The Fall of the Savior

Hitler, who was once seen as a god-like savior for the German people, found it difficult to keep up this façade forever. At first the German people saw Hitler and the Nazi party as a political power that would unify the nation and lead them out of the depression that was the Weimar Republic. At first, everything seemed like it was as planned. Hitler helped with the unemployment problem with the building of the Autoban and his marches throughout the nation brought along a sense of unity for all parts of Germany. When the German army took over France in a mere few days, the Nazi supporters of Germany felt like they made the right decision. However, as time passed and the war kept raging on, the Germans who remembered the hardships of war from World War I and the ones experiencing it for the first time were starting to become sick of this mission.

At first they blamed the Nazi party for their woes and could not bring themselves to blame Hitler for all the failures occurring. They made up excuses for him and often blamed the Nazi party for their struggles, which wasn’t too difficult since the Nazi officers were not all to popular amongst the civilians around Germany. As the war went on however, even the Fuhrer wasn’t saved from ridicule: “Even the Fuhrer has lost much sympathy among the people because he has apparently let himself be taken in by his Party people and does not seem to notice what things are like in the State today.” (199) Since Hitler was at last attached to something negative that was going on with Germany, due to the length and heavy casualties of the war, he was no longer a savior. Once people were no longer afraid to talk ill about Hitler, the power he once had over them immediately diminished and the fall of Hitler and the Nazi party began.