Dolchstoβlegende

Dolchstoβlegende was the "stab in the back myth" that helped the Nazis rise to power. It started with the head of the British Military Mission in Berlin who merely suggested the idea that Germany was stabbed in the back when it was lacking in civilian support. Field Marshal Erich von Ludendorff, the force behind Hindenburg, was excited about this idea and Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, a war hero for the Germans in WWI, told the National Assembly that the German army was "stabbed in the back". The Germans knew this story very well, because it was exactly like what happens to the hero in the epic poem Nibelugenlied where Siegfried is stabbed in the back by Hagen von Tronje.

The Nazis used this to their advantage by claiming that all Germans were "stabbed in the back" by the Jewish people, socialists, and the liberals who forced them to surrender. This myth helped the Nazi party grow because it caused German WWI veterans to compare the poem and the recent happenings in the war. Dolchstoβlegende helped the Nazis slaughter millions of people in the holocaust, claiming that they "stabbed German in the back" during WWI. People were so patriotic, they believed that these Jews were not loyal to their country, and let the holocaust happen.

Citations:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaustglossary/g/dolchstoss.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_legend

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/06/0081080