The Rude Pundit - Sorry, Gun Nuts: Hitler Actually Relaxed Most Gun Laws

[holdencaufield]

45. Jews -- Gun Control -- and the Nazis

As much as you'd like to believe there is no connection between the genocide of Jews and gun control, the fact is the Nazis disarmed Jews prior to the Holocaust in Germany and in every country they occupied. In November of 1938 -- the day after the infamous Kristalnacht -- the Nazis passed specific prohibitions forbidding Jews owning firearms or ammunition in Germany and Nazi-controlled countries. I quote here from the Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons 1938 -- where, in the very first paragraph, the prohibition of Jewish gun possession is addressed.

"Paragraph 1 -- Jews are prohibited from acquiring, possessing, and carrying firearms and ammunition, as well as truncheons or stabbing weapons. Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority.

Paragraph 2
Firearms and ammunition found in a Jew's possession will be forfeited to the government without compensation".



So, clearly, the Nazis believed that their planned persecution and execution of Jews would be easier with a disarmed Jewish populace than with an armed one. Even when you consider that less that 5% of the entire Jewish population of Germany had firearms, the Nazis still felt it was necessary to disarm that tiny percentage.

But ... don't believe me ... take the words of the man himself

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing." -- Adolph Hitler April 11, 1942 (Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426)


Now, before you go off on a tangent, no one has said that Gun Control CAUSED the Holocaust or that lack of Gun Control would have prevented the Holocaust. No one is saying that Gun Control advocates are Nazis, Nazi sympathizers or anything in that vein. However, it cannot be denied that Gun Control WAS however a mitigating factor in the Holocaust -- that is is historical fact. In the dozen or so major Jewish uprisings against insurmountable Nazi forces -- even with pitifully inadequate illegal weapons -- the Jews were able to prevent or delay transportation to death camps and even mount mass escapes such as Sobibor. These delays and escapes saved lives -- maybe only a few lives -- but lives none the less.

So, your major assertions -- Nazis did not disarm Jews and armed Jews would not have fared any better than unarmed Jews in the Holocaust are demonstrably wrong.