How did Hitler get the German people to hate the Jews?

Question

Was there anti semitism in other euopean countries?

Answer 1

There was already a centuries old current of anti-Semitic prejudice. The average Jew in Germany was also more financially successful than the average German, so there was a basis for class resentment.

Here is a brief history of anti-Semitism:
http://www.humanitas-international.org/holocaust/antisem.htm

Hitler used this pre-existing hatred to scapegoat Jews as a unifying cause for his fascist regime. Point #3 on the steps to fascism "The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc."

"Fascism Anyone?" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4113.htm

Answer 2

As someone has noted, Hitler was able to plug into latent anti semitism which exists because Jews are held responsible for the death of Jesus, who was himself Jewish, of course.

Interestingly, prior to the rise of the Nazi party, the Jews in Germany were totally assimilated; they married outside their religion, and were fully integrated and happily integrated into society. Germany was considered a highly intelligent and cultured nation, and this is one reason why people could not believe what then happened to the Jews; Germans were regarded as enlightened but it didn't prevent genocide once Hitler came to power.

Christianity does teach that the Jews killed Jesus. It is not a correct account, however. The Romans were the only ones who ever practised crucifixion. Jews never did. Some argue that even though the Jews might not have physically killed Jesus, they 'persuaded' the Romans to get rid of him.

But this assertion is totally at odds with what we know of the situation back then. The Romans were in control and they loathed the Jews; there was no way that they took requests from them as to whom to crucify!

For more info about how Hitler mesmerised an entire nation, and plugged into anti semitism, there is an excellent book called THE WAVE which is based on the true story of an experiment conducted in an American high school. I would highly recommend it!

EDIT LUPITER - thanks so much for an almost text book illustraton of the idiotic type of anti Jewish sentiment that Hitler used!

The Talmud does not teach any of the things you claim. Have you ever studied it? Then you would know that contrary to what you assert, Judaism teaches that all people are equal, no matter what their religion. In fact, unlike Christianity for example, Judaism teaches that EVERYONE has a place in the afterlife, irrespective of their religious beliefs, as long as they lead ethical lives.

I suggest you don't quote from religious texts without checking your facts first.

Answer 3

The German people had a LOT of anti-Semitism before Hitler came to power ... look at Grimm's Fairy Tales for example.

There was anti-semitism all across Europe to varying degrees. There still is.

Today there's a lot of anti-Christian sentiment around the world, from Muslim nations & many Christians today do not understand the hostility. Well, the Christians are not getting it as bad as the Jews got it.

Perhaps if more Christians in the past practiced what they preached about love they neighbors, we might not be in as bad a mess as we are in today.

There's a lot of blindness when it comes to history, or long range consequences of hatred.

Answer 4

Hitler merely exploited sentiments the Church planted in Europe CENTURIES prior to 1.I.1933 (please tell me you know the significance of this date).

There was ALWAYS rabid anti-semetism in France, Germany, Spain, Poland and Russia. He merely tapped into this at the dawn of the communication age.

Remember, people didn't have the internet back then with which to check facts or compare opinions. It was exclusively books, newspapers, radio and cinema, all conveniently controlled. The lucky few traveled, but they were so high on being cool and fashionable that politics scarely interested them.

Germany was literally starving at the end of WWI. They couldn't believe that they had lost the war on the western front, the front that made the difference. All sorts of strange notions and ideas, including communism, wafted through Germany during the Weimar years (1920's) as it, too, suffered through a world depression.

In order to seize power, Hitler had to rally the Germans, a people who by nature are clever, suspicious, neophobic. He went after a community that they had hundreds of years experience hating, the Jews, who by then as a result of their urbanism and intelligence, were rather comfortable in Germany's vast middle class. Hitler exploited the fact that German gentiles had become impoverished thanks to the depression of the era. Since this, i.e., Jew baiting, was a known commodity, i.e., the hatefulness and Godlessness of the Jews, blah, blah, blah, they went for it in a big way as Hitler's syphillis progressed despite Dr. Morell's mercury treatments.

The rest is, how do you say, history. Not only was the Holocaust a lowpoint for mankind, it continues to illustrate who unevolved we continue to be, nearly a century later.

Most children know to avoid hot burners after having been burned once.

Answer 5

Hard to compete w/slave girl yet for 2
It is often found that some of your most brilliant minds can also be the most psychotic disturbed people. Add substance abuse as history says Hitler was guilty of. He was charismatic as a speaker. (the hitlery references reflect this). He was bringing the economy up and creating jobs. He appeared to be strong and then he brought forth his ideals of a pure race. Blue eyed blondes. Purity in race. Jews did not fit the mold. With increased armies he took his beliefs to the streets and searched out to remove these people. With power came the mania that escalated into prison camps, experiments and extermination. FEAR is powerful and if you disagreed you would lose your homes, businesses and perhaps your life.
He delegated authority and others became perverted in the destruction of the Jewish population. They became powerful on their own. He had fear among his ranks too. No one was safe. They went on to conquer other nations and convinced millions of young men to die for the cause. The same things that made them so powerful led to their downfall. Too much power.
Just my take here. Thanks for provoking the thoughts. This Iranian President is nuts when he says there was no Holocaust. How much more evidence do you need? Thanks.

Answer 6

Look at how the Bush administration is stirring up anti Iranian feelings in the US today. Resorting to fear tactics, appealing to the wosrt in human nature often accomplishes a lot. The zelous anti semitic Nazis were probably a minority. I doubt if most of the Germans actually felt that way but then dissent was dangerous then.

Answer 7

the quick and easy is that they blamed the Jews for the Loss in WW1. Hebrew Speaking Communist Germans and French and Russians corresponded throughout the war. When the Germans lost they felt they had been betrayed. Then after the world stock market crashes germans were starving and Jewish Business holders let German workers go to hire family members. it was all the fuel the Nazi's needed to remove what they felt was a communist plot to remove germans from germany.

Answer 8

Hitler and his Nazi Party were not the primary instigators of the hatred for Jews which later led to their extermination in Germany. There is no evidence of psychological manipulation of the German people to conform to the behavior of their leaders and comrades. They killed mainly because of widespread anti-Semitism that allowed them to regard the Jews as enemies whose extermination was a must. However, Hitler and the Nazi Party did instigate and develop the surfacing of these suppressed feelings that were directly responsible for the mass killings of millions of people.
Anti-Semitism has been an issue ever since the crucifixion of Christ. At the heart of Christianity, Jews are depicted as the killers of the son of God (Berenbaum 13). "This Christian hatred is the rage that is inspired by the one unforgivable crime in their eyes: the Jews had killed Christ. In the German peoples eyes, that alone justified whatever was done to the Jews" (13).
Both ironically and quite unfortunately, the beliefs regarding the Jews that plagued Nazi Germany, could only have been based on what the people had heard through the conversation's of society. There is no possibility that these feelings were derived from observation or interaction with the Jews. The Jewish people were isolated from Christians both physically and socially. Most were segregated to live in ghettos and lead lives with restricted activities due to the oppressive laws and customs of Christians. According to Daniel J. Goldhagen, author of Hitler's Willing Executioners, "the psychological and theological need impelling Christians to differentiate themselves from the bearers of the religion from which their own had broken off, was born anew with each generation, because as long as Jews rejected the revelation of Jesus, they unwittingly challenged the Christians certitude in that revelation" (49). The underlying cultural model of the Jew was composed of three beliefs: that the Jews were different from Germans, they were the binary opposite of Germans, and were corrosive to the German way of life (55). Several central features would come to shape the history of twentieth century Germany according to Goldhagen:

1. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, anti-Semitism was
ubiquitous in Germany. "It was common sense."

2. The preoccupation with Jews had an obsessive quality.

3. Jews came to be identified with and symbolic of anything and
everything which was deemed awry in German society.

4. The central image of the Jews held them to be malevolent ,
powerful, a principal, if not the principal, source of the ills that
beset Germany, and therefore dangerous to the welfare of the
Germans. This was different from the medieval Christian view,
which deemed the Jews to be evil and the source of great harm,
but in which the Jews always remained somewhat peripheral.
Modern German anti-Semites, unlike their medieval forebears,
could say that there would be no peace on earth until the Jews
were destroyed.

5. This cultural model in the second half of the nineteenth century
coalesced around the concept of "race."

6. This brand of anti-Semitism unusually violent in its imagery,
and it tended towards violence.

7. Its logic was to promote the "elimination" of Jews by whatever
means necessary and possible, given the prevailing ethical
constraints. (77)

These accounts demonstrate the fact that Nazi anti-Semitism had taken shape long before Hitler and the Nazis came to power. These views and beliefs were deeply embedded in the German culture as the foundation for which they lived their daily lives. These beliefs along with Hitler's racial attitude toward the Jews were shared by the German people and taught to all German children in school. Hitler and his Nazi Party did not brainwash or force the German people to kill. The hate was already deeply embedded. When Hitler came to power, the German people had a man to lead them openly in their hateful pursuit of the Jews. Hitler brought these feelings to the surface and enabled the German people to act on their hate in a manner that they believed was true and just.

Answer 9

"Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause: The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc." This is third on the list of the 14 points of fascism.

Answer 10

Using class envy.
Germany was in the middle of depression and the Jews had the money.
Namely because Jews were not allow to own farms so they educated themselves and work hard.
After working hard for their money.
Hitler convince Germans the Jews stole their money.

Sound familiar?