“I had sort of imbibed it from morning till night. I had drunken it, I had eaten it, it was part of my life,” Peter later recalled.
“By the time the war ended in 1945, when I was 15, I had become a Nazi without ever really being aware that I was one.”
Extremist groups today prey upon vulnerable young people. They seek to shape minds and win followers by introducing antisemitic stereotypes, racism, and conspiracy theories—often inspired by Nazi ideology.
They also teach young people to believe they are part of something important, something bigger than themselves.
Peter recalled feeling that way.
“Hitler came along to lift Germany out of this muck and mire, and bring it back to greatness, and we felt that we were part of that, and we were very proud of that.”
It wasn’t until years after World War II that Peter understood that he had become radicalized. He finally believed that his fellow Germans were responsible for the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. Peter immigrated to the United States and later became a history professor.
Watch live on Facebook on January 12 at noon ET to learn what Holocaust history can teach us about the dangers of normalizing extremist beliefs.
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Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 119-5592-14A / CC-BY-SA 3.0
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