You get some crackpot who's a great orator and manipulator, and he can get people to believe stupid ideas and do stupid things. Social Darwinism is a good example. Hitler believed that and got a whole country to go along with his experiment to exterminate Jews. Jim Jones would be another example, who wasn't a Social Darwinist.
Originally Posted by Tiny
not quite true. the average German didn't know about Hitler's death camps. clearly high ranking officers of the Wehrmacht did know and many supported it. Others did not support it but went along with Hitler because he promised to restore Germany as a military power.
toward the end of the war in Europe as camps were liberated US Military commanders like Patton and Eisenhower documented it to ensure the truth was known even to the average German citizen, they had townspeople walk through the camps to see it for themselves. most suspected anyway what was happening.
Patton and Eisenhower and other US senior military knew that given time, there would be those who would claim all of that never happened. there is record of it due to them that can't be denied. and of course there are deniers now. have been for some years. didn't take long did it?