XPost: talk.politics.libertarian, alt.anarchism, alt.society.anarchy   
   XPost: alt.activism   
   From: mars1933@hotmail.com   
      
   Fraudulent Nazi Quotations   
   By Mark Weber   
   Fraudulent quotations attributed to Hitler and other Third Reich   
   leaders have been widely circulated for years. Such quotes are often   
   used by polemicists -- of both the left and the right -- to discredit   
   their ideological adversaries by showing that Nazis held similar   
   views. This tactic works because people have been educated to believe   
   that anything Hitler and other Nazi leaders thought or said was   
   malevolent, wrong-headed or evil, and that no reasonable or ethical   
   person could hold similar views.   
      
   Here's a look at a few of the many remarks falsely attributed to   
   Hitler and other top Nazis.   
      
   Goebbels: `Truth is the Enemy of the State'   
      
   Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, supposedly said:   
      
   "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will   
   eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such   
   time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic   
   and or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally   
   important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent,   
   for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension,   
   the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."   
      
   Rush Limbaugh, the popular American radio commentator, is just one of   
   the many influential Americans who has cited this quotation. During a   
   May 2007 radio broadcast he claimed that these remarks are "from   
   Hitler's war room, the Nazi spinmeister-in-chief, Joseph Goebbels,"   
   who was "speaking for his cronies in the Nazi party." Limbaugh went on   
   to claim that American "Democrat Party" leaders were using "a version"   
   of Goebbels' technique to try to "repress dissent." And in January   
   2011 US Congressman Steve Cohen, a Democratic party politician of   
   Tennessee, accused Republicans of propagating "a big lie, just like   
   Goebbels" about a proposed national health care plan.   
      
   In fact, Goebbels' views were quite different than what this   
   fraudulent quote suggests. He consistently held that propaganda should   
   be accurate and truthful.   
      
   In an address given in September 1934 in Nuremberg, he said: "Good   
   propaganda does not need to lie, indeed it may not lie. It has no   
   reason to fear the truth. It is a mistake to believe that people   
   cannot take the truth. They can. It is only a matter of presenting the   
   truth to people in a way that they will be able to understand. A   
   propaganda that lies proves that it has a bad cause. It cannot be   
   successful in the long run."   
      
   In an article written in 1941, he cited examples of false British   
   wartime claims, and went on to charge that British propagandists had   
   adopted the "big lie" technique that Hitler had identified and   
   condemned in his book Mein Kampf. Goebbels wrote: "The English follow   
   the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it.   
   They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous."   
      
   Hitler and Gun Control   
      
   In a speech, sometimes said to have been delivered in 1935, Hitler is   
   supposed to have exclaimed: "This year will go down in history! For   
   the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our   
   streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will   
   follow our lead into the future!"   
      
   This quote has been popular with Americans who defend the   
   constitutional right to "keep and bear arms." It's cited to discredit   
   those who support restrictions on firearms ownership and use. It's   
   also cited to support the often-made charge that Hitler and his   
   government curtailed gun ownership in Germany, and confiscated weapons   
   held by private citizens.   
      
   The truth is rather different. When Hitler and his National Socialist   
   Party took power in early 1933, they inherited a somewhat restrictive   
   firearms law that the liberal-democratic "Weimar" government had   
   enacted five years earlier. In 1938 Hitler's government revised the   
   earlier law by loosening those restrictions, thereby enhancing the   
   rights of Germans to own weapons. The most thorough confiscation of   
   firearms ever imposed on Germans was carried out at the end of the   
   Second World War by the occupation forces of the United States and   
   other victorious Allied powers.   
      
   Hitler on `Law and Order'   
      
   Hitler is supposed to have said during a speech in 1932, shortly   
   before he became Chancellor:   
      
   "The streets of our cities are in turmoil. The universities are filled   
   with students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy   
   our country. Russia is threatening us with her might and the Republic   
   is in danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and   
   order! Yes, without law and order our nation cannot survive ... Elect   
   us and we shall restore law and order. We shall, by law and order, be   
   respected among the nations of the world. Without law and order our   
   Republic shall fail."   
      
   This quotation, which is meant to embarrass and discredit those who   
   support "law and order," was especially popular with younger Americans   
   during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It appeared on posters and in   
   the 1971 movie "Billy Jack."   
      
   In his many election campaign speeches in 1932 Hitler stressed the   
   themes of justice, freedom, jobs and national unity -- not "law and   
   order." German universities in 1932 were not "filled with students   
   rebelling and rioting." In fact, German students were among the most   
   fervent supporters of Hitler and his National Socialist movement.   
      
   Goering on Culture   
      
   Hermann Goering, a high-ranking Third Reich official, is often quoted   
   as having said: "Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my   
   revolver." Reichsmarschall Goering (Göring), who was commander of   
   Germany's air force, would never have said anything like this. Along   
   with other high-level Third Reich leaders, he esteemed the arts, and   
   prided himself on his appreciation of culture.   
      
   This quote is a distortion of a line by a character in the play   
   Schlageter by German writer Hanns Johst. The original line   
   (translated) is "When I hear [the word] culture ... I release the   
   safety on my Browning!" A version of this quote is presented in a   
   staged scene in "Why We Fight," a US government wartime propaganda   
   film, to suggest that the typical "Nazi" was an uncultured thug.   
      
   Hitler and Conscience   
      
   "I am liberating man from the degrading chimera known as conscience,"   
   Hitler is supposed to have said. This widely repeated quote appears,   
   for example, in The Great Quotations, a supposedly authoritative   
   collection compiled by Jewish American journalist and author George   
   Seldes. It's a version of a remark attributed to Hitler by Hermann   
   Rauschning in his book, The Voice of Destruction (Conversations with   
   Hitler), which is a source of many fraudulent quotations supposedly   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)