The majority of Germans supported the Nazis before WWII. If you were alive then, would you have been a part of that majority, or are you ABSOLUTELY sure that you would have seen through the propaganda?

I would most likely be part of the majority if I was born, raised, and educated in the country at that time. If. however, I was placed back there in my current state, the propaganda would be easy to see through.

Really good question this.

It's easy to say straight away, no i wouldn't have bought the propaganda, as retrospectively we know how bad, how evil that regime was.

However, when you put yourself in the shoes of a German in the 1930's you have to remember the media then was tiny compared to now, and in Nazi Germany the state controlled so much of the information available to the public.

Also Germans are a proud people, and they where wanting to get back to where they believed they belong (at the top table alongside other great powers) people where wanting to see someone who could do this, and Hitler appeared to be a man who could deliver.

Sadly, i can see why people would have been drawn in to believe the propaganda. I wouldn't have bought the stuff about the Jews, as i have never been able to get my head around Anti-semitism, but a lot of the other things i could see myself been attracted to, if i was a German in 1930's. I'm not very political, so i cannot see myself being a party member, but i reckon i would have boughy most of the propaganda.

NO

Hitler was a charismatic figure whom many or most Germans saw as a symbol of hope. The economy and national pride were all that mattered. Does this sound familiar today? +4

The country was destitute and crushed from ww1 and the constraints of the treaty.
Try to put yourself in the average jo's shoes. The jews were still well off while the german people themselves were very poor.
The authorities knew hitler was evil and sent him to prison.
All the average people saw though was this man listening to them and giving them jobs more food and houses so yes they didn't ask questions and ignored what they didn't want to confront. I'm not so sure that if my children were going hungry and this man gave them a better life that i wouldn't have buried my head either. The german people didn't know what was actually happening to the jews (they thought they were being deported at first) until later and by that time the nazi's were so powerful that they couldn't be challenged and kept silence through fear.

I'd like to think I wouldn't have been.... however with that level of indoctination I'd probably have been part of the majority.

I am quite easily misguided (I can totally see myself getting sucked into a cult, for instance)... Maybe I would be part of that majority. Especially as back then we were a lot more trusting of the information fed to us. We are far more critical and open to the idea of being deceived by our government now.

I think if you are born and raised in that environment, and morals and ideals are taught to you by people in that environment, information fed to you is tightly controlled to support those ideals - its likely you will be sucked in until you see the consequences which pull at your conscience and intuition.



(Also... great question!)

I would be like Schindler, I know it. Remember how he used Jews as target practice at the beginning of the film. Then he changed. I've done this in my own life.
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I don't have his power or money, but I do my own little bit when I can. Our justice system is anything but just: it is a win or lose; that's my first example.

Your question has a false premise.

If by majority you mean 50% + 1 vote, then the Nazi party never had a majority. It did however have a plurality. I dont think it ever exceeded about 42% of the vote. It is just that with all the other parties running for the Reichstag, they had the most votes. If you count the numbers of people that opposed the Nazi, they represented a majority of the German people.

I don't know whether the majority positively supported the Nazis. I am afraid that I would probably be with those who didn't actually support them but didn't oppose them and generally kept their heads down and avoided trouble.

I would have seen through the propaganda straight away and especially as I probably would have had some Jewish friends. Unfortunately, the Germans didn't have much of a choice in the matter. If they went against the regime they would have been labelled as traitors. Even some of the so-called intelligent British were taken in by the whole anti-Jewish nonsense for a while. It does make one wonder about the Serbs though. Having lived through the Second World War who in their right mind would allow a similar regime to take hold in Serbia. But again, did they have the choice or is it human instinct to follow like sheep despite the fact that under normal circumstances it would be absurd to support a regime that practiced ethnic cleansing?