leon_degrelle-hitlers_social_revolution.pdf

Hitler’s Social Revolution

Leon Degrelle

Hitler’s Social Revolution

Leon Degrelle

One of the first labor reforms to benefit the German workers was the establishment of

annual paid vacation. The Socialist French Popular Front, in 1936, would make a show of

having invented the concept of paid vacation, and stingily at that, only one week per year.

But Adolf Hitler originated the idea, and two or three times as generously, from the first

month of his coming to power in 1933.

Every factory employee from then on would have the legal right to a paid vacation. Until

then, in Germany paid holidays where they applied at all did not exceed four or five days,

and nearly half the younger workers had no leave entitlement at all. Hitler, on the other

hand, favored the younger workers. Vacations were not handed out blindly, and the

youngest workers were granted time off more generously. It was a humane action; a young

person has more need of rest and fresh air for the development of his strength and vigor

just coming into maturity. Basic vacation time was twelve days, and then from age 25 on it

went up to 18 days. After ten years with the company, workers got 21 days, three times

what the French socialists would grant the workers of their country in 1936.

These figures may have been surpassed in the more than half a century since then, but in

1933 they far exceeded European norms. As for overtime hours, they no longer were paid,

as they were everywhere else in Europe at that time, at just the regular hourly rate. The

work day itself had been reduced to a tolerable norm of eight hours, since the forty-hour

week as well, in Europe, was first initiated by Hitler. And beyond that legal limit, each

additional hour had to be paid at a considerably increased rate. As another innovation, work

breaks were made longer; two hours every day in order to let the worker relax and to make

use of the playing fields that the large industries were required to provide.

Dismissal of an employee was no longer left as before the sole discretion of the employer. In

that era, workers’ rights to job security were non-existent. Hitler saw to it that those rights

were strictly spelled out. The employer had to announce any dismissal four weeks in

advance. The employee then had a period of up to two months in which to lodge a protest.

The dismissal could also be annulled by the Honor of Work Tribunal. What was the Honor of

Work Tribunal? Also called the Tribunal of Social Honor, it was the third of the three great

elements or layers of protection and defense that were to the benefit of every German

worker. The first was the Council of Trust. The second was the Labor Commission.

The Council of Trust was charged with attending to the establishment and the development

of a real community spirit between management and labor. “In any business enterprise,”