Introduction The experience of democracy that has lasted just over ten years is characterized by strong social tensions and political instability. What interests us is to understand this seizure of power by the Nazis in a peaceful manner and the advent of the regime of the Third Reich, since Hitler would soon suspend the individual[…]
The Weimar Republic came to bear for many the humiliation of World War I and the blame for all its accompanying hardships. Introduction “Weimar Republic” is the name given to the German government between the end of the Imperial period (1918) and the beginning of Nazi Germany (1933). Political turmoil and violence, economic hardship, and[…]
Lucy and Suzanne’s story shows that quiet, persistent rewriting of the narrative of oppression can be a powerful means of fighting back. Whenever Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe went into town to do some shopping, they also snuck messages to the Nazi occupation forces. Suzanne pulled a small note typed on a piece of thin[…]
This cut-and-paste aesthetic was wholly embraced by Berlin Dada as a form of political and social critique. Introduction If we look closely at the cacophony of seemingly random images that make up Hannah Höch’s large-scale photomontage, a cross-section of Weimar Germany’s cultural and political milieu comes into focus. Here, the “Kitchen Knife Dada”—a metaphor for[…]
Germany’s superior woodworking and stuccowork traditions aided in refashioning the imported Baroque and Rococo styles. Introduction On a bright summer day, when sunlight pours through the windows of Vierzehnheiligen Church at just the right angle, the interior glows with dazzling warmth. Joyful painted and sculpted putti fly overhead, while sculpted foliage and leafy cartouches seem to organically grow over[…]
There is a suggestion that the name is in fact a veiled pun on a Low German phrase translating to “wipe-arse”. Introduction Till Eulenspiegel is the protagonist of a German chapbook published in 1515 (a first edition of c. 1510/12 is preserved fragmentarily) with a possible background in earlier Middle Low German folklore. Eulenspiegel is[…]
Hitler used the referendum to legitimize his move to take the title Führer und Reichskanzler (Führer and Chancellor). Introduction and Background A referendum on merging the posts of Chancellor and President was held in Germany on 19 August 1934,[1] seventeen days after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg. The leadership of Nazi Germany sought[…]
The fin-de-siècle generation condemned the rationalistic individualism of liberal society and the dissolution of social links in bourgeois society. Defining Fascism and Its Early History Overview Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, then spread[…]
The text, first published in 98 C.E., has a long legacy. By Emily T. Simon Ask a well-read individual to list the most dangerous books in history, and a few familiar titles would most likely make the cut: Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” Marx and Engels’ “The Communist Manifesto,” Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book.” But what about[…]
Hitler took advantage of severe conditions at the time that were extremely favorable for the fast growth of his monstrous movement. Introduction In 1934, after the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler became the absolute dictator of Germany under the title Fuhrer or “Leader”. He ruled Germany with an iron fist[…]
Hitler identified himself as Christian and said “the [Nazi] Party represents the standpoint of Positive Christianity”. Introduction Positive Christianity (German: Positives Christentum) was a movement within Nazi Germany which mixed the belief that the racial purity of the German people should be maintained by mixing Nazi ideology with elements of Christianity. Adolf Hitler used the[…]
It’s final collapse was brought about by Allied military victories plus the open rebellion of the people. By Dr. Mario EinaudiLate Professor of GovernmentCornell University Introduction From his birth in 1883 to the day of his death in 1945 Benito Mussolini was many things to many men. Son of a blacksmith of radical persuasion, Mussolini[…]
Fascism is a far-right theory of government that opposes the political philosophies of the Englightenment and the 19th century. Definition and Beliefs Fascism is an ultranationalist, authoritarian political philosophy. It combines elements of nationalism, militarism, economic self-sufficiency, and totalitarianism. It opposes communism, socialism, pluralism, individual rights and equality, and democratic government. Fascism places the importance[…]
The field where wily Germanic warriors halted the spread of the Roman Empire. “This is the soil of 2,000 years ago, where we are standing now,” Susanne Wilbers-Rost was saying as a young volunteer pried a small, dark clod out of it. Wilbers-Rost, a specialist in early German archaeology, peered through wire-rimmed glasses, brushed away[…]
The German Resistance movement consisted of several disparate strands that were ultimately unable to bring Hitler down. Introduction The German Resistance refers to those individuals and groups in Nazi Germany who opposed the regime of Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Hitler from power and overthrow[…]
The author is led to his ancestral shtetl and the extermination of its inhabitants by Nazi bullets or those of their Ukrainian accomplices. In 2011 an upholsterer in Amsterdam found a bundle of swastika-covered documents inside the cushion of an armchair he was repairing. The papers all belonged to Dr. Robert Griesinger, a lawyer from[…]
By Von Diaz and Emma Bowman Around Memorial Day of 2000, Emily Aho took her then 75-year-old father, Emilio “Leo” DiPalma, on a trip back to Germany, where the World War II veteran served as a guard at the Nuremberg Trials. Coming up on Memorial Day two decades later, Aho holds those memories with him[…]
The Pope and the president both opted to look away from the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time. Researchers combing through recently-opened wartime records of the Vatican have discovered that a senior papal adviser, Angelo Dell’Acqua, told Pius XII in 1942 that reports of the slaughter of European Jews were unreliable because Jews “easily exaggerate.”[…]
The German city-state was run by merchant families who put trade and economy above residents’ welfare. As British scholar Richard Evans researched the history of pandemics for a book more than 30 years ago, he was struck by the uniformity of how governments from different cultures and different historical periods responded. “Almost every epidemic you[…]
A woman tells the story of her Holocaust survival through her embroidered art. “I am not going to Kraśnik,” Esther Nisenthal told her parents one night in the fall of 1942. The Nisenthals lived in Mniszek, Poland. Like all Jews in this village, they had been ordered to leave their homes and go to the[…]
Shirt movements embodied the idea of a homogeneous community, based on a racial social or cultural identity. Abstract The article deals with a typical phenomenon of the interwar period: the proliferation of socio-political movements expressing their “mood” and identity via a paramilitary uniform mainly composed of a coloured shirt. The analysis of 34 European shirt[…]
After Adolf Hitler ordered the “blood purge” (Night of the Long Knives) of 1934, he replaced the SA with the SS. Introduction The Sturmabteilung, literally Storm Detachment, was the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary wing. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing[…]
The women chose psychological sabotage and developed unique strategies. Introduction Nearly all the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, were murdered – either sent to the gas chambers or worked to death. Life expectancy in many of these camps was between six weeks and three months. Over a[…]
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared an axis between Berlin and Rome, coining a term that would be used by both sides in WWII. By Jason Daley In 1936, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini gave a speech in Milan celebrating a new treaty of friendship with Germany and a political realignment of Italy. “This Berlin-Rome protocol is[…]
The Nazi invasion of Russia ended the Pact and shifted the Soviet Union from the Axis Powers to the Allied Powers. Introduction The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, named after Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially entitled the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet[…]
A stealthy group of skiing commandos took out a crucial Nazi facility and stopped Hitler from getting the atomic bomb. Introduction After handing them their suicide capsules, Norwegian Royal Army Colonel Leif Tronstad informed his soldiers, “I cannot tell you why this mission is so important, but if you succeed, it will live in Norway’s[…]
Groups planning a coup of some kind had existed in the German Army and the military intelligence organization since 1938. Introduction The July Plot or July 20 Plot was an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany, on July 20, 1944. It was the culmination of the efforts of the German Resistance to[…]
Up to 500,000 Roma and Sinti were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Introduction The murder of around 500,000 of Europe’s Roma and Sinti by the Nazis and their collaborators during the second world war is a little-known aspect of the atrocities committed during this period. In the immediate postwar period, war crimes against[…]
Chamberlain tried appeasement by endorsing a diplomatic initiative floated by fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to resolve the crisis. By Jeff Roquen When Adolf Hitler unleashed the might of the German armed forces against Poland on 1 September 1939, shock waves of horror and trepidation ran through the cities of Europe. After years of methodically capitulating[…]
Vital Hasson was born into the Jewish community of Salonica, Greece. After World War II, he was executed for helping the Nazis destroy that community. By Dr. Sarah Abrevaya SteinProfessor of HistoryMaurice Amado Chair in Sephardic StudiesSady and Ludwig Kahn Director, Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish StudiesUniversity of California, Los Angeles I learned a[…]