We’re seeing in the US that majority of the people are being apathetic or ignorant to what is going on as it doesn’t directly affect them, and others are pointing out that we’re on the same route as Germany. Once Hitler seized power and then later when the county split, what was life like for those people that didn’t say or do anything? Assuming they weren’t in a targeted class, did they just go on and live their lives normally? I know there was a drop in the quality of living for them, but did they not know any better? Was it a state of constant fear, or was there “no war in Ba Sing Se”

I’m just curious what majority of the population here would potentially experience.

  • TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    The sad reality is that although there were some dissenters, the majority of the people in the country supported the Nazis because they actually believed it, they were taken in by the propaganda, which is insidious and ubiquitous. Humans find it easy to hate an out group, forming an in group. Dehumanising others who are different from us is a natural part of human psychology, and it’s an achievement that in the modern world we have achieved a widespread morality which is so accepting - although obviously we still have far to go.

    • vxx@lemmy.world
      0·
      8 days ago

      The “majority” brought the NSDAP to 29% in elections, which was enough for them to take control.

  • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    8 days ago

    i know this from my grandma (other grandma didn’t even want to talk about it): it started out okayish, but soon things became super strict. lots of propaganda films. nazi stuff crept into everything. school etc… books got burned. different opinions forbidden. no free speech. misogyny. disabled ppl were killed. ppl were afraid to be suspected of anything. trials weren’t fair, if you even got one. the nazis printed money and inflation started to suck. many businesses were nationalised. slave workers were being used, taking peoples jobs.

    then the war started. every familiy lost someone. bombs were dropped on cities. ppl had to go into bunkers often. (my grandma barely made it once and shrapnell hurt her hand.) at peak wartime men had to have 8 kids to not be conscripted as cannon fodder. ppl became even more poor than before the war, because many male workers were gone. brutal inflation. kids stepped on mines while playing. at that point the last idiot knew hitler was a loony, but almost nobody dared say anything, because it meant very likely torture and death.

    when the US troops arrived, it was a big relief. finally ppl could speak their mind again. women flocked to the US troops, because there had been a general lack of men. many women were young widows, too. my grandma was very young, so nobody actually told her, but she suspected women wearing multiple US wrist watches were paid like that by US troops for sex.

    • Luouth@lemmy.world
      0·
      8 days ago

      What a testament… let’s hope that story isn’t flipped Germany<->US in the not so distant future…

  • Dasus@lemmy.world
    0·
    9 days ago

    I’ve often thought about it.

    Generally probably you just slowly learn what not to say or do to not get in trouble and keep your head down and hope you get through it.

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOsQDFuB3bqczBIz-a66NvwaOBSyiCo9z

    Colditz is a nice show. The Kommandant isn’t a Nazi, but a member of the Reichswehr, and often finds himself in the difficult position of doing the right thing or following orders.

    It’s a bit more nuanced than when Finn in the new Star Wars shows changes sides from the empire to the rebels and two seconds later is blasting his former mates accompanied by loud “yee-haas”.

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 days ago

    I don’t think the majority of people are ignorant or apathetic. I haven’t met a single person who was either of those. Seems like everyone is pretty solidly on one side or the other. I think most simply feel powerless to do anything about it, which is very different than apathetic or ignorant. I suspect that was true in Germany back then as well. Due to a lack of access to open media, many probably felt they were one against 1000 or something.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
    0·
    9 days ago

    Early on and up to at least the start of the war, I believe things got better for the “average” German - because the State was operating on stolen wealth and fraudulent loans, while serving the needs of fewer people (read: not “real” Germans).

    • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      You make it appear you have knowledge, but you don’t want to share on the social network. Hmm.

      How should we address you so you feel like we are worthy of learning from you?

      • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        8 days ago

        Well, entire books have been written about this topic, so it’s difficult to answer this in a Lemmy comment. The main division is between the pre-war years and the WW2 years. War is rarely popular, especially not total war. But a dictatorship can be popular if it can convince the public that it’s serving the interests of the people, and that was certainly the case in the 1930s in Germany.

        Your OP mentions that “there was a drop in the quality of living for them”; I don’t think this is true. People (everywhere) overall tend to care more about economics and personal well-being than civil liberties, and for many ordinary German people, Hitler’s policies (before the war) were (or at least: were perceived as) beneficial in terms of personal well-being. We find it obvious in hindsight that passing laws such as “the executive branch gets to pass any law it likes including laws that violate the constitution” or “all parties except the NSDAP are hereby banned” are awful examples of authoritarianism, it was not obvious to the people living at the time who hadn’t been used to a parliamentary republic for a long time yet.

        Here are a few links that may help your understanding: