the Spanish flu Pandemic helped the National socialist German workers party (NSDAP), which was Adolf Hitler to come to power in Germany. This publication reports the New York Post, citing a new study by the Federal reserve Bank of new York.
the researchers analyzed data from election commissions and came to the conclusion that right-wing extremists have gained a large share of the votes in the regions of Germany, where there were the highest mortality from an influenza pandemic. The researchers say that they believe in the correctness of their conclusions, as also took into account regional unemployment, religious and ethnic composition of the cities where elections were held, and look how many votes previously given to far-right parties in different parts of the country.
the Nazi party enjoyed the support of a significant part of the population: it received 13.7 million votes July 31, 1932 elections to the Reichstag. 30 January 1933 Adolf Hitler became Reich Chancellor.
Economist Christian Blick (Kristian Blickle), one of the study’s authors, says that the results obtained correlate with the modern resurgence of anti-Semitism associated with the pandemic novel coronavirus infection. The anti-defamation League has expressed concern over the appearance of posts on the Internet, in which Jews and Israel was accused of creating and spreading the coronavirus to control the population of the planet.
Blick argues that in the fourteenth century the Jews also falsely accused of spreading the bubonic plague. He found a strong correlation between the number of deaths from influenza and the large number of votes for right-wing parties in the “regions, where historically blamed minorities, especially Jews, in the appearance of the plague in the middle Ages.” The economist suggested that the pandemic seriously said on the demographic composition of society and could lead to a hatred of strangers.
Blick hopes that his research will contribute to the debate about long-term consequences of pandemics, however, asks with caution to interpret the results.
