The best way to understand why Hitler did not like Jews is to read his book “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”). Yes, Adolf was a controversial person. On the one hand, he had a sharp mind, hard work, and oratory worthy of respect. On the other hand, during his short life he killed a huge number of people, of whom the lion's share were Jews.
Hitler's biography has been examined from various angles in many books. Should you trust them? The surest way to understand the train of thought of a convinced fascist is to study his creation - the manuscript “My Struggle”.
Theories of the origin of hatred
Some believe that discussing the actions of Adolf Hitler is as powerful as discussing the life of the humble Jesus Christ. You can argue with this, but is it worth it? It is much more useful to consider the origins of his hostility towards Jews. “Mein Kampf” mentions the first encounter with the concept of “Jew” during the formation of the Fuhrer’s social democratic views. It was then that his thorough study of this nationality began.
Hitler's first acquaintance with a Jewish boy occurred at school. Adolf treated him with caution due to the latter's taciturnity. The living example before my eyes gave enough reason for thought...
In his youth, the Fuhrer distinguished Jews from other nationalities only by religion. Once, walking along the central street of Vienna, Adolf noticed “a figure in a long-skirted caftan with black curls.” The image was so colorful that the young man decided to study this people through a careful analysis of the information in books. Numerous anti-Semitic pamphlets helped create the feeling that the Jewish nation was unfairly placing itself above the rest. When he realized that these people belonged to a separate nation, he wanted to isolate himself from them completely.
Why Adolf Hitler looked at Jews with hatred:
Uncleanliness and untidiness. According to the Fuhrer's personal observations, Jews do not like to wash. They do this very rarely, so they are easily distinguished from other people by their unpleasant smell. If we take into account the constant untidiness in clothing, then the biased attitude towards them on the part of neat people becomes understandable.
From early childhood, Adolf was taught to take personal hygiene responsibly. For him, all those who ignored cleanliness and neatness became factors of irritation.
Moral dirt. Hitler devoted a lot of time to studying the activities of Jews in various spheres of life. The conclusion was clear: all these people are involved in one or another “unclean” affairs. In his book, the Fuhrer compares unpleasant nationality to worms or nasty maggots in an abscess.
The activity was culturally equivalent to the plague. The worst thing is that their worldview spread with enormous speed and was not treated with anything, penetrating into every corner of consciousness. The constant thirst for profit was mixed with the absence of moral restrictions on the way to achieving the desired result.
Split personality. The strangest thing is that on one issue Jews could express completely opposite thoughts. The answer depended on the circumstances and the surrounding environment. Such two-facedness could cause extremely negative emotions. Even in historical terms, many negative aspects arose.
For example, the leaders of Social Democracy belonging to a given nationality showed hatred towards their own nationality. Such behavior dishonors the history of the country and its great leaders. For Hitler, such a situation was absolutely unacceptable. Leaders reflect their people, so the chosen path of development casts a dark shadow on all representatives of this nationality.
Fight against Germany. It was the Jews who ensured that neutral states became participants in the anti-German coalition. It was created even before the World War. It is difficult to say whether people hated by the Fuhrer really had a hand in these events. What purpose could they pursue in this way?
The destruction of the German patriotic intelligentsia would lead to the complete subjugation of Germany, after which the whole world would open up. At least that's what Adolf thought. That's why he decided to get involved in politics. This was the only way to save the country from the interference of the cunning people.
Resourceful and rich mind. Hitler quite rightly considered the objects of his hatred to be very smart people. Their intellectual properties have been developed over thousands of years. Honing the skills of politics and trade was absorbed literally with mother's milk. It is not for nothing that among Jews the family is transmitted through the female line.
They say that a smart person learns not from his own mistakes, but from others. Most often, Jews did this, carefully observing what was happening around them. The resourcefulness of this nationality aroused a mixture of admiration and hatred in the Fuhrer. How could they act so low with their global capabilities?
Spread of syphilis in the country. The Jews, who penetrated into the area of even sexual life, promoted commercial marriages without feelings. Accordingly, they allowed the satisfaction of love instincts elsewhere. This approach to intimate relationships led to the rapid spread of venereal disease.
Where there is room for dirt, the future of the country cannot be built. Sick people can infect completely healthy neighbors! Therefore, it is easier to “remove” the possible source of problems at the root.
Usury. It was the Jews who invented the concept of credit. Many nationalities were united by the habit of helping each other in times of trouble. After the penetration of the very idea of the need to profit from the grief of another person, a split arose in the awareness of the laws of the previously familiar society.
With the help of usury, honest people were lured into the credit cabala and were soon forced to go bankrupt. For Jews, this was an excellent opportunity to significantly enrich themselves at the expense of the naivety or misfortune of others.
Marxism. Hitler was deeply convinced that the Jewish interpretation of the teachings of Marxism (denial of the value of the individual in man), if theoretically disseminated throughout the world, would lead to the unequivocal death of the entire planet. Homo Sapiens is therefore considered the highest level of development of nature because it knows how to develop each individual individually, with an eye on the benefit of others.
A global view of what is happening
The main reason for the Fuhrer’s struggle with the Jewish nation was still to protect the Aryans from the harmful influence of the Jews. Well, more global goals should include the defense of the entire world from political conquest by a hated nation. If we must put up a defense, then it would be better to do it in the form of an attack...
Adolf was confident that in the fight against this people he was acting “in the spirit of the Almighty Creator.” I walked towards my goal confidently, honing my knowledge and skills along the way every free minute. Thanks to his excellent oratorical talent, the Fuhrer easily preached racism. In conditions of a serious crisis, bright slogans raised wings of hope for a better life in the souls of listeners. That is why the Germans exterminated the Jews with due tenacity.
Alternative versions of Hitler's hostility towards the Jewish people:
Adolf once contracted syphilis from a Jewish girl. This so stunned the clean young man that he forever felt disgusted with all representatives of this nationality.
Jewish blood flowed in the veins of the Fuhrer's father. Because of the humiliating attitude towards his wife (Adolf's mother), the son began to hate his father and, accordingly, all Jews in general. There is also another interpretation of family relationships. It focuses on Alois Hitler's cruel treatment of his son. They say that there was too much dirt and hypocrisy in the principles of my father’s upbringing.
The need to hide one's origins deepened the feeling of hatred. If everyone around you is so concerned about the purity of their own family, then it is better to remove witnesses of the uncleanliness of one of your comrades away. So genocide against Jews is an attempt to negate any hint of a connection with this nationality.
The Fuhrer's mother died at the hands of an unqualified doctor of Jewish origin. Then the son vowed revenge.
Anti-Semitism is a shameful phenomenon. Actually, any oppression, and especially the physical destruction of people based on nationality, is criminal, especially if it is initiated by the government and carried out on a national scale. History knows cases of mass genocide against representatives of different nations. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed by the Turks at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Not everyone knows how brutally Japanese soldiers dealt with the Chinese during the occupation of Nanjing and Singapore in the late 30s. Mass executions were carried out during the war by the allies of Nazi Germany, the Croatian Ustasha. By historical standards, recently, in 1994, terrible purges on ethnic grounds (Hutus killed Tutsis) shocked Rwanda.
But there is a people who were subjected to the most severe ethnic persecution in the twentieth century, called the Holocaust. Modern Germans cannot unambiguously explain why their grandfathers, who grew up under the influence of Goebbels’ propaganda, exterminated the Jews. It is possible that the ancestors themselves would not have found a clear argumentation for their actions, but in the thirties and forties, in most cases everything was clear and understandable to them.
Woe from mind?
When asked why Jews were exterminated in different countries (and this happened not only in Germany in the twentieth century, but also in other countries at different times), one can most often hear the answer from representatives of this people: “Out of envy!” This version of the assessment of tragic events has its own logic and truth. The Jewish people gave humanity many geniuses who shone in science, art, and other areas of human civilization. The ability to adapt, a traditionally active position, an active character, subtle and ironic humor, innate musicality, enterprise and other absolutely positive qualities are characteristic of the nation that gave the world Einstein, Oistrakh, Marx, Botvinnik... Yes, you can list for a long time who else. But, apparently, it’s not just a matter of envy of outstanding mental abilities. After all, not all Jews are Einsteins. There are simpler people among them. The sign of real wisdom is not its constant demonstration, but something else. For example, the ability to provide yourself with a friendly environment. Such that no one would even think of offending representatives of this people. And not out of fear, but out of respect. Or even love.
Revolutionary money grab
People of different nationalities strive for power and wealth. Anyone who truly wants to taste these attributes of earthly paradise looks for ways to achieve his goal and sometimes finds them. Then other people (who can be conventionally called envious people) have a desire to redistribute goods, in other words, to take away values from the rich and appropriate them or, in extreme cases, divide them equally (or in a fraternal way, this is when the eldest has more). During pogroms and revolutions, successful owners of fortunes of different nationalities, from Zulu kings to Ukrainian top government officials, come under analysis. But why were the Jews exterminated first in almost all cases of mass robbery? Maybe they have more money?
Aliens and xenophobes
For historical reasons, from ancient times until the mid-twentieth century, Jews did not have their own state. They had to settle in different countries, kingdoms, states and move to new places in search of a better life. Some of the Jews were able to assimilate, joining the indigenous ethnic group and dissolving into it without a trace. But the core of the nation still retained its identity, religion, language and other characteristics that define national characteristics. This in itself is a miracle, because xenophobia to one degree or another is inherent in almost all indigenous ethnic groups. Otherness causes rejection and hostility, and these, in turn, make life very difficult.
Knowing that a common enemy could be the best reason to unite a nation, Hitler exterminated the Jews. Technically it was simple, they were easy to recognize, they go to synagogues, keep kosher and the Sabbath, dress differently and sometimes even speak with an accent. Moreover, at the time the Nazis came to power, Jews did not have the ability to effectively resist violence, representing an almost ideal ethnically isolated and helpless victim. The desire for self-isolation, which determined the survival of the nation, once again worked as a bait for pogromists.
"My Struggle" by Hitler
Did the Germans know about Auschwitz and Buchenwald?
After the defeat of Nazism, many Germans claimed that they knew nothing about concentration camps, ghettos, high-efficiency crematorium ovens and giant ditches filled with human bodies. They also did not know about soap, and candles made from human fat, and other cases of “useful disposal” of remains. Some of their neighbors simply disappeared somewhere, and the authorities did not reach them with information about the atrocities committed in the occupied territories. The desire to disclaim responsibility for war crimes among ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers and officers is understandable; they pointed to the SS troops, who were primarily engaged in punitive operations. But there was also Kristallnacht in 1938, during which not only stormtroopers in brown shirts acted, but also ordinary people. Representatives of the sentimental, talented and hardworking German people with sweet rapture destroyed the property of their recent friends and neighbors, and they themselves were beaten and humiliated. So why did the Germans exterminate the Jews, what were the reasons for the sudden outbreak of fierce hatred? Were there any reasons?
Jews of the Weimar Republic
To understand the reasons why the Germans, their recent neighbors and friends, exterminated the Jews, one should immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the Weimar Republic. Many historical studies have been written about this period, and those who do not want to read scientific tomes have the opportunity to learn about it from the novels of the great writer E.M. Remarque. The country suffers from unbearable indemnities imposed by the Entente countries that won the Great War. Poverty borders on hunger, while the souls of its citizens are increasingly possessed by various vices caused by forced idleness and the desire to somehow brighten up their drab, miserable life. But there are also successful people, businessmen, bankers, speculators. Entrepreneurship, due to centuries of nomadic life, is in the blood of Jews. It was they who became the backbone of the business elite of the Weimar Republic, which existed from 1919. There were, of course, poor Jews, artisans, working craftsmen, musicians and poets, artists and sculptors, and they made up the majority of the people. They basically became victims of the Holocaust, the rich managed to escape, they had money for tickets.
The Holocaust reached its peak during World War II. “Death factories”, Majdanek and Auschwitz, immediately began operating on the territory of occupied Poland. But the flywheel of mass murder based on nationality gained special momentum after the Wehrmacht’s invasion of the USSR.
There were many Jews in the Leninist Politburo of the Bolshevik Party, they even made up the majority. By 1941, large-scale purges took place in the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, as a result of which the national composition of the Kremlin leadership underwent significant changes. But at the lower (as they say, “local”) levels and in the bodies of the NKVD, the Bolshevik Jews still maintained quantitative dominance. Many of them had experience of the Civil War, their services to the Soviet government were assessed as indisputable, they participated in other large-scale Bolshevik projects. Is it worth asking why Hitler exterminated Jews and commissars in the occupied Soviet territories in the first place? For the Nazis, these two concepts were almost identical and eventually merged into a single definition of “liquid commissar.”
Vaccine against anti-Semitism
National hostility was gradually instilled. Racial theory began to dominate almost immediately after the Nazis came to power. Chronicle footage of ritual sacrifices appeared on cinema screens, during which rabbis killed cows by cutting their throats with a sharp knife. and women can be very beautiful, but Nazi propagandists were not interested in such things. For propaganda videos and posters, “walking manuals for anti-Semites” were specially selected, with faces expressing brutal cruelty and stupidity. This is how the Germans became anti-Semitic.
After the Victory, the commandant's offices of the victorious countries pursued a policy of denazification, in all four occupation zones: Soviet, American, French and British. Residents of the defeated Reich were actually forced (under the threat of being deprived of food rations) to watch revealing documentaries. This measure was aimed at leveling the consequences of twelve years of brainwashing of the deceived Germans.
Same like that!
Talking about geopolitics, preaching the ideals of racial superiority of the Aryans and calling for the destruction of nations, the Fuhrer nevertheless remained, paradoxically, an ordinary person who suffered from a number of psychological complexes. One of them was the question of one's own nationality. Understanding why Hitler exterminated the Jews is difficult, but one clue may be the origins of his father, Alois Schicklgruber. The father of the future Fuhrer received the infamous surname only after an official declaration of paternity, certified by three witnesses and made by Johann Georg Hitler in 1867 for reasons of inheritance.
Alois himself was married three times, and there is a version that one of his children from a previous marriage tried to blackmail the “leader of the German people” with information about the half-Jewish origin of their common father. This hypothesis has a number of inconsistencies, but due to the chronological remoteness it cannot be completely excluded. But it can explain some of the subtleties of the sick psyche of the possessed Fuhrer. After all, an anti-Semitic Jew is not such a rare occurrence. And Hitler’s appearance does not at all correspond to the racial standards adopted in the Third Reich. He was not a tall, blue-eyed, blond man.
Occult and other reasons
It is possible to try to explain why Hitler exterminated the Jews from the standpoint of the ethical and philosophical basis that he provided for the process of physical extermination of millions of people. The Fuhrer was fond of occult theories, and his favorite authors were Guido von List and In general, the version of the origin of the Aryans and ancient Germans turned out to be quite confused and contradictory, but with regard to the Jews, the policy was based on the mystical assumption that they, identified by Hitler as a separate race, supposedly represent danger to all humanity, threatening it with complete destruction.
It is difficult to imagine that an entire nation could be drawn into some kind of global conspiracy. With a multimillion-dollar population, someone would definitely spill the beans about the inhumane plan, in which everyone from the shoemaker Rabinovich to Professor Geller participates. There is no logical answer to the question of why the Nazis exterminated Jews.
Wars are committed when people refuse to think for themselves, relying on their leaders, and without a doubt, and sometimes with pleasure, carry out someone else's evil will. Unfortunately, similar phenomena still occur today...
Adolf Hitler was a very ambiguous and contradictory personality. He was a hardworking and witty man who knew how to capture the attention of the crowd and maintain interest in his person during his performance. But at the same time, Hitler went down in history as a man who killed millions of people. A very significant percentage of his victims were Jews.
Theories put forward regarding the origins of hatred
The biography of this historical figure has been covered in many books and scientific works. Of course, they gave a lot of reasons for reflection, although many historians are inclined to believe that the most vivid description of Hitler can only be his own work - the manuscript “My Struggle”.
Turning to the pages of “Mein Kampf”, one can notice that the first mention of Jews is associated with the period of formation of the social democratic views of the future Fuhrer. It was during this period that Hitler turned his attention to representatives of the Jewish people. For the first time, young Adolf met a Jew while still at school: the silent boy aroused dubious feelings and interest in Hitler.
Later, during his youth, Hitler singled out Jews for himself only based on religious differences. In his manuscript he mentions "a figure in a long caftan with black curls" whom he met while walking along the main street of Vienna. The unusual appearance of the passerby aroused such interest in Adolf that he turned to books in order to learn more about people wearing similar clothes. Under the influence of reading a large number of anti-Semitic pamphlets, Hitler develops an acute feeling of hostility towards representatives of the Jewish nationality, and he decides to completely separate himself from them in everyday life.
Why Adolf Hitler viewed Jews with hatred
The fact of Hitler’s extreme hostility towards Jews is one of the fundamental ones in his biography, because it influenced not only the fate of the Fuhrer himself, but also world history. In the book he wrote, “My Struggle” (“Mein Kampf”), Adolf says that his hatred and the ideology that emerged from it were a natural result of the influence of historical events during the First World War.
Meanwhile, this reason does not seem suitable to historians: Hitler never participated directly in hostilities, he served as a liaison officer for the regimental headquarters. So the Fuhrer did not have the opportunity to become saturated with anti-Semitism in the heat of hostilities.
However, in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment, where Adolf served, there was indeed a large percentage of radical anti-Semites who became ardent supporters of the ideology during their service.
When exactly did Hitler's hatred of Jews begin?
Regarding this issue, historians tend to relate this moment to 1921. Moreover, the decisive role in the emergence of Hitler as an anti-Semite was played by the events that took place in 1919 in the city of Munich. This point of view is also tended to be considered the most probable by the personal biographer of Goebbels and Hitler, Ralph Reuth. In his work “Hitler’s Hatred of the Jews. Clichés and reality,” he mentions that the revolution that took place that year in the capital of Bavaria had a special influence on the Fuhrer’s worldview.
The Fuhrer's childhood
Before we begin to analyze those events from the young years of little Adolf, which left their mark on his worldview in his adult years, it is worth noting a number of nuances regarding that time, which are often not mentioned at all or are distorted:
- Hitler's family was not at all wealthy or wealthy;
- at that time, ordinary people were not familiar with the word “tolerance”;
- often the people were inclined to see representatives of national minorities as the culprit of all their problems;
- human life was valued much less than it is now;
- at that time there were no declared basic human rights.
It is not surprising that in such an environment Hitler absorbed a negative attitude, which subsequently greatly influenced his picture of the world. The knowledge base that is instilled in a person in childhood has a very strong influence on his subsequent perception of information, and this influence cannot be underestimated.
Attitudes towards Jews in society
It is worth noting the fact that Jews were not only a national, but also a religious minority. Forced to wander from one country to another, they did not have their own state. As a rule, due to natural personality traits, when arriving in a new place, Jews quickly achieved career success.
Some areas of business were exclusively Jewish, because entrepreneurs of other nationalities were eliminated as soon as they reached the level of serious competition.
Often the Jews settled in a new place of residence very crowded and behaved in such a way that the native residents felt uncomfortable. There was especially a lot of negativity towards them in this regard during the years of crisis, when poverty and misery reigned everywhere. The united and wealthy Jews attracted many angry glances from the locals. It is worth mentioning that the first ghettos in which Jews lived were built in Italy in medieval times.
Taking into account all these facts, it is easy to understand that Hitler did not at all pull the idea of anti-Semitic ideology out of thin air. She flew in the air, surrounded him with the conversations of his neighbors throughout his life. Anti-Semitic sentiments at that time were supported by most of the population.
Often, while listening to the speeches of various political speakers, he could hear accusations against not only Jews, but also the British, as well as communists. The period of Hitler's youth dates back to the revolutionary time, when new political parties arose every now and then, and the level of protest sentiment in society was very high.
Alternative versions of the reasons for Hitler's hatred of Jews
There are also quite original versions of the source of the origin of hatred. According to one of them, Hitler himself was half Jewish, because... his father was a Semitic. There are rumors that Adolf's father drank a lot and behaved like a tyrant, periodically beating Adolf's mother and the boy himself.
For this reason, or because, against the background of general hostility towards Jews, Hitler’s own Semitic roots gave rise to complexes, he chose anti-Semitism as his ideology. It is not known for certain whether these facts are true or they are fictitious. In any case, such reasons are clearly not enough to instill in a person a fierce hatred of the entire nation and organize genocide.
Why did the Nazis exterminate Jews?
We will never be able to find out the true cause of the events that took place during the Second World War, but we can highlight the main points that are most often mentioned when discussing this issue:
- The Nazis, like Adolf Hitler, had a strong sense of hatred of Jews, reinforced by their leader's impressive persuasion skills, which he used at rallies.
- Hitler developed a theory about “superior” and “inferior” races, according to which all people were divided into “Aryans” and “subhumans.” At the same time, those who belonged to the lower race were subject to destruction. It was this program that the Nazis implemented by exterminating Jews in concentration camps.
- The German fascists saw Jews as a threat not only to their country, but to the entire planet.
- According to Hitler, the Jews were building an insidious plan to enslave the German nation and further use Germany as a springboard for their further conquests. He believed that by destroying the Jews he would save the world and create a healthy economy, and he convinced other government officials of this.
- The Fuhrer saw no other way than the complete extermination of the Jews, because... believed that they were very resourceful and would easily seize power under other circumstances. His policy towards representatives of this nationality was uncompromising.
It is known that during his entire reign, Hitler never visited concentration camps in person. This gives a lot to think about.
Reasons for Hitler's hatred of the Jewish people
Hitler himself usually explained his extreme hostility towards Semites with the following reasons:
- he believed that for Jews the desire for profit is higher than moral principles;
- as a rule, all Jews occupied a high position in society, and their natural character traits allowed them to quickly achieve success in their work;
- the average Jew lived much more richly than German people, which was especially striking during the crisis;
- the horrors of wartime, psychological trauma of childhood and anger at the outside world aggravated the already existing hostility;
- a great desire to “save” the world and eliminate the Jewish threat.
View from the outside
Adolf Hitler, as a strategist, believed that the best defense is an attack. Since he saw a threat to the existing economic and political system in the person of representatives of the Jewish people, he decided to try on the role of a savior and take significant measures. Since hostility towards Jews among the German population was at its maximum in those years, Hitler's ideas were readily embraced by the masses, and Nazi ideology quickly spread throughout the country.
Hitler's open appearance, pleasant, simple features and impressive speaking skills helped him easily promote his idea to the masses. Citizens willingly listened to his speeches at rallies and immediately gained confidence in the leader. For this reason, racism developed very quickly in Germany, falling into the fertile soil of popular dissatisfaction.
The Germans saw Hitler's calls for the extermination of the Jews as an opportunity to build a better future, which seemed especially attractive in the conditions of poverty and unemployment in the present. That is why the Fuhrer’s ideology was received with a bang, and ordinary citizens quickly began building a “bright” future.
The personality of Hitler and his influence on the formation of fascism as an ideology have always been of interest to historians and biographers, as well as directors and screenwriters. In 2012, producers Nico Hoffman and Jan Moito began filming an eight-part film about the Fuhrer.
Director Thomas Weber noted the particular importance of careful attention when implementing the script to the process of formation of Hitler's personality, as well as his character traits, both coldness and inviting demeanor.
“Only if we try to preserve the energy inherent in Hitler, with which he influenced many Germans, will we be able to explain the relationship between Hitler and the Germans.” – he says in one of his interviews.
Why did Hitler carry out the Holocaust but leave Switzerland alone?
In this video, Valery Viktorovich Pyakin, a political activist and analyst, talks about the reasons that prompted Hitler to actively promote the policy of anti-Semitism and mass extermination of Jews, despite the fact that initially many large businessmen of Jewish nationality helped him in the development of his political career.
A reliable reason for Adolf Hitler's strong hatred of Jews went with him to the grave. Despite the wide variety of versions of varying plausibility, we will never know which of them was real. It is quite possible that the rapid development of Nazi ideology in German society and the mass genocide of Jews was influenced by a whole complex of factors. Whether Hitler caused the Holocaust, or whether society created its own leader, the question remains open.
When Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933, no one doubted that an ardent anti-Semite had come to power. Hateful attacks against Jews occupied much space in Mein Kampf, and the Nazi Party program prohibited the admission of Jews into it.
The anti-Semitism of the National Socialists had its traditional reasons: Jews were accused of controlling a disproportionately large part of economic and spiritual life in Germany, using this power exclusively for their own interests. In addition, the Nazis saw the Jews as the vanguard of the Communist Party. At the same time, they referred to the fact that Jews played a leading role in the October Revolution, and in the short-lived regime of Bela Kun in Hungary, and in the even more short-lived Bavarian Republic.
The coming to power of the NSRPG in Germany was an unpleasant blow for German Jews, who for the most part were assimilated and considered themselves good patriots. For some time they hoped that by taking on the burden of state responsibility, the National Socialists would become more moderate. After all, anti-Semitism did not play a leading role during the election campaign. They voted for the NSRPG not out of hatred of Jews, but because they thought that Hitler would give the Germans jobs and bread.
After the arson of the Reichstag on February 27, 1933 and the triumph of the National Socialists on March 5 of the same year in the elections, repressions were not long in coming, but their victims were almost exclusively leftists, primarily communists. The first concentration camp appeared in Dachau at the end of March, followed by other camps. There were also Jews among the prisoners, but not as Jews or Jews, but as left-wing activists (or criminals).
At this time, only individual fanatics or hooligans indulged in acts against Jews, but the government did not approve of them.
Hitler took the first measures against Jews on April 1, 1933, calling for a boycott of Jewish stores. Various paragraphs of the law on the legal profession, issued six days later, as well as the decision to restore professional bureaucracy, became more serious and comprehensive. Most of the Jewish officials were dismissed, often under the guise of retirement. The regulations against the Jews were not as harsh as the Nazis wanted, because Hitler had to reckon with his partners in the conservative camp.
With the help of these resolutions, the number of Jewish lawyers and notaries was greatly reduced. Shortly thereafter, a 1.5 percent rate was introduced for Jews in medical and law faculties. In the following months, many Jews who served in government agencies or educational institutions were fired, forced into retirement, or prohibited from practicing their professions. Then, for a time, the storm seemed to subside, and 10,000 of the 60,000 Jews who had left Germany after Hitler came to power returned to Germany.
But those were illusory hopes. In September 1935, the “Nuremberg Laws” came to the Reichstag, prohibiting marriages and extramarital affairs between Jews and “Aryans,” but then there was a pause again, partly due to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. 1937 brought large-scale "Arization" of the German economy, which meant Jews were forced to sell their businesses and firms for mostly less than the real price.
In 1938, the National Socialist regime tightened the screws even tighter. In June, Jews sentenced to imprisonment for more than a month were sent to concentration camps. In November, Polish Jew Herschel Grünszpan assassinated a German diplomat in Paris, leading to the famous Kristallnacht.
Excesses took place throughout Germany, during which many synagogues were desecrated, Jewish shops were looted and burned, from 36 to 91 Jews were killed and many were wounded. In Germany itself and Austria, which became part of the Reich in March, 31.5 thousand Jews were arrested and placed in four camps: Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Dachau and Mauthausen. True, most of them were soon released, but the shock of Kristallnacht and the subsequent arbitrary measures taken by the government - for example, a fine of one billion marks was imposed on the German Jewish community - dispelled all hopes among the Jews of improving their situation. Before October 1941, when the order to stop emigration was issued, two-thirds of German Jews had left Germany, and among those who remained, already in 1939, more than half were over 65 years old.
The same process, but at a faster pace, occurred after the Anschluss in March 1938 in Austria and in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia after the partition of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Within a short time, most of the Austrian and a significant number of Czech Jews emigrated.
This mass exodus fully corresponded to the plans of the National Socialists and then they supported it with all their might. Jews were driven to emigrate by various oppressions to which they had been subjected since 1935. To strengthen it the Nazis collaborated closely with the Zionist circles interested in the resettlement of as many Jews as possible to Palestine. This collaboration, which these days is largely hushed up, is very well told in the book Death's Head Order by Heinz Hoehne, a classic study of the SS, which is based on the following facts.
In the fall of 1934, Leopold Edler von Mildenstein, who later became an SS Unterscharführer, published an article in the Nazi organ Angrif on the prospects for a Jewish state in Palestine. As a regular participant in Zionist congresses, Mildenstein saw the solution to the Jewish question in the emigration of Jews to the British Mandatory Territory, where the state of Israel later actually emerged. This article drew the attention of Reinhard Heydrich, head of the SD (security service), who liked the idea. All German Jews must go to Palestine, if possible voluntarily or under pressure. Of course, a minority of Jewish emigrants chose Palestine as their new homeland, while the majority preferred to go to other countries, mainly to the United States.
Mildenstein's plan included the "dissimilation" of assimilated Jews and their transformation into Zionists. On Himmler's orders, he organized a "Jewish Sector" to encourage emigration. This sector supported retraining camps where young Jews received agricultural training to work on Palestinian kibbutzim. In August 1936, at least 37 such camps were operating in Germany. One of them is mentioned in Neudorf even in March 1942!
One of the most active employees of the mentioned sector was SS man Adolf Eichmann, who on February 27, 1937 met in Berlin with the Zionist leader Feivel Polkesh, who held the position of commander of the Jewish Hagan militia in Palestine. Polkesh told Eichmann that he wanted with all his might to promote the emigration of Jews to Palestine, so that over time there would be more Jews than Palestinians. In October of the same year, Eichmann met in Cairo with Polkes for negotiations for a second time. After them, SS man Herbert Hagen, who accompanied Eichmann, declared greater satisfaction with which Jewish nationalists perceived the radical policy of the Germans towards the Jews, because it contributed to an increase in their number in Palestine.
However, the described plan soon encountered difficulties, as it caused unrest among the Arab population of the mandated territory and the British decided to slow down emigration. In December 1937, the first corresponding orders were issued, and in May 1939 the White Paper appeared, according to which only 75 thousand Jews were allowed into Palestine in the next five years, although illegal immigration, naturally, went on its own. The outbreak of war in September 1939 dealt a crushing blow to the SD's Palestinian plans, because the Germans did not really want to alienate the Arabs, their potential allies in the war with the British.
After the United States and other countries took measures to reduce Jewish emigration, Germany began to think about relocating Jews to Madagascar. A proponent of this idea was Franz Rademacher, head of the Jewish sector in the German department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The implementation of this project became real after the defeat of France, whose colony was this huge island. However, Petain opposed it, but even if he agreed with the plan, it would be difficult to implement it, since there were few ships for transportation and the British controlled the sea routes.
After the Germans captured large territories in the East at the beginning of the war with the USSR, an idea arose in Berlin to create a zone inhabited by Jews there. On July 31, 1941, Goering wrote to Heydrich:
“In addition to the task set by the order of January 24, 1939, the possibility of favorably solving the Jewish question in the form emigration and evacuation In accordance with the circumstances of the time, I instruct you to make all the necessary preparations of an organizational, business and material nature for the general solution of the Jewish question in the German zone of influence in Europe. Other competent central authorities may be involved. I further instruct you to submit to me in the near future a general plan of preliminary measures of an organizational, business and material nature to implement the envisaged final solution to the Jewish question.”
Holocaust supporters cite this letter all the time, interpreting it as the beginning of the extermination of the Jews. Since the words “in the form of emigration or evacuation” are confusing, sometimes they are simply omitted. When correctly quoted, for example, by Raoul Gilberg, these words are presented as a disguised “extermination”. Gilberg also concludes that, having received the letter, Heydrich firmly took control of the process of genocide. True, he does not explain why the second-ranking National Socialist had to resort to allegory in his informal letter to the chief of the Nazi police. Since not a single written order for the extermination of Jews has been found, adherents of the Holocaust myth have to speculate on what is not in the text. Speaking about the emigration and evacuation of Jews, Goering meant only this and nothing else. Indeed, starting in 1941, Jews from Germany and the occupied regions were transported to the East, first to Poland, and then in increasing numbers to Russia. Since hundreds of thousands of Jews were taken to the camps, their fate was unenviable even without an extermination plan.
There were three reasons for the behavior of the Nazis. Firstly, they urgently needed labor at a time when the majority of combat-ready men were at the front, and generally well-trained Jews were especially suitable as such. The transport of elderly people and children to the camps is simply explained by the fact that families did not want to be separated. Secondly, the Jews were considered unreliable, for they undoubtedly always stood on the side of the enemy. As already indicated, the percentage of Jews in the occupied countries of the Resistance fighters was very large. Third, the Nazis thought to use favorable circumstances to hasten the "Final Solution" of the Jewish Question, by which they meant - contrary to the legend of the physical extermination of the Jews - their emigration or resettlement to territory on the eastern fringes of the German sphere of power.
Although, as stated, emigration was officially prohibited in the fall of 1941, the law was not strictly enforced, and Jews were able to leave Europe during the war. The ban on emigration was, of course, aimed at preventing combat-ready and technically educated Jews from entering the service of the enemy. That is why Jews began to be deported to the East from the end of 1941. Below we will return to the fate of the deportees.
In the European countries occupied by Hitler, Jews suffered varying degrees of deportation. Unexpectedly, it greatly affected Dutch Jews, most of whom were deported, while the Jews of Belgium and France were little affected - mainly foreign Jews were deported from these countries. Since the National Socialists' goal was to drive the Jews out of Europe, they naturally began where there were least difficulties. In France and Belgium, they had to reckon with local governments that opposed the deportation of Jews, their fellow citizens. After the German attack, the government fled from Holland and therefore the Nazis could do whatever they wanted.
By the way, the deportation and internment of Jews in Hitler's Reich has a historical parallel: the USA and Canada interned most of the Japanese, even holders of American and Canadian passports. And this despite the fact that - as Reagan admitted decades later - not a single case of espionage or subversion on the part of Japanese Americans was identified!
Now let us risk touching on a very delicate topic - the question of how consciously the Zionists, especially the American ones, provoked the persecution of Jews in Germany and the occupied countries and what is their responsibility - if not legal, then at least moral - for the plight of the Jews.
American Jew Edwin Black describes in his sensationally frank book “The Transfer Agreement,” published in 1984, the stages of the economic war unleashed by Jewish organizations against Germany immediately after Hitler came to power, i.e. even before the first anti-Semitic decrees. On March 27, 1933, a large rally took place in Madison Square Garden in New York, the participants of which demanded a complete boycott of Germany until the day the National Socialist government was overthrown. McConnell, one of the speakers, stated in part:
“... Even if persecution in Germany weakens for a while, we must continue protests and rallies against the Nazis until they are removed from power.”
And Stephen S. Wise, president of the Congress of American Jews and one of the organizers of the rally, warned that:
At the same time, a boycott began in other countries. In Poland "... at mass rallies, in unison with the rally of the Congress (American Jews), it was decided to extend the boycott that began in Vilnius to the entire country. In Warsaw, the three largest Jewish trading firms pledged to “take the strongest measures of protection by boycotting goods imported from Germany. In London, almost all the Jewish shops in the Whitechapel area slammed their doors on the German merchants.”
The consequences of this economic boycott were disastrous for Germany:
“Trade unions took action against particularly important areas of industry that brought primarily foreign exchange earnings, such as fur dressing. It is estimated that the total German losses in this area alone amounted to 100 million marks in 1933.”
It seemed that the words from the article “Jews Declaring War on Germany”, published on March 24 in the Daily Express, were indeed beginning to come true:
“Jews around the world unite to declare financial and economic war on Germany... All friction and contradictions are forgotten in the face of one common goal... to force Nazi Germany to stop its terror and violence against the Jewish minority.”
Black justifies this economic war by the German government's ruthless suppression of Jews:
“The Nazis started a war with the Jews, mobilizing all of Germany. For their part, the Jews launched a war against the Nazis, exciting the whole world. Ahead are boycotts, protest marches, rallies against Hitler. Germany had to be isolated politically, and even economically and culturally, until the Nazi leadership fell. So, Germany was again being taught a bitter lesson.”
The author’s mistake is only that at that time there was simply no “war unleashed against the Jews with the mobilization of all of Germany,” no “terror and violence against the Jewish minority,” “gratuitous murders, starvation, extermination and diabolical persecution.” (these are the words of Samuel Untermeyer, government adviser and chairman of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League). There were only isolated incidents of anti-Semitic hooligans, against whom the new regime took all possible measures, as is clearly evidenced by the statements of German Jewish organizations. On March 31, Max Naumann, honorary chairman of the Union of National German Jews, responded in the Neue Wiener Journal:
“First of all, I want to tell you that I oppose this anti-German persecution through inciting horrors. This campaign reminds me of the recent persecution of the Germans and their allies during the war. Even the details and methods are exactly the same when it was written about severed children's hands and gouged out eyes and about the use of corpses to obtain fatty substances. In this context fit the current statements that dismembered corpses of Jews are lying in cemeteries, that as soon as a Jew goes outside, he is attacked. There were, of course, isolated incidents, but that was all... And I know that in these cases the authorities acted without ceremony. We German Jews are, in any case, convinced that the government and the leadership of the NSRPG really want to maintain peace and order.”
Everyone understood that the Nazis, unable to reach the instigators of the boycott campaign, would unleash their wrath on German Jews. In vain, however, Dr. Loewenstein, chairman of the “Imperial Union of German Front-line Soldiers,” in a letter to American Jews sent to the US Embassy in Berlin, called for a stop to this madness:
“We think it’s time to distance ourselves from the irresponsible persecution that is being carried out abroad by the so-called. Jewish intellectuals. The arrows that you throw from your protected shelter, although they harm Germany and German Jews, still do not bring honor to the shooters themselves.”
The terrible abuse of German Jews in 1933 existed only in the imagination of propagandists, which is confirmed by such an absolutely impeccable eyewitness as the Jewish historian Arno Mayer, describing the situation of that time:
“Among the first prisoners of the Third Reich there were relatively few Jews and, characteristically, they were arrested as politicians, lawyers or left-wing writers.”
One thing is obvious - no one was arrested at that time just because he was a Jew. Elsewhere, Mayer talks about the reason for the boycott:
“On March 20, a committee of prominent American Jews, concerned about the ominous instructions in Streicher’s Stürmer, decided to call a mass meeting in Madison Square Garden on March 27.”
The reason, or rather the pretext, for the unprecedented boycott campaign was the “sinister instructions” in an unofficial leaflet, which, due to its primitiveness and pornographic nature, was despised even by many Nazis!
Hitler responded to the international boycott with the aforementioned one-day boycott of Jewish shops, which, by the way, was carried out on Saturday, when most of them were already closed. A huge number of school textbooks contain a photograph taken that day: outside a Jewish store, SS men point to a poster “Don’t buy from Jews!” The textbooks, however, do not say how long this boycott lasted or what caused it. This is how history is falsified.
Subsequently, Jewish organizations in the United States and other countries did not hesitate to do anything to provoke new measures against German Jews. In August 1933, Untermeyer said in a speech broadcast nationwide:
“Each of you, whether he is a Jew or a non-Jew, who has not yet become a participant in the holy war, must become one today... Not only do you not buy German goods, you should not associate at all with merchants or shopkeepers selling German products, or with using German ships... - To our shame, there are several Jews among us - fortunately, they are few - who have so little pride and self-respect that they sail on German ships... Everyone should know their names. They are traitors to our nation."
In January 1934, when in Germany no one - with the exception of some criminal fanatics - laid a finger on a single Jew because of his religion or nationality, the radical Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky wrote:
“All Jewish communities and every Jew individually, all trade unions at every congress and at every congress have been fighting against Germany for months all over the world. We will launch a spiritual and physical war against Germany from the whole world. Our Jewish interests require complete destruction Germany."
In Berlin, such statements were taken literally. German Jews had to pay for them, and no one asked whether they agreed with the chatter of the Untermeyers, Wises and Jabotinskys. The Zionists knew what they were doing. As always, they used German Jews as bargaining chips in the struggle to create their state. During the war, bullying intensified even more. On December 3, 1942, Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist Organization, stated:
“We are a Trojan horse in the enemy camp. The thousands of Jews living in Europe are the main factor in the destruction of our enemies.”
It was these phrases that the National Socialists referred to when giving orders for the deportation of Jews to camps and ghettos.
Even before the United States entered the war, the American Jew Nathanael Kaufman published a book entitled “Germany Must Perish,” in which he demanded the complete extermination of the German people through sterilization:
“If we remember that vaccinations and serums bring benefits to the population, then the sterilization of the German people should be treated as a wonderful hygienic measure on the part of humanity in order to forever protect ourselves from the bacteria of the German spirit.”
Although Kaufman's book went almost unnoticed in the United States, Goebbels and Streicher skillfully took advantage of this craft, ordering it to be immediately translated into German and published in large quantities. In this regard, the German Jew Gideon Burg correctly noted:
“It looks as if the urchins at the circus began throwing stones at the lion, into whose mouth the tamer had put his head. There would be nothing for the urchins - between them and danger there is an ocean, that is, the bars of an animal cage.”
Frivolity or naivety? Hardly. It should not be forgotten that the Zionist strategy was to incite Hitler to increasingly harsh anti-Semitic measures to oppress the Jews. On the one hand, this pushed German Jews to emigrate to Palestine, on the other hand, the Zionists argued to the governments of Western powers that there was a need for a national home for Jews. The propaganda of “horrors” about the extermination of Jews, which began in 1942, was aimed at the same thing. This is not difficult to judge from statements such as those made by Weizmann in the New York Times on March 2, 1943:
“Two million Jews have already been exterminated... The task of democracies is obvious... they must negotiate through neutral countries, seeking the liberation of Jews in the occupied areas... May the gates of Palestine open to all who wish to see the shores of the Jewish Fatherland.”
It is a lie that two million Jews were exterminated in early 1943, but by this time tens of thousands had met their end in the camps.
Adolf Hitler is one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century. On the one hand, he treated the Germans well and sought to make them the dominant nation, but on the other hand, his hatred of the Jewish people led to a large-scale genocide that took lives of millions of people. Why Hitler did not like Jews, what assumptions exist on this matter.
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Where are the reasons for hatred?
There are several versions and theories in science, why Hitler did not like representatives of the Jewish nation. Some even boldly say that the Fuhrer and was a Jew himself.
In fact, no one today can say for sure for what specific reason German soldiers were given instructions to exterminate this people.
Perhaps the secret of such an attitude towards certain nations is hidden in his most famous work, entitled “My Struggle,” which he wrote while in prison.
The reasons for his hatred should be sought starting from childhood, because it was then that the first experience of communicating with representatives of this nationality was gained. It was then that his view of her began to take shape.
Basic theories
Despite a large number of assumptions about why Hitler exterminated the Jews, none of them is not generally accepted. Most theories, in turn, look very convincing, and yet no documentary evidence has yet been found.
The first acquaintance with the Jew was not very successful - he was a young and silent boy who, due to his secrecy, did not win the love of the future leader of the Reich. Adolf studied this people, reading books and looking through anti-Semitic pamphlets. The information gleaned from these sources formed in Hitler's mind the image of a people who put themselves above the rest and were not even at home.
Untidy and uncleanliness
As is known, Hitler was a clean person, and according to his personal observations, Jews didn't really like to wash. Irregular bathing caused a persistent unpleasant odor.
From childhood, parents taught their son to maintain a neat appearance, to be neat and well-groomed, which is typical for all representatives of the German nation. When the future leader of the Reich grew up, he developed a complex of purity. Anyone who did not fit into his idea of a person caused irritation.
Rejection of the life position of another nation
In his work, Hitler wrote that Jews are the dirt of modern society, which can also be compared to maggots, swarming on an abscess.
We all know very well the essence of this people, who want to find profit in everything; they are driven by the thirst for profit.
Hitler believed that a typical representative of this nation is not guided by any moral principles when achieving his goal - he is ready to do the dirtiest things for the sake of money.
At the same time, the Fuhrer noted that their infectious worldview very quickly spread to representatives of other races, spreading throughout the world like an infection.
Jews are the enemies of Germany
Adolf Hitler believed that it was these people who initiated the founding of the anti-German coalition, which won victory in .
It is now impossible to establish whether this was really the case or not, and what goal was pursued at the time of the creation of the Entente. It is interesting that at that time Jews were not hostile to the Germans, at least that’s what documentary sources say.
According to Hitler, their goal was simple - destruction of Germany, and especially the layer of the intelligentsia. By destroying the patriotic Germans, the Jews would have opened the way for themselves to conquer the country, and from there the whole world. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the future Fuhrer decided to go into politics: to save the German people from a cunning enemy.
Very smart people
Hitler respected and admired smart people, but at the same time he hated them when, given such global opportunities, they acted so pettyly. The Jews could easily rule the whole world - their inclinations towards politics and trade had been developed over millennia.
The Fuhrer believed that these are very smart people who always learn from the mistakes of other people, simply by observing and analyzing what is happening. And yet, despite their intelligence, they only wanted to trade and cheat, which the leader of the Reich considered disgusting.
Spreaders of sexually transmitted diseases
Hitler was convinced that commercial aspirations had penetrated into all spheres of life of the Jewish people, including family life. Therefore they entered into fictitious marriages, which were aimed only at joint enrichment or improvement of the material and financial situation of one of the parties.
Summarizing the above, one simple conclusion suggests itself - hatred was the result of the Fuhrer’s fear. He believed that the planet needed protect from harmful influences.
Attention! Hatred of Jews was evident in every speech of the leader of the Third Reich. Possessing excellent oratory skills, the Fuhrer easily sowed the seeds of racism among the German population.
Before Hitler came to power, it could not be said that the Germans treated Jews with contempt. Almost everyone knew them; most of them even had friendly relations. When the Nazis came to power, the situation changed, and the death machine of the Third Reich destroyed millions of representatives of this nation.
How the extermination took place
The mechanism for the destruction of an entire nation on the territory of Western Europe was clearly thought out and organized.
It is very important to note that immediately after coming to power, the Fuhrer made a statement to the heads of European states, which said that Jews should withdraw from Germany.
France, England and others ignored such statements, refusing to allow millions of people into their territory.
Only after this did the Fuhrer begin to act cruelly and decisively. How Hitler dealt with his enemies: the construction of concentration camps began on the territory of the country, the first of which was Dachau.
Important! Subsequently, Dachau, Auschwitz and the rest were called the “death machines” of the Third Reich, in which a system was established for the destruction of unwanted individuals.
Numerous scientific papers have been written about how prisoners were treated in concentration camps, many of which were written by from the words of eyewitnesses:
- prisoners were not just killed, painful demonstration executions were carried out;
- people were starved for weeks, forced to live in small cells of several dozen people, where they did not even have the opportunity to sit down, lie down, or relieve themselves;
- thousands of prisoners were sent to gas chambers;
- In northern Germany there was a factory where people were processed into soap.
The experiments carried out on the captives deserve special attention. The Reichsführer dreamed of creating an ideal Aryan race, devoid of all shortcomings, and therefore Ahnenerbe scientists subjected people of undesirable nationalities to monstrous experiments, during which no one managed to survive.
Important! According to rough estimates, during the entire existence of the fascist regime, about 6 million representatives of the Jewish nation were killed.
Other victims of the fascist regime
Who else didn't the Fuhrer love? Roma and Slavs also suffered from Nazism. In addition to them, the following were destroyed:
- representatives of sexual minorities,
- people with mental disorders,
- members of Masonic lodges.
All of them, according to the Fuhrer, did not bring benefit to society, and therefore should not have occupied the living space that the Aryan nation needed. One need only mention the “night of the long knives,” when Hitler ordered the destruction of his subordinate Ernst Roehm and his associates for their non-traditional sexual orientation.
It is difficult to say which of the reasons listed above played a key role in shaping the views of the leader of the Reich. It is quite possible that to some extent everything is. Today, the majority of Germans want to forget the past and despise the personality of Adolf Hitler. The modern German nation does not hate other nationalities, but only sympathizes with what happened in the mid-20th century.
As for how Jews treat Germans after the Holocaust, they still have sad memories in their minds. And yet, they do not consider the Germans a hostile nation. Their enemy was the Fuhrer and the Nazis, but they had already disappeared from the political arena of Germany.
The main reasons for Hitler's hatred of Jews
Why did Hitler destroy the Jewish people?
Bottom line
The Fuhrer's ambitions were destroyed in 1945, when the USSR and its allies inflicted a crushing defeat on Nazi Germany during World War II. After the victory at the Nuremberg trials, a trial was held against the perpetrators of the Holocaust, during which most of the accused were found guilty and executed. The leader of the Thousand-Year Reich himself, according to historians, committed suicide shortly before the end of hostilities.
