amber_dusk 's review for:

The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett

4.0

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It’s been a while since I read about the rise of the Nazi party and Hitler, so this book was a great refresher. While I can’t particularly say I enjoyed reading it, I did feel that I came out with a more thorough understanding of how the German people ‘let’ them come to power.

I get it was apt to read this in the current US political climate, not because I think fascists are going to take over here, but because populism and racism have become more popular and I wanted to see the parallels to the past. While may today have forgotten, or never learned, that there was resistance to the rise of the Nazi, it was obviously not enough and Hindenburg was an awful example of failed leadership. Images of the Hindenburg Zeppelin disaster are a fitting memorial to the man.



One advantage that we have over the Weimar German society is the ability to look back at what happened to them. Hopefully many more people will pick up books like this to help remind us all the dangers of populism and the ideas of ‘me first.’

I would hope I am not the first to quote this famous confession, but it’s impossible not to share it:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

— Martin Niemöller