“Beneath the surface, however, Germany
had undergone a rapid and sweeping revolution that reached deep into the fabric of daily life. It had occurred quietly and largely
out of easy view. At the core was a government campaign called Gleichschaltung
– meaning ‘Coordination’ – to bring citizens,
government ministries, universities, and cultural and social
institutions in line with National Socialist beliefs and attitudes.
‘Coordination’
occurred with astonishing speed, even in sectors of life not directly
targeted by specific laws, as Germans willingly
placed themselves under the sway of Nazi rule, a phenomenon that
became known as Selbstgleichschaltung, or ‘self-coordination.’ Change
came to Germany so quickly and across such a wide front that German
citizens who left the country for business or travel returned
to find everything around them altered, as if they were characters in a
horror movie who come back to find that people who once were
their friends, clients, patients, and customers have become different
in ways hard to discern. Gerda
Laufer, a socialist, wrote
that she felt ‘deeply shaken that people whom one regarded as friends,
who were known for a long time, from one hour to the next transformed
themselves.’”
– Erik Larson, In the Garden of the Beasts
