Fritz Thyssen, leading German industrialist, and Bechstein, German piano manufacturer, are among the leading financiers and industrialists who have made large contributions to the funds of the Nazis and who would have considerable influence with Adolph Hitler should he ever come into power.
This is the assertion made by Karl Kitchen, of the “New York Sun,” in an article dated from Munich, which appeared in his paper.
“It is an open secret that the bulk of the funds expended by the Nazi party are supplied by certain big industrialists in the Ruhr,” Mr. Kitchen asserts. “It is a well known fact that many of the leading industrialists are members, or at least supporters, of the Hitler party.”
Hitler and his adherents “have no idea of killing or disenfranchising the Jews,” Mr. Kitchen holds. “It merely asserts,” he says, “that the Jews, since they constitute less than 2 percent of the total population, shall not rule. Should Hitler come into power there will be no pogroms, as Jewish writers and correspondents have hinted.
“One the other hand,” he continues, “there is no question that the Nazis, if they have the power, will endeavor to decrease the political and financial influence of the Jews. The financial structure of Germany is largely in the hands of members of that race and the Hitlerites feel it is in the best interests of Germany to free it from such control.
“But how it can be accomplished is another matter,” says Mr. Kitchen. “Already,” he comments, “there has been an enormous flight of Jewish capitalists from Germany— and not a few Jewish bankers have left for France and Switzerland. But while there are no Jews among the Nazis, one of their biggest leaders, Lieutenant Colonel Ernst Roeh, Hitler’s chief of staff and commander of the storm troops, told me:
” ‘We have more important things to do than to kill the Jews—we must stamp out Communism, Socialism, and other alien elements in order to save Germany’.”
And Mr. Kitchen adds: “From the type of Hitlerites I have met here— university professors, aristocrats, industrialists—as well as from the fact that many of the wealthiest and most influential men in Germany are among its financial backers, I do not believe that there would be any revolutionary change if ‘Der Schoene Adolph,’ as he is called, should attain his goal. Naturally the Jewish bankers and profiteers would not like to see him sitting in Berlin, but after all they are in the decided minority.”
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.
