“Every day new abominations. A Jewish lawyer in Chemnitz kidnapped and shot. ‘Provocateurs in SA uniform, common criminals.’ Provision of the Civil Service Law. Anyone who has one Jewish grandparent is a Jew. ‘In case of doubt the final decision lies with the Specialist for Racial Research in the Reich Interior Ministry.’ A worker or employee who is not nationally minded can be dismissed in any factory, [and] must be replaced by a nationally minded one. The NS plant must be consulted. Etc., etc. For the moment I am still safe. But as someone on the gallows, who has the rope around his neck, is safe. At any moment a new ‘law’ can kick away the steps on which I’m standing and then I’m hanging.
I’m constantly listening for ‘symptoms’. A resentful speech by Hugenberg; Oberfohren, the parliamentary leader of the German Nationals, resigning his seat. Friction between SA and Stahlhelm– but what does it all amount to? Power, a tremendous power, is in the hands of the National Socialists. Half a million armed men, all offices and instruments of state, press and radio, the mood of the inebriated millions. I cannot see where salvation could come from.”
— April 12, 1933
