How did the Nazis get so evil?

Question

Is it true that the Nazis picked up naked little children and threw them into ovens while they were crying and kicking?

It would be expected from the BC eras but how did that happen in the 20th century on such a massive scale? Or will noone ever understand?

Where is the real human progress?

Answer 1

A lot of the stories of nazi cruely is no doubt exaggerated though much of what has been proven is as bad as the rumors so why bother making things up?

Germany, always a very anti semetic country, was crushed by the reparations they were forced to endure for WWI. Hitler brought back a sense of patriotism and nationality to the disenfranchised Germans. The country needed a scapegoat to blame for their problems rather than themselves. They couldn't accept that what they believed was the greatest nation on earth was beaten by foreigners so they pinned the blame on those amongst them, the Jewish citizens of Germany. This hatred became so widespread that they wanted to wipe out the entire race and Jews around the world were hated.

Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, created such a campaign against the Jews to win the people's support for future aggression, that many believed them to be inhuman and unfit to live. He made it so common and acceptable to believe that the Jews were evil that those who spoke out and believed differently were considered enemies. Goebbels was very good at controlling the thoughts of the masses.

Answer 2

The question isn't so much about how the Nazi's were evil as much as how can human beings act in such inhumane ways.

Unfortunately, it is only the rules of a society that prevent more of this. Cambodia, Turkey, Rwanda, Iraq, England, France, USA, in fact many more societies at some point in their history have sanctioned and approved inhumane acts.

Governments allow and condone inhumane behaviors and are responsible for mass killings and amyhem. These governments are nothing more than citizens and people. When bad people get in power bad things happen.

Answer 3

To get a real answer to this one you have to read a lot of world history of that era and especially about the financial woes of Germany during the 1930's. It got so bad then that a wheelbarrow full of money would not buy a loaf of bread. Hitler was looked on as almost a savior by his people. They had gone through WWI and came out on the short end of the stick. I believe they had war debts that they had to pay. It is a long and difficult story and transitional period and perhaps will never be truly understood, and particularly now since so much time has passed.

Answer 4

The Nazis came to power by blaming a group that had little or no political influence within Germany as the cause of all the suffering of Germany after WWI. Then they vilified the Jewish people and legally made them non-citizens, which shortly degenerated into non-humans. Disposing of non-humans, who were presented as the cause of all that was wrong with Germany and the world, proved easy. Germans that protected Jews went with them to the camps.

No one will ever really understand.

This is possible with any government that doesn't have the checks and balances to protect the rights of all people.

Answer 5

My very own slant on it is that confident the nazis have been the epitome of evil. yet I constantly attempt to remember that their objective became no longer purely the extinction of all Jews in Europe however the extinction of all those human beings they seen subhuman. This blanketed one greater 6+ million human beings alongside with the mentally risky, homosexuals, gypsies and a large style of the those that make up the communities of jap Europe. Yep, evil in my e book.

Answer 6

There are two questions here: how could such evil be conceived, and how could it then be carried out. I suggest reading Hannah Arendts, A Report on the Banality of Evil. She covered the trial of Adolph Eichmann (responsible for many of the deportations in Eastern Europe) in Israel in the early 60s (he had been captured in South America and brought back to trial). How could such evil be accepted and carried out? As Eichmann expressed it, it was his job, not to do so was unthinkable considering the circumstances and consequences. The same way a bureaucrat stamps a piece of paper, Nazi bureaucrats all down the line let it happen. Ultimately of course it issued from the Deaths Head, from Hitler himself (or his immediate deputies). Then you have to ask how could such evil be conceived. That is harder to answer. I think the potential for such hatred lies in each one of us (and thus in those around us). Its our responsibility to see it is not carried out. That failed in Nazi Germany for many (banal) reasons.

Answer 7

obedience to authority

with propaganda

the nazis took advantage of the economic depression and manipulatded normal people's fears and prejudices into pure hatred

unfortunately, this same sort of thing still happens today.

just look at all the civil wars that are raging in the world.
the genocides in rwanda, and darfur.
humans killing humans for no reason other than political/racial/religious ideologies of hate.

the "others" are socially constructed to take the blame for society's problems.

it is really really sad.

Answer 8

JRR Tolkien was writing the Lord of the Rings in England as Hitler came to power in Germany; Sauron is directly modeled on Hitler; or as George Lucas said a generation latter, a person...in this case a country...that gave into the Dark Side of the force......

and throwing babies into furnaces was the least of it.Dr Mengele at Auswitch was trying to find some method of quick healing broken bones..so he experimented on hundreds of Jews by removing their thigh bones and replacing them with wood, carboard, paper marche.....of course, they didn't have anesthesia....that had to be saved for German soldiers......

Answer 9

True the Nazis were evil but nothing compared to Islam.

Answer 10

hitler was very charismatic, but even then, the guards were almost all alchoholics, and even hitler and himmler couldn't stand the actual sight of it, they could sit in their offices all the wanted but they couldn't actually do it. it goes to the arguement that man is inherently evil. Hitler (in his own twisted way) thought he was doing good (in a sense). but other events in his life not including abuse as a child twisted him to the point of the hitler we know now. He was an artist before a fuhrer