It’s February 1933. Adolf Hitler has recently been appointed Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. A mysterious fire breaks out at the German Parliament, known as the Reichstag and totally destroys the building.
Near the scene of the fire a spaced-out Dutchman named Marinus van der Lubbe is taken into custody and it turns out he is a communist. Authorities quickly convict van der Lubbe who is then executed for his “crime.” But not before Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution is invoked, which gave Hitler total control of Germany and curtailed the country’s most basic rights, including the right to free expression, freedom of the Press, the right of free assembly, the right to secure postal and telephone communications, protection from illegal search and seizure, right to private property and the right of German states to self-government.
A supplemental decree added the creation of special police agencies such as the SS (Schutz Staffel , or protective echelon) and the SA (Sturm Abteilung, or Storm Troopers).
