National Socialism Attack on Intellectualism, Says Kraus, Who Just Arrived From Germany

The following statements were made in an interview by Dr. Wolfgang H. Kraus, instructor and tutor in Government, who was resident in Germany through the Nazi revolution.

National Socialism is a conscious attack on anything that might be conceived as liberalism or rationalist intellectualism. It sternly suppresses all work which is not expressive of German national culture. Liberalistic thought scornfully termed "Intellectualism" modernistic or international art, all expression of an individuality which is not creative in the National Socialist sense are emphatically discouraged.

Hitler's theory is based essentially on the belief that racial deterioration means deterioration of national culture. The foreign policy enunciated in his latest speech in the Reichstag may be termed "non-aggressive nationalism." By emphasizing nationalism in the various political units in the World, it is theoretically not intended that hostilities among them should be aroused, but merely that, through a clearer desperation of the differences between states, they should be enabled to carry on negotiations on a sounder basis.

This theory, however is not borne out by Hitler's own statement in his recently published autobiography on eastern policy. While he is not desirous of imposing Teutonic culture upon neighboring races, the spirit of aggression is implicit in certain statements as to expansion to the cast, such as, "The light to the soil may become a duty if without territorial expansion a great nation seems to be deemed."

The attempt to isolate and stabilize racial groups is I feel extremely ill advised. In the first place, the Nazis do not comprise a pure race exclusive of all but the Teutonic group, specialists agree that the pure modern German which National Socialism would preserve is a product of the natural combination of various Germanic and non-Germanic lines. Further, an intermixture of racial groups does not necessarily signify a deterioration in national culture. It is not only morally and humanly wrong to exile Jews from their native country on account of racial differences, and contrary to Christian ethics, but it is obvious that many Jewish Germans have made considerable contributions to German culture. However, the exclusion of the Jews from citizenship is an essential principle of the Nationalist party in Germany, and the present attitude toward them will never be modified, as far as I can see, under the regime of Adolf Hitler or his disciples