Letter 23

8th April 1933 Berlin-Charlottenburg

It is impossible that Herr Hitler should be entirely ignorant of his followers’ activities, but it would be interesting to know exactly how far he is informed of them. Certainly the ordinary citizen or visitor can know little, if anything of what goes on behind the scenes, unless he chooses to get into pretty intimate touch with the political “rif-raff” – with the Socialists, Pacifists, Marxists, or Communists – for the entire German “Free Press” is either so cautious as to be practically uninformative or violently pro-Government. The opposition Press is almost without exception suppressed. Where is the much vaunted Freedom of Speech? No doubt it does exit – up to a point. Up to a point that stops short of the faintest suggestion of criticism of the present Government. It is possible occasionally to hear disapproval expressed. One must look round first, though – there are sharp ears in Germany nowadays. It hangs in the air, fear and distrust. Even the police, the usual bulwarks of justice and order – have proved worse than broken reeds. The wife of the director of the anti-war museum in Berlin discovered that. She was living with her mother and thankful that her husband was in prison. At lest she knew that he was likely to remain alive if he was under lock and key. The Nazis had dragged them from their house at night, brutally ill-treating both the director and his wife. Not satisfied with that they had systematically wrecked the whole house, even to the extent of throwing ink at the walls. A set of unhealthy malicious children. That is the tragedy of it. The vast majority of them are uneducated unbridled youths who have little or no recollection of the war. The Frau Direktor returned alone to the museum as soon as her health would allow it. She found a policeman on guard and begged him for aid and advice. He laughed at her. “Now that other countries see that our military spirit is not dead,” he told her, “they will at least respect us again”. That is only one example of the activities in the “Third State”.

Let them leave the country then, as so many have, flying secretly and by night, or end their lives as so many more, driven to despair, have!

Herr Hitler has declared more than once that he intends to “Stamp Out” Marxism – the root of all evils. But when one stamps out a fire sparks are apt to fly, and if inflammable material is near, increase the fire. And human material is more inflammable than any other. Let Herr Hitler remember that, before he has set the whole of Germany ablaze!

I have purposely omitted any mention of the Jews. Everyone knows that Walther, Blech, Klemperer, etc. etc. have gone, and I heard of one case that did not appear in the (Jewish) paper, from Frau Wolffber. A Jewish Rabbi was so ill-treated that he died in hospital. Sophie visited several people whose husbands were in prison. Practically in every case, pacifists – and was more or less suspiciously and fearfully received. But I’ll see what else I can discover. I think it extremely unlikely that I’ll get myself into trouble, but I’ll be very cautious, and register myself at the British Consulate as soon as I get back from Stettin.