Read Online The Test of Courage: (A Biography of) Michel Thomas by Christopher Robbins - Free Book Online

received the Nazis triumphantly, Hitler was welcomed like a Roman emperor. The streets had become human rivers. I can still hear the sound of their chanting: “Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer... Wir danken unserem Führer... Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!” - Hail to victory... one people, one nation, one leader! Day and night it went on - and on and on. The enthusiasm was boundless.’ The euphoric atmosphere and the change in the people were unnerving. ‘Suddenly there was this transformation. There had been no great show of support for the Nazis before that I was aware of as a student - I considered Vienna very friendly - but now everyone wore little metal swastikas in their left lapel to show their loyalty. They were for sale on every street corner - not official party badges, just a swastika to show loyalty and express support. Foreigners had to wear the insignia of their country in their lapel, and those who didn’t were exposed as anti-Nazis or Jews. Enemies.’ Typically, Michel wore the Star of David in his lapel, but remained untouched.
    A gigantic portrait of Hitler dominated the square in front of the opera house, and Michel heard the senior Roman Catholic prelate, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer, urge the people to support Hitler. The cardinal had greeted the Fuhrer with the sign of the cross and gave assurances that as long as the Church retained its liberties Austrian Catholics - the majority of the country - would become ‘the truest sons of the Third Reich’. The atheist Hitler shook the cardinal’s hand warmly. (Nevertheless, a few months later the cardinal’s palace was sacked by Nazi thugs. Awakened to the true nature of National Socialism, Innitzer spoke against the persecution of the Church - an impotent gesture of independence that was too little too late.) [34]
    ‘The excesses were incredible. Suddenly, the Austrians were the worst - worse than the Germans. Overnight they reached the state of hatred it had taken the German nation five years to achieve. Among the most extreme were the Sudeten Germans, who had come to Austria as refugees from Czechoslovakia. Rrutes let loose on the Jewish population. I saw acts of cruelty committed by Austrians against Jews on every street. Their actions even shocked German officers, and I saw them restrain people a number of times.’
    It was dangerous for sceptics to be in the streets, but Michel wanted to be everywhere, and Suzanne willingly accompanied him. ‘This is history,’ he told her. ‘These are events that we can only remember if we live them and see them, and not hide by staying at home.’ One of the most painful scenes they witnessed was quiet and undramatic, but it moved them deeply. Within the shadow of the opera house, across from the giant portrait of Hitler, they came across three men gathered around a young woman, shielding her from sight. The woman had lost control and was weeping piteously. ‘Her friends did not want the mob to see that she did not share in the universal joy.’
    Day after day hundreds of Jewish men and women were forced on to their hands and knees to scrub the political slogans of the previous regime from pavements and walls with acid. Storm Troopers stood over them while the crowds jeered. Elderly Jews were forced to clean the lavatories and barracks of their new masters, and Michel learned that the scholarly old gentleman whom he helped had been dragged to his knees by his beard and beaten.
    One of the distinguished Viennese who had previously put a brave face on events was Sigmund Freud. Although he had promised his family to leave if the Nazis ever took over, he proved reluctant when the moment came. This is my post and I can never leave it,’ he told an English colleague. The colleague responded with the story of an officer who survived the sinking of the Titanic who was asked why he had abandoned the ship. ‘I never left the ship, she left me,’ he replied. The argument that