You call the collection of letters in the "Homelands" book "an indispensible source for understanding the Nazis. Historians have access to lots of propaganda tracts and to the most extreme statements made by leading Nazis, but we don't have many transcripts of more-ordinary Germans explaining their choices.
In this case, family members lived both in Holland and Germany and were divided politically between enthusiastic pro-Nazism and skeptical anti-Nazism, a situation that forced correspondents to explain themselves, to argue matters out.
The letters also reveal the holes or seams in Nazi appeal. The son, for example, broke with friends over his loyalty to the Nazis, but also fell in love with a woman with a Jewish grandparent, something that complicated his assumptions. What the letters and diaries reveal is the qualified, not always easy, but nonetheless unmistakable desire to be part of the National Socialist movement.
We see people as actors, not as victims; we see them deliberating, rather than being seduced. This collection offers extraordinary insights into why Germans became Nazis, and how a Nazi mother in Germany came to disagree with her beloved anti-Nazi daughter in Holland. In the end, the letters indicate just how self-absorbed Germans were by their sense of having been victimized, which means that the question of World War I remains relevant to World War II, even if the Nazi leaders themselves wanted something far more than a victory in a rerun of World War I.
Can we ever fully explain the Nazi phenomenon? And what should we learn from it? CrossRef Google Scholar. Staub, Dicks, Dicks builds his analysis on the work of W. Browning, The Path to Genocide , See also Christopher R. From this point forward, very few left the SS except for reason of ill-health; there were also some suicides. Gerald L. Borofsky and Don J. This chapter summarizes and interprets other studies on the Nuremberg Rorschachs. The IQ scores appear in Mosley, Ronald Jay Cohen, Mark E.
Swerdlik, and Douglas K. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, , — Borofsky and Brand, The three studies were: F. Miale and M. Miale and Selzer claim to have detected some evidence of psychopathology, but Borofsky and Brand convincingly demonstrate the severe flaws in their methodology. Fromm, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness , Viktor E. See Browning, Ordinary Men.
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents , trans. James Strachey New York: Norton, John M. Dimsdale New York: Hemisphere, , Steiner, New York: Penguin Books, , Arendt, Kren and Rappoport, Several theories of Nazi murderousness have appeal, in part, because they serve a psychological function for the people who believe them. To view Nazis as severely disturbed madmen preserves the image of a benevolent humanity in which most people, even most Germans, lack the potential for genocidal activity; this notion, born partly of astonishment at the heinousness of Nazi crimes, can be comforting and restores some order to the world.
To see Nazi killers as evil-to-the-core, sadistic, and incapable of warmth in any aspect of their lives serves similar functions. It was in the German military, however, that Hitler would find direction — and a springboard into politics. Service in World War I gave Hitler a place in the world for the first time, Kershaw wrote, even as many of his fellow soldiers viewed him as a bit of a socially awkward oddball and prude. Germany admitted defeat in the war as Hitler rested in a hospital, recovering from a mustard gas attack.
He returned to his regiment in Munich, Schleunes said, where he ultimately got a job with the information unit, working in military intelligence. It was this job that put him on a collision course with the German Workers' Party. Hitler had long held right-wing nationalist views, but in a "critical development," Schleunes said, the army sent him to attend university lectures on German history , socialism and bolshevism — from a right-wing perspective. It was Hitler's power as a speaker that turned him from informer to party member, Schleunes said.
During a German Workers' Party lecture, someone suggested that it might be best for Bavaria to break from the rest of Germany, splintering the country. Hitler, a German nationalist, was appalled and argued against the idea. The leader of the party, impressed with his speaking style, asked him to join the party.
A few days later, on Sept. Hitler became a fiery speaker on the beer-hall circuit and was willing to risk the humiliation of low turnout by organizing rallies in large spaces, Kershaw wrote. His organizing talents propelled him to the top of the party's leadership. In , Hitler was voted chairman of the party and took total control.
The once-tiny group began to draw new members, absorbing other right-wing groups, Schleunes said. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email.
Robert Wilde. History Expert. Robert Wilde is a historian who writes about European history. He is the author of the History in an Afternoon textbook series. Updated April 10, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format.
Wilde, Robert. Who Were Hitler's Supporters? What Is Socialism? Definition and Examples. Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor of Germany.
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