General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJust a reminder, this happened: 'In 1939 the Nazis Held a Rally at Madison Square Garden'
We beat them back then and we'll beat them back again.
msongs
(67,394 posts)raging moderate
(4,297 posts)I always remember that wonderful World War II song. As Winston Churchill once said, "Never, never, never, never, never never give up!"
fightforfreedom
(4,913 posts)They were American citizens , business owners, etc. Unreal. Thanks for the post.
Joinfortmill
(14,413 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)exactly what kind of terror the regime was perpetrating upon its Jewish population.
dalton99a
(81,443 posts)Delphinus
(11,830 posts)people
(624 posts)It is frightening how similar the sentiments are to the Republicans today.
Celerity
(43,299 posts)American Nazis in the 1930sThe German American Bund
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/06/american-nazis-in-the-1930sthe-german-american-bund/529185/
localroger
(3,626 posts)There was a fairly large popular following and there were some very influential people, such as Henry Ford, who idolized Hitler and praised the Nazis. Kristallnacht notwithstanding, I don't think it's fair to say these people knew "exactly" what the Nazis were going to do. That was widely regarded as a targeted action against those Jews who had too much wealth and power. I don't think too many people on this side of the Atlantic realized they were seriously considering a massive technological solution to systematically murder every single Jew (and "defectives" of other types) in the world.
We got into the war not because there was popular dislike of the Nazis, but because they were Japan's allies and therefore complicit in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. For their part the Germans seemed to realize what a disaster this was for them, as even people who were sympathetic to their ideas were disgusted by the sneak attack and it gave those who didn't like what Germany was up to plenty of cause to pursue the European war aggressively. But Pearl Harbor was a surprise to Hitler too, and they dared not risk complaining about it now that they really needed the alliance to keep us distracted.
It was only after the war ended and the revelation of what had happened at the death camps that it became truly unfashionable to express sympathy with the Nazi cause. If they had not murdered so many bona fide innocents in such a horrible manner, it's likely that the Nazi cause would have been rehabilitated in the US within a decade. As it is, people are diligently trying to scrub our collective memory of that knowledge to this day.