Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

They did use psychology hence we have Gobbels 'big lie' theory -tell a lie enough times and make it big enough and people will believe it .
But all those Nazis were all ordinary people before they were Nazis -Speer was an architect Adolf eichmann a pen pusher .
And many more ,
That's why it's was impossible to charge all with crimes against humanity there were just too many people involved .

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

Muddy you are talking about two different things here and making them one. Yes many ordinary Germans were enthused by Nazi ideology. They believed Hitler's promises, they didn't like Jews and didn't want them around (this was the case in most countries including Britain & the US at the time), they were patriotic and wanted Germany to be the most powerful country, they wanted to rebuild Germany economically and they wanted to be the best in the World.

Where there is a separation is the actual killing of Jews. Most ordinary Germans were not involved in this. Yes Zimbargo's findings would apply to those that were involved in torture, murder and genocide. But the average person on the street didn't know the full horror of any of this at the time it was happening. The people involved became totally depraved just as the guards in Stanford did after only a few days. But those left in Germany continued to have coffee and cakes by the Rhine and watch Wagner operas, while reading propaganda of great Nazi "victories" in the papers against the enemies attacking Germany.

If anything Stanford teaches us how easy it is to take a group and divide it against itself to inflict cruelty and torture on the weaker members.

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

They took tea and cake and didn't notice the ghettos in their midst?
They didn't notice he Jewish shops boarded up ?
They didn't noticed the absence of musicians ( Germans love music and many of the best music s were Jewish .
They didn't notice the purging of Jewish intellectuals from the universitys?
They didnt notice the slave labourers walking back and forth from the Siemens factory for one ?
They didn't notice the cattle trucks stuffed with suffering humanity ?
Oskar Schindler must have been the only person with eyes in Germany !
They did notice and by being in denial and passive they allowed the biggest mass murder in history .
You see all it takes for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

Which is why it was so horrifying and must never happen again. We have seen recent movements towards populism and fanatical patriotism. That's how Nazism started.

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

They also saw any dissenters arrested and taken away never to be seen again. The first concentration camps were for political prisoners.

You can say the same about Cambodia, Iraq, Saudi, Iran etc. The fact is that this was a very well organised oppressive regime. Even among the highest echelons of Nazi hierarchy there was division and rule. Even among the least affluent families children were trained to spy on parents.

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

I don't want to argue with you Muddy but I will mention these points

1) You obviously haven't traveled to Europe where both British and German tourist went. I traveled 2 or 3 times a year and as I speak a little German I chatted to both. I can't think of one occasion where British tourists didn't say nasty things about Germans and the war came up in every conversation.

2) We will have to agree to differ on whether German people were complicit, in what happened to the Jews, because the ones I have spoken to are embarrassed about what Hitler did and upset that some people still thought they were accepting of his actions. Some older ones told me that they couldn't prevent it and would be at risk if they tried to stop it.

3) My point about them letting Muslims onto their country was to point out that situations have changed, even if there was a chance that they had supported what Hitler did. In Britain, many of the people would be happy to get rid of all Muslims and I wonder what would happen if we had a leader that agreed with that idea .

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

That is what is shown by war films .
In truth I doubt the whole of underage Germany was spying on its parents.
Nope when you dehumanise and scapegoat one sector of society it's easy to murder them with anyone being too perturbed.

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

Twink I go to Europe at least twice a year and I do meet Germans they all seem nice friendly people I quite like Germans .
I have a friend in Munich I have known for 40 years .
We never ever speak about the war it doesn't come up at all.

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

All children had to be members of the Hitler Youth.

https://www.history.com/news/how-the...ids-into-nazis

"For the Nazis, the group had other benefits. Not only did it allow the Third Reich to indoctrinate children at their most impressionable, but it let the Nazis remove them from the influence of their parents, some of whom opposed the regime. The Nazi Party knew that families—private, cohesive groups not usually under political sway—were an obstacle to their goals. The Hitler Youth was a way to get Hitler’s ideology into the family unit, and some members of the Hitler Youth even denounced their parents when they behaved in ways not approved of by the Reich."

http://drleannawolfe.com/nazichild.html

"The group also taught them to spy on their parents and report any anti-Nazi criticism. Joseph did spy on his parents but never heard anything to report."

Re: I wonder if it's taught in schools

That's the way it was with the Holocaust. You mentioned that people didn't notice the ghettos while they had their coffee and cake. Well the subject just didn't come up, there were other things to think about and enjoy.