Prelude to War - the 1930s

' During 1933 much of the world was preoccupied with the consolidation of Nazi rule in Germany. There was intense curiosity, and even anxiety, about what the new German government really intended. The imposition of domestic tyranny went hand in hand with Germany's repeated public protestations of international peaceful intentions. Yet even as the tyranny within Germany was being directed at those who were considered enemies of the regime, a wave of skilfully organized enthusiasm led to widely reported demand for the carrying out of Nazi ideals. During the first days of May, Nazi students demonstrated against what they called 'non-German culture', demanding an end to what they characterized as alien, and especially socialist and Jewish, influences. Those influences had hitherto been an integral part of German life and culture. On 1 May 1933, the traditional May Day of the working classes, the National Socialist Workers Unions organized a Day of National Work, complete with demonstrations and banners, reminiscent of the great working-class spectacles of earlier years, but with a total hostility to the socialist work ethic and aspirations of the past. The traditional theme of international solidarity was replaced by the call for national renewal. In proclaiming a 'holy day of national labour', Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, Dr Josef Goebels - the leading propagandist of Nazism - declared: 'Germans of all estates, lineages, and professions, join hands! In serried ranks we march into the new age.' '

Martin Gilbert / A History of the Twentieth Century Volume Two: 1933-1951 - page 3 / HarperCollins 1998