We’re seeing in the US that majority of the people are being apathetic or ignorant to what is going on as it doesn’t directly affect them, and others are pointing out that we’re on the same route as Germany. Once Hitler seized power and then later when the county split, what was life like for those people that didn’t say or do anything? Assuming they weren’t in a targeted class, did they just go on and live their lives normally? I know there was a drop in the quality of living for them, but did they not know any better? Was it a state of constant fear, or was there “no war in Ba Sing Se”

I’m just curious what majority of the population here would potentially experience.

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
      11·
      3 days ago

      Well, entire books have been written about this topic, so it’s difficult to answer this in a Lemmy comment. The main division is between the pre-war years and the WW2 years. War is rarely popular, especially not total war. But a dictatorship can be popular if it can convince the public that it’s serving the interests of the people, and that was certainly the case in the 1930s in Germany.

      Your OP mentions that “there was a drop in the quality of living for them”; I don’t think this is true. People (everywhere) overall tend to care more about economics and personal well-being than civil liberties, and for many ordinary German people, Hitler’s policies (before the war) were (or at least: were perceived as) beneficial in terms of personal well-being. We find it obvious in hindsight that passing laws such as “the executive branch gets to pass any law it likes including laws that violate the constitution” or “all parties except the NSDAP are hereby banned” are awful examples of authoritarianism, it was not obvious to the people living at the time who hadn’t been used to a parliamentary republic for a long time yet.

      Here are a few links that may help your understanding:

    • starlinguk@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 days ago

      Looks up Time Ghost on YouTube. They have tons and tons of information, including videos about the human side of WW2 and living in Nazi Germany.

      Anyhoo, both my in laws nearly starved to death. I don’t know what happened to their parents. Since it is never mentioned, I’m guessing they weren’t exactly in the resistance.