![Onlookers in front of the Reichstag (German parliament) building after its virtual destruction by fire. [LCID: 75102]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/e836e9d2-b664-4b8f-b8ab-129ca11c2630.jpg)
Onlookers in front of the Reichstag (German parliament) building the day after it was damaged by fire. On this same day, the Nazis implemented the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and the State. It was one of a series of key decrees, legislative acts, and case law in the gradual process by which the Nazi leadership moved Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship. Berlin, Germany, February 28, 1933.
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