Nazi Strengths and Opposition Weaknesses

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Mark Herbert                10GR

Nazi Strengths

Hitler’s Speaking Skills

Hitler’s ability to speak to thousands of people at a time was a very important factor for the Nazis. He was able to change and influence peoples ideas by the power of his speech. Hitler had a very shrill and clear voice, which made it easy to understand. Even when people could not see him he was still able to influence them over the radio. Hitler also strongly believed in what he spoke about this only added to the power and conviction of his speeches.

There is quite a lot of evidence supporting Hitler’s speech, which goes to prove how influential it was. One American intelligence agent said “His ability to influence a popular assembly is uncanny…” he then goes on to say “Adolf Hitler has been the dominating force in the movement” Another source is from a man who attended Hitler’s meetings says how Hitler knew what to say “Hitler knew how to whip up those crowds jammed closely in a cloud of cigarette smoke”. The American report is especially significant because it shows that even before the Nazis were a large party the Americans deemed Hitler important enough to be spied on.

Propaganda Campaigns 

The Nazis propaganda was incredibly successful Hitler had appointed Josef Goebals as the man in charge of Nazi propaganda he pioneered many new techniques in his line of work such as posters, leaflets, films etc. Having an excellent propaganda regime was important because it let the Nazis leap over competition in the race to get support. This was because more people knew about the Nazis so more people went to listen to Hitler to find out more

Though there isn’t much written evidence supporting the success of Goebals methods there are sources showing his work. The posters always show desperate people and Hitler as a ‘shining light, come to rescue them’. In the election posters Hitler is always shown as being good, a strong leader. There are also many posters showing political opponents as being weak and evil. All the Nazi posters showing opponents always put them down.

Violent Treatment Of Their Opposition

Hitler had his own personal guard the S.A or ‘brown shirts’. They were the Nazis own personal army. The soldiers were composed of unemployed workers who the Nazis were giving shelter and food. A lot of the time the S.A were involved in street fights with the communists own ‘Red Fighting League’ though it was fairly one sided as the S.A always had the support of army and police. The S.A also went around beating up communists and Jews they disrupted other political parties meetings as well. This was very useful to Hitler, as his meetings were never disrupted because of his army whereas other parties meetings were. The S.A also gave the Nazis a look of discipline and order. Later on Hitler also introduced the S.S or ‘storm troopers’ who were fanatically loyal to Hitler himself

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People had different views of the S.A and their violence depending on whom they supported, so contrasting evidence was given. Albert Speer wrote in 1931 praised the S.A as “The sight of discipline in a time of chaos.” he later went on to become an important and powerful Nazi leader. This shows that the source is biased, as the man was a strong believer of the Nazis. Another source was from an Englishman’s memories from when he was living in Berlin in 1932 so you can expect the source to also be biased. “All three flung themselves on the young ...

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