People's Perception Holocaust

People’s Perception: Reich or Regime?
Hitler’s effective use of propaganda put a shield over the general population in terms of what they did and did not know. Unfortunately, the number of people who were aware of these atrocities and actually did something to help, was small. The Holocaust lasted twelve years until Hitler was stopped and the concentration camps were liberated. Some important questions to raise are: to what extent were the people actions and mindsets influenced by Hitler’s beliefs? How much did the public actually know about the Holocaust at the time? It can be easily inferred that through the promise of a new Germany, Hitler was able to appear as their savior and at a time of despair, the people turned to him to guide them.
In his speeches, he regarded himself, the Reich, and Germany in a positive light. In 1941, he gave a speech in Munich talking about “the Movement's amazing march to victory, which bore it to the helm of the Reich, to leadership of the nation and its destiny. [It was] a heroic struggle, opposed at its inception by nearly all”. He motivated his followers by focusing on their triumphs and how they were able to overcome obstacles. It made his audience feel like they could accomplish anything, which was to his advantage because it gave him more control and the ability to influence his followers into doing what he wanted. On the other hand, he talked about things such as communism, the Jewish people, and his other racial enemies, in a negative attitude to reflect his hatred towards them. This is shown in his proclamation to the German nation in 1933, “The misery of our people is horrible to behold! Millions of the industrial proletariat are unemployed and starving; the whole of the middle class and the small artisans have been impoverished. When this collapse finally reaches the German peasants, we will be faced with an immeasurable disaster” It is important to note that during 1933, the Communist party was at a steep decline and Hitler despised all of their objectives; at the time of this speech, the party was not officially banned. Here, he emphasised the negative effects of communism and how it was detrimental to the German people. By doing so, he persuaded his audience away from communist ideas because he showed how the party negatively impacted their