all sorts of things. Here are several on specific diseases ­ tuberculosis, cancer, foot troubles, infantile paralysis, venereal diseases, and so forth. There are several more on sex ­ the best ages for begetting children; advice to parents on handling children during adolescence; advice to youths and maidens ­ these last preaching strict morality, though from a patriotic rather than a religious basis. Lastly, there are a few miscellaneous topics, including diet, exercise, and avoidance of liquor and tobacco. All these are inexpensively gotten up for mass distribution.

Before I started on my tour of investigation, the general director, Dr. Eckhard, had given me a general background discussion, as Germans always do. He stated that the general theory and structure of the German public health system goes back to Bismarck’s day. The outstanding development under the Third Reich is thoroughgoing co­ordination of various departments and organizations. Structurally, therefore, no great changes have taken place except the establishment since 1933 of a complete system of cancer centers throughout Germany. It is in the spirit and tempo of the Public Health Service that we discover the vital difference between the present and former times. The Nazi attitude, subordinating the individual to the collective good, is well expressed in the remarks of Dr. Eckhard’s subordinate with which this chapter began.

Dr. Schramm, the eminent surgeon whom I met at my first dinner­party in Berlin, undertook to continue my education in Public Health. One of the points he stressed was the good general level of health, due largely to the health ­insurance law by which even the poorest are assured full medical treatment. People are urged to seek medical advice periodically or for any worrisome symptom, and since it costs them nothing personally, they do it gladly. All medical men are legally bound to give a certain portion of their time to insured patients; patients have the right to choose the doctor or surgeon they wish to consult, and they even have the right to be sent to the private hospitals of such medical men, if he customarily sends his patients to those institutions. Dr. Schramm took me to the hospital of which he was chief surgeon. It was a fairly large private institution, with about 150 beds. Some wards were for insured patients. I spoke with several of them. They were all workingmen. Their health insurance allowed them up to one year’s hospitalization, with pocket money. After that, if not cured, I was told they were taken care of out of the public health funds indefinitely. Incidentally, Dr. Schramm informed me that cotton is so short in wartime Germany that absorbent cotton has become scarce. It is now saved for vital uses. Ordinary dressings are made of paper, and appear to serve quite well.

Another interesting point I learned was the progress made in the fight against venereal diseases. Anyone infected must at once consult a doctor, under heavy legal penalties. Since he or she can get free treatment and choose the doctor, they are glad to comply. Privacy for the case is assured by having the doctor send in a report to the health authorities bearing a number, the name and address of the patient remaining in his files. But if the patient does not come regularly or fails to comply with directions, the doctor discloses the patient’s identity and coercive measures are taken. Anyone spreading infection is punished by a sentence of at least six months in jail. This sentence is mandatory. Wealth and social position are of no avail. The result of all this is a sharp drop in social disease rates. Fresh syphilitic infections have become rare. There is still considerable gonorrhea, but much is hoped from the new treatment with sulfanilamide. The war has thus far not notably affected the situation. Soldiers are so well trained in prophylaxis and are subject to such heavy punishment for carelessness that there has been scant spread of venereal disease by them.

I spent an instructive morning visiting an accident and out­ patient clinic, to see how that aspect of public health was handled. This clinic was maintained for workingmen; all of them, of course, insured. The approach was not prepossessing. It was on the fourth floor of a dingy warehouse­like building, and was reached by a freight elevator. Once inside, however, I was astonished at the completeness and modernity of the equipment. X­Ray and Roentgen­ Ray machines, sun ­ and violet­ray lamps, mechanical and hand massage, up­to­date operating­room ­ everything seemed to be there. An American woman, the wife of a bone specialist, who accompanied me, was frankly astounded at what we saw. She knew about such matters, and she told me that she had never seen anything professionally finer at home. Perhaps the most significant point was the cheapness with which the clinic was conducted. I was shown the cost­sheets, and found that the average charge made for patients to their associations was less than one dollar per day.

Another important aspect of public health is housing. The officials concerned with this phase showed me several new developments, from inexpensive workingmen’s apartments, through single and double­house settlements, to upper­middle­ class “model villages,” all on the outskirts of Berlin. However, I wasn’t satisfied with what was officially shown me, surmising that everything would be the best of its kind. So I got a foreign journalist who knew about such matters to steer me around the poorest quarters. I was on the hunt for slums.

My colleague told me I wouldn’t find anything very bad, because Berlin had no real slums, as most countries reckon them. But he promised to show me the worst there were, and we spent the greater part of a day poking about. Our starting point was Alexanderplatz, formerly a very tough district and a Communist stronghold. Today, it is a humdrum traffic and shopping center. The worst section nearby has been almost entirely rebuilt with municipal apartment houses for working­men. They are plainly and simply built, and the rents are very cheap. The heart of this extensive development is Horst Wessel Platz, named after the famous Nazi hero and martyr who was murdered by Communists in an old tenement (now torn down) which faced the present square.

After that we radiated in easterly segments; some of the oldest tenement sections drab and dreary, especially in the gray light of a cloudy autumn day. But none of them were run­down, and no dirt or rubbish was to be seen. My colleague informed me that the Nazi Government has forced landowners to clean up and repair even the oldest tenements. This was originally started as part of a compulsory “make­work” program during the early years of the Nazi regime. In some tenement courtyards I saw small, shed like buildings (somewhat like the “alley dwellings” of Washington, D. C.) which once had evidently been lived in. However, such structures have all been condemned as living quarters. So are all cellar tenements. The general impression I got from these workingmen’s quarters was that of a rather low average standard of living, yet above the squalor line.

The nearest to slumlike conditions I discovered was in and about the Grenadierstrasse. There the very poorest class lives, including many foreigners and a considerable number of Jews. The tenements look sordid, with few clean curtains or flowers in the windows, as was the case nearly everywhere else. Many of the passers­by looked as sordid as their abodes. The Jews, understandably, had a fear ­ridden, sullen air. I tried to find out whether ghetto conditions existed, in the sense that Jews were concentrated in certain tenements. Apparently this is not the case. In one tenement, where I saw nothing but Jews about, I asked a postwoman just going in to deliver mail if this were a purely Jewish place. With the frank callousness one so often encounters, she answered disdainfully:

“Ach, nein. Jews, Gypsies, all sorts of trash live here!“

Germany’s coldly efficient system of public health is strikingly shown by the scientifically notable sanitary job it has done in Poland. Although none of us foreign journalists were allowed to visit the Polish zone, I was fortunate in having a long conversation with almost the only foreigner who was permitted to go there. This man was Dr. Junod, a Swiss and a high official of the International Red Cross. Dr. Junod is an expert judge of sanitary conditions, with many years of service in the Red Cross and long experience in the Ethiopian and Spanish Civil wars. He visited Warsaw, Poland’s shattered capital city, about mid ­November.

He told me that what the German health authorities had done to Warsaw since its capture in late September was a miracle of scientific efficiency. Though the houses were still largely in ruins, the streets were immaculate ­ he did not see even bits of waste paper blowing about. The water and lighting systems had been restored and the population generally inoculated against typhoid. The prostitutes had been listed and were carefully examined at frequent intervals. Most striking of all, the urban masses, habitually filthy and verminous, had been deloused wholesale. The delousing stations parted a man from his clothes,  both going through different cleansing processes. These were so nicely synchronized that the naked individual usually met his garments at the other end ­ both clean and freed from local inhabitants. The clothes were dry, since they had been subjected to a blast of hot air which desiccated them almost immediately.

About the more important aspects of the lives of the people through whose city those unlittered streets ran, I was able to gather little.

Nevertheless, the result of this intensive health campaign was an utter transformation of public hygiene in the short space of two months. Thereby a great peril had been averted. Sanitary conditions immediately following the German conquest were so bad that, unless heroic measures had been speedily taken, mass epidemics would have been inevitable. This would have endangered not only German ­occupied Poland but Germany itself. If such epidemics had spread into the Reich, the consequences might have been catastrophic, for the habitually cleanly Germans have no such partial immunity to filth diseases such as typhus as the Poles have acquired through having been chronically exposed to them. It was clearly not for the Poles,  therefore, but for the benefit of the invaders that this miracle of sanitary science had been invoked.

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Into the Darkness : An Uncensored Report from Inside the Third Reich at War 

by Lothrop Stoddard

1940

Chapter 10: The Labor Front

The Third Reich’s whole economic life is what Nazis frankly call a Wehrwirtschaft ­ an economy run on military lines. That is why they use military terms to describe its various activities. Having observed the Battle of the Land, let us now survey the industrial sector, known as the Labor Front.

Before attempting this survey, however, one point should be emphatically made which applies not only here but also in subsequent chapters dealing with institutional aspects of the Third Reich. In each case a well­rounded presentation would have involved prolonged first­hand investigation and extensive research. This was obviously impossible during a three months’ stay in Germany. The best I could do was a limited amount of personal observation plus discussions with officials and a study of available data. These were checked as far as possible with qualified foreign students and observers, but I am aware that the results are not conclusive. Nazi spokesmen present the official case with inadequate rebuttal or full disclosure of the other side of the story. The upshot is a more or less unbalanced treatment which can be legitimately criticized.

All this I know and deplore. But I could see no practical alternative. To have confined myself solely to my own observations and impressions would have meant a series of fragmentary sketches which would have been intelligible only to readers who already had considerable knowledge of the subjects touched upon. These subjects are so little known to the general public in America that most readers would presumably have obtained neither a connected picture of wartime Germany nor a background against which matters specifically treated could be viewed.

One of the first acts of the Nazi regime was to dissolve the old labor unions and merge them into a single organization under state control. This, however, was not a mere Nazi “One Big Union.” Precisely as the Nazis did in agriculture, so they here co­ ordinated everybody connected with industry into a huge vertical trust. The lowliest workingman and the biggest manufacturer became (at least technically) fellow­members of the new Labor Front. And the white­collar workers were likewise in the same boat.

Here, as elsewhere, we note the underlying principle of the Third Reich ­ the classless State mobilized for collective aims in accordance with the slogan: Gemeinnutz vor Eigennutz ­ “The common weal above individual advantage.” In short, everything and everybody subordinated to the advancement of a regime which is in some respects a cross between modern Guild Socialism and the craft guilds of the Middle Ages. The feudal note is clear. Employers are termed “leaders“; employees became “followers” or “retainers.” Both are adjured to cherish mutual loyalty and duty. Their personal dignity is emphasized by “Courts of Honor.” Strikes, lockouts, and arbitrary “hire­ nd ­fire” are alike prohibited. The final arbiters in this curious set­up are “Trustees of Labor,” who can discipline or discharge anyone, even “leaders.” Needless to say, these Trustees are Party members. They see to it that the whole Labor Front functions efficiently in full accordance with the general policies laid down by the Nazi Government.

Such is the theory. How has it worked out in practice? First let us try to visualize the Labor Front. This huge organization, embracing the entire structure of German industry, has nearly 30,000,000 members. Membership is compulsory. So are the dues, individually moderate but aggregating a vast fund, expended as the leadership sees fit. The leader is, of course, Dr. Robert Ley, whom we saw haranguing the Duesseldorf workers. A florid, dynamic man with compelling gray eyes, he apparently cannot modulate his voice, for my ear­drums literally ached after a long conversation I had with him.

On the whole, we can say of the Labor Front what we said of the Food Estate ­ it worked out most advantageously for its members during the early years of the Nazi regime. Its outstanding success was the triumph over mass unemployment. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Germany had 7,000,000 unemployed. In proportion to total populations, this was worse than in the lowest  depth of our depression at about the same time. The drastic measures of the Nazi regime, repellant though they are to our ideals, not only rapidly did away with unemployment but presently brought about a growing labor shortage. Germany was working full­time. Real wages did not make so good a showing. They had risen only slightly; so the individual work­ingman was financially not much better off than he had been in 1933 ­ if he then had a job. However, all the former unemployed now did have jobs. Also, the Nazi apologists were careful to point out to me, the workers had gained certain advantages, such as the Strength through Joy benefits, which we will examine later on.

The year 1937 is a turning­point in the status of German labor. By that time the famous Four Year Plan had got well into its stride. The Third Reich had embarked upon an aggressive foreign policy which made war at least likely, if not certain. Wehrwirtschaft thus became a genuine war­economy. To prepare for all contingencies, labor and capital were regimented as ruthlessly as was agriculture. The results were as grim as they were inevitable. In the summer of 1938, a Government decree obligated all able­bodied men and women for short­term service to meet “nationally urgent tasks.” Almost at the same time, another decree fixed maximum wages and salaries. Labor was not only tied to its present jobs but could be taken from them and sent anywhere the Government might think fit. The principle of the eight­hour day was discarded for a ten­hour day, with a maximum of fourteen hours in exceptional cases. Restrictions on the labor of women and children were also relaxed.

When the war actually came a year later, this draconic program was pushed to its logical conclusion. In wartime Germany today, labor is everywhere working at the limit of its capacity. Indeed the limit of human endurance seems to have been **page torn**ped. Although such matters cannot there be discussed in print, Germany is full of rumors concerning a falling­ off of production in many lines. The main reasons seems to be sheer overstrain, but there is doubtless a considerable amount of calculated “ca’ canny.” We here come to the highly controversial subject of popular discontent against the Nazi regime. Even shirking by workingmen is treated as “sabotage” and may be punished by death; so no German admits opposition to anything unless he has full confidence in the one to whom he speaks. Resident journalists sometimes have good lines of information; but even they seldom get specific for fear of betraying German informants into a concentration camp or worse. It is thus very difficult for the temporary observer to assess accurately the amount of opposition which today exists.

The nearest I came to first­hand acquaintance with militant unrest was one evening when a journalistic colleague took me to a beer hall in a poor quarter east of Alexanderplatz. The clientele looked sordid and semi­criminal. My colleague introduced me to one hard­looking citizen who, when asked how he stood politically, answered sourly: “Sure I’m a Nazi ­ oh, yeah? Phuuugh!” He made that last remark by breathing hard against the back of his hand pressed against his lips, which resulted in a loud “Bronx cheer.” Also he made no effort to lower his voice; so his words were overheard by sitters at nearby tables ­ who grinned appreciatively.

However, I hesitate to generalize from this incident and a few other matters along the same line, any more than I would be apt to deduce an impending revolution in America from frequenting tough joints around Union Square, New York. I do think that genuine unrest exists in Germany today ­ far more than any Nazi spokesman would care to admit. But I do not believe that it is either as widespread or as deep­seated as we in America are led to believe. Many of the older trades­unionists have presumably never reconciled themselves to the new order of things, yet I found scant evidence that the younger generation shared their idealistic attitude.

The reason for this lack of idealistic roots to such militant opposition as exists is because Nazism has offered the workers certain popular appeals ­ some psychological, others tangible, still others evoked by the old lure of “bread and circuses.” In the first place, the Labor Front promised working­men greater security and self­respect. The employing class under both the Empire and the Weimar Republic tended to be arrogant, hard­ handed plutocrats. A Statute which stressed the dignity of labor, set up Courts of Honor, and was run by State Trustees who often cracked down on big industrialists might give the average workingman an emotional glow that partly offset low wages and strict regimentation. This was especially true in the first years of the Nazi regime.

Furthermore, the Labor Front has done something to improve working conditions along the most advanced lines. This phase of its activities is known as Schoenheit der Arbeit ­ “The Beautification of Labor.” A minority of employers had voluntarily begun the movement under the Weimar Republic and even under the Empire, replacing ugly, dreary factories by more cheerful and more healthful surroundings. However, too many of the old type remained, depressing the worker by dirt, smoke, bad lighting, worse plumbing, and no fit place for luncheon or rest periods. Few owners of such factories seem to have had the vision or the money to realize that the worker’s efficiency would be notably heightened by cleaner and cheerier surroundings. The Labor Front swept away many such abuses. Employers were compelled to clean house, and were lent part of the money needed to do so. Factories were either remodeled or scrapped while new ones were erected, scientifically built to give the workers a maximum of light and air. These new factories were set in park­like grounds, wherein workers could spend their rest periods or on which they could look while working instead of having to gaze at a blank wall or a sordid shed. Tasteful rest­ rooms, lunch­rooms where hot meals are served, up-­to-­date washroom facilities ­ these are the new order of the day. I can vouch for these matters, because I ate good (if simple) meals and inspected the other improvements in several factories during my stay in Germany. Especially was I minutely shown the locker­ rooms, swimming ­pools, shower­baths, and toilets. Coming from plumbing ­conscious America, I found few novelties. But their eager pride in such matters made me realize how recent they must have been. Of course I was shown the best. I do not know their percentage to the total number of factories.

One interesting feature was the competitions between factories for model championships. I recall one factory which had gained that honor the summer previous. A special swastika banner symbolized the triumph ­ and it must be re­earned each year if it is not to go elsewhere. I was shown photographs of the presentation ceremonies, and of the subsequent jollification when all hands, from executives down, went off in chartered buses to a picnic at a nearby amusement place.

An even more important, and certainly a more publicized method of winning the masses to National Socialism is that known as Kraft durch Freude ­ “Strength through Joy.” This is the most gigantic scheme of organized, state­directed entertainment that the world has ever seen. It includes a wide variety of activities, from “highbrow” art and music to popular amusement, travel, and sport. Every member of the Labor Front can participate, from high ­paid executives to day laborers; from women secretaries to servant girls. Conversely, no one outside the Labor Front can share its benefits.

The theory behind the experiment is thus explained by Dr. Ley: “Work entails physical and nervous strain liable to leave a feeling of bodily and mental exhaustion which cannot be eradicated by merely going to rest. Mind and body require new nourishment. Since during the hours of labor a maximum of effort and attention is demanded of the worker, it is essential that during his leisure hours the best of everything should be offered him in the shape of spiritual, intellectual, and physical recreation, in order to maintain, or if necessary restore, the joy of life and work.” As he put it to me: “The more work we give men to do, the more enjoyment we must give them too.” With typical German thoroughness, every form of recreation has been organized. When we read of palatial “K.d.F.” liners gliding through Norwegian fjords or special trains discharging thousands of trippers at sea beaches or inland beauty spots, we are apt to think of K.d.F. as a glorified tourist agency. These long vacations are, however, only high spots for relatively small numbers of workers in a program which goes on in every industrial locality throughout the year. The smallest town is apt to have its little amateur K.d.F. orchestra, gymnasium, sports field, and hiking club.

To the individualist Anglo­Saxon, all this regimented “leisure to order” may not sound particularly attractive. “To order” it certainly is, and the Nazis make no bones about it. K.d.F. is not merely a privilege; it is a duty as well. Says Dr. Ley: “We do not intend to leave it to the individual to decide whether he desires,  or does not desire, a holiday. It has become compulsory.” Again, even here, we detect the military note. One of Dr. Ley’s best­ known publications is a pamphlet entitled: “A People Conquers Joy.” However, these aspects are not specifically Nazi; they reflect the average German’s faith in organization and his acquiescence in state direction and control. There seems to be no doubt that Kraft durch Freude is generally popular and that it is prized as the outstanding benefit which the industrial masses have gained from the Nazi regime.

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