Hitler Was A Leftist Myth

One of the more outrageous lies often employed by conservatives/Republican/Tea Party nutcases is their wrongheaded argument that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were leftists. However, any reasonable review of history and Hitler's words indicate Hitler was far from a leftist. A review of Nazi policies/political beliefs will prove Hitler and the Nazis were, in fact, fascists and far to the right on the political spectrum.

"Many conservatives accuse Hitler of being a leftist, on the grounds that his party was named 'National Socialist.' But socialism requires worker ownership and control of the means of production. In Nazi Germany, private capitalist individuals owned the means of production, and they in turn were frequently controlled by the Nazi party and state. True socialism does not advocate such economic dictatorship -- it can only be democratic."

In addition to the above, it should be noted the political beliefs of the Nazis and Adolf HItler were on the far right. For example, Hitler and the Nazis, as the article notes, advocated racism over racial tolerance, eugenics over freedom of reproduction, merit over equality, competition over cooperation, power politics and militarism over pacifism, dictatorship over democracy, capitalism over Marxism, realism over idealism, nationalism over internationalism, and exclusiveness over inclusiveness.

Right wing Americans will often argue Hitler was a leftist because he advocated the individual should submit to the state. It's a crazy argument since conservatives in the United States frequently advocate blind obedience to the state, especially when conservative leaders involve the United States in military actions. One only need to recall the reaction of conservatives when thousands of brave Americans opposed the invasion of Iraq or the First Gulf War.

As noted in the article, political scientists are loath to label people "liberal" or "conservative" based solely on individualism or collectivism. The more accurate approach is to examine the group affiliation. It can be argued that conservatives, in the United States, favor groups that are, in fact, quite dictatorial such as the military, fundamentalist Christian churches, the patriarchal family, and corporations.

As for Hitler, his identification of the state was connected to a racially pure people of German or Aryan blood. In Mein Kampf, Hitler used words like "Aryan race," "German culture" and "folkish state." To be part of Germany, in Hitler's words, was to be of pure German blood. Hitler certainly didn't include Jews as part of the German state, but he did include Germans outside Germany, such as in Austria. Hitler's political philosophy was completely connected to racism and, in that regard, one can understand why conservatives in the United States who use coded racist language feel uncomfortable with the fact that Hitler and the Nazis were on the far right of the political spectrum.

In fact, a primary goal of the Nazis was to abolish individualism because they believed it was a liberal or Marxist concept. Hitler wrote, "The main plank in the Nationalist Socialist program is to abolish the liberalistic concept of the individual and the Marxist concept of humanity and to substitute for them the folk community, rooted in the soil and bound together by the bond of its common blood."

Another argument advanced by conservatives is that the United States should be, in many ways, homogenous. Celebration of any culture other than white, European is deemed, by many conservatives, as anti-American. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote, "The state is a means to an end. Its end lies in the preservation and advancement of a community of physically and psychically homogenous creatures. This preservation itself comprises first of all existence as a race."

Note how frequently conservatives use racist terms such as "founding stock" or advance the idea that all Americans must assimilate into a white, Northern European culture. Conservatives, in the United States, if one takes them at their word, greatly fear immigration of non-white peoples into the United States and greatly fear demographic changes that will, in a few years, make whites a minority. Note Hitler's words which sound eerily similar to arguments espoused by far right anti-immigration groups.

"The German Reich as a state must embrace all Germans and has the task, not only of assembling and preserving the most valuable stocks of basic racial elements in this people, but slowly and surely of raising them to a dominant position."

Contrary to the claims of American conservatives, Hitler and the Nazis loathed Marxism and liberalism. In fact, Hitler, similar to modern American conservatives, ignored the vast differences between Social Democracy and Communism. Again, eerily echoing modern American conservatives, Hitler wrote, "The German state is gravely attacked by Marxism." How often have we seen right wing hate radio and Fox News hosts claim President Obama is a Marxist or Communist whose goal is to turn the United States into a communist country? Hitler's views regarding Marxism and Communism was deeply rooted in his intense hatred of Jews, and we have witnessed Glenn Beck promote a book by a virulent anti-Jewish bigot

One of the more amusing claims, by conservatives, is that Hitler must surely be a leftist since he was a vegetarian. However, due to their ignorance of the Nazis, right wing American conservatives don't know Hitler's anti-meat beliefs began with the death of Geli Raubal.

One ridiculous claim by right wing conservatives is related to unions. They claim Hitler was pro-union when, in fact, Hitler banned trade unions in May, 1933. Union offices were closed, union funds were confiscated, and union leaders were put in prison. To replace unions, the Nazis created the German Labour Front which greatly reduced the pay of workers, and abolished the right to strike. More than interesting is that, at any given time and on any number of news sites and/or social networking sites, one can easily find blogs and comments by American conservatives advocating the destruction of unions and abolishing the right to strike.

A more ridiculous claim, by right wing conservatives, is that Hitler confiscated guns in Germany. The allege Hitler said, "1935 will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future."

However, the quote is a fraud. There's no record Hitler ever uttered the words.

As noted in the article, the reality is that, prior to Nazi rule, Germany already had strict gun control laws which were a provision of the Treaty of Versailles. Following World War I, the Allied countries desired to make sure Germany posed no threat to its neighbors. In January 1997, The Firearms Policy Journal stated, "The Nazi Party did not ride to power confiscating guns. They rode to power on the inability of the Weimar Republic to confiscate their guns. They did not consolidate their power confiscating guns either. There is no historical evidence that Nazis ever went door to door in Germany confiscating guns. The Germans had a fetish about paperwork and documented everything. These searches and confiscations would have been carefully recorded. If the documents are there, let them be presented as evidence."

Furthermore, in 1928 (April 12), Germany enacted the Law on Firearms and Ammunition. This law tightened restrictions on gun ownership in an effort to curb street violence between Nazis and Communists. This was five years before Hitler came to power, and the law was not effective and wasn't enforced. More importantly, and contrary to the claims of right wing American conservatives, Hitler and the Nazis actually relaxed gun ownership restrictions in passing the German Weapons Law. Thus, the claims of right wing conservatives about Nazis and guns is a complete lie.

Another common trait shared by American right wing extremists and Adolf Hitler was their anti-intellectualism. Notice how right wing extremists attack schools, education, science and espouse outrageous anti-science ideas like creationism. Hitler wrote, "The youthful brain should in general not be burdened with things ninety-five percent of which it cannot use and hence forgets again… In many cases, the material to be learned in the various subjects is so swollen that only a fraction of it remains in the head of the individual pupil, and only a fraction of this abundance can find application, while on the other hand it is not adequate for the man working and earning his living in a definite field."

Another area of common ground between Hitler and American right wing extremists is their placement of religion over secularism. Without doubt, conservatives, especially Christian fundamentalists, are waging war against the secular constitution of the United States. Adolf Hitler often invoked God in his writings and speeches. Hitler was, most likely, an atheist, but that didn't prevent him from invoking God. An example is the following:

"We can learn by the example of the Catholic Church. Though its doctrinal edifice… comes into collision with exact science and research, it is none the less unwilling to sacrifice so much as one little syllable of its dogmas. It has recognized quite correctly that its power of resistance does not lie in its lesser or greater adaptation to the scientific findings of the moment, which in reality are always fluctuating, but rather in rigidly holding to dogmas once established, for it is only such dogmas which lend to the whole body the character of faith. And so it stands today more firmly than ever."

Hitler and the Nazis never attempted to created a state religion; however, the Nazis used churches to advance the cause of fascism. It's interesting the Catholic Church never placed Mein Kampf on its Index of Prohibited Books. In fact, it can be argued Hitler and the Catholic Church had something in common, namely hatred of Jews.

As noted, historian Guenter Lewy described a meeting between Hitler and the German Catholic authorities, on April 26, 1933. Lewy stated, "On 26 April 1933 Hitler had a conversation with Bishop Berning and Monsignor Steinmann [the Catholic leadership in Germany]. The subject was the common fight against liberalism, Socialism and Bolshevism, discussed in the friendliest terms. In the course of the conversation Hitler said that he was only doing to the Jews what the church had done to them over the past fifteen hundred years. The prelates did not contradict him."

Any serious examination of history reveals Christianity has always been a source of extreme anti-Jewish bigotry. In other words, Hitler's anti-Jewish bigotry found a receptive audience among Catholic leaders including the Pope. As noted in the article, "The Church also had an intense fear and hatred of Russian communism, and Hitler's attack on Russia was the best that could have happened. The Jesuit Michael Serafin wrote: 'It cannot be denied that [Pope] Pius XII's closest advisors for some time regarded Hitler's armoured divisions as the right hand of God.' As Pope Pius himself would say after Germany conquered Poland: 'Let us end this war between brothers and unite our forces against the common enemy of atheism."

Hitler believed his persecution of Jews as a holy crusade, and he embraced Christianity's hatred of Jews and adopted Christianity's practices against Jews. History reveals it was Christians who first used deracination, special taxes, exclusion from public office, bans on intermarriage, placing Jews into ghettos, forcing Jews to wear yellow badges, destroying synagogues as well as Jewish homes and businesses, burning Jewish literature, and large-scale murder of Jews.

In fact, there were many active Catholic, and Protestant, Nazis who played a role in the Holocaust. Yet, the Catholic Church never excommunicated any of them including Hitler. Yet, the Catholic Church, as well as Protestant churches, strongly denounced Marxism. At the same time, they embraced fascism in Italy, Germany, Spain, and Austria.

As for Protestant leaders, they believed Nazism, and Hitler, were a necessary antidote to modernism [it's more than interesting how many U.S. conservatives denounce modernism]. Writing of these Protestants, Robert P. Erickson, in his "Theologians under Hitler," wrote that Protestant leaders encouraged German Protestants to feel "responsible before God to assist the work of the Fuhrer" and supporting the Nazis in "all things" was a "God directed call."

However, as the article noted, "...the greatest failure of Pope Pius XII was his silence over the Holocaust, even though he knew it was in progress. Although there are many heroic stories of Catholics helping Jews survive the Holocaust, they do not include Pope Pius, the Holy See, or the German Catholic authorities. When a reporter asked Pius why he did not protest the liquidation of the Jews, the Pope answered, 'Dear friend, do not forget that millions of Catholics are serving in the German armies. Am I to involve them in a conflict of conscience?' As perhaps the world's greatest moral leader, he was charged with precisely that responsibility."

Thus, any claim that Hitler was a leftist is more than absurd; it's an outrageous lie. In fact, Hitler's beliefs were strongly far right and conservative in that he came to power through support from German corporations and those corporations then assisted the Nazis in many ways including manufacturing military weapons and devising methods to murder Jews, he used religious language to promote his warmongering and anti-Jewish bigotry, he used divisive language to turn German against German and especially to turn ordinary Germans against Jews, he used racist laws and language to segregate and dehumanize Jews and other groups, he was strongly nationalistic, he hated communism and social democracy while ignoring the differences between the two, he used lies to advance the cause of war, and he was anti-union.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-hitler.htm

Sources (as noted)

Endnotes:

1. William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), p. 263.

2. Ibid., p. 143.

3. Ibid., p. 264.

4. Hitler, quoted in Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, abridged edition, (New York: HarperCollins, 1971), p. 228.

5. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. by Ralph Manheim (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962), pp. 393-4.

6. Ibid., p. 398.

7. Ibid., p. 297.

8. Ibid., p. 298.

9. Ibid., p. 290.

10. Ibid., pp. 291-2.

11. Ibid., p. 291.

12. Ibid., p. 401.

13. Ibid., p. 402.

14. Ibid., p. 214.

15. Ibid., p. 405.

16. Ibid., p. 404.

17. Ibid., p. 449.

18. Ibid., p. 289.

19. Ibid., p. 516-17.

20. Quoted in Bullock, pp. 11-12.

21. Ibid., p. 230.

22. Hitler, p. 396.

23. Ibid., p. 627.

24. Ibid., p. 288.

25. Ibid., p. 344.

26. Ibid., p. 465.

27. Ibid., p. 81.

28. Ibid., p. 82.

29. Ibid., p. 449.

30. Ibid., p. 60.

31. Ibid., p. 78

32. Ibid., p. 51.

33. Bullock, p. 228-9.

34. Hitler, p. 535.

35. Ibid., p. 155.

36. Quoted in Bullock, p. 102.

37. Hitler, p. 376.

38. Ibid., p. 382.

39. Ibid., p. 65.

40. Ibid., p. 437.

41. Ibid., p. 299.

42. Ibid., p. 338.

43. Ibid., p. 340.

44. Ibid., p. 340.

45. Ibid., p. 284.

46. Ibid., p. 351.

47. The History Place, "The Rise of Adolf Hitler: Success and a Suicide," http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/success.htm

48. Hitler, p. 418.

49. Ibid., p. 429.

50. Ibid., p. 408.

51. Ibid., p. 408.

52. Ibid., p. 346.

53. Ibid., p. 459.

54. Ibid., p. 267.

55. Ibid., p. 116.

56. Ibid., p. 116.

57. Ibid., p. 268.

58. Ibid., p. 563.

59. Bullock, p. 35.

60. Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (London and New York) 1964, p. 50ff.

61. Friedrich Heer, God's First Love (New York: Weybright and Talley, 1967), p. 320, citing Lewy, pp. 249-250; see also Falconi, Carlo, Il silenzio di Pio XII (Milan) 1965.

62. Heer, p. 319.

63. Lewy, p. 57 ff.

64. Ibid., p. 94 ff.

65. Ibid., p. 100f.

66. Ibid., p. 105.

67. Heer, p. 310.

68. Heer, p. 110.

69. Giovannetti, A., Der Vatikan und der Krieg (Cologne) 1961.

70. Lewy, p. 304.

71. Robert P. Erickson, Theologians under Hitler (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985), pp. 84-87, 143.

72. Michael Parenti, God and His Demons (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2010), pp. 60-62