Are there still hitlers

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Hitler claimed to have a quasi-mystical insight into the will of the German Volk people and the leaders of modern right-wing movements make much of similar personal interpretations of their personal electorate's desires. The long shadow of Hitler makes some shiver at verbal echoes - even unintentional ones.

It is why talk of a "list of foreigners" at the Conservative Party conference makes some think of the Nuremberg Laws. It is why when Theresa May says, "If you believe you're a citizen of the world, you're a citizen of nowhere", some think about the unpatriotic "rootless cosmopolitans" derided by Hitler and Stalin as antithetical to pure-blooded nationalism.

It makes even the vague suggestion of looking at migrant children's teeth before they are put on trains a symbolic nightmare, despite the Home Office's rejection of the proposal. But you have to look beyond the EU's borders for the politician most compared to Hitler. It is Russian President Vladimir Putin, not for his hyper-macho nationalism but his foreign policy. Despite the protestations from his defenders, this is more than vulgar abuse. Hillary Clinton , David Cameron and Prince Charles have all made the point that Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia using the excuse of the treatment of ethnic Germans, while Putin cited the fate of ethnic Russians in Ukraine and Crimea to justify military involvement.

Here Hitler casts an intriguing shadow. The simple lesson might be that only actually military action deters such an aggressor. But it hasn't happened. It is interesting Putin's defenders draw different conclusions from the shadow - this, they say, is what happens when a wounded, once great Empire is treated like a pariah. Disingenuous perhaps, but what is interesting is that those Western politicians making the Hitler comparison don't seem to be drawing that conclusion in policy terms.

Like their predecessors in the s, the prospect of conflict is too horrific to risk. So here perhaps all the shadow illuminates is a sense of impotence. Then there's something else about the Great Dictator. The man who nearly ruled the world was for a time a figure of fun. So when I turn to Donald Trump to look at lessons from the long shadow, it is nothing to do with immigration or nationalism or casting him as a horror.

At every single stage of Hitler's journey to power, the wise commentators declared the voyage was over - the charismatic parvenu had overreached himself.

Even on the eve of his elevation to German chancellor, Hitler was derided as an unsophisticated, unskilled demagogue who had come as far as he would go. Fellow non-Nazi nationalists and the establishment felt, given an hour in power, the ranting charmer would be shackled by the bureaucrats. The implication was that he could whip the stupid masses into a frenzy, but that the grown-ups would control him. Similarly the disdain of the American media and mainstream politicians has led them to miscalculate Trump's appeal, staying power and his raw skill.

The Republican party is obviously split. There are plenty who think they could gag a triumphant Trump, which is not to say, I emphasise again, that Trump would be a Hitler in power. But those Republicans or establishment figures who think he would be a biddable beast of burden for their policies might need to think again. Hitler was a politician of the will, full of grandiose commitments and few detailed policies.

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Adolf Hitler addresses soldiers at a Nazi rally in Dortmund, Germany. Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms.