Since the Washington Post decided to kiss Trump’s ass before the election – and is trying to hand the election to him – I did a search of the Washington Post archive for “Hitler” + “election” for the crucial period of 1932. The WaPo does not shame itself in this 1932 coverage, as they have in refusing to endorse a presidential candidate in 2024 – but Jeff Bezos hadn’t yet slithered out from You’ve Got Mail and the detritus of every community bookstore he destroyed in the form of Amazon.
In the papers of the 1930s, Nazis are often called “Hitlerites” – which is such a better, more demeaning and infantilizing name for these emotionally-stunted, psychologically-empty specimens of wasted life. So we’ll use that term, too.
Some selections:
On January 20, WaPo published an article on “The German Election” they couldn’t possibly remember in 2024, warning that,
“The German republic is already in a precarious condition. No far-seeing leader would seek to nullify the basic structure on which it rests for the sake of securing a temporary advantage.”
A March 1 article, “Hindenburg Or Chaos” pathetically prophecies Trump,
“In allowing himself to be drawn into the presidential race Adolf Hitler made the greatest mistake of his career. He will be hopelessly defeated, and the prestige of his party in the Reichstag will doubtless undergo a considerable shrinkage.”
“In accepting the latter position [as attache of the Brunswick legation] Hitler swore allegiance to the constitution which he had already pledged himself to destroy. He thus places himself before the German electorate as a counterfeit and a fraud. His only purpose in seeking the office of president is to uproot the republic, embroil Germany with other European powers, and rule over the German people with a mailed fist.”
On March 10, naievete is on full display – perhaps like here in the U.S. – with the article “Berlin Uneasy Lest Nazis Use Violence: Police of Germany Move To Thwart Hiterlite Uprising Around Election Day.”
The March 14 article, “A Rational Germany” notes of maga-before-maga:
“Hitlerism is not so much the embodiment of a constructive national policy as it is an emotional expression of resentment against what the fiery young leader and doubtless many sincere followers consider the interminable humiliation of war debts and reparations imposed by other nations.”
WaPo does not note that those debts were caused by Germany invading everyone else in the first place.
Maga really breaks with the Hitlerites here though:
“Their campaigns … against class distinctions and the wealthier ranks of society, in the trying times of recent years, naturally attracted many followers among the unemployed, discontented and militaristic elements.”
By April 5, WaPo was publishing “Hitler Promises Women Ease in Finding Mates”:
“Hundreds of women cheered Adolf Hitler at an open air meeting in the Lustgarten today when the Fascist leader promised that his ‘third Reich’ would make it easier for all German maidens to find homes and husbands to support them.
“Hitler, who is the National Socialist candidate for president of Germany in the election next Sunday, addressed the women in a whirlwind campaign, in which he is setting a record of four speeches daily.”
On April 17, the influence of the USA on the Hitlerites is made clear in “Gangs Used In Germans’ Ballot War: Violence Is Developing Along U.S. Lines”:
“Not the least of the characteristics of the trail of blood that leads to the ballot box is its striking similarity to the abortive tactics of America’s gangland. … Regardless of whether the charges of either side are true, the methods of American racketeers have entered German elections with machine guns, ‘flying squads’ and similar organizations. Both sides claim ‘self-defense.’ … Blinds are usually kept down because of a recent tendency to take another page from American gangland’s book of ethics; that is, the machine gun raid.
“While all this goes on the average citizen is as little affected as is the average American by gang warfare. The German reads the weird reports of killing in his newspaper and shakes his head dubiously, believing them, in most cases, exaggerated. If he gets sufficiently excited he scolds, as does the American when he reads of gang murder: ‘Why doesn’t the Government take a hand?'”
The April 17 article does not hide the ongoing political murders that maga longs for:
“Both the Reds and the Fascists of Adolph Hitler have submitted impressive lists of casualities to government authorities. The Hiterlites claim 112 dead from clashes with foes between 1923 and 1931, inclusive, and the Communists and Social Democrats present a list of 62 dead ‘felled by Nazis’ in the last two years.”
On the same page the WaPo prints the article “Hitler Party Makes Gain In Hesse Diet Elections” they also print an article about the G.O.P. that could’ve been written in 2024:
“Platform Ignores Women, Is Charge: Party Leader Raps G.O.P. in Citing Concern Over Other Groups:
‘The Republican platform was censured last night by Mrs. John Brisben Walker, of New York, National Women’s Party official, as one which ‘completely ignores women’s demand for equality of opportunity.’
“Through a statement from the Woman’s Party headquarters, Mrs. Walker said ‘for the first time since 1912 a national convention of a major political party does absolutely nothing to advance the position of women.'”
The statement goes on in a maga-leaning wave of division, instead of coalescing to fight the bullies:
“The Republican party in its platform expresses concern for the rights of Puerto Ricans, Hawaiians, Alaskans, the Negro race, the Indians, the veterans, and so on,” she added, “but evidences no concern whatever over the position of women, despite the fact that women’s status is inferior to that of any of the other groups.”
On July 19, WaPo was underestimating the evil of the Hitlerites and the faults of non-Hitlerites, in the article “Riots in Reich Banned Under Death Penalty”:
“The National Socialists [Nazis] have threatened to arm their storm troops if the government does not put down disorderly elements of the Left, but the cabinet has declared that it will not tolerate the arming of any political organization.”
July 25 saw a smear of women voters strictly as the “flapper vote” which “Is Called Menace to Hitler” reporting on the opinion of Karl Hoeltermann, head of Germany’s Republican guard – with roles for women that nowadays would be known as “trad-wife”:
“feminine politicians are deeply resentful of the Hitlerites’ scorn of women’s activities in any field except the former kaiser’s “K.K.K.” standard of ‘kinder, kuecher und kitche’ (children, kitchen and church).”
Hoeltermann is quoted saying,
“The Nazis … oppose women in politics and have nominated no women candidates for the national legislature. Their attitude was expressed recently with almost brutal frankness in the Prussian Diet, where a Socialist woman deputy replied to a Nazi’s taunt ‘but we women had to send our sons to the front.’
“This drew the following retort: ‘Your dumb sheep – that’s what they were made for!’ The woman’s son died in the war.”
July 26’s “The Hitler Menace” describe MAGA, except that the evangelical/Trump cult have had 8 years to cohere around Trump’s butthole:
“The Nazis do not comprise a coherent, organized following made up of believers in fixed principles or ideals; they are the discontented and discouraged members of every class who are ready to try anything however visionary and give ear to any sophistries promising the impossible.”
By 1934, when the Hitlerites has seized total power, WaPo was published “Hitler – Archangel or Madman? – To Germans He’s Both” with the subhead: “To Americans He Looks Like a Shouting Revivalist Fanatic.”
And to many USians, a “shouting revivalist fanatic” is absolute nightmare; and to others, it is an ideal that allows them to believe they are on the side of angels while they burn in a hell of their own creation; which would be fine, except they drag the rest of us to hell with them.
