The Rise of Evil

by bcagle
Posted In: Education, Education, History

“All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself.”

-Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”), Vol. I

In this video series, Hitler the Rise of Evil, we are given a view of HOW such evil could take over a people so completely.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

A Little History – Think about it…
Domestic Policy . Transition to One-Party Dictatorship : In the night from February 27th to 28th 1933, Dutch Communist Martinus van der Lubbe set the Berlin Reichstag (parliament building) on fire; he was caught on the spot. Nazi propaganda did not blame him as an individual, but the entire Communist movement for the act; police as well as Nazi militias (SA, SS, now enjoying the status of semi-official organizations) began to hunt Communists and Social Democrats, who ended up in makeshift Concentration Camps, such as Börgermoor (Emsland); the song “Die Moorsoldaten” describes the conditions in such early camps. Perhaps the most famous inmate of the early days : Carl von Ossietzky (Nobel Peace Prize for 1935). Following the Italian model, Hitler asked for a law empowering him to rule without parliament (Ermächtigungsgesetz / Enabling Act, passed March 23rd 1933). Soon afterward all parties except the NSDAP were disbanded or declared illegal. Then the Gleichschaltung was introduced (1933-1937), the synchronisation of all state governments (Prussia : February 6th 1933, by decree) and major organisations of society with the NSDAP. President Paul von Hindenburg died in 1934; Hitler ran for Germany’s highst office, while holding on to his post as chancellor. From 1934 he held both positions.

Economic Policy : In January 1933, Hitler had to deliver on his promise of drastically reducing unemployment. Hitler’s solution was to kickstart the economy by printing money, financing Germany’s ambitious Armament Policy (in violation of the Treaty of Versailles) and it’s infrastructure projects like the construction of the Autobahn network. Unemployment was sharply reduced, and the economical situation improved considerably, for the moment. However, at foreign banks German mark were no longer accepted; exports had to be paid for in foreign currency. The German economy was a bubble economy, the bubble was expected to burst in 1940, at the latest. By that time Hitler planned to have started a major war.

Unemployment figures : 1933 26.3 %, 1934 14.9 %, 1935 11.6 %, 1936 8.3 %, 1937 4.6 %, 1938 2.1 % [IHS p.163].

Banknote circulation 1932 4.1 billion RM, 1938 8.6 billion RM [IHS p.767]; total central government expenditure in 1932 5.9 billion RM, in 1934 8.2 billion RM, from 1935 onward data no longer published [IHS p.799].

As in Italy, Germany was transformed into a corporate economy, i.e. the trade unions deprived of their right to strike. Hitler, as Mussolini, dreamt of achieving autarchy for the German economy; his vision of “Lebensraum im Osten” included the acquisition of oil wells in the Caucasus or beyond the Urals.

Hitler was an admirer of Henry Ford and supported the establishment of the Volkswagenwerk in Wolfsburg. His autobahn project, on the other hand, originally had more military than economic functions.
See Also: http://www.ushmm.org/museum/press/kits/details.php?content=propaganda