Nazi Germany
How propaganda blinded the German people
How it all Started
In September 1919 a man named Adolf Hitler joined the German Workers Party which was a political party in Germany at the time. By January 1933 Hitler was chancoler of Germany and later that year in March the first concentration camp was put in place at Dachau. Adolf Hitler later took absolute control of the government. At this point in time Germany was in a real tough spot. Over 4 million people were unemployed. Ever since WW1 Germany's economy was greatly crippled due to the destruction brought upon their country and they also had to pay for damages to other countries involved in the war. Thus the socialist message that the Nazi party presented was very enticing to the German people.
German Perspective
It wasn't hard to spoon-feed the German populous comforting lies. Things were pretty bleak at the time. The loss of WW1 had torn the country apart. Hitler provided employment through various government programs which helped tremendously with Germany's unemployment. Another focus Hitler had was rehabilitating the lesser people of society, such as the Jews and the disabled. These people were not being disposed of they we're being re-purposed to contribute more to the community. Although the fact that 7 million people were taken out of the workforce did help with the unemployment even further. Hitler also adopted this attitude as if the whole world was against Germany, much like the attitude that Russia has adopted several times through history. When Germany started expanding its borders its disposition was that they were taking back what was rightfully theirs. But this is only one side of the coin.
Allied Perspective
The rest of the world had a different view on Germany and their actions. Hitler was viewed as this tyrannical, authoritative leader that took what he wanted. He was a mad dog that was let off of the leash at the time. Germany retaking areas that they once owned as them taking over poor defenseless countries that neither wanted to be a part of them nor had the means to defend themselves. America portrayed the European conflict as something that we should not get involved in due to the fact that it didn't directly involve us in any way.
Media Bias Explained.
The actions that took place during the reign of Hitler and his Nazi regime were perfectly planned and executed. Reading this you probably thought "perfectly" was a poor choice of words when we're talking about the genocide of 7 million people. To clarify I don't mean that what Hitler did was right (obviously) but he accomplished most of what he wanted without a hitch. Think about it, Germany was in a very turbulent time during the 1930s. Their nation was destroyed by war and the Economy was in the toilet at the time. They had nobody to blame all this tragedy on. Hitler cleverly blamed the Jews and the "invalids" and gave the German people someone to unite against. This freed up a lot of space in the workforce due to the fact that many Jews had small businesses and due to the fact that if you remove millions of people from the general population there are going to be jobs open. The Nazi party also controlled all information going out to the general public, which meant that nobody knew of the killing of the part of the population that the Nazi party deemed unacceptable. These heinous actions were not uncovered until the allies liberated the concentration camps when they invaded Germany and marched on to Berlin. The German people were in such denial that their beloved leader who revitalized their country would do such things, and they only accepted the fact that he did perpetrate these actions of unparalleled and inconceivable vileness when they saw the dead bodies with their own eyes.
Criticism #1: Historical
In the 1930s-40s racism such as what the Nazis demostrated was quite common. Immigrants in the United States had a very hard time due to the prejudice that people felt towards them. Americans of Japanese descent were put into interment camps so that we knew they couldn't spy for their homeland. The blaming of the Jews for all of the problems Germany incurred due to the Treaty of Versailles is almost no different to how many Americans blame Mexican immigrants for stealing our jobs. The only difference is that the German government encouraged the hating of Jews and acted upon their own hatred.
Criticism #2: Cultural
The culture before WW2 was much different all over the world. The US had adopted this philosophy of isolationism. Basically we thought that we should not get involved in any foreign conflicts due to what happened during WW1. Also all around the world people felt this sense of National pride for their country which sort of pinned all of us against ourselves. Everyone was so proud of their country they almost naturally felt this animosity towards every country that even remotely did something disrespectful to theirs. This is why Germany went out and started being aggressive. Lastly is the non-violent tendency of the large European countries. The allies basically let Germany do what they wanted due to the fact that they didn't want to engage in another huge conflict. Germany had other plans.
WW2 From the Germans Point of View HD