From: Heinz
Category: Books
Date: 13 May 2004
Goebbels was what we think of a nasty nazi, but as history casts its blanket on that long ago war, he becomes just another name on a book, and the strange particular power/significance of those time becomes muffled. Now imagine Germany as populated by civilized people like you and me reading Goethe and Schiller, and then think that the Nasties won an election there or at least enough votes to say they had. And then you read Goebbels diaries and he is clearly and surprisingly thuggish and brutal in his thoughts and the words he uses to describe them. He has no veneer of shame and no self knowledge of his infamy. He is a nasty shit racist jew-hater with a crude hero-worship of Hitler and a base lust for power and the destruction of those he vilified as inferior.
So as always when we look closely at The Nazis we are shocked and perplexed and ask How? and How did people support them? and How can people believe these things. The old worn out quesions that still aren't answered.
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