Last post

Today I am deciding to post my last post on this book. I haven't read it for a while and there are so many other things I am trying to do, not to mention the total lack of readers other than the two faithful.

Life in the Reich:

Pg. 231

"The overwhelming majority of Germans did not seem to mind that their personal freedom had been taken away, taht so much of their culture had been destroyed and replaced with a mindless barbarism, or that their life and work had become regimented to a degree never before experienced even by a people accustomed for generations to a great deal of regimentation."

"The Blood Purge of June 30, 1934, was a warning of how ruthless the new leaders could be. Yet the Nazi terror in the early years affected the lives of relatively few Germans and a newly arrived observer was somewhat surprised to see that the people of this country did not seem to feel that they were being cowed and held down by an unscrupulous and brutal dictatorship. On the contrary, they supported it with genuine enthusiasm."

Pg. 232

"The Germans heard vaguely in their censored press and broadcasts of the revulsion abroad but they noticed that it did not prevent foreigners from flocking to the Third Reich and seemingly enjoying its hospitality. For Nazi Germany, much more than Soviet Russia, was open for all the world to see. The tourist business thrived and brought in vast sums of badly needed foreign currency."

Pg. 241

"On the evening of May 10, 1933, some four and a half months after Hitler became Chancellor, there occured in Belin a scene which had not been witnessed in the Western world since the late Middle Ages. At about midnight a torchlit parade of thousands of students ended at a square on Unter den Linden opposite the University of Berlin. Torches were put to a huge pile of books that had been gathered there, and as the flames enveloped them more books were thrown on the fire until some twenty thousand had been consumed. Similar scenes took place in several other cities. The book burning had begun."

Pg 244

"Every morning the editors of the Berlin daily newspapers and the correspondents of those published elsewhere in the Reich gathered at the Propaganda Ministry to be told by Dr. Goebbles or by one of his aides what news to print and surpress, how to write the news and headline it, what campaigns to call off or institute and what editorials were desired for the day."

Pg 247

"The radio and the motion pictures were also quickly harnessed to serve the propaganda of the Nazi State. Goebbles had always seen the radio (television had not yet come in) the chief instrument of propoganda in modern society and through the Radio Department of his ministry and the Chamber of Radio he gained complete control of broadcasting and shaped it to his own ends."

Pg. 248

"No one who had not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread concequences of a regime's calculated and incessant propaganda."

Maybe I will follow up with more later.

Dan

Post your thought on how this is like our current situation.

Death of the Republic

It has been a while I know, but here on page 226 President Hinddenburg has finnally passed. This is the key moment in which Hitler gains total power.

All through the summer the seemingly indestructable Hindenburg had been sinking and on August 2, at nine in the morning, he died in his eighty-seventh year. At noon, three hours later, it was announced that according to a law enacted by the cabinet on the preceding day the offices of Chancellor and President had been combined and that Adolf Hitler had taken over the powers of the head of state and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The title of President was abolished; Hitler would be known as Fuehrer and Reich Commander. His dictatorship had become complete. To leave no loopholes Hitler exacted from all officers and men of the armed forces an oath of allegiance--not to Germany, not to the constitution, which he had violated by not calling for the election of Hindenburg's successor, but to himself. It read:

I swear by God this sacred oath, that I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Fuehrer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to risk my life at any time for theis oath.

This is the end of democracy, or what was left of it in Germany. From here on, we will be talking of life in a Nazi Germany and how it resembles, however slight, life in the US now.

Hopefully, something like the death of democracy will not happen here in the US, but with the unpublicised documentation pertaining to the continuity of government in the event of a national emergency, one must wonder.

Thanks. Keep watching, I will post again pretty soon.

Dan

Reichstag Fire

On page 191, I started to read about the Reichstag fire and the power that Hitler was able to fenagal after it. I am now on page 200 so this is a tidbit of what I have read so far:

That it was a crime, a Communist crime, they proclaimed at once on arrival at the fire. Goering, sweating and puffing and quite beside himself with excitement, was already there ahead of them declaiming to heaven, as Papen later recalled, that “this is a Communist crime against the new government.” To the Gestapo chief, Rudolf Diels, Goering shouted, “This is the beginning of the Communist revolution! We must not wait a minute. We will show no mercy. Every Communist official must be shot, where he is found. Every Communist deputy must this very night be strung up.”



At the same time a half witted Dutch Communist with a passion for arson, Marinus Van Der Lubbe, had made his way into the huge, darkened and to him unfamiliar building and set some small fires of his own. This feeble minded pyromaniac was a godsend for the Nazis. He had been picked up by the S.A. a few days before after having been overheard in a bar boasting that he had attempted to set fire to several buildings and that he was going to try the Reichstag next.



Van der Lubbe, it seems clear, was a dupe of the Nazis. He was encouraged to try to set the Reichstag on fire. But the main job was to be done- without his knowledge, of course-by the storm troopers. Indeed, it was established at the subsequent trial at Leipzig that the Dutch half-wit did not possess the means to set so vast a building on fire so quickly. Two and a half minutes after he entered, the great central hall was fiercely burning. He had only his shirt for tinder. The main fires, according to the testimonies of experts at the trial, had been set with considerable quantities of chemicals and gasoline. It was obvious that one man could not have carried them into the building, nor would it have been possible for him to start so many fires in so many scattered places in so short a time.

Van der Lubbe was found guilty and decapitated.



On the day following the fire, Feb. 28th, Hitler prevailed on President Hindenburg to sign a decree “for the Protection of the People and the State” suspending the seven sections of the constitution which guaranteed individual and civil liberties. Described as a “defensive measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the state,” the decree laid down that:
“Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications; and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.”
In addition, the decree authorized the Reich government to take over complete power in the federal states when necessary and imposed the death sentence for a number of crimes, including “serious disturbances of the peace” by armed persons.

To me, in my opinion, this sounds a lot like what happened on 9-11 and the following days in which the Patriot Act I was passed with intimidation tactics. It is very easy to see, if you believe that this is possable, that if GW Bush (A stout historian) has studied this topic, he could use the same tactics on the American people. The amount of power he has attained since 9-11 is unprecidented in American history and I am sure will not likely bee seen again. Well...Hopefully at least.

Lets hear what you think.

Dan

Middle Class

Here we are on page 185. We are discussing how Hitler came to be granted the vice chancellorship without having a majority of the population behind him.

No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. At the crest of their popular strength, in July 1932, the National Socialists had attained but 37 percent of the vote. But the 63 percent of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much to divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, however temporarily, to stamp it out. The Communists, at the behest of Moscow, were committed to the last to the silly idea of first destroying the Social Democrats, the Socialist trade unions and what middle class democratic forces they were, on the dubious theory that although this would lead to a Nazi regime it would be only temporary and would bring inevitably the collapse of capitalism, after which the Communists would take over and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

It might be true, as some of the Socialists said, that fortune had not smiled upon them: the Communists, unscrupulous and undemocratic, had split the working class; the depression had further hurt the Social Democrats, weakening the trade unions and losing the party the support of millions of unemployed, who in their desperation turned either to the Communists or the Nazis.

Between the Left and the Right, Germany lacked a politically powerful middle class, which in other countries--in France, in England, in the United States--Had proved to be the backbone of democracy. In the first year of the Republic the middle-class parties, the Democrats, the People's Party, the Center, had polled a total of twelve million votes, only two million less then the two Socialist groups. But thereafter their strength had waned as their supporters gravitated toward Hitler and the Nationalists. In 1919, the Democrats had elected 74 members tot he Reichstag; by 1932 they held just 2 seats. The strength of the Peoples Party fell from 62 seats in 1920 to 11 in 1932. Only the Catholic Center retained its voting strength to the end. In the first republican elections in 1919 the Center had 71 deputies in the Reichstag; in 1932 it had 70. But even more than the Social Democrats, the Center Party since Bismark's time had been largely opportunist, supporting whatever government made concessions to its special interests.

To me this paints a very similar picture to what is happening in our beloved country here. Our middle class is being systematically dissected and destroyed. What used to count as middle class is now upper level poor. In today's society, you either make a ton of money or none at all. Here where I live, if your household doesn't make over 90-100 thousand a year, it is hard times at home. The inflation rate does not match our increase in salaries and therefore the families are falling behind. those who make the money don't care because they have the money to survive.

Also, re-read the part about the parties and the middle class's importance to keep them in check. I see allot of similarities to current political happenings. What about you?

Dan

Presidential Powers

I am reading again!!!

Here we are on page 173. There have been many events relating to the political structure of the German nation recently. There have been 4 elections held in one year, and the Nazi party has gained a majority in the Reichstag by numbers, although not an overall majority. The President is still Hindenburg and the Chancellor is now a man named Papen.

Papen had been blandly unaware of the intrigue which Schleicher was weaving behind his back. At the beginning of the meeting with the President on Dec. 1 he had confidently outlined his plans for the future. He should continue as Chancellor, rule by decree and let the Reichstag go hang for a while until he could "amend the constitution." In effect, Papen wanted "amendments" which would take the country back to the days of the empire and re-establish the rule of the conservative classes. At his Nuremberg trial and in his memoirs he admitted, as indeed he did to the Field Marshall, that his proposals involved "a breach of the present constitution by the President," but he assured Hindenburg that "he might be justified in placing the welfare of the nation above his oath to the constitution," as, he added, Bismark once had done "for the sake of the country."

This is a very interesting piece of history that I think we could be reliving again. President Bush has, at numerous occasions, acted outside of his authority granted by the US Constitution. Now, some may argue that he was doing it for the betterment of our country. To me that is a moot point, because he does not have those powers. The Patriot Act I was written in the days following 9-11 and an electronic copy was sent to Congress for approval. The Congress did not have a hard copy to review before the vote. They had to base a decision on what the White House told them was in the document. Also, they were pressured into a vote in a very short time. It was days, not weeks, that they had to decide, so a hard copy wouldn't work much anyway.

Now we see that the Patriot act is being used for non-terrorist type surveillance. Most recently is the Gov. of NY. He was caught using prostitutes by use of the Patriot act.

The bottom line is that the President of Germany was being tempted to go outside of his bounds for the "betterment of Germany". Luckily for them, at the time, He held to his oath. I fear that Bush has not fared so well with his integrity.

Dan

I am still here.

Just to let the few who are actually reading this blog, I am still here. I had to stop reading for a while due to personal reasons, but plan to start again shortly. Please check back often to see what new info I have found. Thanks.

Dan

Organization and Election Suspension

I am still reading. Slow but steady. I am currently on page 157. Hitler is making the final arrangements in order to weasel his way into power. Germany has been going through tough times and the Nazi party (aka the National Socialists) seemed to have all of the answers for a people in dire straights.

Hitler has already figured out that a rebellion through force to remove the current government from power would never work. The new power that would be instated would fall within a short amount of time due to lack of structure. Because of this, Hitler decided to institute a new direction for the Nazi party.

Page 120
"The Political organization of the Nazi party was divided into two groups: P.O. I, as it was known, designed to attack and undermine the government, and P.O. II to establish a state within a state. Thus the second group had departments of agriculture, justice, national economy, interior and labor-and, with an eye to the future, of race and culture, and of engineering."

"After considerable difficulties the S.A. was reorganized into an armed band of several thousand men to protect Nazi meetings, to break up the meetings of others and to generally terrorize those who opposed Hitler."

"To have a more dependable band Hitler created the S.S.-Schutzstaffel-put their members in black uniforms similar to those worn by the Italian Fascisti and made them swear a special oath of loyalty to him personally. At first the S.S. was nothing more than a bodyguard for the Fuhrer."

Hitler positioned people in charge of these departments that he could trust. Loyal followers from the early days. He understood that in order for him to succeed in taking control of Germany, it must be a seamless transition from the current situation to the ruling of the Nazis'.

On page 153, the book talks about how the Chancellor of Germany was concocting a plan to eliminate any possibility of Hitler coming to power. He was thinking of returning the republic to a dictatorship thereby locking Hitler out of the power seat he so desperately desired.

Page 153
"Bruening (Chancellor) planned to move boldly on the home front too and to bring about by agreement of all the major parties save the Communists a fundamental change in the German constitution. He meant to restore the Hohenzollern monarchy. Even if Hindenburg (President and 84 years old) could be persuaded to run again, he could not be expected at his age to live out another full term of seven years. Should he die in another year of two, the way would still be open to Hitler to be elected President. To forestall that, to assure permanency and stability in the office of head of state, Bruening broached the following plan: The 1932 presidential elections would be called off and Hindenburg's term of office simply extended, as it could be, by a two-thirds vote in the two houses of Parliament, the Reichstag and the Reichstrat. As soon as that was achieved, he would propose that Parliament proclaim a monarchy with the President as regent. On his death, one of the sons of the Crown Prince would be put on the Hohenzollern throne. This act too would take the wind out of the Nazis; in fact Bruening was confident that it would mean their end as a political force."

Now I have been saying for years now, that I can see the current administration trying to suspend the Presidential election in 2008 for many reasons; First of which is, Some kind of new 9-11 or Pearl Harbor. Bringing into question the security of the American nation and declaring Martial Law. Easily done thanks to the Patriot Act I and II and PDD 51, not to mention the Military Commission Act. Second reason I see coming is because of a well timed outbreak of war with a new enemy like Iran. It would be ill advised to change command in the middle of a national crisis like that. We will suspend the elections until the situation is stable enough to focus our attention away from it and back to the elections. Of course which will never happen. Again thanks to the Patriot Act I and II, PDD 51 and the Military Commission Act.

If you look closely at how our Presidential election has been going it is like a skipping record: 1981-Reagan...1985-Reagan...1989-Bush Sr.....1993-Clinton.....1997-Clinton....2001-Bush Jr.......2005-Bush Jr....2009-Clinton?

For twenty years the same people have been running this country. They have appointed everyone sitting in the position of power, from the cabinet members to the Supreme Court Justices to the heads of the CIA, FBI and Federal Reserve Bank (A privately owned and operated bank controlling the currency of the United States of America.). The people are in place, just like Hitlers.......the events are lining up, just like in Germany......all it will take is the command, just like Hitler in Germany.

Thanks for reading this and I hope I made sense of this all. As always, I look forward to reading your comments and view points on this topic. Please post them.

Thanks
Dan