Germany was a victim of Nazism, not a culprit.

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What really gets on my nerves is that people hate Germany for its nazi regime. Yet it was really just as much a victim of the nazis as the Jews. It was run into the ground by lies, fanaticism, terror, and hatred that the nazis created. Can anyone still hate Germany in general for what happened?

who hates germany?

Liquidus Zeromus

What really gets on my nerves is that people hate Germany for its nazi regime. Yet it was really just as much a victim of the nazis as the Jews. It was run into the ground by lies, fanaticism, terror, and hatred that the nazis created. Can anyone still hate Germany in general for what happened?

I don't hate Germany, but I think those who lived through those times must stand up and be counted.

Reply 3

LukeWz

10

Hitler did alot of good to Germany, and for that people generally supported Hitler.

Reply 4

Mr_K_Dilkington

14

Liquidus Zeromus

What really gets on my nerves is that people hate Germany for its nazi regime. Yet it was really just as much a victim of the nazis as the Jews. It was run into the ground by lies, fanaticism, terror, and hatred that the nazis created. Can anyone still hate Germany in general for what happened?

Why the outrage? No intelligent human being blames an imaginary thing like 'Germany' or 'Germans' for the Nazis. They blame the individuals involved in commiting crimes under the Nazi regime.

Reply 5

common_person

10

Not many people do. SOme of the older generation who actually suffered for them might still bear a grudge, and I don't think anyone's going to forget what happened in Germany, but most people these days don't hold a grudge against Germany in general. It was just unfortunate circumstances that meant such people could come to power there instead of anywhere else. Most people accept that Germany is no more evil than anywhere else.

Reply 6

g_star_raw_1989

15

Depends how you look at it..

http://books.google.com/books?id=1C8DmR7MzMEC&dq=Daniel+Jonah+Goldhagen&source=an&hl=en&ei=31TnSaDTHIWw-QbMq72_BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&pgis=1

This groundbreaking international bestseller lays to rest many myths about the Holocaust: that Germans were ignorant of the mass destruction of Jews, that the killers were all SS men, and that those who slaughtered Jews did so reluctantly. Hitler's Willing Executioners provides conclusive evidence that the extermination of European Jewry engaged the energies and enthusiasm of tens of thousands of ordinary Germans. Goldhagen reconstructs the climate of "eliminationist anti-Semitism" that made Hitler's pursuit of his genocidal goals possible and the radical persecution of the Jews during the 1930s popular. Drawing on a wealth of unused archival materials, principally the testimony of the killers themselves, Goldhagen takes us into the killing fields where Germans voluntarily hunted Jews like animals, tortured them wantonly, and then posed cheerfully for snapshots with their victims. From mobile killing units, to the camps, to the death marches, Goldhagen shows how ordinary Germans, nurtured in a society where Jews were seen as unalterable evil and dangerous, willingly followed their beliefs to their logical conclusion. "Hitler's Willing Executioner's is an original, indeed brilliant contribution to the...literature on the Holocaust."--New York Review of Books "The most important book ever published about the Holocaust...Eloquently written, meticulously documented, impassioned...A model of moral and scholarly integrity."--Philadelphia Inquirer

Reply 7

C_B_C

15

The Nazi government was democratically elected in the first place, don't forget.
The majority of the voting German population agreed with it to begin with.

Reply 8

onthejubileeline

Very few rational people hate Germany for falling prey to the Nazis. The sad truth is that extreme politics thrive in times of uncertainty, and Germany had been through major economic crisis, not to mention national humiliation. Once the Nazis were in, opposition was weak, divided and ineffective, there were a few individuals and groups that fought back against it, but few. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at the time, who was going to stand against them?

Reply 9

g_star_raw_1989

15

C_B_C

The Nazi government was democratically elected in the first place, don't forget.
The majority of the voting German population agreed with it to begin with.

The Nazi vote peaked at 37% and actually dropped before Hitler came to power, its hardly a majority.

Reply 10

Liquidus Zeromus

OP

17

Jay Riall

Why the outrage? No intelligent human being blames an imaginary thing like 'Germany' or 'Germans' for the Nazis. They blame the individuals involved in commiting crimes under the Nazi regime.

Some people still think that Germans in general were to blame for the atrocities that occurred. The 37% + who voted NSDAP whilst they still had a free vote could be held to account, but how much of them actually had racist views or wanted violence is questionable. If people saw that the nazis were as violent or racist as they really were, the vote might have been alot less. And even at the peak of nazi popularity, Hitler did not become chancellor. Individuals really are more to blame, not the German people. They had their freedoms taken away by the nazis and past regimes, and dissent became harder and more costly all the way =/

Reply 11

Liquidus Zeromus

OP

17

C_B_C

The Nazi government was democratically elected in the first place, don't forget.
The majority of the voting German population agreed with it to begin with.

37%?

Reply 12

Unrepentant

onthejubileeline

Very few rational people hate Germany for falling prey to the Nazis. The sad truth is that extreme politics thrive in times of uncertainty, and Germany had been through major economic crisis, not to mention national humiliation. Once the Nazis were in, opposition was weak, divided and ineffective, there were a few individuals and groups that fought back against it, but few. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at the time, who was going to stand against them?

+ 1
Completely agree with what you wrote.

There were examples of reistance espeically in the latter stages of the Regime through Humour, etc. As one Historian said, it was resistance without the people; silent resistance.

Also though perhaps the German people are to a lesser extent to blame for the atrocities, they cannot be discounted because they essentially stood by the regime and let the horrors occur.

But yeah, its easy to look back with hindsight and think what could have been done...

Reply 13

whitepearlbaby

18

LukeWz

Hitler did alot of good to Germany, and for that people generally supported Hitler.

Yeah, problem is he baited them with jobs and food and generally a good life but then he made up all that crazy ****.

Reply 14

cactussed

15

Wholeheartedly agree. I love Germany, although the food isn't all that. You can have too many sausages and beer. :o:

They voted the National Socialist party into government because the people were desperate and starving. It took a whole wheelbarrow of cash for a loaf of bread. The promises of making Germany great again and sorting out all its economic problems would have seemed very attractive to many people. It's just that, once they were in power, they used their influence to brainwash the German people into thinking the same way, which is why nobody objected to the appalling treatment of minorities and non-Aryans; it was all for the greater good of a new powerful Germany.

The sad thing is that we don't seem to have learned, the BNP are getting loads of support by claiming to be a moderate party, just like the Nazis did. Despite what they say about promoting peaceful tolerance of other people, once they get into government, it will be anything but.

Reply 15

Mr_K_Dilkington

14

cactussed

They voted the National Socialist party into government because the people were desperate and starving. It took a whole wheelbarrow of cash for a loaf of bread. The promises of making Germany great again and sorting out all its economic problems would have seemed very attractive to many people.

Yeah, this is a good point. If you want to blame the German people, then blame also has to be ascribed to the people who put them in a position where Hitler actually looked like a good option to them. That finger is pointed squarely at us, France and the US amongst others for the harsh terms of the treaty of Versaille and the imperialistic retribution imposed on the German nation.

Reply 16

davireland

13

Interesting topic, this question has been at the centre of the debate over the Third Reich since the end of the war.

I believe that any number of western democracies could have fallen victim to the guise of national socialism in the early 20th century, there was little to seperate the rate of industrialisation and social distribution in Germany, Britain, France or the Netherlands. The things that I think made Germany particularly susceptible was the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the attitudes of the ruling Junker class, I think both of these things helped to encourage nazism in Germany. It was these two things which caused the phenomenon to rise in Germany and it was the absence of these two factors which caused it to not take hold elsewhere e.g. in Britain.

Reply 17

wig

I think it would be more accurate to say that Germany was a victim of the treaty of versailes which led to Nazism.

Reply 18

Gaishan

9

Germans are generally very moral and decent people, perhaps significantly because of the lessons of the Nazi period - noone doubts the deep regret and sorrow over the Nazi period that is felt in Germany.

Compare their reflection on the holocaust to countries like Turkey and Japan and even, closer to home, Austria.

Reply 19

Gremlins

11

davireland

Interesting topic, this question has been at the centre of the debate over the Third Reich since the end of the war.

I believe that any number of western democracies could have fallen victim to the guise of national socialism in the early 20th century, there was little to seperate the rate of industrialisation and social distribution in Germany, Britain, France or the Netherlands. The things that I think made Germany particularly susceptible was the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the attitudes of the ruling Junker class, I think both of these things helped to encourage nazism in Germany. It was these two things which caused the phenomenon to rise in Germany and it was the absence of these two factors which caused it to not take hold elsewhere e.g. in Britain.

I think the bit I've bolded is the one that's the main point. If you look at the countries that did slide into extremely conservative or fascist dictatorships between the war, it was the ones where full-blown democracy was a relatively recent phenomenon and where aristocratic or other highly conservative groups wielded alot of power: Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Romania... Britain and France didn't go Fascist because in both liberal democracy was established as the way things were done, and there were no large and powerful lsegments of society opposed to it. I mean, look at the French Third Republic: it was an absolute mess politically (my personal favourite is Camille Chautemps, whose fist term as Prime Minister lasted from 21 February 1930 to the 2 March 1930), far worse than Weimar Germany and economically almost as badly off, but France had no aristocracy or large anti-democratic bourgeoisie, and an established (albeit horribly broken) democratic process that people did believe in.

Germany was a victim of Nazism, not a culprit.

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