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MARIO J. TORRES
Adolf Hitler / Fidel Castro
Compare and conclude: Reincarnation?
Adolf Hitler, German political and
military leader was one of the 20th century's most powerful dictators.
Hitler converted Germany into a fully militarized society.
Hitler appealed to a wide variety of people by combining an effective and
carefully rehearsed speaking style with what looked like absolute sincerity
and determination.
While in prison, Hitler dictated the first volume of Mein Kampf (My
Struggle). This work contained many of his basic ideas. After leaving prison
and taking the power, he created a dictatorship led by only one movement and
party: the nazi ideology which was characterized by a total Nazi Social
Control.
(a) Control of mass media:
All the means of communication were monopolized by the government. The press
and the cinema had to show pictures glorifying the Nazi movements. The
Ministry of Propaganda, in the hands of Dr.Goebbels, worked to build up the
popularity of the Führer.
(b) Control of education:
Education, from kindergarten to university, was a toll for indoctrinating
the young. Boys (10-18 years old) were sent to the Hitler Youth, girls
(10-18 years old) to the Hitler Maidens. School textbooks were re-written
along Nazi lines (e.g. race study was emphasized). University professors
were required to wear swastika and take an oath of allegiance to Hitler.
(c) Crushing of discontent:
Hitler also made use of the sinister and feared S. S. (Hitler's elite
body-guard) to execute many of his political opponents and put them into the
concentration camps. He also created the GESTAPO (political police force),
the S.A (the military arm of the nazi party) and the SD (security service)
The powers of the Gestapo, the SS, and the SD were vast; virtually any
person suspected of disloyalty to the regime or of social aberration could
be summarily arrested, executed, or interred in a concentration camp where
they were exterminated. Persecution of the Christians Hitler was an atheist.
He wanted to bring both the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church under
his control.In July 1933, Hitler signed a Concordat with the Vatican in
which the Catholic Church recognized the new regime and renounced all
activity except that of a purely religious kind in Germany. In return,
Hitler guaranteed the Catholic Church many of its historic rights, including
the right to conduct local schools. Very soon, Hitler broke his promise, and
persecuted Catholics who offered a serious resistance. Hitler consolidated
his position by abolishing the state legislatures and subordinating them to
the central government at Berlin. All political parties except the Nazi
Party were declared illegal.
Soon after the non-Nazi political parties were suppressed, Hitler dealt with
his political rivals in the party and also eliminated them
Reasons for the Nazi Success:
1- There was a lack of democratic tradition tradition in Germany
2- There was little political stability at home with a weak and unstable
government.
3- The onset of the Great Depression led to mass unemployment. Unemployed
workers turned to the Communists for salvation. As the Communists grew in
strength, the landowners, industrialists, the middle class people and the
conservative right-wing politicians all turned to support the Nazis. Hitler
was an able leader. He was able to convince the Germans that he was a man of
action and of ideals. The Nazi program promised everything to everybody. To
the landowner and the industrialists, Hitler promised to be a bulwark
against Communism. To the middle classes, he promised to abolish the Treaty
of Versailles and relieve them of the burden of reparations payment.
To the workers, he promised economic and social reforms-including
nationalization of the trusts. To the army, he promised military glory.
To most of the Germans, Hitler seemed to be a Messiah who could deliver them
from fear and starvation. Hitler was also a gifted orator. His speeches,
though containing little truth in them, could always make successful appeals
to the masses. Hitler unsuccessfully tried to invade the whole world and he
was responsible for the death of millions of people. Is there a living
dictator nowadays with the same exact features as the Fuhrer? If in doubt,
keep reading:
REINCARNATION?
Fidel Castro, Cuban political and military leader has been one of the oldest
dictators in the history of the world and has converted Cuba in a
militarized society of slaves at his service and command. Castro has a
convincing way of speaking and a strong personality with a magnetic power
that haunts people and sometimes apart from being hated by his enemies, he
is also feared, respected, even admired or at times regarded as an
enlightened, unreachable, mystical or untouchable evil god-like son of the
sun, generally placed in a position as if he were protected by invincible
saints or spirits. When Castro first opposed Batista's government in the
decade of the 50's, he was sent to jail where he wrote the book "History
will absolve me" in which he stated his ideas. After leaving prison, he
developed an armed guerrila struggle and was able to take the power in 1959.
After promising many things he did not fullfill, he ended up his system as a
dictatorship with the leadership of only one party: the communist party
which has been characterized by a total control over the people
(a) Control of mass media:
All the means of communication have been monopolized by the government.
Press, radio, TV only broadcast and publish information digested by the
system first and which also responds to its interests; all other
infortmation is banned from the media. There are no commercials; only
slogans and political references to the advantages of the system. Anyone who
dares violate this will never be heard or seen in public
(b) Control of education:
Education, from kindergarten to university, is a toll for indoctrinating
the young and brainwashing them with the system's ideology. From an early
age children have to belong to the Union of Cuban Pioneers and later to the
Young Communist League where they have to repeat like parrots the system
slogans and ideas and do as the ideological machinery commands them. School
textbooks have to make reference to the system and its leaders, and teachers
in their classes should thank the "revolution" and speak on its benefits and
advantages in contrast with the "disaster" taking palce in other countries
on a mandatory daily basis.
(c) Crushing of discontent.
The Government has instituted several repressive organizations which are
called mass organizations to exert a total control on all the people and to
prosecute and send to jail with no real defense attorney to anyone who might
dare to make a negative remark on the government and its system.(not only
political opponents but just anybody not in favor of the system) Those going
to jail may be considered as dead alive taking into account the terrible
conditions in cuban jails so in order to avoid these terrible consequences,
people have to behave in the island like the story of the king who wore no
clothes and everyone had to admire them and so mouths are only allowed to be
open to praise the system and not to do their other functions.
These are some of these repressive organizations
(1) The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)
(2) Workers’ Trade Unions or CTC (Central of Cuban Workers)
(3) Young Communist League (UJC)
(4) Communist Party of Cuba (PCC)
(5) Federation of Cuban Women (FMC)
(6) Union of Cuban Pioneers (UPC)
(7) National Revolutionary Police. (PNR)
(8) Ministry of the Interior (Security) (MININT).
(9) Armed Revolutionary Forces (Army). (FAR)
(10) Association of Cuban Farmers (ANAP)
(11) Militia of Territorial Troops (MTT)
Besides, the leader gets advantage of the weaknesses, contradictions, lack
of unity and ambitions of his "enemies’’ in exile, making every effort to
split them apart, to, in turn, stay alive because of these very facts;
strengthening his power also with the development of a double-moral behavior
inside the country apart from the strict control exerted on every breath and
movement of every citizen by each one of these organizations.
Negation of God
Castro is an atheist who officially denied God and forbade Christmas and all
of its traditions. Believers have been banned and are treated as silly,
crazy or inferior people with no right to positions in society. He defined
as contradictory and incompatible to have any kind of religious belief or
practice and to hold a public or professional position, so many people have
to hide to practice their religion. When the Pope visited Cuba, Castro made
him promises he never fulfilled like having a religious and also a political
opening.
Reasons for the advent of Castro's system
1- Even though the economy was prosperous, previous governments had been
corrupt and some people were not happy.
2- Many events of violence and coups d'etat had taken place in those regimes
giving a feeling of lack of stability
3- Positions and employment possibilities changed according to the party of
the power.
Castro is an extremely smart leader and he appeared in the right time with a
promise of rightfulness that never came true but at that moment everyone
believed he was the savior. He slowly shifted the views he initially stated
in public like:
--- We shall make schools out of garrisons
--- Weapons? What for?
--- Our revolution is as green as our palm trees. We will never be communist
etc etc
to:
--- All the people should be soldiers of the revolution. Even children in
school shall defend it.
--- We must invest in weapons to defend ourselves from a Yankee invasion
--- We are socialist, we are communist, why deny it?
Castro served as a soviet puppet in America exporting revolutions to the
world and training guerrilla men and terrorists in the island.
Do the 2 cases sound similar?
MARIO J TORRES
FEBRUARY 2004
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