What separates a human society from a flock of sheep or a herd of cattle? According to Shirer, not a whole lot—at least, not if the human society in question is the one that flourished in Nazi Germany. The German people don't come off too well in Shirer's book. He repeatedly characterizes the German public as being all too eager to give up its independence to their mesmerizing Fuehrer. As he tries to explain how a man like Hitler could come to wield so much power over a nation, Shirer concludes that the German people must have willingly given it to him.
In making his argument in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer turns to German history as well as Nazi ideas about racial purity and social structure. He can't understand how one of the great cultured nations of western civilization turned into a society that went along with the brutal destruction of non-Aryans, and lot their identity in the mass hysteria of Nazism.
Personally, we'd say it's more lemmings than anything else.
Questions About Society and Class
- Hitler chose the title Fuehrer—leader—for himself as he built Nazi Germany. What does that imply about Hitler's own view of the German people?
- According to the historical records that Shirer refers to throughout The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, what percentage of German people actually supported the Nazi Party as it rose to power?
- In Shirer's view, what could the Germans themselves have done to oust Hitler from power once he'd seized control?
Chew on This
By dehumanizing the German people by comparing them to sheep and cattle, Shirer uses rhetoric that's pretty similar that used by the Nazis themselves.
The Germans went along with the Nazi program because they saw what happened to people who didn't.