Did no one read Mein Kampf between 1925-1939, and realize Hitler's ambitions?

[Zimogor]

Originally Posted by 2x3x29x41

1939? By 1939, no one needed Mein Kampf to tell them of Hitler's anti-Semitism. Persecution of Jews had been official Nazi policy since 1933 - Jews were banned by law from government jobs that year. The Nuremberg Laws were passed beginning in 1935. Kristallnacht was in 1938. By 1939, over half of German Jews had emigrated, precisely because the anti-Semitism had been glaringly obvious for years.

Also, the Night of Long Knives occurred in 1934. Political opponents (communists, socialists), gays, and others were being confined to concentration camps as early as 1933. So no one in 1939 needed Mein Kampf to tip them off to the evil basis of Nazi ideology.

All this is true, but the most surprising thing is that, I read in a translated article from an Israeli newspaper, that more than 100,000 half-breed Jews served in the Wehrmacht during the war, with ranks up to colonels and generals. It reached the point of absurdity: for example, the son served in the Wehrmacht and was awarded the iron cross, and his father was in Auschwitz.

[Moth]

Originally Posted by Veritas Vincit

In that electoral system it would have been near impossible to get an outright majority for what it's worth. NSDAP percentages in 1932 topped those achieved by any other party in Weimar.



But yeah it's often forgotten that Weimar was basically broken and Hitler was running against folks that had either proven ineffective or were seen as at least as dangerous (communists). His rise to power was at least as much about the failings of others as it was about his policies or their popularity in Germany.

True indeed.