ABSTRACT
In The "Hitler Myth", Ian Kershaw argued that Adolf Hitler's personal popularity often grew at the expense of the popularity of the Nazi Party. He also argued that the Christian Churches often believed that Hitler would protect them-particularly from Nazi fanatics who were belligerently antireligious. As in the case of foreign policy and the build-up to war, the inverse relationship of the Party's popularity to Hitler's own popularity, and the goodwill credited to him by the Churches, were also intimately connected with public ignorance of the dictator's true intentions. While Hitler had killed Ernst Rohm and his associates because he feared their creating a rival power base, popular opinion commended him for rooting out rot, decadence, and debauchery within the Party. Less attention was also paid to the detailed scene-setting of the origins of Hitler's image in the Weimar Republic, which Kershaw discussed in depth in the chapter of The "Hitler Myth".
