# WW2: Who were the Allies fighting in Europe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 4, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-who-were-the-allies-fighting-in-europe/238213 "2004-04-04T18:47:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-who-were-the-allies-fighting-in-europe/238213/21 "2004-04-06T03:34:47Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Don’t you think the German people had just a little bit to do with it? Hitler and the Nazi Party were elected to the Reichstag by popular vote. _Remembers to add this to that Pit thread on commonly repeated historical inaccuracies_ Hitler became Fuehrer not through a mass popular uprising of support or bossed his way into the position with brownshirts. The short story: Paul von Hindeburg was elected President by a popular vote. The nazis held thirty percent of the vote. However, he saw that they were in fact the only party experiencing any growth (and growing fast), so he knew the Nazis were something to be reckoned with. Hitler was then made Chancellor. Suddenly Hindenburg dies. Hitler was able to combine President and Chancellor into one office. Using the burning reichstag building, Versailles, and other events the Nazi party was able to draft laws that added more support to Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-who-were-the-allies-fighting-in-europe/238213/22 "2004-04-06T03:36:41Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > AS he said, towards the end, yes. Hitler Youth were recruited into fighting in the fall of Berlin and many other areas they formed the defensive militia along with the aged men who had not been fit to join the regular military. > > [The Fall of Berlin, 1945](http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/berlin.htm) > > I do know my father who was in the Ruhr Valley at this time found more children and old men than men his own age. Heck, he wasnt _that_ old himself…18 and out of boot camp. He _should_ have been trying to get a date for the 5th of July picknic, not lugging 50 lbs of weapon, grenades and ammo and not geting shot at. Was your father in any way involved with Market Garden? If so, he may have met my grandfather. _He_ was lugging 50 lbs of weapon, grenades and ammo and not getting shot at at fifteen. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-who-were-the-allies-fighting-in-europe/238213/23 "2004-04-06T10:14:54Z")
> [@Blackeyes](#): > > _Remembers to add this to that Pit thread on commonly repeated historical inaccuracies_ . . . Paul von Hindeburg was elected President by a popular vote. The nazis held thirty percent of the vote. **Blackeyes** , I did _not_ write that Hitler became Chancellor by popular vote. I am quite aware that President Hindenburg appointed him to that position. And the Nazi Party won 230 out of the 608 seats in the Reichstag in the July 1932 elections — 38% of the seats, not 30%. You may be thinking of the presidential election in February 1932, in which Hitler (not the Nazi Party) got 30.1% of the vote in the first round, and 36.8% in the secound round. ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-who-were-the-allies-fighting-in-europe/238213/24 "2004-04-06T10:55:25Z")
Thanks for the answers people. Sounds like the average soldier from all (allied) countries would have thought that they were fighting Germany and not Fascism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-who-were-the-allies-fighting-in-europe/238213.md?page=1)