Patriot Act vs Hitler's Enabling Act

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Sun, 2 Oct 2005 21:42:23 -0700 (PDT)

Patriot Act vs. Hitler's Enabling Act

 

 

 

 

 

Patriot Act vs Hitler's Enabling Act

 

 

 

 

'After the elections of March 5, 1933, the Nazis began a systematic

takeover of the state governments throughout Germany, ending a

centuries old tradition of local political independence. Armed SA and

SS thugs barged into local government offices using the state of

emergency decree as a pretext to throw out legitimate office holders

and replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners.

 

Political enemies were arrested by the thousands and put in hastily

constructed holding pens. Old army barracks and abandoned factories

were used as prisons. Once inside, prisoners were subjected to

military style drills and harsh discipline. They were often beaten and

sometimes even tortured to death. This was the very beginning of the

Nazi concentration camp system.'

 

 

 

 

 

Patriot Act vs. Hitler's Enabling Act

 

http://www.customscorruption.com/hitler.htm

 

 

 

Hitler Becomes Dictator

 

 

 

After the elections of March 5, 1933, the Nazis began a systematic

takeover of the state governments throughout Germany, ending a

centuries old tradition of local political independence. Armed SA and

SS thugs barged into local government offices using the state of

emergency decree as a pretext to throw out legitimate office holders

and replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners.

 

 

 

 

 

Political enemies were arrested by the thousands and put in

hastily constructed holding pens. Old army barracks and abandoned

factories were used as prisons. Once inside, prisoners were subjected

to military style drills and harsh discipline. They were often beaten

and sometimes even tortured to death. This was the very beginning of

the Nazi concentration camp system.

 

 

 

 

 

At this time, these early concentration camps were loosely

organized under the control of the SA and the rival SS. Many were

little more than barbed wire stockades know as 'wild' concentration

camps, set up by local Gauleiters and SA leaders.

 

 

 

 

 

For Adolf Hitler, the goal of a legally established dictatorship

was now within reach. On March 15, 1933, a cabinet meeting was held

during which Hitler and Göring discussed how to obstruct what was left

of the democratic process to get an Enabling Act passed by the

Reichstag. This law would hand over the constitutional functions of

the Reichstag to Hitler, including the power to make laws, control the

budget and approve treaties with foreign governments.

 

 

 

 

 

The emergency decree signed by Hindenburg on February 28, after

the Reichstag fire, made it easy for them to interfere with non-Nazi

elected representatives of the people by simply arresting them.

 

As Hitler plotted to bring democracy to an end in Germany,

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels put together a brilliant public

relations display at the official opening of the newly elected Reichstag.

 

 

 

 

 

On March 21, in the Garrison Church at Potsdam, the burial place

of Frederick the Great, an elaborate ceremony took place designed to

ease public concern over Hitler and his gangster-like new regime.

 

It was attended by President Hindenburg, foreign diplomats, the

General Staff and all the old guard going back to the days of the

Kaiser. Dressed in their handsome uniforms sprinkled with medals, they

watched a most reverent Adolf Hitler give a speech paying respect to

Hindenburg and celebrating the union of old Prussian military

traditions and the new Nazi Reich. As a symbol of this, the old

Imperial flags would soon add swastikas.

 

 

 

 

 

Finishing his speech, Hitler walked over to Hindenburg and

respectfully bowed before him while taking hold of the old man's hand.

The scene was recorded on film and by press photographers from around

the world. This was precisely the impression Hitler and Goebbels

wanted to give to the world, all the while plotting to toss aside

Hindenburg and the elected Reichstag.

 

 

 

 

 

Later that same day, Hindenburg signed two decrees put before him

by Hitler. The first offered full pardons to all Nazis currently in

prison. The prison doors sprang open and out came an assortment of

Nazi thugs and murderers.

 

The second decree signed by the befuddled old man allowed for the

arrest of anyone suspected of maliciously criticizing the government

and the Nazi party. (Sound familiar?)

 

A third decree signed only by Hitler and Papen allowed for the

establishment of special courts to try political offenders. These

courts were conducted in the military style of a court-martial without

a jury and usually with no counsel for the defense.

 

 

 

 

 

On March 23, the newly elected Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera

House in Berlin to consider passing Hitler's Enabling Act. It was

officially called the " Law for Removing the Distress of the People and

the Reich. " If passed, it would in effect vote democracy out of

existence in Germany and establish the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.

 

 

 

 

 

Brown-shirted Nazi storm troopers swarmed over the fancy old

building in a show of force and as a visible threat. They stood

outside, in the hallways and even lined the aisles inside, glaring

ominously at anyone who might oppose Hitler's will.

 

 

 

Before the vote, Hitler made a speech in which he pledged to use

restraint.

 

 

 

 

 

" The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they

are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number

of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to

such a law is in itself a limited one, " Hitler told the Reichstag.

 

 

 

 

 

He also promised an end to unemployment and pledged to promote

peace with France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. But in order to

do all this, Hitler said, he first needed the Enabling Act. A

two-thirds majority was needed, since the law would actually alter the

constitution. Hitler needed 31 non-Nazi votes to pass it. He got those

votes from the Catholic Center Party after making a false promise to

restore some basic rights already taken away by decree.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Nazi storm troopers chanted outside: " Full powers - or

else! We want the bill - or fire and murder!! "

 

 

 

 

 

But one man arose amid the overwhelming might. Otto Wells, leader

of the Social Democrats stood up and spoke quietly to Hitler.

 

" We German Social Democrats pledge ourselves solemnly in this

historic hour to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom

and socialism. No enabling act can give you power to destroy ideas

which are eternal and indestructible. "

 

 

 

Hitler was enraged and jumped up to respond.

 

" You are no longer needed! - The star of Germany will rise and

yours will sink! Your death knell has sounded! "

 

 

 

The vote was taken - 441 for, and only 84, the Social Democrats,

against. The Nazis leapt to their feet clapping, stamping and

shouting, then broke into the Nazi anthem, the Hörst Wessel song.

 

Democracy was ended. They had brought down the German Democratic

Republic legally. From this day onward, the Reichstag would be just a

sounding board, a cheering section for Hitler's pronouncements.

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, the Nazi party was now flooded with applications

for membership. These latecomers were cynically labeled by old time

Nazis as 'March Violets.' In May, the Nazi Party froze membership.

Many of those kept out applied to the SA and the SS which were still

accepting. However, in early 1934, Heinrich Himmler would throw out

50,000 of those 'March Violets' from the SS.

 

The Nazi Gleichschaltung now began, a massive coordination of all

aspects of life under the swastika and

 

 

 

 

the absolute leadership of Adolf Hitler. Under Hitler, the

State, not the individual, was supreme.

 

 

 

 

 

From the moment of birth one existed to serve the State and obey

the dictates of the Führer. Those who disagreed were disposed of.

 

 

 

 

 

Many agreed. Bureaucrats, industrialists, even intellectual and

literary figures, including Gerhart Hauptmann, world renowned

dramatist, were coming out in open support of Hitler.

 

 

 

 

 

Many disagreed and left the country. A flood of the finest minds,

including over two thousand writers, scientists, and people in the

arts poured out of Germany and enriched other lands, mostly the United

States. Among them - writer Thomas Mann, director Fritz Lang, actress

Marlene Dietrich, architect Walter Gropius, musicians Otto Klemperer,

Kurt Weill, Richard Tauber, psychologist Sigmund Freud, and Albert

Einstein, who was visiting California when Hitler came to power and

never returned to Germany.

 

 

 

 

 

In Germany, there were now constant Nazi rallies, parades, marches

and meetings amid the relentless propaganda of Goebbels and the

omnipresent swastika. For those who remained there was an odd mixture

of fear and optimism in the air.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, for the first time as dictator, Adolf Hitler turned his

attention to the driving force which had propelled him into politics

in the first place, his hatred of the Jews. It began with a simple

boycott on April 1, 1933, and would end years later in the greatest

tragedy in all of human history.

 

 

 

 

Maybe there is a connection???