Nazi Germany's War On Terror

[RBHam]

http://c0balt.com/resources/terror/terror.shtml

Excerpt:
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.

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[DuctapeFatwa]

1. And the people of Germany went right along

Who wouldn't be willing to make sacrifices to save their nation from terrorism?

In fact, anyone who would object to whatever measures might be necessary must be "with the terrorists."

As always, the question is how many people will you hide in YOUR basement when the day comes?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

2. wasn't Reichstag

wasn't the Reichstag fire,in the end, determined to have been directly ordered by Hitler himself? Why doesn't the author mention this, and isn't omission of this central fact critical to understanding history? Or does the author know that Reichstag was ordered by Hitler yet does not mention this because to do so would mean accusing Bush of 9/11 directly?

[RBHam]

3. No one can prove it now

The Dutch guy was probably a patsy, the Nazis probably did set the fire, but they didn't have an independent investigation.

[MrPrax]

6. Missing the point?

I read this article last year and I think the point the author is making is more of the reaction of organzied government and the passivity of the people to an act of 'terrorism' and it's slippery slope...

Accuracy in history tends to be the stuff of academics...maybe Georgi Dimitrov and the Commies did it, maybe the Brownshirts...

Kinda like 911--unless survaillence footage of the Junta sitting around plotting it, then the official story will frame the debate regarding the Admin's actions...

But becoming an criminal to beat criminals?
Is that a civilzed response or one born out of opportunism, greed and conquest? Planned or otherwise doesn't enter into the calculations at this point...it's the consequences that matter to Progressives.

Like what will happen to Progressives if they disagree with 'opportunism, greed and conquest' as a solution...to crime

[RBHam]

4. Passive Collaborator or Fierce Resistor

Ask yourself what you are.

[laura888]

5. wooooooo!!!! The similarities are downright eerie!

everyone should wake up and see this!

What's going on now is much more similar to Hitler's rise than the freepers' comparison of America's actions during and after WWII.

[weasel]

7. Transatlantic trembles

This is worrying. I normally post on a UK website - Guardian Unlimited Talk, and some of the US posters fear a substantial loss of civil liabilities (they call it fascism) if GWB wins a second term. I thought that their views to be ridiculously exaggerated.....

[Toby109]

10. Hey weasel

Welcome to the DU.

:hi:

[weasel]

11. Thanks for the welcome, Toby

Glad to meet you. Do you think the posters who talk of 'coming fascism' are just crying wolf?

[alfredo]

13. It is not crying wolf, it is attempting to stop it before

it gets too bad.

Bush has on several occasions has expressed his desire to be the dictator. Many of the party leaders have connection to ultra right groups.

Read up on the neo conservative movement, their and their interpretation of Straussian philosophy. You should also read the article, "Rebuilding America's Defenses." This article was penned by his supporters and members of his administration. You will see reference to the PNAC. That is the group that penned the article.

Some of us do get a bit excited, but there is real concern about losing our freedoms.



Moveon.org and Blackboxvoting.org are good groups of activist. What you see here is just a small part of the pro democracy movement.


Welcome to DU

[Eloriel]

19. Not at all, weasel

In fact, there are plenty of people who would say we're already there.

And if we don't get the voting machine problem fixed, they will be able to have their totalitarian state while retaining the illusion of democracy.

Eloriel

[newyawker99]

12. Hi weasel!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Cleita]

8. Anyone who wants to read a detailed account of this

and other historical things about Hitler's rise to power and descent, read "The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich" by William L Shirer, who lived in Nazi Germany before WWII and after as a foreign correspondent and was witness to much of what went on. He was also given access to all the Nazi records that were retrieved after the war in order to put this history together.

Page after page, one is struck by many of the similarities between the Nazi regime and the Busheviks. The propaganda techniques, the use of scare tactics to cow the population, the doctrine of eternal war, and the lying and double dealing are all there to see and compare.

[Fenris]

17. Grunberg's "12 Year Reich" is also chilling when compared with W's regime

[Must_B_Free]

9. Here's Americas warsaw ghetto

Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns
By DEXTER FILKINS

Published: December 7, 2003

ABU HISHMA, Iraq, Dec. 6 — As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire.

In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents to turn themselves in.

New concept - "imprisonment of hope?"

[mmonk]

14. I remember reading

all the different things about how they came to power. I remember asking myself and my father (who fought against them) how the people of Germany could have let that happen.

[Eloriel]

15. This is the ONE thing we have going for us

(aside from the internet) --is a map of how we can get there (that is, Germany's history).

Unfortunately, that map, that history doesn't include how to successfully overcome the march to a fascist totalitarian state from within. (That is what frightens me the most, ultimately.)

Here is what I consider a must read account of how "good Germans" could be led down that path:

They Thought They Were Free
http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free_nn4.html

Eloriel

[mmonk]

16. Interesting link

thanks.

[govegan]

18. and the fascists went on to intervene in Spain

to insure the success of Franco and the fascists there, in the struggle against the Republican cause, the Spanish liberals.

Followed by the exile of Unamuno, Machado and others, and the murder of Lorca and other liberal artists and thinkers.

Combating the liberal causes in the "war against terror," some of the same excuses we hear today in the US.

[banana republican]

20. Don't forget

That the bush family was intimately involved with Hitlers rise to power. The assets of Prescott Bush's company were seized during WWII for "trading with the enemy". I have a feeling that what prescott learned has been passed on to junior...