“the Germans though often quite intelligent individually, have always been infected with a streak of idealism.”
Interesting. Did the average German back in the 30’s and 40’s believe Jews were bad for Germany? Did Hitler to any extent reflect a culture-wide leaning?
Antisemitism was pretty common everywhere back in the 1930s. It was certainly present in Germany before Hitler came along though if anything, less so than in most other countries. There are historical reasons for that which are particular to Germany. Their Jews were extremely well integrated and many thought of themselves as Germans first. Germany had not been unified after the Treaty of Mainz in 1250 when the minor nobility gained ascendancy over the Holy Roman Empire. Local rulers were more antisemitic for the same reason$ as other rulers. The Holy Roman Emperors thus often chose Jews to be administrators (because they had no loyalty to this or that minor prince) and the Holy Roman Emperors tended to protect Jews more. German Jews thus tended to be more nationalist than in other countries....especially ones that centralized like England, France and Spain.
Remember that Hitler was an AUSTRIAN. Austrians were far more anti semitic than Germans.
I'm sure Germans overwhelmingly agreed though that Versailles was unfair. Felt they had been screwed over (which they had). Felt they should have a place as a great power again and felt that they were superior to everybody else....then again who didn't feel that way in the 30s? So I don't think it was the antisemitism that sold especially well with most Germans. It was all the other things the Nazis pushed - including the socialism.