‘How could an entire people get behind Hitler?’

The racism that led to the Holocaust has roots stretching far back in time. It is about keeping the flock together, about greed and fear. These were the emotions that Hitler exploited to recruit members to the Nazi Party.

Hitler’s rousing speeches called for unity within the great German race, the reconquering of lost lands, and fear of a Jewish world conspiracy that encompassed both capitalism and communism. People were unhappy with the situation in Germany at the time, with weak politicians and high unemployment. Hitler played upon the feeling of betrayal that many Germans felt at the end of the First World War: the humiliated Fatherland and the people’s suffering that demanded restitution. He called for national unity, promising bread and work.

In the beginning of the 1930s, Nazism did not have very many followers. Thanks to the charisma and power of speech that Hitler possessed, however, more and more people began to join him. These were people from all layers of society — industrialists and business leaders who thought they could profit from his politics, military men who liked his racist ideas, ordinary people who were tired of poverty, and women who fell for his charm.

Hitler exerted a hypnotic force on the women, and they became his most loyal voters. It seems strange today, as according to him the women’s role could be summarised as ‘K. K. K.’, that is, Kinder, Küche, Kirche. Children, Kitchen, Church.

Hitler had skilful people to help him. They targeted young people, and devised powerful propaganda through film, literature, and art. Jews were caricatured, placed on a level with pests and vermin. The anti-Semitic propaganda was aimed at all age groups: it started by targeting little children, continued in school textbooks, and ended with literature and films for adults. To this day, Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will is seen as a prototype for effective propaganda.

In textbooks, there were elements of propaganda in every subject. The following maths problem from a high school textbook published in 1935 is just one example: ‘How many government loans would it be possible to give to newly-weds for the amount of money the government spends on taking care of the disabled, the criminals, and the insane?’

Great emphasis was placed on the physical education of young people; they were to be hardened both physically and mentally. They were recruited into Hitlerjugend (the Hitler Youth), where camp life and camaraderie turned them into the Führer’s most loyal lackeys. The girls had their own sub-group, Bund Deutscher Mädel (the League of German Girls), where they were trained to be model citizens, and raised to become mothers of many children.

Despite growing support for Hitler, the population at large was not anti-Semitic. Few were seduced by the anti-Semitic propaganda. Some joined the party because they wanted to try something new, others because of peer pressure.

One man, a young law student at the time, explained to me how two of his good friends and colleagues, who had both initially been completely against Hitler, slowly turned. One of them justified it by saying that none of the other parties had a solution to the poor political and financial situation, and that it might therefore be time to try something new. The other was drawn in by the ever-increasing number of party members, and began to think ‘the masses can’t be wrong’. The then-student who told me the story never let himself be influenced; he moved abroad instead. With time, fewer and fewer objected.