Discussion 2 updated

Reading Questions – Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) – excerpts S ECTION 1: R EADING Q UESTIONS : (A SSIGNED PAGES 1-27, 33-35, 45-46) Volume I: Chapter IX: Nation and Race (read all) In this chapter, Hitler lays out his views on racial and national struggle. In particular, he designates Aryans as the superior race and Jews as their antithesis. When Hitler uses the term “struggle” in this section, what does he mean? Provide an example from the text . (Hint: see struggle, think Darwin) Throughout the excerpt, Hitler’s use of the word “struggle” symbolizes the concept of Social Darwinism. Established by Charles Darwin, this theory holds that individuals and people groups are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Social Darwinists believe in “survival of the fittest” – the idea that some people are more powerful in society because they are innately better. (history.com) In Mein Kampf, Hitler indirectly hints at Social Darwinism when describing the Aryan race. For example, he argues “Any crossing of two beings not at exactly the same level produces a medium between the level of the two parents. This means: the offspring will probably stand higher than the racially lower parent, but not as high as the higher one. Consequently, it will later succumb in the struggle against the higher level” (pg. 2). How does Hitler compare the struggle in Nature among species to the struggle in society between nations and races? Provide an example from the text. (Again, the application of crude Darwinism to nations and people). On pg. 2, Hitler argues racial purity is an essential law of Nature. For example, he states “Even the most superficial observation shows that Nature’s restricted form of propagation and increase is an almost rigid basic law of all the innumerable forms of expression of her vital urge. Every animal mates only with a member of the same species. The titmouse seeks the titmouse, the finch the finch, the stork the stork…” (pg. 2). In the quote, Hitler illustrates the importance of mating with similar individuals so prevent the demolition of the Aryan race from racial impurity. What does Hitler say is the “historical experience” when Aryan blood mingles “with that of lower people?” What does he conclude is the “result of all racial crossing?” (p. 3) Hitler refers to the racial purity of North America by stating “…it shows with terrifying clarity that in every mingling of Aryan blood with that of lower peoples the result was the end of the cultured people. North America, whose population consists in by far the largest part of Germanic elements who mixed but little with the lower colored peoples, shows a different humanity and culture from Central and South America, where the predominantly Latin immigrant often mixed with the aborigines on a large scale” (pg. 3). His conclusion of this racial

crossing entails multiple factors, the physical and intellectual regression of a progressing sickness in the higher race. What, according to Hitler causes “great cultures” to die? (p.4) He implies that all great cultures of the past have perished because the original race died out from blood poisoning. What race does Hitler say is responsible for all human culture in the arts, sciences and technology? (p. 5) He attributes the Aryans to be responsible for all the human culture in the arts, sciences, and technology. Hitler says the humans can be divided into three cultural groups. What are those three groups? (p. 5) Which group are the Aryans in? And which group the Jews? • Founders of Culture (Aryans) • Bearers of Culture (Asiatic characters) • Destroyers of Culture (Jews) On pp. 6-7 Hitler describes how culture spreads from Aryans to other groups. Give a brief summary of Hitler’s description of that process. After a conspicuous amount of time, after the Aryan race has died out from intermixing, the last visible trace of the former master people is often seen in the lighter skin color of individuals. It’s then possible that the masters of culture will a second time, or more often in the course of history, come into contact with its former race and breed; spreading the Aryan culture into being. On p. 11, Hitler begins to a long discussion of Jews as the antithesis of Aryans. • According to Hitler do Jews possess a culture of their own? Stated in Mein Kampf , Jews do not possess a culture of their own. The foundations of their intellectual work were always provided for by other races and developed through the cultural world surrounding them. • How does he describe Jewish instinct for self-preservation as communal or individualistic? Why does he consider that instinct bad? According to Hitler, the Jew’s instinct for self-preservation is individualistic. He states “In the Jewish people the will to sacrifice does not go beyond the individual’s naked instinct of self- preservation. Their apparently great sense of solidarity is based on the very primitive herd

• Throughout this section, Hitler associates Jews with business activities and particularly discusses their usury (charging interest, which was forbidden for Christians (until end of Middle Ages) and Muslims (still)) and their monopolies. He uses words such as “exploit.” What other words does he use? List at least five. (We’ll use these to get at Hitler’s critique of capitalism.) Words: effrontery, degrades, extortion, plundered, and exploitation. • In (h), Hitler discusses the Jewish emancipation from the ghetto and the “change” within “Jewry” where he “emphasize[s] his Judaism less and place[s] his ‘Germanism’ in the foreground.” (p. 17) Why doesn’t a change in language, according to Hitler, make a Jew into a German? According to Hitler, race does not lie in the language but exclusively in the blood. He states a Jew can change his language without any trouble but will continue to express his old ideas/inner nature. Whether he in speaking Roman or German, a Jewish man is still fundamentally a Jew. • Hitler describes the press (along with Freemasonry, a bugaboo of conservatives since the French Revolution) as a Jewish weapon (p. 19). How does the press serve as a Jewish weapon? Hitler states “Thus Freemasonry is joined by a second weapon in the service of the Jews: the press. With all his perseverance and dexterity, he seizes possession of it. With it he solely begins to grip and ensnare, to guide and push all public life…” (pg. 19). Essentially, under the name of “public opinion” Hitler argues Jews manipulate the press to do their own bidding. • In section j (pp. 20-25), Hitler associates “the Jew” (up to this point described as the archetype capitalist) with socialism. • o Why is socialism “not German” but a “foreignization” and “Jewification” of labor? (p.21) In Mein Kampf , Hitler argues socialism is a product of “foreignization” and “Jewification”. He blames the foreignization of the world, attributed to the Jews, of the transformation between the respect of manual work into a contempt for all physical labor.

o In Hitler’s understanding, how can Jews be simultaneously capitalists and socialist (avowed enemies)? See middle p. 21 and following. According to Hitler, Jews exploit both capitalism and socialism as ways to further their own interests. He states “…he used the bourgeoise as a battering-ram against the feudal world, then the worker against the bourgeois world” (pg. 21). Essentially, he argues the Jews are the epitome of the bourgeoise but also simultaneously working on its demise. o How is Marxism a stage in the “ultimate aims of Jewish struggle?” (p. 22) Under the guise of socialism, the Jew’s main aim is to converse the aversion of “decent people” to fulfill their demands. Under their “cloak” of purely socialist ideas, Hitler claims the Jew’s have diabolic purposes hidden to the rejection of the Aryans’s personality and hence of the nation. With Marxism, Hitler believes the Jew’s main obstacle is the shattering of the Aryan’s personality and race to become the superior racial category. o Hitler criticizes the “so-called national bourgeoisie blinded by financial interests” who sabotages the worker in his struggle for existence. List some of the “obstacles” the bourgeoisie creates for the working class. How does “the Jew” exploit this bourgeois sabotage? (p. 23) ( This is one part where the argument gets convoluted because, according to Hitler’s framework Jews are the epitome of the national bourgeoisie and apparently simultaneously also exploiting and sabotaging their interests by reaching out to the working classes under the guise of socialism.) • Some “obstacles” include shortening the workday, abolishing child labor, protecting women, and improving sanitary conditions in the workshops/homes. Subsequently, Jews blindly sabotage the working class by destroying their financial independence. o On p. 23-24, Hitler says that the Jewish socialism is divided into two parts, a “trade union movement” which recruits masses for its “political organization.” On p. 24, he describes this political movement is part of a ‘fanatical and slanderous struggle.’ How does this socialist political organization tear the German nation down? Hitler states “It is this press, above all, which wages a positively fanatical and slanderous struggle, tearing down everything which can be regarded as a support of national independence, cultural elevation, and the economic independence of the nations” (pg. 24). He continues his argument by sawing “…it hammers away at the characters of those who will not bow down to the Jewish presumption to

o Notice how he describes the nation as an organism on p. 26. Another biological, Darwinian metaphor to describe a political entity. He uses same description in last sentence of chapter. o Summarize the first full paragraph on p. 27. Note in particular the references to sterility, disease, viruses, and decay. In this paragraph, Hitler details the progression of Marxism as a “virus” infecting the German public. o We also return to a subject we’ve previously discussed. What did August 1914 represent, according to Hitler? In Hitler’s eyes, it was the last flicker of the national instinct of self-preservation in the face of a progressing Marxism. Volume 2: Chapter I: Philosophy and Party (pp. 33-35 – between section breaks) Our focus in this section is on Hitler’s understanding of völkish . • On pp. 33-34, Hitler defines “the current conception of the world” and state. Briefly summarize his definition. The current political conception of the world is that the State has nothing in common with the concept of race as the foundation of the country. Instead, the State is considered a result from economic necessities and political forces. • On pp. 34-35, Hitler contrasts the völkish conception of the world to the prevailing view (described above). Briefly summarize this völkish view and how it differs from the prevailing view. In contrast from the definition above, the völkish concept recognizes that the primordial racial elements are more significant for mankind. Essentially, the State is a means to an end of the conservation of certain racial characteristics. Volume 2: Chapter I: Philosophy and Party (pp. 45-46) This chapter focuses on Hitler’s Eastern foreign policy. It is an interesting read as blueprint for his later war aims during World War II. Our focus will be on the ideological basis for that policy: living space and soil. • Hitler discusses “living space” (p. 45) and “soil” (pp.45-6). How does he describe them, and why are they so important for a nation and a race? (If you cannot answer the question from this page alone do a search for “living space” and read the references to it in Chapter IX on Nation and Race.)

Hitler describes lebensraum, or “living space”, as a necessity to further progress the Aryan race and protect the interests of the German public. • What does he describe as the mission of the National Socialist state? (p. 46) – Note that Kershaw quotes this paragraph on p. 155. He states “…the mission of the National Socialist movement, is to bring out own people to a political insight that they will not see their goal for the future in the breath-taking sensation of a new Alexander’s conquest, but in the industrious work of the German plow, to which the sword need only give soil” (pg. 46). Question for In-Class Discussion: How do these excerpts of Mein Kampf reflect principles of Social Darwinism and eugenics as discussed in lecture? Refer to point one down below. Q UESTIONS /C OMMENTS : - I N ORDER TO PLAN DISCUSSION , I REQUIRE YOUR QUESTIONS / COMMENTS ON THE TEXT . Y OU NEED TO PROVIDE AT LEAST THREE QUESTIONS / COMMENTS ABOUT THE TEXT . (“T HIS READING WAS HARD ” DOESN ’ T COUNT AS A COMMENT ). 1. In Mein Kampf , I found it interesting how Hitler addresses racial impurity through the essential laws of Nature. According to Hitler, there are some truths which is are so obvious, they appear to be unrecognized by ordinary people. On pg. 2, Hitler argues racial purity is an essential law of Nature. For example, he states “Thus men without exception wander about in the garden of nature, they imagine that they know practically everything and yet with few exceptions pass blindly by on the of most patent principles of Nature’s rule: the inner segregation of the species of all living beings on this earth” (pg. 2). 2. Why does Hitler believe that the Jew’s have a desired mission for political, financial, and racial domination? And does he really believe their capable? 3. Also, I found it interesting how the blood-leeching metaphor was illustrated throughout this book. But does Hitler really believe that all Jewish people are deceptive and selfish creatures, essentially sucking the nation dry? Is there any evidence of this?