What lessons should have been learned and implemented from the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in their ascension to power to prevent a recurrence of similar actors and ideological campaigns in future?
I don’t know that authoritarian/fascist regimes can be stopped once they’re in motion. They seem to be more the default rather than stable democracies. Even countries that you’d think would have sufficient legal barriers and processes for citizens to keep political extremists out of office seem to be failing and moving to the right.
That it’s very easy for far-right parties to win under bourgeois democracy. That the center (right or left) will always side with the fascists. That the ruling class will quickly change to their side at the first sign of a mass left movement. That mass campaigns of violence against minorities will be overlooked, and far-right militias and mobs will be allowed to enact their own twisted justice on minorities, while authorities look to the side.
I… feel like I’m describing basically what is happening right now all over the “west”. So… yeah. It’s not something we can stop until we take power. The people in power will always side with the fascists, against us.
Erich Kästner wikipedia.org, a german writer and satirist of the time, had this to say:
The events from 1933 to 1945 should have been battled in 1928 at the latest. Later was already too late. One must not wait until liberty is called treason. One must not wait till the snowball has become an avalanche. One must squelch the rolling snowball. The avalanche can't be stopped anymore...
AI answer in the style of a riled up eighth grader:
Alright, so here's the deal. The rise of Hitler and the Nazis taught us some super important lessons that we absolutely cannot forget. Like, seriously, it's crucial.
First off, always question leaders who promise simple solutions to complex problems. Hitler fed on the economic chaos and social unrest, offering easy fixes and blaming specific groups. Don’t fall for that garbage. Critical thinking, people!
Second, don't let hate speech and discrimination slide. The Nazis started with anti-Semitic rhetoric and it escalated into the Holocaust. If someone is spreading hate, call it out and stop it in its tracks. Silence equals acceptance.
Third, protect democratic institutions. Hitler got power partly because the Weimar Republic was weak. Strong checks and balances, a free press, and active civic engagement are vital. Don't let anyone mess with that stuff.
Fourth, education matters. The Nazis indoctrinated youth with their ideology. We need to teach history accurately, promote critical thinking, and encourage empathy. An educated, aware population is harder to manipulate.
Lastly, stand up against injustice, no matter how small. If people had stood up to the Nazis early on, things might have been different. Don’t wait for someone else to act. Be brave, take a stand.
So, yeah, these lessons are super important. We can't let history repeat itself. Stay woke!
One important lesson of the Nazi rise to power and the Holocaust is that Nazis characterized their enemies as disgusting rather than scary.
Disgust is a different feeling than fear, and it leads to different responses. Hitler used imagery of infection and disease to describe not only problems in society but eventually groups as well. This talk of filth and infestation laid the emotional groundwork for the “purge” solution.
If we want to avoid another Holocaust, we need to be wary of analogies like rot, cancer, infection for describing people and points of view.
And then conservatives embraced the term and now proudly use it to describe themselves. They know they are toxic, oppressive and cruel and they celebrate it.
The Nazis are only the yardstick of evil by convention. Their crimes exist in an enormous set of savage acts including genocides and invasions that suffuses history.
The lesson “of the Nazis” needs to be that the Nazis are not unique in history, nor are they the only sort of people who commit such acts.
I think the Nazis were the first instance of this kind of behavior that got caught on video. Just like the Vietnam war was the first war US citizenry saw on TV, I think the Third Reich and whatever the term is for the whole campaign of land grab invasions, and the Holocaust, is a pattern that’s been going on for thousands of years, and it’s the first time the whole world was witness to it.
For the majority of history a king or emperor or whoever could march out armies, destroy, use a ton of his own internal political enemies as slaves and work them to death, then just murder the rest of them … and cover it up almost effortlessly by telling the town criers to announce whatever horseshit they want the farmers to believe.
We know historically this happens. But the Holocaust is the first of the pogroms that everybody around the world saw, and in the greater set of genocides. It was the first time (I think?) that absolute mass atrocity on civilians was televised.
But it’s not a unique event is the key thing. It’s the most well-known example of the eruption of evil into the world, but it’s a recurring part of humanity to do this kind of thing.
That we should never have allowed the nazis to get painted as this existential, somehow outerworldly pure evil. They understandably got that reputation after the holocaust and losing the war, but it obscures why so many people were so attracted to them in the first place.
It has made it impossible for most people to see what is truly the resurrection of fascism: many people don’t see it as such because they’re not (yet) having people shot or books burned. They think ‘if I’m not pure evil, surely I can’t be nazi’. And there’s the real danger.