36 lessons an individual who hates or is attracted by fascism can learn from The Death of Democracy by Benjamin Carter Hett
1. Reichstag Fire, the slyness of Nazis stormtroopers and commencement of their atrocities. Walter Kiaulehn, a seasoned Berlin reporter, concluded an elegiac book about his native city written after the war with the words " First the Reichstag burned , then the books, and soon the synagogues. Then Germany began to burn, England, France, and Russia.
2. The unusual talents of Hitler, he had an uncanny intuition, and was a skilled actor.
3. The questioning of Hitler by socialist lawyer Hans Litten. Hitler's hatred for situations that he cannot control, and where is cultivated aura of omniscient power might be shown up as hollow.
4. How Hitler could act reasonable when required before world leaders, and show his famous outbursts of rage or his tears of emotion in front of his supporters.
5. How Hitler, a self proclaimed Warrior got into trouble for evading Australian Military Service?
6. Like most demagogues, Hitler had a shady youth, the details available are from unreliable sources or his own book "Mein Kampf"
7. Why Hitler's Military Service was not the brave and dangerous experience he claimed.
8. Christian Germans attitude towards Jews which played a role in the country's political divisions.
9. Political confessionalisation that existed in Germany during the time.
10. The rise of Nazis during late 1920s and reasons for the same.
11. The prominent growth of Stormtroopers, violent wing of Nazis.
12. The unbridled fascism in the 25 points program of the Nazis.
13. The opportunistic attitude of Nazis once they came to power.
14. Hitler's frequent reference to an international conspiracy against him as well as that by the Jews.
15. The wresting of Berlin by Joseph Goebbels for the Nazis.
16. How abuse, ridicule, and questioning questioning Rivals commitment to the country to defend themselves.
17. How nazis who provoked most of the violence presented their own actions as defensive.
18. How Nazis who even did not serve in the first world war had the scruples to question the patriotism of those who had participated in the war.
19. How rivals and foreign leaders underestimated Hitler's cunningness and tyranny?
20. The stunning victory of Nazis in the elections held on July 31.
21. Schleicher's negotiations with Hitler.
22. The path leading to Hitler's coronation.
23. The instant crackdown by Nazis on their rivals after assuming power.
24. Shutting down the communist party's Berlin headquarters.
25. Ordering Prussian Police officers to use their firearms against enemies of the state.
26. Allowing the members of the patriotic associations namely SA, SS and Steel Helmet to be enrolled as auxiliary police officers.
27. Yet the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933 was the turning point for Nazis.
28. Van Der Lubbe claiming single handed responsibility for the Reichstag fire, and how nazis took advantage of it.
29. Goebbels use of commercial advertising to promote Nazis.
30. Cynical dishonesty of the Nazi propaganda and the cult of irrationality that drew their followers.
31. Nazis emphasis on race as the key to history, and racial thinking as answer to all problems.
32. Peter Drucker thought that Nazi and fascist doctrines had evolved in a general climate of loss of belief not only in capitalism but in socialism as well. He concluded concluded that nobody would have been a Nazi if rational belief in the Nazi promises had been a prerequisite.
33. Hitler discouraged free press on the pretext that it was anti national agitation. By middle of 1933 how all German newspapers carried the same content. Goebbels wrote in his diary that any man who still as a residue of honour will be very careful not to become a journalist.
34. How Hitler took over the role of Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor after Hindenburg's death on August 2, 1934.
35. How Nazis used the wounds of First World War to grow a dictatorship.
36. How the Germans of 1933 could not forsee the atrocities of Nazis and why we hold the advantage over them.
