Reaction to the German march into Austria in March 1938
Reaction to the German march into Austria in March 1938 was described by a Breslau Social Democrat
Source: Detlev J. K. Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday Life , (Yale, 1987), p.61.
On Friday, as I followed the decisive blow-by-blow story on the radio, I thought: 'This means war. In a few hours enemy planes will probably be flying over Breslau.' I couldn't bear to stay in my flat any more. The scene on the streets had completely changed. SA, SS, HJ, BdM were on the streets in large numbers. Although people didn't yet know how it had all happened, they were shouting in a sort of frenzy, 'Heil Hitler! Austria is ours! Sieg Heil to our brave soldiers, ' and so on. The atmosphere was similar to that on 30th January 1933, when Hitler became Reich Chancellor. Everyone was carried away by this atmosphere. Only gradually did groups form here and there, and people began to discuss what had happened. You could hear people saying that war was now on the way and that they were going to go home and pack and move out to the villages. But these were isolated voices. The general opinion in the groups was: 'Let's face it, Hitler is a great man, he knows what he wants and the world is scared of him.' Conversations the next day followed the same trains of thought, Hitler's prestige has risen enormously again and he is now practically idolised. The objection that the western powers might still intervene and issue Germany with an ultimatum was laughed out of court. The western powers simply daren't do anything against Germany, and even if they do, Germany is strong enough to get its own way. I have discovered one thing about the attitude of the population: if Germany were to become embroiled in a war today, the whole nation would march. And it would probably be a long time before the country began to have second thoughts about the war.
