Thread by @meltzere

Lots of people are sharing a Gazette editorial arguing Hitler was a socialist. The piece is a response to my reporting on State Board member Steve Durham's efforts to shape Holocaust education according to his own politics. #edcolo #copolitics co.chalkbeat.org/2022/10/12/233…

The Gazette editorial quotes Hitler hating on capitalism. He did speak against capitalism and link it to predatory Jews — something antisemites still do. He also railed against Marxists and communists and linked them to Jews — something antisemites still do.

I think one mistake the Gazette makes is treating Nazism as either/or. If it's not free-market capitalism, it's socialism. The core of Nazism was hatred for Jews, German racial superiority, and subjugation of other peoples. Everything else is just in pursuit of those ends.

To be clear! I am not a historian of Nazi Germany or a genocide scholar. I talked people who have spent their lives on this work, and I read a lot to write this piece. I want to pull out some of the links because it's helpful to understand "national socialism" in its context.

People who want to see Hitler as a socialist often cite the 1920 Nazi Party platform. It combines ideas like land reform and profit-sharing with stripping Jews of their citizenship. But the Nazis moved away from these ideas pretty early on. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/art…

There was a wing of the party that could be described as socialist plus antisemitic. Hitler crushed this wing of the party by 1925/26. You can read about those intraparty disputes here.

vox.com/2019/3/27/1828…

And more here. The leaders of this wing of the party were the Strasser brothers. One left the party and ultimately sought refuge in Canada. The other was murdered on Hitler's orders. britannica.com/story/were-the…

Here's how the NYT reviewed the first English edition of Mein Kampf. Hitler was doing good things, the author said, like destroying communism and protecting private property. Contemporaries did not understand Hitler to be a socialist. nytimes.com/1996/10/06/boo…

Antisemitism was core to the Nazi message. They blamed Jews as capitalists and socialists and back-stabbers for causing Germany's problems. But the Nazis also rose to power, historians told me, by casting themselves as the only party strong enough to take on the left.

Dachau, the first concentration camp, opened to house political prisoners: communists, trade unionists, and social democrats. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/art…

The Nazi economic system was a mixed bag. There were elements of central planning, with the economy harnessed to support the war effort. The Nazis also courted powerful industrialists, privatized state-owned industries, and banned unions. nber.org/system/files/c…

I want to be clear that I wrote this story because I care about accurate history, not to "win" for a side. I didn't just go off what I thought I knew. I sought out experts and educated myself more and tried to share what I learned with readers.

In no way am I suggesting leftist regimes are always benign. Communist governments have committed horrible crimes. I didn't know much about China's Great Famine, and students should learn this history. theguardian.com/world/2013/jan…

I could keep dropping links. I read a lot of grim things. I did not know, for example, that the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror ended when Vietnam invaded — and the global community criticized Vietnam and allowed the Khmer Rouge to keep their UN seat.

But we don't need a decontextualized, ahistorical version of the Nazis to teach about the crimes of the Soviet Union or China, and there are real risks to thinking only one kind of political system can lead to genocide. Whatever your political views, humanity has to come first.

Each genocide arises in its own context. We need to learn from the parallels and connections, but not erase the differences. vox.com/2019/3/27/1828…

Using the Holocaust to score political points does not do justice to the victims, who were real human beings, as real as you or I. They deserve better, and our students deserve better. co.chalkbeat.org/2022/10/12/233…