Just for clarification: Hitler was fiercely anti-socialist

[jsamuel]

In fact he used the socialists as a way to strike fear in to the German populous. He scared everyone by talking of a socialist conspiracy to take everyone's rightful stuff away. Of course, he managed to blame the jews for this stuff as well.

[BuyingThyme]

1. Fascism is Socialism

but only for the few elitists at the top.

[wli]

2. Jesus Christ was a socialist... Bush is an antichrist n/t

[julianer]

3. His first victims were socialists, trade unionists and communists

All had their organisations outlawed and their leaders and activists packed of to concentration camps in the very early days of Nazi rule. Most never re-emerged.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. The socialists and the communists were a strong political force

that initially threatened the Weimar Republic, more than the national socialists. Later it became even between the two factions, resulting in street fights and riots. The Weimar Republic could not control either group. When Hitler got into the government through a plurality vote (winning something like 13% of the vote in a field of 20 candidates), his party got control of going after their political rivals. In order to dominate the country, it made sense to remove the obvious opposition, and then set up shop.

[watrwefitinfor]

7. They refused to unite around their common interests.

The Socialist and Communist Parties in pre-war Germany were large, strong, separate parties. They had many differences, but both supposedly represented, supported and led the working and progressive classes. The fact that they kept bickering and sniping at each other (maintaining purity of purpose and their separate ideals even when survival required them to "unite with anyone who can be united with") kept them from forming a united front in the face of the Nazi movement. It led directly to the election victory and the ascendancy of Hitler. (Together they outnumbered the fascists.)

Once in power, of course, Hitler eliminated both parties and their leaders, right down to the local and factory levels. They were first to be taken away and first to die. (This is one reason why it was necessary for bushco to have the patriot act in place before the masses wised up. Someone studied their history well)

They used to teach in history and civics classes that "Nazi" was a German acronym for National Socialist Party, and had nothing to do with socialism - they called themselves socialist in an effort to confuse the people. Now they just try to confuse the children by teaching them nothing at all except how to pass a test.

Thanks to the person who started this thread and to the other thoughtful posters. It is crucial to understand that Hitler was not "left wing" anything. And those who say he was a socialist or a communist are either incredibly ignorant and unread or they are serving someone's agenda (and it sure ain't a left wing agenda).

Wat

[Bonhomme Richard]

12. Right on target.

"called themselves socialist in an effort to confuse the people"
They knew that they wouldn't get anywhere, at the time, unless they adopted the socialist tiltle.

[ET Awful]

5. Exactly right.

He looked on Marxism, Socialism, Communism (and basically every ism except fascism) with equal disdain.

Hitler was a far right fanatic (which is why to this day, throughout Europe neo-nazi groups are described as being extreme rightwing).

[jsamuel]

8. thought so :)

[clement]

6. Hitler and Fascism were extreme right wing

I'm from Scotland and in Europe it is beyond dispute that Hitler was extreme right wing and cared about as much for the emancipation of the working classes as he did for Jews.

It is seemingly only amongst American Republican ranks were they categorize Hitler as a left winger.

After all, the ideology he professed was National 'Socialism'!!

I'm sure the same people believe the German Democratic Republic was a bastion of democratic liberty and that Hitler would be completely comfortable at home discussing racial diversity and tolerance with Moore.

Again it is only right wing Republicans who believe Hitler was not right wing. you could probably look all throughout the world and you would find only Republicans think hitler was a left winger.

Sad, deluded people.

[ET Awful]

9. Bingo. Only in the US does anyone try to label the Nazi party

as being left wing.

Of course, the ones who do so (as you pointed out) only look as far as the word "socialism" in National Socialism and completely fail to actually pay attention to any factual context surrounding that movement.

The only real socialist party in Germany during that time was the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) which party was banned by Hitler and the Nazis in 1933.

[Bonhomme Richard]

10. The nazi's would target their speeches to the audience.

In the early years of the nazi party they targeted their speeches to whatever audience they were speaking to. If the audience were socialist they would hear what they wanted to hear. Same thing went for industrialist, middle class and ultra right wing groups. It wasn't until they gained a little power that they began to go after the socialist.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Hitler went after the Communist and Socialists before the Jews.

He also linked the Jews to "Bolsheviks" while condemning them as predatory capitalists.

[BrotherBuzz]

17. Pastor Martin Niemöller agrees

There are several versions of the well-known statement attributed to the German anti-Nazi activist, Pastor Martin Niemöller. I believe this version is closest to the original and addressed the war years. Later, Catholics were added, and the order was changed to place Jews at the top, but I think Pastor Martin Niemöller's original got the history and sequence correct.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak out for me.

-Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1945

[tomg]

13. Not to sound stupid, but

where did the idea/ charge that Hitler was left wing come from. That is pretty ( make that completely) nuts. Seriously, I must have missed some thread somewhere, because it is pretty obvious that everyone here is responding to something that came up. In my entire life I have never heard this charge levelled by anyone before.

[watrwefitinfor]

14. It frequently pops up in DU threads.

I've never understood why, but often when fascism is the subject, someone will come along and interject the notion that Hiter was left wing, a socialist, or even a communist. It almost always gets refuted within the thread, but still keeps coming back. One of those things that makes you go: Hmmmmm.

Wat

[tomg]

16. Thanks. I suddenly started thinking that

some right wing pundit had started it, and that I had just missed it.
The canard could come from the fact that while the Nazi party started as the German Workers Party, when Hitler ousted Drexler he only kept some of the worker's right rhetoric as a way of bolstering the membership among unemployed and disaffected working class.

As I was researching some of this, I think I found one of the originators of this nonsense. It is Erik Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, about whom I knew nothing. He published for Regenery Gateway ( rw publishing house)and his chief book is Leftism Revisited, From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Pol Pot. Here is a quick quote:

"The three fundamentally leftist revolutions, those that spawned France's democracy, Russian's international socialism, and Germany's national socialism, formed and fashioned the history of the last two hundred years and established the 'Centuries of the G'— guillotines, gaols, gallows, gas chambers, and gulags". Leftism Revisited, pg xvii.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_von_Kuehnelt-Leddihn

[lateo]

15. Can you provide some of his statements to that effect?

That would be great.