Hitler told them he would make their lives better. . . and he did for most. He gave them order where there was only chaos in their government. He told them they were the best.
Of course they thought he was great, at first. Even when things started to be rationed, they were still winning, in Poland, against France. It wasn't until 1942/3 that things started to be harder for the people, but event hen, they had suffered worse in WWI. In 1944 when the bombing campaigns of the allies started in, the people knew that they were going to lose, yet Hitler could still electrify them and they kept on believing. I mean, what else was there for them to do?
The State controlled everything. They couldn't just stop.
I whole heatedly agree with you, Dutch.
I do love the old diary's of the citizens of Germany in that era. As I do not speak German or Yiddish I have to read those that has been translated into English.
The Christian girls 8-14 interest me as they were so optimists about the future. Scared all the time but were unguarded in their diary's.
It is odd what history was fiddled with after the war.
We all knew about the Jews, Gypsy's, Jehovah Witnesses , Homosexuals and Free Thinkers, but politics hides the thousands of Communists that were in the mix
When I nursed in a Nursing home that catered to Jewish Patients, There all ways seem to be a a few elderly woman who had chosen not to marry from the old country. Those with little family were a gold mine of information about them growing up in Germany.
With little to no visitors and only the past, no future ,these woman who had never spoken a word about their lives to family, now seem driven to tell their story before they died.
The large cities and small towns were in the same fix. The last 18 months of the war it is difficult to imagine the starvation of the people.
I have heard it said from survivors of the camps and normal civilians that once Hitler was in power it was less then a year before the Catholic Church was trying to warn their people to keep their eyes open, the church went so far as to meet in secrete with the local Rabies.
At first the people had respect for their leader but now that respect was turning to fear. The German protestants just sat back and waited not worrying about anything.
When Hitler was in town all schools were closed, unless you were in a hopital everyone in town had better be there to greet him. The news filmed reports of that time show thousands of people that had no choice but to cry for joy to see the man who was going to save them.
It takes baby steps you know how to catch a deer with bare hands. Hate must be built on bad experiences to get a foot hold. When there are no bad experiences in the past then one has to be made for you to show you the light.
When the news of a son killed on the Russian front, the police would mention, out of the blue ,that it was the Jews that started all this and didn't they have Jewish neighbors,
Humane nature, by 10 o'clock that night a deranged grieving family would have broken the windows in every Jewish household on their street.
By the time the camps were put into operation the people were scared out of their minds over, What to or not to do so as not get arrested and dragged off like their neighbors.
The people were so afraid of their own country when the bombing began the Germans must have felt the world hated them and it was all the Jews fault.
If history is to happen again then we must be on guard for who will be scape goats. We will all hear some grumbling about some OTHER people, may take 22-18 months to get us pissed as heck over what ever segment of society starts making us go hungry or interfears in our lives.
It just may well be you or I that gets the dubious honor to take the blame for all the suffering that is to come.
