HITLER | Aug. 19–Elected President and Führer

Hitler Feigns Respect for President von Hindenburg,
who dies later that day (August 2, 1934).

Already appointed Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler on this day in 1934 is elected President.

Now holding both offices, he no longer had any constraint. Hitler's dictatorship was in place.

How Hitler Became Chancellor

Germany was a strong democracy in the 1920s, when the country was prospering, even though the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were onerous Hitler had some modest success exporting the loss of German face.

The country's democracy was destroyed step by step as Hitler appealed to a public that was demoralized by the loss of the war, the Treaty, and then the Crash of 1929:

• Hitler blamed German labor unions for hurting the economy and won financial backing from business leaders by promising to break them. 
• After the Crash of 1929, he attacked the Weimar Republic for failing to protect the German people from financial panics and high unemployment and promised the public a better deal. 
• In 1930 Hitler's support jumped to six million votes, 8 percent of the German vote, making the Nazi Party Germany's second-largest. 
• In the 1932 contest for President of Germany, an anti-Nazi coalition supported 84-year-old Paul von Hindenburg against Hitler. Although von Hindenburg was reelected, the Nazi share grew more than four-fold, to 37 percent.
• Now afraid of the growth of the Nazis, in January 1933, von Hindenburg–even though he had made clear he despised his opponent–sought to control Hitler by appointing him Chancellor.

How Hitler Became Dictator

Although now Chancellor, the appointed chief executive of Germany, he was not a dictator. He was subject to the elected President, to whom the Germany Army reported. This Having irritated Hitler and he went about eliminating constraints on his actions: 

• In February 1933, the Reichstag building, where the parliament met, suffered a fire. Hitler used this as an opportunity to call for another election. This time, Nazi police under Hermann Göring intimidated Nazi opponents. Even so, the Nazis and their allies won only a bare majority.
• Later in 1933, Hitler consolidated his power through the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz). He started arresting and executing political opponents, and even purged the Nazis’ own SA paramilitary organization in a successful effort to win support from the German army. 
• August 2, 1934. Hitler visited President von Hindenburg to pay his respects.  A few hours later, von Hindenburg died. 
• After von Hindenburg's death, Hitler purged the Nazi Brown Shirts, his own storm troopers.
• On August 9, 1934, a plebiscite vote was held on August 19. Intimidation, admiration of job growth under Hitler, and fear of Communists, brought Hitler a 90 percent majority. Hitler decided to unite the chancellorship and presidency under the new title of Führer. He now controlled the army. His dictatorship was solidly in place.

R.I.P. | June 27–Silvia Tennenbaum

Silvia Tennenbaum (1928-2016).

Silvia Pfeiffer Tennenbaum died at 88 on June 27, 2016 in Bryn Mawr Hospital, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 

She was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the daughter of Lotti Clara Stern and Erich Pfeiffer-Belli.

Her parents divorced in 1930 and in 1934, her mother married William Steinberg, a conductor. The Steinbergs fled Nazi Germany in 1936 and Silvia was sent for the next two years live in Basel, Switzerland with her aunt Gertrude Ritz-Stern. Her parents went to Tel Aviv, where Silvia's stepfather helped establish the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.

The Steinbergs came to America in 1938 after William Steinberg  was hired to assist Arturo Toscanini of the NBC Symphony. Silvia graduated from New Rochelle High School in 1946 and attended Barnard, graduating with honors in Art History in 1950.


She was a tomboy who loved movies and baseball. A fan first of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field in Flatbush, she later came to love the underdog New York Mets and became a longtime season ticket holder at Shea Stadium. 

She started graduate school at Columbia but left in 1951 after marrying Lloyd Tennenbaum, a Columbia student in mathematics and philosophy who became a rabbi. Her stepfather meanwhile was picked to lead the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1952-1976).

Silvia and her husband started coming to East Hampton in the 1960s to visit her mother and stepfather who was principal guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic. The Tennenbaums lived the next seven years in Lynchburg, Va. during which time Silvia gave birth to three sons and started her writing career. After briefly serving in Plainfield, N.J., Lloyd Tennenbaum was appointed rabbi to two congregations on Long Island and the family settled in Huntington, N.Y. where Silvia Tennenbaum began writing.

In her first and most famous book, Rachel the Rabbi's Wife (1978), Silvia tells a thinly fictionalized, funny story of her own experience as wife of a rabbi who is vain and a congregation that expects the wife of the rabbi to donate her time to pet activities of the congregation’s leaders.

By 1981, the couple had separated and Silvia lived mostly in her old house on Fireplace Road, becoming active in East Hampton civic and political life. She and her husband were divorced in 1986.  By then, Silvia Tennenbaum had returned to graduate school at Columbia and completed her MA in art history in 1983. An avid traveller and prolific diarist, she is also the author of Yesterday's Streets (1981), a fictionalized account of life among upper-middle class Jews in Frankfurt, Germany from the start of the twentieth century to the Nazi takeover. In 2012, the city that Silvia Tennenbaum had fled named Yesterday's Streets as their "Book of the Year”.

Silvia was generous with her opinions. One of her critical letters to a local paper prompted someone to post a hand-painted sign saying “Communist Headquarters” near her driveway. She kept it for a time.

 As a writer, Silvia continued to find success publishing stories. One of them, “A Lingering Death,” was selected by Joyce Carol Oates for “Best American Short Stories of 1979.”

In 2014, she moved to the Quadrangle, an independent living facility in Haverford, Pa., where she continued to keep up with news. Silvia is survived by her three sons, Jeremy Tennenbaum of Wynnewood, Pa., David Tennenbaum of Chicago, and Raphael Tennenbaum of Brooklyn. She was buried at Green River Cemetery on June 29; Rabbi Daniel N. Geffen of Temple Adas Israel presided.

Comment

Silvia was a neighbor, and a neighborly one she was. She told me she got a million-dollar advance on the paperback rights to Rachel the Rabbi's Wife, which allowed her to build a studio in the back of her house where she did her writing. She gave us a few things she didn't need when we first located near her, and was always responsive to our suggestions about improving the community. We and others missed her greatly when she moved to the Philadelphia area, and continue to now that she has passed on.

See also: One-year anniversary of her death.

WW2 | D-Day, 72 Years On

D-Day Assault.

June 6, 2016–Today is the 72nd Anniversary of D-Day. I was two barely years old. Both my father and my mother's brother Willem were in Europe at war, along with many other relatives of their generation.

My mother and grandmother had reason to be concerned about Willem. He was killed four days after D-Day.

My wife Alice Tepper Marlin and I went to France in 2014 on the 70th anniversary to pay our respects to those who died. We were in Normandy and the Mayenne to the south.

My uncle Willem piloted missions over northern France before and after D-Day. He is buried in Laval, Mayenne, along with his six crew-mates. He was flying a Halifax bomber out of an RAF base (Squadron 10) in Melbourne, Yorks., UK. A Dutchman, he was a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland when the war broke out. He went to Canada to volunteer for the RCAF and ended up flying for the RAF.

His plane was shot down, after its mission was completed, in the early morning of June 10, 1944. Another crew of seven from another Halifax on the same mission (two of ten planes on the missions were lost that morning) are buried next to them. A book about that mission (Time Bomber, for adults or young adults) was written by Dr. Robert Wack and has a five-star review on Amazon, with seven reviewers.

The other airplane that was shot down the same night was piloted by an Australian. I met his son two years ago at a reunion of the relatives of the airmen in Laval; it was my third visit to the gravesite.

In preparation for our visit in 2014 (about which I have written here1, here2, here3, here4, and here5), I assembled data on D-Day and World War II in Europe. One source was a new book targeted at young people by Rick Atkinson, D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy, 1944, published by Henry Holt and meant to be used in schools and is adapted from Atkinson's #1 best-selling book The Guns at Last Light. It is reviewed here on Goodreads' list of the best books for young people about World War II.

Deaths from WWII

Total deaths – Possibly as many as 72 million people, of whom 26-27 million were from the Soviet Union and 7-9 million were from Germany.

• Atkinson gives the total as 72 million people, or 28,000 people every day of the 2,174-day war. This is at the high end of the Wikipedia figures. Soviet dead 26 million - military 10.7 million, civilian 15 million. U.S. dead 419,000 - military 417,000 (out of 16 million who served), civilian 2,000 UK dead 451,000 - military 384,000 (out of 6 million who served), civilian 67,000 Canadian dead 23,000, all military (out of 1.1 million who served). German dead 8.8 million - military 5.5 million, civilian 3.3 million. European Jews killed in Holocaust - 6 million. Number of American soldiers buried in Europe (25,000 U.S. pilots killed behind enemy lines) 14,000.
• UK Source (worldwar2.org.uk). Total dead 50-70 million. Soviet dead 26.6 million, of which 8.7 million soldiers died in World War 2. British 700,000 military and 60,000 civilian deaths. Poland’s dead were between 5.6 and 5.8 million. USA military dead: 416,800. German total 7.4 million, of which military dead and missing are 5.3 million.
• History Channel Total dead 35-60 million. (Much lower than the Atkinson and Wikipedia upper figure of 72 million.)

D-Day Armada – Allied Troops landed, 156,000.

• Vehicles landed - 30,000. Planes - 11,000. Ships and landing craft - 5,000. Parachutists - 13,000.
• Most Effective Bombers Used in Europe Britain Avro Lancaster, DeHavilland Mosquito (wooden, to avoid radar). USA B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-29 Superfortress. Germany Heinkel III, Junkers 87 Stuka, Junkers Ju-88.
• Most Effective Tanks Used in Europe USA M4 Sherman Soviet T-34 German Panther (partly copied from Soviets), PzKfw Mk. IV Panzer, Tiger I/II.

U.S. Military in WWII–16 million.

• 16.1 million–U.S. armed forces personnel who served in WWII between December 1, 1941 and December 31, 1946: 16.1 million. 33 months–The average length of active-duty by U.S. military personnel during WWII. 73% The proportion of U.S. military personnel who served abroad during WWII. 
• 292,000–Number of U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines killed in battle in WWII. 114,000–Number of other deaths sustained by U.S. forces during WWII. 671,000–The number of U.S. troops wounded during WWII.

Surviving Veterans

The few surviving veterans from World War II are fading away with an attrition rate that in some cases approaches 30 percent per year. I have interviewed one survivor at length.

• 5.7 million The number of World War II veterans counted in Census 2000. The census identified the period of service for World War II veterans as September 1940 to July 1947.
• 475,000 Calif.–Estimated number of WWII veterans living in California in 2002, the most in any state. Other states with high numbers of WWII vets included Florida (439,000), New York (284,000), Pennsylvania (280,000), Texas (267,000) and Ohio (208,000). See Table 529 in Census source.
• 5.4 percent Clearwater, Fla. - The proportion of WWII veterans among the Clearwater, Fla., civilian population age 18 and over in 2000. Other large places (100,000 or more population) with high concentrations of WWII vets were: Cape Coral, Fla. (5.1 percent), Oceanside, Calif. (4.3 percent); and Scottsdale, Ariz.; Pueblo, Colo., Metairie, La., St. Petersburg, Fla.; Santa Rosa, Calif.; Mesa, Ariz.; and Independence, Mo. (all around 4 percent).
• 210,000 - Estimated number of women in 2002 who were WWII veterans. These women comprised 4.4 percent of WWII vets. See Table 530.
• 22% The proportion of all veterans in April 2000 who were WWII veterans.

The National World War II Memorial was dedicated on May 29, 2004. In Washington, D.C. between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, it is the first national memorial dedicated to the men and women who served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II, including those who died in combat, and Americans who supported the war effort on the home front.

Sources: Besides the Atkinson book and UK sources referenced above, two other sources were used. One is no long available, the original Census release #001747 on which many of the above numbers were based (this was the link: http://www.census.gov/PressRelease/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/001747.html). Many related numbers are available here: http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/ww2-by-the-numbers/us-military.html. However, the Museum numbers do not always line up with the Census numbers that were released.

HITLER | Mar 5, 1933–Nazis Win and End Democracy

This post has been updated and superseded and replaced by this one:

http://cityeconomist.blogspot.com/2017/03/hitler-mar-5-1933-germany-elects-nazis.html

This post is maintained to preserve links.

HITLER | Mar. 5, 1933–Germany Elects Nazi Party

This post has been updated and superseded and replaced by this one:

http://cityeconomist.blogspot.com/2017/03/hitler-mar-5-1933-germany-elects-nazis.html

This post is maintained to preserve links.

Toward Peace in Ukraine

When the Soviet Union broke up between 1989 and 1991, I was involved in several initiatives to encourage economic conversion of military resources to civilian use. Ultimately, the cost of orderly transition was too great, and the conversion happened in a disorderly way - cold turkey.

During one of my visits to Moscow during that period, I remember spending an afternoon on a boat ride on the Volga River, much of time listening to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was calmly and knowledgeably talking to a group of Americans and Russians, tracking events marking the end of the Soviet Union.

On another occasion around that time I went to Kharkiv under USIA auspices to make some suggestions for economic conversion to a group of the city's planners. Kharkiv then ranked second only to St. Petersburg in the former Soviet Union as a center for military training. I said that the city's three airports and its tank factory would make it a good location for distributing high-value goods, as in Memphis, Tenn., and they needed to bring in a developer. The city fathers asked me: "Chto eto, devyeloper?" ("What's a developer?") The city has since become a major regional book distribution center for Bertelsmann, a huge German publisher, with the capacity to ship 20 million books per year.

Fast-forward to 2014. Although his signals change from day to day, Vladimir V. Putin has clearly been engaging in risky behavior by massing troops on Ukraine's border and engaging in language provoking the West. His underlying motivation seems to be to restore some of what was lost in the breakup of the Soviet Union. This improved his popularity in 2008 when he invaded Georgia and it seems to be working again:

• His ratings are rising fast as Russians who have been polled seem to be buying the propaganda that Russian nationals need protection from Ukrainian protesters he labels "fascist".
• Putin's peak popularity in 2008, when he invaded Georgia, was achieved without much resistance from Europe or even the United States under President George W. Bush.

With an eye to these polls, Putin is enjoying a challenge to the temporary regime in Kiev. One pretext is that the change in Ukraine's government was not based on elections. The other is that the new government in Kiev threatens Russian minorities in Crimea (and - who knows? - elsewhere in Ukraine). But:

• The temporary regime in Kiev, a Ukrainian living in the United States recently assured me, is less corrupt than the one that was forced out. 
• The more important difference is that it is friendlier to Europe, and the European Union would surely clamp down on corruption once an Association Agreement was signed.
• Most important, elections will be held in May. Democratic elections will determine a permanent government.

The dangers created by Putin's behavior are huge. U.S. and European leaders have been talking only about political and economic sanctions, but these could be catastrophic for Russia, which is under pressure economically. This is in no way parallel to the Falklands crisis, where the opponents were two countries of unequal power and the stakes were small.

The more worrisome parallel is Europe in 1939. The United States and its European Allies looked weak to Hitler and some in the United States blame Britain's Prime Minister Chamber for attempting to appease Hitler.  A thoughtful article in this week's New Yorker on Hollywood's involvement in U.S. propaganda in World War II describes Frank Capra's horror at the appeal of Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda movie for the Nazi party. His first reaction was: "We can't win this war."

But public opinion turned and the Allies produced the leadership, technology and materiel they needed.

• Britain replaced Chamberlain with Churchill and again, as in the First World War, young men fought heroically. 
• When Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, no one on the west believed his claim that Poland provoked the invasion. He had been massing the Wehrmacht on the Polish border and looked for a pretext to invade.
• A photo of a Polish "urchin" playing amidst bombed-out rubble was motivation enough for a soldier.
• The United States produced its own leader in FDR, and within a year of D-Day, Hitler was dead and the war in Europe was won.
• Capra's years-later answer to his own fears about his country's survival was "It's a Wonderful Life", showing the strength of small-town America.

If Putin thinks that the only polls he needs to look at are within Russia, or in the Crimea, he should think again:

• The CNN/ORC International Poll released today shows Putin's unfavorability rating in the United States jumped to 68 percent, from 54 percent just before the Sochi Winter Olympics opened last month.
• It shows 69 percent of Americans surveyed thinking Russia is a serious threat to the United States, an increase of 25 percentage points since 2012 - the highest number since the Soviet Union broke up. 
• More than 70 percent of U.S. respondents see no justification for Russia's actions in Ukraine.
• Nearly half believe a new Cold War is likely in the next few years.

In this environment, Senator McCain's opportunistic call for Obama to raise the threats against Putin is worrisomely political. He calls for NATO expansion and restoration of missiles in Eastern Europe. He refers to cuts in the defense budget as an Obama initiative instead of what it was, a Congressional bi-partisan agreement to reduce the deficit.  Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served both Bush and Obama, is bravely taking the right path by calling for a de-escalation of military tension.

In the middle of a major international crisis, ... domestic criticism of the president ought to be toned down, while he's trying to handle this crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's stern warnings to Putin speak of severe economic and political sanctions, but not military ones. Her defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Monday:

Sanctions hurt both sides, that’s quite clear. But if you look at the numbers, Russia has 15 percent of its GDP depending on trade with Europe, Europe only 1 percent [dependent on Russia]. That means that the reliance on a functioning business relationship with Europe is much, much bigger in Russia.

Putin's popularity sank quickly after his invasion of Georgia was followed by economic difficulties in Russia. It could happen again. The world has changed since 1939 and U.S.-European combined action could cause unacceptable disruptions in Russia without firing a shot. Meanwhile, Europe has taken the brunt of two world wars and is not about to rush into another one. Neither should Russia, which lost more lives than any other country. Neither should we respond with escalated  military threats in the face of Putin's saber-rattling. As Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."

WW2 | Sept. 1–Hitler Invades Poland

By prior agreement, Hitler let Stalin take the eastern two-thirds of Poland.

At 5:11 a.m. today in 1939, Hitler issued the order for his army to invade Poland.

Hitler said he was responding to Polish provocation, but Polish troops were reacting to a German troop buildup on their western border.

The German invasion began one week after Stalin and Hitler put aside their animosities temporarily and agreed to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, dividing up Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union.

In his "Soldier's Creed", Willem van Stockum cited the

motivation of a soldier as defending "one Polish urchin" 

rather than a dream of a postwar Utopia

Britain and France entered the war after two days on behalf of Poland.

But the German army unleashed its Blitzkrieg, or "lightning war". In six days they had taken Krakow, in ten they were outside Warsaw.

The Soviet invasion commenced 16 days later, on Sept. 17, 1939.

The campaign ended on Oct. 6, 1939 with the total division and annexations of Poland.