Everyday Conformity in Nazi Germany

Abstract

Simply stated, modern dictatorships rely on mass participation. Scholars including Jie-Hyun Lim contend that this “backing from below” (Lim 2010, p. 3) is a constituent element of all forms of mass dictatorship. However, this assertion requires closer analysis of concrete forms of participation such as the autonomy of mobilized men and women. These regimes pressured their citizens to conform politically, socially and sexually: one was either part of the “in-group” or an outsider and thus an enemy of the regime. From the repudiation of homosexuals in Fascist Italy (Benadusi 2012) to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany (Wildt 2012), “out-groups” faced serious repression. Indeed, Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich represent an undisputed and international point of reference on dictatorship. Other examples, such as Mussolini’s Fascism in Italy, Stalinism and Maoism were also highly (self-)destructive. Hence, violence is another defining component of mass dictatorship, and raises additional key questions: How did in-groups cope with routine violence? What were the ways in which ordinary citizens conformed to or resisted these norms? Finally, how did they handle social pressure in their everyday lives? In order to answer these questions, it is particularly important to look at the nascent phase of dictatorial regimes, when these administrations established standards for the society they envisioned. Yet ordinary citizens under the thumb of these mass dictatorships also shaped behavioral paradigms.