THE WAR OF I939~
for rearmament and conscription; for the repudia-
tion of the Versailles Settlement and the recovery
of all the lost German possessions; for the abolition
of the intolerable Weimar Constitution; for the
expulsion of the Jews from the Fatherland; for the
suppression of Marxian Communism.
His programme of defiance and revenge captured
the imagination of Young Germany—which was the
post-war reincarnation of Old Prussia—and during
the course of 1933 the development of his power
was rapid and complete. By the ingenious device
of setting fire to the Reichstag buildings and attribut-
ing the crime to the Communists (February 2yth)
he secured an absolute majority at a Reichstag
election held the following week: he captured 338
seats out of 645. Then his course was easy, and on
the surface constitutional. He secured an Enabling
Act which gave him almost absolute power. Thus
armed, he proceeded to suppress all rival authorities
in the State; to abolish all political parties and
groups except the National Socialist; to subjugate
all institutions — trade unions, churches, schools,
universities, the newspaper press—to Nazi super-
vision and control. On April ist he inaugurated
that cruel and irrational boycott of the Jews
which has been one of the darkest blots on the
Nazi regime.
All this related to the internal politics of Germany.
It was viewed with growing disapproval and disgust
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