Who said it: State schools Superintendent John Huppenthal.

The race: Superintendent of public instruction.

What we're looking at: Huppenthal's comments about former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's connection to the Great Depression and the rise of Adolf Hitler.

The comment: "We now know that (Franklin D. Roosevelt) was almost completely responsible for the great depression. Only in liberal mythology did FDR 'save' the nation. ... Worse yet, Roosevelt's disastrous economic policies drug down the whole world and directly led to the rise of a no-name hack named Adolph Hitler who was going nowhere until Germany's economy went into the tank."

The forum: Blog for Arizona.

Analysis: Huppenthal, who is running for re-election, admitted to The Arizona Republic that he had been commenting on political blogs under various pseudonyms.

Among his comments were remarks saying Roosevelt's presidency caused the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler.

Huppenthal, who made these comments in 2013 under the pseudonym Falcon9, said Roosevelt was responsible for the worst economic depression in U.S. history.

Oct. 24, 1929, the day of the historic stock-market crash known as "Black Thursday," is widely recognized as the start of the U.S. economy's slide into depression.

President Herbert Hoover had taken office a few months before, on March 4, 1929, succeeding Calvin Coolidge, whose presidency spanned 1923-29, the years leading up to the crash.

During these years, Roosevelt was governor of New York.

He was elected president in November 1932 and sworn in to office in March 1933, a point many historians mark as the low point of the Great Depression. Although economists have debated whether Roosevelt's policies as president prolonged or shortened the Depression, there's no question it was underway when he took office.

"The banking system had collapsed, nearly 25% of the labor force was unemployed, and prices and productivity had fallen to 1/3 of their 1929 levels," according to a history of the Roosevelt presidency on the FDR Presidential Library website.

The economy had largely emerged from the Depression by the time United States entered World War II, which began during Roosevelt's presidency. The war also helped return the country to full employment.

Roosevelt died in office in April 1945, five months before the end of WWII.

The Great Depression did affect Germany, and Hitler did use his country's failing economy to further his rise to power. After losing in the German presidential elections of 1929, Hitler was eventually appointed chancellor in German President Paul von Hindenberg's Cabinet.

Through legislation passed by the German government, Hitler was able to enact a totalitarian government.

By the time Roosevelt officially took office in March 1933, Hitler was weeks from transforming the German government into a dictatorship.

Huppenthal, who has admitted making anonymous comments on political blogs since 2011, issued an apology if his remarks were offensive.

Bottom line: Huppenthal's comments about FDR are false. Roosevelt did not cause the Great Depression in the United States. It was at its low point when he took office.

Roosevelt also had no impact on Hitler's rise to power. The German dictator was merely a couple weeks away from helping turn the German government into a totalitarian regime when Roosevelt took office.

Rating: No stars, false.


"School Superintendent Huppenthal acknowledges anonymous blog posts," The Arizona Republic, June 19; Huppenthal's FDR comment, Blog for Arizona, Dec. 23, 2011; Huppenthal apology released to The Arizona Republic, June 18; FDR facts, FDR Presidential Library and Museum; "The Great Depression," Encyclopedia Britannica, Dec. 26, 2013; "Hitler comes to power," United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

AZ Fact Check



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