How Germans Fell for the 'Feel-Good' Fuehrer

Spiegel ^ | 03/22/05 | Jody K. Biehl

[2banana]

Never the right. In fact, the conservative right (the Army, the Churches, High Society)

Please read your history.

Tens of thousands of Catholic priests were murdered in concentration camps.
Hitler raised taxes on the rich and confiscated their wealth. He was all for class warfare
The higher levels of the army was purged of all non party (Nazi) members

[SMARTY]

"... a sort of "snowball effect" ensued and in order to stay afloat, he says Germany had to conquer and pilfer from more territory and victims. "

Old news. Napoleon did the same thing. He said "Make the war pay for itself."

His contemporary, I think Talleyrand said..."You can do everything with a sword, but sit on it."

Only people who are totally unfamiliar with the political and military history of Europe and especially Germany in the '30's and '40's will find this book an 'expose'. It should NOT be for anyone who has made it his/her business to get the facts. By that I mean the 'facts' which have been systematically omitted from their respective HS and college text books, because we all know that stuff has been rewritten and revised beyond all recognition and does not bear the least resemblance to actual events.

[Sam the Sham]

If they were leftwing...

1. Why did conservatives immediately recognize the fascists as allies ?

2. Why did powerful conservatives help the fascists into power as King Victor Emmanuelle invited Mussolini and Hindenburg invited Hitler ?

3. Why did facsists never suppress the right, allowing it to survive intact ?

[karnage]

What "Churches" survived the Nazi regime "intact"? Not the Catholic Church. Thousands of priests were murdered and sent to camps, nuns raped, churches burned or confiscated (several turned into Nazi museums). Hitler hated Christianity.

[TNdandelion]

I'll be reading that book. I just finished "The Good Old Days: the Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders" and it's certainly a stomach turner. Their society was not much different from where ours and where we are headed.

You desperately want to hope that these people were forced to put up with what happened, but the reality is that many participated, even cheered the public execution of Jewish children in the town square. Holding their own children on their shoulders for a better look!

[r9etb]

There's a lot of horse manure here -- Hitler was not compelled to invade Russia because of a need for slaves and plunder. Had that been his goal, he would not have starved tens of thousands of Russian POWs to death in the beginning of that campaign. He made no bones about his hatred for the Russians and other "sub-humans," -- and I notice that the author's thesis does not bother to explain why there was all of that racial theorizing behind so much of what the Germans did.

What this guy's really trying to do, is take the heat off of Nazi Germany for what they were really all about, which was racial hatred and a thirst for conquest.

[Sam the Sham]

You are quite wrong.

Hitler was always careful to treat the Right with kid gloves. He did NOT confiscate the wealth of the rich (unless they were Jews) or raise their taxes.

The army was not in the least purged of non-Nazis. He had to take the General Staff as he found it and put up with von Runstedts (whatever they thought of him). He would have loved to have been able to shoot all his royalist generals and replace them with Nazis but he was never in a position to do that. Hitler did not have the power Stalin did. He had to work with the existing conservative elites and treat them gently.

[Sax]

Yep, religion competed with his Nationalism. Hitler's Nationalism was at the top of the food chain and once his power had sufficiently grown, he began dispatching his competitors.

[Podkayne]

Such parents disappeared. Pagan animism became the state religion of the Third Reich and Christians were widely condemned as "right wing fanatics".

Check out "the pink swastika". It's been floating around the internet for years.

[Gunner9mm]

Oops! Except for that part!

[Montfort]

"Financing such home front "happiness" was not simple and Hitler essentially achieved it by robbing and murdering others, Aly claims. Jews. Slave laborers."

The Soviet Union also propped up its economy with slave labor. Many people in normal Soviet society lived in some degree of comfort. They pretended to work, and the State pretended to apy them, and they got by okay. All the while, millions toiled in slave labor camps, freezing their butts off in misery so that others could live the socialist lifestyle that some now look back on fondly.

But we don't get an Oscar-winning movie every year or two about the evils of communism, do we? Every year or two we get a first-rate movie about the Holocaust. It is important that we never forget what Germany did, but it is also imporatnt that we remember what communuism did. Not just Stalin, or a few bad leaders, but communism itself.

[John123]

Despite near-constant warfare, never once during his 12 years in power did Hitler raise taxes for working class people.

Uh, would that be because he used the Jewish slave labor to reduce manufacturing costs?

[karnage]

As the Red Chinese do today - not Jewish, but slave and prisoner labor on a large scale.

[Fred Hayek]

Yes Hitler hated Christianity. This all reminded me of one of the Pali rant-chants: "We shall fight on Saturday, and then on Sunday" (first the Jews, then the Christians). Hitler was beyond a paganist, he was an occultist.

[ClearCase_guy]

1. Why did conservatives immediately recognize the fascists as allies ?

Formulating the question that way is a poor choice. Also, you're mixing fascists with nazis which is sloppy.

2. Why did powerful conservatives help the fascists into power as King Victor Emmanuelle invited Mussolini and Hindenburg invited Hitler ?

Hindenburg hated "the little corporal". It was politically expedient to form a coalition with the national socialists. Hindenburg resisted this for quite a time, but ultimately had to acquiesce or lose his own position of power.

3. Why did facsists never suppress the right, allowing it to survive intact ?

You don't define any of your terms. Did the Nazis suppress the Right? What is the Right? Perhaps it's "The-People-Hitler-Did-Not-Suppress". In which case the statement is worthless.

The Nazis had strong government control of the means of production. Didn't own it (they were not Marxists), but they sure controlled the national economy. Also, the Nazis did not respect private property. They were atheists. They supported gun control. They had huge government welfare programs. Stop me when I hit something that the Democrats wouldn't support ...

[SMARTY]

Last but not least, the US has NEVER gone to war much less begun hostilities for 'gain'. Any military conflict that the US has endeavored, ended with the US troops evacuating the combat area (empty handed). We do not negotiate from stolen turf and we have never had any material, concrete benefit from fighting against, with or for any other nation. This record is UNMATCHED in world history.

[Kevin OMalley]

read later bump

[Strategerist]

Last but not least, the US has NEVER gone to war much less begun hostilities for 'gain'. Any military conflict that the US has endeavored, ended with the US troops evacuating the combat area (empty handed).

Ummm..you planning on giving California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico back to the Mexicans?

Also, the War of 1812 was primarily fought for the purpose of conquering Canada; reason we don't own Canada isnt' because we evacuated it, it's because our invasions of Canada failed during the war and we didn't win the war.

[GOP_1900AD]

RE: Financing such home front "happiness" was not simple and Hitler essentially achieved it by robbing and murdering others, Aly claims. Jews. Slave laborers. Conquered lands. All offered tremendous opportunities for plunder, and the Nazis exploited it fully, he says.

Not if, but when we are attacked in earnest by the anti Western Axis (what has happened thus far is nothing) we can fully expect them to use a similar methodology.

[GOP_1900AD]

Rev. Neimoeller wants to have a word or two with you ...