The Nazis, while entirely without scruple in the pursuit of their
objectives, endeavor whenever possible to give their actions the cloak
of legality. This procedure was followed in Germany to enable them to
gain control of the Government of the Reich and in their foreign
policy up to September 1, 1939. It has been a cardinal principle of
the Nazis to avoid the use of force whenever their objectives may be
attained in another manner and they have assiduously studied their
enemies in an effort to discover the weak points in their structure
which will enable the Nazis to accomplish their downfall. The
preceding pages have demonstrated that the Nazis have contributed
practically nothing that is original to German political thought. By
the use of unscrupulous, deceitful, and uninhibited tactics, however,
they have been able to realize many of the objectives which had
previously existed only in theory.
The Weimar Constitution provided the Nazis with a convenient basis for
the establishment of the totalitarian state. They made no effort to
conceal their intention of taking advantage of the weaknesses of the
Weimar Republic in order to attain power. On April 30, 1928 Dr.
Goebbels wrote in his paper _Der Angriff_:
We enter Parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the
arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. We become
members of the Reichstag in order to paralyze the Weimar
sentiment with its own assistance. If democracy is so stupid
as to give us free tickets and salaries for this bear's
work, that is its affair ...[123]
And later in the same article:
We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as
enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come.[124]
Hitler expressed the same idea on September 1, 1933, when, looking
back upon the struggle for political power in Germany, he wrote:
This watchword of democratic freedom led only to insecurity,
indiscipline, and at length to the downfall and destruction
of all authority. _Our opponents' objection that we, too,
once made use of these rights, will not hold water; for we
made use of an unreasonable right, which was part and parcel
of an unreasonable system, in order to overthrow the
unreason of this system._[125]
Discussing the rise to power of the Nazis, Huber (document 1, _post_
p. 155) wrote in 1939:
The parliamentary battle of the NSDAP had the single purpose
of destroying the parliamentary system from within through
its own methods. It was necessary above all to make formal
use of the possibilities of the party-state system but to
refuse real cooperation and thereby to render the
parliamentary system, which is by nature dependent upon the
responsible cooperation of the opposition, incapable of
action.[126]
As its parliamentary strength increased, the party was able to achieve
these aims:
It was in a position to make the formation of any positive
majority in the Reichstag impossible.... Thus the NSDAP was
able through its strong position to make the Reichstag
powerless as a lawgiving and government-forming body.[127]
The same principle was followed by Germany in weakening and
undermining the governments of countries which it had chosen for its
victims. While it was Hitler's policy to concentrate on only one
objective at a time, German agents were busy throughout the world in
ferreting out the natural political, social, and economic cleavages in
various countries and in broadening them in order to create internal
confusion and uncertainty. Foreign political leaders of Fascist or
authoritarian persuasion were encouraged and often liberally
subsidized from Nazi funds. Control was covertly obtained over
influential newspapers and periodicals and their editorial policies
shaped in such a way as to further Nazi ends. In the countries Germany
sought to overpower, all the highly developed organs of Nazi
propaganda were utilized to confuse and divide public opinion, to
discredit national leaders and institutions, and to induce an
unjustified feeling of confidence in the false assertions of Nazi
leaders disclaiming any aggressive intentions.
One of the most important features introduced by the Nazis into German
foreign policy was the appreciation of the value of Germans living
abroad and their organization as implements of the Reich for the
attainment of objectives in the field of foreign policy. This idea was
applied by the Nazis to all the large colonies of Germans which are
scattered throughout the world. The potential usefulness of these
colonies was early recognized by the men in Hitler's immediate
entourage, several of whom were so-called _Auslandsdeutsche_ who had
spent many years of their life abroad and were familiar with foreign
conditions and with the position and influence of German groups in
foreign countries. Of particular importance in this group were Rudolf
Hess, the Führer's Deputy, who was primarily responsible for
elaborating the policy which utilized the services of Germans abroad,
and Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, the leader of the Foreign Organization, who
was responsible for winning over these Germans to Naziism and for
their organization in groups which would serve the purposes of the
Third Reich.