Time of Last Update:
Friday, April 06, 2007 02:40 PM

LINKS

Book on German Guilt
Reviewed in NYT

Ron Rosenbaum, EXPLAINING HITLER, has produced an important and monumental work, but he still has great difficulty explaining Adolf Hitler. Here is my attempt to explain Hitler and gather some meaning on this one web page.
First: Why Hitler Happened;
Next:  What did Hitler Want to do, and what actually happened; Finally:  Wherefore... (consequences for us)
It's not all that difficult, just very hard to face. (The explanation has little to do with the infant  Adolf, the failed student-artist, the grieving son, or hatred for any particular Jew.) Could it happen again? It is happening now.  It will happen again, and again. The question is: Where will it happen next? OR: When will we grow up and enjoy the maturity which is the destiny offered to us?

In Sept, 1998, Mr Rosenbaum delivered this speech at the Simon Wiesenthal Institute in LA:

RealRadioSpeech by
Ron Rosenbaum

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Note:
Hitler's goal for the War

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An interesting take on WWII and the events surrounding it:
Arthur Kemp's THE THIRD REICH

 

 

 

Dedicated to The Millions ravaged by dictators during this century of death.

"God owes explanations..." Death-camp Survivors

"Unwarranted hatred among ourselves:" Cause of 70AD Holocaust,  - Talmud, Yoma 9

"And I have come to believe that this was the worst century of mankind because of it--the war--the wars that solved no problems, only developed new ones." John Toland in '97 c-Span Audio Interview

"The truth shall set you free " Jesus

"It is for liberty that Christ has set us free."  St Paul

"And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."   St Paul

"Hitler filled me with the great enthusiasms of life."   A. Speer, Hitler's Architect

"Power Sanctifies." John Toland on why many good people supported Hitler

"All effects are caused and all causes are multiple." Dr. Clyde Narramore, Psychologist

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Suggested reading and Links.
My internal links will all be to non-controversial sites (hopefully), accessing original documents and broadly accepted quote sources. I expect to have 100 such links. The external links cover much ground, and I do not support all thoughts contained therein. I am not engaged in Revisionism or rehabilitation of anyone. This is an important subject and all agree that it should be studied carefully. I am making that attempt. I accept as authoritative, John Toland, Paul Johnson, Edwin Black and Ron Rosenbaum, and am presently reading David Irving. But my conclusions are mine and are based on my understanding of psychology, the Bible, anthropology and my experience with human emotions. As we close this century, please study these matters for yourself; you will find it interesting, disturbing and, hopefully, an expanding experience.

HITLER , by John Toland (Last author to interview many eye witnesses and Hitler friends)

THE TRANSFER AGREEMENT;  by Edwin Black (Endorsed by Simon Wiesenthal)

EXPLAINING HITLER; by Ron Rosenbaum (Ten Year Research; Current big title)

This www page seems to have everything on Hitler (I don't know their own views)

Review of Rosenbaum's EXPLAINING HITLER; Slate Magazine (Take a free trial subscription)

Most controversial book on the Internet; Nazis were pederasts: The Pink Swastika

Rebuttal of The Pink Swastika: Rebuttal

30YEAR TIMELINE with  their interpretative data;  rich site: History Place

(I probably will have 100 Hitler links; please send your suggestions by email)

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The Leader (FÜhrer)

Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945) left nothing but sorrow, tears and pain as the legacy of his life. Yet he was a man consumed with the emotions most of us prize as among the noblest that can propel and direct a human life. And these intense dedications were married with the most remarkable gifts of intuition, motivational powers, destiny planning and public speaking ('He filled me with the enthusiasms of life.' -Speer). He also had a lot of good luck in his crazy plans that he counted as Providential hoverings. The good luck produced stupid pride -- the fatal hubris. When a ball-player's single is stretched into a double by skillful base-running, and then a triple by an off-target throw from the out-fielder, it is only vain and stupid pride that tries to convert every other double into an inside-the-park home-run. This was Hitler (in part). Trying to explain Hitler on a psychological basis is interesting, but 100% speculation. He had a magnetic quality to his voice (like the great preacher George Whitfield, who, it is said, could make men weep just by pronouncing Mesopotamia). It was simply luck of the draw that invested Hitler with that quality. So it may have been, and certainly was, with several of his attributes, such as his remarkable intuition in several areas --at some times. And he certainly did not gain his ability in crowd manipulation as the result of his half-niece, Geli, falling in love with a Jewish doctor, or any of the of the other tortuously researched encounters with individual Jews. (The Jewish element was a tragic sub-plot of his scheme.) He just had, and developed, these abilities; and they were set aflame by intense identification with the German tribe and landscape --and what he considered their mistreatment during and after W.W.I..

I think that most historians agree with the bulk of my above characterization of this Destroyer. But from here on, there are wide divergences of views of Why, What and Wherefore. As we open the door of a new century, we really ought to know what happened in this century.

 

WHY  HITLER?

Ashes

Germany was in ruins after W.W.I., and then was caught in the world-wide depression that also racked our land. But Germany, much, much more. Churchill declared that if England were ever reduced to such straits of despair that he could wish for no greater blessing than for a man of Hitler's abilities to appear to lift her from the ashes. There was a job to be done. Everybody saw it. Adolf Hitler was the unique combination of everything demanded by the time and place. But, sadly, he worshipped a non-existent past of tribal glory. He also merged phallic fascination with his idealization of the 'Aryan' male physique, being himself deficient in both; but this is definitely a side issue. He loved Germany. His unschooled intuitions rescued Germany from financial devastation. Success sanctifies. Hitler was viewed by his countrymen as a self-denying, vegetarian monk with a messianic aura. It is a common trait of all peoples to pray and hope for a political savior; we all know, intuitively, that all progress and stability depends on competent leadership. Hitler's early successes were so remarkable that a tremendous force of appreciation and admiration swept the nation.  When he annexed Austria without firing a shot and entered Vienna to tumultuous acclaim, where, as a young man, he had suffered humiliation and rejection, both nations, Austria and Germany, gave him nigh 100% approval. It must have been one of the most personally satisfying days in history.

Tribalism

Mankind's progress away from tribalism has been tortuously slow. Jesus led the way, but the message of the Savior has too often been neglected. The assumption that we are called to enhance and protect the tribe at the expense of all others is ingrained and often taken for noble patriotism. Adolf Hitler is certainly a candidate for the title of the most patriotic man in history (not near the vainglory of Napoleon). It is interesting that Jesus is not in this competition at all.

Scapegoats

Another human trait found everywhere is the attachment  to 'conspiracy and blaming' mentality. Someone or some group must be at fault for things we see as reverses. In Hitler's case it was virtually everyone outside the Germanic tribe, whose romanticized identity he had merged with his own psyche. Hitler was frozen as a pre-pubescent child with glories dancing in his head, morphed somehow from the American Wild-West, about which he had read so much in the adventures written by another German who had never visited this country, and romanticized legends of Fredrick The Great.

There was certainly a lot awry in Germany, Europe and the world. An awful war had been fought over a pig-trail (an argument that is still unsettled as we see in the recent carnage in the very same place, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina). The Communists had come to power in Russia and were preaching the forcible death of all tribalism and nationalism. Germany had been subjected to unwise and un-chivalrous terms of surrender by the allies of W.W.I..

Hitler's anti-Semitism was a development. He grew to adulthood with respect for religious diversity and freedom of expression and worship. No experience with any individual Jew determined his view on this subject. He was taught it as a doctrine of reality.

The first tenet of anti-Semitism is the idea that Jews are a race. Hitler made this very clear. He could not embrace anti-Semitism if it were simply a religion; it had to be anti-racial. An Austrian mayor taught a young Hitler on this point. (A high-school History teacher had effectively imbued him with the romantic glories of Germanic tribalism.) Two tribes cannot occupy the same campground. Hitler was uninformed and stupid on this point.

There are several ironies of stupendous proportions. Many Jews agreed with Hitler on one or more of his major and minor points. The book, THE TRANSFER AGREEMENT,   makes clear, beyond dispute, that W.W.II could not have been waged without the cunning co-operation of the Jews who wanted a tribal homeland for world Jewry. Paul Johnson, the great historian, may have this somewhat reversed: he says that WWII made a Jewish national homeland necessary, but it may be more accurate to say that the need for a national homeland made WWII possible (this latter point is Black's position). And Europe after the war is certainly became a more hospitable place for Jews that it was from 1870 to 1939, when 3,000,000 fled to the United States. Most Jews of Germany were deeply loyal to Germany (and, at first, to Hitler) and did not want to move to China (where the Japanese offered a homeland), Madagascar (the early choice of Theodor Herzl, founder of the Zionists) or Palestine (as we know, the final site). The German Jewish community did not want Eastern Europe's 'huddled masses' to flood into Germany, nor did they themselves want to migrate to Palestine. The Jewish was not then, and is not now, monolithic, by any means, though anti-Semites wish to think so..

Of course, the most awful irony is this: Many Jews, then and now, cling to the tribalistic concept that they represent a race of mankind, not just a religion and a culture. Hitler did not have a category for Ethnicity (apart from race), which is a group identifiable by their culture. Some influential Jews miss this essential point also. I hasten to add that this point about race is important only to racists and tribalists, both of whom invest so much in the concept; it really should not matter.

Patriotism

Patriotism is more  than the memory of the food we ate as children --H.L.Mencken.

Sexual-Deviates=Nazis

Tribalism and sexual deviations are not all that removed from each other. This is a very interesting, informative and critical point in the horror of W.W.II.

[I'll write more on this soon, maybe.]

 

WHAT HAPPENED?

The old Centuries were resisting the birth of a new concept of human organization and ethics.

Hitler had the correct designation, 'Fuhrer'; he had over 100 million eager followers, excited over his "leadership. He solved their economic problems and inspired dreams of glory. Why?

Hitler wanted to reclaim  German territory (plus a little more for breathing room).

Hitler wanted to destroy Internationalism, e.g. Communism. Please remember that Communism is tribalistic (cliquish) in the extreme, with a small minority of insiders owning and running everything.

Hitler wanted to build an eternal tribal Germany built on purity of race. (Just as some Jews wanted for themselves.)

Hitler wanted friendly alliances with the west. An untold story is how Hitler refused to destroy or capture the British at Dunkirk. Toland relates it.

His positive and negative qualities merged into one quality: NEGATIVE!

Hitler was an enemy of democracy and democratic processes. He was an enemy of Christianity and all religion. He was a scientific Darwinian. His  references to "Providence" was like Khrusheve's were later to be. He scheduled the Hitler Youth meetings to coincide with Sunday church hour to get the youth out of church..

A single Communist operative, not Hitler or Nazis, burned the Reichstag in February, 1933. (Toland) A similar myth has to do with the snubbing of Jesse Owens, black Olympic champion; it was actually Roosevelt who refused to invite Owens to the White House for fear of losing votes that election year. (Owens confirms this in his autobiography.)

Soviet Union troops, not Germans, murdered the 15,000 Polish officers in the Katyn Forest Massacre.

Hitler could have destroyed the British forces at Dunkirk, but decided not to do so, for some reason never explained. (His final written words simply said he never wanted to fight the English and Americans.) (Toland)

From the days of his earliest political activity, Hitler wanted a Jew-free state, but he did not envision physical extermination of all the Jews in the world. When he came to power, he sent tens of thousands to Palestine.

Hitler promoted and co-operated with Zionist emigration of Jews, especially in Palestine. I doubt that Hitler ever considered killing all the Jews of Germany, Europe the Middle East or the world. To attempt something while simultaneously taking actions that would render the undertaking impossible does not reach the first level of logic. And the NAZI party did not usually attack problems on totally illogical foundations.

"The Final Solution" was conceived as a plan of  forced re-settlement (as opposed to emigration), and  was vigorously and ruthlessly pursued with the knowledge that it would be deadly for many. Awful crimes were committed in the brutal process. [reader's contrary view]

When Hitler's own investigation confirmed the murder of Jews (and others) in prison camps, he ordered the camps closed. (Toland)

50,000,000 (Fifty Million) people died in the battle to defeat tribalism (35 million of the deaths were in Europe; 15 million in Asia). Here are the figures, widely accepted. The number killed by the Communist Empire builders dwarfs W.W.II.. (I'll find the accurate numbers; it will be well over one hundred million.)

Many after-shocks of tribalism are now racking  the landscape on every continent. The last thirty years have matched any period in history for brutality.

There is no such thing as non-aggressive or civilized tribalism.

Somewhere up to 7,000,000 Jews died in W.W.II.. European Jews suffered a hurricane of sorrow in immense proportions, whether 300,000, 1,500,000, 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 died. There is no profit in debating figures. Any Nazi who would have murdered one would have been willing to kill all. The Seven Million total (or any total) will not affect the thoughts expressed here. Three Hundred Million war deaths in this century give the title 'Holocaust' to our entire Hundred Years of  Sorrow. There were many holocausts in W.W. II: Russia, Poland, London, 298,000 American dead, Germany itself  4,200,000, and many more...., many before it, and we witnessed, through the media,  some of the worst in history during the last fifty years. 'The' Holocaust is rightly   the definition of our entire century of death, including Tibet, Iran, Iraq, Africa, China, Korea, etc., etc..

It is inhuman beyond forgiveness to put civilians in prison camps. The Nazis planned on the death of many through disease and overwork. It happened.

The awful scenes at the prison camps when the Russians arrived were replays of Andersonville, right here in Georgia. . (That Hitler interred civilians by the millions is enough to enshrine his name in infamy.) Starvation and disease are horsemen of war. But, it is premeditated murder to put civilians in concentration camps, knowing that multitudes will die of typhus and other diseases (one of the greatest influenza epidemics in history ravaged the continent during the W.W.II, as in the first war).

The Communists that Hitler hated, were, in fact,  much more evil (and destructive --- killing tens of millions more) than Hitler.  Hitler interest is ever growing, but there is little interest in the 'why' of Lenin and Stalin.  Why?  The evil of Stalin and Mao is transparent evil: sociopath and psychotic; no explanation is needed. Hitler is the dying of the OLD, and Communism is the death brought by an imposter NEW.  Atheism  and hate did their work in Communism. Racism, tribalism and perversion showed their colors in National Socialism.

The war was about anti-democratic tribalism, restoration of pride, and territory. Mussolini ridiculed Hitler for attacking the Jews; the Italian dictator knew it was a stupid mistake in their common war for pride, territory and the rights of dictators. Thus ever to tyrants!

 

WHEREFORE...LET US.....

This requires a lot of thought, and prayer. (I will try to expand this section too.) If you have read the first two sections, you can probably recite what should be written here. I feel quite guilty of arrogance in stating so unequivocally my explanation of Hitler. Ron Rosenbaum and many others have spent so much time and labor on this subject. But then it is such an important subject that I hope these scholars and real historians will indulge a citizen's private interpretation of this history that has impacted us all so much.

I often think of John Toland's explanation for the endorsements Hitler received, even from many Jews of Germany (and the United States, such as the then 'Dean of American Columnists,' Walter Lippman). "Power Sanctifies."

So, Wherefore? Well, why not educate ourselves in the sorrows of tribalism, fierce party spirit, fanaticism, racial idiocies, and religions that are really worship of the tribe (these are many).

The most democratic, egalitarian words ever spoken were those of Jesus: "Ye must be born again."  The prophet Isaiah promised a Messiah who would level the mountains and exalt the valleys, make the crooked places straight, and the rough places plain. The egalitarianism of the spirit is the primary message of Jesus. The old Encyclopedia Britannica said that the most democratic institutions in human experience are the Jewish Synagogue and the congregationalist Protestant church (EB said Baptist church) . The salvation of society is locked in the atomic power of this idea, promised in the Old Testament and revealed in the New. America is a replica of a Protestant congregation. The church invites and begs all men to come in and find utter equality before God and in the fellowship. Every congregation is imperfect in this, as is America; but the ideal and goal is their in our common theology. Richard Arens, brother of Israeli leader Moshe Arens, has spoken to his Jewish brethren, as a modern Josephus, calling them to this approach. I agree.

The American ideal, a mirror of Protestant Christianity, saved Europe, and out-dueled Communism. People of  many creeds made it work by fighting together for the ideal. There will never be a place on Earth as save a haven for Jews as America. Everywhere  the promise of Isaiah and the words of Jesus are adored, and adorned with obedience will be a refuge for all men.

We should hate and oppose all dictatorships, and seek to teach all citizens the principles of democratic, republican self-government.

Every social club that is not democratic should be forsaken or reformed.

Every religion that is not democratic should be avoided or reformed.

None of these voluntary organizations should be reformed by the government.

Participatory democracy should be encouraged in the workplace.

Plebiscite governance is a cruel dictatorship of emotion. It is not a complementary tool of democracy. Full-franchise democracy is the daughter of Christian law and Christian ethics. A Christian Constitution is essential to freedom. The plebiscites in Germany spurred Hitler on to excess and tyranny. We are seeing a threat to our American democracy posed by the ubiquitous opinion polls that, at this moment (August 1998), are being posited as a substitute for the rule of law in our nation. The pleasure in our good economy (the excuse to circumvent law) is pale compared to the euphoria in Germany when Hitler rescued that nation from poverty, hunger and hopelessness. The people accepted plebiscite governance in the place of freedom and the rule of law through constitutional democracy. Their regret is eternal. How can anyone who knows how Nazi tyranny developed, cite an opinion poll as the foundation for fundamental decisions of governance? Polls are going to be with us, but we must know and remember how Hitler used them in the form of plebiscites. ("Electronic Town Meetings" is an idea, than which, there could hardly be any more dangerous to the thoughtful consideration that is essential to freedom, democracy and law.)

Protestant Christianity has given this full concept of equality and democracy to the world. We must expand and enhance the religion of Jesus Christ; the one, best, last, great hope of all mankind. As in all areas of human life, Christianity is, itself, constantly pulled toward totalitarian despotism and rule by insiders cliques.

There are Christian religions with hundreds  of millions of adherents. Every one should have democratic procedures from bottom to top (what's a religion of Jesus doing with a 'top' anyway?). Jesus certainly militated against the very idea. Let the people elect the pastors; let the people elect any hierarchy above their congregations; let no salaried servant have a vote. Recognize the sovereignty of the individual in every relationship and association in life. If the people don't want to preserve the Creed, let it die. That's a constantly recurring cancer in Protestantism: the people are too stupid to preserve the Creed!  Let all sickly creeds expire.

America cannot exist without a healthy Protestant religious base. Why? America is built on the Protestant model and foundation. If you believe in the sovereignty of the individual and democracy in all institutions, you are adhering to the Protestant Creed. That portion of the Creed cannot survive apart from the entire fabric of the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles.

 

Dear Friend:

Thank you for reading way down here to the bottom. I am honored. Please email with any suggestion, correction, or criticism (please don't SHOUT). If you have some clear thoughts you want included, I will consider posting them (pro or con). I will link to all serious sites of whatever shade of opinion. My intention is to write one document with many internal links to original documentation, and varied opinions in the listed links. So you might want to come by  and re-read from time to time, as I fill-in, correct, link and expand. Remember, I am an Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Methodist (ordained Baptist Minister) Christian who believes that we are all born so wrong that we must be born again. But I am not part of this End of the World craziness that is prominent under all these identifiers I love. God bless you, whoever, wherever and whatever you are.

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