Reply To: Russian Tensions

A *lot* of Germans supported the Nazis BUT the majority of Germans did *not*.

Last free election of March of 1933, the Nazis got 44% of the vote, with a voter turnout of 88.7% of registered voters, which tells you, that at that time, 56% of the people that voted didn’t support the Nazi Party

When war came most Germans fought for their Fatherland, not for Hitler and many believed it to be a war of defence. Even Barbarossa was depicted as a pre-emptive strike for domestic propaganda consumption.

Hitler said in Reichstag
“I have already told the nation of the build-up of Soviet Russian military power in the East during a period when Germany had only a few divisions in the provinces bordering Soviet Russia. Only a blind person could fail to see that a military build-up of unique world-historical dimensions was being carried out. And this was not in order to protect something that was being threatened, but rather only to attack that which seemed incapable of defense …”

Goring put it well when he said

“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don’t want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”