http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany
“On the night of 27 February 1933 the Reichstag building was set on fire and Dutch council communist Marinus van der Lubbe
was found inside the building. He was arrested and charged with
starting the blaze. The event had an immediate effect on thousands of
anarchists, socialists and communists throughout the Reich, many of
whom were sent to the Dachau concentration camp.
The unnerved public worried that the fire had been a signal meant to
initiate the communist revolution, and the Nazis found the event to be
of immeasurable value in getting rid of potential insurgents. The event
was quickly followed by the Reichstag Fire Decree, rescinding habeas corpus and other civil liberties.”
“The inception of the Gestapo,
police acting outside of any civil authority, highlighted the Nazis'
intention to use powerful, coercive means to directly control German
society. An army, estimated to be of about 100,000, spies and
informants operated throughout Germany, reporting to Nazi officials the
activities of any critics or dissenters. [citation needed]
Most ordinary Germans, happy with the improving economy and better
standard of living, remained obedient and quiet, but many political
opponents, especially [citation needed] communists and Marxist or international socialists,
were reported by omnipresent eavesdropping spies and put in prison
camps where many were tortured and killed. It is estimated that tens of
thousands of political victims died or disappeared in the first few
years of Nazi rule.
"Between 1933 and 1945 more than 3 million Germans had been in concentration camps or prison for political reasons"[8] "Tens of thousands of Germans were killed for one or another form of resistance. Between 1933 and 1945 Special Courts killed 12,000 Germans, courts martial
killed 25,000 German soldiers, and 'regular' justice killed 40,000
Germans. Many of these Germans were part of the government civil or
military service, a circumstance which enabled them to engage in
subversion and conspiracy while involved, marginally or significantly,
in the government's policies."[9]” “Persecution and extermination campaigns
A member of Einsatzgruppe D killing a Jew who is kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. The back of the photo is inscribed "The last Jew in Vinnitsa"
The persecution of minorities and "undesirables" continued both in
Germany and the occupied countries. From 1941 onward, Jews were
required to wear a yellow badge in public and most were transferred to ghettos, where they remained isolated from the rest of the population. In January 1942, at the Wannsee Conference and under the supervision of Reinhard Heydrich, who himself was commanded by Heinrich Himmler, a plan for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (Endlösung der Judenfrage) in Europe was designed. From then until the end of the war some six million Jews and many others, including homosexuals,
Slavs, and political prisoners, were systematically killed. In
addition, more than ten million people were put into forced labour.
This genocide is called the Holocaust in English and the Shoah in Hebrew. Thousands were shipped daily to extermination camps and concentration camps.
Parallel to the Holocaust, the Nazis conducted a ruthless program of conquest and exploitation over the captured Soviet and Polish territories and their populations as part of their Generalplan Ost. According to estimates, 20 million Soviet civilians, three million non-Jewish Poles, and seven million Red Army soldiers died because of the Nazis in what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War. The Nazis' plan was to extend German Lebensraum
("living space") eastward, a foreseen consequence of the war in Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union, said by the Nazis to have been waged in
order "to defend Western Civilization against Bolshevism
of subhumans". It is estimated that at least 51 milion Slavic people
were to be removed from Central and Eastern Europe in the event of Nazi
victory[10]. Because of the many atrocities suffered under Stalin, the Nazi message was interpreted by many to be legitimate in parts of Soviet Union. Many Ukrainians, Balts,
and other nationalities fought, or at least expected to fight, on the
side of the Germans. People in the occupied territories of the Soviet
Union that fulfilled the basic racial classifications of the Aryan race
or had no Jewish ancestry, were allowed to avoid persecution and
allowed to enlist in the Waffen Schutzstaffel (Waffen-SS) divisions. The Nazi regime intended to eventually "Germanize" the racially-acceptable peoples of the occupied east.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nazi_Germany
“Pre-war economy: 1933–1939
Nazis came to power in the aftermath of the Great Depression. When the Nazis came to power the most pressing issue was an unemployment rate of close to 30%[3]. Before World War II, the Nazis placed non-Nazi professionals in charge of economic policy. Hitler appointed Hjalmar Schacht, a former member of the German Democratic Party, as Chairman of the Reichsbank in 1933 and Minister of Economics in 1934.
At first, Schacht continued the economic policies introduced by the government of Kurt von Schleicher in 1932 to combat the effects of the Great Depression. These policies were mostly Keynesian, relying on large public works programs supported by deficit spending — such as the construction of the Autobahn — to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment. There was major reduction in unemployment over the following years, while price controls prevented the recurrence of inflation.
The economic policies of the Third Reich were in the beginning the
brainchildren of Schacht, who assumed office as president of the
central bank under Hitler in 1933, and became finance minister in the
following year[3]. Schacht was one of the few finance ministers to take advantage of the freedom provided by the end of the gold standard to keep interest rates low and government budget deficits high, with massive public works funded by large budget deficits[3].
The consequence was an extremely rapid decline in unemployment—the most
rapid decline in unemployment in any country during the Great Depression[3]. Eventually this Keynesian economic policy was supplemented by the boost to demand provided by rearmament and swelling military spending.
Meanwhile, the Nazis outlawed trade unions and banned strikes.
They also directed Schacht to place more emphasis on military
production and rearmament. Germany slowly began to recover from the
Great Depression, but this recovery was driven primarily by a military
build-up. A number of economists, starting with Michal Kalecki, have seen this as an example of military Keynesianism.
In June 1933, the "Reinhardt Program" was introduced. It was an
ambitious project for the development of infrastructure; it combined
indirect incentives, such as tax reductions, with direct public
investment in waterways, railroads and highways.[22]
The Reinhardt Program was followed by other similar initiatives
resulting in great expansion of the German construction industry
between 1933 and 1936. In 1933 only 666,000 Germans worked in
construction; by 1936 the number had gone up to 2,000,000.[23]
In particular, road construction was expanding at a very rapid pace.
This was part of Hitler's war preparations: Germany needed a
state-of-the-art highway system in order to be able to move troops and
materials quickly. Cars and other forms of motorized transport became
increasingly attractive to the population. The German car industry
experienced a boom in the 1930s.[24]
In 1936, military spending in Germany exceeded 10% of GNP (higher than
any other European country at the time). Military investment also
exceeded civilian investment from 1936 onwards. Armaments dominated
government expenditures on goods and services.[25]
The year 1936 also represented a turning point for German trade policy. Hjalmar Schacht
was replaced in September 1936 by Hitler's lieutenant Hermann Goering,
with a mandate to make Germany self-sufficient to fight a war within
four years.[3]
Under Goering imports were slashed. Wages and prices were
controlled—under penalty of being sent to the concentration camp.
Dividends were restricted to six percent on book capital. And strategic
goals to be reached at all costs were declared: the construction of
synthetic rubber plants, more steel plants, automatic textile factories.[3]
World prices for raw materials (which constituted the bulk of German
imports) were on the rise. At the same time, world prices for
manufactured goods (Germany's chief exports) were falling. The result
was that Germany found it increasingly difficult to maintain a balance
of payments. A large trade deficit seemed almost inevitable. But Hitler
found this prospect unacceptable. Thus Germany, following Italy's lead,
began to move away from partially free trade in the direction of
economic self-sufficiency.[26]
Unlike Italy, however, Germany did not strive to achieve full
autarky. Hitler was aware of the fact that Germany lacked reserves of
raw materials, and full autarky was therefore impossible. Thus he chose
a different approach. The Nazi government tried to limit the number of
its trade partners, and, when possible, only trade with countries
within the German sphere of influence. A number of bilateral trade
agreements were signed between Germany and other European countries
(mostly countries located in Southern and South-Eastern Europe) during
the 1930s. The German government strongly encouraged trade with these
countries but strongly discouraged trade with any others.[5]
By the late 1930s, the aims of German trade policy were to use
economic and political power to make the countries of Southern Europe
and the Balkans dependent on Germany. The German economy would draw its
raw materials from that region, and the countries in question would
receive German manufactured goods in exchange. Already in 1938,
Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece transacted 50% of all
their foreign trade with Germany.[6]
Throughout the 1930s, German businesses were encouraged to form
cartels, monopolies and oligopolies, whose interests were then
protected by the state.[27] In his book, Big Business in the Third Reich, Arthur Schweitzer notes that:
“ |
Monopolistic price fixing
became the rule in most industries, and cartels were no longer confined
to the heavy or large-scale industries. [...] Cartels and quasi-cartels
(whether of big business or small) set prices, engaged in limiting
production, and agreed to divide markets and classify consumers in
order to realize a monopoly profit.[28] |
” |
As big business became increasingly organized, it developed an
increasingly close partnership with the Nazi government. The government
pursued economic policies that maximized the profits of its business
allies, and, in exchange, business leaders supported the government's
political and military goals.[7]
While the strict state intervention into the economy, and the
massive rearmament policy, led to full employment during the 1930s,
real wages in Germany dropped by roughly 25% between 1933 and 1938. [4] Trade unions were abolished, as well as collective bargaining and the right to strike. [8]
The right to quit also disappeared: Labour books were introduced in
1935, and required the consent of the previous employer in order to be
hired for another job. [8]
In place of ordinary profit incentive to guide investment, investment
was guided through regulation to accord with needs of the State.
Government financing eventually came to dominate the investment
process, which the proportion of private securities issued falling from
over half of the total in 1933 and 1934 to approximately 10 percent in
1935–1938. Heavy taxes on profits limited self-financing of firms. The
largest firms were mostly exempt from taxes on profits, however
government control of these were extensive enough to leave "only the
shell of private ownership." [29]
Another part of the new German economy was massive rearmament, with
the goal being to expand the 100,000-strong German Army into a force of
millions. The Four-Year Plan was discussed in the controversial Hossbach Memorandum, which provides the "minutes" from one of Hitler's briefings.
Nevertheless, the war came and although the Four-Year Plan
technically expired in 1940, Hermann Göring had built up a power base
in the "Office of the Four-Year Plan" that effectively controlled all
German economic and production matters by this point in time. In 1942
the growing burdens of the war and the death of Todt saw the economy
move to a full war economy under Albert Speer.”
这就是Hitler所谓的经济政策。如果军队从100,000扩张到4,000,000,还会有失业率吗?但一个6000万人的国家能多久支撑400万军队?
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