Europe Features
Seventy-five years on, Germany still haunted by Nazi past
By Mike Swanson Jan 30, 2008, 11:39 GMT
Berlin - A 'leap in the dark' was how one journalist described the fateful day 75 years ago when Adolf Hitler came to power.
Within the space of a few months Hitler's Nazi Party used violence to silence their opponents while the vast majority of Germans acquiesced as they were manoeuvred into enforced political conformity.
What began as a period of optimism and jubilation for many Germans ended in the destruction of their country, a world war and genocide against European Jewry.
The moral trauma of Hitler still affects Germany today. Denying the Holocaust is a crime, so is displaying Nazi regalia or inciting racial hatred.
'There is an extraordinary sense of national responsibility for what went on,' says Ian Kershaw, a British historian who has written two biographies of Hitler.
Just how sensitive the Germans are was demonstrated last autumn when a television-presenter-turned-author was vilified for suggesting that not everything in the Nazi era was bad.
Eva Herman was sacked by the public television broadcaster that employed her for 19 years over statements she made which appeared to glorify family policies under Hitler.
She was also booted off a television chat show for refusing to apologize for the remarks, saying instead: 'If one isn't allowed to discuss Nazi family values, then neither can one talk about the German autobahns, which were built during the Third Reich.'
How could Germans have thought they'd found national salvation in Hitler is a question often asked today in a society that is still living with the moral trauma of the Nazi era.
Libraries full of books have been written about the Nazi Party and their leader, attempting to provide an answer to the rise and fall of one of the most scrutinized figures in history.
One view is that Hitler came to power as a result of miscalculation by conservative politicians and the military after 37 per cent of the electorate had thrown its support behind his party.
President Paul von Hindenburg swore in Hitler as chancellor on January 30, 1933 after an attempt by the previous head of government to form a coalition with a rival to the Nazi leader failed.
'The political leadership at the time underestimated Hitler beyond all measure and attempts to use him for their own political goals failed spectacularly,' historian Andreas Wirsching wrote in the news magazine Der Spiegel.
The Nazis played on historic fears and complaints with great effect, blaming Jews for many of the country's woes and promising to tear up the Treaty of Versailles which committed Germany to paying huge reparations after World War I.
At a time of widespread unemployment, the Nazis' clever use of propaganda, posters and film shows captured the imagination of a disillusioned population and gave them fresh hope. It also created an image of a powerful party with strong leadership.
Hours after Hitler was sworn in as chancellor, thousands of Nazi stormtroopers staged a torchlight procession through the arches of Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate, the flames casting an uneasy shadow on surrounding buildings.
Less than a month later the Reichstag parliament building was in flames. A Dutch communist activist, Marinus van der Lubbe, was arrested, convicted of arson and guillotined. Earlier this month, Germany's federal prosecutor overturned the guilty verdict.
Hitler seized on the incident and persuaded Hindenburg to sign a decree curtailing civil liberties, paving the way for the suppression of thousands of communists and other groups opposed to the Nazis.
This first step on the way towards dictatorial rule was followed in quick succession by the establishment of the first concentration camps and a Nazi-organized boycott of Jewish goods.
In May, the Nazis launched a crackdown on trades unions and staged a mass burning of books by Jews, communists and 'degenerates' with the aim of cleansing the country of un-German thoughts.
The opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) was banned the following month, with other democratic political parties meeting the same fate as Hitler consolidated his grip on power.
Six years later Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, starting World War II. The Holocaust began soon afterwards. The result was a continent in ruins and more than 50 million dead.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Of course they don't literally mean that denying it is a legislative crime. They mean it is a moral crime to suggest it didn't happen or that the Jews somehow deserved their fate.
The Holocaust was one of the darkest events in all of human history. To suggest that the Jews profited from the experience in any way is downright insane.
It is fascinating how frightened everyone is about this subject. Here is a person trying to have a discussion about a historical event and people just go buggin over it.
One group is so afraid of antagonizing the jews. The jews feed their well earned paranoia with it. Others spend their time misunderstanding everyone else.
It makes you wonder how these types handle something like.....global warming....?
Ashraf and SP4 show their true motive for posting, the artical is about Germany and its coming to terms with the past, a war that killed millions upon millions of all nations, but their tiny little minds can only talk about Jews. 'I point to the moon and you look at my finger.'
Phillip, it is precisely a legislative crime to deny the holocaust in Germany & Austria, not merely a moral crime, which is what strikes me as the most comment-worthy aspect of the article (yes, Goose, we can comment on any aspect of the article, not just the main focus of it, you pea-brained semi-literate opinionated jerk).
People are jailed for denying the holocaust in those countries! (just google David Irving).
And Phillip, check out ‘The Holocaust Industry’ written by a Jew named Finkelstein, which details many ways how the Jews have become rich from the Holocaust Industry. If you read this book, you will see that the notion of capitalizing on the holocaust isn’t so insane after all… just ask the Swiss Banks!
I expect folks to capitalize on something like this. I expect the Germans to crap every time someone suggests they are 'slipping' in some way. How many wronged peoples spend generation after generation in a culture of grievance, making it their life's work to constantly remind those, who are no more responsible for the grievance that they are, somehow, to blame and should, for whatever reason, feel guilty.
I happen to think there is value in reminding folks about such a thing. I expect though, that some Germans, who never participated in this, and just happen to be German, are beginning to get a little frustrated about it. I know I would, being singled out for what my ancestors did.
This is why you get backlash and it's something worth noting. Nonetheless, if I lived in Europe. and witnessed the last century, I'd be reminding everyone, too!
Ok Ashraf im a pea brain semi-literate fool but lets apply your logic. I think the the prophet Mohammed was a pedophile Arab peasent. I also think that his words were just a copy of much earlier stories and that he was a self serving fake who came up with a way to fool ignorant fools into buying him a meal or two, I like to wipe my fat white butt on the pages of the Koran...will you invite me to your town and stand up for my rights to freedom of speech?
Goose, I couldn't agree with you more regarding Islam's so-called 'prophet'!
I think you misunderstand my comments regarding freedom of speech. In Islam they stifle it by beheading you & in Germany/Austria they stifle it by putting you in jail. I think both are disgraceful examples.
If you want to speak out against Islam because pious Muslims around the world have murdered over 10,000 people in the name of their 'religion' since 9/11 you should certainly be able to do so!
If you want to speak out against this Jewish phenomenon of capitalizing on the holocaust and using it to, for example, rape the Swiss banks, you should certainly be able to do so!
I guess we're actually in agreement here, aren't we?
Lol...I'll be damned, yes I think we do!
page: 1
AshrafJan 30th, 2008 - 17:43:42
The article states in Germany 'Denying the Holocaust is a crime'.
What a blatant, outrageous stifling of freedom of speech!
Imagine going to jail for merely voicing your historical views!
That's just as oppressive as any law under Hitler.
This kind of heavy handed legislature strongly implies the Jews have something to hide here... the Holocaust Industry has made them rich at the expense of any legitimate Jewish suffering
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