Hitler was the embodiment of all that the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDP) stood for. His extreme nationalism, his belief in the racial supremacy of the Aryan race, and his vehement anti-Semitism were all prime examples of what a National Socialist German Workers’ Party member (Nazi) believed. The Jew had always left a “bad taste” in Hitler’s mouth (Hitler, 54), but his anti-Semitic beliefs became defined during his time in Vienna as a vagrant. He felt that the primary factor that had caused Germany’s distress, and the whole world’s for that matter, was Jewry. Jews were “parasites leaching off all honest humanity” (Hitler, 150). Throughout the life of the Third Reich, Jews were subject to major restrictions (eventually losing all of their rights under German law), humiliation, and to death. Hitler’s contradiction to his own “rational” plan with regard to Jews became apparent as the life of the Third Reich progressed.
For Hitler, Realschule (high school) was the time when his intent nationalism surfaced (Hitler, 10). The subject of history was his favorite, and that subject was the essential catalyst for Hitler’s extreme nationalism. In his studies, he discovered the greatness of the German people. Time and time again Hitler noticed that the German people were betrayed by those who weren’t of German blood (Hitler, 11). Although he didn’t connect those betrayals to Jews yet, the foundation had most certainly been laid for his future anti-Semitism. His belief that “one blood demands one Reich,” is a direct result of this (Hitler, 1).
Hitler dropped out of the Realschule after his father’s death and went to Vienna to seek his proverbial fortune. In Vienna, after being rejected by the art school he attempted to enroll in, he began to dabble in politics and began to attend meetings of local political parties. Anti-Semitism was a huge political force and sentiment in Vienna at this time and it eventually took hold of Hitler. Hitler discovered the German Workers’ Party in mid-1919 and joined in September of the same year. By the end of 1919, Hitler had become chief of propaganda and a member of the executive committee of the fledgling party (Rempel, 1), eventually taking the party itself over. The grounds had been set for Hitler’s rise to power.
The Nazi party gained popularity in the years after Hitler assumed leadership. It held a lot of appeal for German people of all classes. Some appeal was intrinsic, and some was circumstantial. The intrinsic appeal the party held for the German people was its anti-Semitic stance. German anti-Semitism has a history that goes back as far as the 1200s to the time of Martin Luther. Martin Luther was a Christian anti-Semite who sparked the beginning of a long road of hardship for German Jews. He was a popular religious figure among Germans, and it was with him that anti-Semitic sentiment began in the German states. This sentiment continues even to this day, although Germans today aren’t by any means as radical as previous generations, the word “Jew” is still known to occasionally bring a shake of the head.
Germany’s then current circumstances contributed to the flaring up of anti-Semitism’s otherwise dormant state in Germany in the years recent to the advent of the Nazi party. The defeat of Germany in World War I, the Great Depression, who was to blame for all this? The scapegoats turned out to be the Jews. The Nazi party promised solutions to Germany’s problems. Promises that were hardly hollow; promises to exterminate the problem at its source, the Jews. Exacerbating anti-Semitic sentiment in Germany was a book that has caused a lot of debate as to its actual legitimacy (Hiltzik, 1), The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. “The Goyim (Gentiles) are a flock of sheep, and we are their wolves. And do you know what happens when wolves get hold of the flock?” The Protocols asked. The effect of what has now been deemed a hoax was that “thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of Jews died because of this infamous forgery.” (Teluskin, 1).
In 1920, the first definite anti-Semitic doctrine of the Nazi party was published. The fourth point of the 25 Points of the NSDAP declared: “Only those of German blood, whatever be their creed, may be members (citizens) of the nation. Accordingly, no Jew may be a member (citizen) of the nation.” (Hitler and Drexler, 2). However, this was merely Nazi doctrine and not yet state doctrine. Nazi doctrine became state doctrine when Hitler was installed as chancellor on February 23rd, 1933. Nazi Propaganda Chief Joseph Goebbels organized a boycott of Jewish businesses and put it into effect on April 1st, 1933 (Longerich, 3). Although this boycott wasn’t a law by any stretch of the imagination, it still had extensive consequences on Jewish businesses. Regarding the party’s position on Jews, it seemed Hitler had turned on the more radical side of the Nazi party with his only somewhat moderate passing of laws concerning Jews, but this was merely a façade (Longerich, 3). The first three anti-Semitic laws introduced in 1933 excluded Jews from serving in public office, and becoming lawyers (The number of practicing Jewish lawyers in Germany at the time was 3500. Even with the passing of these laws, 1700 Jewish lawyers were still practicing in 1938 [Ayçoberry, 52].), and it also introduced a restriction on the number of Jewish people who could attend German schools. The physical persecution of Jews up to this point, and even for a few years after, was minimal. It wasn’t until the beginning of the war when Jewish persecution began to get into its full swing. Jews were made to wear the Yellow Star of David in order that German citizens could single them out for persecution. The rally call among Jews was “Wear the star proudly!” All the actions taken against Jews should’ve been obvious warning signs for them; however, their illusions weren’t so easily dispelled. From 1933 to 1938, only about 20,000 Jews left the country each year. That number was very small in consideration of the number of Jews in Germany.
While the Jews were anathema to Nazis throughout the existence of the Nazi party, the extermination of Jews wasn’t expedient for the NSDAP. Hitler had proposed a “rational anti-Semitism,” by which Jews would lose all legal rights. In Hitler’s first writing about Jewry, dated September 16th, 1919, he said: “Purely emotional anti-Semitism will find its final expression in the form of pogroms. Rational anti-Semitism, by contrast, must lead to a systematic and legal struggle against, and eradication of, the privileges the Jews enjoy over the other foreigners living among us.” (Hitler [letter], 1). During the period of 1933-34, the severity taken on the issue of Jews was only as extensive as giving Jews alien status under the law. The reason for this was that the Jews were an essential part of the economy and placing too many restrictions on them would spell disaster for the recovery of Germany from the Depression. The other factor to consider was that of foreign relations, Germany would appear as something that Hitler didn’t want it to appear as if radical action was taken against Jews at that particular time. In wartime though, this appearance hardly mattered; neither, it seemed, did Hitler’s supposed “rational” anti-Semitism. The laws concerning Jews steadily increased from 1934 on. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were issued. The Nuremberg Laws defined an inferior Jewish “citizenship”. It also prohibited sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews. Hitler’s passing of the Nuremberg Laws was another step in his “rational” approach. In 1941, the “emotional” anti-Semitism Hitler was supposedly against, came to surface in the form of Hitler’s “Final Solution”. The Final Solution was that Jews would no longer be deported; they would be annihilated. Hitler’s supposed “rational” anti-Semitism ceased to exist. The Jews were subject to random pogroms throughout the war and the archetypal pogrom(s) took place in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. Of all the concentration camps, the most Jews died at Auschwitz. Immediately after the capitulation of Germany, an order was sent out to all German concentration camps that they should eliminate all Jews held by them. However, the situation in Germany was so bad that many Jews got away with their lives merely because the German guards didn’t have enough ammunition to kill them all.
In Hitler’s final testament, his anti-Semitism was more vehement than ever. He laid the blame of World War II on the Jews: “…the people we have to thank for all this [World War II]: international Jewry and its henchmen.” (Hitler [final testament], 1) Again, just as in World War I, Germany was “betrayed by Jews.” Hitler was happy, but at the same time dismayed (meaning that the destruction of Germany was a matter of particular hatred for Hitler) at what he had accomplished with regard to Jews. He said he would “die with a joyful heart in the knowledge of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of Germany’s peasants and workers and of a contribution unique in the history of Germany’s youth which bears my name.” (Hitler [final testament], 2). His final plea to Germany was calling “the government and the people to uphold the race laws to the limit and to resist mercilessly the poisoner of all nations, international Jewry.” (Hitler [final testament], 3). Hitler’s devotion to the anti-Semitic cause even to death is of the sort of devotion I’m sure many people are proud to have for the causes they support.
Hitler proved the saying “History isn’t kind to those who rush it,” true. The racism that once existed (on no less a despicable level) in America was a racism that slowly acted and slowly dealt with the issue of Indians and Blacks. Hitler’s racism was a racism that sought to eliminate the Jewish “threat” all too quickly. The crimes Hitler committed are no less deplorable than the crimes the American nation has committed in the past. The American nation is one of hypocrisy when it comes to Hitler. It turns a blind eye to its own crimes, but relentlessly pursues those who are guilty of the same crime. Hitler was not a man of the psychosis people ascribe to him. Hitler was a man who fought for what he believed. Those who say he was a crazy, and insane man are quite disillusioned. Unless of course, the American nation itself is crazy and insane. Hitler was described as “orderly, disciplined, not only in his own person but with reference to his fellow prisoners, among whom he has preserved good discipline.” (Leybold, 1). That statement was said of Hitler in reference to his behavior during his time in prison for the Beer Hall Putsch. To deny facts is preposterous and idiotic; Hitler was a man of the utmost politeness, even Jesse Owens, a black man who won a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin said this! The sufferings of the Jewish people won’t be repaid for probably hundreds of years to come, but neither will the sufferings of African Americans, and Native Americans. As Chris Rock once described the U.S.A: “It’s like an uncle who paid for your college, but molested you!” It’s a well known fact that being a victim of molestation and rape has consequences that last your whole life. The American stance towards Hitler is hypocritical and ignorant. Hitler was a man who fought for what he believed. In that alone he holds my respect more than any average American patriot. I despise what Hitler did to Jews, but I hate what America did just as much. America, the nation of hypocrisy, displaced millions of Indians and deprived them of their long held traditions, enslaved just as many blacks; and it criticizes a man such as Hitler who had the gall to do it in front of the whole world? And the United States of America that committed all its crimes against humanity behind a curtain; what hypocrisy.