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在Ian Kershaw的《独裁者的制造》一章中，他看了希特勒从1933年1月30日被任命为总理的时间到1933 3月5日大选后的早期。
1月30日，当希特勒被任命为总理时，他的内阁得到了很大的支持和希望，但也有数百万人反对他。当时的社民党主席Julius Leber质疑希特勒政府，他说：“我们知道他们的目标。没有人知道他们的下一步措施是什么。当希特勒成为总理时，许多普通人没有反应，因为他们经历了大萧条的斗争。其他人认为希特勒在德国政治中没有任何持久的力量，因为他们认为当希特勒的承诺空虚时，他将失去人气。即使批评家也能看到，如果希特勒能够解决大规模失业，他会得到很多支持。2月27日，马吕努斯向吕布贝开火。纳粹的宣传工作开始了，并支持纳粹党的阴谋。希特勒呼吁保护人民和国家的紧急法令。有一段话，希特勒有效地剥夺了魏玛宪法中规定的个人自由，包括言论自由、结社自由和新闻自由，以及邮政和电话通信的隐私权。在希特勒执政四个月内，工会解散，六个月内所有反对党都被镇压或被解职，最活跃的政治领导人逃离了这个国家
In Ian Kershaw's chapter titled The Making of the Dictator, he takes a look at Hitler's time from being appointed chancellor on January 30th, 1933 to the early days after the election of March 5th 1933.
When Hitler was appointed chancellor on January 30th, there was much support and hope for his cabinet, but there were also millions of people against him. Julius Leber, SPD Reichstag deputy at the time, questioned Hitler's government, he said "We know their aims. Nobody knows what their next measures will be. The dangers are enormous” (331). Nobody knew just how dangerous Hitler could be at that time. When Hitler became chancellor many ordinary people did not react, because of the struggle they had experienced through the Depression. Others did not think that Hitler had any staying power in German politics, because they thought that Hitler would lose popularity when the emptiness of his promises was revealed. Even the critics could see that if Hitler was able to tackle mass unemployment he would gain a lot of support. On February 27th Marinus an der Lubbe set fire to the Reichstag. Nazi propaganda went to work and rallied support against the communists for what the Nazi's made out to be their plot. Hitler called an emergency decree for the protection of people and state. With one paragraph Hitler had effectively taken away personal liberties that had been defined in the Weimar Constitution including freedom of speech, of association and of the press, and of privacy of postal and telephone communications. Within four months of Hitler being in power trade unions were dissolved and within six months all opposition parties had been suppressed or had been liquated and the most active political leaders had fled the country. The growing threats within the Nazi party were eliminated in the “Night of the Long Knives” on June 30th 1934. When Hitler was just starting as chancellor, he knew that he could not rule without the support of the military. Hitler was able to win support with promises of major military support. In the first cabinet meeting Hitler portrayed a very different side. He was open to suggestions, ready to take advice, and listened to other view points. Hitler's first cabinet meeting took place on January 30th 1933 and it was at this meeting that Hitler stated that he wanted to have the Reichstag dissolved and win a majority in a new election in March. Hitler was able to convince Hindenburg to dissolve parliament and the campaign went in full swing. “Appeal of the Reich Government to the German People” was the first time that Hitler spoke to the German people on the radio. "Within four years the German peasant must be saved from impoverishment. Within four years unemployment must be overcome...Now, German people give us four years and then judge and sentence us" (440-441), though he had addressed the economy, he never specified how he was going to fix it. During the campaign Hitler also had not yet made a plan for war, but he made sure that military spending was going to be a priority, “the next five years must be devoted to the restoration of the defence capacity of the German people" (444). Once again Hitler offered no concrete measures on how he was going to do this, but the National defence was soon given 35 billion R M over an 8 year period. Hitler painted this upcoming election as the last chance to reject communism in Germany, and hinted that if they didn't, force would be used. Hitler was really ignorant of the principles of economics and received a lot of credit for things that he should not have. Though Hitler at one point made a speech about a gradual tax relief for the automobile industry and road building program, he actually had not mentioned a specific program, but rather the prospect of one. Any tax relief that was given to the automobile industry was part of a larger framework. Hitler also had communists beaten, tortured and wounded, but for some reason the violence and repression of rights were wildly popular. When the election results were announced on March 5th, the Nazis had won 43.9% of the vote and their coalition partners gained 8%. Hitler was now in place to become the dictator of Germany.
This chapter in the book really showed how Hitler was really a master of politics. He absolutely disregarded the specifics of any important situation and continually used his rhetoric to make people believe that things were being or would be done. It's incredible that he was able to make something like the taking away of personal liberties popular among the people. This chapter is very informative and Kershaw has an easy to read writing style. My problem with his writing is that he tends to jump in time a lot and that is not helpful when people are trying to do their research in chronological order. Kershaw does do an excellent job of emphasizing just how effective Hitler was at achieving his goals, like when Hitler first became chancellor and portrayed himself as a man who was trying to learn and cared about the opinions of others. Or how Hitler said that the violence against communists was committed by people who were disobeying his orders, thus effectively removing himself from the situation. This information will be especially useful to me in the body of my essay as I try to justify my choice of Hitler as the most important person of the twentieth century.
Kershaw, Ian.Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000: pp 129-159
In Ian Kershaw's chapter titled Marks of Genocidal Mentality a close look is taken at the build-up towards the genocide against the Jews and the vital role that Kristallnacht played in that.
The day before Kristallnacht, Himmler gave a speech in which he said "In Germany the Jew cannot hold out. This is a question of years. We will drive them out more and more with an unprecedented ruthlessness" (131). On the night of November 9-10 Germany exploded in a display of violence against its Jewish community. This was a nationwide pogrom and it was the third wave of anti-Semitic violence, which the previous ones took place in 1933 and 1935. At the beginning of 1933 there had been some 50, 000 Jewish businesses in Germany. By July 1938 there were only 9000 left. In Munich, there were 1,690 Jewish owned businesses and this number fell to 666 by October 1938. There was a flood of legislative measures that imposing discriminatory restrictions and occupational bans on Jewish doctors and lawyers, Jews weren't even allowed to be pedlars. A decree made on August 17 had made it mandatory for males to add the forename Israel and for females to add the forename Sara; these names were to be used in all official matters. On October 5th Jews were made to have a “J” stamped on their passports. A few days after that, Göring declared that "the Jewish Question must now be tackled with all means available, for they must get out of the economy” (144). Make no mistake, Hitler had never deviated from the fact that Germany's salvation could only come through the destruction of Europe's Jews. During a visit to Munich, Hitler took objection to the location of the city's largest synagogue and the Jewish community was only given a few hours of notice before its destruction. Hitler did not want to be publicly associated with the anti-Jewish movement during 1938. He did this to preserve his image at home and abroad. For example, the press was not allowed to ask him about the “Jewish question” when he was travelling over Germany and the legislation that ousted Jewish lawyers was not publicized, since it took place during the Sudeten crisis and would draw bad publicity. “Aryan” businesses looked for every opportunity to profit off of their Jewish counter parts. Jewish businesses were bought out by “Aryan” businesses. Doctors and lawyers wanted to take advantage of the economic opportunities available if the Jews were ousted. There is no doubt that Hitler supported the action against Jew's even if he wasn't in the limelight at this time. Hitler was moving away from the assumption that emigration would remove the “Jewish problem” as only ¼ of Jews had left Germany by October 1938. The Evian Conference had a major role in this as 32 countries refused to increase their Jewish immigration quotas. “Crystal Night” had a huge effect on Hitler, and after the pogrom Hitler agreed with Goebbels that the time to unleash the fury of the Nazi movement on the Jews had come. In his speech to the Reichstag on January 30th 1939, Hitler revealed his intentions of genocide. |
