Stones from the River

[javasaurus]

You may remember a book from the mid-90s called "Stones from the River" by Ursula Hegi. I don't remember the story itself all that well, but it did leave the following question in my head: What was going on in the heads of the average German citizen in the lead-up to WWII? Certainly not all of them were sympathetic to the Nazi regime. But how many were not, and what impact did they have, if any? How did they allow the Nazis to come to power, how did they allow the Holocaust to happen? Were many of them just laying low, afraid of calling attention to themselves, afraid to speak out against a government that became increasingly intolerant?

The following is connected to the above--really it is. In th recent movie "An Inconvenient Truth," Gore presents the idea of a frog in hot water. If the water is already hot when you stick the frog into it, the frog panics and hops out. If the water starts cold, and heats up gradually enough, the frogs tolerance increases gradually as well, and the frog will stay in the water, not recognizing his own doom. Is this what happened to a lot of people in Germany? Were they frogs in gradually heating water?

More importantly, are we?

Comments

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

I believe we are.

The Nazi movement was brilliantly handled in many ways. Doing very little things at first (mostly mild propoganda) about how wonderful Germany was and how wrong it was that the people were in the situation they were (war torn and impoverished by the huge restitutions that were required in the treaties that ended WWI). Focusing on the glory of Germany, the value of the German People and their place among the best in the world on the surface sounds perfectly reasonable nationalism. Then you add things like comments on what is holding our glorious country back from the place under the sun that we (as a glorious people) rightfully hold. In the case of the Nazi's, they focused on Jews, Romany, mentally challenged.

Fairly early on (even before the Third Reich really came into power), any talk against the government and the ideals of the German Nation was being whispered as Unpatriotic or Dishonorable or Catering to The Allies, or similar things.

Senator McCarthy learned quite a bit from the Nazi propoganda machine and used some of it in the McCarthy hearings. Some of it definitely seems to be used today. The cry of "if it weren't for XYZ, we would be safe and glorious" sounds so minor when XYZ are minor rules protecting a small bit of land ... or maybe a minor rule that prevents the capture of terrorists because of excessive restrictions on the government.

We live in very frightening times and I worry that people who have alternative lifestyles, 'cult' religions, etc. are going to become the scapegoat in a major way.

We are witnessing a multi-prong attack. One on the Higher Moral Ground (we wouldn't want to do anything that would prevent the protection of children would we?) and One on the Higher Safety Ground (our anti-terrorist people are hobbled and hamstrung by...).

I believe Silmaril had a post several months ago that listed a book she had read that looked at the rise of Nazism and the fear of the government that the people had. It was worth a huge amount of money to rat on others and it could cost you your business (or even your life) to protest certain things (or actively protect certain people).

The Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, Nazism, McCarthysm, and now Wism ... all hauntingly and frighteningly similar and in many cases (in my opinion) the 'evidence' against people it Guatanemo is as spurrious as that used in Salem with as little chance of a fair resolution.

[rionnkelly.livejournal.com]

Well spake. Hat's off.

[rionnkelly.livejournal.com]

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany

Will give you a good idea of how the Nazis came to power.

Germany was deeply, deeply, deeply in the red after WWI--people were literally using wheelbarrows full of currency to buy a loaf of bread.

People were starving, the government was in shambles, answers and solutions were cried out for.

Along comes Hitler. Yeah, he was kind of a wingnut, but he had a lot of charisma which he was able to use to turn his personal anti-semitic and xenophobic streaks into the answers the people wanted. He managed to get the whole country convinced that it was the Jews' fault that the country was broke. The Nazi party grew in strength as it offered more membership perks. Pretty soon they figured "Why stop at just the jews? Why not use our plan to get rid of all the other walks of life that are polluting Germany?"

So, I'd have to agree with the gradual increase in temperature theory.

I've heard interviews of people in Germany who swore they had no clue what was going on in the death camps--I'm not sure I believe them--but that's waht they claim. Whether this is a case of them just not wanting to know, I can't say.

The thing about history, Java, is that it's usually written by the winners. An effective historian tries to look at the facts objectively and draw conclusions from there.