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One in four Germans see positive side of Nazis, poll finds
A quarter of Germans believe aspects of the Nazi era were positive, according to a poll published after a dispute about the Nazis and their attitude towards the family.
Asked whether National Socialism was wholly negative or had some good points, 25% of respondents to the Forsa institute poll said yes, while 70% said no.
The poll was published in Stern magazine to accompany an essay on “Why every fourth German still believes National Socialism had its good sides”. It comes after a debate sparked last month by a television presenter who said the Nazis’ attitude towards the family had been positive. Eva Herman, 48, was sacked from her role as a newsreader by public broadcaster NDR after her comments prompted an outcry.
Germans were still deeply insecure about how to view their past, according to the magazine. The older the respondents, the higher their acceptance was of the Nazi regime. Of the over 60s, 37% answered positively.
“It would appear that a lot of people think like Eva Herman, but most of them don’t say it into a microphone,” the magazine wrote.
The poll has drawn sharp criticism from the Central Council of Jews. Its vice president, Dieter Graumann, called it a warning sign and said it was “ugly, disastrous and it makes me sad and angry”.
“It shows just what a tall task schools (and) youth workers … have in front of them,” he told German news website Netzeitung.
Volker Beck of the Greens said it was a slap in the face to those who thought Germans were confronted excessively with the Nazi past.
“This poll shows those who repeatedly criticise schools for teaching too much about the Third Reich are wrong,” he said. “It is particularly alarming that younger people are increasingly positive about National Socialism.”
Herman was quoted as saying that although there was “much that was very bad, for example Adolf Hitler,” the Nazi era produced good things, “such as the high regard for the mother”. What makes her remarks particularly taboo in German society is that the Nazis awarded mothers who produced large families medals of honour for their contribution to increasing the aryan race.
The magazine said Germans suppressed the extent to which Nazi-era laws and legacies shaped their lives, and its condemnation of Herman was hypocritical. “Hitler still reigns,” it wrote, highlighting existing laws governing everything from chimney sweeps to maternity leave, which originated in the Nazi era.
“Hitler left the world much more than Auschwitz and the autobahns, but it’s something people gladly forget or suppress,” it wrote.
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