re: How did Hitler convince millions of people to commit genocide?

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You need to tread carefully, you're sounding pretty close to a Nazi sympathizer right now

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PC policing things like NAZI support is a threat to correctly understanding history IMO. Did I give any opinion on whether I wish NAZIs would have succeeded or that I think the Jews got what was coming to them? The Holocaust is evil whether the Jews were absolutely no threat or if part of the population were some sort of threat and their solution was to kill the entire race (including civilians, women, and children).

There is something dangerous about the term "scapegoat." It implies that the Holocaust was wrong because all of the German's gripes with the Jews were fabricated. That thought has a brother: that as long as the gripes are legitimate, extermination of an offending race is okay. So it goes.

I think it needs to be looked at through the right context. I know history is written by the victors, but that gets complicated when you then try to talk about objective morality as if there is no bias. The NAZIs were despicable and power hungry and Germany allowed it, but Germany allowed that to happen during a time of war and survival. Its silly to judge that by our mindset now as we are surrounded by countries with a fraction of our military capabilities and no legitimate desire for our resources. We don't know if the same thing could have happened in the US if we had actual threats and the same thing did happen in the Soviet Union.

To answer your question about how Hitler convinced millions of people, go look at a map. Note where Germany is and which countries it is surrounded by. Make note of its natural borders. Then read a little bit of history about the 30 years war and how foreign armies laid waste to the Germanic lands.

The same reason Europeans don't understand our obsession with guns and anti-government power is the same reason we don't understand the early 20th century German mindset. The only real threat America ever faced was itself. We went to war over taxes we felt were unfair. Germans had their cities raped and destroyed by foreign invaders. That will breed some nationalism and suspension of morality if they believe the alternative is going back to the period where their un-united government wasn't strong enough to protect them from those wanting to frick them over.

Imagine what the American population could be convinced to do if they thought people were coming for their guns. Rewind that 70 years before access to diverse media sources. Now consider the difference in immediate threat between guns being taken for the well-being of the people(possibly) vs being in a war with foreign countries who assuredly are not concerned with Germans' wellbeing. Oh yeh, also consider that in America's 230 year history, nobody's ever came for their guns or seriously trampled their rights while Germany had been defeated in a war by foreign armies 2 decades before and feeling the effects in the interim.