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Originally Posted by Slartibartfas
To make it short: The following were the first victims of Hitler:
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"We protect Austria - Fatherland's Front"
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Well, yes and no. Yes: the Vaterländische Front was in power with Schuschnigg chancelor when the Nazis annexed Austria and ended their rule.
But this is not what was meant with the historical doctrine right after the war (until nowadays!) that Austria was the first victim. It is rather that Hitler deprived Austria of its souverainty and erased Austria from the map, as first souverain country in Europe. This is were this story comes from.
Nobody shed a tear for the semi-fascist Austrian regime, a huge part of the population (escpecially the socialists) did not even support Austrian independance. But nevertheless Austria as a state was the first state victim of German aggression, which was of course used afterwards by the masses of collaborators to hide behind it.