Nazis had a REAL left wing

Submitted by Brian Meadows (United States), May 21, 2014 at 20:50

Dr. Pipes,

Today we consider 'moderate Nazi' a ridiculous oxymoron. Now I don't know if you've read Shirer's magnum opus, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but if so, you may remember that one thing (among many) which Shirer tells us is that the Nazi party (from the National Socialist German Workers' Party) had a real and vital left wing that, unlike Hitler, really believed in the socialism in National Socialism. It lasted until maybe the Blood Purge of June 30, 1934. Its captain was Gregor Strasser, who was, until he resigned in 1932, the #2 man in the party and a very different personality from Hitler. To name two important differences, his wartime superiors considered him commissionable (he rose to the rank of lieutenant) whereas Corporal Hitler was considered 'too excitable'. He also had a settled, stable trade (pharmacist) and we all know Hitler was, essentially, a semi-artistic bum.

Little Joe Goebbels began as a member of that left wing and in 1925 actually demanded that 'the petty-bourgeois Hitler be expelled from the Nazi party'! I think, had Strasser persisted and maybe supplanted Hitler, history might have been very different and maybe less bloody. Something tells me Strasser might have echoed the Vienna mayor Karl Lueger who, after winning election on a radical-sounding Pan-German platform, was not so radical in practice. His 'excuse' was, "I decide who is a Jew."

Not that I like a Gentile saying that, but you see my point. Maybe Islamism will change to that extent, but time will tell and in the meantime we'll still keep our powder dry.

Respectfully,

Brian S. Meadows

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