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Monday, March 14, 2011

Nazi Germany ~ What Happened?

Wow! Getting caught up this momentum is dangerous. We have to remember that...

"Everyone has rights; 
as long as it does not interfere 
with the rights of others."

... and this regime interfered in the rights of the Jews to live... and "blinded" the many good citizens of Germany.


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Nazi Germany 
~ an Excerpt from 
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Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich,[4] is a name referring to the German state from 1933 to 1945 when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler legally became Chancellor of Germany, appointed by President Paul von Hindenburg. Although he initially headed a coalition government, he quickly made Hindenburg a puppet and eliminated his non-Nazi partners. The Nazi regime restored economic prosperity and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending while suppressing labor unions and strikes. The return of prosperity gave the regime enormous popularity, and no serious opposition ever emerged to serve as a challenge to its rule. The Gestapo (secret state police) under Heinrich Himmler destroyed the liberalsocialist and Communist opposition and persecuted the Jews, attempting to force them into exile while taking their property. The Party took control of the courts, local government, and all civic organizations except the Protestant and Catholic churches.[5] All expressions of public opinion were controlled by Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotic speaking.[6] The Nazi state idolized Hitler as its Führer, putting all powers in his hands. Nazi propaganda centered on Hitler and was quite effective in creating what historians called the "Hitler Myth"--that Hitler was all-wise and that any mistakes or failures by others would be corrected when brought to his attention. In fact, Hitler had a narrow range of interests and decision making was diffused among overlapping, feuding power centers; on some issues he was passive, simply assenting to pressures from whomever had his ear. All top officials reported to Hitler and followed his basic policies, but they had considerable autonomy on a daily basis.[7] Hitler's diplomatic strategy in the 1930s was to make seemingly reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not met. When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains that were offered, then moved on to his next goal. That aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the League of Nations (1933), rejected the Versailles Treaty and began to re-arm (1935), won back the Saar (1935), remilitarized the Rhineland (1936), formed an alliance ("axis") with Benito Mussolini's Italy (1936), sent massive military aid to Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), annexed Austria in the Anschluss (1938), took over Czechoslovakia after the British and French appeasement of the Munich Agreement of 1938, formed a peace pact with the Soviet Union (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) in August 1939, and finally invaded Poland in September 1939. Britain and France declared war and World War II began—somewhat sooner than the Nazis expected or were ready for.[8][page needed] During the war, Germany conquered or controlled most of Europe and Northern Africa. The Nazis persecuted and killed millions of JewsRomani people and others in the Holocaust Final Solution. Despite its Axis alliance with other nations, mainly Italy and Japan, by 8 May 1945 Germany had been defeated by the Allied Powers, and was occupied by the Soviet Union, United StatesUK and France.

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