Holocaust

[Bubble]

How were the Nazis were able to proceed with the Final Solution with so little public notice or protest?

[Clanad]

One of the primary reason (there are others) is that for a period of almost ten years the Nazis engaged in a determined effort through media propaganda (headed by Joseph Goebbels) to dehumanize the Jews, Gypsies and other undesirables not of the Aryan persuasion. The propaganda of hate was intense and wide spread and, of course, had the blessings from Herr Hitler on down. The public (many at least) bought into the effort and saw the Jews, particularly, as the problem to be solved which, the public believed had caused all the problems besetting Germany folowing WWI.
By the time the actual "Final Solution" was set in motion, the public had little resistance to ignoring what was happening. Many of the death camps were in Poland, but the trains carrying the victims by the tens of thousands were certainly known to the public at large. It certainly boggles the mind but the old adage of "Tell a lie enough times and it becomes the truth" was at work as was government induced complacency and acceptance.
By the way, it's the reason for the unofficial motto of Israel... "Never Again"...

[SaxyJag]

What a brilliant description, Clanad.

Such a pity that such things still go on.

[Lonnie]

Very, very well put Clanad.

[vehelpfulguy]

The other thing that should be noted is that Hitler and the Nazis were dictators. Anyone who disagreed with their views disappered in the night.

For example see the Knight of the Long Knives where Hitler had over 200 senior officers (maybe more) killed from his own army (the SA), and one of his best friends Ernst Roehm (head of the SA) arrested and killed.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERnight.htm

If he did that to his FRIENDS imagine what he would do to his enemies.

That is a good way of getting people to keep quiet.

This is why we should guard our democracy with our lives.

[joko]

how did hitler explain away his black hair and stout, short build and brown eyes - hardly aryan! did he not have a mirror? or was he colourblind and suffered body dysmorphic disorder?

[Loosehead]

Further to Clanad's excellent answer, they didn't publicise what they where doing. Although there was some public knowledge, quite a lot of the German generall public did not know what was going on and where as surprised as anyone when the truth was discovered.

[maxximus]

pre ww-2 CNN

[andy-hughes]

It is important to remember that we enjoy the luxury of a massive and immediate worldwide media, which would make such a situation virtually impossible to conduct on the scale with which the Nazis embarked on the extermination of 'undesirables'. Newspaper and radio coverage were carefully controlled, and as Clanad has so comprehensively explained, the German populace had already been convinced that their ecconomic and social problems would be cured by the erradication of non-Ayrians.

[jno]

joko Aryan is one of those words that can mean pretty much what you want it to mean (it does have specific meanings, but it's often used so loosely that nobody's quite sure what the speaker is implying). The Nazis sort of used it to suggest Scandinavian - blond, blue-eyed - but for practical purposes it just meant white non-Jewish.

[Lou Knee]

written by Pastor Niemoeller circa 1942/43 (a german priest)

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not Jewish.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Catholics and I did not speak out because I was not a Catholic

Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me

[shammydodger]

Joko

Hitler's ancestry is still a matter for conjecture. It is still a posibility (that has not been positively discounted) taht he was at least one quarter Jewish. His father, Alois, was "legitimised" and given the surname Hitler, although there is much evidence that he was, in fact, born a Schickelgruber. If it could be proved that he was, indeed, part Jewish, the psychiatrists would have a field day.

[shammydodger]

Regarding the original question:

How many people today in Britain believe, for the most part, what they read in the Sun, the Mirror, the Star?

There's your answer.

The masses will generally believe what they are told. They pay for what they are being told, so they want to believe it. There is the discerning minority, which can think beyond the 30 seconds of the "Big Brother" update. The rest will tend to want to reinforce their own prejudices.

[pugwashjw]

Many people forget that Jehovah's Witnesses were also in the death camps. The big difference between them and the Jews was that just by signing a paper giving up their religion, they could be released. None signed...and they died with the Jews in the gas chambers. What should be asked is " What was the Catholic church doing about it??? nothing.

A report; Auschwitz: where was the church?
Pope Benedict XVI asks on his visit to Auschwitz why God allowed such "unprecedented horror" ( The Age, 30/5).
The 78-year-old German pontiff, however, should know far better. Roman Catholic bishops in Germany at the time were openly supportive of Hitler's policies towards the Jews, to the point that many were photographed offering him the customary Nazi salute.
Moreover, when Hitler declared to the assembled masses that "I have been sent by God and I have come to complete Jesus' mission", where was the Catholic Church to condemn such an anti-Semitic reading of the Christian New Testament?
The truth is that this is not a question of why God allowed such "unprecedented horror", but a question of why the church still fails to confront the fact that it was complicit in the greatest crime in human history.
Reverend Dr Vincent Zankin, Rivett, ACT