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Germany: 1930, the Great Depression
In the early 1930's Germany, along with the rest of the Capitalist
world, was in a severe economic depression and Adolf Hitler,
a rising politician at the time (and, ironically, an Austrian),
was poised to pounce on its downtrodden citizens by manipulating
their misery to serve his own ends. Hitler had become leader
of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZIS),
and despite being jailed briefly after a failed putsch in
1923, he re-emerged as the undisputed leader of the Party
by the end of the 1920's. A combination of factors in Germany,
such as a starving economy, resentment over the peace terms
imposed on Germany after WWI, and a fear of Communism became
inflamed by Hitler's demonic charisma, led Germany towards
one of the biggest disasters in modern world history.
Hitler comes to power
In the 1920's the Nazi party had gained enough support to
win seats in the Reichstag (German legislature), and
by 1932 had won 33% of the vote. In 1933, the current President,
Hindenburg, appointed Hitler as Chancellor, thinking
he could better control him in that capacity. When Hindenburg
died, Hitler appointed himself both President and Chancellor,
declared a state of emergency, and suspended all individual
freedoms under the pretext of national security.
Hitler brought with him into power a vision of a new German
Empire in Europe, stretching deep into the Slavic lands of
Eastern and Central Europe. This ultra-nationalistic and xenophobic
plan for German redemption appealed to the young, the unemployed,
and those who remained bitter over WWI and Germany's downfall.
Hitler was not only a master of propaganda, but built an enormous
military to effectuate his megalomaniacal plan, and created
a formidable domestic security apparatus at home, which included
the S.A. (Nazi Storm Troopers) and the S.S. (Gestapo) to arrest
and kill political dissenters and opponents.
Aryan nation and anti-semitism
Hitler also had a deep hatred of Jewish people and used them
as a scapegoat, blaming them for-among other things-- the
loss of WWI. He merged this anti-Semitism with his vision
of an Aryan master race that he believed should rule the world.
Hitler was a visionary who envisaged a 'superman' race and
Empire to rival the Romans in strength, architecture, and
might.
Hitler's plan to conquer land for Germany and eventually
dominate Europe seemed to be coming to fruition as he steamrolled
through Europe during the 1939 - 1945 Second World War, using
the tactic of Blitzkrieg (lightning war), effectively
a fore-runner of Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush's 'shock
and awe' tactics in Iraq.
The Final Solution
Hitler implemented what he called the "Final Solution",
which was a massively organized plan to extinguish the whole
Jewish race, known now as the Holocaust. In 1933, he began
limiting the civil rights of Jewish people in Germany and
eventually began rounding up all the Jews in Germany and other
parts of Europe and sending them to concentration camps. Approximately
six million Jews along with six million others, such as gypsies,
homosexuals, and the mentally ill and infirm, died in these
concentration camps through starvation, execution, gassing,
and other forms of organized murder. Hitler's reign ended
when the Allies defeated the Germans in 1945 and marched through
Germany, opening the concentration camps and freeing those
who had survived.
Auschwitz concentration camp
Between 1.5 and 4 million Jews and other Nazi "undesirables"
like the disabled were killed in the camps in this small town
of Poland. The Auschwitz camp has been preserved as it was
at the time of Allied liberation as a memorial to those who
suffered and died there, while also serving as a constant
reminder of the potential of evil to those who live today.
The camp was first built in 1940 as a place to house Polish
political prisoners but later became the largest concentration
and extermination site in Europe. Two other camps, Birkenau
(Auschwitz II), and Monowice, were also built several
miles away and people were forced onto trains headed there
from all over Europe. Those who arrived would be selected
to be exterminated immediately, worked to death, or subjected
to medical experiments. The majority were killed in gas chambers
that resembled showers and then their bodies were incinerated
in one of the four large crematoriums the Nazis had built.
About 90% of those who were killed were Jews, and the others
were mostly Poles, homosexuals, gypsies and Soviet prisoners.
Auschwitz I was only partially destroyed by the fleeing Nazis
so the camp remains as a living monument of Poland's terrible
past.
Visiting Auschwitz today
The town of Oswiecim is about forty miles west of Krakow
and can be reached by train or bus. When visiting the camp,
you can wander around the buildings yourself, although you
may get more out of it if you buy the small Auschwitz-Birkenau
Guide Book available at the visitor's centre or take a
guided tour. Tours in English are guaranteed to leave at least
once, and possibly twice daily, and German tours can be arranged
if a group of seven or eight can be found. There is a documentary
film about the liberation of the camp that plays every half
hour in the visitor's centre which is shown in several different
languages throughout the day.
You can also take a look at Birkenau, even though most
of that camp was destroyed when the Nazis fled. There is a
viewing platform near the entrance that looks out over the
vast area fenced in by barbed wire where you can gain some
perspective on the massive scale of the Nazi's crime. It was
actually in Birkenau, with its four enormous gas chambers
and over 300 prison barracks, that most of the extermination
took place. |
