want to deny the justification of the workers’ movements’. Indeed, he had
complained in 1926 that Hitler wanted to ‘compensate the aristocrats’ and not
‘disturb private property. Horrendous!... we are Socialists. We don’t want to have
been so in vain!’ There is evidence to suggest that those who supported the Nazis
were less likely to be unemployed, but rather threatened with unemployment, i.e.
the middle and lower middle classes rather than the industrial workers.
The body particularly concerned with advancing Nazi interests among trade
unionists (the NSBO) became an increasing embarrassment to the Nazi leadership.
The ‘Night of the Long Knives’ that saw the liquidation of the leadership of the SA
(stormtroopers) was justified by Hitler on the grounds that a second revolution had
to be avoided at all cost. Socialism continued in the party’s title, but it was mere
rhetoric. The Nazi economic programme was presented as a form of ‘soldierly
socialism’, but the real target was Marxism and democracy. Marxism, it was said,
‘always follows capitalism as its shadow’. Steding (1903–38) spoke contemptuously
of ‘the purely mercenary capitalism of the stock exchange’ (Griffin, 1995: 141, 152).
These policies often involved taking away certain freedoms from employers. For
example, the introduction of some labour-saving machinery was banned and
government permission had to be obtained before employers reduced their labour
force. The government also tended to give work contracts to those companies that
relied on manual labour rather than machines.
The German economy remained capitalistic, although with extensive state control.
The attack on the Jews was clearly linked to the virulent opposition to Marxism
and internationalism, and although Germany had a potent anti-Semitic tradition to
draw upon, it has been argued that before 1933 the Nazis placed relatively little
emphasis upon anti-Semitism.
Hitler had attacked Jews in Mein Kampf, but he had toned down his anti-
Semitism while gaining power because he was anxious not to alienate Jewish business
leaders. Henry Ford had been compelled to stop publishing anti-Semitic attacks in
the United States after the Jewish community organised a boycott of Ford cars in
the late 1920s. In the same way, Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail, had
been forced ‘to toe the line’ when Jewish businessmen had withdrawn advertising
from the newspaper. Hitler began to leave out anti-Semitic comments from his
speeches during elections, and during the 1933 General Election, Jewish businessmen
even contributed money to his party.
However, after 1933 Jews were increasingly excluded from mainstream life, and
the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 stripped Jews of their citizenship and made inter-
marriage illegal. During Crystal Night in 1938 over 7,500 Jewish shops were
destroyed and 400 synagogues were burnt down; 91 Jews were killed and an
estimated 20,000 were sent to camps. The only people who were punished for the
crimes committed on Crystal Night were members of the SA who had raped Jewish
women (since they had broken the Nuremberg Laws in so doing). The numbers of
Jews wishing to leave the country increased dramatically, and it has been calculated
that between 1933 and 1939, approximately half the Jewish population of Germany
(250,000) left the country. This included several Jewish scientists (like Albert
Einstein) who were to play an important role in the fight against fascism during the
war. Speer recalls that the Ministry of Education was not inclined to support nuclear
research on the grounds that nuclear physics was seen as the product of the Jewish
mind (1970: 228).290 Part 2 Classical ideologies