Merriam Webster defines tyrant as “an absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution” or “a ruler who exercises absolute power oppressively or brutally.”  (Tyrant, n.d.)  So, the answer to the initial questions would have to be yes, he was a tyrannical ruler. There’s no argument that the genocide of the Holocaust and the brutally wasted lives of millions of men, women and children was beyond a heinous crime.

However, his climb to power was ingenious. Often described as a frail child that was born to an abusive father, he later became a German soldier.  He served on the frontlines of World War One with distinction and twice awarded the Iron Cross.  (Brower & Sanders, 2014) His gift lay in his ability for persuasive speech and he aligned himself to positions of authority within the Nazi party.  His development of the Stormtroopers (SA) during the early years of the Depression grew rapidly into hundreds of thousands of men willing to pledge absolute allegiance to Hitler and the Nazi party.  They were ready to defend Germany and uphold the law of Hitler.  He spread his beliefs through coercion, propaganda, brute force and fearmongering.  The passing of the Enabling Act which authorized rule without constitutional constraint ensured his dictatorship. He was a man with a brilliantly deranged mind combined with a lust for power and racist revenge.

“Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people.” Do you agree? Why is this such a prophetic statement?

I do believe this is true.  With books representing knowledge and free thinking, those that desire to rid the world of books will also rid the world of those with a wish to oppose. The Nazi raids upon German bookstores was yet another publically racist display to attempt to rid the world of anything touched by the Jews.

HIST 410N WEEK 3: DICTATORSHIP AND DEMOCRACY DISCUSSION References

Brower, D., & Sanders, T. (2014). The World in the Twentieth Century, 7thed. Pearson LearningSolutions, VitalBook file.

Tyrant. (n.d.). Retrieved July 18, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tyrant