The Nazis were not Conservative

Rebuttals: As expected, Con has placed particular emphasis on the social side of this argument and much less on the economic; which is a key part of political conservatism--which matters precisely because the Nazis were a political party. Con begins by including a quote from 'Imagining Hitler', but this, along with the other quote used, doesn't necessarily prove that the Nazis were indeed Conservative. The assertion that the Nazis were a 'traditional' party is misguided; it was established under an overwhelming myriad of propaganda, driven largely by the determination of Adolf Hitler and the skill of mass-manipulation of Josef Goebbels. Similarly to many European countries, Germany had issues with anti-Semitism...but there is a difference between historic persecution (middle ages-to Holy Roman Empire era) and the events of the Holocaust. Some attitudes towards Jews among certain members of society had obviously remained; but they were pretty much exclusive to individual people and not a particularly binding factor within German society at that time. Some Germans and Jews had intermarried; and 'mischling' was used as a term to describe one of both German and Jewish ancestry. In fact, under the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), Jews enjoyed a comparatively comfortable lifestyle in Germany; being quite notably involved in its political and social affairs.Jewish politicians such as Hugo Preub, Walther Rathenau, Isaac Wolffson, Otto Landsburg, Hugo Hasse, had roles in the German parliamentary. Even prior to the Weimar, pre-WW1, there were 10 Jews among 192 delegates in the city of Hamburg (3.) http://jewish-history-online.net... see Jewish Involvement in Imperial Germany and the Weimar RepublicSo, pre-WW2, Jews had made significant progress in Germany and were a large part of its middle-class...they were both economically and socially, rather integrated. There were Jewish economics, Jewish philosophers, Jewish activists, Jewish teachers snd university lecturers, Jewish physicians, Jewish businessmen, etc. During WW1, Jews also drafted in as soldiers for the German army. According to this Wikipedia article based on a 'Judenzahlung' (Jewish census), around 100,000 Jews fought for Germany. And 18,000 of those personnel were awarded with a 'Eisernes Kreuz' (Iron Cross), which was a German wartime medal. (4.) https://en.m.wikipedia.org...Many of these Jews had actually volunteered, which does somewhat lead one to the question of why they would volunteer in a country, that at the time, had such negative prevailing attitudes against them. The answer is that things were getting better for Jews in Germany, and had been since the 1800's more or less. However, Con is correct in his points regarding the economic strife in Germany post-WW1 and the crippling effect that the Treaty of Versailles was having; but the blame was not immediately directed to Jews themselves, least not by the general German public. Despite the progress that had been made and the fact that Jews were living relatively safely in Germany, the Nazi party did unfortunately come to power--this can blamed on a few things. As mentioned previously, the determination of Hitler, along with the assistance of his propaganda chief, played a very significant role. Hitler was actually dissuaded (getting imprisoned, failed coups, etc.) many times, and rejected by most fractions of German society--who when confronted with it, saw his ideology as outdated and extreme. Venturing back to how the Nazis were not conservative, though...even their rise itself was a radical one. Hitler was neither trained in or had any experience in politics. Never had Hitler espoused any particularly mainstream conservative views, instead, they were almost exclusively radical and to the extreme of the political and social spectrum. Once again if we assess conservatism in its historic and modern context, it really is the practice of what is in essence the maintaining of things how they are...the cutting back of social expenditures and the practice of social caution. Taking a brief look at one of the primary enemies of Nazi Germany during WW2, Britain, the leadership at that time was a Conservative one--led by Winston Churchill. Overall, he was heavily dissuaded from taking any military action against Germany. Other members of the Conservative Party were reluctant to confront the threat of Nazi Germany and it was, more or less, only until the annexation of Poland and the direct threat of Germany towards other parts of Europe (including Britain itself), that various forms of action were taken...further diplomatic talks initially and then declaration of war two days later. The economic policies of Conservative Britain, were also strikingly different to that of the Nationalsozialismus Party, which may be why Britain voted for a socialist government in 1945, after Germany had been defeated. Anyway, the point here was to demonstrate that neither the origins or practices of the Nazi Party were Conservative, which has practically been sufficiently proved by me in terms economic and political policies alone...but I will extend my rebuttals further about the social elements of the Nazi party and proceed to closing arguments in round four.