This is kind of a spin off of Roadkill's post about the Eastern Front in WWII.

I still find documentaries, books, and movies about the Nazi regime and the individual soldiers and sailors lives fascinating. One of my favorite movies is the original German version of Das Boot. Downfall was another good one. The book The Admiral's Wolf Pack and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich are both in my library.

I think what fascinates me about it is:

1. How a radically insane Corporal became a dictator over an extremely intelligent population.
2. How the Nazi war machine was able to almost singlehandedly transform the world into the jet age and the space age. (If they had more time no telling what they would have done.)
3. How the Nazi war machine was able totally transform the way war was fought and has been fought since WWII.
4. How this relatively small country almost conquered the world.
5. How this extremely intelligent population was convinced that exterminating an entire race of other people was not only a good idea, but needed to be done, and was actually attempted.

I think that when we see Nazi Germany we see ourselves. We see how possibly any of us could get caught up in a "mob mentality" type of group think. We say, "Oh hell no, there's no way I could get caught up in anything like that." But all you have to do is look at history and yes... It is totally possible, because it has happened, and on more than one occasion.

Whatever else you may say about the man, Hitler motivated people in ways nobody has been able to since.

What I've never understood is the hate between Socialist Nazis and Communists. From where I'm sitting, it's about the same thing.

There's not. Ultimately all communist governments end up as a fascist dictatorship. Look at Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, etc...

Yet they argue amongst themselves whether a Maoist or a Leninist or a Stalinist is right. I’ve never understood it but there are differences even so slight. I think it’s more of a narcissistic perspective of one being more right than the others.

The only thing that fascinates me about them is the scientist and the things they were able to accomplish that were leaps and bounds ahead of their time

As you mentioned how can such an intelligent society be swayed so easily

I’ve mentioned it numerous times on here
The Third Wave experiment proved this.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(experiment)

I enjoy watching documentaries about the German army and their ability to fight until the last man is astonishing. Their complete disregard for human life is something I cannot comprehend. They were an army manipulated by Hitler to commit atrocities against humanity that I hope will never be repeated. Millions of women and children were killed based on his orders to annihilate the Jewish population. Many times watching the documentaries you will see up-close faces of the German soldiers and there is simply no expression. They have a look as if they are the Walking Dead. If Hell has a bottom pit, this is where Hitler will be found. When you have a minute, just think how close he really came to ruling the world had he slowed down his attempt to do so. His biggest mistake was wanting it all "right now, at any cost".

Ironically, their technology that led to nuclear weapons has kept it from happening again. The certainty of nuclear annihilation is a very strong deterrent to attempting world domination. But, I am convinced that it will happen again, and will result in nuclear holocaust when it does.

There a many parallels to our society today

From the debauchery of the Weimar Republic and the enlightenment of that era to our society todays influence of enlightenment
The changes begin with the arts, they question normalcy of a society and then challenge it to bring about change. Pop Culture is paramount with change. Propaganda is important part of the equation. The news reports and toes the line for what the powers that be want. Then identify the target to focus and redirect the masses in a direction. Gives them personal cause and acceptance to be a part of a group so well meaning. A very powerful attribute that’s easily accomplished by grooming/nudging in a certain direction.

MAGA is the code word off of the day. The Tea Party was the code word under Obama.
Create and direct anguish against their foe, all of their ills. It’s their fault your losing or or feel threatened. It’s no different than what Hitler did.

A Cult of Personality styled leader comes to power. They are very charismatic and wonderfully gifted with their words. That’s what makes them so dangerous. Obama was ours, found it interesting that Cult of Personality was Obama’s song and even Living Color played at some of Obamas events. The masses miss it often like when republicans used Born in the USA was a song about Americanism at its finest when it was actually the opposite. 😝

You can look back at our history for the 60s on. I’m sure you can go back and see it but that’s when I really saw today’s situation start developing. The Black Panthers movement is like today’s BLM movement. All based on Marxist principles and discipline

Hitler identified the Jews as all the ills of the German people. Jews had all the money and power and kept the average German down.
That’s all it took.

The Jews were the boogeyman, bottom line.

While a German scientist did discover nuclear fission, if I remember correctly when the allies finally conquered Germany we found that they were no where near as close to developing a nuclear bomb as we were.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nuclear_program_during_World_War_II#:~:text=The%20scholarly%20consensus%20is%20that,close%20to%20producing%20nuclear%20weapons.

Now what they did have in advance of us was a ballistic missile system. Hence "Project Paperclip."

As big and strong and intelligent as the German army was, it wasn’t when it came to fighting on two fronts. When I think of WWII, Hitler and his army I think of how great good is over evil. The main motivator of good is the belief in God.

Had Hitler allied with Russia instead of fighting them, the allies would have been in a world of chit.

It's ironic how we felt we had God on our side (and I'm not saying we didn't) yet we were allied with the Stalinists, which is probably the most Godless regime ever in existence.

Yes, that is why I said "led" to nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapon science was born in Germany even though they were unable to develop a nuclear weapon during the war. They were trying.

I agree. I was posting that, because most folks thought and still do think that they were on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon when in fact they still had a ways to go. Had the European conflict drug on, I have no doubts we would have nuked Berlin and possibly another German city or two before we unleashed them on Japan.

Irish, your original question was "Why do the Nazis still fascinate us?" I think as Cartervj stated, it has to do with the Jews. There is so much Hitler and his regime did, but the world somehow turns against Jews and to a lesser degree Catholics in this country. I'm not comparing the disdain the world has for Jews to Catholics, I'm only giving a very slight reference. The only other group of people that is being victimized more in America than Catholics are white, heterosexual men and white couples. I digress, I think groups are still bringing them up is from the hatred the Nazis had and they have for Jews, it is somehow ingrained in people to destroy this group, we also know where this comes from because we know the Jews are the Lord's people. We also know it wasn't just the Nazis, but throughout history, Jews have been run out of countries. I think it has more to do with the devil using his minions to still attack what God set apart.

Now, if you want to discuss all the scientific breakthroughs the German War Machine had, that to me is an entirely different topic. Wow, the advancements they had from field artillery (the 88, though the 88 had a problem with hitting in the same area twice because of the chassis it was built on), to the tanks, the planes, the jets, submarines, rockets V1 and V2 etc. Yet, the allies developed liberty ships, the merchant marine was revolutionized, radar, sonar, radio, rubber (this can't be stressed enough with tires for more vehicles and for artillery pieces to stay on point), the Nordan bomb sight, breaking both the German and Japanese codes, napalm, the jeep, the M1 and the proximity fuse and the atomic bomb along with the soldiers and lesser generals and colonels being given leeway to alter plans or methods of attack versus being under Hitler and his distrust of subordinates should be mentioned. Now America had the greatest advantage, that was being away from the theaters of conflict. Yes, we had to have a fantastic merchant marine to get it all there, but we didn't have to consistently rebuild factories, we just focused on turning it all out for ourselves and other allies to use.

Wow, what a topic(s) to delve into Irish!

Nope. There was never a plan to nuke anything in Europe because the assets in just about any German city were too valuable to risk destruction. Dresden got firebombed into dust but the only thing there were war factories. We bitch about bureaucracy today but back then somebody in our war department said "There is too much paperwork in Berlin, we can't afford to risk losing it" and in the process prolonged the War.

We study what frightens us. I don't think Hitler understood that us Americans wouldn't fold like Europe. Plus we had the M1 the 1911 and eventually the atomic bomb.

I highly recommend this book


Ordinary Men

Good point. I guess it came down to who was more evil. Stalinists or the devil himself Hitler.