cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw) (05/08/85)
Why do people have their history so wrong ??? Hitler was elected to the Parliament with (at first) a very small number of members. He didn't gain much support until the depression, wherein he promised a solution to all the country's economic problems, while blaming these problems on the Jews and the Comminists. In 1932 (or so) support for the Nazis grew from a few thousand to a few million voters, and he was elected with a much larger number of members in the Parliament. Eventually, after other parties attempts to govern failed, Hitler was asked to become Chancellor. The Night of the Long Knives was the night during which large numbers of the Nazi goon squad, the SA (Brownshirts), were killed. The purpose of this was to demonstrate to everyone (especially the regular army and the industrial establishment) that Hitler could be trusted. Hitler eventually gained absolute power by first having the state give it to him, then gradually knocking off opposition groups (such as the communists) one by one. Hitler was justly famous for the "Big Lie", and he used this to effectively blame everything that was bad about the current situation on someone else. His biggest lie, in fact, was the one about a conspiracy of Jews, banking, and anyone else that wasn't the Nazis. After 40 years, you'd think that people wouldn't fall for that vicious garbage anymore, wouldn't you ?? Chris Shaw watmath!watmum!cdshaw University of Waterloo