Avoiding the Fate of 1930s Germany

Alice Copeland Brown

Military Families Speak Out

International Women for Peace (Code Pink)

Lessons from Nurenberg• Nazi policies were carried out under the belief that

Germans were entitled to subjugate, dominate or exterminate other races and peoples.

• US Prosecutor proved that Nazis wreaked wanton violence at unprecedented levels, systematically murdering millions of people.

• Justice Jackson “The wrongs we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored.”

Hitler’s Promises

• I shall give a propagandist cause for starting the war, never mind whether it be true or not. The victor shall not be asked later on whether he told the truth or not.”

Parallels with 1930s Germany

• Censorship by the Media

• Failing economy• Rising Militarization

Expenditures• Burning of the

Reichstag ..9/11• Brightest given only

left-brain education

Goering’s Propaganda Message

"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." - Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg Trials

1933: Propaganda and Radio– Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels employ power

of radio to influence the masses. – FDR begins radio Fireside Chats, bypasses

hostile newspapers. – Nazis use "big lie" technique in mass media

propaganda. – Nazis begin burning of books. – U.S. newspapers pressure AP to cut service to

radio, start "Press-Radio War."

Suspension of Rights in Germany

Suspicious burning of Reichstag led to

• Roundup of 1000 Communists and their expulsion from Germany

• Suspension of basic civil rights of German citizens in atmosphere of fear

• Execution of suspected arsonists, but suspicions still lead to Chancellor Hitler; Goebbels has tunnel leading to Reichstag

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

• Lutheran pastor executed in concentration camp 1945

• Fought Nazification of church, pledge of allegiance to Hitler

• Attempted to overthrow Hitler

Brave Martin Niemoeller, Protestant pastor

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Spent 7 years and 7 mos in prisonKristallnacht

More Parallels with 1930s Germany

• Roundup of religious minorities Jews then, Muslims now

• Hitler appealed to frustrations of out-of-work Germans, scapegoating Jews.

• Fear of Communists/terrorists used as excuse to lift rights

Roundup of Jews after Kristallnacht

Bibliography• Internet sites

– www.traprock.org– www.mfso.org– www.ibisradio.org/alicecopelandbrown.htm

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWgoring.htm

• http://www.projectcensored.org/• Trial of the Germans by Eugene Davidson