Public opinion is imperative for any political structure or party and must always be taken into consideration by the leaders. Even totalitarian regimes must have some degree of support, especially at the beginning of their rule. The support, or rather the lack of opposition, of the non-Jewish German people was necessary for the success of the Nazi regime in the 1930s.
The German people’s opinion of Nazi beliefs and legislation shifted throughout the party’s rise to power. Although it took some time for the party to garner support, by 1932 it received 37% of the popular vote. In 1933, when Hitler was appointed chancellor, many people had grown dissatisfied with the Weimar Republic. Later that year, the Nazi party began acting upon their anti-semitism. In April 1933, the Nazis sponsored a boycott of all Jewish businesses. At this time, they did not have the public on their side. Many Germans continued to purchase goods at Jewish stores whether because of better prices, because it was routine for them, or in some cases outright opposition to the state-sanctioned boycott. At this point the Nazi party realized that Jewish social exclusion would have to be a gradual process and it could not happen overnight. It would take time to garner, if not support, indifference from the majority of the German population.
Over the next several years, the Nazis segregated Jewish people from society. Later in 1933, they banned Jewish people from civil service jobs, including government offices and teaching positions. In June, they banned all political parties, other than the NSDAP. With these two measures, they essentially eliminated any government influence Jews could have. They also forced many organizations to either disband or continue under Nazi control. After under their power, the Nazis would exclude Jews from labor and extracurricular organizations.
All during this time, German people were beginning to abandon their Jewish friends. Being seen with Jews could mean discrimination for a German person. In 1934, it became illegal for a member of the Nazi party to be seen in public with a Jewish person and in 1935, party members could not associate with Jewish people at all, even in private. The Nazi secret police, the Gestapo, were seemingly ever-present, when in reality, they had civilian informants and agents. This threat also limited Germans’ willingness to be friends and neighbors with Jews. While many Jewish people understood the reasons their friends were limiting interactions to behind closed doors or t night, it certainly did not mean this transition was easy. In her book Between Dignity and Despair, Marion Kaplan highlights the fact that every rule had an exception. Even though many Germans abandoned their Jewish friends, there were a select few who chose to stand by them even though it could mean social suicide.
By 1935, the German public had grown indifferent to the plight of Jewish prejudice and discrimination. In September, the Nuremberg laws were passed. These laws spelled out what it meant to be a Jew and ended citizenship rights for anyone who was Jewish. They also introduced various techniques used to distinguish between a Jew and an Aryan, such as eye and skin tone color swatches. These laws did not face any opposition from the German people. Many remained unaffected, and while they maybe felt bad for the Jews that these laws applied to, they figured it was not their business to interfere. In some cases, as Kaplan discusses, these laws were a source of humor for Germans when a doctor unwittingly selected a Jewish child to highlight their preferable Aryan features, causing much amusement for the school children.
Over the next three years, legislation that targeted Jews increased and the annexation of Austria in 1938 applied these laws to Austrian Jews alongside German Jews. In Austria, Hitler was welcomed with open arms and a positive public opinion.
In November of 1938, the state sponsored pogrom, Kristallnacht “The Night of Broken Glass” occurred. In one night, over 700 Jewish business, 250 synagogues and countless homes, schools, and graveyards were destroyed and looted. In those dark hours, many SS and Gestapo soldiers carried out the violence, but they could not have done so much damage without others. Some Germans saw this night as an adventure, and opportunity to smash things with no repercussions. Other opportunist Germans saw this as an easy scheme to loot goods and valuables from homes and businesses. Many members of the Hitler’s Youth organizations also took part, perhaps more for the spectacle of it all rather than raging anti-semitism, although enough Germans took part for that reason as well. In the aftermath, however, many Germans displayed displeasure at the destruction, not for moral reasons, but for more pragmatic ones, They did not like the fact that cleaning efforts and rubble disrupted their daily lives, their commute to work, their trip to take their kids to school, or the errand to the butcher’s.
By keeping their policies somewhat under the radar, or at least by not letting them disrupt the Aryan’s lives, the Nazis were able to carry out many more drastic measure against Jews in the years following 1938. Although at first anti-Jewish measures made by the Nazi government were not condoned or supported by the German public, the regime would later thrive on the indifference displayed by Germans. The Nazi party never needed full support from the public for their legislation to succeed, they only needed a lack of opposition, which the majority of the German public provided.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bergen, Doris L. War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
Kaplan, Marion A. Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998.
Stackelberg, Roderick. Hitler’s Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies. New York:
Routledge, 2009.
MaryBeth Ames 