Why did Hitler do it?

[sargentlard]

I have been thinking and something doesn't add up. Why did Hitler go through all that trouble to exterminate the Jewish people?

His couldn't have had that much blind hatred for them going as far as to killing 6 million jews and it couldn't have been a complete millitary ploy for something.

What I am getting at is that I don't understand why go through such a huge operation to round up and destroy 6 million people in such a short amount of time. No single reason seems to explain....

Any ideas as to why he really do it?

[mathman]

Hitler was born into and grew up in pre WW I Vienna where hatred of Jews was quite common and socially acceptable. This is obviously not an explanation, but it is a place to start.

[Rick]

Umm...He was Lampooned,may be? is that right?

Just a thought...
bye!

[Rick]

Mocked at by Jews during his younger years i mean...

bye!

[buffys]

satan made him do it... duh!

[bradguth]

Why did Hitler do it?

Because he could, and/or was going to be allowed to.

Because he already had a number of cloned borgs that would take orders (for profit).

Because of his talks with the Pope, as to how Cathars were dealt with (which turned out just fine and dandy).

And of course, because his vision of a better world didn't include a good number of folks, some of which happened to be Jews.

For perhaps years, we knew about what the plan was, American Banks were obviously profiting from that situation (BTW; some of those banks had Jewish ownership, or at least Jewish board members), and so forth.

[cosmictraveler]

He didn't care for any other humans but white pure breds. He thought that those that weren't with him and the Catholic religion were against him. He really thought that Jews were inferior humans as well as others and they were the first to go and he would have killed many other ethnic groups if he could have. A very nasty, bad mother fucker who should have been shot way before he started a war!

[dixonmassey]

Jews were just one among many national/sexual/mental development groups to be exterminated in the name of racial purity. That is why holocaust business thriving for 40 years is so disgusting. Why Hitler hated jews so much? I guess he wrote about it in Mein Kampf (http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf). In two words, Hitler considered jews as leeches bent on destroying national bodies they suck on. Hitler considered Marxism, Communism, Democracy as jewish tools of enslavement and destruction of the non-jewish states. So holocaust was necessary for Germany to survive clandestine jewish onslaught. Thinking of jews as leeches is widespread among western/eastern/southern/central Europians. It's less pronounced in the Judeo (since when?)-Christian USA due to the obvious reasons. Are all those Europians bigots or there is no smoke without fire? I think the truth is somewhere in between. Jews are quite an exclusive, knit-tight national group. Therefore, they have an advantage in the economic rat race whose ultimate goal is to live off other's people labor. In Europe (especially Eastern), as a rule, jew helps a jew to move ahead just because another person is jewish. Jewish "mafia" made sure that jews disproportionately represented in high paying jobs/businesses. Less united natives usually do not give a shit about each other to help. That is why there are no jewish milkmaids or truck drivers in Russia, for example. No, jews are not super smart to work as milkmaids they just united to avoid low return on labor jobs. Is it jewish fault to be so united in pursuing $? No, I do not think so. However, when some natives apply jewish tactics (by hiring and promoting mainly natives) jews cry antisemitic wolf. Exclusion is very jewish, therefore such cries are kind of hypocrytical. I wish all people were more "jewish" to each other (for starters).

[Crimson_Scribe]

There is another reason (and a better one, i think) that the Jews have been for a long time in a higher social class.

To be a good Jew, one must read the Torah several times a week - this had gone on since before the Romans got to Judea. Once they were conqeured, Jews spread throughout the world (before the creation of Israel, the population of any given Arab kingdom was about 10%) often acting as scribes, bankers (as Jews accepted lending money, whereas Middle Ages Christians did not), or buisness contacts between Arab and Italian traders. Couple that with the Jews tendancy to help each other out (for example, much of the dimond industry is controled by Jews because they will agree on the deal with a handshake - others find it hard to break into the buisness because of that level of assumed trust) and you have a middle class. What Hitler had was a minority that was well off - the sort of people that others love to hate.

[vslayer]

he was a christian that took thinc to extremes to do "the will of god"

[WildBlueYonder]

he was a christian that took thinc to extremes to do "the will of god"
you been reading the ABC histories (anything but christian) about hitler, He was no more christian, than he was a blond, blue-eyed aryan. or he was probabaly as christian as you are? :p

He may have been a halfer, a half jew/half Austrian & lived in shame for being rejected by his jewish family &/or the shame of being teased as a 'dirty jew'?

[dixonmassey]

Hitler was not a classical Christian (church going and stuff like that), that's true. However, he definitely thought of himself as a punishing hand of God (Christian God to boot). It's very Christian to think that one is fulfilling God's will. So, Hitler was a super Christian who thought he's above church and who thought he's been receiving direct orders from God. Neo Messiah Adolf. The are bunch of such neo messiahs running around untamed. Luckily, none of them has power (over powerful nation like Germany) to make his dreams come true. Otherwise, Adolf "achievements" would be overdone in no time at all.

[dixonmassey]

Also, Bible says that genocide could be quite Godly. So do not blame Adolf for not being Christian enough. He definitely was trying to be a good one (as he understood/felt it). He could be wrong in interpretting extermination voices in his head. What if he's right and God did/do want to cleanse the Earth again?

[robtex]

Who is really to know why Hitler singled out the Jewish people. He does like Dixon says bring up in Mein Kampf but really because of his political savey his motives are speculatory. A lot of German money before ww2 was going to the French and the german doller Duetsch Mark was worth next to nothing.....I can't remember exactly but it was 1000ths of one franc. Money was a large reason for ww2. Rather than adding to the speculation, of which there are many, I will content that all if not almost all wars have monetary motives within their paradign and ww2 was no exception.

.....Interesting today is tisha b av for jewish people. For 25 hours starting yesteday at around sunset many Jews started fasting abstained from sex, bathing, wearing leather shoes as well as not eating in rememberance for the hardships they have suffered throughout history. If I read it right...I am dating a Jewish girl and got a crash course last night in Jewish history. the links below explain it but I have not read them yet.



http://www.ou.org/yerushalayim/tishabav/default.htm

http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayd.htm

[sargentlard]

Interesting.....

Did the majority of the German population knew about the concentration camps? Did they know what they were being used for?

Also how did the Nazi's manage to force 6 million+ people without the rest of the world really noticing?

[Undecided]

I think this is rather interest view on the holocaust and the Jewish religion:


The Medrash quoted above (Shir HaShirim, Parsha 2:2) says that if the nations of the world will impose their burden on Israel too heavily this will bring the redemption before its proper time. As we see, the holocaust led directly to the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Israel three years later - before the Jewish people were spiritually ready.

[Overdose]

You should visit the special exhibition in the Holocaust Museum in DC " Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race From 1933 to 1945" Hitler wanted to create the "Ubermensch" the one race with no genetical problems, strong, smart and ready to work. He thought that the Jews didnt fit in to these categories.
The interesting thing is countries like Finnland, Sweden, England, US they all agreed with this before the war and the genocide. (Creating the master race)
Crazy but very interesting idea. The amount of research he put in this is amazing.

Second, he grew up in a society where the Jews were rich and his fellow Germans were unemployed. He never liked this and came to power by offering jobs to his people. It is like all the Hispanics being rich in US and Americans jobless. I am sure Americans wouldn't like that and would do things to change it. (I am not saying that Americans should kill the Hispanics now or Hitler did right by killing so many Jews..don't get me wrong. )

[Crimson_Scribe]

The total was 11 million. Six million Jews, the other five million were gays, invalids, gypsies, slavs, ect. At the war's end, many Germans claimed not to know about the camps, so Ike declared martial law and had the German civilians clean out the camps - other American commanders took local Germans on tour because they couldn't believe that the German civilians didn't know what went on. Mind you, everyone was suprised at the Final Solution and how far it went - even the Soviets were appalled.

[vslayer]

i am doing some research at the momont and found thet hitler killed 58.9% of the jews in europe, it was like 5.5m i have it on a skool comp so i will be able to tell du tommorrow

pretty impressive work, especially with auschwitz

[Working Class Hero]

Yeah, Hitler was a failed art-school student and a down and out in Vienna before the war. Its easy to feel injustice when people who are seemingly foreign (jews, for instance) are doing well and you, through no fault of your own are homeless. Its almost a massive mesh of co-incidences that Hitler became what he was.

[mathman]

One point that this discussion has not really addressed is why he had so many willing helpers. This aspect is much more widespread than Hitler. For example, Stalin in the 1930's, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Hutus killing Tutsis in Rwanda. Also when questioned about planning to kill the Jews, he is supposed to have replied who remembers the Armenians, referring to Turkish massacre in WW I.

[Working Class Hero]

Hitler played on the latent anti-semitism in the people of Germany, the Jews were the controlling forces behind the communist red giant that frightened the middle class, and the capitalists who suppressed the working class. They were the reason that Germany lost the first world war, why Germany even had to fight the first world war. They were responsible for the deppression, they took what rightfully belonged to hard working Germans. The German people had alot of problems, which there were seemingly no answers for, it was easy for them to accept what Hitler said. With Goebbels, he was an arch-propagandist who knew how to use people.

[buffys]

One point that this discussion has not really addressed is why he had so many willing helpers. This aspect is much more widespread than Hitler. For example, Stalin in the 1930's, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Hutus killing Tutsis in Rwanda. Also when questioned about planning to kill the Jews, he is supposed to have replied who remembers the Armenians, referring to Turkish massacre in WW I.

I think you make a good point that strikes at the heart of humanity.

I often wonder if I had been born german, at the time what would I have done? Would I have been one of them? I like to think of myself as a good person but so are the germans on the whole, yet there wasn't exactly a huge uprising or anything, most just let it happen. How can that be? it's not like they have a larger proportion of bad people than any other culture.

It's easy to look back and condemn these acts because, of course, they're horrifying but how does that explain the huge numbers of regular people blithely going along with these crimes (either directly or through inaction)? I don't know but I think it says something about humanity as a whole more than a specific country.

[Undecided]

Well the concept that allows such massacres to happen is called “de-humanization”, it happens all the time. When you stop looking at people as people but as things. Happens in Israel-Palestine, Iraq, and other regions around the world. When you make people out to be monsters, you lose your sense of compassion and humanity.

[buffys]

I understand the concept of "de-humanization" but naming and defining something doesn't necessarily explain it. History shows it's a trap that any culture or group of people can fall into with disquieting ease. Does it start with something as simple as a leader declaring, "we're good, they're evil. So let's go kill them!"? And that still doesn't explain why average citizens (normally good, kind, loving people) are so quick to agree and carry the banner.

[dixonmassey]

people who are seemingly foreign (jews, for instance)

I bet most people will have hard time to distinguish jew from non jew these days. Despite all precautions, jewish blood was diluted greatly with goim's contaminants. Classical looking jewish people are rather exception than a rule.

[WildBlueYonder]

Hitler played on the latent anti-semitism in the people of Germany, the Jews were the controlling forces behind the communist red giant that frightened the middle class, and the capitalists who suppressed the working class. They were the reason that Germany lost the first world war, why Germany even had to fight the first world war. They were responsible for the deppression, they took what rightfully belonged to hard working Germans. The German people had alot of problems, which there were seemingly no answers for, it was easy for them to accept what Hitler said. With Goebbels, he was an arch-propagandist who knew how to use people.
what's highlighted in red, is that your thoughts or hitler's? not sure where his thoughts end & your's start?

[vslayer]

i think what WCH means is that hitler saw these problems with soceity and managed to convince people that it was all the jews fault, thats how he united the people, with the one common enemy, if you blame it on a range of people and situations some people will be more concerned about some causes. but if you say it was 1 enemy: the jews, then you have everyone aimed at that 1 target, it way be for different reasons that they want to acheive the goal of extermintaing the jews but when you have so many wanting answers to problems then you have a massive army.

undoubtedly if hitler was to win the war he would in turn blame all germanys problems on blacks or asians or some other easily definable group.

[otheadp]

maybe it was all part of his plan to thank his Jewish doctor who saved his mother's life?

[Baal Zebul]

if the question was, why did hitler commit suecide, then the common joke is "he saw the gas bill"

[robtex]

there have been a number of "Hitler's" since Hitler. But none with his charisma or level of influence. Two more important question's might be, why did a whole nation follow him and what charastics or forumula is neccessary to unite a whole country (or any large group) to create mass death, destruction genocide and the like? I mean if we are really going to be technical..Hitler talked about doing it (sorta like Mason did) but as far as doing......he was lacking in that department...he got others to do it for him ......the bigger question...the more important question is how?

[mafiahamster]

One point that this discussion has not really addressed is why he had so many willing helpers.

don't forget that the germans lost the first world war.
and the winners of the war dictated very high reperations to the germans.
So there was a high readiness in germany to make political changes.

also,
hitler was a master of doing propaganda!
Evereybody only saw, what he want to let them see.

and at the beginning of his political carrer he made high investments into the german infrastructure, improved the wealth.
And so the people were willing to follow him into the war.

[mohammed]

i read in a book that germans think they r the chosen ones by god and they will conquer the world and every creature is their servent. besides he was a nazy which is a belief that anyone from the SAM desendents r to be killed and also the jews thought that they were the chosen ones by god.......... so no place for
2 chosen 1s
if anyone wants to contact me and know more information
my e-mail is:mido_721@hotmail.com
mohammed

[eM0912]

i say hitler was extremely made fun of as a child and that he was not wealthy, perhaps he was made fun of by jewish people and wanted to retaliate. other than that, i say that he was really bored...it's amazing what you do when you get bored. i saw this show on hitler and i think that he was neglected as a child and just needed someone to hear him, perhaps that was his way of being heard. you have to admit, we're still hearing him.

[Tyler]

perhaps he was made fun of by jewish people and wanted to retaliate.

Hitler had a very close Jewish friend actually. So did Eichman.

[eM0912]

but having one friend doesn't stop you from loathing the rest of them.

[mathman]

The main difference between Hitler and Eichman is that Hitler had a paranoic hatred of Jews, while Eichman didn't care and was only trying to please his boss.

[eM0912]

please the man with the gun....it's not a totally horrible idea...

[mathman]

Eichmann didn't have to work so hard. He did it to please his boss, not because he was afraid for his life.

When the Germans had to abandon Paris in 1944, they had been ordered by Hitler to destroy the city. They didn't and nobody was punished.

[cutegirl]

well Hitler was not alone, the romans, kkk, palo, crusaders, templers, babylons, russians, nazis, neo nazis, iden'hovas, europeans, everyones ahd a crack at the jews. Jews have been bullied so much out of Europea, Asia, Africa that they created the jewish state of Israel to flee the persecution

[bigal]

Hitler sought perfection, but got it wrong.

[eM0912]

welcome to the next generation of hitlers...we all seek perfection by degrading the thoughts of others...believing that they are socially moronic. :D i'm going to miss this when i start classes again.

[bigal]

You're right, too many people degrade the thoughts of others(a lot on here)
But the acceptance of everyone and everything is the beginning of human perfection.
Will it ever happen? If I believe it and you believe it, then there's two less people to convince.

[eM0912]

perhaps the next generation of evolutionaries will be emotional rather than genetic? it's always a plausible idea...humans are overtaken by emotion (as is evident here :P).

[Hardstuff]

I have been thinking and something doesn't add up. Why did Hitler go through all that trouble to exterminate the Jewish people?

His couldn't have had that much blind hatred for them going as far as to killing 6 million jews and it couldn't have been a complete millitary ploy for something.

What I am getting at is that I don't understand why go through such a huge operation to round up and destroy 6 million people in such a short amount of time. No single reason seems to explain....

Any ideas as to why he really do it?


He said the people need a common enemy to be united.
Also people have explained his personal hatred for the Jews.
He grew up in Vienna where the Jews were rich and controlled society etc...

[mathman]

He grew up in Vienna where the Jews were rich and controlled society etc...

He may have believed it. It is a typical anti-semitic lie that was prevalent at the time.

[nirakar]

Self delusion is the key to understanding this world. In all subjects in which science can not be tested through trial and error mythology dominates. Today many of our prominent talking heads lie repeatedly. You can't tell whether they believe their own lies or are just cynically supporting a faction. In order to have a good delivery when lying a person should either believe their own lies or have no sense of right and wrong and be a good actor. A good actor is somebody who can put their own pesonality and beliefs asside and adopt the personality and beliefs of a character.

European Colonialists convinced themself that they were doing a sevice to the inferior colonised people by ruling over them. The majority of Americans during slavery could not see that slavery was wrong. Average Hutus could not see that the genocide of Tutsis was wrong. You can no more prove what is right and what is wrong than you can prove which came first God or Existence.

Everybody rationalizes away their evilness. Ken Lay still believes he is a good. The common criminal finds a way to blame others or excuse himself for his crimes. Listen to a husband and wife argue, one or both of them have distorted reality.

Survival of the fittest / evolution does not push us towards knowing the truth. Survival of the fittest pushes us towards a way of thinking that best helps us survive and multiply our DNA. In some situations it is best for multiplying our DNA that we know the truth but in other situations it is best for multiplying our DNA that we believe lies. Culture is a mix of truth and lies. We must live within the culture. We are just pieces of genetic/mind stuff blown about in the cultural storm. As they say in computer programming "garbage in garbage out"

Hitler believed that he was doing a service to Germany and Humanity by exterminating the jews.

[StarOfEight]

He said the people need a common enemy to be united.
Also people have explained his personal hatred for the Jews.
He grew up in Vienna where the Jews were rich and controlled society etc...

He didn't grow up in Vienna, though. He was born in a shithole border town, and only moved to Vienna after the death of both his parents, when he was 18, I think.

In Mein Kampf, he talks a bit about the Vienesse legislature, or something like that. I can't remember the exact body, but it was a legislative body, dominated by non-Austrians ... Slavs, especially. I think that's where he developed some of his racial hatred.

[balthazaar]

I've thought about this a lot, and in reading Mein Kampf and looking at the reality of what was done, I believe the reasons were at least twofold. I am certain the main reason Hitler focused on Jews during the Holocaust was because he feared them. He was terrified that a secret conspiracy of Jews was attempting to take over Germany (and perhaps the world), was intent on enslaving Aryans and all non-Jews, and that the Jewish people were an amoral, psychopathic, souless race. Why he believed this is beyond what I know right now. Mein Kampf seems largely a ranting blog of Hitlers fear (and subsequent hatred) of Jews. His thoughts seem peculiarly disorganized around the edges when he speaks of Jews--in the same paragraph he may talk of Jews as having what seem to be super-human intelligence and yet have no creativity or culture. He sounds rather a lot like a high-functioning fairly organized, paranoid schizophrenic.
There is another reason for putting the Jews in work camps though. I find the notion that large numbers of Jews were "gassed" or otherwise exterminated highly suspect--this would be self-defeating when the prisoners could be used as forced labor instead--which indeed they were. The disenfranchisement of Jews (and gypsies and Freemasons, etc.), provided two sources of money for the 3rd Reich. First, each Jews land, business and possessions were confiscated by the State, creating instant funds for the new government. Second, the prisoners could be set to work without pay and minimal cost. Thus, the 3rd Reich was able to fund many new projects, buildings, and the war effort by confiscating the property of Jews and others the State considered "criminals." Similar tactics were used during the witch hunts. Sadly, the USA is starting a similar tactical operation with drug merchants.
So I see two powerful reasons for Hitlers obsession with the Jews--he believed they were evil and feared them (IMHO, because he was delusional and paranoid). Second, they were convenient milk cows for filling his coffers as well as ready-made national scapegoats. However, because he sacrificed large numbers of people and took their money, he was able to make his particular brand of national socialism work--by using Jews and others as the the "start-up" money to revive the previously depressed German economy.

[desi]

The first half of Mein Kampf did seem to articulate many legitimate concerns Hitler had about what was going on in Germany. If the Jews were the ruling class its not too hard to understand why he fixated the blame on them.

I think the Jews were initially encouraged to leave Germany, especially for Israel. After the war started, and many countries stopped taking in Jew immigrants, they and other suspect people had to be dealt with so Hitler probably ordered detention camps, like the US made for Japanese Americans. I'm sure this got the German war effort lots of money by taking their stuff since they were a wealthy class.

If mass murders happened I don't see how it can be pinned on Hitler. He was fighting a war on two fronts and losing. I'm sure he ran low on beans, bullets, and band aids. That being the case, Germans probably had a hard time filling their bellies. How much worse did it have to be for prisoners? Our own US civil war prisoner of war camps show how nasty those can be.

[Wisdom_Seeker]

Geez lets bring Hitler from the dead and ask him, this is a useless endless thread...

[nietzschefan]

Geez lets bring Hitler from the dead and ask him, this is a useless endless thread...

No it's not, particularly the posts by Dixon. As he said, the dread "evil" of the Jews, was quite simply they stick together. Sure it's a little bit of everyman for himself, but they will help rather than hinder their fellow Jew. Yes everyone should act like this, but few people do.

I have noticed other (previously or currently)persecuted groups help rather than hinder(within their "group"), a philosophy I call "the self +1". Gays will help each other and are likely to get a good "break" in some fields. I see south asians buying up whole new housing blocks, cutting a good deal with developers and sorting out finance within their group. Hey these people didn't make the rules, but people will find the best way, even in a shit system like fuckyerneighbor consumer-capitalism. They are just extending the definition of "family" or at least semi-defined a somewhat alturistic code within their identified group.

Of course people outside these groups get jealous...fearful...or just plain pissed.

[Wisdom_Seeker]

No it's not, particularly the posts by Dixon. As he said, the dread "evil" of the Jews, was quite simply they stick together. Sure it's a little bit of everyman for himself, but they will help rather than hinder their fellow Jew. Yes everyone should act like this, but few people do.

I have noticed other (previously or currently)persecuted groups help rather than hinder(within their "group"), a philosophy I call "the self +1". Gays will help each other and are likely to get a good "break" in some fields. I see south asians buying up whole new housing blocks, cutting a good deal with developers and sorting out finance within their group. Hey these people didn't make the rules, but people will find the best way, even in a shit system like fuckyerneighbor consumer-capitalism. They are just extending the definition of "family" or at least semi-defined a somewhat alturistic code within their identified group.

Of course people outside these groups get jealous...fearful...or just plain pissed.

Well now that you mention the common identification of one person with a whole race, it does has something to do with this.
Hitler grew up with a Jewish stepfather that used to abuse him and his mother, obviously generating some repressed hate and fear that later was manifested in his hate for a whole race.
The thing is, nobody has mention Hitler’s obsession with occultism, which was corroborated by the extensive search for Atlantis and the Holly Grail by the Germans before WWII.
But most of all, he fed his anger with the study of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Petrovna_Blavatsky)´s books (her complete work is considered the origin of the Theosophy society & “New Age” adepts). She was an iniciate from Russia, that got her knowledge from India, and you can see the similarity of her books with the philosophy of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism.

In her works of occultism, HP Blavatsky traced the origin of the human race to the “Aryan race”, the “pure race”, the “first race”; and Aryan originally meant “noble”. Far from being a racist work, Hitler was influenced by this, plus his hate for Jews. He considered the Aryans to be the ancestors of the current “white race”, and spent the rest of his life trying to prove this.

Not to mention that Hitler wanted to be a painter, and he was denied the entrance from many painting schools (he was probably a very very bad painter); this influenced the feed of his anger, and his career in politics.

[Learned Hand]

Well, history teaches us that Hitler received daily INJECTIONS of methamphetamine. Not to discredit anybody else's thoughts, but maybe he was just psychotic, paranoid & delusional and ubsurdly and maniacally thought he was purifying the earth because he was always on crank. Never mess with a tweaker, as the saying goes.

[Xev]

Well, history teaches us that Hitler received daily INJECTIONS of methamphetamine. Not to discredit anybody else's thoughts, but maybe he was just psychotic, paranoid & delusional and ubsurdly and maniacally thought he was purifying the earth because he was always on crank. Never mess with a tweaker, as the saying goes.

I think I love you. :D

[Klippymitch]

Hitler had a plan for a society that would of been greater than any country in the world. He believed the Aryan race ascended from the great mystical city of Atlantis.

He probably thought the Jews were simply inferior and was slowing down the progress of what could be something great. He probably wanted Germany to be another Atlantis the greatest in technology, science, and power. Years beyond others.

No one knows for sure.

[Klippymitch]

Well, history teaches us that Hitler received daily INJECTIONS of methamphetamine. Not to discredit anybody else's thoughts, but maybe he was just psychotic, paranoid & delusional and ubsurdly and maniacally thought he was purifying the earth because he was always on crank. Never mess with a tweaker, as the saying goes.

He also took a cycle of the newly discovered steroid testosterone.

He also took opiates.

[desi]

How do you guys know Hitler was on these drugs?

Does anyone know how Hitler would think Jews were inferior if they were among the most affluent?

[firdroirich]

Because he already had a number of cloned borgs that would take orders (for profit)

Recent study suggests psychology more than profit may have been at work in this (though of-course money is a motivator). German scientists were far ahead in certain ares of study, who knows, they may have known this too. One such is the Milgram experiement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment), where ordinary people electrocute people when given the order, despite what their own thoughts may be.


One point that this discussion has not really addressed is why he had so many willing helpers


Check out a book called "Hitler's willing executioners" by Harvard political science professor Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. It's a good, but ghastly, read about how ordinary Germans did more to exterminate the Jews than SS men. There are historical acounts, not opinions, of ordinary people persecuting and killing Jews, without orders or officers to enforce them - even marching a group of Jews to death after Germany had surrendered and Himmler had ordered the killings to cease. It's an eye-opening look at (in)human nature. Similiar is a book called "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" about the Stanford Prison experiment. It's scary what ordinarily 'nice' people are capable of when society permits sadism.

Would making this part of high school education be of any use?

Another thing I found perculiar in Goldhagen's book was the consistent report ,by the people doing or observing these things, that the Jews themselves offered no resistance. Why is this so?