Richard Evans, in his monumental study of the rise of Hitler, The Coming of The Third Reich, notes the role that the Fascist street violence provocations played in the Nazi rise to power.
The cult of violence was at the heart of the movement. By 1929 it could be seenin operation on a daily basis on the streets. The Nazi movement despised the law and made no secret of its belief that might was right.It had also evolved a way of diverting legal responsibility from the Party leadership for acts of violence and lawlessness committed by brownshirts and other elements within the movement. For Hitler, Goebbels, the Regional Leaders and the rest only gave orders couched in rhetoric that, while violent, was also vague: their subordinates would understand clearly what was being hinted at and go into action straight away. This tactic helped persuade a growing number of middle-and even some upper-class Germans that Hitler and his immediate subordinates were not really responsible for the bloodshed by the brownshirts on the streets.
What happened in Kenosha last week and in Portland on Satuday night is our own version of the end of the Weimar Republic. The armed right-wing militias have only one purpose, the provoke a violent backlash. In Germany in the early 1930’s the left took the brownshirt bait and fought street battles with clubs and knives. All it did was to provoke a strong movement of…
