Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
03-
ing:Hearstsupport
apparentlywent only with some
sort of pledge. Hamson took advice from Andrew M.
Lawrence, Hearsts Chicago manager, and admitsas much.
Other polltical memom contaln similar stories of how
Hearst support went only to
those who made iron-clad
pledges. Candidates whom Hearst supported and who refused to be dominated by hlm invarlably broke with him
upon taking office. Wlll Mr. Landon do so If elected?
853
The NATION
850
By STEFAN HEYM
I
URING Hitlers struggle for power a large percentage of hls followers were youngpeople.
Many young Germans had been disappointed by
the revolutlon of 1918 and the events thatfollowed.
They had believed that a thorough change in economic
conditions was necessary; but theGerman democracy,
even in its Social Democratlc branch, was essentially conservative In particular, petty-bourgeois idealists who regarded Versailles as a natlonal humiliation were prone to
dream about a strong Reich-a mixture of medlevallsm
and modern imperialism; and Hitler seemed to offer this
in his Third Reich.
Another section of German youthfollowedHitler
because he promised a social revolution whlch at the same
time would be national. They believed communism was
Russian, that it was cruel, unindividual, and antinational; they wanted a German revolution, a German
socialism.
Beneath the Idealism of both groups lay economic motives. The way of German youth was blocked. There was
oversupply of academic youth;there was overproduction of apprentlces, who streamed into the crafts and into
the factories. The depression that was riding the world
was
hitting Germany especlally hard. Before every young person rose the question: Where shall I go? They came from
the schools, the shops; they knew their jobs well; they
were able and industrious; they were willing to use their
hands and their brains; but therewas no place where they
could make use of their ability.
Hitler promised a future,jobs, recovery, a new national
honor. And to those who would support him actively by
fighting in the S. A. or S . S., he offered three marks a day,
food, uniforms, and an adventurous life. Who has the
youth, said the Nazi leaders, has the future.
Today, after more than threeyears of German fascism,
it is possible to cast up the accounts. What has been the
.-
~-