On February 27th, 1933, the seat of the German
government, the Reichstag Building, was set alight by a young Dutch communist. For
the previous few years, tension between the German government and communist
groups had steadily been rising. Many feared the country was on the verge of an
uprising similar to the one that had happened in Russia two decades earlier. Indeed,
much of the world feared communism in this time, just as it feared an
international Jewish conspiracy. These two groups were the spectres that
haunted the nightmares of the average European and North American.
The arson of the Reichstag Building gave the newly inaugurated
German Chancellor, Adolph Hitler, the rhetorical space to purge the government
of dissenting elements. Just over a month later, in response to the arson, the
Enabling Act of 1933 was passed. This Act gave Hitler the power to suspend
German civil liberties and act without oversight from the government’s
legislative arm; the resulting creation and legitimization of the SS and SA
paramilitary forces turned Germany into a police state with one man at its
head. The funneling of powers into the executive branch gave the Nazis the
ability to remilitarize the country and begin implementing the final solution.
All this was, ostensibly, done in the name of combatting terrorism.
In Hitler, the German people had seen someone who didn’t
play by the book, someone who would bring a breath of fresh air to broken
system. The world was in the midst of the Great Depression. Germany’s economy was
suffering and its people suffered with it. The country had been forced to pay humiliating
reparations for an old war. Germany had become a shadow of what it once was. Hitler
knew this, and used it to his advantage.
Hitler himself was a political maverick, a former soldier
who rose to power on a wave of public discontent. His entry into public life
came in the form of the now famous beer hall speeches. In them, he would provide
improvised and impassioned tirades on the failures of the Weimar government. This
passive but vocal commentary eventually moved into his running for office.
Despite the vague nature of his policies, Hitler’s charisma combined with an engagement
in popular frustrations to carry him to the chancellorship.
When implementing his authoritarian policies, Hitler did not
begin by sending Jews, homosexuals, and other minorities to the gas chambers. He
consolidated power slowly and methodically, tapping into existing prejudices
and fears. He worked methodically, using his charisma and half-facts to desensitize
people. He promised, at every step, that his measures would only be temporary, in
order to protect Germans and make their country great again.
The circumstance we face today is not the same as the 1930s.
Our world is not that of 1930s Europe. The idea that history repeats itself is
misplaced. History does not repeat itself, yet there are patterns, circumstances
that mirror those that came before. In this manner, history can teach us.
The burning of the Reichstag Building was crucial to the rise
of Nazi Germany and the establishment of Hitler as a dictator. Without the
arson, or another such public event, Hitler would not have been able to transform
a relatively functional democracy into an autocracy. Germany would not have
been remilitarized and many atrocities of the Second World War would have been
somewhat mitigated, if not entirely avoided.
Someone told me recently that nothing like the Holocaust or
the other atrocities of the Second World War could happen in the modern world.
People are too well informed. Safeguards are in place to stop such
totalitarianism. Any actions being taken that might seem similar to those of
the 1930s are limited in scope and necessary for our safety and security. We
are wiser than our predecessors.
I’m sure that Germans in the 1930s believed the same thing
about themselves. By telling ourselves it cannot happen, we breed the
atmosphere in which oppression thrives.
Ask yourself: how would the western world react if an event
like the Reichstag Fire were to happen today? How would we react if a bomb were
to go off on Capitol Hill tomorrow?
It can happen
again.
If we are not vigilant, it will happen.
