ABSTRACT
It must on no account be assumed that the Nazi revolution did not demand its victims. The number of those who died a violent death, either in the Storm Troopers’ barracks or in concentration camps and prisons, is not yet known, but there can be no doubt that the number is high, both among political opponents of the regime and among the Jews. The French Revolution, shocking as were some of its outrages, had one saving grace: it was honest. If an opponent or suspected opponent was guillotined, there was no secret about it. They stood by their deeds. In Nazi Germany, those who have been murdered or tortured to death have either been “shot while trying to escape,” or “committed suicide.” Their
relatives, provided even they know the real cause of the death, are not allowed to breathe a word about it, otherwise they are threatened with the same fate. In most cases even they do not know how their husband, father, or son met his death. They are merely informed that they can fetch the urn containing his ashes, against payment of a few marks, from some appointed place. Or they are sent his sealed coffin, with strict instructions on no account to open it. Those who, in concentration camps or elsewhere, have seen others murdered, are strictly forbidden to utter a word about it to the outside world. They have to sign a pledge to this effect at their release. They know that if they break this pledge they will be re-arrested at once and possibly themselves murdered, and they know too that if they do talk about their experiences abroad, those who are still in the hands of the Nazis will be made to suffer for it. Some nevertheless have the courage to talk, but others, and they are certainly the majority, remain silent. Nobody can blame them. This secrecy, rigidly enforced by the Nazis, makes it extremely difficult to know exactly what is going on behind the walls of that huge prison, Nazi Germany. Foreign tourists, naturally, see nothing of the seamy side. Foreign correspondents of the great world papers certainly learn more about what goes on, but they too see only limited aspects. They live in Berlin or Vienna, Munich or Hamburg, and they see nothing, or practically nothing, of the provinces, where the Nazis have from the very beginning been less restrained than in the few big towns. Whatever is known today is only a fraction of what has really happened. If in the following some of the outrages committed against Jews at different times are detailed, the account must necessarily be far from complete. Many years will have to elapse before the truth comes to light, if indeed it ever does. The secrecy with which the Nazis cloak their deeds naturally encourages rumours, gossip, exaggerations. Care is taken here to refrain from reporting anything that is not based on sound evidence. Only what the Nazi Press has itself admitted, and what some of the most reliable British Press correspondents, the correspondents of The Times, Manchester Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, Yorkshire Post, and Sunday Times have reported will be recorded in the following passages. Any exaggeration only destroys the value of a report, particularly where exaggeration is unnecessary, since the bare truth is bad enough.
