Sta,—" Anti-Nazi Refugee's" letter, published in your last number, is
not much of a contribution to the question at issue, i.e., what pro- portion of Germans is pro-Hitlen at present. The only palpable fact referred to is the often quoted figure of 44 per cent. Nazi voters which should go to prove that 56 per cent., hence the majority of German voters, were opposed to Hitler when he seized power. Now, it might be worth while to build up our guesswork, for guesswork only it can be, on the notorious 44 per cent., if only to do away with this part of the argument. - Starting from our 44 per cent., reduced by a liberal allowance for dissidents to 43. per cent., I am taking into account, these increases: extra accession of to per cent. out of nine age-groups, come of age since 1933; anything between 25 and 35 per cent, out of later converts, opportunists (nothing succeeds like success), friendly neutrals (linked up with, or indebted to, the regime owing to improved position), and the indifferent (uninterested in any form of govern- ment). This rough-and-ready estimate amounts to a majority of 75 to 85 per cent., interested, though in various intensity, in the status quo. I am, however, fully aware that an off-hand assessment like this cannot lead to reliable results. Still, it is sufficient to show that your correspondent's argument is utterly vulnerable.
It is impossible to guess the number of non-Jewish prisoners in concentration camps. Yet it would give no clue to the minds of those 70 odd million, outside the camps. I think, therefore, that your correspondent's remarks on this subject have no bearing on our problem. There is, however, another more reliable indication of Ger- man public opinion immediately before, and after, Hitler's rise to power. It is the very small non-Jewish and non-Communist emi- gration.
Only one more word about education in Germany. Your corre- spondent admits that since Hitler education in Germany has been unified, which involves that the under 25's, probably the under 30's, have gone through one, more or even all the grindmills of Nazi education. But even the non-unified system before Hitler, was apt to produce the heel-clicking, either abjectly submissive or overbear- ingly arrogant type who long, long before Hitler was in bad repu- tation all over the world. Intolerance was one of the outstanding results of this education. A state of mind that considers a discussion a dog-fight, a rejoinder a personal insult, in short an attitude—hyper- aciditas mentahs I should like to call it—is to a regrettable extent displayed in the very letter f your correspondent, fortunately only one of so many anti-Nazi refugees.—! am, Sir, your obedient servant,
ERNEST FURTH—.
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