Enabling Acts: Contrasting Dictatorship in 1933 and 2025

Unlike Hitler, Trump Didn’t Require a Vote to Become Dictator

Prisoners sent to Dachau, 1933

I have been grading papers written about aspects of the Holocaust and the Nazi seizure of power the past two days. I still have about eleven more to grade tomorrow as I also complete the first dialogue post of my current doctoral class. Overall, my students are doing well and showing a good amount of original thought and research into relevant texts to complete them. Some of the younger ones still need work on organization and grammar, as well as the proper use of citations in the Chicago-Turabian style guide, but that will come in time as they get more experience. My goal is to get them ready for college and acceptance to elite universities, something our school does well at doing.

In the process I was reminded that today was the 93rd anniversary of the Enabling Act, passed by the Nazi dominated Reichstag which gave Adolf Hitler dictatorial power for four years. Only the Socialists voted against it and because the Communist deputies were barred from the vote by a cordon of SA ans SS men, the Nazis and their conservative allies gained the two-thirds majority of those present to pass the law. That happened 53 days after Hitler was appointed as Chancellor by President Hindenburg and less than a month after the Reichstag Fire Decree which gave Hitler emergency powers under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. This suspended the rights of the freedom of speech, privacy, and communication, assembly and the freedom of the press.

Alleged Venezuelan Gang-Members sent by Trump to El Salvador

In 2025 Donald Trump did not even require an act of legislation to begin ruling as a dictator. Instead, through a blitzkrieg of Executive Orders and actions, many of which are being ruled against in the courts, some even saying that they violated the Constitution, but instead of abiding by court orders Trump keeps going. He attacks the judges, lawyers, and removes the lawyers and Inspectors General in the Justice Department, Homeland Security, the Defense Department and other agencies who stand in his way.

Hitler was much more careful than Trump ever dared to be. Until at least until President Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, Hitler at least gave a modicum of attention to observing the law, although his SS began its policy of locking up opponents of the regime in Concentration Camps which were outside of the regular court and justice system shortly after the signing of the Enabling Act. However, Trump has not even done that, repeatedly ignoring the law to fire federal employees, federal agents and prosecutors who investigated his crimes, and to deport people without any due process, including to El Salvador whose President imprisons them in prisons, the conditions in which are unspeakably cruel and which are proudly broadcast by the administration and its allies to frighten others. These are all the actions of a lawless dictator. Friday he revoked the temporary refugee status of a half million Cubans, Venezuelans, and Haitians, all of whom are victims of either Communist regimes or lawless gangs.

Trump said that he would rule as a dictator on day one, not even Hitler did that, and look at what he did. Do you think that Trump is that different from him?

The methods of the two men are not that different, their hatred of political opponents and racial minorities not unalike, their unrelenting disregard for the law and unrequited desire for absolute power are similar. Hitler wrote about what he would do in Mein Kampf, and Trump has been speaking about his since before his first election in 2015. Neither man hid his desires. Hitler did, and Trump is doing what he promised. Why didn’t people believe them?

In the case of the Germans, at least in the early 1930s, even his common followers had little reason to believe that Hitler would follow through on his most extreme statements, even Jews. On 2 February 1933, a leading German Jewish newspaper editorial wrote:

“We do not subscribe to the view that Mr. Hitler and his friends, now finally in possession of the power they have so long desired, will implement the proposals circulating in [Nazi newspapers]; they will not suddenly deprive German Jews of their constitutional rights, nor enclose them in ghettos, nor subject them to the jealous and murderous impulses of the mob. They cannot do this because a number of crucial factors hold powers in check…and they clearly do not want to go down that road. When one acts as a European power, the whole atmosphere tends towards ethical reflection upon one’s better self and away from revisiting one’s earlier oppositional posture.”

Unlike the Germans and Hitler’s unsuspecting victims who had not seen Hitler in power, Americans have no excuse. We saw his first administration, his attempt to overturn the 2020 election culminating in the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol, his threats before the 2024 election and promises following it have no right to claim ignorance as to his desires and previous actions. Trump supporters and those who refused to believe are distinctly more guilty than the Germans of 1933 for what is to come.

So far the Republican majorities in Congress have done nothing to guard their powers under Article One of the Constitution, while the Democrats have done little to try to stop Trump from trampling them, in particular, old line Senate Democrats like Senator Chuck Schumer have not mounted anything like the defense of the Constitution and the American people they should. Members of the House and Senate Democratic caucus have spoken out, as have some Democratic Governors, but nothing coordinated. Even Republican opponents of Trump admire the stance of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker who have gone one the road in states that voted for Trump to oppose him, drawing tens of thousands of people to their rallies.

Like Hitler, Trump and his goons go after those who have little voice or power, like Trans people (under 1/10th of 1 percent of Americans), other LGBTO+ people, dark skinned immigrants, be the citizens, legal immigrants, those previously protected as political refugees, and the undocumented immigrants on which our economy depends to do the work Americans won’t do, and religious minorities including Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and others. They are easy targets, and many people simply cover their eyes and ears to ignore the obvious and say nothing.

Martin Niemoller as a Young Lutheran Pastor

What are the results of saying nothing? The conservative German Pastor Martin Niemoller explained it to us. Niemoller was the son of a pastor who served as the commander of a U-Boat in the First World War and served in anti-democratic Freikorps from 1919-1921, later gave up militant views to become a pastor. He was quite popular in Berlin where he served and voted for Hitler in 1932 and initial supported him. However, he became disillusioned by Hitler’s actions and began drawing large numbers to his parish in the wealth Berlin suburb of Dahlem with his sermons against Hitler and his policies. The Nazis had him arrested and tried but he was found not guilty, but immediately following he was arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, tortured often, and eventually taken to Dachau Concentration Camp where he remained until April when he and many other political prisoners were moved to what was called the Alpine Redoubt until they were freed by the Americans.

In the concentration camp he penned his famous poem, First they Came.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

If you trust Trump, or if you choose to remain silent in the face of his dictatorial lawlessness, who will be left to speak for you when as he always does, decides to come after you?

Until next time, watch your six.