tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post7665928924226872079..comments2024-03-28T00:11:33.489-04:00Comments on bensozia: Ben Carson, Guns, and the HolocaustJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-38985587815552850452015-10-09T13:07:06.977-04:002015-10-09T13:07:06.977-04:00The shift to full blown authoritarian terror was r...The shift to full blown authoritarian terror was remarkably swift, when you stop to look at it. People barely would have had time to respond to each new development - a veritable cultural blitzkrieg predating the military version.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-49657439007240614932015-10-09T11:53:49.502-04:002015-10-09T11:53:49.502-04:00Thank you, very useful! I may assign that Wikiped...Thank you, very useful! I may assign that Wikipedia article to my students.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-34068854177954624102015-10-09T11:00:07.442-04:002015-10-09T11:00:07.442-04:00Forgot to mention, my source for all this was Wiki...Forgot to mention, my source for all this was Wikipedia's "calendar" section, looking through the entry for February 1933.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-46983532652732791582015-10-09T10:58:54.865-04:002015-10-09T10:58:54.865-04:00Well, immediately after he became Chancellor on Ja...Well, immediately after he became Chancellor on January 30th, the next day he dissolved the Reichstag and set new elections for March 5th.<br /><br />On February 1st, he delivered a radio speech stating, "Within four years, the German farmer must be raised from destitution. Within four years, unemployment must be completely overcome."<br /><br />Two days later, on the 3rd, he held a secret meeting with military commanders and detailed his plans to defy the Treaty of Versailles and rearm with the intent of conquering territory in Eastern Europe.<br /><br />On the 4th, he granted police the power to ban any publications which were deemed "a threat to public order", enforceable by arrest and detention for up to three months, and without need for a warrant.<br /><br />February 8th saw Hitler informing his cabinet that he would persue full rearmament within five years, and that all government employment would be directly assessed on its value to the military.<br /><br />On the 17th, longstanding Mayor of Cologne Konrad Adenauer, who would later become the first Chanceller of West Germany after the war, refused to receive Hitler and had city property purged of all Nazi iconography. Within a month, the SS made an attempt on his life.<br /><br />On February 21st, Hermann Göring issued a decree in the <i>Völkischer Beobachter</i>, instructing police to put to death "enemies of the state" and instituting disciplinary measures against officers found to be "inappropriately considerate".<br /><br />The same day, dissenting novelist Heinrich Mann fled the country, having been stripped of his position at the Prussian Academy of the Arts for his opposition to Nazism.<br /><br />February 22nd, Hitler authorizes concentration camps for the purposes of placing dissidents into <i>Schutzhaft</i> or "protective custody".<br /><br />The same day, Göring deputized over 50,000 civilian members of the <i>Sturmabteilung</i> into the police force as official officers.<br /><br />On February 23rd, a national decree was issued prohibiting homosexuality, as well as pornographic materials.<br /><br />The next day, February 24th, a raid is conducted on the Berlin Headquarters of the Communist Party. It is officially stated that documents were found detailing plans for arson against government buildings, a scant three days before the Reichstag Fire, which was itself less than a week before the March 5th elections. How convenient.<br /><br />So to sum up, the very first things the Nazis did were defy international treaties, grant authorities sweeping powers to silence opponents, began a purge of government offices, sanctioned executions, used threats and coercion to enforce conformity within party ranks, established concentration camps, converted an army of armed thugs into police officers, and criminalized homosexuality, all before arranging a politically convenient arson attack replete with an ideologically suitable scapegoat.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-58041430110145830012015-10-09T09:55:02.373-04:002015-10-09T09:55:02.373-04:00This idea that the first thing the Nazis did was d...This idea that the first thing the Nazis did was disarm their own people has always made me wonder: what WAS the first thing the Nazis did? It would be interesting to find out what was the first regulation or law passed after Hitler became chancellor in January 1933. If anyone knows, please tell me. The first "significant" thing that I've been able to find them doing was the banning of the Communist Party in Prussia after the Reichstag fire. But that was roughly a month after Hitler became chancellor.<br /><br />The closest thing I can find to the fabled disarming of the German people is the Weimar Republic's effort to disarm right-wing and left-wing militias in the early twenties. But that was ten years before Hitler came to power (and also once again, sadly directs the eye to the hard left as an important force resisting the hard right in Germany).Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.com