An insight into the Nazi control of trade is given in a letter in the Deutsche Revolution: In a suburb of Berlin the proprietor of a prosperous soap shop died. His widow wanted to sell the shop and easily found some intending purchasers. So I was very surprised when I heard some time later that the widow was still running the shop.
I learned that any change of proprietor was subject to an authorisation from the Nazi corporation N. S. Hap, soap trade department, and that intending purchasers had to sit for an examination under its a usp ices.
At first they were asked questions about the soap trade, and were lucky enough to give satisfactory answers. But they were surprised to hear that they had to under go an " intelligence test in addition.
" How old is our Fithrer Adolf Hitler?," was the first question. " What is the size of the Olympic Bell?" was the second. Nobody knew that.
When the young men ventured to ask what that had to do with running a soap shop they received no reply, but they heard that owing to their failure in the " intelligence test " they were considered not qualified and could not be given authorisation to buy the shop.
They can, however, take the examination again after three months' time.