The temptation before 1933 was to believe in Hitler as a savior, to believe in a national rebirth. The path to National Socialism led through a wasteland of personal fears, collective anxiety, and resentments. The temptation was to surrender oneself to a dictator, to believe in a miracle. Hitler evoked human will and divine providence. The religious-mystical element in National Socialism was uncannily appealing to unpolitical people, to unrealistic people at odds with their world and accustomed perhaps to the dream of heroic irrationalism. The temptation was to abandon oneself to national delirium— despite (or even because of) the threat of violence.
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About Theodore Zeldin
Theodore Zeldin was a contemporary historian and academic. Theodore Zeldin is a British historian and current Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is the author of A History of French Passions, a quotidian history of the French people, as well as An Intimate History of Humanity. Read more on Wikipedia →