Could the german population have stopped the nazi's?

Question

I mean not every person in germany was a nazi. So couldn't the remaining people have teamed together to stop the Nazi's. On the other hand, the Nazis were an over powering force, so there really was no way to stop the Nazi.

Answer 1

did you just answer ur own question?
any way, It took a collaboration of many countries to stop the nazis.

Answer 2

It's a lot more complicated than that. Not every German was a Nazi, that's true. If you want to know why such an extremist group came to power, you have to go back to WWI. When Germany lost that war, the treaty they were forced to sign was rough. It took a lot from them. I'm not going to go into all of that here, just suffice it to say that the Germans are a very strong people that were humiliated by the treaty. When Hitler started his rise to power, it all sounded really good to the Germans. He was telling them that they could be a strong people again, that they be proud again. They could reclaim their heritage. That's why it happened in a nutshell. They just wanted to be able to hold their heads up again. Hitler was a very powerful speaker, and he made it all seem right. So, I don;t think the Nazis could have been stopped, because they needed to be ables to have some sovereignty in their own country. This answer only touches on the most basic part of it. I would encourage you to read a little about it. It's very fascinating!

Answer 3

Maybe, but you've got to remember that the Nazi party basically came to power promising to sort out the massive economic mess that Germany was and how they did it was pretty subtle. We only hear about the major stuff, but by the time anyone really realised what was going on, they had spies in every town and had basically totally taken over.

The other thing is, an awful lot of what really happened was never mentioned until after the war. Not sure most people would have supported that, although there is the argument of why they didn't try to stop the persecution of the Jews etc. It's one of those things which historians will argue over for years to come.

Answer 4

The Nazis never had more than a minority of the votes in any elections. Most Germans were supporters of the Socialists, the Catholic Center Party, or of the Communists.

These groups tried to either knife each other and not unite against the Nazis, or make unprincipled agreements to make complete mergers of their forces and ignore their very real differences.

If they had followed a THIRD way, unite MILITARILY and work together but NOT merge, to fight the Nazis, they would have succeeded.

In addition, all of the political parties had militias, which they allowed the Nazi government to disarm. Had they kept their arms, they could have defeated the Nazis even AFTER Hitler became Chancellor.

The only political figure who warned of the coming disaster and whose predictions ALL came true was the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Trotsky, one of the original colleagues of Soviet founding father Lenin, was pushed out of power in the USSR by the mass murderer Stalin.

Trotsky tried, in exile, to warn leftists of the disaster that Stalin was leading them into, and to warn the whole world of the danger of Hitler. He was murdered in Mexico in 1940 by Stalinist agent Ramon Mercader, a Spaniard who apparently got some assistance in his earlier travels from the American FBI.

His book "The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany" and his pamphlet "Fascism: What it is and how to fight it" are probably the greatest contributions to political writing of the 20th century.

Trotsky also did penetrating analysis of Mussolini's cowardly attack on Africa, on China, on the fall of France, and on how a democratic communist transformation (as opposed to Stalinist) could be made in Britain and the USA.

If Trotsky's advice had been followed, Hitler would have been stopped cold long before he took power.

Answer 5

Yes, they could have. Why they didn't has been much discussed and argued with many theories developed. One of the more interesting theories is that they suffered mass hysteria ... similar to mob mentality during riots or The Salem Witch Trials. Some theorists have gone as far as trying to prove that the masses were intentionally or accidentally drugged with ergot ... the mold that LSD is is derived from.

In any event, it is with great shame that Germans still carry for allowing the Nazis to do what they did. Not so much the younger people who had nothing to do with it.

It is a crime in Germany to in anyway glorify Germany's Nazi past or deny The Holocaust.

Answer 6

Hitler was clever. Although he was not elected with a majority for his party, he made the country ungovernable by using his followers to promote violence and civil unrest.
He claimed he could stop this if he was made Chancellor by the President Hindenburg.
Hindenburg was a feeble old man and eventually gave into Hitler's request.
Once in power Hitler started to eliminate his political opponent with the support of some prominent industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church..
He started with the Communists and had them imprisoned or shot.
Then he went onto the Social Democrats followed by the homosexuals, jews and his own followers in the SA.
At each stage few people protested because they never imagined that they would be next.
The whole process was enforced by a very widespread secret police service which ensured that most people joined in with the flag worship and adulation of the leader.

Answer 7

In the early stages yes (early 1930s) the government could have stepped in if they had some balls and of course the people, but when the NAzis were vulnerable, they didnt pose a threat to anybody (even though Hitler had already detailed his plans in Mien Kampf) but by the time they controlled the government and had the Gestapo patroling the streets and opposition would have been met with imprisoment or death.

Answer 8

Hitler was a very persuasive speaker. His actions at first were making the country's economy a lot better, after the gigantic loss of the first World War (people were carrying around wheelbarrels of currency because it was so worthless before) so they didn't think he was that much of a bad guy. He started slowly, so the changes were gradual, taking one small right away from the Jews at a time. I guess the Germans didn't realize what was going on until it was too late, and then they couldn't and wouldn't stop him, or else they'd get sent away along with the Jews... and then their families would get slain too for having a traitor in the family...

Answer 9

Are you kidding? Of course there could have been a revolt, but most people believed that their nation was doing great things and those that didn't didn't want to speak out because they'd be hung or sent to the camps.
There was a small teenager group called the White Rose that was a rebellion againt the nazis... they were hung before they could do much though.
There was another resistance I forget the name of, but they tried to assasinate Hitler through Operation Valkyrie... They're actually filming a movie about it currently.

Answer 10

No.Even though Hitlers party did only get around 30% of the votes, keep in mind that these 30% were mostly composed of former or active soldiers, young people and people that wanted a change.So, even though he didn't have the support of the majority right away, his followers formed a very strong group.
Then, after the victory over France in 1940, Hitler had the support of over 90% of all germans.

Answer 11

Could have.
Didn't want to.

Let's get two things straight here-
1. Germany had been humiliated in World War I, and after twelve years of incompetent governments, was looking for someone to restore power and pride.
2. Hitler and the Nazis did not invent anti-Semitism. It had been part of the history of middle Europe for hundreds of years. One of the most outspoken and vicious Jew-haters in history was Martin Luther. In fact, one of the prominent Nazis on trial at Nuremburg stated, "If you are going to put me on trial, you should have Martin Luther right up here next to me!"

Also: the book Luis G mentions (Hitler's Willing Executioners) was written by Daniel Goldhagen.