Truth be told, Hitler wasn't much of a killer before 1939. He may have had evil intentions toward the Jews, but he could not quite bring himself to kill them until World War II was underway. He did kill political opponents and others, but in smaller numbers for the first five years of his inhuman regime than such killers as Satan Hussein, Franco, Duvalier, Assad, Mengistu, the Khmer Rouge, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Tito, (in the Congo) Leopold II of Belgium, or murderous dictators in southern South America in the late 1970s. He probably had less blood on his hands in his first five years of power than Andrew Jackson had in eight years in his 'Indian removal'. I have yet to mention the Rwandan genocide. He was less lethal in his first five years of power than the potato famine in Ireland. It would take him time to match the Atlantic slave trade for comparable killing. He had his 'euthanasia' program, but even that faced public opposition that compelled him to stop.
Not until World War II began could he murder with seeming impunity, starting with the Polish intelligentsia which served as prologue to the Holocaust. Hitler became a murderer on an industrial scale once he no longer needed to concern himself with the opinions of his international opponents. That began on September 1, 1939 when he started making "Poland" a synonym for Hell.
Yes, Donald Trump is a racial and religious bigot as was Hitler. As bad? President Trump still has domestic opposition. We Americans have an obligation to resist him if we are to call ourselves a good nation.
Not until World War II began could he murder with seeming impunity, starting with the Polish intelligentsia which served as prologue to the Holocaust. Hitler became a murderer on an industrial scale once he no longer needed to concern himself with the opinions of his international opponents. That began on September 1, 1939 when he started making "Poland" a synonym for Hell.
Yes, Donald Trump is a racial and religious bigot as was Hitler. As bad? President Trump still has domestic opposition. We Americans have an obligation to resist him if we are to call ourselves a good nation.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.