Cowardy cowardy corporal Hitler

[Deleted]

Actually Michael is well aware of the fact that Hitler - like any other soldier on the front line during the First World War - tried to survive but did what he had to do.

Bravery is a relative concept anyway. Sometimes it consists on doing things that are not immediately so in an obvious way.

He is actually also writing a response to the Jewish ethnicity post on this board. As as I say, he's a friend of Lin's father and doesn't really like the internet much.

Mussolini never fired a shot in anger in his life. At least Hitler volunteered and spent four years on the front line and got wounded and gassed.

[Michael FitzGerald]

Thank you very much for your kind words, ladies. Please do not call me Mr FitzGerald - it's so formal! My name is Michael.

Thank you for your kind words about my writing. I was a poet in the 1970s and 1980s and had two small volumes of my verse published.

I would like to comment on Jencin's message about Hitler's possible Jewish blood. This is a subject on which historians of the Third Reich and biographers of Hitler are deeply divided.

Throughout his life Hitler's attitude to the Jews was complex. Before he went to Vienna as a young man there is no evidence of any anti-Semitic attitudes, statements or behaviour by him. Then he discovered a lunatic racist called Lanz who filled his head with Aryan fantasies.

Even so, until 1919 Hitler's anti-Semitism was almost invisible. Not only that, but his favourite actors and writers were Jewish. Except for Wagner, his favourite composers were Mendelssohn and Mahler. Most of his friends, except August Kubizek and Reinhold Hanisch, were also Jewish. Most of the art dealers who bought his paintings were Jewish.

Even the first girl he loved was Jewish. In Vienna, with his friend Kubizek, he fell head over heels for a Jewish girl named Stefanie Izak. When she became engaged to an Austrian cavalry officer Hitler contemplated suicide.

In 1918 it was the Jewish lieutenant Hugo Guttmann who recommended Hitler for his Iron Cross, First Class. At the end of the war, with Germany in revolution, Hitler was an active and enthusiastic supporter of the 'Soviet Republic' set up briefly in Bavaria under the leadership of the Jewish Communist Kurt Eisner. Hitler got himself elected to one of the soldier's soviets as a delegate. When Federal troops retook Munich from the Communists, Hitler was arrested for firing on them.

He was recognised by some former regimental comrades and released. Hitler admired Eisner all his life and almost his first act as Chancellor was to arrest the man who had murdered him, an aristocratic monarchist.

Soon after the end of Soviet Bavaria, Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, a fanatical anti-Semite who became his chief mentor for the next four years. Under Eckart's influence, Hitler remained every bit as radical and anti-capitalist as before. However, he now had a new 'explanation' for the evils of the world. In his new distorted Weltanschauung everything was the fault of the Jews.

Quite when Hitler became aware of the possibility of Jewish blood in his family is unclear. My own belief is that it was around 1912-1913, but the first definite proof that he suspected it is in 1932. That year his nephew tried to blackmail Hitler about the family history and Hitler paid him off to ensure his silence. There were also persistent rumours and accusations by his political enemies on the German Right that Hitler was himself Jewish and the the Nazi Party was a conscious tool of the 'Jewish conspiracy.'

It is certainly curious that many high ranking Nazis and supporters of the Party were either partly or wholly Jewish. Rosenberg, Himmler and Goebbels had Jewish blood; Haushofer had a Jewish wife; Princess Stefanie von Hohenlohe, partly Jewish, was a keen supporter oof and fundraiser for Hitler; Hanussen, the man who trained Hitler in public speaking, was a Jewish vaudeville entertainer whose real name was Herschel Steinschneider; Erhard Milch, deputy head of the Luftwaffe, was also partly Jewish. In the 1932 Presidential election between Hitler and Hindenburg, the Jewish Veterans League urged people to vote for Hitler!

Most remarkable of all, Reinhard Heydrich was wholly Jewish. His real name was Suss and his father was called Bruno Isidor Suss. His mother's name was Sarah K. Unfortunately we do not know her surname as Heydrich not only destroyed the public records of his family but even defaced the gravestones of his own parents.

Hitler may have been aware of the possibility of Jewish blood in his family around 1912 but Hans Frank, the man who investigated the claims on Hitler's behalf, destroyed the documents suggesting that Hitler's true grandfather was a Jewish man called Frankenberger.

Historians are deeply divid3ed on the issue. Many simply accuse Frank of lying. Others believe that he may be correct but that no definitive judgement can be made either way. I incline towards the latter position.

A book that profoundly influenced Hitler was 'Sex and Character' by Otto Weininger. It was first published in 1904 (an English translation of it was made in 1906). Weininger was an extreme racist and sexist. He hated Jews and women and regarded them as responsible for all the troubles of the world. Unfortunately for him, he was Jewish, a self-hating melancholic who committed suicide. Hitler described him as 'the only Jew fit to live.'

The relevant quotation from Weininger is:

'The most genuine Aryans, those who are most Aryan and most sure of their Aryanism are not anti-Semites. The most violent anti-Semites are Jews.'

[sadie]

Thanks again Michael.

Had never heard any of that. Truly fascinating.

Ok...the guy that defaced his own parent's gravestones.......truly twisted!!!

[Erasmus]

There is something of a pattern there. Hitler is let down by Jews several times over. He grows up in a state that had open anti-Jewish legislation but at the same time other Jews in Vienna were leading a cultural revolution towards modern liberalism. Fascism was a modernist movement too but of a more technocratic kind. It is possible to get the outline of a feeling that on the one hand Jewish tradition is an anchor dragging to the past, on the other that forward-looking Jews are rivals for the future. Then there is the occult connection. Most occultism takes extended Qabbala as its framework, so the idea of an unseen Jewish power comes implied with that.

[beth]

Thank you, Michael.

I've heard about the probability of Hitler's Jewish ancestry for years, but just as speculation. The article in question mentions DNA proof. Not surprising but, certainly, from my perspective, makes him seem an even more despicable character than ever.