yes we can? (part one)

This is in response to Mia’s post on the rather terrifying resemblance in the way that Hitler and Obama address the masses. The connection that Mia makes is one that I’ve made before when watching such huge demonstrations of apparently unquestioning support for a leader. And in some ways, it is rather disturbing to wonder what sort of things we would let a leader get away with if they gave us hope. On the other hand, maybe it’s not so surprising that all of those people listening to Hitler are “absolutely captivated,” as Mia puts it, that their “faces light up in jubilation.” After all, in Hitler’s Germany, I’d venture to say that life was better for the masses…except of course for the Jews, Slavs, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists, and homosexuals. I don’t mean to understate the horror of Hitler’s actions against those groups of people. Having grown up hearing stories of my great-grandparents, on both sides of my family, losing siblings and parents in Nazi Germany and occupied Poland, and barely escaping with their own lives, I don’t want to discount the sickening nature of the millions of deaths under the Nazis.

However, the average individual under Hitler, at least early on in his leadership, didn’t know that the Final Solution was coming. Probably a large percentage of the population didn’t know even once that policy had been implemented exactly what was going on and the scope of it, or even had heard more than murmurs of the truth. And, to their credit, at least on the surface there seemed to be a lot to praise Hitler for. Despite his questionable policies in many regards, he had led the government to provide jobs during the Depression by sponsoring public works – reforestation, swamp drainage, housing, highway construction, and rearmament. Consumer goods, especially radios, became more plentiful under his leadership, and a program called Strength through Joy, however questionable in terms of its motivations, provided vacations, even for the lower middle class. The German chemical industry continued to thrive, producing artificial rubber, plastics, synthetic textiles, and many substitute products. The government, obsessed as it was with youthful strength and the perfect Aryan race, sponsored youth movements in schools and universities, and provided financial benefits to families with children. And prior to the 1930s, class division in Germany had been rather rigid; now, suddenly, such harsh delineation of classes was nearly erased (unsurprisingly that meant that young, poorly educated dropouts just like Hitler could rise rapidly).