DUNCAN McVee (Letters, June 12) was totally wrong in saying that when Hitler came to power, Germany was already improving financially.

The only reason Hitler was voted into power was because of the dire economic situation existing in Germany at that time.

There were more than six million unemployed, people's savings had been wiped out, people were starving and breadlines stretched for blocks in every city.

Within four years of Hitler coming to power in 1932, unemployment had been reduced to less than a million, national production rose 102 per cent from 1932 to 1937 and the national income was doubled.

It has to be said that this economic miracle had nothing to do with Hitler, for he was totally ignorant of economics. But he was very fortunate to have Doctor Schacht as his Minister of Economics.

Schacht achieved a financial miracle in Germany. His reward was to end up in a concentration camp, like so many who served Hitler.

The biggest tragedy of all is that had the Western powers not insisted on Germany paying massive reparations for starting World War One, then Hitler and his evil Third Reich would almost certainly not have come to power and Germany would have been governed by a democratic government and World War Two would have been avoided.

D PEARSON (Mr), Rawstorne Street, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.