Essay example --

â€Å"National Socialism: A Menace† (1932) by Ewald Von Kleist-Schmenzin and â€Å"Hitler and Christianity† (1931) are accounts that argued how National Socialism as a new ideology was a threat to the German nation as well as people. These two excerpts are found in Neil Gregor’s Nazism, published by Oxford University Press in 2000. Both authors focus on the issue of race, religion, and political hostility to show how Nazism could become a political ideology that is threatening to anyone considered an enemy as well as peace in the German state and Europe. Ewald Von Kleist-Schmenzin’s â€Å"National Socialism: A Menace† is centered on the idea that National Socialism is a recipe for disaster for the people of Germany. We see this idea in the first paragraph where Schmenzin says, â€Å"the impact of National Socialism is assuming dimensions that threaten our future.† He bases this prediction on his view that National Socialism was turning regular people into violent fanatics. One example of this transformation is seen when Schmenzin described how National Socialism changed the minds of â€Å"workers, who were originally just rationalistically minded.† Another example would be how this new ideology turned the Nationalists and Social Democrats into fierce enemies creating an environment of extreme political polarity. Schmenzin also argues that one of the party’s main objectives is to obtain strict loyalty from the people. Schmenzin says, â€Å"the flow of followers to Hitler is largely a movement of fear and desperation†¦many of them put all their hopes in Hitler and do not want to see the shortcoming of National Socialism.† He also argued heavily of how the National Socialists were rejecting religion to be replaced with the concept of race. According to Schmen... ...e source by Alfons Wild is more compelling because his arguments are presented in the form of logic. He used the fact of how Christianity discourages war and then shows how Hitler believes in a strong military. Wild also shows how race plays a major role in the National Socialist movement because the Aryan race â€Å"has a higher right to life than other races,†v which Wild defines as hate. He combines both these ideas of violence and hatred to explain how National Socialism was not a Christian movement. Schmenzin and Wild’s excerpts contained in Gregor’s Nazism give an idea of what people who opposed National Socialism thought and how they argued the dangerous aspects of Nazism as well as Hitler. The fact that both Authors wrote these excerpts in the early 1930s shows how National Socialism looked unattractive to some even before it gained political power in Germany.