The Goderich Signal-Star, 1969-12-04, Page 154?
4 Tote • Rim :THUMB'
131( G. MacLEOD ROSS
Although it is thirty-six years
▪ since Goering set fire to the
Reichstag, its polluting Memory
lingers .on; still not satisfactorily
interred; still glowing; still
waiting for some Ile,W false
witness to arise and fan the
embers into proof positive that
it was the Communists who set
the fire.
The circumstantial evidence is
a very clear. In January 1933,
Hitler still had only one foot in
• the stirrnp. He had become
Chancellor and he had assured
the industrialists that
Aisarinament would end at last,
sothat even *Herr Krupp
"expressed his gratitude.
Thereafter Goebbels' diary
• records how he and the Fuhrer
laid d6wn the lines for the fight
against the "Red Terror." The
manufacture Of the Big Lie yds
in process:
The Communist headquarters
in Berlin was raided some weeks
• after the leaders had abandoned
it, so that all it produced was
some propaganda pamphlets; left
behind beforelliey absconded to
Russia. These were all that
Goebbels needed and his
communique referred to them as
"documents 'proving the
imminence of a Communist
revolution." The Nazis had
established their first Aunt
Sally! Unfortunately for the
Nazis, the general public was,
quite unconvinced; it was in fact
supine, so that it became clear to
• the Nazi leaders that they would
have to manufacture a shock of
much greater potency before the
election on March 5, 1933.
Thus on February 27 we flnd
. von Papen, the vice-chancellor,
entertaining the President, von
• Hindenburg, aged 87 and senile.
At the Goebbels' country home,
Hitler has arrived to dine en
famille. Goebbels' diary provides
the local color. His party was
proceeding . with much
merriment when the' phone
6 rings. It is Dr. Haufstaengl. "The
Reichstag„is on firer Writing for
posteritY, Goebbels records: "I
am sure he is telling a tall tale
and decline even to mention it
to the Fuhrer." But von Papen
and his august guest are right on
the spot and can see the red
glow through the windows of
the Herrenklub where they are
dining. Goebbels makes some
galls which only serve to confirm
e fire at the Reichstag, after
which both he and Hitler "drive
- at once to the scene of the ,
crime.",
}fere the triumvirate
assembles: Hitler, Goering and
Goebbels. Goering sweating,
puffing and screaming, "this is a
Communist crime against the
ngw government. This is the
4 beginning of the Communist
Revolution! We shall show no
mercy! Every Communist shall
be shot!"„„The fire has been well
set and though the building is
very substantial, there is not the
slightest hope of saving it.
• Then comes one of those
"strange coincidences." The
et.
cac
•
h.
Lest
Nazis pick up a demented
Communist arsonist, Marines
van der Lubbe, who is trying to
do exactly what the Nazis
themselves have already done so
successfully.
The day after the fire, Hitler,
prevails on President von
Hindenburg to sign a decree
which lays down 'Restrictions
en Personal Liberty"; on the
rights of assembly and
association; on violations of the
privacy of postal, telegraphic
and telephonic communications;
on warrants for house searches;
orders for confiscations, as ,well
as restrictions on, Property, all of
which are to be permissible
beyond the legal limits otherwise
prescribed. Ai -Goering remarked
on March 3: "I do not have to
worry about justice; my, mission
is only • 'to destroy and
exterminate, nothing more!"
The last democratic elections
are held on March 5; the last to
be held during Hitler's lifetime.
But even then, the Nazis are far
short of the two thirds majority ,
they need for Hitler to establish
his dictatorship by consent of
Parliament. Thus it follows that
on March 23 the Reichstag is
convened in the Kroll Opera
House and an "Enabling ,Act"
presented as a "law for removing
distress of People and Reich." In
five brief paragraphs -0d takes
away all power from Parliament
and hands it to the Reich
Cabinet for a period of four
years. The aisles of the Opera
House are lined with
brown-shirted storm troops,
,whose scarred faces indicate that
no nonsense will be tolerated
from the representatives of the
people, assembled here for the
last time. When the vote is taken'
there are 44,1 for and 84 against.
The Nazi deputies rise, stamping
and shouting. The Storm Troops
break into the Horst Wessel song
and parliamentary democracy in
Germany is finally buried.
THE FINAL VERDICT
Hitler's opponents
maintained from the first that
the Nazis themselves had been
responsible for the fire, a, belief
which was widely accepted until
1956, when Dr. Tobias, head of
Secdrity Services of Saxony,
published a series of articles
purporting to bring forward new
evidence that van der Lubbe
reallNd originate the fire.-
Th:whole case has recently
'been opened in Paris where some
40 witnesses will submit
'evidence to refute Dr. Tobias'
findings. A retired senior
German judge will disclose,
details of a secret Nazi "Court of
Honor'at which members of
the Brown Shirt organization
will admit they set fire to the
Reichstag on orders from
Goering and other leading Nazis,
and that van der Lubbe was
nothing more than a decoy.
Other evidence will show that
during Hittr's "Night of the
Long Knives" many of those
Brown Shirt members, who had
we
had a hand in the fire, .were
amongst dip 1,70 people
murdered, in an-, attempt to
eradicate any, evidence
connecting the Brown Shirts
with arson.*
Although van der Lubbe is
supposed to have set the fire
single handed, it has now been
proved that fire broke out
simultaneously in 20 different
places, while heat developed so
quickly that nears collapsed in
half an hour.
Corroborative accounts are
now available to • explain just
how "a mixed gang Of Brown
Shirts and S.S. Black Guards set
the fire. Assembling 48 hours
beforehand „in the adjoining
house belonging to Goering,
they slipped through the tunnel
linking the heating systems of
the two buildings. Evidence is
also available to show how van
der Lubbe was lured to Berlin by
means of ads in Dutch
Communist papers, which asked
for volunteers "for dangerous
mork."
Still another new witness, a
policeman, never called before,
will testify how he arrived on
the scene to find flames spurting
from the Steno Room in
Parliament Hall, a point which
van der Lubbe never even
approached. The final verdict
will be the reaffirmation by the
Commission that the Nazis did
burn down the Reichstag.
THE AFTERMATH
‘r.
To the average Angio -Saxon,.
albeit the generations which
fought in two world wars, this
postmortem may seem rather
like flogging a dead donk'ey, for
as far as he was' concerned,
Germany has never been a
homogeney.is nation as other
nations in Europe are. In spite of
Bismarck, Germany has
-continued as a collection of
Principalities and minor.
kingdoms,the populations of
which all bear different
characteristics. I- It is only
necessary to recall how, in World
War I, people would
differentiate between Bavarians,
SaZons, Wurteinburgers,
Rhinelanders and Prussians,
some more tainted with Nazism
than others. These schisms still
exist,. although - a generation of
Germans has grown up which
desires to purge themselves of
the taint of Nazistn.. ,
Here in Canada we have over
million Germans, many. in
Ontario itself. An article in the
Globe & Mail magazine
(22/11/68) seeks to explain the
present day lukewarmness of
many Anglo-Saxons to Germans
in the mass. Why any
explanation should be necessary
beyond culpability for initiating
two bloody world wars to no
purpose whatsoever, is hard to
understand. When German
expatriates claim, with perfect
truthfulness, that they were
never tainted with Nazism,
Anglo-Saxons find it hard to
forget the sin a omission at a
crucial period in 1933, when
they failed collectively •Iii
preventing their country 'sliding
apathetically under the gangster
rule of Hitlerand his Nazis.
Whilst we find much to
admire in the individual German,
doubt lingers in the back df uI
minds. Cah the leopard, change
his spots? Are there now enough
sane and balanced Germans to
prevent such' a barefaced
take-over again? With the best
and most compassionate will in
the world, it is a question, we
shall ponder until our , tirhe
finally runs out. So much then,
for the moat in the German eye.
Have Your Own Business
EARN10,000 PER YEAR
.•
* GUARANTEED INCOIVIE
• MINIMUM INVESTMENT
REQUIRED
* REASONABLE RENTAL
• ADVERTISING SUPPORT
* PAID TRAINING
* EXPERIENCE NOT
NECESSARY-,
gt4•4(
ONE 482-7986 EVENINGS
•
•
444-14...-- A ,,,„...00:64" •
OR MAIL THIS COUPON TO BOX 340, CLINTON, ONT.
If NAME
I ADIbRESS
1 CITY
1.1116 .111.01 .1.106
PI -101‘1'
"a
• • •
• • • 0
. • ,
THE BEAM IN OUR
OWNEYE
Of more immediate concern
is the answer to the question:
Could it happen here? And it is
the progressive deterioration of
our democratic system of
p arl iament ary government,
which makes this question so
momentous. Hitler discovered
that the amalgam which held the
parliamentary system together
was Integrity. Eliminate that,
and the whole falls in pieces.
The similarity between the
voiceless members of our federal
and provincial parliaments and
the acquiescing sheeplike
members of the 1933 Reichstag
becomes more apparent as time
goes on and propaganda to
convince as that "the Cabinet
knows best" is intensified.
glt involves the same great
, subtlety; everything highly
contrived; the graduated drip -
wearing away our discrimination
and judgement; conditioning us
to less and less liberty and
privacy. Just now we are
between the upper and lower
millstones on the matter of the
amount of tax which 04 be
extracted fiom us, for we are
faced with a situation' in which
the federal and ,14provincial
.governments, separately and
individually, compete for our
proficiency as creators wealth.
The ludicrous state of attain has
been contrived in which the
former arm of government,
having staked its own claim,
taunts the latter arm in no
uncertain language, to look to us
for its own source„of revenue. At
once the antiquated idea of
'government' working for the
common weal of all the
electorate had been discarded.
Now it is each arm of
government for itself and the
devil take the taxpayer. The
answer to the question: What
can my government do for me?
is no longer in doubt. The
answer .has been written large
and clear: Give us your funds
and we will expend them for
you.
We are adjured not to forget
to write to the Member (whom
we, do not need to re-elect), but
since when has any member
been anything but a cypher? It
was he who was first beaten into
silence, thus establishing rule by
Cabinet decree. For this reason
alone it is a good question for
each M.P. and each M:P.P. to ask
himself: When did you last feel
yourself to be a servant of your
constituency?
This is why, before itis too
late; before we are anaethetized
into impotence; we should take
down W. L. Shirer's "Rise and
Fall of the Third Reich" and
- read what the mesmerism of the
few could do to the apathy of
the many. Do it now, before you
forget what individual liberty
once meant! YOU are the
watchman on the walls of
individual freedom.
JP.
,14101).110011'SIG AtoSTAltrilitat 0.04 ozcomPlt 4, 00 $A
POLAROID
SWINGER
MODEL 20
COMPARE AT 19.95
OUR PRICE IS ONLY
KODAK INSTAMATIC 124
COMPLETE WITH
FILM AND
FLASH CUBE
POLAROID COLOR PAK 11
COLOUR PICTURES IN
60 SECONDS REG. 39.95 $3495
LOOK FOR THE SPECIAL
YELLOW SALE CARDS
Specials in every department
in the store
(Extra Specials In The Camera Department This, Week)
The Square
HENDERSON'S
- BOOK STORE
""AVAVAV;AVAV,EVA-.VAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVA-VgkVAVAVA-VA:V=N'AVX-VMVX-VXI
14
14
14
14
14
.14
14
14
4
1101111••••111
41.
14
.14
14
14
14
14
34
.14
14
14
14
14
14
•
° Here:s a shining opportunity
for the blight shopper to see a won-
derful. select -ton of lamps Of all types.
Our.Collection Inelud'es °
* CONTEMPORARY *TRADITIONAL
* FRENCH PROVINCIAL * COLONIAL
* SPANISH
Meru k :amp spt every taste and 1r price to suit
ery
TABLE LAMPS — POLE LAMPS SWAG LAMPS
FLOOR LAMPS — BOUDOIR LAMPS
All Just Right For Christmas Giving"
Priced Froni 8.95 to 69.50
A smon deposit bolds your choice
X-4114k-VMMUMV
,
, •P 4%,
X4411441M' :VOINIXAMMAlfilitNIXVXVIarkV- XV- XV ZUMV"
gt-V