If President Wilson had stood firm in his feeling towards the unjust Versailles Treaty and not allowing it to be thrown to Germany by France and Britain at the end of WW1 then maybe during the 20s there would have not been an atmosphere by which an organization like the Nazis would have come to power in Germany thus starting WW2. So there you go it's all relative.
If you look at the change in voter patterns around 1932, the shift from the SPD on the left, and from the various competitive rightist parties to the Nazi's was driven by the worldwide depression arriving in Germany more than any other factor. Many socialists either found themselves out of a job, or off the dole, making the SPD less attractive to the middle of the road supporters. Ironically, many of the Nazi's early economic successes were actually related to SPD infrastructure programs finally getting underway. As for the rightists, well, their small, stogy parties were hardly dynamic in this time of crisis, so there was a shift to the Nazis on the right. In some areas, additional issues like Versailles played well, in others the Jews, in most the Communists, factor in Hitler's personality-- but the main driver was apparently economic fear with a clear cause and effect.
So, it's not really all relative if you look at actual voter records. Versailles had been around for 15 years, the Nazis for much of that, and the electoral support shifted only when the first impacts of the great depression hit home. Try reading, among numerous academic works on the subject, "The Nazi Seizure of Power, the experience of a single German Town, 1930-1935" (updated recently to include 1935-45).
Udie it was excusable because they told the aircrews they were killing Nazis and no matter who you were if you were living in Germany during the period of 1933-1945 the propaganda said you were a Nazi thus the de humanization effect took stride that the Nazi propaganda used against the Jews and the Allies did to justify the mass murder of civilians, that still lives today.
Well, not every German was a Nazi, just most of them apparently [edit: or at least passive to active supporters].
Here is some factual information from, of all places, a revisionist Web site. Still, the material is verifiable.
THE FUHRER’S SWEEPING ELECTORAL VICTORIES
The election on July 31st 1932 was a victory for the National Socialists. They polled 13,574,000 votes and with 38% of the total votes cast legitimately and democratically became the largest Party in the Reichstag with 230 seats. The Social Democrats had 133 seats and the Communists 89. On January 30th, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.
At the polls of March, 5th, the NSDAP polled 17,277,180 votes; an increase of 5.5 million bringing their voting percentage up to 44% which when placed in coalition with the Nationalists led by Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg who had polled 3,136,760 votes, showed an overwhelming majority of Germans had in free and open elections made their preference for German nationalism clear.
Immediately after his appointment as Chancellor, Adolf Hitler in his first appeal to the German nation on February 1st 1933 asked to be allowed just four years in order to carry out the task of national reconstruction. He repeated the same request when a few days later, when at a speech in the Berlin Sportpalast, he said:
ONE CHOICE – THE PEOPLES CHOICE
"During fourteen years the German nation has been at the mercy of decadent elements which have abused its confidence. During fourteen years those elements have done nothing but destroy, disintegrate and dissolve. Hence it is neither temerity nor presumption if, appearing before the nation today, I ask: German nation, give us four years time, after which you can arraign us before your tribunal and you can judge me! Allow me four years, and I swear to you, as truly as I have now undertaken my duties, I will depart. It is not for any reward or benefit that I have taken office, but only for your sake. It has been the greatest decision of my whole life.
I cannot rid myself of my faith in my people, nor lose the conviction that this people will resuscitate again one day. I cannot be severed from the love of a people that I know to be my own. And I nourish the conviction that the hour will come when millions of men who now curse us will take their stand behind us to welcome the new Reich, our common creation born of a painful and laborious struggle and an arduous triumph - a Reich which is the symbol of greatness, honour, strength, honesty and justice."
True to his word, on March 29th 1936, the German nation was given as promised the opportunity to express their approval or disapproval of the National Socialist state. It was an entirely free election without fear or intimidation with adequate provision made for monitoring by neutral observers.
THE GERMAN NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS MARCH 29th 1936
TOTAL QUALIFIED VOTES 45,453,691
TOTAL VOTES CAST 45,001,489 99.0%
VOTES 'NO' OR INVALID 540,211
VOTES FOR HITLER'S NSDAP 44,461,278
98.8%
Now Hitler did work to solidify power after 1932 [edit: thus the rise of the first concentration camps, and it was a proactive move from an employment standpoint to be an active supporter of the Nazi party during the 1930s], but there is plenty of primary source and secondary source research that seems to support the "free" nature [edit: general, free support based on Nazi "successes"] of the 1936 elections. Hitler was the man with the plan who was delivering the goods. Unfortunately, most of his supporters seem to have overlooked the passages in Mein Kampf where he talked about a colonial homeland in the East. If there was a victim of nazi-related propaganda, I would have to say it was the German people, and not the bomber crews.
Charon
