24/7 Hate

How did 1930s Germany come to hate the Jews with a white-hot heat fanaticism? That would be a lesson in and of itself on how to generate a national hatred. The answer is in the pages of history for all to see. 

With the election of Hitler, hatred for the Jews was at the top of his agenda. Because of Germany's defeat in WWI and it's subsequent humiliation in the treaty, Hitler had come to believe that ALL of Germany's troubles, including the economic ones, came as a result of his imagined worldwide Jewish conspiracy. His hatred was both deep and toxic. 

Hitler's pathological agenda was to infect Germany with his toxicity. To do so, he and his circle of evil men concocted a plan for the  national saturation of hatred. The government began to write repetitive articles espousing one idea: all Jews are evil. 

Then there was a special group at the ready: They were called the Storm Troopers, AKA "The Brown Shirts," they were "a 2,000 strong para-military force organized to keep order with their fists at Nazi meetings,to disrupt their opponents and to keep the Nazi party in the public eye. Most recruits were unemployed social misfits, disaffected former servicemen or thugs. By 1934 membership had risen to 2 million."

Storm Troopers were stationed in front of Jewish businesses to intimidate any customers who dared to approach the stores so as to enforce a government encouraged boycott. The troopers also painted the Star of David on Jewish storefronts for identification purposes. 

But the boycott was met by an apathetic Germany. One of the members of the circle of evil, Joseph Goebbels, wanted massive support for his boycott but wasn't getting it. He had to do something else. He came to the conclusion that his poisonous antisemitism couldn't be transferred to the Germans overnight, so he had to make the transfer drip-by-drip.The only thing he needed were the tools.

Hitler provided the tools by nationalizing the newspapers, the movies, and Marconi's invention, the radio. Goebbels seized all the radio stations. "In the 1930s, everyone wanted a radio. . . The still-new invention brought news, music, dramas, and comedy right into the home. 

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels saw its potential to transmit Nazi messages into the daily lives of Germans. The only hurdle was producing and disseminating the devices on a mass scale. Under Goebbels’s direction the “people’s receiver,” was born. “Now, even workers could afford this cheaper model. Step by step, radio emerged in the villages as electrification made rapid progress.”  

Now, hatred for the Jews could be beamed into every German home all night and every day. It was 24/7 hate. Now families could hear Hitler's speeches in real time. The receivers also provided music, so the Germans were all for it, no matter what else it brought into their homes. But Goebbels had a problem. How could he know they were listening? To ensure the ears of the population were listening, agents of the government checked up on people in their homes.

The tools were now in place. The result was that when the German read a newspaper, went to a movie, or turned on his radio, he heard the same message over and over and over again: all Jews were evil and here's the proof. 

There is a principle in the field of psychology: "Repetition makes a fact seem more true, regardless of whether it is or not. 'Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth,' is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels." (Psychologist Tom Stafford)

Two cases in point will suffice to show that this technique lives on: how many times have we heard these two words applied to America: "systemic racism." How many times have we heard, "greedy capitalist?" How many times have we heard that the rich should "pay their fair share," (which is never defined, merely repeated)." How many times have we heard "gender affirming care"? How many times have we heard, "A woman's right to choose"? How many times have we heard abortion described as "women's health care"? 

Those terms have been burned into our national consciousness by repetition. We have no way of counting the number because they're used in newspapers, movies, TV shows, the local and national news, in panel discussions, by the medical profession, and, and, and. . .  they are everywhere. 

The national hatred infected academia as news reels in Germany showed students making bonfires out of the books of Jewish authors. 

Then, another aspect of the strategy in Germany was to demonize the Jews. They did this by word and pictures. The drawings on posters and in textbooks were those of Jews as monsters with huge, out of proportion hooked noses and stomachs. 

The demonization strategy lives on. Groups of concerned parents opposing pornography in school libraries are labelled as "book banners" or even "domestic terrorists" and "opponents of democracy, fascists."

The child of the German hatred was violence. Goebbels only needed an opportunity to strike against the Jews, and that came with the Nuremberg rallies. These were military gatherings that would involve hundreds of thousands of Nazis, including members of the Party, armed forces, and youth groups.They were to participate in pre-planned theater writ large.

"The rallies created a feeling of control from the center. This also meant that the spectators were constantly under the watchful eyes of the Party. The rallies were precisely planned out which conveyed a feeling of absolute control from within the Nazi party, and must have appeared to be quite menacing. 

"Through their spectacular nature, the Nuremberg rallies also reinforced the Nazi ideology to the people within Germany, as well as to other countries. With the sheer size and nationalistic feeling of the rallies, the Nazis appeared to be extremely well organized. This would have been appealing to the German people, who were wanting strong and empowering leadership to rebuild Germany. 

"This would have made the Nazis seem threatening to other countries. With an arena holding 400,000 people, and the light display visible from 62 miles away, the power of the Nazis seemed immense."

The Nuremberg Rallies had a number of features: Nazis in immaculate military dress, marches by soldiers with flags, accompanied by drums, torchlight processions, and speeches by Hitler and other leading Nazis. The sights, the masses, and sounds of the martial music of these would roil the emotional fervor of the masses as was the government's intent. 

Goebbels was now set to move against the Jews.

Goebbels delivered a blistering speech attacking the Jews, declaring that they were "an enemy of the state." He wanted all Jews out of Germany. The crowds were being primed for action against the Jew and were eager to liberate the hate burning inside them. 

Thus, the fury of  "Chrystal Night" was unleashed on November 9-10, 1938. The Nazis torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools, businesses, and killed nearly a hundred Jews. They also arrested and sent about 30,000 Jewish men to concentration  camps 

It was was also known as, "The Night of Broken Glass" because of the shattered glass from the windows of Jewish buildings. They clubbed Jews to death on the streets. They destroyed over 7,000 Jewish businesses. 

In Austria, when a Jew shot a German diplomat, Goebbels didn't waste the emergency; he broadcast the word that no German was safe from the Jews.  There were orders to hold back the police and let the attacks on the Jews continue. Violence in the streets against the Jews increased. The police let the people have their way against the Jews and the people were encouraged to loot the Jews and turn the ill gotten gains over to the state. As one author wrote, "The SS, dressed as private citizens, unleashed hell on the Jews." 

Goebbels did the outrageous: he forced the Jews to pay for the destruction perpetrated upon them through taxation for the damages.

 The hate campaign had worked. Even the Nazi elite were shocked at the destruction of life and property. Hatred of the Jews now consumed the nation.

But the Nazis had forgotten or  ignored Genesis 12:3: "Those who curse[the Jews] God will curse." History records God's cursing in the destruction of the nation coming through WWII. The following summary will suffice:

"Capt. Albert R. Behnke, a U.S. Navy medical doctor, stated in regard to Germany: “From 1945 to the middle of 1948 one saw the probable collapse, disintegration and destruction of a whole nation…Germany was subject to physical and psychic trauma unparalleled in history.”