July 24, 2014
When xxxxx
July 24, 2014
Location
Oakland, CA
Stephen P. Halbrook
Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and author of the new book, Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”. His other books include The Founders’ Second Amendment, Securing Civil Rights, The Swiss and the Nazis, and That Every Man Be Armed.
With new debates over gun control, renowned scholar, attorney, and author Stephen P. Halbrook will speak on the explosive findings in his new book, Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”. Based on recently discovered, secret documents from German archives, diaries and newspapers of the time, Dr. Halbrook will discuss the powerful, yet hidden history of how the Nazi regime made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate power. The countless books on the Third Reich and the Holocaust hardly ever mention the laws restricting firearms ownership, which rendered political opponents and Jews defenseless. A skeptic could surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the National Socialist regime certainly did not think so—it ruthlessly suppressed firearm ownership by disfavored groups. Gun Control in the Third Reich spans the two decades from the birth of the Weimar Republic in 1918 through Kristallnacht in 1938 and the pertinent events during World War II regarding the effects of the disarming policies. And even though in the occupied countries the Nazis decreed the death penalty for possession of a firearm, there developed instances of heroic armed resistance by Jews, particularly the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Gun Control in the Third Reich
Order Gun Control in the Third Reich today »
“With Gun Control in the Third Reich, Stephen Halbrook has written an important and disturbing book. It provides a timely reminder that self defense and the right to bear arms are fundamental human rights.”
—Robert J. Cottrol, Professor of Law, History, and Sociology, George Washington University
“Stephen Halbrook’s excellent and deeply researched book, Gun Control in the Third Reich . . . should inform our contemporary debate on gun control.”
—Steven B. Bowman, Professor of Judaic Studies, University of Cincinnati; Miles Lerner Fellow, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
“Halbrook’s meticulous research in Gun Control in the Third Reich sheds new and revealing light on the consolidation of Nazi power and the prosecution of the Holocaust. Everyone, including advocates of gun controls, should find this pioneering and thought-provoking book essential reading.”
—James B. Jacobs, Warren E. Burger Professor of Law, New York University
“In Gun Control in the Third Reich, Halbrook shows that the Nazis relied on gun control to carry out their totalitarian program. Indeed, by means of painstaking historical research, he shows that the weapon confiscations and punishments of the Third Reich relied very much on the earlier registration measures of the democratic Weimar Republic. This pioneering book tells an essential story that is central to the history of the modern Leviathan state. Highly recommended!”
—T. Hunt Tooley, Professor of History, Austin College; co-editor, Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe
