Sunday, April 17, 2011
This part of "The Hitler Myth" was especially enlightening because a lot of my cliche beliefs about how Hitler ruled and what kind of power he had were proved wrong. I didn't know before that Hitler used religion in his manipulation of power. It makes sense that he did, considering that most great rulers, if not all, before him used religion in their plight for power. Kings of France, Spain, and England claimed that God had given their power to them, that it was their "destiny" to be king. I also didn't know that Hitler didn't show his aggressive, militaristic tactic to the public, because I had always thought of him as just that--aggressive and militaristic. This makes sense that his "dualism" that we talked about when studying his journey into power would continue and play more prominently when he was actually in power. He was also very smart to mind the fact that many Germans were still living in the remnants of World War I, and therefore did not want to face the idea of taking part in another war. Realizing this made me realize what the Germans must have felt while suffering through World War II. Previously, I had only thought of the experience of the Jewish population with the Holocaust, and the effect that World War II had on Americans. I had never thought how the Germans must have been traumatized that Hitler, a leader that they trusted not to send themselves into another war, but to help them regain their wealth and position in the world peacefully, actually led them into what they wanted to avoid: another horrible war.
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I agree that I was caught quite off-guard by Hitler's campaign for peace. Considering the fact that the Nazi party is well-known for acts of violence and militarism it is difficult to believe that people would have so readily bought into Hitler's promises of peace. I think mainly Hitler's initial success in foreign policy and this notion of 'painless victory' that Kershaw brings up were highly effective in proving Hitler could arm and restore Germany without a seeming threat of war. The fact that Hitler could negotiate and claim/reclaim territory for Germany with little or no bloodshed had to be a really impressive feat. But your point about the effect of WWI and then the outbreak of WWII on the German people is very important. Kershaw points out the significance of the fact that, though Hitler could effectively psych people up and get them jazzed about rearming Germany and gaining new territory, it only really worked while peace lasted. Kershaw claims that it would have taken a different kind of Nazi party to alter the psychology of its own members, as well as the rest of the German people, to be willing and enthusiastic about war. Thought that's probably more the type of radical attitude Hitler would have desired, he bought himself some time by promoting peace heavily, and by being able to introduce his foreign policies peacefully and successfully. Who knows what might have happened if his speeches promoting peace were met, instead, with more violent consequences of his foreign maneuvering?... Or with the eventual rupture caused by the start of WWII we can understand it as a factor of the decline of the Hitler myth.
ReplyDelete~Cat Crowley
I must disagree with Cat's notion that the Nazi party was 'well-known for acts of violence and militarism'. I mean, yes, I'm sure they heard through the grapevine that there was mass murder of the Jews and gypsies, but in all honesty, you could never understand how far the Nazis went without actually working at a death camp. I was actually wondering the other day how an 18 year old, blond, blue eyed German could point a gun in the face of a child and pull the trigger. I would have to say that it was because of Hitler and his cult following. And that's exactly what it was, the Nazi party was nothing less than a large scale Charles Manson cult, using religion as its' backbone. Although Hitler had a campaign for peace, that was merely decoy propaganda for the Reich's real intentions. I doubt I'm the only one in this class that felt something powerful in Hitler's speech, mainly because all of Germany believed it too, but a man who preaches so powerfully that he spoke to God, who of which told him that it was 'destiny' that he was to be Fuhrer. All I have to say is that when an entire country starts to believe in Hitler, it's not unreasonable that other countries would think similarly. Hitler manipulated his people by instilling fear in them and declaring that he was a gift from god.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe I even mentioned the death camps in my post? I was actually more referring to the thuggery and beatings perpetrated by members of the SA, which was pretty well-known and an aspect of the Nazi Party. Though Hitler was rather effective at playing down his ties with the SA after rising to power, his efforts didn't necessarily eradicate the concept of violence in Nazi politics. There's also the Night of the Long Knives, was a murderous and essentially violent occurrence that Hitler and the Nazis masked as political necessity. Additionally, even after Hitler came to power I'm pretty sure it was no secret, (or at least it had to be pretty well-rumored), that the Gestapo was capable of exercising violence against those it arrested. Hitler's hands may have been presented as clean and peace-loving but what's interesting is that the people had to have some idea of a disturbingly violent aspect that existed in the party he was representing. Yet why the majority seemed to do nothing to resist Hitler and the Nazis is something we have discussed and continue to discuss in our recitation.
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