Question:
How could the Nazis, brainwashed or not, actually think that they were righteous when they invaded Europe?
?
2010-11-08 00:25:09 UTC
I know Hitler brainwashed Germanyy in to thinking that they were "Superior" to the rest of the world BUT that's not a good reason to invade other nations. So I'm wondering, what reasons (That the Nazis believed in their own minds) for invading europe??? I know sometimes what one person thinks is right, another person thinks is wrong and Vis Versa. But in the scope of reality, most things are just right and some things are just wrong, whats right is right & whats wrong is wrong.
Twelve answers:
2010-11-08 00:57:45 UTC
this is what Sociologist called as the " Crowd/Mob Behaviour" which remains an anomoly
?
2010-11-08 09:02:16 UTC
The Nazi's came from within Europe. Germany is in Europe. There had been power struggles between the European powers for centuries for the control of Europe and the rest of the world.



As for Hitler brainwashing people to think they were superior to other countries, that wasn't anything new, and I don't even know if it could be considered brainwashing -- pretty much everyone back in those days thought their country was the best, and there's still people who think that today. Some politicians are successful in tapping into such nationalistic rhetoric as a way to get votes.



Really, what Germany did wasn't much different than what many other past super powers had done. The difference however was of course the holocaust, and the unique totalitarian regime they created that engaged the public to the point that the public agreed with it. It was fully implemented fascism in a post enlightenment society.



So basically, to answer your questions, their reasons for power and control were simply that -- they wanted power and control. Nothing new in the course of human history. What was new was their unique system of governing, and how they used Jews as scapegoats.
Alimas
2010-11-08 08:36:01 UTC
Your post is hilarious.



"when they invaded Europe" - They started in Europe, they didn't invade it.



"BUT that's not a good reason to invade other nations." - Says you.



"But in the scope of reality, most things are just right and some things are just wrong, whats right is right & whats wrong is wrong." - Incorrect. There is no universal morality.



To massively simplify:

Have you ever gotten mad at someone and taken aggressive action against them? That's what they did. The German populace, for the most part, came to believe that much of the rest of the world was out to get them and owed them something. In fact, the debt was so large and the threat so dire that war was a necessity to prevent things from getting worse.

So far as they were concerned.

You might say that they were wrong, but that isn't relevant to this point, what is relevant is that they thought they were right at the time (and many never changed their mind about that, or even admitted accepting it in the first place) and people make decisions based upon what they think is right.



There were a lot of things coming out of WWI that really helped set the stage for WWII and it would assist you a lot to understand the rise of Nazism if you studied Germany in the aftermath of WWI.



Also, in general, most people are just tools.
2010-11-08 09:05:24 UTC
Why did the US invade Iraq? The Germans saw something inherently wrong about the rest of Europe and tried to fix it. They thought they had the solution to the problem. They were absolutely out of their minds, but they were trying to do what they thought was the right thing. Hitler never really brainwashed anyone. At least, no more than any state does. We here in the US say the pledge of allegiance in schools, are taught to fear Muslims and Mexicans, believe that everyone should speak English and, on occasion, invade other countries for their "benefit".
asky
2010-11-08 09:46:31 UTC
Brainwashed is the incorrect way of looking at it. Indocrtination is what is was and continues to be. Everyday we, as Americans, hear how we are the "greatest nation in the world". What the hell does that exactely mean? Greatest at what? We lose in just about every social category. Economically we are struggling. People say we need to get rid of "Obama-care" and revert back to a system that plummets us out of any efficient ranking of social concern. Yet we go crazy when we try to take the words "under god" out of the pledge when the writer of the pledge opposed its inclusion. I agree with the other poster that mentioned Iraq.

If Germany (Deuchland) has any great long lasting significance on the historical discussion I think it has to be a correlary on the way Americans think today (i.e. bad economics times, overwhelming sense of entitlement, and patriotism ingrained from childhood diguised as patriotism). The only people who have shown true allegience to their homeland was the natives who were here first and decimated but still still served the oppresors military as a continued means of protecting thier home
awesomesauce
2010-11-08 08:55:03 UTC
Hitler never "brainwashed" anyone. He started from a platform of nationalism, which was common in lots of countries at that time, particularly in Europe. But he took it to the extreme and made it violent and it became Nazism, a sort of extended kind of nationalism. The Germans involved truly believed that they were the superior race, because of various natural selection and other reasons. And, as such, they thought it was their responsibility to do something about it.
2010-11-08 11:17:37 UTC
You could ask the same question of Napoleon or of the Romans, or of the Mongols and later the Turks (they invaded eastern Europe), or of the Arabs when they invaded Spain and France. And also of any Europeans (and that is several nations) when they invaded the New World, and invaded the Middle East during the Crusades. Hitler indeed made an ideological and racial thing of it.
Paige
2010-11-08 08:28:08 UTC
The Nazis did those things because Hitler was a great leader. He was the worst person imaginable, but people followed him, which actually made him a great leader.



Author's note: I just want to clarify that I, in no way shape or form, do not agree with ANYTHING the Nazis or Hitler did.
2010-11-08 08:30:51 UTC
They did not invade Europe they came out of Europe.
cp_scipiom
2010-11-08 12:02:29 UTC
milions of people get brainwashed every day. And if they dont- their bosses know where their families live- and that's the real source of power of all the socialists, be they nazis, communists or islamofascist
2010-11-08 08:26:57 UTC
I think he viewed it as natural selection or something. They must get rid of the 'weaker' races.



I may be wrong though, its been a little while since I studied that.
2010-11-08 08:42:53 UTC
"You must understand that this war is not against Hitler or National Socialism, but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless of whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."



Winston Churchill - 1940

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VBkkFXpaG0MC&lpg=PA15&ots=OmtkxQiXrS&dq=%22You%20must%20understand%20that%20this%20war%20is%20not%20against%20Hitler%20 or%20National%20Socialism%2C%20but%20against%20the%20strength%20of%20the%20German%20people%2C%20which%20is%20to%20be%20smashed%20once%20and%20for%20all%2C%20regardless%20of%20whether%20it%20is%20in%20the%20hands%20of%20Hitler%20or%20a%20Jesuit%20priest.%22&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q=%22You%20must%20understand%20that%20this%20war%20is%20not%20against%20Hitler%20or%20National%20Socialism,%20but%20against%20the%20strength%20of%20the%20German%20people,%20which%20is%20to%20be%20smashed%20once%20and%20for%20all,%20regardless%20of%20whether%20it%20is%20in%20the%20hands%20of%20Hitler%20or%20a%20Jesuit%20priest.%22&f=false

____________



"The blood of every single Englishman is too valuable to be shed, our two people belong together racially and traditionally - this has always been my aim even if our Generals can't grasp it."



Adolf Hitler (1940, after allowing the British to escape at Dunkirk)

Page 326 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchill-Hitler-Unnecessary-War-Britain/dp/030740515X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287603972&sr=8-1-catcorr


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
Loading...