nge in 1929 led to a worldwide recession, which hit Germany especially hard. All loans to Germany from foreign countries dried up, German industrial production slumped and millions were made unemployed. The Great Depression began and German families were cast into poverty and deep misery, and they began looking for a solution, any solution. These conditions were beneficial to Hitler and his Nazi campaigning. By July of the following year Chancellor Bruening, without a parliamentary majority in the Reichstag, was unable to pass a new finance bill and was forced to ask President Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call for new elections for the coming September. Hitler and the Nazis sprang into action. Hitler campaigned hard for the Nazi candidates, promising the public a way out of their hardship. When the results of the election were announced, the Nazi Party had won 6.4 million votes. Overnight the Nazi party went from he smallest to the second largest party in Germany. After the elections of March 5, 1933, the Nazis began a systematic takeover of the state governments throughout Germany, ending a centuries old tradition of local political independence. Armed SA and SS men barged into local government offices using the state of emergency decree as a pretext to throw out legitimate office holders and replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners. Political enemies were arrested by the thousands and put in hastily constructed holding pens. Old army barracks and abandoned factories were used as prisons. Once inside, prisoners were subjected to military style drills and harsh discipline. They were often beaten and sometimes even tortured to death. This was the very beginning of the Nazi concentration camp system. Adolf Hitler’s goal of a legally established dictatorship was now within reach. He needed to get and Enabling Act passed by the Reichstag. On March 23, the newly elected Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera Hous...
