Germany and the Nazi Movement - Assignment Example

For the longest time it seemed that historians found the perfect explanation to why Germany plunged into the Nazi Movement and produced horrors of the WWII and the Holocaust. The consensus was that Hitler and National Socialists came into power in Germany as a result of WWI defeat, shameful Versailles Treaty of 1918 and the Depression that hit Germany hard. Only recently, a new approach to this issue offered different insight. Peter Fritzsche in his book “Germans Into Nazis” champions this new view and claims that the reasons for the rise of Nazism in Germany are somewhat deeper and older in age. In the book Fritzsche writes: “As Hitler himself reported, the declaration of war produced a sense of Germanness that filled him with ecstasy. … In his eyes the summer of 1914 was truly historic because it has created a new historical subject in world history—the German Volk—one unencumbered by the past history and past inequities and finally unified to claim its imperial destiny.” (Fritzsche, 1999). With this quote Fritzsche puts the real beginning of National Socialism movement back to 1914 when Germany was just entering the WWI. That time was the time of national pride, unification of German people in support of the war effort and , also, the time of the rising discontent with the ruling elite and the monarchy. On this platform, Hitler and his supporters were able to develop a movement that cut across the usual class divide in German society and become, de facto, the first “Volkspartei” in German history ever. As Nazis stood for social inclusivity, economic growth and ethnic nationalism, common Germans felt that they are all equal and that they all have one common goal - the rise of German power then and in the future. The Nazi movement answered the popular demand for prosperity, technological advance and the increased role of the country in international regard. Fritzsche claims that Nazi support in Germany was not that deep, but what it was , it was broad as commoners of all classes saw Nazis as more democratic than Weimar Republic, more nationalist than the late monarchy and more activist than other traditional activist organizations. In regard to ever lingering issue of anti-Semitism in Germany and the Holocaust, Fritzsche supports the mainstream historians who claim that the feeling did not significantly aided the rise of Nazis. However, Fritzsche also contends that Nazis did not grow because of anti-Semitism but the ideology certainly helped their cause. Overall, the book “Germans Into Nazis” is a well written account of what happened in Germany in those dark times. Fritzsche offers broad knowledge of contemporary scholars but he, also, offers a new point of view. He pinpoints the break of WWI as the time when the National Socialism agenda was ignited. Hitler and Nazis developed the agenda onwards on that feeling of unified German Volk. To illustrate the importance of the August of 1914, Fritzsche gives a significant amount of space to images of common citizens, women especially, supporting war, grieving loss of family members and standing in long lines waiting for food in the face of economic crisis. Those images serve as his best argument of populism and how it helped Hitler and Nazis in their political claim. In his book “Hitler’s Empire” Mark Mazower analyzes the origins and nature of Nazi imperialism in Europe. Nazi Germany was certainly in its core an imperialistic state that set out to conquer most of Europe and widen the so called “Lebensraum” for German people. However, in a paradox, Mazower claims over ad over in his book that German Empire was utterly unplanned, improvised and, often times, irrational. In that regard, Mazower uses frequently words like “absurdity”, “craziness” or “fantasy”. For him the Lebensraum was a slogan, not a policy. He shows clearly how Nazis ruled and in the end, the powerful idea of a Thousand Year Reich seems so distant and unreal. For Hitler personally, race and war dominated everything. This is so clear and documented by, not only Mazower but by every other historian. In issues of race and war Germay was for the most part successful. The real problems were what to do with the newly acquired areas. After Poland was annexed in 1939, Germans did not know what to do with it. Mazower points out that the Reich could germa ize certain parts of Poland , but not the whole country. There simply was not enough Germans to do so. Consequently, to create some sort of balance, Nazis were expelling and, also, murdering Poles. However, this could not be done fast enough and only created labor shortage and drove Poles into resistance. Similar situation was with the western Europe, especially France and the low countries. The special place in the book is given to Russia. When Hitler decided to attack it, he knew it had to be done fast. His armies were not ready for the long campaign and German economy simply could not support it. With initial successes, Germans captured scores of Russian soldiers who they could not feed so they were dying in huge numbers, resulting in more loss to the labor force and in the growth of anti-German sentiment. Mazower illustrates very vividly how German authorities faced with unsolvable problems acted in only way they knew how. Insecure as he was, Hitler carefully picked people to run chunks of Europe, appointing his cronies to every important post. As a result, while these cronies were very good in implementing racial policies, they were, at the same time, very inefficient, corrupt and, above all, brutal. Rare voices of discord like the one coming from the armaments inspector in Ukraine who asked Hitler who would produce economic assets if they shoot all the Jews, let the prisoners die of hunger and starve to death everybody else, usually fell on deaf ears. Mazower’s book is more tha anything a paradoxical account of an empire that was supposed to last millenia and crumbled within years. Throughout the WWII, Hitler insisted on racial policies and war efforts before anything practical could be done with the vast new area. While German blitzkrieg blitzed through Europe, the military victorties wwere not followed by rational and sustainable civil government. Hitler simply would not budge, even when pressured by the SS. The final result was a chaos, brutality and the images of horrors done by Germans throughout Europe and, especially in the East. The author cleverly sums up the issue at hand by saying : "Germany could have racial purity or imperial domination, but it could not have both." Read More