Hitler Takes Over
A series of political intrigues in January 1933 led to an agreement to a conservative coalition to be led by Hitler as Chancellor.
- The Enabling Act (Law for Removing the Distress of People and Reich) was passed on 23 March 1933. This became the legal basis for Hitler's dictatorship. Legislative power was transferred to the executive, politically undesirable and 'non-Aryan' civil servants dismissed.
On 2 August 1934 Hindenburg died and Hitler assumed the office of President. Henceforth all armed forces personnel were required to swear an oath to the Fuehrer and the Chancellor.
- Thus, the legal rights of the Third Reich proudly proclaimed that "Hitler is the Law", and produced theories transforming the principle of the legal state into that of the leader state, or Fuhrerstaat.
- Hitler used his new power to turn Germany into a totalitarian state.
- The Nazis quickly took command of the economy. New laws banned strikes, dissolved independent labor unions, and gave the government authority over business and labor.
- Hitler put millions of Germans to work. They constructed factories, built highways, manufactured weapons, and served in the military.
- Press, radio, literature, painting, and film into propaganda tools. Books that did not conform to Nazi beliefs were burned in huge bonfires.
Ascendency of Nazism
- The slogan "Kinder, Kirche, Kuche" (kids, church, kitchen), became the favourite mode of referring to the social role of women. The production of "racially pure" babies became the Nazi's obsession, and various financial and ideological incentives were offered to females to give birth to more children (e.g., Honour Cross).
- All education from primary school curricula to university instruction was Nazified, Textbooks were re-written and Mein Kamf was elevated to the status of unfailing pedagogical guiding star. Teachers were required to join the Nazi Teachers League and swear allegiance to Hitler.
- Jews were forbidden to teach. "Racial Science "was introduced in curricula, which required teaching the racial theories of the Aryan-German master race and the Jews as the breeders of all evil.
- Churches were forbidden to criticize the Nazis or the government. Schoolchildren had to join the Hitler Youth (for boys) or the League of German Girls.
During the war the 30 point program for the national Reich Church of Germany outlined Nazi church policy:
- The elimination of Christian teaching.
- The cessation of the publication of the Bible and the placement on altars of nothing except a copy of Mein Kampf and a sword.
Anti Jew Policy
Hitler made several efforts to crush the Jews. Hitler Makes War on the Jews Hatred of Jews, or anti-Semitism, was a key part of Nazi ideology.
- The Nuremburg Laws (1935) deprived Jew of German citizenship, confining them to "subject" status. Marital or extra-marital relations between Jews and 'Aryans' were forbidden.
- The first concentration camps came up in 1933. After the Roehm purge of June 1934, the camps were turned over to the SS (Schutzstaffel), with guard duty being assigned to the Death's Head units.
- On the night of November 9, 1938, a rampage, called Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), was committed.
- There was euthanasia practiced on 70,000 mentally infirm Germans between 1938 and 1941. In late 1941 this method was applied to concentration camp victims unfit to work- camouflaged gas vans were employed to gas Jews.
- Mass extermination in gas chambers began in Belzec, in Lublin district of Poland in March 1942. Jewish slave labours were also systematically machine-gunned. The largest camp was Auschwitz-Birkenau, where between 2 to 3 million Jews, along with gypsies, Poles, and Soviet prisoner of war were murdered.
Foreign Policy of Hitler
Germany came out of the League of Nations and Hitler started the process of rearming Germany.
In 1935, Hitler announced compulsory military training for all German people. He also aimed to have the air force equal to that of England and France.
Militarization of Rhineland in 1936 by Hitler was opposed by France. But England was a silent spectator to this action of Hitler.
The Spanish Civil War
A Republic had been proclaimed in Spain in 1931. In 1936 the conservatives under General Franco started a Civil War against the Republic. Now Germany and Italy supported Franco whereas Russia supported the Republicans. The Republicans were defeated and the dictatorship of Franco was established.
Rome- Berlin -Tokyo Axis
In October 1936, On the basis of an agreement Germany approved Italian control over Abyssinia and Italy granted permission to Hitler to annex Austria with Germany. Hitler was antagonistic towards Russian Communism. Therefore Hitler in November 1936, signed an Anti- Commintern Pact with Japan, another enemy of Russia. In November 1937, Italy was admitted into the alliance.
This Anti-Commintern pact was otherwise called as Rome –Berlin- Tokyo Axis.
Conclusion
Fascism has been interpreted in multiple ways. According to the Marxist position, Fascism is a violent, dictatorial agent of finance capital.
It has been billed as a unique expression of Middle Class Radicalism or product of a cultural and moral breakdown. It was the result of Extreme Neurotic or pathological impulses.
Some theorists have tried to understand Fascism as product of the rise of amorphous masses with the breakdown of traditional identities based on kinship, church, guild and residence, etc. and a form of Bonapartism or an autonomous authoritarian government independent of specific class-domination.
