Approaching the Inexplicable
To be released in the summer of 2008
"Why Hitler Exterminated the Jews"

INTRODUCTION (partially edited)
We Are Not Yet Finished with Adolf Hitler

Hint: if you click on a note link, use your browsers back button to return to the spot you left off at.

“Joachim Fest, Hitler, will go here”1

“Kershaw, Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris, pg. xxviii”2

“Philippe Burrin, Hitler and the Jews: The Genesis of the Holocaust,149 3

“John Lukacs, The Duel, pg. 10-11”4

“Ron Rosenbaum, Explaining Hitler, pg. 83 will go here.”5

  At the end of August 1939, Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the Third Reich, gave the orders that led to the Second World War.6 On his orders, Germany attacked its eastern neighbor, Poland, in an all out blitzkrieg invasion. In only a week’s time, fast-moving Panzer Divisions rapidly penetrated deep into western Poland. Within days of the invasion, Britain, and then France, declared war on Germany, thereby bringing about yet another major European war, just two decades after “the war to end all wars” (World War I) had already been fought.
This happened even though almost no one wanted to fight yet another terrible modern war. In other words, virtually single-handedly Hitler was able to start this war, which ultimately led to a world war, in which millions died and millions more would be exterminated for purely ideological reasons.7 The driving force behind this was also Hitler, whose role in the genocide of the Jews should not be underestimated.8 The initial goal was to kick the Jews out of Germany, but the successful attack on France in 1940, the year after the invasion of Poland, opened the possibility of removing the Jews from all of Europe.
  Hitler now stood at the very zenith of his power. But, the following year (1941), with the failure of the crucial strategic attack on the much larger Soviet Union, the war that initially had gone so well began to go against Germany. (See Appendix II.) Hitler staked everything on the attack but, with its failure, recognized that he was faced with the inevitable failure of his historic mission.
  It was at this time that, above and beyond the “hard” methods that he had been using, Hitler became willing to resort to what some have called “diabolical” methods—i.e. genocide.9 By making use of the two to three-year window of time he still had, it would be possible to solve “the Jewish problem,” once and for all. Looking at it from Hitler’s historical point of view, he had to do this, since once this window closed it would be too late to do anything about it, possibly for centuries.
  Historians have concluded that were it not for this one man, Nazism, and World War II might never have happened. For this reason, it is desirable to have a deeper understanding of the complex man behind the Final Solution, about whom it has been written that he was an uncanny leader.10 For over half a century extensive research has been done on the many aspects of Hitler and World War II. Today, there exists a small mountain of serious historical research on the subject. Yet, in spite of all the books that have been written, it is believed that Hitler has still not been fully understood.11 It will probably never be fully known why he saw the Jews as such a threat that he felt they had to be destroyed.12 The intensity of his unexplainable anti-Semitism, it is thought, must have been extremely deep. Why else would he have ordered their extermination? 13
  According to one prominent historian, Hitler was the victim of a delusional system of ideas that was made all the more virulent because it was grounded in fact.14 Even if one takes the view that Hitler was never delusional, most people are inclined to think that he must have been abnormal in some way. That is, he must have been morally or spiritually stunted, even a moral cretin.15 But, not all historians agree that he was abnormal.16 A philosophical view of evil also exists that asserts that it is possible for a normal individual to radically dedicate himself to an ideology and initiate something like genocide.17
  Still, the question of why Hitler wanted to do this has not been fully dealt with. The resources needed to understand it are not there.18 One may have the feeling that there was a tangible purpose behind the Final Solution. It is as if the answer is almost there, yet it lies outside the grasp of one's normal area of conscious experience. It is as if it is hidden in a fog that seems to have the power to inhibit one's ability to think clearly about the issue. But, must it necessarily be the case that this hidden purpose or reason remains impossible to understand?
This book will offer a simple, understandable explanation and perspective for why Hitler so completely rejected the Jews. It will also explain why he demanded that Europe be made “Jew-free,” even when it meant resorting to mass murder.


Why Hitler Wanted to Remove the Jews

  Hitler was born in Austria, making him a German-Austrian rather than a true native-born son of the German Reich. Before immigrating to Germany (at the age of twenty-four) he lived in Vienna for five and a half years. At that time Vienna was the capital of the ethnically diverse, multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire, ruled by the Habsburg monarchy. Like much of the rest of Europe, Vienna was modernizing and undergoing significant cultural, social, economic, and political change.
  As part of this the native German-Austrians had been gradually losing the political power that they had once had in their own country. The flood of immigrants to Vienna was so great that the city was in many respects hardly even a German city any more. Among the many different immigrants were a large group of Jews who were of two types: the fully assimilated, westernized Jew who had been there for a while, and the more recently arrived, non-assimilated eastern orthodox “caftan” Jew.
  A devastating anti-Semitism ruled the Vienna of this era. Yet, many of the westernized, assimilated, highly educated Jews were doing quite well for themselves. After having gotten their education, they went on to obtain responsible positions in society as doctors, lawyers, professors, businessmen, and journalists. Their success was such that they were the single most upwardly mobile group of people in Vienna. They also contributed to the richness of Viennese society. One historian has written that Vienna was “a metropolis of modern art and science, especially in the fruitful symbiosis of Viennese and Jewish elements.”19 This was completely out in the open and fully visible for everyone to see.20 It was also plain to see that most of these Jewish people tended to openly side with whatever was modern, progressive, and liberal, since this kind of change increased their freedom and privileges.21
  As might be expected, a great many native German-Austrians were jealous of the fact that many Jews were more successful than they were. But beyond just this many of the more conservative among them were suspicious of the relentlessly approaching modern era. They looked upon it as false, materialistic, unspiritual, without values, corruptive, and degenerate. They therefore often rejected the Jews who seemed to have a definite affinity with the ongoing modern era.
  By the late 1800’s they were seen as the incarnation of the modern era.22 Thus, they became a negative symbol for the many evils associated with the often too-rapid industrialization of everything. Negative stereotypes arose that portrayed the Jew as the “incarnation of dishonesty, ruthless in his quest for power, and egotism exemplified.” 23
  Still other kinds of negative notions about Jews came into existence. It was asserted by anti-Semites that once a group of Jews were established somewhere, they tended to exercise a distinct “influence” on that society.24 Later, the idea was conceived that there was a greater “Jewish world influence,” that was a real force that afflicted much of the modern western world.25
  There was a pseudo-spiritual aspect to this.26 The Jew was seen as the “spiritual opposite” of the German.27 This type of thinking existed in the “anti-Semitic imaginations” of those who sought to attack the Jews as well as to make “the Jew” an anathema. From the serious anti-Semitic point of view, to oppose whatever was “Jewish” was to fight against a false set of liberal values. It was also to fight against the many social evils that had been brought to the surface as society modernized.28
  By the time the teenage Hitler came to Vienna, he could not (and did not) possibly have missed any of this. Historians believe he absorbed a great deal during the years he lived in Vienna. Initially, with its art and culture, the teenager had been drawn to the city like a magnet. But, after a while he started to look at the city more critically. Vienna became a real-life living laboratory of what the modern era was leading to. The city even enabled him to look into the future.
  By the time he left Vienna Hitler hated everything about the city. He felt that what once may have been Germanic there had been ruined. He also hated the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, and concluded that it was only a matter of time before it fell apart, which is exactly what happened at the end of World War I. Vienna served as serious food for thought for Hitler, who took the memories of his experiences with him for the rest of his life. He came away from the city as a serious (politicized) anti-Semite.
  But while living there he had come to appreciate that the Jews were playing a serious that they were playing, not just in Vienna, but in numerous other places in Europe as well. As things stood, the Jews already had a significant influence in many places, especially the bigger cities of central and Eastern Europe to which they immigrated. Vienna enabled him to put two and two together and grasp that the Jews had the potential that would enable them to go on to play a key role in Europe well beyond the not insignificant role they were already playing. This future potential would be a broad intellectual, cultural, social, economic, and political, influence based on the liberal ideas that people like Hitler rejected and hated. This was what made the Jews the primary threat and the main ideological enemy.
  To be sure, Hitler later blamed the Jews for communism taking hold in Russia and turning it into the Soviet Union, which was a threat to Germany. But, with respect to the insights that ultimately went back to Vienna, more than one historian who has studied Hitler believes that Vienna played a crucial role in the formation of his worldview.
  Hitler possessed a formidable intelligence that was fully capable of abstract insights. As such, he was also capable of realizing that a greater idea stood behind the liberalization of the world. It was perhaps this idea that he rejected most of all.29 In Vienna the young Hitler grasped that as a group the Jews of Europe would eventually play a serious role that would be directly opposed to what he and other anti-liberals wanted. But if they could be removed from the European equation this could be stopped from happening.


The Decision to resort to Diabolical Methods

  Historians see Hitler as having been a highly complex individual who is difficult to grasp. He was also very proficient at camouflaging his true feelings, thoughts and intentions. Today the figure of Hitler stands “behind a veil,” parts of which has yet to be fully torn away. As a result, he continues to remain difficult to grasp even after so many years of serious research on him.30
  Hitler was much more than just a sophisticated role-player. He was an effective, competent leader with an astute political sense that enabled him to become the head the German Reich. He also had a strong will with which he ultimately dominated most people with whom he came into contact. Few people were a match for his strong personality. As the driving force in the Third Reich Hitler make all the key decisions. Nothing important happened without his approval.
  Hitler did not violently seize power in a “traditional” type of revolution. Rather, in January 1933, the aging German President Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor of the German Reich. Surprising everyone by his will, energy, and sheer competence, Hitler went on (after Hindenburg’s death from old age) to earn the right to become the lawful and legitimate leader of Germany. Under his leadership the Reich once again became a serious European power, only about a decade and a half after its defeat in the First World War. This made him the single most popular man in Germany. During the early years of his rule, he spontaneously attracted large, enthusiastic crowds of people. Historians see him as having been a “popular dictator,” who had genuinely won over the German people.
  Hitler's tremendous political success has also been seen as having led him to ambitions that bordered on the fantastic. He ultimately wanted Germany to follow a completely new (non-liberal) historical path. But not all historians accept that Hitler, who had always been inspired by the sublime, had developed a case of megalomania. One of these historians has theorized that, in spite of Hitler’s tremendous success, in reality, he was always fully aware, possibly as early as his entry into politics, that failure was a very real possibly.31 Furthermore, the National Socialist (Nazi) movement, in reality, was highly dependent upon the continuing of Hitler’s tremendous successes. It was also dependent upon Hitler’s charisma and personal popularity.
  In other words, anything less than complete success in the war Hitler decided to wage, would inevitably undermine the momentum of the movement, causing it, over time, to falter. If its momentum were lost, National Socialism would inevitably end up as a weak, irrelevant movement that only existed on the fringes of society. Failure was a very real possibility for Hitler and his movement. Fully recognizing this Hitler may have worked out years in advance just how he would respond in the event of failure. He response he decided upon would be to destroy the Jews who, as this book will describe, would otherwise go on to become the single most influential group in Europe, instrumental in the perpetuation of everything that he hated.
  According to one high-ranking German general who served directly under Hitler, he perceived earlier than anyone else (during the first weeks of the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union) that the war was lost.32 Its failure meant, of course, that the Nazi movement would also inevitably falter.33 As a result, Hitler fell back on his preplanning and initiated the Final Solution.34 But, in exterminating the Jews, Hitler may not have simply been seeking revenge.35 Instead, he may have been trying to create a future situation where, providence willing, the deeper purpose of uniting the Germans, in a Germany that would be free of the Jewish influence, might still be possible.
  It may be also that he now believed that this situation, which would very seriously test the German people, was providence's true intention all along. He did not just give up on his purpose; rather, he modified it. The German people were to be subjected to a terrible, but ultimately great, spiritual trial that could be interpreted as the will of providence.36
  Only something like the loss of another even more terrible world war would truly test the Germans, who in spite of the fact that they were the best people in the world, still needed to be tested. This fate was, of course, an extremely hard one, since several million German soldiers and civilians would ultimately be killed. It would also involve going beyond the hard methods that he was already using and resorting to “diabolic” methods since this was now the only way to eliminate the Jews.
  In order to cooperate with this hard fate Hitler now completely cut himself off from all human considerations. In doing so, he finally became completely radicalized, and thereby capable of “entering into the abyss.” The “hour of genocide” was approaching.37

  This book is in three parts. The first part is composed of nine chapters that revolve around Hitler’s significant personal characteristics. He was imaginative, intelligent, manipulative, possessed willpower, believed in providence, and so on. Various examples from throughout his life, including his childhood, are also described.
  Beginning with Chapter 10, part two describes Hitler during the loss of World War I, which he saw as historically incorrect. It essentially meant that Europe was continuing to follow the wrong historical path. By this time, the 29-year-old Hitler had spent nearly a decade developing his ideas. But however significant the realizations that he had prior to the end of World War I may have been, it was Germany’s loss of the war that, finally radicalized him, and started him down a road from which he was absolutely determined that there would be no turning back.
  However complex Hitler’s system of ideas may have been, this book suggests that there was, nevertheless, a specific, clear and practical rationale (above) for his wanting to remove the Jews existed, about which he was absolutely clear. Chapter 11 addresses this at greater length as well as puts it in context. Chapter 12 describes the greater anti-Semitic worldview that existed in the decades when Hitler lived, the ideas of which his worldview was (at least partially) based on. These ideas were part of a loose system of anti-Semitic theories that included unusual pseudo-spiritual notions. Hitler did not invent ant-Semitism. Nor did he invent the anti-Semitic worldview.
  Part three is in a way the philosophical section of the book. It contains four chapters, the first of which (Chapter 13) describes the philosopher Immanuel Kant's theory of why and how people do evil known as his “doctrine of radical evil.” Chapter 14 approaches the extreme evil that the Nazis did, which has been called “diabolical evil.” Some modern day philosophers have seen this type of evil as difficult to integrate into our normal understanding.38 Chapters 13 and 14 describe how Kant explicitly rejected certain (fantastic) ideas about why extreme evil takes place as both illusionary and impossible.
  Specifically, the idea that a human being can become “devilish” (as Kant called it), with a “diabolic will” and a “malignant” faculty of reason, is self-contradictory. It is really done as part of achieving some form of satisfaction of the “natural good,” rather than as the pursuit of evil as if it were a (higher) “principle.” To the extent that most men do evil it often involves self-deception and rationalization.
  Chapter 15 suggests that there is a difference between being delusional and having a set of personal illusions. Hitler was neither delusional nor abnormal. To the extent that he might have been either abnormal or morally stunted it reduces the responsibility he bears for what he did.
  Chapter 16 describes how the Nazis were less than completely coherent in their attempts to practice their anti-Semitism. Different factions had different ideas about how solve the Jewish problem. Hitler, who was really responsible for starting the final solution, rather than these factions, made use of the Nazi ideology as an “instrument” rather than as a “true believer” of the cruder Nazi pseudo-concepts.
The book ends with a short concluding statement and a final statement. There is also an appendix section.

  This book does not try to answer every possible question about Hitler or Nazism. It is also not about how it was possible for him to achieve near-absolute power.39 That kind of information should be sought for in the history books. This book’s ultimate aim is to help provide a foundation so that the problem of the type of evil that the Nazis enacted can be better approached.
  One historian has written that the resources that exist for an intelligent reflection on Hitler are limited.40 One of the goals of writing this book was to try to increase these resources. Hopefully, this will also shed more light upon why any leader or group in a position of power chooses to resort to “diabolic” methods.
  Hitler's ultimate intentions will always remain the subject of discussion and speculation.41 If only for this reason, the perspective that this book develops cannot be considered to be the “ultimate perspective” on him, assuming such a thing is even possible. Nevertheless, the motivated reader will find this book to be both stimulating and thought provoking. The perspective that is achieved should also assist anyone who becomes interested in both Hitler, as well as in the complexity that surrounds what he did. As one long-time Hitler historian has observed, “We are not yet finished with Hitler…”42

Notes for the introduction

1 Taken from the opening sentence on page 3 at the very beginning of a biography on Hitler written by the German author and journalist Joachim Fest. This biography is one of the most interesting of the biographies on Hitler in terms of its psychic portrait of him. First published in 1973 it contains throughout its pages numerous interesting psychological insights and observations on Hitler. The book also contains several “interpolation” chapters that sum up the history and mood of the era. One of its chapters is entitled “view of an un-person” which is itself a kind of psychological portrait of Hitler. Fest was born in 1926 in Germany and was in the Hitler Youth. He served in an anti-aircraft formation in Berlin during WWII for two years. He went to become a journalist (he is not actually a historian), however his biography on Hitler is one of the most interesting.

2 Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris, pg. xxviii

 

3 Philippe Burrin, Hitler and the Jews: The Genesis of the Holocaust, pg.149

4 see the introduction “The Ethical Significance of Kant's Religion” by John R. Silber, pg. lxxxix-xcii in “Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone” by Immanuel Kant

5 Ron Rosenbaum, Explaining Hitler, pg. 83 (From an interview of the now deceased British Hitler-historian Alan Bullock who wrote one of the first Hitler biographies in English “Hitler: A Study in Tyranny”.)

6 John Lukacs, The Duel, pg. 10-11

7 Werner Maser, Hitler: Legend, Myth and Reality, pg. 173; also seePercy Ernst Schramm, Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader, pg. 131

8 John Lukacs, The Duel, pg. 45;

9 Burrin, pg. 38, 147

10 Fritz Stern, The Failure of Illiberalism: Essays on the Political Culture of Modern Germany, pg. xxxix.

11 Percy Ernst Schramm, Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader, pg. 51

12 John Lukacs, The Duel, pg. 223-224

13 Werner Maser, Hitler's Mein Kampf: An Analysis, pg. 168;

14 Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, pg. 362;

15 see Joachim Fest, Hitler, pg. 530 for use of the term “stunted-ness.”

16 John Lukacs, The Hitler of History, pg. 42-43

17 John Silber, Kant at Auschwitz, pg. 202 in Proceedings of the Sixth International Kant Congress vol. 1: Invited Papers, edited by Gerhard Funke and Thomas M. Seebohm;

18 Burrin, pg. 149

19 Hamann, pg. 328

20 Brigitte Hamann, Hitler's Vienna: Apprenticeship of a Dictator, pg. 327

21 The modern liberal-democratic age ultimately goes back to the Enlightenment – i.e. the age of reason. In effect, the approaching age of liberalism can be seen as the successor to the Enlightenment. Source: Mosse, pg. 129;

22 Norman Cohen, Warrant for Genocide, pg. 24; also see Salo W. Baron, The Jewish Question in the Nineteenth Century, pg. 56 in The Journal of Modern History, vol. 10 (1938),; Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder, and the Building of the German Empire, pg. 498, Hamann, Hitler's Vienna, etc;

23 Mosse, pg. 130

24  Andrew Whiteside, The Socialism of Fools: Georg von Schönerer and Austrian Pan-Germanism, pg. 118

25 Otto Weininger, Sex and Character: An Investigation of Fundamental Principles, pg. 299

26 Mosse, pg. 126-127

27 George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology, pg. 215

28 Mosse, pg. 130

29 Fritz Stern, The Failure of Illiberalism: Essays on the Political Culture of Modern Germany, pg. xvii

30 Fest, pg. 512; H.R. Trevor-Roper, from introduction to Hitler's Secret Conversations, pg. vii; Fest, pg. 320
General Alfred Jodl in a letter to his wife after being sentenced to death at Nuremberg, in Schramm, pg. 205 (Jodl personally worked with Hitler throughout WWII.)

31 Burrin, pg. 38, 147; Bullock, Hitler and Stalin, pg. 366 also mentions that Hitler recognized that he might not succeed.

32 see letter from General Alfred Jodl - Chief of the Operations Staff of the High Command of the Wehrmacht - to his wife in Percy Ernst Schramm, Hitler: the Man and the Military Leader, pg. 204

33 John Lukacs, The Hitler of History, pg.156

34 Burrin, pg. 150, 62.

35 Burrin, pg. 23-4

36 see Adolf Hitler, The Testament of Adolf Hitler February -April 1945: The Hitler-Bormann documents (British edition with forward by Professor H.R. Trevor-Roper) pg. 36-37

37 Burrin, pg 88

38 Richard J. Bernstein, Radical Evil: A Philosophical Interrogation, pg.174-175, 229;

39 see Ian Kershaw's excellent, substantial two-volume biography on Hitler - see pg. xii in the preface of the 845 page first volume - Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris, which shows how Hitler got into power. Also see pg. xviii in the preface of the 1100 page second volume “Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis.

40 Burrin, pg.149

41 Lukacs, The Duel, pg. 217

42 From the very last sentence of the first chapter in another very interesting “must-read” book called “The Hitler of History” written by the long time Hitler historian Professor John Lukacs. This book is not a biography, however, it contains numerous interesting and insightful observations and comments in its 279 pages