Fascism and Nazism: A Comparative Overview

Fascism

Characteristics

• Totalitarianism
• Irrationalism
• Radical Nationalism
• Racism & Xenophobia
• Anti: Communism, Liberalism, Feminism
• Imperialism & Militarism
• Corporate State
• Capitalism
• Opposition to International Institutions

Causes

• Frustration (Treaty of Versailles)
• Post-War Crisis
• Bankruptcy of Liberal Parliamentary System (No Party Won Election)
• Irrationalism (Violence)

Timeline

1921

• PNF (National Fascist Party) founded by Benito Mussolini (Il Duce)

1922

• Blackshirts (paramilitary fascist militias) - March on Rome
• Victor Emmanuel III forms a new government with Mussolini in control

1925

• Assassination of Giacomo Matteotti (critic of fascist militias)
• Parliament dissolved and fascist dictatorship established (prohibition and control)

1929

• Crisis leads to a policy of public works and expansion into Abyssinia (Ethiopia 1935-1936)
• Condemned by the League of Nations for the Abyssinian invasion and massacre

Propaganda

• Spread the image of a great power in anticipation of future world war

Italy, allied with Hitler and Japan, participated in the Spanish Civil War.

Nazism

(Failed attempt at a coup d'état). Hitler imprisoned. Crisis in the Weimar Republic (Germany).

Timeline

1933

• President Hindenburg appoints Hitler as Chancellor
• Hitler dismantles the democratic system and imposes a dictatorship

1934

• Third Reich established: Hitler assumes the roles of President, Chancellor, and Commander of the Army
• Night of the Long Knives: SS (Nazi elite corps) carries out an attack against the SA (paramilitary organization vying for power within the Nazi Party), eliminating SA leaders

Late 1930s

• Occupation of Austria and Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland (France and the UK consent)
• Military intervention in Spain

Propaganda

• Joseph Goebbels appointed as Minister of Propaganda

1936

• Gestapo (political police force) established - persecuted Jews, Romani, communists, socialists, liberals, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and people with disabilities

Anti-Semitism

1935

• Nuremberg Laws enacted, prohibiting mixed marriages

1939

• Jews forced to wear the yellow Star of David for identification

1938

• Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass): Nazi militants and civilian volunteers assault Jewish neighborhoods, murdering residents and destroying shops and synagogues

The "Final Solution"

• Plan to exterminate European Jews formulated
• Wannsee Conference held to coordinate the "Final Solution"
• Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp established