What the Nazis Had in Common With Every Other Collectivist Regime in the 20th Century

Just like Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot, and others, the Nazis claimed to be socialists, concentrated power in the State, and spurned the rights of individuals

Polish prisoners in striped uniforms stand in rows before Nazi officers at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Weimar, Germany, World War II, circa 1943. Frederic Lewis/Getty Images

July 29 marks an infamous centennial. One hundred years ago—on July 29, 1921—Adolf Hitler assumed the leadership of the National Socialist German Workers Party, better known as the Nazis. It became his vehicle to power.

Note the formal, official name of the party. It was not the National Capitalist German Workers Party. It was not the National Free Market German Workers Party. Nor was it the National Christian German Workers Party. Yet a century later, claims that Nazis were capitalist or Christian or both—though preposterous—are still occasionally heard.