Reply #208: DECREE, 28 FEBRUARY 1933 ... [View All]

[struggle4progress]

Pursuant to article 48, paragraph 2 of the German constitution, the following is decreed as a defensive measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the State: Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice.4 Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association and interferences with the secrecy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house searches, 'orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed ...


The rest of 1933 was equally exciting: imprisonment without trial was legalized, the government assumed control of newspapers and radio, the Enabling Act allowed the Cabinet to pass laws without Parliament, non-Nazi political parties were dissolved and criminalized. Special courts were established to try political opponents. Tens of thousands of trade unionists were arrested. Internment of homosexuals in concentration camps began. The disenfranchisement of the Jewish community began.

This was 1933, you understand. Everything went downhill from there. Anybody who didn't know what was going on by 1939 was just criminally stupid.