Herr Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party, has issued a statement repudiating the documents seized at the Hitlerist headquarters in Darmstadt containing plans of action in the event of a Hitlerist seizure of power, including the conscription of labour, from which Jews would be excluded, and consequently left to starve because they would have no food cards issued to them.
We cannot be held responsible, Herr Hitler says in his statement, if a few members of a party of 800,000 say or do something idiotic. The Hitlerist Party as such has no knowledge of these documents which have not been seen or endorsed by the leaders of the Party.
The documents, it is stated, were drawn up last September by six prominent Hitlerists in Hesse, Deputy Dr. Wagner, Deputy Shaefer, Dr. Best, Captain Wassung, Commander von Davidsohn, and Herr Stavings.
It would be unwise, the London “Times” remarks to-day, to discount the document. Every political observer in Germany knows that the gospel of legality is by no means popular among the Nazi rank and file, and one great interrogation mark in German affairs is how far the storm detachments – aggressive, well-trained, and organised bodies – are prepared unquestioningly to follow Herr Hitler on this path. The contract between the increasing moderation of Munich, so notice-able to beholders abroad, and the continued violence at home is clear to observers at close quarters. The authors of the Hessian document have, as “Germania” (the chief organ of the Centre Party) observes, given the German public a valuable glimpse of the Nazi “Third Reich” as many of the local leaders see it.
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