An extraordinary plan to form secret groups of the German Nazi movement – Hitler’s Fascist organisation – in this country – is revealed in the Labour paper, the “Daily Herald” to-day.
It is hoped to influence the Government, the paper says, to accept Hitler’s policy so that his threatened seizure of power in Germany shall not be opposed. The plan, part of a scheme to establish the movement in every country in Europe, has already made considerable strides. In the strictest secrecy, Herr Nieland, general organiser of the Hitler campaign outside Germany, visited London two months age, it is stated, to launch the movement. About 200 Germans attended a meeting and pledged themselves to further Hitler’s plans by propaganda and other means.
The help of sympathetic Englishmen is to be enlisted. Dr. Thost, London correspondent of Hitler newspapers, was appointed to control the activities of Germans in the South of England – his headquarters being in Cleveland-square, Hyde Park, W. – and Herr Hans Erich Bening in the North.
Herr Bening revealed his plans to a “Daily Herald” reporter in Liverpool yesterday, the paper says. His room was decorated with photographs of Hitler and there were scores of pamphlets, mainly anti-French, antisemitic and anti-Socialist in their design. Herr Bening emphasised that the Nazi movement in England must work quietly at the moment. Things must be done gradually, he said. I am first obtaining support amongst our friends. The time will come when we can come out into the open. My move is to join every club I can and go to dances and there meet friends who will become interested.
Persons may join our organisation so long as they are of pure nationality or not Jews and are not coloured races. We will drive out the Jews and prevent them from holding office of any kind.
It is hoped, another official of the organisation on told the “Daily Herald”, that eventually the movement will grow to sufficient strength to carry weight in the election of Parliamentary candidates, so that there will be members of Parliament and perhaps of the Cabinet pledged to support Hitler’s foreign policy.
This is being done in every European State and in the United States, so that when the time comes for Hitler to seize power, he will be surrounded by States whose Governments will be favourably disposed towards the new Germany he will make.
Already, the “Herald” concludes, the campaign has produced a split in the Anglo-German Association at Oxford University, and a separate body has been formed to further Nazi interests.
The existence in New York of a very active “cell” of the German Hitlerist Organisation was revealed in December 1930 through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. This National-Socialist group in New York is in direct contact with Adolf Hitler in Germany, it was stated. Following the “protoplasmic” structure of the Hitlerist Organisation, which consists of party “cells” that rapidly generate new “cells”, which in turn increase, the New York unit organised a Chicago group, and is planning to organise Hitler “cells” in all large German settlements in the United States.
In January of this year, a Hitlerist Organisation was formed in Detroit, the inaugural meeting ending in a free fight, which had to be stopped by the police. The fight started when Mr. Luedecke, the leader of the American Hitlerists, was reading out his programme, some of the audience objecting to the paragraph which speaks of the purification of the German race by purging it of Jews and Catholics.
The same week a Hitlerist meeting attended by 200 young Germans was held in Chicago, addressed by Theodore Gissibel, of the New York branch, the organiser of the American Hitlerist Party, who delivered a speech attacking Jews and declaring that Germany would be cleared of Jewish domination when the Hitlerists take over the Government.
Hitlerist Organisations have also been formed in a number of European countries, notably in Austria, Scandinavia, Holland and Latvia.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
