Re: Germany and Japan -- Back Talk

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Subject: Re: Germany and Japan

Author:
JeffF

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Date Posted: 06:50:45 10/12/01 Fri
In reply to: Mark7 's message, "Germany and Japan" on 23:58:45 10/11/01 Thu

It's true that after World War I, the Versailles treaty created unnecessary crippling conditions for Germany. It's also true that they were severly hurt by the worldwide depression that was hurting most countries. Germany was hit by excessive unemployment and inflation at the same time.
Invent Hitler to get out of the recession? Nice try. But Hitler invented himself. Don't forget that Germany was also subject to constant street fighting as socialists and others vied for power. The Nazis were among those fighting. The severity of the fighting scared people. So did the depression. Hitler, a spellbinding if crazy speaker, took advantage of all of this.
Also there were opportunists in the weak German government who thought they could work with Hitler and contain him and the Nazis would take a small role in a new government. Von Papen in particular, who was tried and incredibly acquited at Nuremberg did more to help Hitler come to power to try and further his own career than anybody else did.
It's true that Hitler first came to power by election. Some of that was people seeing him as a popular savior, but a lot of that was simple fear. The SA, then his most powerful organization was intimidating people into voting for him.
I agree that the Versailles treaty was a serious mistake and led to a lot of German resentments, but let's also not forget that most of that treaty was designed by France and England. Woodrow Wilson, the US president at the time had tried to go in a different direction with the League of Nations and Congress wouldn't go for it.

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