The first task of the Junker military dictatorship which will replace the Nazi regime in Germany will be to restore German credit abroad and this step will necessitate concession for the German Jews, who, “alone are able to stop the boycott,” Johannes Steel, former secretary of Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reichsbank, and exile from Nazi Germany, declared in his third article on the decline of Hitlerism. The articles are being published by the New York Evening Post.
Mr. Steel predicts that the desperate plight of the Jews will be alleviated by “liberal interpretations of the ‘Aryan Paragraph’ and finally by restoration of their political rights.”
The German finance official also predicts restoration of the Russo-German alliance; currency inflation in Germany; restoration of the freedom of the churches, and the release of the less radical prisoners from the concentration camps.
DESCRIBES HITLER EXIT
The writer sees the personal fate of Hitler as “going out of power just like he got in power—through the back door.”
“Once the military dictatorship, which will succeed the Nazi dictatorship, is established,” Mr. Steel writes, it will pursue the following aims:
“First of all, it will try to restore Germany’s export trade. To do this, the new regime will enter into negotiations with the Jews who alone are able to stop the boycott. To no small measure, the boycott has contributed to the economic dilemma in which Germany finds herself today.
“Although no absolute and complete reversal of the Nazi policies as regards the Jews can be expected immediately after the new regime assumes power, it is certain that the desperate plight of the Jews in Germany will be alleviated by a liberal interpretation of the so-called ‘Aryan Paragraph.’ Finally, their rights as citizens will be restored.
“This attempt at regaining her foreign trade will be followed by a policy of open inflation, which, apart from enabling Germany to rid herself cheaply of her internal debt and apart from putting fantastic profits into the hands of the big industrialists, will increase Germany’s competitive capacity abroad.
REORIENTATION
“This again will be followed by a reorientation in Germany’s foreign policy. A more moderate course will be pursued. The attempts to usurp Austria will be abandoned. A restoration of the close commercial and military relations which existed between the pre-Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia will be attempted.
“In this connection it is necessary to remember that during the ten years preceding Hitler’s rule a great friendship and close cooperation of the respective General Staffs had developed between the Red Army and the Reichswehr. They have always held each other and still hold each other in a mutually high esteem.
“In order to restore some of Germany’s former prestige and with the hope of convincing world opinion that Germany has not completely reverted to the barbarism of its ancestors, the new Government will attempt to reconcile the churches by restoring their freedom and also permit a relative freedom of the press and the expression of opinions.
“Possibly, also, 30,000 or 40,000 of the less radical prisoners will be released from the concentration camps and the lot of the moderately liberal intellectuals will be made somewhat lighter.
UPRISING POSSIBLE
“While these are the definite aims, objectives and plans of the Hindenburgs (father and worthy son), Von Papen, Schacht, Thyssen and Reichswehr opposition, and, while it is already certain that this group will soon dominate German affairs, there is an eventuality which may seriously impair the plans of this group as well as of those who are now nominally still in power.
“This eventuality is the possibility of a violent uprising of the underground united front of the Left, which includes today Communists, Socialists and many liberals.
“If, for example, the German economic machine threatened to collapse before the change of policy and the change of power has taken place, the Von Papen-Thyssen-Schacht gang will be forced to put the whole Reich under martial law, enforced by the Reichswehr, Steel Helmets and the police, in order to prevent chaos until the new rulers have found time to consolidate their position.
“In case that happens, it is not at all unlikely that the united Left radical opposition will make use of the general confusion and seize this opportunity to strike.
CIVIL WAR
“When the Communist Party was dissolved by the Nazis it had 6,000,000 members and an efficient Red Front Army of 600,000 men, while the Reichbanner could muster more than 1,000,000 men.
“The hardships these people suffered not only increased their numbers but also their radicalism.
“If this eventuality should occur, I shudder to think of its implications, for it will mean the most savage civil war ever fought—
“And as for Hitler himself?
“He will be out of power just like he got into power—
“Through the back door.”
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.
