“The Gods are crying! The Gods are angry. Humanity implores on the German people to live in harmony with the rest of the world. Prosperity belies the fatherland if the children of Deutschland cherish it without discriminating against those who love this country as much as they do.”
Words of an elderly female Gypsy diviner addressed to a group of pro-Nazi women returning from church service in Munich one winter afternoon.
“These Gypsies don’t deserve to live in the fatherland. They contaminate our race even more than the Jews.”
One of the women complained bitterly to her friends.
Not only in Berlin was this reawakened search for the past glory of the Germanic peoples blossoming, but also in other areas of Europe where a majority German population lived. To the West, even in the parts beyond the borders of France, German nationalism was challenging the status quo, rattling the nerves of the French government in the process. The resonance of this resurgent nationalism could also be felt across Germany’s northern frontier in Denmark, as the German minority in the Scandinavian country’s southern borderland demanded more rights. On the other side of the Alps beyond Germany’s southern frontiers and Europe’s highest and most extensive mountain range in Austria and the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia, vibrant voices of German nationalism decrying the Versailles treaty forbidding the reunification of these German-speaking lands with Germany (Anchlusse) were making themselves heard. Even the scattered patches of German communities in the Balkans were experiencing agitations of their own in their desire to be integrated into the German world. Meanwhile, further east, in the great Western Slavic and Eastern Slavic lands harboring more than five million ethnic Germans, the rights and privileges of the German minority were being curtailed for the sake of consolidating Polish nationalism and Soviet communism.
Forced to grapple with the realities of the Great Depression and rising national consciousness at the close of 1932, the German people sought consolation from their past glories, raised their heads to the heavens for answers, and preened themselves for the ideologies and political parties promising to make Germany great again.
However, one party stood out with a seemingly reassuring program for Germany and ethnic Germans. It claimed to be above the others in its commitment to the fatherland and the future of its children within and beyond its borders. The virulent Nazi party under the leadership of Adolf Hitler promised to lead the German people in repelling the dictates of the constraining post World War One Versailles Treaty. It pledged to bring all ethnic Germans together and cleanse the Aryan race of its contaminators.
The heavens could have been heralding something malevolent that winter afternoon as the dark clouds swirled over the city of Berlin, punctuated by lightning and the sound of thunder. However, if those signs were warnings from nature, Berlin appeared to be defying them.
The cloud over Groningstrasse seemed darker than elsewhere in the city as if a force of nature was sucking the energy out of the neighborhood. It could have been mirroring the election fever sweeping through Germany, with underlying emotions stirred by the political campaigns that week or it could have been saying something else altogether. However, what could not be missed was the level of hatred, blind fanaticism and incomprehension in the air that seemed to be higher than elsewhere in the German capital, all fueled by the increasing passion over ideology, religion, race, and patriotism. In fact, no other election had divided Germany like this one. Gangs of Nazi hoodlums roved the streets beating Jews and Gentiles alike, and destroying the properties of their opponents.
Groningstrasse, with its sizable Jewish population, happened to be Lorenz Ulbricht’s campaign ground that winter afternoon.
“Germanic people have always determined the destiny of Europe. Our ancestors were the Franks, the Saxons, the Lombards, the Alemanis, the Huns, the Burgundians, the Goths, the Teutons and the Suevis. Those Germanic tribes dominated this land for ages. The Slavs were the slaves of our ancestors too. We controlled the lands of Rus not too long ago. We lorded it over the ancestors of today’s Russians, Ukrainians, and Byelorussians. Even the Czechs, Slovaks, Sorbs, Bulgars, Poles, Serbs, Slovenes, Macedonians, Croats, Montenegrins and the Bosnian Muslims were also the slaves of our ancestors. The peoples of Northern and Southern Europe were our subjects at one point in our history. Where is the glory of the master race; I ask you?”
The crowd responded in the affirmative with words muttered in high and low pitches, and with chants that drove Lorenz Ulbricht into a frenzy. He coughed, and then continued in a reinvigorated manner.
“Tell me, Children of Assyria―the great Assyria that is the progenitor of those great Germanic powers. Should the master race continue sleeping while its former slaves dictate its destiny?”
“No…no, no!” came the thunderous response from the crowd.
“Ten of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel were our slaves too. Where they are today, I don’t want to know. Jews are from Judah and Benjamin only—the two Hebrew tribes the ancient Assyrians never bothered to overpower. Must we continue allowing these Jews to control the world, even though the children of their ten brothers were the slaves of our progenitors? Must we allow these scoundrels to stay unpunished, even though they betrayed the Reich and stabbed it in the back during the Great War? We are Aryans, a word derived from Assyria. We are the descendants of the great Goths, Alemanis, Franks and the other Germanic tribes that reigned supreme in this part of the world. Rediscover yourself, children of the Reich. You were born to rule the world. The time has come for the master race to put an end to the dictates of its former slaves. The children of the fatherland must live together. Embrace your heritage, children of Deutschland. Unite and take back your world.”
“Who is this fellow?” Hans Wette Heinrich asked a man in the crowd.
“Lorenz Ulbricht,” the wide-eyed neighbor replied.
“Never heard of him before.”
“A rising star in the party. My friend calls him ‘The Mad Enlightener’.”
“Where does he get all this information from?”
“The man is a controversial historian and philosopher with a knack for racial genealogy.”
Hans did not inquire any further. Instead, he moved away, to the back of the crowd, dimmed his eyes and listened to the orator.
“Children of the great Reich, children of the master race! This is the destined moment to support the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. We need your votes to bring our great party to power. The Nazi party under the leadership of Adolf Hitler has accepted the colossal divine mission to restore Germany’s greatness. We need to purify Germany. We need to send the other two tribes of Israel into oblivion as well. We must eliminate all forms of Jewish influence,” Lorenz Ulbricht bellowed.
Madness!
Hans felt a chill run up his spine. He shuddered, realizing for the first time that he was perspiring in his armpits, brows, and palms. With a sigh, he pocketed his trembling hands and started walking away from the crowd.
“Rheinlandbastard,” a shout hit him from behind.
“Nein! Er ist Amerikaner!” came another sneer from his rear.
“He is ours,” the first voice insisted.
“No, the man is not. He is American. It is hard to find a single one of them who is not a mongrel,” the second voice persisted.
Even though Hans did not like the bile rising in his throat, he did not stop for a moment or turn around to look back.
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