The National Socialist German Workers" Party almost died one morning in 1919. It numbered only a few dozen grumblers" it had no organization and no political ideas. But many among the middle class admired the Nazis" muscular opposition to the Social Democrats. And the Nazis themes of patriotism and militarism drew highly emotional responses from people who could not forget Germany"s prewar imperial grandeur. In the national elections of September 1930, the Nazis garnered nearly 6.5 million votes and became second only to the Social Democrats as the most popular party in Germany. In Northeim, where in 1928 Nazi candidates...
on July 30, he had left Brittany to wither on the vine and begun a great sweep around the German armies in Normandy, moving southeast to Orleans on the Loire and then due east toward the Seine south of Paris. By August 23 the Seine was reached southeast and northwest of the capital, and two days later the great city, the glory of France, was liberated after four years of German occupation when General Jacques Leclerc"s French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division broke into it and found that French resistance units were largely in control.