Neighbor's betrayal

To the modern observer it may seem mind-boggling how a nation's population may have turned a blind eye towards atrocities being committed against members of their own, but that's what ended up happening for 12 years in Nazi Germany. Great numbers of the Germans agreed and helped contribute to the prosecution of their Jewish neighbors by the Nazis. The Gestapo was a relatively small force, with only about 50 to 100 agents in major cities like Düsseldorf and Hamburg. They relied heavily on denunciations by the local population to arrest those people who were deemed undesirable.  Why though, would the average citizens of a modern and "civilized" nation have contributed to the eradication of a segment of their own population? The answer, as we discussed in class, is more complex than what is normally perceived. The most accepted perception is that those Germans who did denounce their Jewish neighbors to the authorities were doing so because they believed in the Nazi ideology of Anti-Semitism. Certainly, it is possible that the majority of Germans did have anti-Semitic views and thus had no trouble denouncing other Jews they knew.  However a great portion of the denouncements were because of a vendetta and/or personal gain. In this case the denouncer could be a disgruntled business owner upset over the threat of competition that a Jewish business may provide.

Nazi Prosecution of a Jewish Business 

            Did the denouncer know what was going to happen to their Jewish neighbor they denounced? It is almost certain they knew the denounced was in for a nightmarish experienced and may even have faced death at the hands of the Nazis. However they refused to believe this reality and instead convinced themselves of ideas such as that their Jewish neighbors were being relocated to other places outside the Reich where they would not be a “threat” to them.  

The Rise of National Socialism

Towards the end of the 1920's, just when it seemed the German economy had begun to recover from mass hyper-inflation earlier in the decade, financial disaster struck once more as the American Stock Market Crashed. Germany felt the repercussions of Stock Market Crash especially hard because its economy well-being depended on short-term loans from the United States. Once these loans were recalled, Germany was devastated. Unemployment went from 8.5 percent in 1929 to 14 percent in 1930, to 21.9 percent in 1931, and, at its peak, to 29.9 percent in 1932. It was these conditions in which the Nazis were able to exploit for their own advantage. Skilled Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels launched an intensive media campaign that ceaselessly expounded a few simple notions until even the dullest voter knew Hitler's basic program. The party's program was broad and general enough to appeal to many unemployed people, farmers, white-collar workers, members of the middle class who had been hurt by the Depression or had lost status since the end of World War I, and young people eager to dedicate themselves to nationalist ideals. The party blamed the Treaty of Versailles and reparations for the developing crisis. Nazi propaganda attacked the Weimar political system, the "November criminals," Marxists, internationalists, and Jews. Besides promising a solution to the economic crisis, the Nazi offered the German people a sense of national pride and the promise of restored order.

Nazi Rally 

    Such tactics by the Nazis yield great results in the elections that were to come in the first part of the 1930's. Three elections (in September 1930, in July 1932, and in November 1932) were held between the onset of the Depression and Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933.In each the Nazis were able to gain a greater share of Reichstag seats, reaching a point where they outnumber any other party. However it must be noted that the ideas the Nazis put out the German public such as restoring German Prestige in the World Stage,  and their hatred of communists, Jews, and other Untermenschen was not by any means new to German Society, as these ideas began to surface before the turn of the 20th century and earlier. It was the masterful job of the Nazis to exploit and magnify these issues to an eager and desperate German population which arguably had gone through more hardships than a couple of previous generations combined that led to votes for the Nazis. Of course it did not hurt the Nazis that they had as Hitler as Führer, the most charismatic and strongest leader since von Bismarck.