Hitler described his early Nazi followers as “little fellow countrymen.”
The Nazi Party began as a true grass-roots organization. They were on the verge of bankruptcy for years on end and depended almost exclusively on nickel and dime (literally) contributions. They had no giant corporate benefactors as is typical in the modern day (85% of all donations these days is spent on lavish fundraising parties for the wealthy – which they then deduct from their taxes, or another net 15% paid for by the taxpayers).
The Nazis were the Workers Party. All people wanted back then, in the aftermath of the widespread deprivations of World War I, was a good job and decent wages to raise a family.
Germans who supported the right-wing Nazis were afraid of the left-wing Communists. There had just been a collapse of the market economy in Russia as that great nation was overwhelmed by zealous Marxist revolutionaries.
Communist groups had rallied support in Germany, their next target for overthrow. Germans feared this inevitable tsunami of tyranny.
The Nazis fought Russia for the entire length of the war.
The rest of the world fought the Communists for the next forty years. We lived in abject fear of the Soviets, every bit as numbing as the early Nazis felt.
We never give the Nazis credit for hobbling the beast, weakening it – otherwise, there would have been no stopping the leviathan of communism.
Hitler’s “little fellow countrymen” feared the Communists. They saw the many Jews in the Communist leadership, saw the historical affinity of Jews for communism, and agreed with Hitler that you cannot stop the Communists unless you first take away their money and power in Germany: the Jews.
Hitler’s people wanted to work, without complications. The Communists insisted that the people who loved to work could do so; by all means – until their heart’s content and their fingers fall off. Those who disliked work, according to Marxist policies, didn’t have to work – they could just live off the hard worker’s sweat and tears.
The Communists needed the hard-working Germans to make their system work. Just like liberals need the hard-working middle class to pay for their whole socialist agenda.