And, the Allies basically raped Germany after WWI. Even without that crazed little Austrian paper-hanger and his insane ideas, the die was cast, WWII was inevitable. Add in the Great Depression on top of postwar reprisals, and Germany had little choice but to repudiate the hideous Versailles Treaty. Had the Allies worked WITH Germany , as we did after WWII, to help them rebuild not only infrastructure, but their economy too, things might have gone differently. I'm certainly no fan of 'Dolf, but his accepting France's unconditional surrender in that same railcar as France had used for Germany's surrender earlier then burning it, was a masterstroke of retribution. Only the truely devious mind of a top-level Super Villain could devise such a play. Dolf's single best move ever. Thankfully his spiral into insanity killed his gross ambitions.
Always remember, that crazy little Austrian paper-hanger with the insane ideas was preaching to the choir, and he didn't have to twist their arms too much! I recall reading an account of a German Jew that went to one of Hitler's early speeches, he said that the speech made him proud, angry and terrified. Proud to be a German, angry at how Germany had been treated, and terrified to be a Jew. He left Germany and survived!
And guess what? Russia saw the same thing happening in the ukraine, saw it arming up with Western aid, saw it persecuting ethnic Russians in the border lands and then it acted, it took the tanks across the border and stopped the nonsense. And what do the Western press say? That Evil Putin! HaHaHa, they are not evil, just smart, and they are not cowards. The war in ukraine was all spelled out eight years ago by Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago. He could see what US policy makers were doing, it was obvious. Go to 44:00
We all know that the West is responsible for the mess in Ukraine. The CIA created a movement that removed the democratically elected President of Ukraine in favor of a puppet that would seek membership in the EU and NATO, and that was the start of the troubles that we currently find ourselves in. Someone, maybe President Trump (GOD I love the sound of that), needs to be the adult in the room and tell Ukraine that they won, and while they lost territory and will not be allowed to join the EU or NATO, they are still an independent country. He also needs to tell Russia that they won and can keep the two eastern provinces and Crimea and Ukraine will not be joining the EU or NATO. Then the two countries can begin the decades long rebuilding process.
Wow, this thread changed direction quickly. Anyone here ever met Adolf? My father and uncle both did. My father thought he was a lunatic, my uncle thought he was the messiah. They both fought for him.
Hitler was charismatic. I didn't realize how much until I saw some AI generated translations that had his voice speaking English. When you consider the Wiemar Republic and it's social excesses followed by runaway inflation resulting in massive poverty it's pretty easy to see how Germans would look to be saved and be very open to his Socialism. I no longer judge Germans harshly after having seen the changes in the few facades here in the States. The polarization, people refusing to listen to any ideas that don't conform to their world view, thd socialism, etc.. shows me the US is ripe fpr the picking. I place most of the blame for Hitler's military expansion on the appeasement policies of Nevile Chamberlain. Thank God the Brits had Winston Churchill in the wings. I see a similar relationship between the weak appeasement foreign policies of Biden causing instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe and see Trump as our Chamberlain. Remember Trump both proceeded and succeeded Chamberlain.
My father went to a few of AH’s rallies, said he was a great orator and just what Germany needed, until he invaded Poland. Hitler cleaned up all the drug addicts and criminals, either put them to work or to death. He took Germany out of a period where many Germans had very little to eat and made the nation strong. My father said the best result for Germany would have been Hitler’s assassination in early 1939. My uncle, on the other hand, was a real zealot. He was SS, a die hard fanatic. He survived the war but when my father eventually returned to Germany after POW camp and forced farm labour in England, my uncle refused to talk to him because he had an English wife. He even reported them to the authorities and had Mum deported for daring to fall pregnant to a German.
The thing was Hitler was running a Ponzi Scheme and to keep it going he had to continually find new ways to finance it. He had removed the addicts, criminals, perverts, insane, cripples, old, slow and other unproductive members of society, confiscated the assets of the Jews, annexed Austria, and seized most of Czechoslovakia. He had to invade Poland (and France, Russia, etc.), or everything would have collapsed like a house of cards, and plus by that time his ego was too big for him to stop.
We were lucky Dolf was so crazy and ambitious. He jumped the gun ( pun intended) on starting the war several years before his top generals had planned. Those years of production and military build-up would have made the Allied European victory much harder. Those top generals knew Germany had no resources for a long drawn-out war. Especially on two major fronts. Attacking the Soviets who he had a treaty with was his second huge mistake. Well, that's what happens when a failed Corporal with delusions of grandeur takes the reins.
