The Americans found that their efforts were bearing little fruit. Between November 1945 and December 1946 they had conducted eleven polls, finding that on average 47 per cent endorsed the proposition that National Socialism had been ‘a good idea carried out badly’; in August 1947, 55 per cent of those polled endorsed this view. The level of support amongst those under 30, those with high-school education, amongst Protestants, and those living in West Berlin and in Hesse was even higher, reaching 60–68 per cent – and this at a time when openly advocating National Socialism still potentially
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