Further information: Consequences of Nazismand Neo-NazismOutside the building in Braunau am Inn, Austria, where Hitler was born, is a memorial stone placed as a reminder of the horrors of World War II. The inscription translates as:For peace, freedomand democracynever again fascismmillions of dead remind [us]Hitlers suicide was likened by contemporaries to a spell being broken.[341][342] Public support for Hitler had collapsed by the time of his death and few Germans mourned his passing; Ian Kershaw argues that most civilians and military personnel were too busy adjusting to the collapse of the country or fleeing from the fighting to take any interest.[343] According to historian John TolandNational Socialism burst like a bubble without its leader.[344]Hitlers actions and Nazi ideology are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral;[345]according to historian Ian Kershaw, Never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated with the name of one man.[346]Hitlers political programme brought about a world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Eastern and Central Europe. Germany itself suffered wholesale destruction, characterised as Zero Hour.[347] Hitlers policies inflicted human suffering on an unprecedented scale;[348] according to R.J. Rummel, the Nazi regime was responsible for the democidal killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.[318] In addition, 29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in theEuropean Theatre of World War II,[318] and Hitlers role has been described as ... the main author of a war leaving over 50 million dead and millions more grieving their lost ones ....[346] The total number of civilians killed during the Second World War was an unprecedented development in the history of warfare.[349] Historians, philosophers, and politicians often use the word evil to describe the Nazi regime.[350] Many European countries have criminalised both the promotion of Nazism and Holocaust denial.[351]Historian Friedrich Meinecke described Hitler as one of the great examples of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical life.[352] English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper saw him as among the terrible simplifiers of history, the most systematic, the most historical, the most philosophical, and yet the coarsest, cruelest, least magnanimous conqueror the world has ever known.[353] For the historian John M. Roberts, Hitlers defeat marked the end of a phase of European history dominated by Germany.[354] In its place emerged the Cold War, a global confrontation between the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States and other NATOnations, and the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union.[355] Historian Sebastian Haffneravows that without Hitler and the displacement of the Jews, the modern nation state of Israel would not exist. He contends that without Hitler, the de-colonization of former European spheres of influence would not have occurred as quickly and would have been postponed.[356] Further, Haffner claims that other than Alexander the Great, Hitler had a more significant impact than any other comparable historical figure, in that he too caused a wide range of worldwide changes in a relatively short time span.[357]
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:30:47 +0000
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