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How did governments convince the perpetrators who were gulity of mass killings in...

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lifeinlove | Student, Undergraduate | Valedictorian

Posted March 21, 2013 at 7:58 AM via web

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How did governments convince the perpetrators who were gulity of mass killings in WWII to do this work?

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pohnpei397 | College Teacher | (Level 3) Distinguished Educator

Posted March 21, 2013 at 1:48 PM (Answer #1)

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Government propaganda helped to push people towards participation in mass killings.  The most blatant example of this was Nazi teaching on race.  The Nazis explicitly set out to teach their citizens that Jews were out to destroy the German race and that Slavs were subhuman and should be cleared out to make way for ethnic Germans.  These teachings helped condition people to be willing to participate in mass killings.

Finally, there was certainly an element of fear involved.  In totalitarian states, it is never safe to defy the government.  Some people participated in these killings because they were afraid not to. 

Thus, the governments persuaded people to participate through propaganda and fear, though there were already prejudices that inclined many to participate without needing to be convinced.

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