One reason the people of Germany accepted Hitler’s orders willingly and without
question was beause it was what they wanted to hear. At the time the depression
set in they were looking for a scapegoat for all of their problems, and Hitler gave it
to them in the form of the Jew’s, gypsies, and other minorities. He blamed all the
economic and social troubles on these groups, even going so far as to say that they
caused Germany to lose the first world war.
Another reason they let themselves be so easily persuaded by Hitler was because
his policy of aggression and rearmament created the jobs he needed to fuel
Germany’s growing war machine. With his gaining of chancellorship and then the
death of von Hindinberg, he was in total control, and the people were at the mercy
of his will. They thought that as long as they were doing well, what does it matter
if a few others are tortured in the process?
Another factor that helped Hitler gain control of the people was the harshness that
the Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany. The German people so resented it
that when Hitler offered them a way out of it, they followed him blindly, not
aware or not caring of the consequences. They must have felt pretty stupid the the
“thousand year reign” of Hitler’s Germany lasted only 12 short years.
