Hitler Assumes Control of Army (Real time + 70 years)

Microfiche-New York Times archives | 2/5/38 | Otto D. Tolischus

[Homer_J_Simpson]

What the author of this article didn't say, because he had no way of knowning, was that this move paved the way for Hitler's planned war against the other European states. Three months earlier, Nov. 5, 1937, Hitler called his top subordinates - Blomberg, Fritsch, Raeder, Goering, and Neurath - together for a meeting at which he revealed his irrevocable intention to go to war. Blomberg and Fritsch saw a definate down-side to this plan. So a campaign began to get rid of the dissenters.

I guess the lesson we can take from this today is that we should know the personal views not only of the titular rulers of our adversaries, but also the top people around them.

[2banana]

Isn’t it ironic that liberals and democrats don’t know that Nazi is slang for National Socialists?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

If there is enough interest I will build a “Real time + 70 years” ping list. Volume wise, it will probably be about a post a week. At least for a while. If you would like to be on this ping list let me know. Or not. I spend time reeling through microfiche at the local university library and copy articles that catch my fancy. Most of these are WWII or pre-WWII related. Others might just show something about popular culture or technology from 70 years ago. Why 70 years, you ask? Because I didn’t think about doing this 10 years ago when it would have been a nice round number. Before that I’m not sure Al Gore had invented the internet yet.

[Bringbackthedraft]

In other late news, February, (circa 44 BC): In Rome, Julius Caesar was named dictator perpetuus.

[ArrogantBustard]

Julius Caesar got stabbed in the back on the Ides of March.

Americans get stabbed in the back on the Ides of April.

[meandog]

Shortly afterward he required all to swear an oath to him personally instead of the one sworn to Germany. The causes for the rise of a maniac like Hitler were varied but one of the chief causes was the way in which World War I was concluded. Ludendorff and Scheer, were eager to carry on the fight as the last campaign on Verdun was successful in its early stages before bogging down...Hindenburg, IMO, was tired of war as was the rest of Germany. However, a better peace accord was certainly warranted than the one the nation got--basically shafted by Lloyd George and Clemenseau--and the nation's army was far from beaten and could have fought the allies to a standstill then gotten a much better settlement.

The lesson of Germany is that it could be mirrored here if the Democrats get their way and pull out of Iraq, leaving it to Al Qaeda (the new Third Richt).

[r9etb]

Ah, Hitler. Now there was a fellow whose hands weren't tied by the silly restrictions of "PC" warfare....

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The causes for the rise of a maniac like Hitler were varied but one of the chief causes was the way in which World War I was concluded.

That could have been overcome if France had the national will to oust Hitler when he remilitarized (barely) the Rhineland in 1936 or if France and Great Britain had taken action instead of exhausting all the diplomatic avenues when Hitler moved on Austria and Czechoslovakia. France could even have moved into western Germany after the invasion of Poland and beaten Hitler from the rear. What would have happened then? Who knows. Maybe the festering would have continued in Germany until Stalin made a preemptive strike to the west, launching a second world war.

[Ciexyz]

Lest we forget.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The causes for the rise of a maniac like Hitler were varied but one of the chief causes was the way in which World War I was concluded.

That could have been overcome if France had the national will to oust Hitler when he remilitarized (barely) the Rhineland in 1936 or if France and Great Britain had taken action instead of exhausting all the diplomatic avenues when Hitler moved on Austria and Czechoslovakia. France could even have moved into western Germany after the invasion of Poland and beaten Hitler from the rear. What would have happened then? Who knows. Maybe the festering would have continued in Germany until Stalin made a preemptive strike to the west, launching a second world war.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Double post not my fault! This site is slooooow today.

[fredhead]

please ping me (I think I am already on the list)

[investigateworld]

Please add me.
Thanks

[Homer_J_Simpson]

You are a charter member.

[Poundstone]

Count me in!

[Mr. Dough]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this. It’s always interesting to see contemporary accounts of developments like this. Anyone interested in this particular period should read Wm.L. Shirer’s “Berlin Diary”. Sort of a chilling chronicle of the descent into disaster. Goes along very well with Speer’s “Inside the Third Reich”.

Now can someone explain to a casual observer what a “ping list” is? I never quite got that...

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Anyone interested in this particular period should read Wm.L. Shirer’s “Berlin Diary”.

I haven't read that yet. I got the idea for this project when I read Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." It is an imposing looking volume, but turns out to be a real page-turner. The appeasement of Hitler in 1936-39 can still get one's blood boiling. And it seems all too similiar to the rhetoric of the anti-war left today.

[Contra]

Can somebody post the picture of Hillary with the Hitler moustache, a.k.a. “Hitlery”?

[kanawa]

Please add my name to the ping list.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

A ping list is like a subscription. Whenever I post one of these real time + 70 years articles I will paste the saved list of interested parties into the address box.

I promise not to sell the ping list to any third party organization, commercial or otherwise.