How Did Hitler Affect White Germans?

[Rhondazvous]

It has occurred to me that in November we may be asked to choose between Miss WikiLeaks or the Hitlerian reincarnation. In that case voters may very well choose fascism over compromised national security. This would not be the case if Americans feared fascism as much as they do socialism. My fear is that many white Americans may not feel they have anything to fear from a police state. After all, they are white. The police are here to serve and protect them.

But I wonder is this true? How did Hitler affect white Germans? What is the cost of a brown shirt?

[vorlon13]

Sent all the (white) men off to die at the hands of the allies.

[abaris]

But I wonder is this true? How did Hitler affect white Germans?  What is the cost of a brown shirt?

Honestly, I don't quite understand the question. What do you mean by white Germans?

As for the rest of your post, a purely subjective perspective from observation. Americans don't fear fascism or even embrace it in certain instances, because they didn't have to face the consequences of war for the last 150 years on their own soil. They didn't see the destruction since Sherman marched through the old South. They are conditioned to greet the flag at any given opportunity, to swear an oath of allegiance at school, to glorify the armed forces. There's only a very narrow ridge between an overblown patriotism, nationalism and fascism.

Add to this quite a lot of blockbuster movies and TV shows that would never be made in the same way in Europe. Such as War movies featuring fighting as some kind of great and inspiring adventure. Something like John Wayne riding into the sunset. Something that could have come straight from Goebbels entertainmment industry.

From my perspective, quite a lot of things in American life are geared towards inspiring militant nationalism. And in an Orwellian way, people tend to respond to all of that. They always did in different parts of the world.

[Cato]

I'm sure the telescreen will tell us who we're supposed to hate next.

[Crossless2.0]

How did Hitler affect white Germans? Well, a of a lot of them who belonged to the Left were rounded up and killed. Same with homosexuals. Same with those white Germans who were deemed inferior by virtue of disability.

And then there were a hell of a lot of dead German soldiers by the time Hitler was done.

Brown shirts came at a tremendous cost, I'd say.

[Minimalist]

He seems to have caused them to all wear funny hats.

[Jello]

The Wehrmacht needed soldiers, that much is for sure an effect on the white men there.

[AFTT47]

My fear is that many white Americans may not feel they have anything to fear from a police state. After all, they are white. The police are here to serve and protect them.

Honestly Rhonda, that'a painting all white people with a pretty broad brush. I'm white but while I recognize the need for police, I'm highly distrustful of them. We're hardly a race of police apologists.

[Pat Mustard]

It has occurred to me that in November we may be asked to choose between Miss WikiLeaks or the Hitlerian reincarnation.  In that case voters may very well choose fascism over compromised national security. This would not be the case if Americans feared fascism as much as they do socialism.  My fear is that many white Americans may not feel they have anything to fear from a police state. After all, they are white. The police are here to serve and protect them.

But I wonder is this true? How did Hitler affect white Germans?  What is the cost of a brown shirt?

If you were the wrong religion, political ethos, sexuality, considered "habitually criminal", had mental or physical problems, too avant garde in art, unwilling to divorce your Jewish spouse or even just simply not able to make all the "voluntary" contributions by the SA and other party organs, it could go very badly for you, up to and including either being gassed or worked to death in a KZ.

Anybody who deviated noticably from party lines was persona non grata in Hitler's reich.

PS: I forgot ethnicity, there were millions of Poles, Russians, Ukrainians and other eastern europeans killed during WW2. I'm reading Richard J Evan's third book on the Third Reich now, "The Third Reich at War" and I'm at the point where he talks about what happened to people the Nazis called "life unworthy of life" during the war, and it turns out at least 80,000 German citizens with physical or mental incapacities were gassed from 1940 onwards, and were the main proving test cases (that sounds really callous, I don't mean it that way sorry) for what later became the holocaust.

[abaris]

I'm at the point where he talks about what happened to people the Nazis called "life unworthy of life" during the war, and it turns out at least 80,000 German citizens with physical or mental incapacities were gassed from 1940 onwards, and were the main proving test cases (that sounds really callous, I don't mean it that way sorry) for what later became the holocaust.

Most of the personell moved on to serve in the death camps later on. Most of the death camp commanders came from operation T4 as it was called back then. Irmfried Eberl or Franz Stangl or the abyssmal Christian Wirth, a former police officer, who more or less was responsible for keeping the death factories up and running. Also lower charges.

T4 ultimately was terminated because, as opposed to later atrocities, the population took note. One of the very few admirable clerics of the time, bishop Galen went out of his way to make his knowledge public. He published a pastoral letter to be read at every church in his diocese, brandiing the operation as what it was, with every detail he could gather. It's also a perfect example of how far high ranking people could go in opposing the regime, since Galen wasn't touched by the authorities. There's some correspondence about him in the archieves, where Himmler and his henchmen discuss his fate. They come to the conclusion, it would be unwise to persecute him during the war, since it would lead to public outrage.

All in all, a very fine example for church apologists. The high ranking clergy could get away with making a stand. The majority however stayed silent or even praised the regime, despite the example in their midst.