As the war ended there was a revolution, the social democrats proclaiming a republic on November 9, 1918. The revolution was relatively bloodless.a In 1922 the French, claiming that they were not receiving reparation shipments on time, occupied the Ruhr, the industrial segment of Germany. Subsequent sabotage and noncooperation by Germans severely reduced industrial output. In part because of the economic difficulties arising from the heavy reparations and the occupation of the Ruhr, severe inflation engulfed Germany, wiping out savings and diminishing livelihoods. While some were unaffected and a few even benefited (e.g., people with mortgages), most Germans suffered greatly. In the late 1920s the worldwide depression also severely affected Germany. By 1932, the year in which the Nazis received more votes than any other party, 7.5 million people were out of work and 17 million, almost a third of the population, were supported “by the dole.”3
Material deprivation, social disorganization, the feeling of unfair treatment by the victors, and the psychological distress associated with them led to increasing political instability and violence. Many hated the democratic Weimar Republic established after the revolution of 1918-19: some because of the humiliating Versailles treaty that continued to be in effect; others because of economic conditions or the disorder created by the many political movements and their violence, which the government was unable or unwilling to control; still others because of the threat of communism; and many because they had never made peace with the idea of a democracy, particularly a liberal one. The kaiser’s abdication at the end of the war was a tremendous blow to many Germans; the new system conflicted with the value German culture placed on authority and strong leadership. Among the powerful dissatisfied elements were the army and the judiciary.
Life conditions represented a threat to survival. For many Germans, inability to provide for their families was a special dishonor, given their respect for tradition, order, and the family.4 Their self-respect and social identity – their view of their group – were threatened. Traditional values were challenged by many experiences, such as middle-aged men dancing cheek-to-cheek in nightclubs. Events made it difficult to maintain the world view by which most Germans lived and equally difficult to replace it. The people lacked a predictable future to work for; there was no end in sight.
Although Hitler and his followers greatly contributed to the anarchy and political violence of the later 1920s, they also promised to do away with it. They promised law and order, jobs, and ideals to live by.
A state of virtual anarchy prevails in the streets of Germany.... Brown shirts were everywhere in evidence again, and now four private armies, equipped at the very least with jack knives and revolvers, daggers and brass knuckles, were shooting in the squares and rampaging through the towns. Processions and meetings, demonstrations and protest, festivals and funerals, all wore the same face but a different uniform – except that the SS and SA of the Nazis, and the Red Front of the Communists marched more obstreperously, the Sozi Reichsbanner more fatly, the Stahlhelmers more sedately. The Reichswehr, the one legal force, was least in evidence, even though it was in a sense, the private political tool of Hindenburg.5
The communists had acquired substantial strength, as Germans were turning to the two extremes. “In 1932.. .between them these two totalitarian parties had an absolute majority in the Reichstag.... They were both bitterly opposed to the System and without them the system was hamstrung . . . . ‘Better Nazi than Red’ was an argument which made many turn to Hitler.”b6 In the July 1932 election the Nazis emerged as the largest party in the German parliament. After a government led by von Papen and much political maneuvering, in January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor; “the city [of Berlin] saw mass hysteria and jubilation without parallel in history.”7
The guiding motive for the Holocaust: ideology
The Holocaust had many causes, but the original motivation or guiding conception was crucial. Why was this conception accepted by the German people? How was it related to German culture and history?
Hitler laid down the Nazi ideology in his book Mein Kampf, dictated to is deputy Rudolf Hess in 1924 while he served a prison sentence following the unsuccessful Nazi putsch in November 1923. In most respects, Hitler acted to fulfill the goals and plans described in Mein Kampf. According to Hitler the power of ideals is great. The Nazis had to overcome the views of life and ideals of the “calculating masters of the material Republic.” Totalitarian rule and propaganda, once the Nazis were in control, were aimed not only at maintaining power, but also at converting the masses to Nazi ideals.
The core of these ideals was racial purity. According to Hitler, racial principles are fundamental to all life: race is the foundation of all culture. “In this world human culture and civilization are inseparably bound up with the existence of the Aryan. His dying off or his decline would again lower upon this earth the dark veils of a time without culture. The undermining of the existence of human culture by destroying its supporters [e.g., Aryans] appears as the most execrable crime.”8
The cause of a higher culture “lies exclusively in the existence of a race capable of culture.” The Aryans possessed the highest spiritual level. Jews lacked culture and by their very being threatened to destroy the high Aryan culture. “All really significant symptoms of decay of the
