The Authority of the State
Hitler did not become the nation's unrestricted ruler the moment he seized power; he gradually sought to ensure that the nation would completely subordinate itself to his will as soon as possible. He relied on the fact that many did not sympathize with the spirit of rebellion and opposition, appealing instead to the German complex of loyalty and ingrained obedience. His regime was characterized by backwardness and conservative rigidity.
Hitler's approach stemmed from his understanding of traditional German thought, which regards the idea of statehood and the ruling state with profound reverence. During Hitler's era, respect for authority was striking, and the fact that he had acquired power through legal means already neutralized opposition to a significant extent. Citizens longing for orderly lives, who disapproved of the violent methods of the new regime, dared not confront the legitimate authority of the state. They hesitated to cross the boundaries of loyal subservience or break their oaths of allegiance. National interests had to be safeguarded, and the collective cause overshadowed everything else. Many consoled themselves with the notion that they remained in office only to prevent the system from replacing them with even more devoted supporters. In reality, they became increasingly integrated into the well-functioning machinery of the executive power, resigning themselves to the new order.
The state apparatus sought to assign individuals only minor roles within the larger mechanism, turning people into mechanical executors of work operations. These "cog-like" individuals were not expected to think but to avoid thinking; not to have opinions but to know regulations; not to feel but to be insensitive; not to act independently but to submit and obediently carry out orders. The Führerprinzip (leader principle) buried individual responsibility, conscience, and moral inhibitions so deeply within the system's impersonality that accountability was either lost or transferred to the Führer. This allowed people to shed all inhibitions. Thinking was soon replaced by loyalty and blind obedience.
In a system where laws legitimized crimes, disapproving of such acts meant opposing the laws themselves. The creators of decrees, distanced from the scenes of action, experienced no pangs of conscience. This system suppressed human virtues. People carried out assigned tasks mechanically and obediently, with many sincerely convinced that they were serving a good cause. The most heinous atrocities were committed by these individuals in a spirit of absolute obedience and subordination, believing they acted with good intentions. They did not see themselves as criminals, yet these often orderly, average individuals were indeed perpetrators of evil. Criminal tendencies begin to emerge the moment one relinquishes the right to think and make independent judgments, seeks to shift responsibility onto others, or surrenders human independence, replacing it with unthinking subordination and obedience.
Dusan Hamsik "A középszerűség géniusza", Kozmosz könyvek 1968