Disagree with facts all you want. I don’t care. Neither do the facts.
> After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Adolf Hitler assumed the office of President of Germany, and thus became commander in chief. In February 1934, the Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg, acting on his own initiative, had all of the Jews serving in the Reichswehr given an automatic and immediate dishonorable discharge.[33] Again, on his own initiative Blomberg had the armed forces adopt Nazi symbols into their uniforms in May 1934.[34] In August of the same year, on Blomberg's initiative and that of the Ministeramt chief General Walther von Reichenau, the entire military took the Hitler oath, an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler.
gee, I didn't disagree with any of that - I said that if people did not accept the draft they would be prosecuted and often received the death penalty, although also they could just be sent to a camp and worked to death.
I also said that towards the end of the war Germany used underage soldiers - meaning as young as 16, I did not directly ask but implied that perhaps you did not think that underage soldiers were as culpable of being Nazis as the adults, but I see now by your strong commitment to your moral stature that I was wrong.
I finally asked just what makes you think you would have been good and able to resist the pressure to go in the army, which you didn't answer. You have done an admirable job in opposing every response to you with copy pasted Wikipedia content it's true, but I'm afraid I wanted some more hard-nosed and non-online behaviors to confirm the ability to stand against evil.
Alternatively, I think there is value in modern culture setting a high bar on this, if we could manage it. Perhaps it's better not to preemptively excuse the easier path of aligning w/ fascist causes, even to avoid one's own persecution. Better to reinforce that such alignment is reducing yourself, for future observers at least, to a similar distinction (despite of course the overwhelming cruelty of such a fate). I fear this ship is sailing however.
> Perhaps it's better not to preemptively excuse the easier path of aligning w/ fascist causes, even to avoid one's own persecution. Better to reinforce that such alignment is reducing yourself, for future observers at least, to a similar distinction
I don't think that's what this everyone-was-a-Nazi language is accomplishing, though. When someone uses the word "Nazi" they mean someone who is entirely unlike themselves or most people they know.
If we lean into this language, we risk forgetting that the vast majority of Germans in the 1930s were no different than the vast majority of us today—they had lives, jobs, families, and they looked the other way or even participated because they didn't want to rock the boat and risk those things. They were not Nazis, they were just citizens, but they enabled genocide.
I don't think that embracing the label "Nazi" for everyday Germans who never joined the party (and maybe even voted against Hitler when there was still a vote!) will scare people into standing up if they end up in a similar situation, it will just serve to create the sense that "1930s Germany was a really awful place with a lot of awful people and aren't I glad that I don't live there?"
If we take the approach instead of talking about how many ordinary people aided and abetted the Nazi cause by being silent—how they committed war crimes without ever being a Nazi—I think that will actually be more effective at teaching people how to avoid recreating the Third Reich.
Yes, I could indeed see that being the more effective approach to stir reflection in those who would reflexively & categorically reject any such association with the label. Cheers.
Nazi imagery now symbolizes ultimate evil, but that's the effect of history and reflection and cultural symbols changing. Fascism, including in 1930s Germany, is always packaged up in appealing packaging. It seems appealing, promising national revival and cherished values.
People didn't sign up for overt evil; they got swept up in something that appeared reasonable and popular, or just said nothing about the same.
This is the real lesson that I think we're losing; that it's possible to be an ordinary person of ordinary good morals, and to support terrible crimes happening if one isn't careful.
> After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Adolf Hitler assumed the office of President of Germany, and thus became commander in chief. In February 1934, the Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg, acting on his own initiative, had all of the Jews serving in the Reichswehr given an automatic and immediate dishonorable discharge.[33] Again, on his own initiative Blomberg had the armed forces adopt Nazi symbols into their uniforms in May 1934.[34] In August of the same year, on Blomberg's initiative and that of the Ministeramt chief General Walther von Reichenau, the entire military took the Hitler oath, an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht
The German army adopted Nazi symbols and swore an oath to hitler.