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Not only did it not stand out as especially evil before the beginning of the war, but a lot of politicians/personalities were speaking very highly of Hitler at
by dudul 9y ago
Not only did it not stand out as especially evil before the beginning of the war, but a lot of politicians/personalities were speaking very highly of Hitler at the time.
Also, he was often seen as the real hope to defeat communism, which on the contrary was immediately called "evil".
To add to your first paragraph, I think that another thing that stands out is that it happened in what was one of the most civilized and culturally evolved countries in the world at the time.
- dalbasal 9y agoGood point. I actually tried to work it into the banality paragraph. My Grandad’s view (he was interned in Czechoslovakia within months of this rally) was exactly this. Even in the most civilised country on earth… rather than because “germans.” He saw nazism as something that afflicted germany, almost arbitrarily. Somehow, he didn’t even have a particular dislike of germans, at least when I knew him. He visited in the 70s and enjoyed speaking german when he had the chance. Incidentally, he also thought communists were evil even though he fought for a communist militia eventually (he escaped in 41/42). He equated Communism to fanaticism, a unique level of fanaticism.