The Nazi Party was strikingly consistent in its
viewpoints. It never really changed. In a world where so much was changing, it was
disarming to see that Nazi consistency was the only bulwark. After German defeat in
World War I and humiliation in the Treaty of Versailles, the Nazi Party constructed a
platform of ideas that put Germany first at the cost of others, or outsiders who were
deemed as "enemies" to a successful German state. From its inception, the Nazi Party
believed in ideas that fostered this "insider" and "outsider"
mentality:
...anti- Semitic, anti-monarchist and
anti-Marxist views, as well as believing in the superiority of Germans whom nationalists
claimed to be part of the Aryan "master race" (Herrenvolk).... [and] accused
international capitalism of being a Jewish-dominated movement and denounced capitalists
for war profiteering in World War
I.
This helped to
establish the basic ideology of the party. Soon, this definition of "enemies" extended
to virtually anyone deemed to be an enemy or anyone who voiced opposition to Hitler and
the Nazi party. This platform was advanced as the Nazis gained greater domestic power
in Germany and as Nazi expansion ended up nearly unifying all of Europe, threatening all
articulations of personal freedom in the process.
No comments:
Post a Comment