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New Hitler biography a reminder to be vigil against power-seekers who demonize others
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DO we need yet another book about that Adolf Hitler and his terrible regime? Are we not awash with enough studies already?
Even a cursory awareness of the ongoing tensions and rivalries of our own time suggests that although we have mountains of data about Hitler, we have yet to fully incorporate an understanding of those darkest days of the 20th century into how we think about, and behave toward, those different from ourselves.
In his engaging work “Hitler, A Biography,” Ian Kershaw helps us better understand not only how this rather odd person managed to gain supreme power in Germany but also how so many “normal” people in Germany not only supported, but also contributed to, the Nazi cause.
Hitler, who initially saw himself as a precursor to a great leader yet to come, was in many ways rather peculiar. He had an aversion to employment, was a mediocre artist at best, and his only talent was his curious habit of haranguing others with whom he disagreed.
Kershaw observes that in “normal times” Hitler would have likely fallen by the wayside of life. However, the ongoing economic and social turmoil of Germany in the 1920s and 1930s was anything but normal. This unstable time of growing citizen frustration and anger created a receptive atmosphere for his message.
While confronting the same human suffering and economic deprivations that the First World War caused all participants, Germans had the additional post-war burden of a drastic change in government: from a long-surviving imperial system to an untested parliamentary one.
Faulting ‘others’
Additionally, because the former wartime government had not kept its people informed of their army’s crumbling along the Western front — instead trumpeting its victories in the East — most Germans were shocked when Germany surrendered. Very quickly many came to regard this surrender as a “stab in the back” that occurred because “certain elements” within Germany betrayed the Fatherland. Hitler consistently faulted the leaders of the Weimar Republic and their alleged “Jewish moneyed interests” as the traitors responsible.
The turmoil of the post-war years made desperate and angry people more receptive to Hitler’s channeling resentment not just towards “the Jews” but also against other “lesser” humans (such as the Slavic peoples to Germany’s east).
Nor does the West escape a measure of responsibility for Hitler’s rise and subsequent aggression. Kershaw explains how Western nations — themselves wrestling with postwar recovery demands in the face of the Depression — were slow to offer meaningful assistance to Germany. Furthermore, most Western leaders did not take seriously the possibility that Hitler might come to power or that, once in power, he would seek to translate his radical rhetoric into national policy.
When the League of Nations did nothing but verbally condemn the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (northeast China) — and the Western powers later only verbally protested while Hitler rearmed Germany and annexed Austria — Hitler felt increasingly confident that such inexplicable weakness meant he could push ahead with bolder ventures.
By the time Hitler’s murder machine hit its stride — with extensive operations seeking to eliminate Jews and the organized killing squads that followed troops advancing into Slavic territories — few Germans could have been totally unaware of the savagery. The Nazis expertly utilized fear to silence dissent. The numbing effect made citizens feel both powerless and isolated.
It would be a grave mistake for us to conclude that mass cooperation with such evil could only have happened in Germany.
Although many years have passed since Hitler’s state was defeated, I fear we have failed to learn the most important lessons of that time. The poisonous stew that gave birth to Hitler and Nazism is in no way confined to the Germany of the early 20th century.
Indeed, right wing parties pushing nationalist agendas are gaining support in many nations, and the practice of scapegoating “others” is again common. Meanwhile, developments such as global warming and the refugee crisis that demand greater cooperation among nations are being undermined by rising international tensions.
The darkness explored in this book has not been forever banished. It still lives, albeit in altered forms. Can we recognize and destroy it before the next tragedy?
Greg cusack is a retired statesman from Iowa, the United States.
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