One striking theme to come out of this reading was how the Nazis "dumbed down" their citizens by de-emphasizing academic achievement. Instead, they kept their young people focused on sports and on political dogma. Sound familiar?
Any political opponents of Nazism were shouted down in universities and professors who didn't get with the program were shunted aside. Goebbels had complete control of the media and while the outside world laughed at the ridiculous assertions being made in the German media, the German citizens themselves began to believe them.
In 1933, when the Nazis gained power, their heavy-handed tactics towards the Jews were met with scorn and repulsion by many German citizens. However, by 1938, after five years of indoctrination and repression, the Germans simply shrugged their shoulders at the atrocities of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) that November, in which thousands of Jewish synagogues and shops were smashed and set on fire and in which tens of thousands of Jews had their property confiscated by the state and were sent to concentration camps.
By then, the German people were either ignorant or they were too beaten down to speak up. It was Kristallnacht that set the stage for WW2 and the death of tens of millions for that's when the Nazis realized that they had the German people cowed and they could do anything, anything at all from that point on.
Have to get back to you on Nazi transformation of German society except to note that their emphasis on sports was a matter of national pride & meant to instill a sense of purpose in the young, totally unlike the mindless celebrity-driven mass entertainment sports of today.
The Nazis promised to free Germany from the malaise of defeat in the Great War, end to reparations, and to restore German preeminence in Europe. No mindless kumbaya or apology tours there.
As for lack of civic awareness in America, this year’s Fourth of July is sad evidence of that.
Excellent book. The gassing of the mentally defective also sent the Nazis in retreat for a bit.