I would say that fascism and communism are not all that similar. Fascists are more pro-market for instance. They are equally ruthless though. It is also possible that Fascists are generally more socially conservative.
Hitler and Stalin were both sufficiently bad that's it's hard to compare them.
Dazzleman, you mention standard of living. However, Germany was much more indusrtialized, so that goes a long way to explain it, no?
Yes, it probably does. But I would say that communist economic policies actively destroy economic potential, and East vs. West Germany is a good example of that.
There are differences between Hitler and Stalin, but in the end, they don't matter much. Stalin was probably worse overall to his own people, while Hitler had this idea that non-Jewish Germans should be privileged. However, Stalin behaved with much less recklessness in his aggression. Stalin wished to avoid a war for which he knew he was not prepared, and during the Cold War he never launched generalized aggression against the west.
So while there were differences between the two men, the end result was the same - millions dead for no good reason, and the infliction of mindless cruelty on millions and millions who did live. I don't think either man, or the philosophies that they represented, can be defended.
