Cruelty, a terrible memory stretching over centuries: why Hitler hated the Jews. Origins of the history of genocide.

Why Hitler hated Jews: history

The large-scale extermination of the Jewish people, begun by the Nazis under the leadership of Hitler in 1937 and continued until 1944- the history of bloody events, the origins of which Hitler’s biographers are still trying to understand. Why did Hitler hate Jews - personal trauma, an attempt at replacement, resentment that had passed, ideological attitudes? There is an opinion that hatred of Jews arose out of resentment over past failures - Hitler, a good artist, entering the Academy of Arts, did not pass the selection because of one member of the commission, who, as they say, was a Jew. Is it so?

Other historians, in particular Max Weber, investigated Hitler's anti-Semitism using the acclaimed work "My struggle"— Mein Kampf – published in 1925 to illustrate the National Socialist beliefs and personal views of the Führer. According to M. Weber, Hitler developed hatred of Jews during the First World War. Most likely, the future Nazi leader “picked up” radical views from those around him. Perhaps the idea of ​​​​the superiority of Germans over other peoples was just a popular movement among young people, like paganism among the Slavic peoples.

In the book “Hitler's Hatred of the Jews. Clichés and reality" author Goebbels Ralph Reuth, refers to the Bavarian Revolution of 1918 - an uprising of ordinary working-class citizens who could not find a home after the First World War, and an influx of migrants, including the ever-enterprising Jews, capturing the last jobs.

Rikke Peters, history researcher at Aarhus University, emphasizes that “Nazism is built on the idea of ​​racial hygiene.” Hitler makes his thoughts clear in the Manifesto: “the world consists of people of different races who are forever fighting with each other... since struggle is the engine of history, there are superior and inferior races. The superior race will be endangered if it mixes with the inferior.” Commenting on what was studied, the historian K.-K. Lammers adds that Hitler distorted the concept of race, believing that it distinguishes people even by blood type.

The first anti-Semitic ideas appeared in the 19th century, spreading in Europe and the Russian Empire. Discrimination based on race and faith persecuted both ordinary people and great minds. Rikke Peters: “Hitler did not invent anti-Semitism. He only supported hatred of Jews, which resonated with the people.” Most likely, due to the widespread tendency at that time to divide and classify people. So to speak, the “spirit of the era” was food for philosophical reflection, which led to sad events. “Many historians,” continuing the thought R. Peters,- “note that Jews were persecuted before radical events in different countries.” The population was specifically incited against the Jews - well, propaganda cannot be avoided if an idea arose in someone’s ill-fated head, spreading like a virus into more pliable minds. "Destruction of the Jews" - opinion of Klaus Christensen, “became the measure of the success of the National Democratic Party.”

So why did Hitler hate Jews:

• Personal beliefs that the Aryans are a purebred, superior nation.
• Shocks against the background of the economic situation in the country, which gripped everyone at that time - the Great Depression after the First World War.
• Personal observations (long-term observations of the affairs of Jews and their participation in trade, doing business, wandering to places where life is better), based on judgments that are far from universal human values.
• Hatred of oneself and one’s origins (Jewish grandmother) and transference (psychology) of one’s troubles to others. Elimination is an attempt to “kill” the hated part of yourself.

↓ We invite you to discuss: why do you think Hitler hated Jews?

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The point is not that Hitler hated Jews, the point is that many Europeans hated Jews, including Hitler, or maybe he simply took on the ideology of fighting Jews, using anti-Semitism for political purposes.

Hatred of Jews is based on a number of reasons: 1) Gospel - the crucifixion of Christ by the Jewish Pharisees 2) Settlement of strangers throughout Europe who refuse to assimilate, preserving their traditions, sometimes looking down on the local population 3) Strengthening and enrichment of Jewish communities against the backdrop of a sharp decline in the life of the population . There are probably other factors, maybe better formulated or even different, but I will characterize these.

Anti-Semitism is an ineradicable phenomenon in most of the European and Middle Eastern world, periodically fueled by someone for socio-political purposes.

At that time, sociologist Werner Sombart was very popular in Germany. He even has a separate book about how everything bad in the economy arose because of the Jews and their damned religion. It is called "Jews and Economic Life." After reading this book, it is very difficult not to hate Jews.

I especially like one reasoning from there. Its essence is as follows. The Jewish religion requires Jews to work hard and persevere. It would seem that this is a plus. However, it goes on to explain that this poses an interesting problem. Normal people who work not for religious reasons, but for pragmatic ones, cannot compete with Jews in almost anything. After all, normal people sometimes want to relax. They are not inclined to devote all their time to work. And a situation in which Jews, thanks to their hard work, always turn out to be the best in everything is completely unacceptable.

Nowhere in the book does it directly say that the Jewish question requires a final solution. But the problem is described in such a way that there seems to be no other solution.

Of course, Hitler read this book. But that's not the point. This author was very popular in any case. Hitler simply managed to take control of the energy of the broad masses and direct it to the implementation of a specific political program.

Hitler promoted virulent anti-Semitism for political purposes. Perhaps, deep down, his anti-Semitism was no stronger than ordinary everyday German. However, nothing unites the masses more than a common enemy, which, according to many Germans of that time, were the Jews (in particular, the Jews who were on the German General Staff were blamed for the loss in the First World War). Germany was embittered and humiliated by defeat in the war. Hitler, as a corporal who fought in it, understood this perfectly well. He found a pain point for the Germans, promising to deal with it. He was able to rally the nation around his racial theory. He also hoped to rally other European nations around him, among whom anti-Semitism was also widespread.

It’s difficult to say anything for sure, but it seems to me a plausible hypothesis that Hitler’s dislike for Jews at the everyday level originated in the 2000s, when he worked in Vienna. In Vienna at that time, relations between Germans and Jews, who enjoyed much greater rights there than in Germany, were generally quite hostile. Especially in the artistic field, where Jews had a large representation and played a relatively significant role compared to other fields.

Well, it’s clear that Hitler was a patriot of the Kaiser’s Germany, a hero of the First World War, and perceived the November revolution as a tragedy. At the same time, he without hesitation accepted the then quite widespread legend of the “stab in the back” and became a convinced anti-Semite.

Those were the times. Even before the First World War, it was customary to hate Jews, invent all sorts of stories, and then unanimously believe in them. And there, there would be someone to hate, but there would be a reason. In the case of the Jews, there were many of these very reasons. They are different, they refuse to believe in Jesus, they wash themselves constantly (which is why they suffer less from the plague and other similar diseases), they refuse to work once a week, they are too rich, they live in their own communes, they killed Jesus...

This is how hatred has survived to this day. The difference with the Nazis is that they took this hatred to a new level. If earlier Jews could save themselves by changing their religion to the correct one, now such tricks do not work. Jews began to be hated for belonging to the Jewish people. And it doesn’t matter what god you believe in, where and how you live, what matters is that you are a Jew. The Nazis convinced themselves that any crime can have a Jewish nose, the Jews want to take over the world and the Jews want to destroy the Aryans with their damned blood.

The Germans, and especially the veterans of the Great War, accused the communists of “stabbing them in the back” at the most crucial moment of the war, which is why the Germans lost the war. But before that, for four long years, they fought (and quite successfully) on two fronts. But as soon as the communists tried to make a revolution, Atlanta approached the walls of Berlin, and the Kaiser abdicated the throne. Well, who is our leader of the communists, his most ardent followers and, in general, the creators of this philosophy? That's right, Jews!

And on all this wonderful soil fell the seeds of Darwin’s theory (which was transformed into social Darwinism) and the thoughts of Nietzsche, who believed that the Aryans, like shepherds, should lead all nations to a happy future. This whole salad gave what came out in the end: the Holocaust and the extermination of six million Jews alone (not to mention many others, including “inferior” Germans with bad heredity).

When Adolf Hitler was unable to enter the art academy, he was left in Vienna without a livelihood and was forced to live in rooming houses. As a rule, the owners of these establishments were Jews. What he saw and experienced in these places forever made him an anti-Semite. The version with a Jewish prostitute has no confirmation.

Pathological anti-Semitism was not invented by Hitler. It occurs much more widely than is commonly said in polite society, including among the participants in this project. Moreover, a significant part of anti-Semites have never met or crossed paths with Jews in real life. Vysotsky sang this well: “Why should I be considered a thief and a bandit? Isn’t it easier for me to become an anti-Semite? On their side, however, there is no law, but the love and enthusiasm of millions.”

Jews have long been the universal scapegoats, the eternal answer to the question “Who is to blame?” And this issue was acute for the Germans after the outbreak of the First World War. So the answer suggested itself.

They say Hitler's anti-Semitism became chronic after he picked up something extremely unpleasant from a Jewish prostitute in Vienna.

There is an opinion, one of many, that Hitler’s Judeophobia developed thanks to Ludwig Wittgenstein. Young Adolf studied with him at the same college in Linz. Wittgenstein was three-quarters Jewish, but that was not why people disliked him. In Mein Kampf Hitler wrote:

True, in a real school I had to meet one Jewish boy, whom we all treated with a certain caution, but only because he was too silent, and we, taught by bitter experience, did not really trust such boys.

From a review of Kimberley Cornish's book "The Jew from Linz" in the Berliner LeseZeichen anthology with the ingenious title "These Two Whistled Together":

Cornish is convinced: “Without any doubt, it can be considered that it was Ludwig Wittgenstein who became the reason for turning Hitler into an implacable anti-Semite.”

It sounds strange, of course, but what happens to the human psyche, especially in the first decades of life.

It is difficult to look for an internal enemy, but you need to fight with someone in order to blame someone for your failures.

Jews are an ideal option, they are successful, they have a different religion and language, hence anti-Semitism. Now imagine what they tell you every Sunday Kiselev-Soloviev talks about how the Jews want to burn Russia, a week later you destroy the synagogue.

Hitler, by and large, did not care about people; a Jew was not a Jew and had little regard for the matter.

Hitler's history of anti-Semitism is long. To begin with, Hitler, like many Germans (by the way, he was Austrian) fought on the fronts of the First World War. He rose to the rank of Corporal. He served as a messenger, that is, he delivered orders from the command to the trenches and sometimes to the front line. He was even nominated for the Iron Cross. During one of the gas attacks he almost went blind and was sent to the hospital. I met Germany's defeat in the hospital. Some researchers believe that even then Hitler wondered who was to blame for losing the war. Defeat in the war of the German Empire and

Why did the Germans kill six million Jews? This question is difficult to answer. Some historians believe that the Nazis had been planning the extermination of Jews since they seized power in 1933. Other historians believe that the extermination of the Jews was the result of a specific historical context and therefore was not originally planned.

Background

In the early 1930s, during the Nazi rise to power, Germany experienced great economic and social difficulties. A country:

• had to pay huge compensation to the Allies as a result of defeat in the First World War;
• had to adhere to the Treaty of Versailles, according to which it could no longer have a large army and had to give up some territories;
• experienced severe inflation and economic instability;
• experienced high levels of unemployment.

Hitler used Jews as a scapegoat, blaming them for Germany's economic and social problems. The Nazi Party promised to resolve these issues, and in 1932 received 37% of the votes in the elections.

The Nazis' rise to power

All Jews and non-Aryans were excluded from German society. They could no longer hold government jobs, own property, or run their own businesses. In 1935, the government passed the Nuremberg Laws, which stated that only Aryans could be German citizens. The Nazis believed that the "full-blooded" German was racially superior, and that the struggle for survival existed between the German race and those races considered inferior. They saw Jews, Gypsies, Sinti, black people and the disabled as serious biological threats to the purity of the German-Aryan race.

Racial politics

According to a large group of historians, the "race war" against the Soviet Union that began in 1941 took place in a specific historical context where it became possible to kill people - Jews, Poles and Russians - in a new and terrible manner.

Nazi racial policy between 1933 and 1945 consisted of two elements: eugenics and racial segregation (later racial extermination).

Thus, the Nazis tried to keep their own "race" free from abnormalities and diseases (eugenics) and keep the Aryan race closed to other "inferior" races (racial segregation and extermination). In the name of eugenics, the Nazis initiated forced sterilization of hereditary patients and euthanized approximately 200,000 mentally and physically disabled Germans.

Another part of the racial policy, racial segregation, was initiated to suppress and persecute all non-Aryans, primarily Jews. Later, racial segregation was tightened and became a policy of racial expulsion: Jews were forced to emigrate. This policy succeeded successfully in Austria in 1938, and was then introduced in Germany itself under the slogan: “ Germany for the Germans!" But why did the Germans kill Jews in the first place? Most historians believe that this was most influenced by Hitler's personal dislike of this race.

The collapse of the policy of forced emigration

It would seem that the Nazis would stop at the law of forced emigration. So why did the Germans kill Jews during the war? The fact is that after the occupation of Poland in 1939, the policy of forced emigration became unsuitable for the Nazi regime. It was simply unrealistic for more than 3 million Polish Jews to emigrate. This led to ambitious Nazi plans to solve the “Jewish question.” On January 20, 1942, under the leadership of Police Chief Reinhard Heydrich, several high-ranking officials of the Nazi state met to discuss the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” As a result of this meeting, Heydrich received full support from the participants for the systematic extermination of the Jews. The decision itself, the extermination of the Jews, was presumably made before the conference.

Extermination Policy

In 1941, the Nazi leadership determined the future of the Jews. Beginning this year, Jews were executed and murdered on an incredibly large scale. The massacres began in connection with the war against the Soviet Union, which started on June 22, 1941. In total, 1.5 million Jews were killed in the occupied Soviet territories, with the help of local anti-Semites. Almost simultaneously, mass executions began in six “extermination camps” located in Poland. At least 3 million Jews died in these camps. To this must be added another 1.5 million Jews who died in concentration camps, ghettos and other places as a result of starvation, slave labor and arbitrary executions.

For almost a century, historians have been haunted by the question of why Hitler did not like Jews. Moreover, the hatred was so strong that he even tried to wipe them off the face of the Earth, every last representative. Probably, the resentment must be very old and serious if a person devoted his whole life to such a task.

Hitler's childhood

First, let's deal with childhood of the future leader of Nazi Germany:

• It was not so cloudless and prosperous.
• No one had heard of any tolerance at that time.
• Sometimes things were called by their proper names.
• Sometimes they simply blamed all their problems on representatives of national minorities.
• Human life was not valued that highly.
• Basic human rights were declared much later.

In such conditions it is difficult to adopt something good. Our consciousness is structured in such a way that it receives the main information during childhood, and later uses this data as a basis for making further judgments.

So there is no doubt that The foundations of Hitler's hatred of the Jewish population began to form at a young age.

Persecution of Jews

Also played a role attitude towards Jews in society. The fact is that they represented not only a national, but also a religious minority:

1. Forced to wander around the world, people did not have their own homeland.
2. In the new lands, thanks to their intelligence and perseverance, Jews often occupied leading positions and lived quite prosperously.
3. Certain areas were completely occupied by Jews; representatives of other nationalities survived from them one way or another.
4. In a sense, the first migrants in history deprived the natives of their “living space.”
5. This was especially noticeable during the crisis years, when inflation, unemployment and poverty occurred.
6. But at the same time it was necessary to blame someone else for their troubles.
7. The first ghettos for Jews appeared in Italy in the Middle Ages.

Hitler did not “fell from another planet”; while living in Germany, he witnessed some of its worst times. He had the opportunity to listen to speeches and speeches in which speakers blamed Jews, communists, British and many others for all the troubles.

However, it is difficult to say that dislike was present exclusively towards the Jewish population. The era was characterized by a number of revolutions and the creation of many new political movements. So everyone had reasons to hate everyone, there were enough differences in ideology. Already it was not necessary to be of a different nationality or faith.

Hitler's youth and adulthood

Even all this taken together cannot make a person fiercely hate all representatives of another nation. Many researchers claim that the roots of the problem lie in the very origin of Hitler. Like, his father himself was a Jew and there are already two options.

1. Either Adolf was embarrassed by this fact and experienced complexes due to the persecution of the entire people.
2. Or the father was a cruel tyrant who beat his mother, and maybe even the little Hitler himself.

But even that doesn't explain manic desires to destroy an entire nation.

Why did Hitler exterminate the Jews?

Entire extermination camps were created because:

• Hitler hated Jews.
• He created the whole concept of “higher” and “lower” races. From "Aryans" and "subhumans".
• According to Adolf's theories, representatives of the “lower” were subject to complete extermination.
• The German leader saw the Jews as a threat not only to Germany, but to the whole world.
• In his opinion, this people was going to first enslave the Germans, and then take on all other nations, using Germany as a springboard for their actions.
• According to Hitler, by exterminating the Jews, he was trying to save the world, create a fairer economic system, and prevent incest.
• Considering the cunning and resourcefulness of the Jewish people, it was in total destruction that he saw the only path to a final solution to the Jewish question.
• Most of all, this looks like the banal revenge of an offended person.
• However, it is difficult to seriously analyze the motives of a person who is reasonably suspected of insanity.
• An adequate person raised and “ignited” the masses with an idea, and then sent millions of Jews to the oven, and tens of millions of Germans to slaughter? Sounds a bit dubious.

If you have been even slightly interested in the biography of Hitler, you probably know that he never visited a concentration camp in his life. Why? No one can explain, but it’s a fertile topic for conspiracy theorists.

Reasons for hating Jews

From Hitler's point of view, his dislike of Jews explained:

1. The love of this people for acquisitiveness. Adolf believed that in any situation the Jew sought benefit for himself, not paying attention to the boundaries of morality.
2. Their high position in society. Persistence and mentality allowed representatives of this people to achieve good results in all matters related to finance.
3. Higher standard of living for Jews compared to Germans. In times of crisis, the average Semitic lived better than the native German.
4. The embitterment of Adolf himself towards the whole world, due to the collapse of all plans and the horrors seen in the war.
5. The desire to see oneself in the role of “savior of the world” who will eliminate the global threat.

But there may be a reason V something else:

• Origin of Hitler.
• His childhood years.
• Resentment and conflicts with representatives of Jewry.
• Failures on the personal front.

Still not precisely defined time period, in which Adolf became so angry with all the children of Israel. Historians suggest that this happened in the first years after demobilization from the army.

More than 70 years have passed since the death of the Fuhrer and it is no longer so important why Hitler did not like Jews. More importantly, his personal grudges ultimately resulted in tens of millions of deaths. And mostly they were not Jews at all.

Video about Hitler's hatred of Jews

In this video, the rector of St. Petersburg State Agrarian University, historian Viktor Efremov will tell you why Hitler began to dislike Jews, where, in his opinion, this hatred comes from:

I think everyone knows Hitler's plans for nations. For those who do not know, it is worth especially noting four of them: the “true Aryans,” the Slavs, the Jews and the Gypsies. Let's start with the fact that the very basis of these plans were the ideas of racism - the highest degree of Nazism (Nazism is the doctrine of higher and lower races).

The above nations can be divided into three groups.

• The first, “ruling” group of nations includes, as you might guess, only the “true Aryans” themselves.
• The second group includes the Slavs. They were promised almost complete destruction. And those who were “lucky” to survive would become slaves. "Elite" slaves.
• A worse fate awaited the Jews and Gypsies. They, as "inferior" races, had to be destroyed.

The rest of the nations were destined for the role of simple slaves.

The answer to the question why Jews and Gypsies were considered inferior races is simple

They did not have their own states. They were “bugs on the globe,” as one of Hitler’s close associates said. And why, in fact, did death await them? Why not make them the same slaves as the rest? I think the truth will never be known now. The world is divided into several camps, each with its own version.

1. First and the most common version is that the very idea of ​​Nazism, as understood by Hitler, implied the division of nations into these three groups. This is a completely reasonable version, since it is no secret that Hitler was a fanatic in his cause. “Performing in front of his soldiers was akin to making love for him,” adherents of this version are sure, which is also not without logic. To see this, you should watch one of the recordings of Hitler’s speech.
2. The second version is that Hitler’s people, quite a few of whom, as is known, were pumped full of drugs and special medications. They were bloody, they felt almost no pain and wanted only one thing: to kill. An order to leave as many people as possible (after all, the more slaves, the better) could greatly undermine the authority of such troops, which would lead to a significant weakening of the army due to the loss of the “elite” and, most likely, to riots of these madmen. It turns out that they had to give them someone to tear to pieces. These doomed were the Jews and Gypsies.
3. Third version implied fear. Hitler's fear of danger. According to the version, Hitler was afraid that the people of one of these nations could destroy his great army. There is no reasonable evidence for this version.

On my own behalf, I can add that, whatever Hitler’s motives, he was not going to leave the Jews any chance of survival. Genocide, complete destruction - that's what awaited them.

But why Jews?

After all, in Hitler’s own family, among his closest relatives there were representatives of a race he hated.

Firstly were an “inferior” race according to Nazi ideas.
Secondly, they say that Hitler greatly disliked his Jewish relative.
Third The reason can be considered that Jews and Gypsies are very few in number, and morally this was very positive for the army. Like, “We are destroying entire nations! That’s how powerful we are!” (Basically, this reason fits the second version of hatred, but does not contradict the others).