http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000339931511020&rtmo=3SAmnSHM&atmo=99999999&
pg=/et/01/4/15/wnaz15.html
Historians find 'proof' that Nazis burnt Reichstag
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
THE first documentary evidence has emerged to support the view that the Nazis
started the 1933 Reichstag fire that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a
dictatorship.
While historians have agreed that there is no substance to Nazi claims that
German Communists were to blame for the blaze, there has also been a lack of
evidence to back the widely held belief that Hitler's supporters burnt down
the parliament building in Berlin.
After poring over 50,000 pages of hitherto unexamined documents from former
East German and Soviet archives, four leading German historians have now
concluded that the fire was a Nazi plot. Marinus van der Lubbe, 24, a
pro-Communist Dutch labourer, was beheaded by the Nazis after admitting that
he started the blaze alone to encourage a workers' uprising.
The news magazine Der Spiegel backed this version of events in the 1960s
after a wide-ranging investigation. Now, however, the four historians argue
that Der Spiegel's coverage was part of a cover-up by Nazi sympathisers to
protect the culprits from prosecution. Their findings put them at odds with
other leading academics.
They base their case on remarks by Adolf Rall, a thief and Nazi stormtrooper,
whose body was found in woods near Berlin in November 1933. Rall is said to
have told prosecutors of a meeting of the SA stormtroopers during which the
SA leader, Karl Ernst, ordered them to enter the Reichstag through a tunnel
and sprinkle flammable liquid inside.
Ernst is said to have told his men that an excuse was needed to begin
attacking Communists. Hitler used the fire to justify the arrest and torture
of 25,000 Left-wing activists and to pass an emergency decree establishing
absolute Nazi authority.
According to the historians, a former stormtrooper working in the jail where
Rall was serving a sentence, heard of his statement and tipped off the SA.
Its leaders are then said to have arranged for the statements to be destroyed
by accomplices in the prosecutors' office and for him to be murdered.
His remarks however are said to have been referred to in other papers found
in the archives. The four historians - Hersch Fischler, Jurgen Schmaedeke,
Alexander Bahar and Wilfred Kugel - say Nazi complicity in the blaze was kept
secret by ex-Nazi journalists after the war.
Der Spiegel's investigation in the 1960s was led by the historical researcher
Fritz Tobias. His findings have been backed by the historian Hans Mommsen and
are supported by one of his British counterparts, Ian Kershaw, in his recent
work Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris.
The historians - writing in the journal Historische Zeitschrift - accuse Mr
Tobias of "wanting to dispel the odium of arson from National Socialism"
through his claims. Mr Tobias has defended himself, saying: "I was born into
a Social Democratic household and am the last person to want to exculpate
Hitler and his consorts.
"Last week, Der Spiegel published a 10-page rebuttal of the four historians'
conclusions. It said: "The thesis which holds that van der Lubbe was the only
arsonist involved remains the most plausible explanation." Although Mr Tobias
was not an ex-Nazi, the magazine conceded that other former members had been
employed.
- Re: [CTRL] Historians Find Proof That Nazi's Burnt Reichst... William Shannon
