TOTALITARIANISM

1. TOTALITARIANISM “DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP” “A MAN OF THE PEOPLE” ONE PARTY STATE TECHNOLOGY USED FOR CONTROL WEAPONS OF REPRESSION, COMMUNICATIONS CONTROL OF EDUCATION AND MEDIA

2. TOTALITARIANISM • NO OPPOSITION – “ENEMIES OF THE STATE” • POPULAR, MASS ORGANIZATIONS • IDENTITY POLITICS – VICTIM CONSCIOUSNESS 20TH CENTURY EXAMPLES: COMMUNISM FASCISM

3. Stand up. All victims of oppression For the tyrants fear your might. Don ‘t cling so hard to your possessions For you have nothing, if you have no rights. Let racist ignorance be ended For respect makes the empires fall. Freedom is merely privilege extended Unless enjoyed by one and all. Chorus So come brothers and sisters For the struggle carries on. The Internationale Unites the world in song. So comrades come rally For this is the time and place. The international ideal Unites the human race. Let no one build walls to divide us Walls of hatred nor walls of stone. Come greet the dawn and stand beside us We’ll live together or we’ll die alone. In our world poisoned by exploitation Those who have taken, now they must give. And end the vanity of nations We’ve but one Earth on which to live. And so begins the final drama In the streets and in the fields. We stand unbowed before their armor We defy their guns and shields. When we fight, provoked by their aggression Let us be inspired by life and love. For though they offer us concessions. Change will not come from above. Billy Bragg The Internationale

4. COMMUNISM • STATE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE INDIVIDUAL • INSPIRED BY MARX, DEFINED BY LENIN • HISTORICALLY INEVITABLE • “DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT” • The appeal of communism: RGH, p. 279 • “I was ripe to be converted. . .the new star of Bethlehem had risen in the East.”

5. COMMUNISM • ROLE/POWER OF THE STATE: • TO CRUSH THE CAPITALISTS • TO EDUCATE THE WORKERS • TO COMMAND THE ECONOMY • TO “WITHER AWAY” • A “CLASSLESS SOCIETY”- “FROM EACH, ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY, TO EACH, ACCORDING TO HIS NEEDS.” • ANTI-FASCIST • ANTI-CAPITALIST

6. TWO REVOLUTIONS IN 1917 MARCH -MODERATE NOVEMBER-RADICAL LED BY LENIN WHO SEIZES POWER BOLSHEVIK PARTY STRONG ORGANIZATION DIVIDED OPPOSITION “PEACE, LAND, BREAD” CIVIL WAR, 1919-1922 LENIN DIES, 1924 STALIN 1925-1953 “SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY” FIVE-YEAR PLANS OF RAPID INDUSTRIALISM COLLECTIVIZATION OF AGRICULTURE “CULT OF THE PERSONALITY” GULAGS – PURGES OF ALL OPPOSITION SECRET POLICE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS

7. FASCISM • MUSSOLINI OF ITALY (RGH, p. 281) • “This will be the century of authority. . .the century of the state” • Definition of Fascism: • An intensely nationalistic, (racialist), militarist and imperialist dictatorship based on charismatic leadership based on absolute obedience, coercion, repression of all opposition, and a strict subordination of the individual to the state.

8. Victim – Jew, abused Loser – failed artist, WWI Insane, Madman Diseased Psychopath “the Hitler within” Master of irrational psychological forces The sexual deviant Evil incarnate Political Criminal Counterfeiter (Phony) Opportunist Eliminationist Anti-Semite Political genius Explaining Hitler

9. How does Hitler come to power? “He came in on catpaws.” NAZI VOTE IN ELECTIONS May 1928 3% Sept. 1930 18% July 1932 37% Nov. 1932 33% (lost 2 million voters) Mar. 1933 43% (no effective opposition) So, the Nazis never won a majority in any national election The Catholic Center party and the Social Democrats kept their voters throughout. 40% of those who joined the party between 1925 and 1933eventually left.

10. Hitler and the Jews Then I came to Vienna. . . Once, as I was strolling through the Inner City, I suddenly encountered an apparition in a black caftan and black hair locks. Is this a Jew? Was my first thought. For, to be sure, they had not loked like that in Linz. I observed the man furtively and cautiously, but the longer I stared at this foreign face, scrutinizing feature for feature, the more my first questions assumed a new form: Is this a German? As always, in such cases, I now began to try to relieve my doubts by books. For a few hellers I bought the first anti-Semitic pamplets of my life. . . I could no longer very well doubt that the objects of my study were not Germans of a special religion, but a people in themselves.” From Mein Kampf

11. the embodiment of law and order represents the national interest the architect of the German “miracle” a moderate against extremists commitment against the “enemies of the people” the statesman, the man of peace the military genius The Seven Elements of the Hitler Myth

12. Depression Technicalities “He came in on catpaws” Weimar Republic weak Personal Traits-charisma, “a messiah” “November Crime”-Ger. loss in WWI Versailles Vision of a new Germany Communists – Reichstag fire The “Big Lie”-Propaganda “if only the Fuhrer knew about that” Foreign Recognition and Appeasement “The George Washington of Germany” Lloyd George of Br. How Does Hitler Come to Power?

13. Genius • Dictionary Definition – “exceptional intellectual and creative power, or one who possesses such power.” • Which of the following constitutes genius? • 1. holding absolute power. • 2. having the power of life or death over millions. • 3. purging the country of those considered inferior, either physically, mentally, racially, or politically. • 4. betraying those that supported you on your way to the top. • 5. blaming your problems on others. • 6. being a charismatic speaker. • 7. understanding the psyche of the people. • 8. losing World War II. • 9. leaving a legacy of shame for the German people. • 10. pursing a single-minded ideology of hatred and violence.

14. I DIDN’T SPEAK UP “IN GERMANY, THE NAZIS FIRST CAME FOR THE COMMUNISTS, AND I DIDN’T SPEAK UP BECAUSE I WASN’T A COMMUNIST. THEN THEY CAME FOR THE JEWS, BUT I DIDN’T SPEAK UP BECAUSE I WASN’T A JEW. THEN THEY CAME FOR THE TRADE UNIONISTS, AND I DIDN’T SPEAK UP BECAUSE I WASN’T A TRADE UNIONIST. THEN THEY CAME FOR THE CATHOLICS, BUT I DIDN‘T SPEAK UP BECAUSE I WAS A PROTESTANT. THEN THEY CAME FOR ME, AND BY THAT TIME, THERE WAS NO ONE LEFT TO SPEAK FOR ME.” REV. MARTIN NIEMOELLER, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR, ARRESTED BY THE GESTAPO AND SENT TO DACHAU IN 1938, FREED IN 1945

15. The Interwar Period 1919-1939 • Post-WWI Problems: • League of Nations—collective security • Reparations and war debts • Spread of dictatorship • The Illusion of Security • Disarmament • Peace agreements (Locarno; Kellogg-Briand)

16. The Depression—the world goes crazy Global Interdependence Germany Reparations Loans, Investment Trade Japan United States France Britain War Debts

17. International Aggression • Japan—war in China, 1931-37+ • Italy—Ethiopia, 1935-37 • Spanish Civil War, 1936-39: Rome-Berlin Axis

18. Germany under Hitler • Two policies: nationalism, revise Versailles • Rearmament • Remilitarization of the Rhineland, 1936 • Hossbach minutes, 1937: lebensraum, war • Anschluss with Austria, 1938

19. Appeasement policy—definition • Rationale: • a. • b. • c. • d. • Assessment

20. The Munich Pact, 1938 • Surrender of the Sudetenland • “Peace in our time”—Chamberlain • Germany seizes rest of Czech., March 1939 • Pressure on Poland and the end of appeasement

21. The View from Russia • Stalin’s suspicions • The Nazi-Soviet Pact, August 1939