>Hitler didn't have, and didn't need, broad mass appeal because his gangs, first the SA and then the SS, terrorized the people into supporting him
Not really. Germans were mostly thoroughly enthusiastic, and this has been shown in several historical studies of the era.
Hitlers SA actions were about terrorizing communist and liberal dissent, not about terrorizing the large masses.
E.g:"Few twentieth-century political leaders enjoyed greated popularity among their own people than Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s. This remarkable study of the myth that sustained one of the most notorious dictators, and delves into Hitler's extraordinarily powerful hold over the German people"
"Daniel Goldhagen re-visits a question which history has treated as settled, and his research leads him to the inescapble conclusion that none of the answers holds true. That question is: How could the Holocaust happen? His response is an exploration of German society and its ingrained anti-semitism that demands a fundamental revision of our thinking about the years 1933-1945. The author marshals fresh, primary evidence - including extensive testimony from the actual perpetrators - to show that the killers were ordinary Germans who were not compelled to act as they did (they knew they could refuse without retribution) yet they killed willingly..."
"From the Nuremberg Laws to the Olympic Games, Kristallnacht to the Hitler Youth, this gripping account shows how a whole population became enmeshed in a dictatorship that was consumed by hatred and driven by war."
Not really. Germans were mostly thoroughly enthusiastic, and this has been shown in several historical studies of the era.
Hitlers SA actions were about terrorizing communist and liberal dissent, not about terrorizing the large masses.
E.g:"Few twentieth-century political leaders enjoyed greated popularity among their own people than Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s. This remarkable study of the myth that sustained one of the most notorious dictators, and delves into Hitler's extraordinarily powerful hold over the German people"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Hitler-Myth-Image-Reality/dp/019...
"Daniel Goldhagen re-visits a question which history has treated as settled, and his research leads him to the inescapble conclusion that none of the answers holds true. That question is: How could the Holocaust happen? His response is an exploration of German society and its ingrained anti-semitism that demands a fundamental revision of our thinking about the years 1933-1945. The author marshals fresh, primary evidence - including extensive testimony from the actual perpetrators - to show that the killers were ordinary Germans who were not compelled to act as they did (they knew they could refuse without retribution) yet they killed willingly..."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitlers-Willing-Executioners-Ordinar...
"From the Nuremberg Laws to the Olympic Games, Kristallnacht to the Hitler Youth, this gripping account shows how a whole population became enmeshed in a dictatorship that was consumed by hatred and driven by war."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Third-Reich-Power-1933/dp/014100...