This footage shows the Reichstag (German parliament) building on the day after it was set on fire. While the origins of the fire on February 27 are still unclear, Hitler blamed Communists for the incident. The Reichstag Fire Decree of February 28, 1933, suspended constitutional guarantees. Communist and Socialist deputies were expelled from the parliament. Shortly after the decree was issued, the Nazis established concentration camps for the internment of political opponents.
There you see the Reichstag, the German house of parliament in Berlin, which has been seriously destroyed by fire. The main hall in which the deputies conducted their debates, has suffered most from the conflagration, and after the general election which is about to take place, parliament will have to find a temporary home elsewhere. Flames are no respecters of persons, and President Hindenburg's own chair was also destroyed. Hitler, now chancellor, has announced that the fire was the work of Communists, and was intended to be the signal for a Bolshevist uprising throughout the country. In consequence, Germany has been placed under a system of martial law, a decree having been signed which aims at the total destruction of communism.
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