Boyle; Totalitarianism wins.

I’d say Hitler used mostly totalitarian methods to maintain his regime, but that some of Hitler’s methods allowed for a symbiotic relationship with the people, and therefore allowed for aspects of a dictatorship by choice.
To begin, I’ll speak only of Hitler’s use of totalitarianism. First of all, Hitler initially utilized concentration camps for any political opposition the party encountered (1). This was to ultimately rule out any other options, and therefore create a single party state, which is an aspect of a totalitarian rule. And, by eliminating his opposition, Hitler disabled any possible encounters with counter-arguments to his ideas, therefore allowing himself more complete control. In short, the people had nowhere else to look to for choices, and therefore the Nazi party remained in power whether people liked it or not. Due to the Gestapo, though, it would appear that the people were forced to either like it, or suffer for the alternate choice. The Gestapo (secret police of the Nazi regime) was a rather small group of police for its impact, but found another way to maintain the fear and lack of opposition; neighbors (2). Should a resident be different, his or her peers could write in denunciations, which could ultimately lead to this person’s questioning and arrest (2). I also take quite a bit of stock in the tactic of “divide and conquer,” as, in this case, the Gestapo was able to successfully breed distrust in communities, therefore forcing the people to rely on normalcy and government protection. I have some reservations about this, but I’ll get to those in a while. Generally, the Gestapo kept people afraid of deviating from the Nazi ideals, and that was an important totalitarian factor for Hitler to maintain his regime.
Lastly, in support of Hitler’s totalitarian methods of maintenance, was the propaganda, especially surrounding Josef Goebbels. Not only did Goebbels support the regime in general propaganda attempts, such as German films speaking against the Jewish or poster propaganda (2). He was also partly responsible for Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht occurred on the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, and shortly after the assassination of a German in France (2). This assassination was dealt by the hands of a Jew (2). On Kristallnacht, Goebbels asked to release the Storm Troopers, and these men killed hundreds of Jews (2). I would assume that this was meant in part as a lesson to the people, and in part as a vengeful act against the Jewish community. By making an example of hundreds of Jews for one’s mistake, Goebbels sent a message of fear to those who hadn’t yet accepted Hitler’s regime. It seems to me that Goebbels wanted people to know that, in a community, one’s mistake could cost everyone greatly. This would likely cost many of those who opposed to regime to lose connections with people, once again touching on the idea of dividing then conquering. By dividing those who opposed the regime from connections, it created a situation in which the opposition was weak and could not act in such a way that would impact the regime.
But, there are a few places in which I would say that Hitler gained power by citizen choice, rather than the aforementioned totalitarian methods. First of all, the unemployment rates are a huge tell that people did, in fact, want the Nazi party in power in the beginning of Hitler’s regime. Seeing as the unemployment rates decreased during his time (1), I would say that there were probably people who supported Hitler’s regime and would have continued to support it, totalitarian methods or none. The Gestapo, as I mentioned before, did also support some symbiotic behavior in their methods. By allowing people to denunciate others, it seems to me as though the citizens were also benefitting. Different people make “normal” people nervous, sometimes. It’s understandable that, despite having done nothing wrong, a citizen may be put under closer inspection simply because his/her neighbors didn’t like him/her, and I feel that this may have made the citizens feel more powerful. It’s a simple trick when in a position of instable power that one must, every once in a while, “throw the people a bone,” to make them feel as though they still maintain some of the control. The Gestapo’s denunciation process gave the people that small amount of power necessary. In this way, I would say that the people benefitted and, therefore, were somewhat allowing for Hitler to maintain his regime. Generally speaking, though, his totalitarian methods disallowed any attempts to stop him. I can’t see how the choices people made would have made much of a difference, once Hitler had established his regime.
Therefore, Hitler’s use of totalitarianism was prominent among other tactics in respect to his ability to maintain his regime, and allowed it, in my opinion, to the greatest extent.

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