For the written version of this essay refer here. Cynthia Chung is the President of the Rising Tide Foundation and author of the book “The Empire on Which the Black Sun Never Set,” consider supporting her work by making a donation and subscribing to her substack page
At 12:20 you say "Hitler, who had started to make a small name for himself, was selected and endorsed as what had already been decided would be the fate of Germany".
This is the standard history which concedes to the Nazis that there was no alternative to them. But why did the German ruling class finally turn to fascism in January 1933? Why had the propaganda about democracy been exhausted and rule by terror was now required?
In the general election of November 1932 the Nazi vote had fallen by 2 million from the election of July 1932 and it was now below the combined vote of the SPD (social democrats) and KPD (Stalinist communists). The crisis intensified and the threat of socialist revolution rose, despite the leaderships of the SPD and KPD both insisting on constitutionalism. (In 1931 the KPD had even supported the Nazi Landtag referendum against the SPD state government and from 1932 had used the slogan "First Hitler, then us!")
The Nazi's fanatical anti-bolshevism was now needed and Hitler was appointed Chancellor in a cabinet that had only a minority of Nazi ministers. They proceeded carefully to see what the response of the SPD and KPD would be but not a shot was fired and over the next few months the Nazis built the dictatorship.
The militant anti-fascism of the German working class betrayed by the SPD and especially the KPD. Only Trotsky and the International Left Opposition has tried to warn workers of the danger and had called for a United Front (march separately, strike together) of the SPD and KPD but the KPD, following directives from Moscow, insisted the SPD were "social-fascists" and just as bad as the Nazis.
We must study and learn this history.
The Myth of “Ordinary Germans”: A Review of Daniel Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners
I think Cynthia Chung is absolutely brilliant. A definite enhancement to my critical thinking skills.
Excellent, as always, Cynthia!
Outstanding!
This was brilliant. Thank you!
At 12:20 you say "Hitler, who had started to make a small name for himself, was selected and endorsed as what had already been decided would be the fate of Germany".
This is the standard history which concedes to the Nazis that there was no alternative to them. But why did the German ruling class finally turn to fascism in January 1933? Why had the propaganda about democracy been exhausted and rule by terror was now required?
In the general election of November 1932 the Nazi vote had fallen by 2 million from the election of July 1932 and it was now below the combined vote of the SPD (social democrats) and KPD (Stalinist communists). The crisis intensified and the threat of socialist revolution rose, despite the leaderships of the SPD and KPD both insisting on constitutionalism. (In 1931 the KPD had even supported the Nazi Landtag referendum against the SPD state government and from 1932 had used the slogan "First Hitler, then us!")
The Nazi's fanatical anti-bolshevism was now needed and Hitler was appointed Chancellor in a cabinet that had only a minority of Nazi ministers. They proceeded carefully to see what the response of the SPD and KPD would be but not a shot was fired and over the next few months the Nazis built the dictatorship.
The militant anti-fascism of the German working class betrayed by the SPD and especially the KPD. Only Trotsky and the International Left Opposition has tried to warn workers of the danger and had called for a United Front (march separately, strike together) of the SPD and KPD but the KPD, following directives from Moscow, insisted the SPD were "social-fascists" and just as bad as the Nazis.
We must study and learn this history.
The Myth of “Ordinary Germans”: A Review of Daniel Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners
https://www.wsws.org/en/special/library/russian-revolution-unfinished-twentieth-century/15.html