Hitler's subsequent refusal to join any coalition government forced new elections, which were held on November 6, 1932, at a time when the worst of the economic crisis was starting to subside. The election results were far from those that the Nazis desired; the NSDAP received two million votes fewer than it polled in July. Although the Nazis remained the largest party in the Reichstag, they had lost 34 seats. Their momentum seemed to be stalling. Although Hitler was stunned and discouraged at the end of 1932, his fortunes soon improved dramatically.

Faced by the prospect that no sustainable government would emerge after the November election, Hindenburg used his constitutional authority on January 30, 1933, reluctantly appointing Hitler, a man he despised, chancellor of Germany.

Hitler had not seized power. In fact, the power he wanted had nearly eluded him. Instead, it was handed to him by those who thought he could be controlled. Hindenburg's decision was taken to prevent an overthrow of the existing order, but unintentional though the outcome was, his appointment put Hitler's vision in control. That result led to Fritz Gerlich's bloody spectacles. It also plunged Germany into the unprecedented evil of the Holocaust.

On February 1, 1933, Adolf Hitler spoke to the German people on the radio for the first time as chancellor. He ended by appealing to the Almighty to bless his government's work. On that day, Elie Wiesel was not yet five years old. Forty-six years later, Wiesel would write about Auschwitz-Birkenau: "The beginning, the end: all the world's roads, all the outcries of mankind, lead to this accursed place. Here is the kingdom of night, where God's face is hidden and a flaming sky becomes a graveyard for a vanished people."