Hakan, I agree with most of what you say. Yes Hitler came to power democratically, but that is NOT the same thing as saying that Nazi Germany was democratic. You emphasized the democratic nature of Fascist Italy and Germany in an earlier post, and I believe you wrote that they had elections up until the outbreak of war. That is what I was really disagreeing with.
With regards to Nazi air support for the Russians during the Winter War, that might make for an interesting article in a history journal. I have never heard of that before. I asked my father, who almost went to Finland in 39-40 as a Danish volunteer but couldn't get there before the war ended, about that, and he had never heard that either. You might have an historical nugget on your hands. Best, Thor Message: 16 Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 04:02:13 +0100 From: Hakan Falk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Re: Re: Democracy--Nazi Germany was Democratic!??? Dear Thor, I am familiar with this and more, but if you go through democratic systems, without direct or proportional representation, the wrong guy can come to power and this without representing the popular vote. US have such a system and the current president is an example on that. It is true that the Nazis and Hitler hijacked the democracy, I have never claimed anything else, The fact is however that he came to power trough democratic vote and in a democracy. Sharon in Israel have roughly the same popular base as Hitler had in the beginning. It is many other factors to consider in the German history. Among them the piece in Versailles who was enormously stupid and the major reason for creating an environment were such a sick person as Hitler could be seen as a salvation. He also became dictator by democratic means, as you rightfully pointed out. Why Hitler got his powers was because of the "terrorist acts" that history show was engineered by the Nazis themselves. I think that it was an early version of "Homeland defence". Yes, the industrialists saw Hitler as a fairly dumb puppet. That made them underestimate him and they thought that he would deliver, which he also partly did. It is good that you clarified the history a bit and it is a lot more to it. Please read what you wrote a couple of times and draw some parallels with things that happens in some of todays democracies. You will see the picture also and understand why I am worried. I am not saying that it will develop along the same lines, only that it is similarities. If you read what I am saying, you have to agree that Hitler came into power in a democracy. He got his power by democratic means and in a crisis situation, which could be extended by the war situation that the country was in. Yes, it was German resistance and I have even met some of them when I was young in the 50's. Friends of my mother, from the time 1936 to 1937, when she studied in Munich. It was a much larger resistance to Hitler among intellectuals and students than todays history implies. Historic judgements and evaluations can always be made and balanced ones starts to be accepted not until around 100 years after the events. It is difficult to judge before that. I have a mother in law who, during the Spanish civil war, refused to dance with the commander of the socialist forces (not Franco, but the good guys according my Swedish history). The day after, her 16 year old brother was arrested and executed, without any reasons or political involvement. Hakan __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
