The main reason of why Nazis lost the War???

Clementine....Your family.....? They never visited Liverpool on their journeys over here did they....Only...My mum....No thats another story...But if your lot scared the enemy the way you scare us sis then your probably correct in your assumptions. Mein Gott Adolf...Vot ist it Herman...Ve've ad it nowser....Zer Clementines are zer kumming...A message he probably never got or the war would have been ended sooner quite obviously....Apologies to any Germans reading....

 

First off, just as a tid-bit Adolf himself was NEVER a Schickelgruber and one of the offspring of Alois who was not a "bastard" by definition, his father's name had been altered to "Hitler" during Alois' second marriage and Adolf and his siblings were born in the third. Which needed a Papal dispensation to be legal by the way, since Alois and Klara shared a common grandparent. She was legally and biologically his second cousin or niece something like that.

That aside, I always liked the song put out during the movie To Be or Not to Be, when the fake Hitler (Mel Brooks) intones all I want is peace; a little piece of Poland, a little piece of France....


Goto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRnqHXHwTCs

 

Ah, yes, one of the Lost Messages of Hitler.

I am not sure about my uncles, but I know my father did.....But that may have been in the 1950's. About your mum....

 

I still can't figure what made the "Little Dictator" so charismatic in the eyes of the Germans. I swear that, if I'd ever met him personally, then I would have laughed hysterically at his antics. "Hey, Buddy. If you want applause, then why don't you just go join the circus, like all the other clowns? Ok? I'm sure you'll do a fine job of scaring the children, too."

 

One could insert George Dubbya in here instead of Hitler...

 

I never understood it. Of course, it's hard to separate the image from the evil so it's very difficult to be objective now. But he always seemed a bit ridiculous to me. I never saw the charismatic aspect.

 

I suppose film reel was a minor media compared to Radio media in Germany especially for live newsreel etc. If tv had been around, I doubt if uncle Adolf would ever have got to the position he did in Germany.

 

From what I learnt at university, Hitler overstretched himself with the wars in Western and Eastern Europe and always thought that he had the best ideas, when in reality, they weren't properly planned out and finally, Hitler never really accepted others' ideas. Just my two cents.

 

I can't for the life of me imagine where these Neo- Nazi, jackboot- wearing, skinhead types brains are ( considering they have a brain in the first place !!)for still blindly following the rantings of Hitler . Someone ought to show them a picture of German cities in 1939 and then fast foward to 1945 and show the same cities blasted back into the stone age millions of people dead and their country occupied and divided for 40 years ! It was the price Germany paid for following that madman , and they would do it all again if we let them, fortunately they only occupy the lunitic fringe. I guess some people never never learn ...

 

I am not sure why physical features will play a great role in his popularity?? He was frequently under public eyes anyway.

With super mesmerizing rallies, great orating skills, saying thing which were very popular for their time (Things which may not be even acceptable for our time) with a great emotional fervor and add to it a good propaganda machine, I am not really surprised that He was so popular.

seriously just watch Nazi rallies, there is just no comparison to it even in modern times..


In all probability If I were a German in those times, I could easily have been a Hitler worshiping loathsome Nazi..

 

"Heil Der Fuser!"

 

Oddly enough that was one of Adolf Hitler's promises which were kept; "Give me ten years and you won't recognize Germany!" (paraphrasing). I'm sure the destruction of the cities and industrial areas weren't what he or his listeners had in mind. And twelve years later, nobody (German or allied) could say that Germany was recognizable.

 

Whether we like it or not, physical features and the way people present themselves always makes a difference (Jack Kennedy and Richard Nixon are a good example). And I daresay that in that more technologically "innocent" era, where you didn't have your politicians or celebrities in your face all of the time, Hitler probably made an even greater impact.

But you might note that I said it was difficult to separate the image from the evil, because that is the filter through which I see him. I've no idea what I would think of Hitler if he were just coming into prominence and I did not know the evil that lurked beneath.

And I have watched a great deal of footage of Nazi rallies and Hitler speaking, and I don't see it, I know it is there because it is a known fact that people found him mesmerizing and charasmatic, but I don't personally see it, whatever the reason.

It's so hard to say what we would do under any given circumstance, if I had the same feelings I do now I can't imagine that I'd ever have believed in Hitler, I can't ever imagine buying into racism, racial purity/superiority or condone the things Hitler and the Nazis did to human beings. I can't understand how anyone could believe it was justified and follow someone who would do that.

So that would leave my biggest fear, which would be that I'd be too much of a coward to defy them, I'd like to think I'd be brave, but how do you know until you are in that spot, but, no, I can't ever see me worshipping Hitler or actually believing in the Nazi party.

 

The problem is we are akin to 21st century and try to analyze the events of early 20th century with the specs of 21st century liberalism.

Popular ideas, thoughts are ever changing things, what may be a very popular notion for a time period may not be even acceptable for another.
for example by today's standard good old Abraham Lincoln can easily be classified as a racist but for his time period he was very very progressive and deserves respect for this..

Well importance of physical features depends on the society and I think (I may be wrong) Americans do value it a lot..

 

Yes, well, Americans do value appearance a lot, unfortunately, but it certainly isn't exclusive to Americans.

Funny, I am not sure if you are "accusing" me of being a liberal but what a good laugh my friends would have if they could hear that. I am am not actually liberal or conservative, I fit right down the middle, but most often get accused of being conservative.

I may be misunderstanding what you are saying, fuser, but I think you are inferring that Hitler's ideas were in keeping with the times. And, yes, some of the things he believed and touted were in keeping with the beliefs and accepted prejudices of the the day. But I disagree to the inference that Hitler's homicidal, egomaniacal God-complex and his dreams of an Aryan master-race were mainstream then or would be in any era.

Obviously, we all know values and standards change from decade to decade, generation to generation, era to era. But with that said, I don't believe valuing human life is a new or "popular" idea, I think it is a value and idea for the ages. The value placed on human life is dependent on the person or regime or society. You will find examples of people who cared little for human life, other than their own, since the beginning of time, but you will also find examples of people who greatly valued human life.

In keeping with the period of time we are referring to on this site, I'd say that the overwhelming evidence is that Hitler's ideas were not universally accepted as "popular," not even amongst the German people. While a good number of people fell under his spell, some followed because they feared what would happen to them if they did not, and there were the poor brave souls who fought for the cause because they simply loved their country and not for any particular allegiance to Hitler, but there were an amazingly brave number of people in Germany who did not find him mesmerizing or compelling and resisted him. And obviously a great number of other people around the world were not so enamoured of him, either.

 

Clementine, not only do you not "see" it most today do not. However, at the time of his rise to power he was constantly referred to as "handsome Adolf", mostly by Time magazine here in America. The standards of attractiveness are an ever shifting target. Female beauty seems to be relatively constant, while male attractiveness does seem to shift with the times.

 

Really Hitler's looks and demeanor are a rather minor point in what I was saying, I've never said or doubted his reported charisma, whether I can see it or not, it's a known fact, and as I mentioned in a previous post in this thread, I am not even sure that I can gauge it properly because any view I have of him is colored by what we know about him now.

My main point was in reference to what fuser said, which is that he (or she) would have fallen under Hitler's spell and become a Nazi because Hitler was so compelling, and the inference that part of Hitler's appeal was because his ideas were timely and popular and accepted "truths" of that era.

Whatever power Hitler seemed to have over people, I don't believe that all of Hitler's ideas were popularly accepted ideas. Yes, some were - many people were prejudiced at that time and had a great prejudice against Jews (and sadly still are today). And Hitler offered the German people a way to regain their national pride, which was probably the most effective thing he could have done. Those things were, or could be, compelling and sway opinion.

But some of his ideas were sheer lunacy, they were undeniably evil, and even though he found some followers, they were not acceptable ideas, even in his day. Unlike fuser, I don't see a lack of value of human life as a popular idea of the time that Hitler used to his advantage, I believe it is a standard for the ages, even though there will always be people who will place little value on it, there will always be a majority of people who place a great value on it.