Thomas Vorreyer, writing for Vice , says: "Around a year after Hitler became chancellor, American sociologist Theodore Abel wanted to know what had motivated so many people to support him. After Abel failed to get any of the estimated 850,000 Nazi Party members to agree to an interview, he came up with the idea for a fake competition, where he offered a cash prize to whoever could write the most beautiful, detailed description of why they had joined the Nazi Party."
Abel received over 683 letters on why a person became a Nazi. To read more, check out this article .