Why?: Explaining the Holocaust

by Peter Hayes

Gregor Strasser, the day-to-day director of Party operations in the early 1930s, when he defined National Socialism as “the opposite of what exists today.” And their method in state and national parliaments, as well as in municipal councils, was to disrupt democratic government, make it dysfunctional, and thus “prove” its ineffectiveness in meeting Germans’ needs. In a fundamental sense, this highly partisan political force ran against politics, with all its messy compromises, disagreements, and imperfections, and promised to replace it with order and strength. National Socialism promised Germans both radical change and reassuring return to old certainties, and the mix appealed to many people in the atmosphere of anxiety that the Depression spread. In short, dissatisfaction with the nation’s political and economic condition, along with fear of communism, the votes for which also were rising, clearly had more to do with Hitler’s ascent than hatred of Jews.