Many people seem to believe that the Nazis were ‘leftist’ in some way, often pointing to their name as proof. While “socialism” was indeed part of the Nazi Party’s official name—the National Socialist German Workers’ Party—this label was a calculated propaganda tool aimed at attracting working-class support and creating a false sense of solidarity with other movements. In practice, Nazi policies were fundamentally anti-socialist and anti-liberal from their inception.
Once in power, they demonstrated this by immediately targeting socialists and communists, stripping them of their positions and forcing them to either pledge loyalty to the Nazis, or flee. They were followed swiftly by academics, artists, and intellectuals who opposed their authoritarian views. Rather than upholding their fledgling constitution’s protections and the rule of law, they systematically expanded executive powers, demanded absolute loyalty from all party members, and ruthlessly suppressed all dissent, both internal and external. Only after eliminating these progressive, protective forces did the full persecution of the Jews begin in earnest.
It is clear that above all, they cultivated fear: fear about the economy, fear of the decay of national heritage, fear of all things non-German, and, of course, fear of the Jews. They denounced all dissenting voices as abominations and threats to national and cultural values. In essence, they labeled everyone else an enemy and positioned themselves as the nation’s only salvation—a hallmark of authoritarian regimes throughout history.
Thus, through systematic subterfuge, direct connections with the country’s most powerful business owners, and control over the media, a government that was previously considered progressive and liberal, was gradually transformed into a regime that perpetrated one of the most horrific genocides in history.
