Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945) was leader of the German Nazi Party from 1921 and chancellor, and eventually dictator, or Führer ("leader"), of Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945 during the last days of World War II. Hitler was Austrian by birth, and came to power by way of a series of legal and extralegal maneuverings. His decidedly toxic message of racism and antisemitism is summed up in his manifesto, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle")[1], written while imprisoned in the 1920s after trying to lead a coup d'etat against the Weimar Republic.
Circumstantial evidence suggests that Hitler, whose last name was apparently primarily found among German Jews, may have been at least part Jewish by ancestry, but this has never been completely confirmed. He was raised Catholic, however, and apparently professed Catholicism throughout his life. He was also famously a vegetarian, but this was apparently not so much a matter of principle as his doctor's attempt to cure him of a flatulence problem.
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[edit] Most evil human ever (or maybe he shares the title with Stalin?)
As the perpetrator of an eventually lost but huge and destructive war, and for his role in the murder of six million European Jews, several million ethnic Slavs (among others), gypsies, homosexuals and communists, he is viewed by some as being the most evil person ever to have lived. Remarkably, this evil lunatic still has some admirers. The hive of unrelenting racists known as Metapedia likes to refer to his "uniting Europe".
[edit] Hitler's war
Hitler got off to a good start in World War II by taking over most of mainland Europe, but bit off more than he could chew by trying to simultaneously fight Great Britain (which was then the British Empire and a far more powerful force than today) and invade Russia. Were he to have left Britain alone (reducing the motivation for the U.S. to declare war on Germany), and to have made a peace with Stalin, it is likely he would have held his European mainland conquests for some time - perhaps even until the current day. It is quite likely that Hitler never played the board game "Risk" as a child.[2]
His early moves showed great strategic insight, but as the years passed, an apparent megalomania gripped him and his later mistakes (including the hubris of invading Russia, pissing off the United States, which at the time had a great many German sympathizers, and the pointless murder of much of the work force of his country and its occupied territories) cost him all his "gains".
[edit] Religious beliefs
- See also: Religion in National Socialism and Hitler and evolution
Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs are often a matter of much dispute. Theists, primarily Christians such as Ann Coulter[3] (along with the general consensus on Conservapedia) have claimed that he was an atheist and have tried to use this as proof of how they (atheists) are completely devoid of morals. It is true that Hitler was not deeply Christian, but although he never attended church, he most definitely called himself a Christian - albeit a very bad Christian.
He was born a Catholic, and possessed a deep religious affiliation during his early years. For a while he was seriously considering becoming a monk. This was mainly a passing phase, though, and there is no evidence to suggest he considered this beyond high school.[4]
As an adult, Hitler often spoke positively about Christianity, and about how Jesus Christ was an Aryan (the race of humans Hitler believed to be superior). The following statements have been attributed to him:
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." - Adolf Hitler from Mein Kampf[5]
"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter." - Adolf Hitler, speech in Munich on 12 April 1922 [6]
"It matters not whether these weapons of ours are humane: if they gain us our freedom, they are justified before our conscience and before our God." - Adolf Hitler, Munich 01 Aug. 1923 [7]
"I may not be a light of the church, a pulpiteer, but deep down I am a pious man, and believe that whoever fights bravely in defense of the natural laws framed by God and never capitulates will never be deserted by the Lawgiver, but will, in the end, receive the blessings of Providence." - Adolf Hitler, speech July 5, 1944 [8]
[edit] Self-hate?
It has been rumored for many years that Hitler was himself of Jewish descent on his father's side. While the only evidence of this is rather sketchy and circumstantial, it is known that of the Hitlers (and etymologically related Hiedlers) in pre-WWII Europe, most were Ashkenazi Jewish. (Hitler's nephew Patrick, an Irishman by birth, changed his name after the war and died in much-longed-for obscurity. There are believed to be no families named Hitler left in the world, though the name has been adopted by a couple of the more theatrically nuts neo-Nazis out there.)
[edit] Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") was written by Hitler whilst imprisoned for 2 years after the Munich Putsch in 1923. Apparently it was edited with the help of a Roman Catholic priest, who was subsequently assassinated on the "Night of the Long Knives". It is a rambling, seemingly unedited,[9] account of Hitler's personal difficulties which he attributed to the capitalist system run by the Jews who were also running the Bolsheviks trying to overthrow it and the surrender of Germany in 1918 under the influence of same. The book is best read aloud before an audience of thousands in a very loud and hysterical tone, since the more subtle nuances of meaning and emphasis are lost on the armchair reader who will find it a difficult book to finish.
A particularly poignant struggle was young Adolf's rejection from Art School in Vienna, where they advised him to try to become an architect, but the registration date had gone by, so he opted to try his hand at World Domination instead.
Hitler claimed to have had nothing against Jews until he met one in his class at school, who was smarter than everyone else and generally irritating.[citation needed] Recent research has suggested that his name was Ludwig Wittgenstein - who went on to become a "philosopher". Wittgenstein, with uncharacteristic practical wisdom, fled to Oxford in the 1930s, where he proved smarter than everyone else and threatened Karl Popper with a poker.
Although Hitler in Mein Kampf is not inclined to share the spotlight with other people, especially living, non-German ones, he does single out Henry Ford as being a person who "still holds out independently" against the international Jewish conspiracy. The use of the word independent is no doubt a reference to the Dearborn Independent, Ford's racist rag from which some of Hitler's "reflections" are copied. [10]
[edit] See also
[edit] Vandalism
See: Talk:Adolf Hitler/vandalism
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Complete text of Mein Kampf in English at Gutenberg Australia (1939 Murphy translation). The copyright is owned in the US by Houghton Mifflin through 2015; access may be illegal depending on your local copyright and censorship laws.
- ↑ Because, frankly, if you can't figure out how to squat on Madagascar the whole game, you just shouldn't be playing.
- ↑ American Atheists article on Ann Coulter
- ↑ Spartacus Educational
- ↑ Ralph Mannheim, ed., New York: Mariner Books, 1999, p. 65.
- ↑ Norman H. Baynes, ed., The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1, New York: Oxford University Press, 1942, pp. 19-20.
- ↑ NoBeliefs.com
- ↑ Charles Bracelen Flood, Hitler: The Path to Power, Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989, p. 208.
- ↑ Not that this section is a parody of such a style!
- ↑ Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1940, pp. 929 - 930
