Complacency 'enabled rise of Nazis'
Source: Agencies |
January 31, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
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ON the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans yesterday to always fight for their principles and not fall into the complacency that enabled the Nazi dictator to seize control.
Speaking at the opening of a new exhibit at the Topography of Terror memorial documenting Hitler's election, Merkel noted that German academics and students at the time happily joined the Nazis only a few months later in burning books deemed subversive.
"The rise of the Nazis was made possible because the elite of German society worked with them, but also, above all else, because most in Germany at least tolerated this rise," she said.
After winning about a third of the vote in Germany's 1932 election, Hitler convinced ailing President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor on January 30, 1933, setting Germany on a course to war and genocide.
The Topography memorial is built around the ruins of buildings where the Gestapo secret police, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office ran Hitler's police state from 1933 to 1945.Once chancellor, Hitler was able to use his position to consolidate absolute control over the country in the months to follow.
About a month after being appointed chancellor, Hitler suspended civil liberties and cracked down on opposition parties, paving the way for the police state.
The fact that Hitler was able to destroy German democracy in only six months serves as a warning today of what can happen if the public is apathetic, Merkel said.
Following the morning ceremony, Germany's Parliament held a special session in tribute to those who died under the Nazi dictatorship.
Speaking at the opening of a new exhibit at the Topography of Terror memorial documenting Hitler's election, Merkel noted that German academics and students at the time happily joined the Nazis only a few months later in burning books deemed subversive.
"The rise of the Nazis was made possible because the elite of German society worked with them, but also, above all else, because most in Germany at least tolerated this rise," she said.
After winning about a third of the vote in Germany's 1932 election, Hitler convinced ailing President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor on January 30, 1933, setting Germany on a course to war and genocide.
The Topography memorial is built around the ruins of buildings where the Gestapo secret police, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office ran Hitler's police state from 1933 to 1945.Once chancellor, Hitler was able to use his position to consolidate absolute control over the country in the months to follow.
About a month after being appointed chancellor, Hitler suspended civil liberties and cracked down on opposition parties, paving the way for the police state.
The fact that Hitler was able to destroy German democracy in only six months serves as a warning today of what can happen if the public is apathetic, Merkel said.
Following the morning ceremony, Germany's Parliament held a special session in tribute to those who died under the Nazi dictatorship.
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