Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

296 DER FUEHRERunscrupulously used the forces of perversion, just as he used murder andlies. A heart-broken father from the little town of Uften-heim inFranconia whose son had been perverted by Heines in the S.A.,complained to him; he replied that the young men must take care ofthemselves, the S.A. was no kindergarten. A delegation led by CountErnst zu Reventlow, an elderly party comrade, brought him a messagefrom Ludendorff: the general viewed the activities of the homosexualsin the S.A. with great misgivings. Hitler told Reventlow to tell GeneralLudendorff that all this was a matter of total indifference to him, Hitler;his actual words were unprintable. When in May, 1927, he finally threwHeines out of the party, it was not for his loose morals, but becauseHeines had called his Fuhrer a dishrag and was stirring up the S.A.against him.He might have thrown half of the S.A. after him. While Rohmpeddled his books or sat around with his friends, the S.A. was led by aman who at heart was no National Socialist at all, Captain Pfeffer vonSalomon. He used his power like a hired captain in the Renaissance; hehad exacted the condition that Hitler should have no right to interfere.Pfeffer knew that he could not, on Sundays and Saturday afternoons,make a serviceable military troop out of these students, white-collarworkers, and sons of peasants. But the S.A. could be a preparatoryschool for the army; as many S.A. men as possible should enter theReichswehr and flood it with rebellion. Hitler trembled at the slightestthought of illegality; they would deport him at once, of that he wascertain. Pfeffer ordered the S.A. to engage in military maneuvers; Hitlerissued counter-orders. Pfeffer's orders were not valid, he declared,unless countersigned by him, Hitler. Violent scenes ensued; masklikeand immobile behind his pince-nez, Pfeffer listened to Hitler's violentoutbreaks. Afterward he said to others, 'you can't take orders from thisslovenly, terrified Austrian!' It was impossible to make those S.A.captains understand that the purpose of the S.A. was expressly notmilitary. They held to a statement Hitler once had made himself: that'An army cannot be trained and taught the highest self-respect unless thefunction of its existence is preparation for warfare. There are no armiesfor the preservation of peace, but only for the victorious waging of war.'