Forced national socialism worked pretty well for Hermann Goering, next in line to Adolf Hitler, during the life of the Third Reich. (Left: Shots of his palatial home - 'Carinhall' - in its heyday as Goering's retreat from his taxing duties in Berlin and abroad.)
Interestingly, Amb. Jos. P. Kennedy and many in Chamberlain's cabinet felt they could do business with such a moderate Nazi as Goering, who both demonstrated and pursued such liberal tastes and mores as participating in the 1923 Munich putsch with Hitler, where he was severely wounded; serving as the Minister President of Prussia; directing the Prussian State Police; assisting in the formation of the Gestapo; aiding in the assembly of documents asserting the guilt of the SA and participating in gathering names for the hit lists for the Night of the Long Knives; ordering Himmler and Heydrich to undertake the Final Solution; picking up a considerable addiction for morphine and percodan due to the number of and the intensity of his duties; designing his own and wide array of uniforms, from pure white and sky blue, to deep blue, with the brilliant trappings and its many medals of his own construction, as head of the Luftwaffe; as an avid deer hunter; and dressing up as a Roman emperor in white and deep purple togas, sporting laurel wreaths, while wearing rouge and a strong cologne of his own mixture while entertaining visiting heads of state, ambassadors, and roving dignitaries while serving as host during many lavish parties at his home.
National socialism, especially when forced on the banks and heavy industry at the point of a rifle or bayonet, allowed the Nazi leadership to enjoy untold riches, vast cash advances from lobbyists, from protection payments made from foreign governments, from huge rake-offs stolen from national and foreign 'development' designed to stabilize the German economy; from enormous foreign plunder designed to prop up the national bank; from the seizure of foreclosed homes and their later offering to German colonists at a discount; from seized land, buildings, artwork and jewelry from 'bankrupt'
companies and foreign concerns; and from the forced Aryanization of domestic and foreign businesses and the division of their riches among the Nazi hierarchy.
Indeed, the amount plundered from conquered Europe by the Nazis, found, courtesy of their punch card lists held by special SS units and outfits deputized by Goering, is a number so enormous that it is said by many historians and economists to approach the total monies now being regularly tossed into the American economy under the so-called 'bail-out' programs provided by the completely unregulated national socialism of President Obama and supplied by those politically driven economic geniuses who actually rule American banking and heavy industry: Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts. And it is Sen. Dodd who has already reaped endless monetary donations and highly favorable mortgages from big business and lobbyists in his position of authority while writing the actual lines which enabled the vast AIG bonuses to be reaped, while Rep. Frank openly consorted with a key executive from a major federally backed primary lending institution while pronouncing that institution completely viable despite repeated calls for its stabilization through enhanced regulation by the opposing political party, the very party whom he now blames for its failure while avoiding any hint of his own personal responsibility for the utter debacle in our lending industry.
Today, in America, rather than forcing institutions to participate under the threat of the the machine gun, President Obama is merely buying enormous controlling interests in major corporations with the so called 'bail out' and then ordering them to do his national socialist bidding while relying on the US congress to pass the necessary laws to enable him to do so. In Nazi controlled Germany, similar laws were called Enabling Acts.
While the Nazi controlled Reichstag viewed the Fuhrerprinzip, or the Leader Principle, as above the law, which allowed Hitler's edicts to have the force of law; the US congress passes similar sweeping laws while knowing that they are unconstitutional, with the end result in both cases being the same - the growth and the entrenchment of fascism in each political system.
We can see national socialism at work, both now and then, under the color of authority, with the amounts of riches being injected into both systems being approximate in nature, with only the history of one yet to be written and the final disbursement of our spoils still to be fully completed and calculated.
Yes, Goering eventually reaped the whirlwind, who will reap tomorrow's beyond those who must pay off this monetary monument to man's utter folly?
John Burtis is a former Broome County, NY firefighter, a retired Santa Monica, CA, police officer. He obtained his BA in European History at Boston University and is fluent in German. He resides in NH with his wife, Betsy.
Forced national socialism worked pretty well for Hermann Goering, next in line to Adolf Hitler, during the life of the Third Reich. (Left: Shots of his palatial home - 'Carinhall' - in its heyday as Goering's retreat from his taxing duties in Berlin and abroad.)
Interestingly, Amb. Jos. P. Kennedy and many in Chamberlain's cabinet felt they could do business with such a moderate Nazi as Goering, who both demonstrated and pursued such liberal tastes and mores as participating in the 1923 Munich putsch with Hitler, where he was severely wounded; serving as the Minister President of Prussia; directing the Prussian State Police; assisting in the formation of the Gestapo; aiding in the assembly of documents asserting the guilt of the SA and participating in gathering names for the hit lists for the Night of the Long Knives; ordering Himmler and Heydrich to undertake the Final Solution; picking up a considerable addiction for morphine and percodan due to the number of and the intensity of his duties; designing his own and wide array of uniforms, from pure white and sky blue, to deep blue, with the brilliant trappings and its many medals of his own construction, as head of the Luftwaffe; as an avid deer hunter; and dressing up as a Roman emperor in white and deep purple togas, sporting laurel wreaths, while wearing rouge and a strong cologne of his own mixture while entertaining visiting heads of state, ambassadors, and roving dignitaries while serving as host during many lavish parties at his home.
