Lies being taught;
Mein Kampf is unintelligible ravings of a
maniac.
Now the Truth; Read and know.
VOL 2 CHAPTER IX part 3- FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS
REGARDING THE NATURE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE STORM TROOPS
Part 3 – Storm Troops
… If the present State should one day have to
call upon trained troops of this kind it would never be for the purpose of
defending the interests of the nation VIS-À-VIS those of the stranger but
rather to protect the oppressors of the nation inside the country against the
danger of a general outbreak of wrath on the part of a nation which has been deceived
and betrayed and whose interests have been bartered away.
For this reason it was decided that the Storm
Detachment of the German National Socialist Labour Party ought not to be in the
nature of a military organization. It had to be an instrument of protection and
education for the National Socialist Movement and its duties should be in quite
a different sphere from that of the military defence association.
And, of course, the Storm Detachment should
not be in the nature of a secret organization. Secret organizations are
established only for purposes that are against the law. Therewith the purpose
of such an organization is limited by its very nature. Considering the
loquacious propensities of the German people, it is not possible to build up
any vast organization, keeping it secret at the same time and cloaking its purpose.
Every attempt of that kind is destined to turn out absolutely futile. It is not
merely that our police officials to-day have at their disposal a staff of
eaves-droppers and other such rabble who are ready to play traitor, like Judas,
for thirty pieces of silver and will betray whatever secrets they can discover
and will invent what they would like to reveal. In order to forestall such
eventualities, it is never possible to bind one's own followers to the silence
that is necessary. Only small groups can become really secret societies, and
that only after long years of filtration. But the very smallness of such groups
would deprive them of all value for the National Socialist Movement. What we
needed then and need now is not one or two hundred dare-devil conspirators but
a hundred thousand devoted champions of our WELTANSCHAUUNG. The work must not
be done through secret conventicles but through formidable mass demonstrations
in public. Dagger and pistol and poison-vial cannot clear the way for the
progress of the movement. That can be done only by winning over the man in the
street. We must overthrow Marxism, so that for the future National Socialism
will be master of the street, just as it will one day become master of the State.
There is another danger connected with secret
societies. It lies in the fact that their members often completely
misunderstand the greatness of the task in hand and are apt to believe that a
favourable destiny can be assured for the nation all at once by means of a
single murder. Such a belief may find historical justification by appealing to
cases where a nation had been suffering under the tyranny of some oppressor who
at the same time was a man of genius and whose extraordinary personality guaranteed
the internal solidity of his position and enabled him to maintain his fearful
oppression. In such cases a man may suddenly arise from the ranks of the people
who is ready to sacrifice himself and plunge the deadly steel into the heart of
the hated individual. In order to look upon such a deed as abhorrent one must
have the republican mentality of that petty CANAILLE who are conscious of their
own crime. But the greatest champion (Note 20) of liberty that the German people
have ever had has glorified such a deed in WILLIAM TELL.
[Note 20. Schiller, who wrote the famous
drama of WILLIAM TELL.]
During 1919 and 1920 there was danger that
the members of secret organizations, under the influence of great historical
examples and overcome by the immensity of the nation's misfortunes, might
attempt to wreak vengeance on the destroyers of their country, under the belief
that this would end the miseries of the people. All such attempts were sheer
folly, for the reason that the Marxist triumph was not due to the superior
genius of one remarkable person but rather to immeasurable incompetence and
cowardly shirking on the part of the bourgeoisie. The hardest criticism that
can be uttered against our bourgeoisie is simply to state the fact that it
submitted to the Revolution, even though the Revolution did not produce one
single man of eminent worth. One can always understand how it was possible to
capitulate before a Robespierre, a Danton, or a Marat; but it was utterly
scandalous to go down on all fours before the withered Scheidemann, the obese
Herr Erzberger, Frederick Ebert, and the innumerable other political pigmies of
the Revolution. There was not a single man of parts in whom one could see the
revolutionary man of genius. Therein lay the country's misfortune; for they
were only revolutionary bugs, Spartacists wholesale and retail. To suppress one
of them would be an act of no consequence. The only result would be that
another pair of bloodsuckers, equally fat and thirsty, would be ready to take
his place.
During those years we had to take up a
determined stand against an idea which owed its origin and foundation to
historical episodes that were really great, but to which our own despicable
epoch did not bear the slightest similarity.
The same reply may be given when there is
question of putting somebody 'on the spot' who has acted as a traitor to his
country. It would be ridiculous and illogical to shoot a poor wretch (Note 21)
who had betrayed the position of a howitzer to the enemy while the highest
positions of the government are occupied by a rabble who bartered away a whole
empire, who have on their consciences the deaths of two million men who were sacrificed
in vain, fellows who were responsible for the millions maimed in the war and
who make a thriving business out of the republican regime without allowing
their souls to be disturbed in any way. It would be absurd to do away with
small traitors in a State whose government has absolved the great traitors from
all punishment. For it might easily happen that one day an honest idealist,
who, out of love for his country, had removed from circulation some miserable
informer that had given information about secret stores of arms might now be
called to answer for his act before the chief traitors of the country. And
there is still an important question: Shall some small traitorous creature be suppressed
by another small traitor, or by an idealist? In the former case the result
would be doubtful and the deed would almost surely be revealed later on. In the
second case a petty rascal is put out of the way and the life of an idealist
who may be irreplaceable is in jeopardy.
[Note 21. The reference here is to those who
gave information to the Allied Commissions about hidden stores of arms in
Germany.]
For myself, I believe that small thieves
should not be hanged while big thieves are allowed to go free. One day a
national tribunal will have to judge and sentence some tens of thousands of
organizers who were responsible for the criminal November betrayal and all the
consequences that followed on it. Such an example will teach the necessary
lesson, once and for ever, to those paltry traitors who revealed to the enemy the
places where arms were hidden.
On the grounds of these considerations I
steadfastly forbade all participation in secret societies, and I took care that
the Storm Detachment should not assume such a character. During those years I
kept the National Socialist Movement away from those experiments which were being
undertaken by young Germans who for the most part were inspired with a sublime
idealism but who became the victims of their own deeds, because they could not
ameliorate the lot of their fatherland to the slightest degree.
If then the Storm Detachment must not be
either a military defence organization or a secret society, the following
conclusions must result:
1. Its training must not be organized from
the military standpoint but from the standpoint of what is most practical for
party purposes. Seeing that its members must undergo a good physical training,
the place of chief importance must not be given to military drill but rather to
the practice of sports. I have always considered boxing and ju-jitsu more important
than some kind of bad, because mediocre, training in rifle-shooting. If the
German nation were presented with a body of young men who had been perfectly
trained in athletic sports, who were imbued with an ardent love for their
country and a readiness to take the initiative in a fight, then the national
State could make an army out of that body within less than two years if it were
necessary, provided the cadres already existed. In the actual state of affairs
only the REICHSWEHR could furnish the cadres and not a defence organization
that was neither one thing nor the other. Bodily efficiency would develop in the
individual a conviction of his superiority and would give him that confidence
which is always based only on the consciousness of one's own powers. They must
also develop that athletic agility which can be employed as a defensive weapon
in the service of the Movement.
2. In order to safeguard the Storm Detachment
against any tendency towards secrecy, not only must the uniform be such that it
can immediately be recognized by everybody, but the large number of its effectives
show the direction in which the Movement is going and which must be known to
the whole public. The members of the Storm Detachment must not hold secret
gatherings but must march in the open and thus, by their actions, put an end to
all legends about a secret organization. In order to keep them away from all
temptations towards finding an outlet for their activities in small
conspiracies, from the very beginning we had to inculcate in their minds the
great idea of the Movement and educate them so thoroughly to the task of
defending this idea that their horizon became enlarged and that the individual
no longer considered it his mission to remove from circulation some rascal or
other, whether big or small, but to devote himself entirely to the task of
bringing about the establishment of a new National Socialist People's State. In
this way the struggle against the present State was placed on a higher plane than
that of petty revenge and small conspiracies. It was elevated to the level of a
spiritual struggle on behalf of a WELTANSCHAUUNG, for the destruction of
Marxism in all its shapes and forms.
3. The form of organization adopted for the
Storm Detachment, as well as its uniform and equipment, had to follow different
models from those of the old Army. They had to be specially suited to the
requirements of the task that was assigned to the Storm Detachment.
These were the ideas I followed in 1920 and
1921. I endeavoured to instil them gradually into the members of the young
organization. And the result was that by the midsummer of 1922 we had a goodly
number of formations which consisted of a hundred men each. By the late autumn
of that year these formations received their distinctive uniforms. There were
three events which turned out to be of supreme importance for the subsequent
development of the Storm Detachment.
1. The great mass demonstration against the
Law for the Protection of the Republic. This demonstration was held in the late
summer of 1922 on the KÖNIGS-PLATZ in Munich, by all the patriotic societies.
The National Socialist Movement also participated in it. The march-past of our
party, in serried ranks, was led by six Munich companies of a hundred men each,
followed by the political sections of the Party. Two bands marched with us and
about fifteen flags were carried. When the National Socialists arrived at the
great square it was already half full, but no flag was flying. Our entry
aroused unbounded enthusiasm. I myself had the honour of being one of the
speakers who addressed that mass of about sixty thousand people.
The demonstration was an overwhelming
success; especially because it was proved for the first time that nationalist
Munich could march on the streets, in spite of all threats from the Reds.
Members of the organization for the defence of the Red Republic endeavoured to
hinder the marching columns by their terrorist activities, but they were scattered
by the companies of the Storm Detachment within a few minutes and sent off with
bleeding skulls. The National Socialist Movement had then shown for the first
time that in future it was determined to exercise the right to march on the
streets and thus take this monopoly away from the international traitors and
enemies of the country.
The result of that day was an incontestable
proof that our ideas for the creation of the Storm Detachment were right, both
from the psychological viewpoint and as to the manner in which this body was
organized.
On the basis of this success the enlistment
progressed so rapidly that within a few weeks the number of Munich companies of
a hundred men each became doubled.
2. The expedition to Coburg in October 1922.
Certain People's Societies had decided to
hold a German Day at Coburg. I was invited to take part, with the intimation that
they wished me to bring a following along. This invitation, which I received at
eleven o'clock in the morning, arrived just in time. Within an hour the arrangements
for our participation in the German Congress were ready. I picked eight hundred
men of the Storm Detachment to accompany me. These were divided into about
fourteen companies and had to be brought by special train from Munich to
Coburg, which had just voted by plebiscite to be annexed to Bavaria.
Corresponding orders were given to other groups of the National Socialist Storm
Detachment which had meanwhile been formed in various other localities.
This was the first time that such a special
train ran in Germany. At all the places where the new members of the Storm
Detachment joined us our train caused a sensation. Many of the people had never
seen our flag. And it made a very great impression.
As we arrived at the station in Coburg we
were received by a deputation of the organizing committee of the German Day.
They announced that it had been 'arranged' at the orders of local trades
unions--that is to say, the Independent and Communist Parties--that we should
not enter the town with our flags unfurled and our band playing (we had a band consisting
of forty-two musicians with us) and that we should not march with closed ranks.
I immediately rejected these unmilitary
conditions and did not fail to declare before the gentlemen who had arranged
this 'day' how astonished I was at the idea of their negotiating with such
people and coming to an agreement with them. Then I announced that the Storm
Troops would immediately march into the town in company formation, with our
flags flying and the band playing.
And that is what happened.
As we came out into the station yard we were
met by a growling and yelling mob of several thousand, that shouted at us:
'Assassins', 'Bandits', 'Robbers', 'Criminals'. These were the choice names
which these exemplary founders of the German Republic showered on us. The young
Storm Detachment gave a model example of order. The companies fell into
formation on the square in front of the station and at first took no notice of
the insults hurled at them by the mob. The police were anxious. They did not
pilot us to the quarters assigned to us on the outskirts of Coburg, a city quite
unknown to us, but to the Hofbräuhaus Keller in the centre of the town. Right
and left of our march the tumult raised by the accompanying mob steadily
increased. Scarcely had the last company entered the courtyard of the
Hofbräuhaus when the huge mass made a rush to get in after them, shouting
madly. In order to prevent this, the police closed the gates. Seeing the
position was untenable I called the Storm Detachment to attention and then
asked the police to open the gates immediately. After a good deal of
hesitation, they consented.
We now marched back along the same route as
we had come, in the direction of our quarters, and there we had to make a stand
against the crowd. As their cries and yells all along the route had failed to disturb
the equanimity of our companies, the champions of true Socialism, Equality, and
Fraternity now took to throwing stones. That brought our patience to an end.
For ten minutes long, blows fell right and left, like a devastating shower of
hail. Fifteen minutes later there were no more Reds to be seen in the street.
The collisions which took place when the
night came on were more serious. Patrols of the Storm Detachment had discovered
National Socialists who had been attacked singly and were in an atrocious
state. Thereupon we made short work of the opponents. By the following morning the
Red terror, under which Coburg had been suffering for years, was definitely
smashed.
Adopting the typically Marxist and Jewish
method of spreading falsehoods, leaflets were distributed by hand on the
streets, bearing the caption: "Comrades and Comradesses of the
International Proletariat." These leaflets were meant to arouse the wrath
of the populace. Twisting the facts completely around, they declared that our 'bands
of assasins' had commenced 'a war of extermination against the peaceful workers
of Coburg'. At half-past one that day there was to be a 'great popular
demonstration', at which it was hoped that the workers of the whole district
would turn up. I was determined finally to crush this Red terror and so I
summoned the Storm Detachment to meet at midday. Their number had now increased
to 1,500. I decided to march with these men to the Coburg Festival and to cross
the big square where the Red demonstration was to take place. I wanted to see
if they would attempt to assault us again. When we entered the square we found
that instead of the ten thousand that had been advertised, there were only a
few hundred people present. As we approached they remained silent for the most
part, and some ran away. Only at certain points along the route some bodies of Reds,
who had arrived from outside the city and had not yet come to know us,
attempted to start a row. But a few fisticuffs put them to flight. And now one
could see how the population, which had for such a long time been so wretchedly
intimidated, slowly woke up and recovered their courage. They welcomed us
openly, and in the evening, on our return march, spontaneous shouts of
jubilation broke out at several points along the route.
At the station the railway employees informed
us all of a sudden that our train would not move. Thereupon I had some of the
ringleaders told that if this were the case I would have all the Red Party
heroes arrested that fell into our hands, that we would drive the train ourselves,
but that we would take away with us, in the locomotive and tender and in some
of the carriages, a few dozen members of this brotherhood of international
solidarity. I did not omit to let those gentry know that if we had to conduct
the train the journey would undoubtedly be a very risky adventure and that we
might all break our necks. It would be a consolation, however, to know that we
should not go to Eternity alone, but in equality and fraternity with the Red
gentry.
Thereupon the train departed punctually and
we arrived next morning in Munich safe and sound.
Thus at Coburg, for the first time since
1914, the equality of all citizens before the law was re-established. For even
if some coxcomb of a higher official should assert to-day that the State
protects the lives of its citizens, at least in those days it was not so. For
at that time the citizens had to defend themselves against the representatives
of the present State.
At first it was not possible fully to
estimate the importance of the consequences which resulted from that day. The
victorious Storm Troops had their confidence in themselves considerably
reinforced and also their faith in the sagacity of their leaders. Our
contemporaries began to pay us special attention and for the first time many
recognized the National Socialist Movement as an organization that in all
probability was destined to bring the Marxist folly to a deserving end.
Only the democrats lamented the fact that we
had not the complaisance to allow our skulls to be cracked and that we had
dared, in a democratic Republic, to hit back with fists and sticks at a brutal
assault, rather than with pacifist chants.
Generally speaking, the bourgeois Press was
partly distressed and partly vulgar, as always. Only a few decent newspapers
expressed their satisfaction that at least in one locality the Marxist street
bullies had been effectively dealt with.
And in Coburg itself at least a part of the
Marxist workers who must be looked upon as misled, learned from the blows of
National Socialist fists that these workers were also fighting for ideals,
because experience teaches that the human being fights only for something in which
he believes and which he loves.
The Storm Detachment itself benefited most
from the Coburg events. It grew so quickly in numbers that at the Party
Congress in January 1923 six thousand men participated in the ceremony of
consecrating the flags and the first companies were fully clad in their new
uniform.
Our experience in Coburg proved how essential
it is to introduce one distinctive uniform for the Storm Detachment, not only
for the purpose of strengthening the ESPRIT DE CORPS but also to avoid
confusion and the danger of not recognizing the opponent in a squabble. Up to
that time they had merely worn the armlet, but now the tunic and the well-known
cap were added.
But the Coburg experience had also another
important result. We now determined to break the Red Terror in all those
localities where for many years it had prevented men of other views from
holding their meetings. We were determined to restore the right of free
assembly. From that time onwards we brought our battalions together in such
places and little by little the red citadels of Bavaria, one after another,
fell before the National Socialist propaganda. The Storm Troops became more and
more adept at their job. They increasingly lost all semblance of an aimless and
lifeless defence movement and came out into the light as an active militant
organization, fighting for the establishment of a new German State.
This logical development continued until
March 1923. Then an event occurred which made me divert the Movement from the
course hitherto followed and introduce some changes in its outer formation.
In the first months of 1923 the French occupied
the Ruhr district. The consequence of this was of great importance in the
development of the
Storm Detachment.
It is not yet possible, nor would it be in
the interest of the nation, to write or speak openly and freely on the subject.
I shall speak of it only as far as the matter has been dealt with in public
discussions and thus brought to the knowledge of everybody.
The occupation of the Ruhr district, which
did not come as a surprise to us, gave grounds for hoping that Germany would at
last abandon its cowardly policy of submission and therewith give the defensive
associations a definite task to fulfil. The Storm Detachment also, which now
numbered several thousand of robust and vigorous young men, should not be
excluded from this national service. During the spring and summer of 1923 it
was transformed into a fighting military organization. It is to this
reorganization that we must in great part attribute the later developments that
took place during 1923, in so far as it affected our Movement.
Elsewhere I shall deal in broad outline with
the development of events in 1923. Here I wish only to state that the
transformation of the Storm Detachment at that time must have been detrimental
to the interests of the Movement if the conditions that had motivated the
change were not to be carried into effect, namely, the adoption of a policy of
active resistance against France.
The events which took place at the close of
1923, terrible as they may appear at first sight, were almost a necessity if
looked at from a higher standpoint; because, in view of the attitude taken by
the Government of the German REICH, conversion of the Storm Troops into a military
force would be meaningless and thus a transformation which would also be
harmful to the Movement was ended at one stroke. At the same time it was made
possible for us to reconstruct at the point where we had been diverted from the
proper course.
In the year 1925 the German National
Socialist Labour Party was re-founded and had to organize and train its Storm
Detachment once again according to the principles I have laid down. It must
return to the original idea and once more it must consider its most essential
task to function as the instrument of defence and reinforcement in the
spiritual struggle to establish the ideals of the Movement.
The Storm Detachment must not be allowed to
sink to the level of something in the nature of a defence organization or a
secret society. Steps must be taken rather to make it a vanguard of 100,000 men
in the struggle for the National Socialist ideal which is based on the profound
principle of a People's State.
Adolf Hitler
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