The Road to Nazism in Milton Meyer's "They Thought They Were Free"
Why did Nazism take root in Germany in 1933? What conditions do and do not move a society in the direction of a repressive fascist dictatorship? They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Meyer, explores the experience of ten "regular" Germans in the years during and leading up to World War II. The book grapples with questions of social responsibility and the moral culpability of the average German, but I read the book with an eye toward the question: what led Germany down its path toward ruin and fascism? How did the German people become so vociferously anti-Semitic and what led the them to support and adore Hitler? There seems to be six political conditions or themes that weave their way through this book to shed light on these questions. Theme 1: A Geopolitics of Siege Milton Meyer repeatedly emphasizes the role that geopolitical pressure played in moving Germany toward Nazism. Specifically, the German people felt encircled by enemies and oppressed