The end of the war brought liberation not only to the inhabitants of the countries conquered by Hitler, but also to the Germans themselves. It was a liberation from an ideology that justified hatred of others, wholesale violence and the suppression of individual freedom. The psychologist explains why the ideas of Nazism were able to take over the society.
“After Hitler came to power, the loyalty of the majority of the population to the Nazi government was strengthened by an additional incentive: millions of people began to identify the Hitler government with “Germany” …
There is probably nothing more difficult for the average person than feeling alone, not belonging to any large group with which he can identify himself. A citizen of Germany, no matter how alien to the principles of Nazism, had to choose between loneliness and a sense of unity with Germany, and the majority chose unity.
In many cases, people who have nothing to do with Nazism defend Nazism against foreign criticism because they regard it as an attack on Germany. The fear of isolation and the relative weakness of the moral principles of a significant part of the population help any party win its loyalty, as soon as this party seizes state power.
“The monarchy and the state were at one time the unshakable foundation on which, in a psychological sense, the whole life of the petty bourgeois was built; their fall destroyed that foundation.
If the Kaiser is publicly ridiculed, if officers are attacked, if the state had to change the form of government and admit “red agitators” to the positions of ministers, and make some saddler president, then what is left for the little man to believe in?
Previously, he identified himself with all these institutions, as a non-commissioned officer identifies himself with the army; but now that they are gone, where should he go?”
“The collapse of the former symbols of power and authority — the monarchy and the state — was also reflected in the personal symbols of authority, that is, in the parents. Parents demanded respect from young people for those authorities, but since they turned out to be insolvent, their parents also lost prestige and power.
Another reason was that in the new conditions, especially in conditions of inflation, the older generation was confused and turned out to be much less adapted than the more “flexible” youth.
As a result, the younger generation felt superior and could no longer take seriously either the teachings of the elders or themselves. And besides, the economic decline of the middle class has taken away from parents the traditional role of guarantors of the future of their children.
The self-denial of the individual entails the renunciation of all right to personal opinion.
“Hitler is well aware of the conditions that give rise to the desire for submission, and wonderfully describes the state of a person present at a mass meeting:
“Mass rallies are necessary, if only because an individual who becomes an adherent of a new movement feels his loneliness and easily succumbs to fear, being alone; at a meeting, for the first time, he sees the spectacle of a large community, something that adds strength and vigor to most people …
If for the first time he has left his small workshop or large enterprise, where he feels very small, and has come to a mass meeting, where he is surrounded by thousands and thousands of people with the same convictions … then he himself succumbs to the magical influence of what is called mass suggestion «.
“The self-denial of the individual — reducing him to a speck of dust, an atom — entails, according to Hitler, the renunciation of any right to personal opinion, personal interests, personal happiness. Such a refusal is the essence of political organization, in which «the individual refuses to represent his personal opinion and his interests …».
Hitler praises «selflessness» and teaches that in «the pursuit of their own happiness, people are increasingly descending from heaven to hell.» The purpose of education is to teach the individual not to assert his «I».
Already a schoolboy should “be silent not only when he is scolded for his work; he must also learn to endure injustice silently, if necessary.”
The ultimate goal is portrayed as follows: “In the people’s state, the people’s worldview must eventually lead to that noble era when people will see their task not in improving the breed of dogs, horses and cats, but in the exaltation of humanity itself; an era when one will consciously and silently renounce, and the other will joyfully give and sacrifice.
Already a schoolboy “should learn to endure injustice silently”
“Hitler is well aware that his philosophy of self-denial and sacrifice is intended for those whose economic situation deprives them of any possibility of happiness. He does not need such a social system where personal happiness would be available to everyone; he wants to exploit the very poverty of the masses in order to make them believe in his preaching of self-sacrifice.
He quite openly declares: “We are addressing a huge army of people who are so poor that their personal existence is by no means the highest wealth in the world …”
All this preaching of self-sacrifice has a very obvious purpose: in order for the leader and the “elite” to realize their desire for power, the masses must renounce themselves and submit. But masochistic tendencies can be found in Hitler himself.
The higher powers before which he bows are God, Destiny, Necessity, History and Nature. In fact, all these words mean the same thing to him: a symbol of overwhelming power.
“Political practice realized the promises of ideology: a hierarchy was created in which everyone had someone above him, whom he had to obey, and someone below him, over whom he felt his power.
The man at the very top — the leader — had Fate, History or Nature over him, that is, some higher power in which he could dissolve.
Thus, the ideology and practice of Nazism satisfies the demands arising from the peculiarities of the psychology of one part of the population, and sets the orientation of the other part: those who do not need either power or subordination, but who have lost faith in life, their own decisions, and in general in everything in the world «.