Final answer:
The Nazis justified their actions through economic manipulation, propaganda, and racial ideologies. They exploited national grievances and dehumanized Jews to gain support for their agenda, leading to the Holocaust.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Nazis were able to justify their actions through a complex blend of historical grievances, propaganda, and racial ideologies. They capitalized on the economic failings of the Weimar Republic, the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty, and the fear of Communist threats to galvanize widespread national support. By exploiting nineteenth-century racial theories and promoting the idea of the Germanic Nordic or Aryan race as superior, they created a nationalistic and racist ideology to validate their pursuit of power and territorial expansion.
Masterful propaganda, spearheaded by figures like Joseph Goebbels, inundated citizens with the narrative that Jews were an existential threat to Germany, promoting their dehumanization and blaming them for Germany's problems. These racially charged messages were coupled with the promise of economic recovery and the alleviation of social despair, further attracting support for the regime's goals. By presenting themselves as the solution to Germany's suffering, the Nazis won over many ordinary Germans through a combination of well-tuned messaging, improvement in employment rates from public works and rearmament, and the revival of national pride.
Indoctrination extended into all forms of media and reinforced three propositions to rationalize their ideology: Jews were a problem, they were subhuman, and their elimination would improve the world. The state's propaganda engine worked tirelessly, exploiting these beliefs to gain acceptance for Nazi policies. Adolf Hitler's charisma and rhetoric solidified these ideas into a movement that culminated in the horrifyingly systematic attempt at genocide known as the Holocaust, resulting in the murder of millions in Europe.