NAZISM AND THE GERMAN PEOPLE: book describes the policies of the Nazis and how they operated

policies of the Nazis and how they operated within

A HISTORIOGRAPHY the structure of the state. He believes that Nazi policies did not truly
grow out of their ideology, but were the outcome of the structure and
Kevin Korst conditions of government in Germany. Broszat specifically focuses on
a Hitler that, while being the center reference point for the entire
organization, tended to operate on the periphery of actual government
On April 30th 1945, Adolf Hitler took his sidearm, pointed it at decisions. In reference to ordinary Germans, Broszat does not disclose
his head and fired a single shot, killing himself instantaneously. With much but states,
this, the German Fuhrer quite unceremoniously ended a war that had Even the excessive Fuhrer cult in Nazi Germany, that
been raging for six bloody years. Around Hitlers body, his beloved persuasive belief in the leader which had a meaning and real
capitol lay in ruins while the reign of his thousand-year Reich was importance far beyond determining ideology, for the integration and
abruptly cut short. Ever since the extraordinary events of April 1945 mobilization of the German people in the Nazi era, cannot be
unfolded, historians have grappled with the Nazis and their horrific understood simply in terms of personality, as a result of the superior
chapter in history. Numerous questions have been raised regarding strength and leadership of Adolf Hitler.1
the circumstances of their rise to power and dealings while in control. Even with Hitlers rise to power, the success in overthrowing
Even more important, however, is the inquiry into the attitudes and the Weimar Republic and in establishing the Hitler regime was
actions of the common German citizen during this time. How was it primarily due to the collaboration between the conservative opposition
that so many people seemingly supported a political organization to democracy and the national Socialist mass movement.2 In other
obsessed with racial purification and bent on world domination? words, the German people who opposed democracy and wanted a
What exactly was their view of Nazism and their racial policies during restoration of conservative and authoritarian principles helped put
the height of its power? Such complicated questions require equally Hitler in power and fostered the growth of his cult-like image. While
complicated answers, leaving historians the great task of searching for there were struggles in the beginning as to how the party would be
a response through the remnants of Nazism. run within the German government and who would exert their new
The years following the end of the Second World War saw power, by 1938 Hitler filled this void when he ceased to be the party
many historians take a sympathetic view toward the general leader and became the Fuhrer.3
population of Nazi Germany. It was believed that they were victims Martin Broszat sees the Nazis as an organization that needed
of a great illusion, one ruled by terror in which numerous atrocities popular support to establish its power in Germany. This was not a
were allowed to occur. The issue of German denial helped to revolution in the usual sense of the word, but merely an exchange of
encourage this type of thinking until historians began to take a closer authority. Once the Nazis grasped this authority, however, the
look at the situation, seeking better answers. From the creation of German people, fueled by Hitler himself, the Nazi propaganda
this new partition came two primary schools of thought. The machine and their own social expectations, allowed Hitler to become
functionalist and the intentionalist groups disagree about the core the object of a cult of personality that we see today. His influence
explanations for the Holocaust. The functionalists believe that this continued to grow with the successful implementation of Nazi foreign
tragic event came out of the chaos of the Nazi bureaucracy and the policy and only subsided after 1941 with the tide of the war turning
increasing desperation of their circumstances. On the other side, the against Germany. Overall, Broszat suggests that Hitlers special
intentionalists see the Holocaust as a preplanned event that came to authority as Fuhrer was not founded like [Joseph] Stalins on the
fruition because of a mad mans twisted dream. Each of these groups control of the central organizational apparatus of the Party and state,
offers a different and unique perspective on the Holocaust, giving but in the last resort of charismatic appeal, and the ability this gave to
historians several different avenues of thought from which to pursue. integrate the nation as a whole.4 Inevitably, this was just one part of
In 1969, historian Martin Broszat released his work, The Hitler a larger story brought to life with the consent of many Germans.
State: The foundation and development of the internal structure of the Third
Reich, which tended to take a functionalist view of Nazism. Broszats 1 Martin Broszat, The Hitler State: The Foundation and Development of

the Internal Structure of the Third Reich (New York: Longman, 1981), xiii.
2 Ibid., 346.
Kevin Korst is a graduate student in History from Plainfield, Illinois. He wrote this 3 Ibid., 294.
paper for Dr. Lynne Currys HIS 5000 class, Historiography, in Fall 2005. 4 Ibid., x.

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 Continuing with the precedent set by Broszat, in 1982 historian in the speeches of the Reichs leaders and was approved and welcomed
Detlev J. K. Peukert published a fascinating study of everyday life in by many Germans.10
Germany titled Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism More important was the public policies of Nazi racism, which
in Everyday Life. Peukert seems to take a middle course regarding the while being decried by churches and some members of society, more
question of whether German citizens, both young and old, had been often than not were accepted and even approved, provided that they
active participants in Nazism and its subsequent policies. He focuses were applied within a framework that was outwardly legal.11
on the various groups that existed in Nazi Germany, beginning with Throughout his book, Peukert seems to align himself with the
the working class. In this instance, Peukert reveals that the Nazis functionalist camp of Nazism. In reference to the ordinary Germans
use of terror in the working-class districts and the continuous stance on the Nazis, he sees a nation that operates under an umbrella
pressure to conform combined to create a ubiquitous sense of of terror and offers some resistance to its oppressors, yet
persecution and insecurity, as in a city occupied by foreign troops.5 acknowledges the dark underbelly of acceptance that did exist. On the
He believes that the working class as a whole may have offered some whole, Peukert realizes that terror played an important role in the
small measure of token resistance, but because of the Nazi terror Nazis control of Germany, but refuses to believe they were completely
apparatus, could not organize in any significant way.6 unaware and unwilling to cooperate in the racially and ethnically
Shifting focus slightly, Peukert understands that the young charged system of government.
people of Germany have a slightly different story to tell. Peukert Several years after Peukert released his work, author Ian
evaluates the impact of the Hitler youth and sees a program that, Kershaw contributed to the discussion with his work titled The Hitler
while at first possessing a major influence, lost its grip over younger Myth: Image and Reality in the Third Reich. This comprehensive review
Germans. Initially, the systemized Hitler Youth institution offered on the source behind Hitlers control of the government and its
many young people opportunities they would not have normally had people, in a minute way, resembles Broszats effort. In his book,
access to. However, as the war dragged on, more youth leaders were Kershaw takes an interesting approach to the average Germans
called into service and the war reduced the Hitler Youths leisure outlook on Nazism by separating the Nazi party and Hitler into two
activities: playing fields had been bombed, official hiking trips were separate and distinct categories. He claims that many citizens,
cut down and finally discontinued.7 Because of this, opposition especially in the early years of the World War II, disliked the Nazi
groups known as Edelweiss Pirates began to form and physically party and their policies. However, they adored Hitler to the extent
harass the Hitler Youth patrols.8 Youths would gather together that when things went badly or policies backfired, Hitler was spared
listening to music forbidden by the Nazis, and engage in swing much of the criticism, at least until the defeat at Stalingrad in 1943.12
dancing, helping to create an atmosphere of passive resistance. Before, though, the German people seemed to gravitate to answers
Peukert reasons that no major resistance was mounted because of the that drew attention away from Hitler by claiming that he was being
Nazi policy of atomizing the public, meaning that numerous social misinformed, curbed by the Allies or so engaged in foreign affairs that
structures and traditional networks were broken down and swept he had no time for the home front. According to Kershaw, it was the
away forcing many to see Nazism as a new center of focus.9 Nazi propaganda machine that takes the greatest responsibility for
Even with these small measures of resistance, Peukert this feat and states, After 1933, Nazi propaganda, largely uncontested
acknowledges that some aspects of Nazism were generally accepted by now that opponents within Germany had been silenced, could almost
the population. He states that deify Hitler. Joseph Goebbels,13 as we saw, ranked his creation of the
The terror, directed against political or social trouble makers public Hitler image as his greatest creation14 Kershaw also looks into
was not only not concealed from the population-as many who pleaded the German peoples thirst for a new leader who could unite and
for excuses were to suggest after 1945-but was highly visible, was stabilize a nation which had floundered under the tutelage of the
documented in the press during the Third Reich, was given legitimacy Weimar government. Hitler provided such an opportunity and using

5 Detlev J. K. Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, opposition, and 10 Ibid., 197.
Racism in Everyday Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982) 105. 11 Ibid., 219.
6 Ibid., 104. 12Ian Kershaw, The Hitler Myth: Image and Reality in the Third Reich
7 Ibid., 155. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987) 192.
8 Ibid., 154. 13 Propaganda minister of the Third Reich.
9 Ibid., 236. 14 Ibid., 254.

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Goebbels machine, he lured the German masses into a state of trust horrific efficiency? For this answer, Gellately points to the average
and misguided belief, a trust that, in certain ways, outlasted the Hitler German citizen as an accomplice to the Gestapos mission of state
and the war itself.15 control and racial purification. Since it was impossible for the German
While Kershaw does portray the Germans as a victimized Gestapo to be everywhere at once, they relied heavily on the
group, in his eyes they are not without fault, especially surrounding information and participation readily given by many citizens.19 Why,
the circumstances of the Jewish question. In his book, Kershaw according to Gellately, were Germans so eager and willing to commit
recognizes that while many Germans were anti-Semitic before Hitlers these acts? For starters, the Nazis had done such an impressive job
arrival, most did not support extreme racial policies. The Jewish through their propaganda techniques and examples that many
question was therefore avoided by fusing the Third Reich with the believed there truly was an agent on every corner, watching their
popular and attractive aspects of Nazi rule symbolized by Hitler every move. Gellately presents evidence that a number of Germans
himself. Kershaw says that this in itself distracted attention away came forward with information because of petty differences including
from the seamier side of Nazi policy, which in turn ensured at least relationship squabbles, heated competition between businesses, and
passive acquiescence in if not outright approval for escalating disputes involving neighbors.20 This helped to create a society in
inhumanity of Nazi anti-Jewish policy.16 More frightening are which its citizens engaged in a kind of self-regulation, ensuring the
Kershaws examples of how the Hitler myth, for some people at least, Gestapo could easily control a numerically superior target with little
continued until the end of the war and beyond. In 1968, six percent or no difficulty.
of the West German population (compared with four percent in 1965 Robert Gellatelys take on Nazi Germany sees a society in
and 1967) reported their willingness to vote again for a man such as which total control was achieved through active participation. The
Hitler.17 Kershaw exemplifies just how powerful the image of Hitler average German seemed to view the Gestapo as an omnipotent being,
created by his propagandists was, and how far reaching its effects even though evidence clearly points to the opposite. Even so,
could be felt. He believes that the German people fell under the spell Gellately says that one ought to be cautious, however, in
of the image of a man who never really existed, but he is not shy about extrapolating from Wurzburg, the focus of his study, to the rest of the
condemning their indifference to the most horrific of Nazi policy. country. Enforcement may have been easier to achieve in smaller
The aforementioned authors, while having slightly different cities and towns in rural districts.21 He paints the common German
ideas, tend to agree that Germans citizens were both ruthlessly in a way that few authors had up to this point. Through his evidence
deceived and themselves at fault in their sometimes lax views and and analysis, they appear much more as aggressors, rather than
approval of Hitler and Nazism. However, the topic of rule by terror is victims.
given only a small amount of reference in proportion to each works Following the course that had been laid out by Robert Gellately
scope. The treatment of this subject was improved upon in 1990 when and others, historian Daniel Jonah Goldhagen took the case against
historian Robert Gellately published The Gestapo and German Society: the German people to a place few had before. In 1996, with the release
Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945. In his work, Gellately looks into of his book Hitlers Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the
the Gestapo and how they managed to control an entire nation with Holocaust, Goldhagen attacks the German people as a nation that was
only a small core of individuals. He concludes that it was impossible willingly and actively participating in the Holocaust. Furthermore, he
for the terror organization to follow the orders that were given to asserts that only in Germany could an atrocity on the level of the
them, especially as their responsibilities grew during the war. Holocaust have occurred, thanks to Germanys highly anti-Semitic
Gellately claims that it simply did not have the physical resources to past. Goldhagen sets up a scenario where anti-Semitism had been
accomplish the task assigned to it, especially as these increased in rampant in Germany for centuries. He believes this was ingrained
number and scope. And this point stands even when one includes the into the German psyche until a particular situation came along to set
help it could count on from other organizations of the Nazi party and in motion an event that was literally hundreds of years in the
German state.18 How then was this task accomplished with such making.22 One of the examples he uses to support his thesis is the

15 Ibid., 264. 19 Ibid., 130.

16 Ibid., 252. 20 Ibid., 144-158.
17 Ibid., 267. 21 Ibid., 256.
18 Robert Gellately, The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial 22 Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitlers Willing Executioners: Ordinary

Policy 1933-1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990) 253. Germans and the Holocaust (New York: Vintage Books, 1996) 27-48.

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actions of Police Battalion 101.23 This group of men who were mainly information to the Gestapo, many times it was ignored. Johnson sees
composed of regular German police was sent to Poland to commit the that Germany was still indeed a police state and that the Gestapo
unthinkable. While most had no affiliation with the Nazi party, they was not merely a reactive organization.27 Still, he does not absolve
participated in the killings of innocent people, with apparently very Germans for their crimes against the Jewish race. He believes that the
little remorse. They even told their friends and family about their evidence of mass deportations reveal that by 1942, most Germans
actions, leading Goldhagen to state that the Germans openness knew exactly what the Nazi regime was trying to accomplish, and the
about their genocidal slaughtering-making it available to the view of Gestapo agents who were shipping Jews away from their homes were
so many other German men and women who happened to be stationed well aware that they were headed to near certain death.28 For their
in Poland-is but an indication of the perpetrators obvious approval of part in maintaining silence in view of these crimes, Johnson is not
their historic deeds.24 According to Goldhagen, this is just one afraid to direct blame squarely at them. Even so, Johnson does reveal
example of what countless Germans were ready to do, giving little elements of the resistance movement, such as the church, showing that
thought to the extraordinary consequences of their actions. certain sects of German society did fight the Nazis and their twisted
Hitlers Willing Executioners created a firestorm of criticism ideology.29
upon its release in 1996. Many historians assaulted the book as Johnsons work follows a pattern set in the preceding decades
nonsense, saying that he could not adequately defend many of the by fellow historians. As he states in his book, A recent trend in
controversial statements held within his writings. Goldhagen, in historical scholarship places the onus of guilt on ordinary Germans for
return, defended his thesis claiming that the perpetrators approved of the perpetration of Nazi crimes.30 However, Johnson is careful to
the mass slaughter, that they willingly gave assent to their own note that the recent trend in historical scholarship threatens to
participation in the slaughter, is certain. That their approval derived underestimate and obscure the enormous culpability of the leading
in the main from their own conception of Jews is all but certain, for no organs of Nazi terror, such as the Gestapo and to overestimate the
other source of motivation can plausibly account for their actions.25 culpability of ordinary German citizens. It needs to be remembered
If anything, Goldhagen showed that ordinary Germans were much that some Germans were far more guilty than others.31 Johnsons
more involved in Nazi racial policies than historians initially thought. book attempts to pursue the middle course, in showing that ordinary
He seems to conform to the intentionalist view of Nazism but includes Germans were a greater factor in the Holocaust than first believed,
nearly every German in the equation. However, there are many but they were far from the only factor. Johnson reinforces the idea
flaws within his argument, especially in regard to his point that the that the Gestapo did not rule by fear alone, and were not the ever-
Holocaust could only happen in Germany, but for better or worse, his present demon in peoples lives. Representing a moderation of the
assertions led the discussion into relatively uncharted territory. extreme views held by Goldhagen and others, Johnson understands
Following the storm created by Goldhagen, author Eric A. that culpability and blame is to be shared by many in Nazi Germany,
Johnson published his book, Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews and but by none completely.
Ordinary Germans, in 2000. Following the lead set by Gellately and From 1945 to the early 1980s, a majority of historians pointed
Goldhagen, Johnson analyzes the Gestapo and their impact on the the blame for wartime atrocities solely in the Nazi party and their
German population. Reacting as several of the previous authors had, underlings. Even in Martin Broszats 1969 book The Hitler State, he
Johnson sees the Gestapo as a well-trained and staffed organization makes only a small reference to the German people and instead
without the necessary resources to control the targeted population. concentrates mostly on Hitler and the bureaucracy. Historians saw
How then did the average German view this organization? First, German citizens as victims of an elaborate scheme, one in which they
Johnson claims that most Germans had little or no contact with the entered a state ruled by terror, and the truths of the Holocaust were
Gestapo in their daily lives, and for the most part, did not fear them.26 hidden from them. This interpretation held for over thirty years, until
Also, the citizen informer that previous historians, such as Gellately, scholars began to question what exactly occurred during the Nazi
point to did not truly exist on a large scale, and if a person did present reign, along with the German peoples place in it. Harnessing the

23 Ibid., 239. 27 Ibid., 353-354.

24 Ibid., 245. 28 Ibid., 395-396.
25 Ibid., 416. 29 Ibid., 195.
26 Eric A. Johnson, Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews and Ordinary 30 Ibid., 483.
Germans (New York: Basic Books, 2000) 253. 31 Ibid., 483-484.

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burgeoning field of social history, coupled with newer quantitative
methods, they poured over voting records, Gestapo files, military
papers, court documents, and other related materials. What they
found was something quite startling and contrasting to previous
sentiments. Historians like Broszat and Peukert saw a Germany
where many of its citizens bowed before Nazi policies and even wanted
a figure such as Hitler to obtain power. They argue, however, that the
German people did not necessarily actively participate in the killings
of Jews and other minorities. Complementing this are historians
Johnson and Gellately, who see German citizens as holding a greater
proportion of guilt than had been previously associated, but still
refraining from the extreme nature of Goldhagens thesis. In addition,
the concept of the Gestapo has changed dramatically over the last
three decades, ranging from a nearly invincible organization that
controlled the whole of the civilian population, to one struggling with
meager resources and relying heavily on citizen participation. In the
end, the field of German studies during the Second World War has
seen drastic changes over the past sixty years. Splintering groups
such as the functionalist and the intentionalists, along with those
debating the true power of the Gestapo have added dimensions once
thought impossible. This rapidly evolving subject continues to divide
scholars, but ultimately clarifies our understanding of one of the most
dramatic eras in human history.

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