Nazi power structures overlapped deliberately, letting subordinates challenge rival fiefdoms.

Evidence

As techniques of government, the totalitarian devices appear simple and ingeniously effective. They assure not only an absolute power monopoly, but unparalleled certainty that all commands will always be carried out; the multiplicity of the transmission belts, the confusion of the hierarchy, secure the dictator’s complete independence of all his inferiors and make possible the swift and surprising changes in policy for which totalitarianism has become famous. The body politic of the country is shock-proof because of its shapelessness. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 922 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Inhuman oppression of the Nazi type leaves admittedly little room for manoeuvre; many of the options people are trained or educated to choose under normal conditions are excluded or beyond their grasp. Under exceptional conditions, conduct is by definition exceptional; but it is exceptional in its overt form and its tangible consequences, not necessarily in the principles of choice and the motives which guide it. Throughout their journey to the final destruction most people, most of the time, were not completely devoid of choice. And where there is choice, there is a chance to behave rationally. And behave rationally most people did. While in full command of the means of coercion, the Nazis saw to it that rationality meant co-operation; that everything the Jews did to serve their own interest brought the Nazi objective somewhat nearer to full success. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 382 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nazism inverted the Prussian ideal by prioritizing party membership over state office; Totalitarian rule is not monolithic but deliberately overlapping, held by a Führer-principle; Nazi control worked by making rational self-interest equal cooperation. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 382 (+5 more)

Related

• Totalitarian rule is not monolithic but deliberately overlapping, held by a Führer-principle (similarity 0.81)
• Nazism inverted the Prussian ideal by prioritizing party membership over state office (similarity 0.80)
• Hierarchical structures resist totalitarian power and therefore do not constitute it. (similarity 0.79)
• Nazism exploited a breakdown of state worship, not excessive state-worship. (similarity 0.79)
• Nazi control worked by making rational self-interest equal cooperation. (similarity 0.78)
• Nazism made the movement, not the state, the spiritual centre of totalitarianism (similarity 0.78)
• Appointment from above matters more than unlimited authority for totalitarian stability (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Totalitarian rule is not monolithic but deliberately overlapping, held by a Führer-principle #corroborates (0.95)
• Confused hierarchies make totalitarian rule shock-proof and command-certain #corroborates (0.82) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 922
• Nazi control worked by making rational self-interest equal cooperation. #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 382
• Rising subordinate power shifts superiors into moderating conflicts between subordinates. #complicates (0.75)
• A third party can provoke war between two others by staging an ambiguous act #exemplifies (0.70) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 832