To control or appease: two different approaches made by Hitler to two different groups

If we consider who didn’t vote for Hitler, two groups stand out: Catholics and Socialists. What is interesting is that Hitler set about dealing with them in very different ways. The Catholics he attempted to appease with his concordat with the Pope, whereas he crushed the Socialists.

The Nazis didn’t like to refer to themselves as a party, they were a “movement”. This lifted them above party politics and into the realm of faith. Nazism was something to believe in heart and soul, something to dedicate one’s life to and live according to its principles. But religious faith was hard to displace, it meant a loyalty to something “above” the affairs of men, and so it had to be treated with great care. Consequently, the Nazis sought, at least at first, an accommodation with the Catholic Church. Besides, although there were fundamental differences between the Nazi’s, determined on war and conquest, and a peace-loving Church preaching humility, there was also some common ground. Both believed in traditional family values and a traditional role for women in the family. His agreement with the Pope left the Catholic Church alone and allowed them to maintain control of Catholic schools as well as Catholic youth groups. In return, the Church promised to keep out of politics. Of course, Hitler was to go back on his word and would remove the Church’s influence in education, ban the Catholic youth groups and individual bishops and priests would be persecuted, but this would be later, when Hitler was more firmly in control. So, the Catholic Church, at least in the first instance was appeased.

The Socialists, however, were to be crushed. Hitler first moved against the Communist Party. After the Reichstag fire, which served to legitimise his actions, he banned the party and sent its leaders to concentration camps. He then moved against the Socialists, banning them as well as all other parties, as he established a single-party state. He also banned free trade unions, replacing them with a Nazi-controlled union, the Labour Front. He did try to appease the workers, though, with policies like Winter Relief, Strength Through Joy and the Beauty of Labour, and of course, he did drastically reduce unemployment. But the Left had to be destroyed if he was to convert Germans to Nazism and this could be done immediately. Socialists without their leaders would be cowered, and though they would still be socialists and perhaps a majority would never be converted, this the Nazis could live with. They would convert their sons and daughters and the Thousand-Year Reich would thrive.