How can one person like Adolf Hitler, create a War, get so much support, and be able to kill millions?

Answer 1

Germany was demoralized after WWI. The people were living in poverty and felt very dejected. Hitler came along and did two things human beings love. He said, 1) It's not your fault and 2) There is hope.

He provided jobs for people so they were able to feed their families and those who moved up the ranks to the worst positions actually started running errands or doing other things that seemed pretty harmless.

However, if they tried to get out, they were punished. And if they stayed, the rewards were massive - a lot of money, power and respect.

The Jews also started to lose their rights very slowly. When things happen slowly, often people don't realize how bad it is until it's too late.

Even people living near the concentration camps somehow were able to tell themselves the horrible noises and smells were something else.

Jews became the scapegoat and in films they were shown as rats or cockroaches to dehumanize them. Lies were told about the Jews - how they were responsible for all the problems in Germany - so it was easy for people to turn a blind eye.

Answer 2

Many, many books have been written examining that very question. Talk about working a crowd, what Hitler did was amazing. If you can get past the inherent evil, Hitler was a very complex man. It's very hard to grasp that a whole country of supposedly civilized people were determined not to see the truth, even after the Nazis stopped hiding it. It sounds like you may be interested in psychology. If so, Hitler and Nazi Germany are excellent subjects to study, even in your spare time.

Answer 3

That is a very meaty question, like "why did Rome fall", there is no one answer.

Germany was a broken nation; financially, militarily, emotionally. They were in an economic depression worse than ours. They had the stigma of losing WW1 and being saddled with all those war debts. They had no real military and lost sizeable amounts of land they had prior to 1918. They had gone from the strongest nation on earth to a third-rate power.

Hitler played on all of this. He found early favor with German veterans stuck in poverty. He himself was a decorated WW1 vet who could find a job, so he could relate. His rhetoric was amazing, it looks old-fashioned to us but he might very well have been the greatest public speaker of all time. (A German born ex-girlfriend of mine is convinced he used voo-doo like spells.) And yes, he played an old card in Europe, Anti-Semitism. The Jews had been blamed for everything for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Hitler told Germans what they most wanted to hear. Germany was the greatest nation on earth and as German, they were the greatest people. They would and should have won WW1 but they were betrayed. Stroking the ego of someone with a badly bruised ego can be a very powerfully weapon. Plus the world was a very different place then. For example, in some of his speeches before taking power, he openly decried Germany's many political parties as a weakness. He held fast to the notion that there should only be one political party, his party. That kind of stuff wouldn't fly today.

The Nazis did get votes, but never more than about 30% in any election. Hitler himself was put into power by a group of leading German businessmen, industrialists that thought he could be controlled and that his rhetoric could be useful. To his credit, Hitler saw the game that was being played and went right along with everything, until he was in office.

And of course, once he was in office and consolidated his power, the rest, (WW2, the Holocaust, etc.), happened as his own personal whims. It is wrong to think that he ever had 100% support in Germany, he did. Yes, some were true believers and others supported him over their worries because he promised a strong Germany. But others despaired over the fate of their country, giving rise to the morbid joke, told quietly in the Fatherland. "Why do Germans say 'Heil Hitler' when they greet each other? Because they no longer know what a 'Good Day' is". Propaganda did work well, bullets in the back of the head worked even better.

Aside from Joseph Stalin, no one compares to Hitler. Guys like Saddam Hussein and the current president of Iran, they are lightweights, they'll end up serving Hitler drinks in hell.

Answer 4

Apathy. The other countries of the world didn't want to get involved even though they were hearing rumors of mass murders. There have to be enough people to raise their voices to make a change and unfortunately history repeats itself. Look at Bosnia and Rwanda where thousands died before anyone got involved. Look at the Sudan where even though there has been some publicity nothing is happening to stop it. Unless it's an oil rich country it seems that other countries don't want to spend the money or send the manpower to stop the atrocities.

Answer 5

He came along at a time when Germany was reeling from the effects of the Depression as well as the inability of the Weimar Republic to govern the nation, which bore almost the entire financial burden of World War I.

And sorry, but anyone comparing this to Fox News and/or Limbaugh is an idiot.

Answer 6

There were A LOT of factors that contributed to Adolf Hitler coming to power, his subsequent invasion of Poland that started World War II and his genocidal plan to kill those who weren't part of his master race. I've included a link below.

Answer 7

Hermann Goering, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister said; “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger”.

Some today are calling the pacifists unpatriotic. Hmmm sounds like ol' Herr Goering might have been right.

Answer 8

Brainwashing millions to believe that Jews are evil, much like the Mid East is doing today.

Answer 9

He had a very insecure population to work with. He had a huge echo chamber in the media who basically parroted his vitriole and hatred toward the liberals, the Jews, the socialists, the communists, the gays and anyone who thought differently than the Nazi right wingers. He appealed to the Germans fears and greed. Does this in any way sound familiar to you? It sounds much like the right wing in this country and those on Fox along with Rush Limbaugh.

Answer 10

when a country is in a depression, it is very easy for someone with charisma, like Adolf Hitler, to rally people.