On the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to always fight for their principles and to resist falling into the complacency that enabled the Nazi dictator to seize control. One major commemoration took place at the Reichstag, the German parliament, with German-born Israeli author Inge Deutschkron addressing the rapt members of the Bundestag. According to a report in The Guardian, she recounted in vivid detail her experience of the day when, 80 years ago, her world was turned upside down with the rise of the Nazis. Deutschkron, aged 90, told the story of two major life-changing events on Jan. 30, 1933, the day before Hitler rose to power. In one story, she reminisced about the parade of SA Stormtroopers and SS detachments marching through Berlin to the cheers of thousands; the other detailed a conversation she had with her mother who was trying to prepare her for the difficult times ahead. "My child, you are a Jew," she said. "You belong to a minority and you must defend yourself." Deutschkron and her mother managed to stay alive throughout the war in Berlin with the help of German families who hid and cared for them. "The guilt of having survived has persecuted me ever since," she told the Bundestag, "and it has never let me go." "Most of the Germans that I met in the streets [then] turned their gaze away from me when they saw the yellow star," Deutschkron recalled. Deutschkron's account was one of hundreds of personal stories in Berlin on Wednesday as the city launched a year of events to mark the Nazis' accession to power, in what State Secretary for Culture Andr Schmitz described as "the biggest project of remembrance that has ever taken place in Germany," according to The Guardian. Meanwhile, Merkel spoke Wednesday at the opening of a new exhibit at the Topography of Terror memorial documenting Hitler's election. She noted that German academics and students happily joined the Nazis only a few months later in burning books deemed subversive. "The rise of the Nazis was made possible because the elite of German society worked with them, but also, above all else, because most in Germany at least tolerated this rise," Merkel said. After winning about a third of the vote in Germany's 1932 election, Hitler convinced ailing President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933 setting Germany on a path to war and genocide. "This path ended in Auschwitz," said Andreas Nachama, the director of the Topography of Terror memorial. The Topography memorial is built around the ruins of buildings where the Gestapo secret police, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office ran Hitler's police state from 1933 to 1945. A stretch of the Berlin Wall along the edge serves as a reminder of Germany's second dictatorship under the Communists in the 20th century. Once chancellor, Hitler was able to use his position to consolidate absolute control over the country in the months to follow. About a month after being appointed chancellor, Hitler used the torching of the Reichstag parliament building blamed on a Dutch communist to strengthen his grip on power. He suspended civil liberties and cracked down on opposition parties, paving the way for the police state. By midsummer 1933, he had already declared the Nazi Party to be the only political party in Germany. He later named himself "Fuehrer," or "Leader" of the country. The fact that Hitler was able to destroy German democracy in only six months serves as a warning today of what can happen if the public remains apathetic, Merkel said. "Human rights do not assert themselves on their own; freedom does not emerge on its own; and democracy does not succeed on its own," Merkel said. "No, a dynamic society ... needs people who have regard and respect for one another, who take responsibility for themselves and others, where people take courageous and open decisions and who are prepared to accept criticism and opposition." Following the morning ceremony, Germany's Parliament held a special session in memory of those who died under the Nazi dictatorship.
