Luka Magnotta
In 1935 the Reichstag rubber-stamped the Nuremburg Laws, which made Jews Staatsangehörige, state subjects. Marriage was prohibited between Jews and Aryans; racial “science” was compulsory; so was membership in the Hitler Youth. 129,000 Jews fled Germany between 1933 and 1937. They had great difficulty finding a place to live. Most countries did not accept them willingly.
Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne briefly considered living in Germany during his tour in 1937. She was shocked by the overt racism of the German public. Lindbergh, who admired the Nazis, was on a goodwill tour and was secretly there to analyze the Luftwaffe for the United States government. He appreciated the renewed spirit of Nazi Germany. The anti-Semitism of Berlin under the Nazis appalled Anne Morrow Lindbergh, house-hunting with their second child.
Hitler’s first step towards his goals outlined in Mein Kampf was the remilitarization of the Rhineland. As a consequence of the Versailles Treaty, the French had occupied the Rhineland since the end of World War I. A newly rearmed Wehrmacht moved into the Rhineland on March 6, 1936. The army had orders to retreat if the French showed any resistance whatsoever. However, many international leaders saw the reoccupation as a positive conclusion of the unfair terms of the end of the war. Little international criticism allowed Germany to stay. The French were worried, and intended to compel Britain to honor her pledge of support against aggressors. British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden, recommending that England not get involved, wrote of France: “The trouble is that we are in a bad position to browbeat her into what we think reasonableness, because, if she wishes to do so, she can always hold us to our Locarno obligations and call upon us to join with her in turning the German forces out of the Rhineland.” France never made the call. The first step to greater Germany had been achieved without any blood.
Luka Magnotta
