In 5th grade when WW2 was discussed my classmates asked, "How could the German people let it happen?"

[PurgedVoter]

Today I can answer. Rich bastards had too much power and propaganda has a strong effect on the weak willed.

But there is more about this. Those same classmates are now on or about to be on Social Security. Most of those same classmates voted for Krasnov. Most of them hated Jimmy Carter and loved Reagan. Most of them supported the bullies over the marginalized children who didn't fit in. Most of them looked around before making racist jokes.

Funny part about this, education mattered, but it didn't solve the issue. This was a Texas college town. In eighth grade, I was among the kids in a class that was making fun of a child who didn't have a professor as a father. That child's dad was a dean.

The critical issue that could be used to predict the eventual support of a fascist take over was not the level of their hatred of Nazis. It was their racism and support for bullies.

While I was in school, I fought a few bullies. I was big. I won all but a few of those fights. When you get older, fighting bullies becomes more complicated. I can't claim a lot of wins against bullies since I turned eighteen.

Right now the bullies are in charge of the classroom and we are hoping that our fellow classmates are getting a bit tired of them trashing everything and threatening us all. A lot of us are being careful what we say because consequences are a bit different for grownups.

Right now it would be sure nice if a man with a star on his chest rode into town and cleaned things up. That's how it happened on TV back when I was in 5th grade. Usually no one got hurt apart from a punch in the face. But the bad guy went to jail and that ended it. Sadly this isn't Bonanza.

[msongs]

1. germans already shared hitler's beliefs long before he came around. he didnt need to hard sell nt

[no_hypocrisy]

2. As a Jew, I was introduced to Nazis as far as concentration/death camps,

the showers, the deaths, the ovens. And it was horrific. I was also in Fifth Grade.

But I wasn't focusing on just the round-ups, the trains, the persecutions, etc. I wanted to know HOW it happened.

And I have spent more than five decades doing the research. Germany wasn't unique or special. I have read many, many books about the Weimar Republic. Hitler's rise to power.

Because I also believed it COULD happen again.

And I saw signs during Reagan, Bush, and Trump. I knew what to look for.

It happens incrementally, so subtle that you don't realize it's happening. Then the tipping point where it can't be reversed and/or stopped.

[Jim__]

3. Any discussion of "how the german people let it happen" has to include a discussion of the Treaty of Versailles.

The war reparations left Germany unable to support itself. Yes, by the late 20s, the worst of the effects of that treaty were over. But, the fear of economic collapse was still very real. In 1928, the Nazis got about 2.6% of the vote, in 1930 18%, and in 1932 37%. They got enough votes in 1932 that they could fight for, and get, control of the government. 1929 was the stock market collapse and the start of the Great Depression. It definitely figures into how it happened.

[Tree Lady]

5. Some of the reading I have done

talks about how the people were hungry and out of work and Hitler promised them food and work.

They were desperate. I am sure a good many might have been racist or disliked the jews, many I am sure were jealous of how smart and well off many jews were, why they delighted in taking their possessions and homes.

When people are in crisis they don't think rationally.

I firmly believe Trump is causing chaos, fear, lack of jobs, financial stress, etc to make people more dependent on him and his ways. I heard he keeps Hitlers book by his bedside, he knows how he did it.

I believe one of the reasons he won is many believed he would lower grocery bills and taxes. He learned from Hitler all you have to do is promise and win, then you have the power to do what you want.

[Brother Buzz]

4. Goring's jailhouse confession to Gustave Gilbert , US Army captain and psychologist

Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.

Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.. Dr. G.M. Gilbert 1976 "The Memory of Justice"