My grandmother grew up in early 1930 (she was born 1926) she told me about her experience as a farmer in a small village.

Early on in Hitler's political career, Germany was poor, especially after WWI. The people were left with a broken economy and pride. If you were poor or working class, it was extremely difficult. And during this time of economic instability, many of the Jewish settlers coming into Germany started out (for the most part) doing well. My Oma (german for grandma ) told me of a Jewish owned butcher shop that forced other German family owned shops to lower prices or out of business all together. At the time by German law, a farmer who raised livestock had to have a butcher process the animal. And (like most family owned business) The Jewish community did a good job consolidating their growing wealth in small towns. Good for them, but if you were a working class German who saw migrants who seemed to be taking over, coupled with the depression at the time? Hitler fed off of the growing resentment, he inspired pride and patriotism in a country that wanted to recover. He promised reform to help Germans. Later my Oma said it started changing. She said at first, things got done. The roads and infrastructure got better, people had more and got more. But slowly the political platform Hitler used to get ahead was becoming more radical. As a farmer in the middle of nowhere with really only local newspapers for information, getting objective information that wasn't heavily spun to the song and dance of German pride was hard (or impossible to come by) Finally when it was at its worse, a family friend (Jewish family with farmland) was forced into "deportation" but my Oma's father (my great grandfather ) offered for the family to stay on an extended part of his land in a shed. What they thought was that the Jewish family just couldn't own the land anymore, but the "deportation" was mandatory. It got very dramatic, small town became a chapter out of America's cold war era, secrets, lies, and not knowing who to trust. The "Police" came one day, and went through my Oma's house, arrested her dad for harboring fugitives of the state (right up there with treason it sounded like) My Oma never knew what became of the Jewish family, they were taken away (they never knew when exactly or where to) and the government confiscated her dad's land as well (their livelihood! ) This happened because of of my great grandfather's nephew, her own cousin who was tight with the Nazi party I guess, turned in his own uncle! That, is when my Oma said she knew something was bad was up. Back in this time, my Oma's family worried about if they would ever get their father or home back. She, her sister, and mother had to stay with her grandparents (okay bear with me, my great grandfather's parents ) it was advised to my Oma's mother that if they wanted any hope of seeing her husband again, that they should appease themselves to the Nazi party. So from there both my Oma and her sister became reserve nurses for the (at the time, German Air Reserves) and after some political kiss-assery on the families part they were able to get their land released back to them (not all of it but a good part of it as a type of civil forfeiture) they had to pay a hefty fine, and two years later her father was released and sent home.

Honestly, from her perspective, it was pure ignorance of the horror going on. Many Germans like her ( every day working class joe the plumber) didn't have a clue other than the eventual rumors. And even then, how could they belive it? It's like finding out there was a prison camp full of methodical killing here in the US. After the American GI's liberated her village, they began to get more information. When my Oma and her family found out, they were in complete shock and disbelief. It was bad, they had that much, but like the rest of the world, they had no real clue till the truth was revealed. My Oma eventually fell in love with and married one American soldiers who liberated her villiage.

Wheew!