r00tb33r wrote:
Pepe wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
Germany's humiliation and forced suffering by the allies after WWI had left the Germans ripe for extremists who wanted to take advantage of that. The Nazis sold the Germans on nationalism based on racism/Anti-Semitism that had long predated their party, and in fact was common all over the western world at the time. Read F. Scott Fitzgerald's book, The Great Gatsby, and see the racist idiocy spouted by Daisy's a$$hole husband. Jew hate had been common among Christian Europeans - and by extension, America - from the very beginning. The Nazis had been able to use Jews, Gypsies, the far left, and others as scapegoats for Germany's suffering. It just so happened that Hitler had been able to take advantage of a perfect storm raging in the time in Germany.
Nicely said.

Pretty good indeed, but one has to be really gullible to buy into that... or not so gullible...
Obviously, my point of view has the benefit of history, but... I don't necessarily buy into that innocence. Not every German was a Nazi, and not every one of them was a supporter. But still...
To be sure, too many Germans had allowed themselves to be duped, as they had wanted what was happening to their country to make sense. And then, after the Germany's economy recovered under Hitler, and the country was feeling proud again, many people became loyal to him just for that reason.
Yes, there had been Germans who had never been happy with the Nazis, while there were others who eventually became disenchanted with Hitler. One such person was the mayor of Stuttgart, who learned from German soldiers about what was really happening to the Jews who had been promised to be resettled in the east. The Stuttgart mayor had been a key figure in organizing an Anti-Nazi underground called the Black Orchestra, which included theologians such as the Lutheran minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer and leading army officers such as Erwin Rommel, and Claus Von Stauffenberg (who had been responsible for the failed bomb attempt on Hitler's life). Sadly, too many Germans in both civilian and military life continued their devotion to Hitler.
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-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer