How did the common people react to Nazism?
Many saw the world through Nazi eyes, and spoke their mind in Nami language. They felt hatred and anger surge inside them when they saw someone who looked like a jew. They marked the houses of Jews and reported suspicious neighbours. They genuinely believed Nazism would bring prosperity and improve general well-being.
But not every German was a Nazi. Many organised active resistance Nazism, braving police repression and death. The large majority of Germans, however, were passive onlookers and apathetic witnesses. They were too scared to act, to differ, to protest. They preferred to look away. Pastor Niemoeller, a resistance fighter, observed an absence of protest, an uncanny silence, amongst ordinary Germans in the face of brutal and organised crimes committed against people in the Nazi empire. He wrote movingly about this silence:
‘First they came for the Communists,
Well, I was not a Communist-
So I said nothing.
Then they came for the Social Democrats,
Well, I was not a Social Democrat
So I did nothing,
Then they came for the trade unionists,
But I was not a trade unionist.
And then they came for the Jews,
But I was not a jew-so I did little.
Then when they came for me,
There was no one left who could stand up for me;
Activity
Why does Ema Kranz say, ‘I could only say for myself? How do you view her opinion?
Box 1
Was the lack of concern for Nazi victims only because of the Terror? No, says Lawrence Rees who interviewed people from diverse backgrounds for his recent documentary, ‘The Nazis: A Warning from History’. Erna Kranz, an ordinary German teenager in the 1930s and a grandmother now, said to Rees: ‘1930s offered a glimmer of hope, not just for the unemployed but for everybody for we all felt downtrodden. From my own experience I could say salaries increased and Germany seemed to have regained its sense of purpose. I could only say for myself, I thought it was a good time. I liked it.’What Jews felt in Nazi Germany is a different story altogether. Charlotte Beradt secretly recorded people’s dreams in her diary and later published them in a highly disconcerting book called the Third Rach of Drams. She describes how Jews themselves began believing in the Nazi stereotypes about them. They dreamt of their hooked noses, black hair and eyes, Jewish looks and body movements. The stereotypical images publicised in the Nazi press haunted the Jews. They troubled them even in their dreams. Jews died many deaths even before they reached the gas chamber.
Language: English
Science, MCQs