Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [142]
It was from this crucible of ignominy, suffering, and suppressed rage that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis emerged. Spewing a combination of Aryan supremacy, conspiracy theories about Jewish-Communist plots, and calls for extermination of racial inferiors, Hitler promised a return to the primordial German past and with it the rise of an all-powerful expansionist German state under his leadership. Hitler and his supporters lashed out at Jews, Communists, Slavs, homosexuals, and anyone else not sufficiently “German,” blaming them for the country's runaway inflation, massive unemployment, and diminished international standing. Hitler's bombastic rhetoric of racial supremacy proved to be a popular draw at Nazi speeches. One repeated charge was that minorities had “stabbed Germany in the back,” a claim the Nazis used to explain how Germany could have lost the Great War despite never having fallen victim to a ground invasion.
In the 1920s and early 1930s, few German politicians thought the Nazis posed any serious threat of taking power. But by building a coalition that encompassed big business, the military, and above all the middle class, the Nazis grew from a group of back-alley brawlers to a broad-based movement that succeeded in winning 43 percent of the German vote in 1932, paving the way for Hitler to become Germany's next chancellor in 1933.4
It is almost trivializing to call the Nazi regime “intolerant.” Racial hatred pervaded every aspect of Nazi policy, from health to agriculture to defense. Precisely because its principal commitment was to German nationalism, the Nazi Party had little need for an economic policy. (Once heard at a Nazi gathering: “We don't want higher bread prices! We don't want lower bread prices! We don't want unchanged bread prices! We want National Socialist bread prices!”) The historians Roderick Stackelberg and Sally Winkle have summarized the singular focus of Nazi policy: “Hitler had no vision of domestic social reform other than the elimination of Jews and all forms of diversity and dissent from German society, the creation of an authoritarian system based on race, and the preparation of the populace for war.”
While Jews were the primary targets of Nazi fanaticism, they were hardly alone. Gypsies, Poles, gays, the disabled, the sick, and various other groups were also singled out for removal to concentration camps, forced labor, and arbitrary execution. At Nazism's core was a belief in the unquestionable supremacy of Aryans—the “master race”—and their proper role as rulers of the earth.5
THE COSTS OF INTOLERANCE
The Nazis’ persecution of Jews and other groups enriched the party and financed the German war machine—but only for a fleeting historical moment. First, Jewish banks and businesses were expropriated by the state. Then, as Jews were rounded up and sent to ghettos or concentration camps, their valuables—pocket watches, gold necklaces, earrings, brooches, bracelets, and diamond rings—were confiscated. Jewish homes, cars, art collections, and “great wads of banknotes” were seized. Finally, special SS squads were charged with pulling gold fillings from the mouths of Jews sent to the gas chambers—sometimes even before the victims were killed. These fillings were melted down and, along with the rest of the bounty, deposited in a secret Reichsbank account under the cover name “Max Heiliger.”6
Quickly, however, the Nazis’ commitment to the extinction of “inferior” peoples came to cost the regime in crucial ways. To begin with, untold resources, time, and even talent were required to implement the deaths of those who could not be tolerated in the “New Order.” A vast bureaucracy had to be organized to locate, count, and classify Jews according to minutely defined blood-percentage