Hitlers Talks about Jews - Essay Example

02 May Hitler’s Table Talk “Will The Master Race Please Pass The Salt?” Adolph Hitler is a that will forever be associated with evil, and in the book Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941-1944-His Private Conversations, translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, we find a man who uses table talk to discuss war time strategies and atrocities, art, philosophy and literature. Within these conversations, a reader will soon see that while Hitler was a despotic, maniacal dictator, he was also a well-read man who was extremely vocal in his opinions on a wide selection of subjects. Hitler’s dinner conversations are informative as pertains to his views of the times, and when looked at from the present-they can be discussed with clarity and insight. My goal with this paper is to provide concise, thorough reactions to Hitler’s ‘Table Talk’ discussions. His guest list included an impressive list of people who are now known to have been the leading conspirators of such atrocities as the Holocaust and adds impressive insight to the high level of importance Hitler placed on these gatherings. It would appear that his captive audience was often subjected to long discourses on Hitler’s political views, his personal beliefs, and his irrational hatred of the Jews; his plans for world domination were also often discussed. On the night of 11th-12th of July, 1941, Hitler discussed his views on man’s natural piety-- he equated this with having a sense of intimate harmony with things, not necessarily religion. He believed that man did not have to know why natural laws governed life, stating, “A thing is so, and our understanding cannot conceive of other schemes.” He likened teaching children to fear things in the dark to the teachings of priests that promise punishment for not accepting Gods dominion of natural laws. Teachings enliven fears in those who are taught fear, while teaching intelligent thinking, allows a person to be free of fear. He used the Russians as an example; “The Russians have no God, and that doesnt prevent them from being able to face death. We dont want to educate anyone in atheism.” In my opinion, Hitler was right in his assessment of fear being a learned emotion, and about the Russians not being afraid of death. In two of the most decisive battles on the eastern front, the siege of Leningrad and the battle of Stalingrad, the Russians proved Hitler’s contention that they could face death with courage. Meanwhile the German Army proved cowardly in close combat 1while millions of German soldiers, Russian soldiers and civilians died; the German Army failed in their attempt to reach Moscow. (Nagorski) In the dinner table rhetoric held on the night of the 1st-2nd of August 1941, Hitler held court espousing his views on bureaucracy. He believed that the administration was too organized, and the military wing should not be held as accountable as the civilian sector, while mistakes will be made, those military mistakes would not count for anything. He stated that with an entire continent to rule, “When that happens, the different positions of the sun will bar us from uniformity!” He further stated that the mistakes made in the present, would not matter in ten years, “In ten years well have formed an élite, of whom well know that we can count on them whenever there are new difficulties to master. Well produce from it all a new type of man, a race of rulers, a (sic) breed of viceroys. Of course, therell be no question of using people like that in the West!” However, history has proven that the mistakes made by the Third Reich did matter. Mistakes like the stop-order at Dunkirk2, which allowed the rescue operation of over 336,000 men who survived to fight another day, proved to be a strategic mistake. The No-Retreat policy at Stalingrad also proved disastrous due to the large loss of German soldiers3. Adding to this mounting list of failures was also his inability to react with decisiveness on D-Day, his lack of action after France surrendered, and several other leadership mistakes caused an implosion of the Third Reich. (Duffy) The table talk on the 7th of January, 1942, found Hitler in a long discourse on the failings of Churchill, the need for the Japanese to hold the Pacific, and the evils of Americanism. At this time he believed that England would quit the war, and, once Germany won, the combined armies of Britain and Germany would attack America at home. Hitler not only hated all things American, ne believed our country was beneath contempt. “But my feelings against Americanism are feelings of hatred and deep repugnance. -Everything about the behaviour (sic) of American society reveals that its half Judaised,(sic) and the other half negrified.(sic)” With this discussion we see the absolute disdain Hitler felt for the Axis Powers and his inability to grasp the structured partnership that now existed between America and Great Britain. His tendency to underestimate Britain’s ability to withstand the war—and continue as a viable enemy—coupled with the determination of the United States to enter the war after Pearl Harbor appears to be in drastic contrast to the war effort at that time. The American reception of Churchill’s speech4 to Congress on the 27th of December, 1941, should have been a loud wake-up call to the Third Reich. “The United States, he said with truth, is suffering because of what she sent to help Britain. But "upon the whole," he argued, history will judge the disposition to have been the right one. The final appeal for Anglo-American unity was based on the firmest and most rational of grounds – a unity to prevent a third world catastrophe. In the last few weeks there has not been a great deal of domestic news coming from the United States. The applause of Congress showed better than a score of dispatches how American feeling runs – the great reception for Mr. Churchill, the cheers for Russia and China, the crushing cheers for the fight to a finish. The Americans are all set.” (Manchester) On the evening of 28th February, 1942, Hitler laid out his plans for housing after the war. He seemed to believe that the present cost of housing in Germany in 1942 was mainly due to “those damned lawyers” who work for the Civil Service. The Civil Service regulations, apparently, interfered with his grand scheme of building a million homes a year for five years; the beginning of the construction to take place immediately after the war ended. Any observer of Hitler could easily have noticed the change in his rhetoric and his ability to think and plan rationally by that time in the war; he was physically ill and becoming mentally unstable. 5His discourse on solving the housing crisis was irrational, and filled with futuristic inventions like alarm clocks with buttons that will start the coffee brewing, inventions that would have made refuse a thing of the past, and some sort of advancement that would have allowed every German mother to have a nanny and never deal with her children on her own. In the 17th of June 1943 excerpt, Hitler stated that men who are incapable of facing reality are cowards, and fear of the unknown leads to an inability to make plans calmly. On April 29, 1945, Hitler wrote in his will: “I myself and my wife - in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation - choose death.”6 Hitler committed suicide on 30th of April 1945. In the end he faced reality with a calm plan, and opted out of facing the degradation suffered by Mussolini. Hitler’s Table Talk opened up new insights into the man’s actual charisma and ability to speak on most subjects with clarity and depth. Hitler tried to use his knowledge for the good of his country, but in the end, his personal hatreds drug the Fatherland into the mud. He left life with a reminder of his hatreds with the last line of the ‘Political Testament,’ “Above all, I charge the leadership of the nation and their followers with the strict observance of the racial laws and with merciless resistance against the universal poisoners of all peoples, international Jewry.” Bibliography Duffy, James. Hitler Slept Late And Other Blunders That Cost Him The War. New York: Praeger, 1991. Print Glantz, David. Barabarosa Derailed: The Battle for Smolensk 10 July-10 September 1941. Helion Publishing. 2010. Print Manchester Guardian. Churchill’s Speech to the Us Congress: Originally Published on December 27, 1941. Web. 05 May 2012 Guderian, Heinz. Panzer Leader. Translated by Constantine Fitzgibbon. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1952. Print Hitler, Adolph. Last Will and Testament and Political Testament. 29 April 1945. Web. 5 May 2012 http://www.auschwitz.dk/Will.htm Nagorski, Andrew. The Greatest Battle: Stalin, Hitler, and the Desperate Struggle for Moscow That Changed the Course of World War II. Simon & Schuster, 2008. Print Welch, David. Hitler. Taylor and Francis, 2008. Web. 05 May 2012 Kindle eBooks Read More