The Persecution Begins: 1933-1935

[liberalmike27]

The Nazi terror began in earnest before Hitler’s regime was one month old. In On the wintry night But of February 27, 1933 just one week before the parliamentary elections were to be held on March 5 the Reichstag building in Berlin burned to the ground. When the police got to the scene, they found a determined, 24 year old Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe inside the burning building and charged him with setting the fire. To this day the question of whether van der Lubbe was working on this own or as a kind of Nazi stooge remains unresolved. In a trial held in the Leipzig between September 21 and December 23, 1933, the German Supreme Court found only van der Lubbe guilty of the crime and acquitted four other communists who had been indicted along with him. On January 10, 1934, van der Lubbe was executed by guillotine.

Hitler, however, but believed that the fire was part of a larger communist plot and that the fire was intended to act as a beacon for communist revolution in Germany. Recognizing that this presented him with an opportunity as well as the challenge, he reacted immediately to use the fire to his advantage. On the following day, February 28, 1933, he had President Paul von Hindenburg declare a state of emergency under article 48 of the Weimar constitution and issue a decree “but for the protection of people and state”; That decree led to the mass arrests of thousands of communists, socialists and trade unionists and the next weeks and months and also provided the original pseudo-legal basis for the terror that plagued German citizens for the rest of the Third Reich’s existence.

In its first section, the “Reichstag fire decree,” as it came to be known, set aside “until further notice” the basic rights of German citizens provided by the Weimar constitution. The decree empowered the government to take “all necessary measures to restore order and public security.” It placed severe limitations on personal freedom, the right of free expression, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of assembly; it permitted the authorities to spy on people’s private communications through the post, telegraph, and telephone; it allowed the police to conduct search and seizure operations in private homes; and it enabled the police to arrest people and put them in protective custody without charging them with as specific offense. From that point on, therefore, the Nazi police enjoyed extraordinary and largely unlimited powers. Over time the Gestapo emerged as the most important instrument of Nazi terror and its powers became ever greater. A circular of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt of 1940, for example, declared that “the legal validity of the state police’s dictates are not dependent on the decree ‘for the protection of the people and the state’ of 28 February 1933, which authorized the Gestapo to utilize all measures necessary to carry out its duties…rather they are derived from the general mandate that the German police and the Gestapo have been given in regard to the construction of the National-Socialist state.”

Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans by Eric Johnson
pp. 86-87

[liberalmike27]

1. Meant to Add

It is amazing how similar some of the reactions to the Reichstag fire are to what is happening today. Look at the actions Hitler took.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Yeah, there's some big similarities...

Also the way the German people were expected to show loyalty to Hitler rather than to the state reminds me a lot of the mindset of a lot of Americans today...

That book you quoted from is an excellent one, btw...

Violet...

[liberalmike27]

6. Well

I was getting tired of people saying we shouldn't compare Bush to Hitler, so I thought I'd do some research. I picked up a couple of books on Hitler's early years. I also want to read Ian Kershaw's two books set which breaks the rise of the Third Reich into two sections. It is supposed to be very good.

I find the similarities striking; much focus has been on Abu Ghraib, and Gitmo, but when you look internally at the machinations and rights destruction, constitutional destruction, then you find the most scary changes. Watch what you say! Were the Germans not terrorized, perhaps Hitler might have never gained as much sway. But, I have a lot to read still.

[The Stranger]

2. Kicked and nominated for greatest.

[earthboundmisfit]

3. So some portions of the Patriot Act are actually plagarized!

And why am I not surprised...

[spindoctor]

4. Van der Lubbe is from my home town. It's the classic MIHOP/LIHOP story

Van der Lubbe is fully reinstated, by the way. I believe there have been some efforts to get his remains back home and to raise a monument.

[liberalmike27]

7. Interesting

Veeeerrry Interesting. I don't care what they say, 9/11 was incredibly conveniently, coincidental, and I fail to see how our security can be so bad that this can be allowed to happen.

[grace0418]

19. Well, I can certainly see how our security can be bad enough

but I still think 9/11 was incredibly suspicious. And the reaction of the government was very telling. Not just dumbass continuing to read children's books but other high-ranking officials not knowing about the situation until after the buildings were hit.

Here is a quote from a post I wrote some time ago:

Paul Wolfowitz on the Pentagon attack:

Q: Do you remember then the impact of the plane into the Pentagon? Or had you first heard stories about New York? What was --

Wolfowitz: We were having a meeting in my office. Someone said a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Then we turned on the television and we started seeing the shots of the second plane hitting, and this is the way I remember it. It's a little fuzzy.

Q: Right.

Wolfowitz: There didn't seem to be much to do about it immediately and we went on with whatever the meeting was. Then the whole building shook. I have to confess my first reaction was an earthquake. I didn't put the two things together in my mind. Rumsfeld did instantly.

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030509-depsecdef0223.html

Does it seem weird to anyone else that the top officials in our government would be finding out about the WTC by turning on the television? I mean, how long did it take for the first plane to go off course after take-off from Logan? Wouldn't ANYONE have alerted the authorities in that time? Then, how long was it between the first strike and the second? The Pentagon?

According to a timeline, flight #11 lost contact at 8:14am and was officially called "hijacked" at 8:25. Impact with the first tower was at 8:46. Flight #175 lost contact at 8:41 and impacted the second tower at 9:02. Flight #77 impacted the Pentagon at 9:37am. So from 8:14 - 9:37 am our highest members of government were THAT CLUELESS?! They found out by turning on the t.v. like everyone else? Damn, I think the President found out about Pearl Harbor faster than that, and there were no such things as television, computers and cell phones.

Even if you don't believe that it was some kind of conspiracy, you have to be wondering why anyone would choose to vote for such an inept administration. Any way you look it at, it doesn't speak well of BushCo. That's why I never understood why BushCo gets high marks from so many (even some liberals) for his leadership after 9/11.

I also think the London bombings are incredibly suspicious as well.

Believe me, you're not going to be hearing any complaints from me regarding the Hitler comparison.

[Gay Green]

8. Van der Lubbe insisted he did it all by himself, with no help from anybody

If so, maybe it was a Nazi posing as a Communist who gave him the idea in the first place.

[kenny blankenship]

20. Lubbe was also mentally ill to the point of impairment and almost blind

So there is a background issue involved, how did one lone nut manage to get into the building and cause such a large fire by himself?

At the time, the Nazi Party was in charge of state security. That was a ministerial reward for their strength in parliament. The police force in Berlin responsible for government buildings was under Nazi direction.

At his trial Van der Lubbe appeared listless and apathetic. Evidence in writing had to be placed practically on his nose for him to read it (his eyes had been damaged by chalk dust). On the last day of the trial he became noticeably animated and insisted inner voices had made him do it. His helpfulness in convicting himself was redundant though, Hitler and Goering had arrived on the scene of the blaze and pronounced it the work of Communists. The next day, President Von Hindenburg was given a decree to sign abolishing freedom of speech and the press. 10,000 Communists, socialists and trade union organizers were jailed.

The Bundestag continued to meet in an opera house, but the only thing Hitler wanted from it is a declaration of his dictatorial powers. It's enough to make you wonder how something so convenient for Hitler's aims could have happened at such a convenient time.

Karl Ernst, the head of the S.A. in Berlin is reported to have said when asked by a Dutch fascist whether the S.A. had set the fire "If I said Yes, I'd be a fool, and if I said No I'd be a liar." But it's hard to evaluate this even if it's an accurate quotation. Karl Ernst was prone to stupid statements, which would soon mark him for elimination from the Nazi organization at Hitler's orders.

[atommom]

9. Thanks for the historical perspective. It's amazing how easily these

tactics can work on the public, even when they have been used before.

[liberalmike27]

10. It Helps

When the majority of our population are dumbasses (at least republicans). Hey, can you say dumbasses here?

[atommom]

11. How can we discuss politics WITHOUT saying dumbasses?

Welcome to DU, BTW. :hi:

[liberalmike27]

14. Thanks

Been a member for a while, but I stay at iwon politics board a lot more than here. I'm just not prolific here, but over there I'm the ire-raiser of the neo-conners.

[sled]

13. Absolutely...

just never in a manner that offends the local, ROVEing, PC police...they generally troll at night, with their fingers on the "ALERT", under the guise of "helping the mods & admins" clean up, what they personally don't agree with...

SEE: "To help the admins and mods, list sources that are too crazy or racist" (PURGED & LOCKED)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4086895#4087942

[liberalmike27]

15. Yea

I noticed a bias in the moderators during the primary, which in my opinion is the most fun time on this site. You have some interaction and argumentation. They took a lot of my stuff of about Kerry, and I felt it was kind of silly to have a policy that prevented the free flow, and exchange of ideas, good and bad about the candidates. They shouldn't advocate, and I felt they did many times. I ended up just not posting here much, as they took the joy out of the primary for me.

[cthrumatrix]

12. all about power and corrpution --- at soo many levels

[bloom]

16. From the "Power of Nightmares" - in the 80s

Neocons who were running the show were basing their ideas on fabrications by the CIA - they didn't know was propaganda.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4081103#4084857

VO: But the neoconservatives had a powerful ally. He was William Casey, and he was the new head of the CIA. Casey was sympathetic to the neoconservative view. And when he read the Terror Network book, he was convinced. He called a meeting of the CIA’s Soviet analysts at their headquarters, and told them to produce a report for the President that proved this hidden network existed. But the analysts told him that this would be impossible, because much of the information in the book came from black propaganda the CIA themselves had invented to smear the Soviet Union. They knew that the terror network didn’t exist, because they themselves had made it up.


MELVIN GOODMAN , Head of Soviet Affairs CIA, 1976-87: And when we looked through the book, we found very clear episodes where CIA black propaganda—clandestine information that was designed under a covert action plan to be planted in European newspapers—were picked up and put in this book. A lot of it was made up. It was made up out of whole cloth.

---

What a nightmare.

[Lannes]

17. A similar take

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3575.htm

Nazi Germany's War On Terrorism


Hitler used the 1933 burning of the Reichstag (Parliament) building by a deranged Dutchman to declare a “war on terrorism,” establish his legitimacy as a leader (even though he hadn’t won a majority in the previous election).





“You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history,” he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. “This fire,” he said, his voice trembling with emotion, “is the beginning.” He used the occasion – “a sign from God,” he called it – to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their “evil” deeds in their religion.



Two weeks later, the first prison for terrorists was built in Oranianberg, holding the first suspected allies of the infamous terrorist. In a national outburst of patriotism, the nation’s flag was everywhere, even printed in newspapers suitable for display.



Within four weeks of the terrorist attack, the nation’s now-popular leader had pushed through legislation, in the name of combating terrorism and fighting the philosophy he said spawned it, that suspended constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, and habeas corpus. Police could now intercept mail and wiretap phones; suspected terrorists could be imprisoned without specific charges and without access to their lawyers; police could sneak into people’s homes without warrants if the cases involved terrorism.



To get his patriotic “Decree on the Protection of People and State” passed over the objections of concerned legislators and civil libertarians, he agreed to put a 4-year sunset provision on it: if the national emergency provoked by the terrorist attack on the Reichstag building was over by then, the freedoms and rights would be returned to the people, and the police agencies would be re-restrained.



Within the first months after that terrorist attack, at the suggestion of a political advisor, he brought a formerly obscure word into common usage. Instead of referring to the nation by its name, he began to refer to it as The Fatherland. As hoped, people’s hearts swelled with pride, and the beginning of an us-versus-them mentality was sewn. Our land was “the” homeland, citizens thought: all others were simply foreign lands.



Within a year of the terrorist attack, Hitler’s advisors determined that the various local police and federal agencies around the nation were lacking the clear communication and overall coordinated administration necessary to deal with the terrorist threat facing the nation, including those citizens who were of Middle Eastern ancestry and thus probably terrorist sympathizers. He proposed a single new national agency to protect the security of the Fatherland, consolidating the actions of dozens of previously independent police, border, and investigative agencies under a single powerful leader.



Most Americans remember his Office of Fatherland Security, known as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and Schutzstaffel, simply by its most famous agency’s initials: the SS.



And, perhaps most important, he invited his supporters in industry into the halls of government to help build his new detention camps, his new military, and his new empire which was to herald a thousand years of peace. Industry and government worked hand-in-glove, in a new type of pseudo-democracy first proposed by Mussolini and sustained by war.

05/30/03: (Cobalt.com)

[liberalmike27]

18. Good Stuff

I noted the similarity along with a few others as it was happening, and I certainly don't have a deep historical understanding of the Third Reich. Since then I've worked hard to steep myself in this period, and I see increasing numbers of similarities inside and outside, internally and externally, that shakes me to the bone, and makes me fear that we are heading down a dark road.

Conservatives seem oblivious, and non caring, their brainwashing holding tight.