Germany confronts its dark past on Hitler anniversary

THE 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s elevation to German chancellor today is one the country would prefer to forget, but the ignominious event that ultimately led to the deaths of millions remains part of the nation’s weighted history.

Hitler’s accession to the post gave the Nazi party its “in” to eventually consolidate absolute control over the country in the months soon after, setting it on the path to the second world war and the Holocaust.

The Holocaust remains “for us Germans an indelible part of our history”, said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday, as the country marked the 63rd year since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in annual Holocaust remembrance ceremonies.

“The memory of the genocide committed by the Germans serves to keep us alert and fight anti-semitism and racial hatred around the world,” he said. Few public events are planned to mark today’s anniversary although many schools received letters from state governments asking them to hold special sessions in class.

German students spend about half a school year learning about Hitler’s rise to power and the Third Reich, part of a concerted effort on the part of modern Germany to prevent history from repeating itself.

The rise of Hitler, and the Nazis, is viewed with a national shame and horror, but its reasons for happening were complex, said Hans Ottomeyer, director of Berlin’s German Historical Museum. Ottomeyer cited the first world war, rampant inflation in the postwar years, the world economic collapse of 1929 and the country’s massive unemployment as factors that led people to vote for extremist parties. “The general fear of social and economic decline was stirred from both the left and the right,” he said.

“They all tried to consolidate their positions with violence, and that opened the flank to this seizure of power.”

About a month after being appointed chancellor, Hitler used the torching of the Reichstag parliament building — blamed on a Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe — to strengthen his grip on power, suspending civil liberties and cracking down on opposition parties. Mr van der Lubbe, a bricklayer, was convicted of arson and high treason and executed on January 10, 1934.

In a move earlier this month — evidence Germany’s rehabilitation is still ongoing — German prosecutors overturned Mr van der Lubbe’s conviction.