Normalization in Nazi Germany

While Germany sought appeasement from outside countries during the run-up to World War II, internally it began to try turning its citizens against the people who it would blame for Germany's problems. One way to do this was to begin appealing to children with racist, vicious propaganda and a dubious activity club.

Thus did the Nazis form the Hitler Youth. While the club was promoted as a German version of the Boy Scouts, its main intent was to normalize the hatred against the Jews and other minorities that would become scapegoats under Adolf Hitler's rule.

 

Another way they sought to normalize things was with a series of Anti-Semitic children's books such as the repellent Der Giftpilz which sought to dehumanize Germany's "enemies".

 

It would signal the beginning of Germany's march to horror.

Chamberlain's Appeasement

 

As rumors of Nazi Germany's real intentions began to spread throughout the world, many began to feel that war was inevitable. Adolf Hitler's aggression started to be viewed with suspicion and many people felt that the world would have to go to war to stop Germany's increasing encroachment on other countries.

And then there was British prime minister Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain didn't support Hitler's push for lebensraum or his increasingly problematic statements against Jews and other minorities, but he had seen the damage the First World War had done to the continent of Europe. He wasn't eager to drag the United Kingdom into another long, destructive war. So when Hitler wanted to annex areas of Czechoslovakia he referred to as the Sudetenland, Chamberlain didn't see the need to push back. After all, the people in the area mostly spoke German, right? No need to push back on this issue. The result was the Munich Agreement, which emboldened Hitler and betrayed Czechoslovakia. Mr. Chamberlain arrived back in England proudly touting the accord as 'peace for our time'.

The agreement merely forestalled the inevitable war and emboldened Hitler into normalizing racism, genocide and extremism. Chamberlain's optimism would be short lived.

History Quote Weekends

 

The New Daily History!

 

Weird History is now Daily History @HasteChanning.Com! 

While Daily History will still feature the stranger stories of the past, this name change will allow the site to feature all types of historical stories without seemingly trivializing them.

Welcome to the new Daily History @HasteChanning.com!

History Quote Weekends

 

Black Dahlia Week: Solved?

 

70 years later, people are still fascinated with the Black Dahlia case and countless amateur sleuths still debate who might be the killer. Retired Detective Steve Hodel thinks he knows who the killer was; oddly enough he accuses his father of the killings- George Hill Hodel.

It might sound far fetched at first, but he makes a good case. When Steve began his investigation he didn't realize that his father had actually been under suspicion by the LAPD. In fact, George Hodel was under surveillance and a secret warrant had been obtained to put a bug in his house. Among the many compelling pieces of evidence that implicate George Hodel:

• George Hodel was a doctor who could have performed the grisly bisection of Miss Short. Experts believe that an untrained murderer could not have accomplished this feat easily.
• George Hodel's handwriting appears to match the writing used to defile Miss Short's body and the threatening letters sent to the newspapers.
• George Hodel was known as a doctor who was willing to help hide some of Hollywood's unseemly scandals and pregnancies.
• Jack Webb, while doing research for his legendary show Dragnet, was told by LAPD authorities that the murderer was a doctor who lived on Franklin Avenue. George Hodel was a doctor who lived on Franklin Avenue.
• The surveillance tapes caught George Hodel making the following suspicious statement: "Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary because she's dead."

George Hodel died in 1999, but his son still wants to find the truth. There's no statute of limitations on murder, but the LAPD has been reluctant to help anyone trying to bring out the truth. What do we think? Looking at the totality of the evidence (check out http://www.stevehodel.com for all of it) we think George Hodel was indeed the man responsible for killing Beth Short. If we were on a jury, the evidence presented by Steve Hodel would be enough for us to convict.

Black Dahlia Week: Bugsy Siegel Under Suspicion

 

One potential Black Dahlia suspect was Bugsy Siegel, though it may have just been wishful thinking on the part of the LAPD. Bugsy was not known to socialize in the same circles as Beth Short and he was not known to be so sadistic as to inflict the type of horrific injuries visited upon Ms. Short.

He was apparently cleared, though the 'suspicions' were probably a sham ginned up by the LAPD to come up with an excuse to look into his business dealings.