TODAY'S QUOTE

"Q: At the beginning of this interview, you said that most grown-ups welcomed Hitler's measures.

A: Yes, clearly. One has to remember that in 1923 we had the inflation. As my father told me, it went so far that people were paid every day and evening, but when they went shopping, their money was already worthless. By the end, the mark had inflated a trillion times. That was crazy, but that's the way it was. Everybody was unhappy. Whoever had money could get by, but normal citizens couldn’t and were naturally angry. Before the Nazis came to power, all kinds of people had taken their own life.

Then Adolf came to power with his new idea. For most that was indeed better. People who hadn't had a job for years had a job. And then the people were all for the system. When someone helps you get out of an emergency situation and into a better life, then you're going to give them your support. Do you think people would then say, "This is all such nonsense. I'm against that"? No. that doesn't happen. How things were done later on is something else. But the people at that time were happy, even full of enthusiasm, and they all joined in.

You have to understand the people. They were from another time than today. First they experienced this unemployment. Nobody had anything. Everything was expensive. And suddenly everything was different. The sun was shining for everybody. Okay, there were some who were completely against the regime, and they were locked up. They ended up in a concentration camp or I don't know where. But, the common masses, let's say for 60 million Germans, that was what the people really wanted." 

From the book: What We Knew Terror, Mass Murder and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany