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Rotten Library > History > Third Reich
Third ReichFirst of all, why does this qualify as the "Third" Reich? Were there Nazis in the past? Well, no. The "First" Reich is the Holy Roman Empire of 962 A.D.; perhaps you've heard of it. The "Second" Reich is the German empire of 1871 to 1918, which was fallen with World War I. So it would be natural, in declaring the beginning of a thousand-year reign, to call yourself the Third.The mistake often made in describing the crimes and actions of the Third Reich is to somehow dehumanize them, turn all the players into demons and monsters, the same techniques used by the Nazis themselves to target and exterminate Jews and other undesirables. To dehumanize Nazis is to turn them into archetypes as opposed to functioning humans; it sets us up to be "surprised" again when traits of the Nazis show up elsewhere, in other places, at a lessened level but with the same misguided goals and logic behind them. See also: Swastika, World War II, Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, and Hitler Diaries.
Nazi Gold
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