菲利普·鲁赫认为，1929年的华尔街股灾本身无法解释纳粹在1930年德国议会选举中的成功，因为这次危机的全面影响直到1931年7月才真正波及德国（参见10月1日发表的《“希特勒是个懒惰的罪犯，睡到中午才起床”：我们以为知道的关于纳粹崛起的多数事实其实都是错的）。
Philipp Ruch believes that the impact of the 1929 Wall Street crash cannot explain the Nazi breakthrough at the 1930 Reichstag election, as the full effects of Black Thursday “didn’t fully arrive in Germany until July 1931” (‘Hitler was a lazy criminal who slept in until noon’: why most of what we think we know about the rise of the Nazis is wrong, 1 October ).
不过，从1928年到1930年选举期间，德国的失业人数增加了一倍以上，这一事实原本足以解释纳粹势力的壮大。
But unemployment more than doubled between 1928 and the 1930 election, and that fact alone might be thought sufficient to explain the change in Nazi fortunes.
但鲁赫指出事实并非如此：在失业率较高的地区，纳粹党的表现反而相对较差；甚至可以说，高失业率反而增强了民众对反法西斯力量的支持。
Not so, says Ruch, for “in regions where unemployment was high, the Nazi party performed relatively poorly. If anything, unemployment was a factor contributing to anti-fascist resilience.”This, however, marks a failure to appreciate how rising unemployment was seen by most Germans at the time.
然而，这种观点忽视了当时大多数德国人对失业问题的基本认知：他们不仅将失业视为执政联盟未能妥善管理经济的表现，还意识到失业推动了德国共产党（KPD）的崛起——后者与纳粹党同为华尔街股灾的最大受益者。
Not only did they see it as signifying one aspect of the failure of the coalition parties in government to manage the economy competently, but they also rightly regarded it as fuelling the rise of the Communist party of Germany (KPD) – with it being the other great political beneficiary of the Wall Street crash along with the National Socialist German Workers’ party.
随着德国共产党势力的扩张，纳粹党也得以壮大，因为民众视其为唯一具备决心与实力（依靠褐衫军）来阻止共产党在街头夺取政权的政党。
As the KPD grew, so the Nazi party grew – as it was perceived as the only party with the resolve and the numbers (thanks to the brownshirts) to stop the communists seizing power on the streets.
尽管后来德国共产党并未能实现其野心，但我们仍不能忽视该党曾经引发过广泛而强烈的恐惧这一事实。约翰·普洛赖特·雷普顿，德比郡
The fact that the KPD proved a damp squib should not blind us to the fact that the party once inspired genuine, strong and very widespread fear. John Plowright Repton, Derbyshire