Why are people so interested in Nazi's?

Question

So many books, films, History channel documentarys etc, about Hitler and his gang-whats the appeal to people?

Answer 1

because of the simple rule of thumb

nazis = bad people.

in popular imagination there is nothing bad you cant say about the nazis. it would be fair to devote a whole show to how terrible they were individualy and collectivly. this level of popular distaste means that they are excelent whipping posts. you can criticize them, and at the same time big up the plucky allied forces that stood against them (sarcasm)witout ever doing anything terrible to inocent civilians, oh no sir!(/sarcasm).

this sort of thing is useful because it affirms people in the easily held belief that people in non nazi reigimes arnt realy that bed, that evilness is an abberation, possibly even a mental disorder and that the world has progressed in the last 50 years. this sort of trite and meaningless reasurance is what entertainment is for, hence the infatuation.

Answer 2

I think it is still a bewildering fact that a decent bunch of people (a nation, the Germans) could have turned into a ruthless massive assassin. It's still hard to understand how this happened, so the idea that it might happen again (not necessarily with the Germans) is still chilling. People still want to fully understand this, so that they can know how and when to prevent it.
Well, that, and the fact that the Nazis are seen by far as the most obvious case of Evil in the human history. ...So, they still come in handy as The Bad Guys for the screenwriters and computer games-makers. Just thing about Indiana Jones...

I only find this continuous interest for WWII and Nazis somewhat sad for the young German generation, who had nothing to do with it, yet is still constantly reminded about the so-called sins of their fathers.

Richard: let's not mistake the fact that the border between "good" and "evil" is quite blurry, with the fact that some things are clearly worse than other things, and that some things are clearly worse than most of the other things.

Answer 3

I went through my deep interest in the Nazis (no apostrophe necessary) phase when I was still in junior high school. I've since moved on to a broader scope in History and Military History. What else can I say - there was a strong appeal for me for the 'Blood and Iron' ideology at that time. There is a regular here by the name of jasonlai73, he is always asking questions about the Nazis and WWII, you may want to ask him.

Answer 4

Hitler was a man who had a lot of power. He could have done great things if he wanted to. He did bad stuff, but it wasn't something anyone could achieve.
The interesting part is about how he managed to gather so much power and why no one could/did stop him.
The Holocaust is another interesting aspect of the war: how exactly Hitler managed to hide it from the rest of the world and the mental strength of the Jews, who fought against his atrocities.

Answer 5

As has been said ,the exercise of total power.But,why?
The Versailles Treaty after WW1 was vindictive and petty(a French trait we still see today)The Germans faced the Weimar Republic,total lack of value in the mark,a collapse of all social norms,the rise of communism-and reacted!and how!!

I am not making excuses-I am a Jewish Scot ,but we have to try to understand,What the hell happened?
THE COUNTRY THAT GAVE US GOETHE AND SCHILLER CAN DEVELOP THIS WAY

As for Funky B Funky-Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the most horrendous events of the last century-espacially Nagasaki as by then they knew the potential damage and the civilian cabinet was struggling to get the War Cabinet to agree;and Truman knew that!

Answer 6

Probably the fact it's the single most important event in recent world history that every nation was able to take lessons from and highlighted the major extremes of the human condition as well as shaping the way modern diplomacy works

Answer 7

The effect was global. 100's of millions of lives were effected by the 12-years of the Third Reich. The rise and fall of Nazism is without a doubt one of the best documented in terms of sound and visual imagery. The imagery of Nazism was calculated to attract and hold the eye and the imagination. Even today and in balck and white it is still in its own way seductive.
Hitler himself is interesting. It is one of history's great success stories-a vagabond that became ruler of Europe.

Answer 8

I believe it's because it's almost hard to believe in a century when mankind considered itself to be living in an modern age where there was value in human life a country could fall under the spell of such evil. Flag waving, propaganda, and nationalism are powerful things.

Answer 9

I believe that most people realise just what a close shave we had regarding that bunch of vicious,morally corrupt, power crazy sycophants. We are interested to keep us aware, lest it all happens again. I lived in west Germany and know that, in absolute terms, given a sequence of appropriate circumstances it could (national socialism) happen all over again.

Answer 10

Because, it's interesting!
It's like, one man's attempt to world domination, and one nation that was powerful and united enough to pretty much almost wipe out a race. genocide. cruelty.
there's also a lot to talk about in it, which makes it interesting.
And adolf hitler was a very complex man.

This is also interesting because a lot of people are interested in violence, and the story is so unrealistic that it's almost fiction.
I could tell you more about them, but you wanted to know WHY they're interesting, not WHO they were or WHAT they did.
so that more or less answers ur question.
hope i helped :)