“Another Historical Election” on the Bookhabit Show
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Malcolm Aitken in his essay, Hitler, the Jews and the Ballot Box, provides an analysis of the campaign by the Nazis leading up to the 1932 Reichstag election. Aitken says, The consensus varies about when and to what extent the Germans started supporting Nazi anti-Semitic persecution and murder of Jews, but it was widely accepted that the Nazis did not come into power in a country that was as viciously anti-Semitic as they were. Daniel J Goldhagen, in his 1996 book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” instead said this hatred of Jews existed pre Hitler’s ascent and that the holocaust was ultimately an expression of popular anti Semitism among ordinary Germans.
Goldhagen reasserted racist type bigotry as just as important a reasons as the others for Germans supporting Hitler from early on. In ‘Hitler, the Jews and the Ballot Box,’ Aitken uses an analysis of the build up to the July 1932 Reichstag election six months before Hitler came into power to show that Goldhagen’s inference that the vast majority of Germans would have supported the persecution and murder of European Jews even before Hitler came into power simply doesn’t stand up.
Aitken is a communications manager and Hitler’s campaign was an interesting study in Public Relations and campaigning after only receiving a fraction of the votes in previous elections. Aitken has also worked as a freelance journalist in London for a number of years on environment, politics, health sector and entertainment work, as well as writing a number of travel articles.
‘Hitler, the Jews and the Ballot Box’ is available on www.bookhabit.com
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