In 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. His Nazi party had grown in size from a small party to becoming the rulers of Germany. The Nazis were fascist and they used their racist ideas as an excuse to commit atrocious crimes. Despite all the crimes they committed, the Nazis were very popular. Hitler got to power despite having ideas that people would not tolerate or support. Indeed we know that the Nazi ideals were racists and bigots, so how did they receive such support from a society of people who were so democratic?
Conformity and obedience plays a big role in this ordeal.
Conformity can be a behavior to follow certain standards that a group may expect.
Conformity can be both good and bad. Every culture has its own practices that other cultures might find a bit “awkward”. Although awkward to one culture, some practices are completely normal in other cultures. Slavery is an example of this. Even at the height of slavery, some cultures detested the idea of keeping a human being in bondage and withhold their freedom from them. These cultures took great strides to outlaw slavery in their land. Indeed different cultures value different beliefs, however, even in the same culture, some people might have different views. During the height of slavery in America, there were those who believed that slavery was wrong, but they themselves owned slaves. This included Thomas Jefferson, who was known to have as much as 175 slaves despite referring to slavery as an “assemblage of horrors”. Despite being fully aware that slavery was wrong, many people participated in slavery because that was the way of life for the culture. The same could be said of the Nazi party. Many Germans believed that the treatment of Jews by the Nazi party was unfair and wrong, however, not many people questioned it. In that period of time and in that society, it was normal for people to think that anyone that wasn’t Aryan was subhuman. Anyone who had different views was thought to be odd. No one dared to question this belief because they did not want to be considered a Jewish sympathiser. Anyone who tried to help the Jews during their persecution was subject to severe repercussions.
The Nazi party that took control of Germany blamed the Jews for the depression that Germany faced and for losing the war. They started implementing laws that limited the rights of the Jews even though Jews were German citizens. Properties that belonged to Jewish households were confiscated and Jews were ordered to concentration camps where six million would go on to lose their lives. How did a country which was known for its democratic idealism succumb to such fascist state? Obedience. Germans believed that Hitler would be the one to bring Germany from their economic depression. Germans were outraged because they felt their leaders betrayed them after the first world war. Hitler promised to bring to Germany political and economic stability, which he did. He was very popular among the German people and so not many people questioned him when he became the Fuhrer of Germany. As Fuhrer, he ordered the Jews to be isolated and sent to prison camps, many not only failed to question his decisions, they supported it. They also supported his decision to invade Poland and eventually France, sparking the second world war. After the war, German soldiers were tried in court and they justified their actions because they said they were just following orders. How could people commit such horrid crimes fully knowing that what they were doing was wrong? Sometimes these may be symptoms of obedience.
The German Jews were a minority group, so it was easy for other German groups to isolate them from the rest German society. Because they were the minority group, Hitler was able to capitalize on that and create an “us vs them” mentality against them. The German Jews were easy to isolate because they had a different religion and culture from average Germans.
Aryan Germans were able to distance themselves from this group which had different. This gave Germans an excuse to place them in a class that was viewed as subhuman. This was the same tactic used by the Europeans to colonize and conquer the rest of the world. They believed that the humans residing in the places they conquered had little to no right to govern themselves because they were subhuman, so they could not possibly be trusted to govern themselves.
Another reason Germans allowed the Nazi party to commit crimes to humanity was because they felt they just following orders from their Fuhrer. Hitler was a man who according to the German people kept his promises. He promised to bring Germany back from the recession and he did; something the German government had struggled with until then. He also promised to restore Germany to the once great nation it had been and to unite all the Germans in the world under one flag. The Germans placed such high hopes in Hitler that they gave him the highest authority in the country. After Hitler was declared the Fuhrer, he was known as the most powerful man in Germany and he was very popular with his countrymen. To defy the orders of the hero of Germany would have been seen as an act of treason. They believed that if they did not obey Hitler, they must not have the best interest to Germany. To defy Hitler was to defy Germany as well. No patriot would want to go against the best interest of his country. Even if they knew their actions were evil, they did it regardless because Hitler ordered it; Germany ordered it. Even if it meant killing innocent people, Germans were willing to follow the orders of their Fuhrer because he represented the collective mind of the whole country. A country is nothing if the citizens can not follow the orders of its leaders.
The Nazi party was a great example of how conformity and obedience could lead us to do things that we may feel is wrong. It was easier for them to commit these crimes because they convinced the majority to think it was ok to do these things. They also used the trust of the people in their government to their advantage. People are more willing to listen to commands if there is a higher authority directing them. Hitler utilized obedience and conformity to rule a country of intellectuals and to lead the country into a war that took so many lives. It is easy to say that we won’t do bad things even if someone forces us, but history says otherwise.
Sometimes we don’t even have to be forced, we just have to believe in authority and isolate groups of people.
Works Cited
- Andrews, Evan. “How Many U.S. Presidents Owned Slaves?” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 19 July 2017,
- www.history.com/news/ask-history/how-many-u-s-presidents-owned-slaves.
- crashcourse. “Social Influence: Crash Course Psychology #38.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Nov. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGxGDdQnC1Y&t=416s.