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100%. In Austria and other districts of Greater Germany the plebiscite called by Adolf Hitler is not to be held until April 10, but balloting began last week on German ships and among Germans living outside the Fatherland. Der Führer won the plebiscite most recently held in Germany by 98.79%, but in last week's "early returns" Adolf Hitler was officially announced to be getting exactly 100% of the vote, thus for the first time drawing up level in popularity with Joseph Stalin.
Wollersdorf:. Josef Bürckel, the burly Nazi commissar sent by Berlin to Vienna to put on the plebiscite campaign, last week had barracks at Wöllersdorf—which was used as a prison camp for opponents of Dollfuss and later Schuschnigg—soaked with gasoline and set afire. While thousands gaped and the flames roared skyward with such intense heat that Orator Burckel was nearly scorched upon his rostrum and perspiration poured down his beet-red face, he shouted that Nazis will never again be locked up at Wöllersdorf. In Vienna there were rumors in responsible quarters that former Vice Chancellor Major Emil Fey did not recently commit suicide, but was called upon by Storm Troops who threatened to take his life unless he signed a confession that it was he who killed the late Chancellor Dollfuss, not the Nazi Planetta who is presently to be canonized as a "Nazi Martyr.'' The confessed Assassin Fey, according to these rumors, was then murdered by the Storm Troopers, and they announced his suicide. The conservative New York Herald Tribune was among papers which last week printed these unconfirmed rumors.
Catholic Angle. Nazi Bürckel front-paged, in Adolf Hitler's personal newspaper last week, photographic reproductions of a letter in which Catholics were urged to vote "Ja" in the coming plebiscite by Vienna Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, who at the bottom of his typewriting added in his own handwriting: "Heil Hitler!"
These and several similar endorsements by Catholic prelates obtained by Nazi Bürckel last week had in common the fact that these signed statements affirmed they were made not under duress but "joyfully," "with undisguised joy," "voluntarily." etc.
In Vatican City the Papal Secretary of State, His Eminence Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, meanwhile held repeated earnest councils with Papal statesmen. The semi-official newsorgan Osservatore Romano announced indirectly that the Holy See had not known of what Cardinal Innitzer was about to do. Later in Vienna the Cardinal explicitly denied reports of his having acted on instructions from the Supreme Pontiff.
The very powerful radio transmitter of the Papal State went on the air in German with a broadcast heard all over Greater Germany and taken by most listeners to be a condemnation of Cardinal Innitzer for having yielded to force, combined with an injunction to Catholics that in the plebiscite they should vote according to their consciences rather than Innitzer. An official Vatican translation of this broadcast into Italian was supplied to journalists by Papal dignitaries.
Just before April Fool's Day last week Orator Goebbels again let himself go: "The Church may have the mandate of God. but we have the mandate of the people. THIS WORLD IS OURS!"