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Hitler’s Christianity: The Influence of Nietzsche
Written Spring 2005
Could it be that Hitler saw himself as the savior, blessed by God, of the German nation? I am compelled to believe so after extensive research into a large sample of both primary and secondary documentation. There is a formidable amount of evidence suggesting that Hitler was deeply influenced by Jesus Christ, and that he viewed his mission a holy one. He said, “Hence today I believe I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”[1]
It may be difficult to consider the idea that Hitler believed he was fighting for God, but the primary evidence suggesting so is overwhelming. What institutions or people encouraged him in his belief of divine inspiration, which led to his persecution of Jews? I believe the answer lies primarily with Hitler’s perception of ‘true’ Christianity* and some of the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche.
There is little doubt that Hitler’s ideology drew from Christian and Nietzschean ideology. These two ideologies were reconciled to form an impelling dogma for Hitler’s National Socialism. But the ideas of Nietzsche cannot be understood from Hitler’s perspective without acknowledging his Christian beliefs. Nietzsche’s ‘moral slavery’ and ‘Aryan’ philosophies seem to have been reconciled with Hitler’s Christian philosophy, which served as the basis for his National Socialism. The reconciliation of these ideologies appears to have set the standards for Hitler’s “Positive Christianity,” which opposed the Jewish religious beliefs of the Talmud and Tanach (Old Testament).[2] To understand Hitler’s ideology it is essential to begin familiarizing oneself with some of the writings of Nietzsche.
Friedrich Nietzsche was an anti-democratic, anti-Christian, anti-Judaic, self-proclaimed “anti-Christ” philosopher in Germany. Hitler probably came into contact with Nietzsche’s ideas through his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and Richard Wagner. Over the course of Elisabeth and Hitler’s friendship, Hitler visited the Nietzsche Archive seven times.[3] Nietzsche served as a father figure for Wagner, but because of Wagner’s extreme anti-Semitism, the two parted ways in 1882.[4]
Nevertheless, Wagner’s adoption of Nietzsche’s racial and anti-Semitic ideas were seemingly transferred to Hitler, who venerated Wagner and more than likely read some of his writings as well. Hitler said, “to understand National Socialism one must first know Wagner.” This is absolutely crucial because even though Wagner had pagan heroes he, unlike Nietzsche, did not entirely despair of Christianity. He also viewed capitalism as a horror, bent on eradicating the old, traditional Germanic virtues.[5] These beliefs were nearly identical to Hitler’s. Though Nietzsche may not have meant for the actual implementation of his concepts, his sister Elisabeth certainly did, as perhaps did Hitler. In fact, Hitler issued Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra to every soldier in the German army.[6] Let us now look at Nietzsche, from whom these ideas originally came.
Nietzsche wrote in The Genealogy of Morals:
The sick are the great danger of man, not the evil, not the ‘beasts of prey.’ They who are from the outset botched, oppressed, broken those are they, the weakest are they, who most undermine the life beneath the feet of man, who instill the most dangerous venom and skepticism into our trust in life, in man, in ourselves…Here teem the worms of revenge and vindictiveness; here the air reeks of things secret and unmentionable…the conspiracy of the sufferers against the sound and the victorious; here is the sight of the victorious hated.[7]
Context is a very important to consider when analyzing a passage such as this. Nietzsche was referring to the Jews in this description, which is important to know because Hitler, in Mein Kampf, uses the same kind of vicious language when he refers to Jews. Chapters from Nietzsche’s The Will to Power emphasized elimination of the weak and the importance of good breeding.[8] Hitler’s Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, enacted on 1 January 1936, as well as the Nuremberg Laws, were more than likely Nietzsche’s philosophies in action.[9] 1.
The terminology Hitler used to refer to Jews, which was similar to that used by Nietzsche in The Will to Power, included terms such as “usurers,” “half-hearted,” “weak,” “sick,” and “parasitic.”[10] Hitler also used these kinds of terms when he alluded to Nietzsche's concept of ‘moral slavery,’ the undermining of the ‘great’ by the ‘weak.’ This similarity in terminology seems to reaffirm the influence of Nietzsche’s work upon Hitler’s philosophy.
In both Nietzsche’s and Hitler’s books, the concepts of ‘master morality’ and ‘moral slavery’ arise. The two men differed slightly in that Nietzsche dealt with the concepts of ‘noble morality’ and ‘slave morality,’ whereas Hitler dealt with the concepts ‘Aryan’ and ‘Jew.’ Noble morality, characterized as war mongering and oppressive, was responsible for propelling man to his future greatness and keeping slave morality in check to avoid anarchy, revolt, and chaos. It acquainted itself with slave morality only to exalt itself as superior ‘master.’ There is evidence of this in a passage from The Genealogy of Morals:
The contrary is the case when we come to the aristocrat’s system of values: it acts and grows spontaneously, it merely seeks its antithesis in order to pronounce a more grateful and exultant ‘yes’ to its own self; -- its negative conception, ‘low,’ ‘vulgar,’ ‘bad,’ is merely a pale born foil in comparison with its positive and fundamental conception… of we aristocrats, we good ones, we beautiful ones, we happy ones.’[11]
In this passage the aristocrats [nobles] view themselves superior to the rest of mankind [slaves], which they see as contemptible and depraved. Slave morality, on the other hand, viewed itself as the ‘truly good’ and the creator of conscience, and the nobles were its contemptible oppressors. It was through values that the slaves exercised leverage over their oppressors by essentially making them feel guilt and self-loathing for their oppressive behavior. The two opposing moralities end up reconciling and helping one another and Nietzsche defined this “mediocrity” as the seduction of the masters by the slaves. He identified this as the “liberal” undermining.[12]
Hitler deviated only slightly from Nietzsche’s concept in that his Aryan worked to rescue himself from the Jew diabolically trying to undermine him with liberalism, capitalism, and bolshevism. Hitler argued that the Aryan must not succumb to “liberal” Jewish ideology, or he would most certainly fall.[13] This was probably derived from Nietzsche’s belief that the slave morality hindered mankind’s potential, which should have been acting in accordance with self-preservation, by holding back the noble morality with “values.” The slaves,--which Hitler interpreted as Jews and their collaborators--in his view, had beat master morality because they had caused noble morality to become indecisive, weak, and self-hating.
As a result, noble morality no longer served its interests, but instead sacrificed them in order to acknowledge the interests of the slaves. Hitler argued this same idea by claiming that the Jew stopped at nothing to completely seduce and liberalize [Germany] to serve his own interests and once he got there, his dominion would be unshakable. For Hitler, the ‘chosen’ acted with the greatest self-preservation of all, and the Aryan’s duty was to recognize this “sham” and fight it relentlessly to save himself from his fall.[14] The following quote is one among many, which establishes the influence of Nietzsche’s moral slavery concept upon Hitler:
In a short time he [the Jew] begins to twist things around to make it look as if all the injustice of the world had always been done to him and not the other way around. The very stupid believe this and then they just can’t help but pity the poor ‘unfortunate.’[15]
There was one other important concept that both Hitler and Nietzsche acknowledged and referred to, and that was the concept of the ‘blond beast.’
Nietzsche’s “complete man” and Hitler’s “Aryan” were probably different versions of the concept of the ‘blond beast.’ Nietzsche referred to the “blond Teuton beast” as man’s hope to attain his full potential.[16] The concept of Nietzsche’s blond beast, who returned to nature to free himself from society, can be directly compared with Hitler’s blond beast. Hitler’s blond beast represented the Aryan master race of old, which he referred to as the “conqueror.”[17] He believed that this Aryan was responsible for human culture all across the globe, including Christianity*… that he alone was “the Prometheus of mankind” and “bearer of culture” and “the prototype of all that we understand by the word man.”[18] All throughout Mein Kampf, he refers to Aryan superiority with respect to art, music, literature, philosophy, religion, and politics. Wagner may have greatly influenced Hitler’s Aryan artistic-cultural philosophy, but the contributions of Nietzsche seem to ring clear. Hitler acknowledged Roman cultural superiority in Mein Kampf, and Nietzsche especially associated “the magnificent blond brute” with the Roman.[19]
Hitler seems to have at least been partially influenced by Nietzsche’s idea of the “blond Teuton beast,” because not only does he mention it time and again in Mein Kampf, but he also enjoyed watching his military emulate the Teutonic Knights. Alfred Rosenberg was in charge of Nordic mythological propaganda for the Reich, and he was responsible for the parades in the streets of Germany. Amazing displays of Teutonic imagery were presented in various forms. Soldiers and SS members dressed up like Teutonic Knights and floats with Nordic imagery were presented before the German masses.[20] But, while Hitler seems to have subscribed to this idea of Nietzsche’s*, he never forgot to venerate and acknowledge his Creator. The crucial difference between Nietzsche and Hitler that must be addressed was Hitler’s belief in God. This is perhaps where Wagner’s influence on Hitler becomes more evident.[21] [As a necessary aside, contrary to popular belief, Hitler never conceived of creating a race of “Supermen” who would take over the world. This is pure nonsense, as the “Superman” ideas were merely conceptions pondered by Friedrich Nietzsche. One need only notice that Joseph Goebbels was physically impaired, that Alfred Rosenberg had a Jewish mistress (Rigg, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers), or that Hitler and his wife Eva had brown hair. This absurd version of Hitler is pure propagandized nonsense.]
For both Hitler and Nietzsche, Christian ‘ethic’ caused a person to have to choose between two opposing forces. The first force was ‘Jewish liberalism,’ or ‘slave morality,’ and the second force self-preservation (‘Aryan’ or ‘master morality’).
The two men ran into serious problems when attempting to reconcile these two ideologies, because one cannot be a good Christian and act in his own best interest. [It must be noted here that during many a conversation with Wagener, Hitler raises the point that Christianity needs rejuvenation and reinvention. He even went so far as to suggest that Christianity--if it was to survive--needs to evolve with mankind. He seems to have believed that Christianity’s evolution was its natural destiny if it was to survive through the ages, especially in light of science and technology. Hitler also implies that as man evolves, so too does God, or perhaps vice versa.] Hitler called this the “sham culture of the Jew” because Christianity is after all, derived from Judaism.[22] Both men argued for the need for spirituality, but they both argued that it could not be found in traditional Judeo-Christian ethic. Nietzsche summed this up best by stating:
The ‘masters’ have been done away with; the morality of the vulgar man [slave morality] has triumphed. This triumph may also be called a blood-poisoning…Everything is obviously becoming Judaised, or Christianized, or vulgarized…[23]
Hitler came to a strikingly similar conclusion:
His comic papers especially strive to represent the Jews as a harmless little people…And the constant effort is to make him seem almost more ‘insignificant’ than dangerous. He poisons the blood of others, but preserves his own. The Jew almost never marries a Christian woman; it is the Christian who marries the Jewess…In order to mask his activity and lull his victims, however, he talks more and more of the equality of all men without regard to race and color. The fools begin to believe him.[24]
Nietzsche was well known for his statement “God is dead.” Hitler did not agree with Nietzsche’s atheist philosophy and he spoke admirably of God as the Creator and Jesus as the socialist Aryan liberator:
Christ was an Aryan, and St. Paul used his doctrine to mobilise the criminal underworld and thus organise a proto-Bolshevism…For the Galilean’s object [Jesus’ doctrine] was to liberate his country from Jewish oppression. He set Himself against Jewish capitalism, and that’s why the Jews liquidated Him.[25]
Hitler, during a conversation with colleagues on economic policy, was reported to have said:
…to educate the youth in particular in the spirit of those of Christ’s words that we must interpret anew: remember that each of you is not alone a creature of God, but that you are all brothers![26]
Here we see Hitler advocating Christ’s teachings, as opposed to advocating the traditional religious teachings of Christianity. These quotes assert that Hitler felt admiration and veneration for Christ and his teachings, not necessarily the institution of the Church. He never failed to recognize the importance of religion however, especially in light of his beliefs that “nihilism” was “worthless.”[27]
In fact, his belief was that Jews were the godless race [the antithesis of natural ‘godly’ man], not the Aryans.[28] It is plausible to conclude that ‘Aryan’ was associated with European non-Jews in Hitler’s mind, and he believed that Christ was the Aryan liberator.2. He referenced the Bible to support his position.[29] [30] However, he probably drew from Nietzsche when he suggested that the Aryan “look to Nature.” He wanted Germans to “interpret Christ’s words anew” as opposed to subscribing to traditional Judeo-Christian doctrine, which he called “sick.”[31] Hitler had a real issue with the Jewish notion of man’s domination over nature.[32] This was another aspect of his “Positive Christianity.”[33] Hitler wanted a reformed version of Christianity for the German Reich, which would incorporate his ideas regarding the Aryan, “Nature,” and self-preservation of the “whole man” with Christian ideology.[34] He chose the swastika as the symbol for his movement that happens to be the symbol he saw in his church during his youth,[35] and altered it by tilting it 45 degrees. The swastika, Hitler claims, is a Nordic symbol of a broken wheel, perhaps from the chariot of the Sun God of ancient Nordic mythology.[36] Notice that he tilt gives it a sense of direction, movement, and progress.
Hitler made a very important statement expressing his admiration for Jesus, whom he believed was the greatest anti-Semite of all time:
Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism the destroyer. Nevertheless, the Galilean, who later was called Christ, intended something quite different. He must be regarded as a popular leader who took up his position against Jewry. Galilee was a colony where the Romans had probably installed Gaelic legionaries, and it’s certain that Jesus was not a Jew.[37]
Notice how he claimed that Jesus was not Jewish. Hitler suggested that Jesus was probably a Gaelic legionnaire, which may mean Hitler consolidated Nietzsche’s “Teuton beast” with his Christian beliefs. However, the fact that Hitler made such a statement suggests that he had taken this idea from the Talmud. The reason I say this is because the Talmud calls Gentiles and non-Jews “Goim.”[38] Hitler made the statement, “the Jews again slyly dupe the dumb Goyim.”[39] If we are to take Degrelle at his word, Hitler got this term during his study of the Talmud. It is very probable that Hitler alluded to the section of the Talmud encouraging Jews in usury and thievery against the Goi when he stated:[40]
And a religion in the Aryan sense cannot be imagined which lacks the conviction of survival after death in some form. Indeed, the Talmud is not a book to prepare a man for the hereafter, but only for a practical and profitable life in this world.[41]
And to further establish this as a valid conclusion, here is the excerpt from the Talmud, which Hitler referred to during his conversation with Bormann about Jesus: For this son of Stada was the son of Pantera.[42] [43] Hitler said, “The Jews, by the way, regarded [Jesus] as the son of a whore—of a whore and a Roman soldier.”[44] If Hitler had not studied the Talmud, then how did he know Jews regarded Jesus as the son of a whore? Nowhere in the Bible is Mary called a whore, nor does it call Jesus the son of a whore, however the Talmud does. The Talmud also claims that Jesus was half Roman. Thus, this is most likely where he derived his ideas about Christ’s Aryan heritage.[45] Hitler certainly had reverence for Christ and he carried around a “very used” pocket-sized translation of the New Testament.[46]
According to Nietzsche, God was the result of whatever the most energetic and heroic people valued and created. This was known as “process theology.”[47] It is very likely Hitler adopted this concept from Neitzsche, blending his Christian beliefs with primitive German religious philosophy to form the “Positive Christianity” for his Germany.3. Hitler even said, “I am now as before a Catholic and will remain so.” Hitler carried with him the idea heavily promoted during his time that the Jew was the killer of God, and that the Church would ordain the removal of these killers, since he was “acting as the avenging hand of God.”[48] In his Munich speech on September 18, 1922, he referred to what he believed were Jewish ideas: “Democracy,” “Marxism,”[49] “conscience of the world,” and “internationalism.” He referred to internationalization as Judaization. He said, “A people that in its own life has lost honor becomes politically defenseless, and then becomes enslaved also in the economic sphere.”[50] This statement of his speech, regarding German ‘economic enslavement’ by Jewry, can be regarded as a legitimate accusation on Hitler’s behalf if he had studied either the Talmud or the Bible, or even came into contact with either doctrine’s ‘content’:
God created them [Gentiles] in the form of men for the glory of Israel. But Akum [Gentiles] were created for the sole end of ministering unto them [the Jews] day and night. Nor can they ever be relieved from this service. It is becoming to the son of a king [an Israelite] that animals in their natural form, and animals in the form of human beings should minister unto him.[51]
Hitler then went on by claiming that Germans needed to seek vengeance “in Holy hatred against those who have ruined us,” and he closed by demanding the immediate expulsion of all Jews from Germany since 1914.[52] He also believed he was fighting the greatest evil of his time:
Never forget that the rulers of present-day Russia are…the scum of humanity which, favored by circumstances, overran a great state in a tragic hour, slaughtered and wiped out thousands of her leading intelligentsia in wild blood lust, and now for almost ten years have been carrying on the most cruel and tyrannical régime of all time…do not forget that these rulers belong to a race which combines…bestial cruelty and an inconceivable gift for lying, and which today more than ever is conscious of a mission to impose its bloody oppression on the whole world. Do not forget that the international Jew who completely dominates Russia today regards Germany, not as an ally, but as a state destined to the same fate…In Russian Bolshevism we must see the attempt undertaken by the Jews in the twentieth century to achieve world domination.[53]
Many of Hitler’s attacks upon Jews were based on his hatred for their biblical and Talmudic beliefs.[54] As far as Hitler was concerned, he was justified in his thoughts and actions because their doctrines advocated usury against Gentiles and slandered Christ:[55]
The Talmud teaches that Jesus was illegitimate and was conceived during menstruation; that he had the soul of Esau; that he was a fool, a conjurer, a seducer; that he was crucified, buried in hell and set up as an idol ever since by his followers.[56]
The Talmud describes Christians and Gentiles as murderers, fornicators, unclean, dung, “not like men, but beasts,” children of the Devil, bound for hell, evil, “worse than animals,” and slaves of Israel. It also teaches that it is okay to lie to Goi and to cheat and deceive them.[57] Hitler retaliated by calling Jews “sick,” “usurers,” “vermin,” “evil,” “Satanic,” “liars,” and “Godless.” Hitler becomes much more comprehensible when one takes the time to study where he got his information and how he interpreted that information. He seems to have taken the teachings in the Jewish doctrines quite seriously, and believed he was doing a holy thing by eliminating Jews from Germany and waging war on what he perceived to be a Jewish controlled Communist threat [Soviet Union].
Evidence suggests that Hitler never renounced his Catholic faith even though he appears to have adopted some of Nietzsche’s ideas. Nietzsche’s sister--National Socialist supporter and friend to Hitler--may have encouraged National Socialists to adopt some of her brother’s ideas. Hitler took the ideas he believed held truth and reconciled them with his religious convictions. Perhaps his convictions were altered to meet Nietzsche’s ideas as well, but the fact of the matter is, Hitler subscribed to both.
Hitler revered God in private conversations with Bormann, Eckart, Wagener and Speer, in public speeches, and in Mein Kampf. I think upon examining this sample of evidence, Hitler’s deism and religiosity cannot be denied. His National Socialism called for the revival of Christ’s true teachings, not the destruction of religion in the Reich:
That is the true face of those sanctimonious churches that have placed themselves between God and man, motivated by selfishness, personal greed for recognition and gain, and the ambition to maintain their high-handed willfulness against Christ’s deep understanding of the necessity of a socialist community of men and nations. We must turn all the sentiments of the Volk, all its thinking, acting, even its beliefs, away from the anti-Christian, smug individualism of the past, from the egotism and stupid Phariseeism of personal arrogance…[58]
Hitler passed legislation separating church and state, but he never broke the Concordat between the Vatican and Germany. He also did not want to educate anyone in atheism.[59]
Many of the concepts from Nietzsche and the Christian religion appear to have come together to influence Hitler’s philosophy. We must not overlook how important the roles of Wagner, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, and many others may have been regarding the transfer of Nietzsche’s ideas to Hitler. He justified his attacks on Jews based almost solely upon their religious doctrines, which he believed to be the sources of their true nature, which was materialistic, atheistic, selfish, and worldly.[60]
When one studies Hitler’s view of the Bolshevik Revolution, and how he supported his view, one can begin to understand why Hitler’s policies were so staunchly anti-Jewish.[61]
Bibliography
1. Adolf Hitler. Video. Documentary. 1987; United Entertainment, Inc., 2005.
2. Bormann, Martin. Hitler’s Table Talk 1941 – 1944: His Private Conversations. Translated by Norman Cameron & R.H. Stevens. Edited by H.R. Trevor-Roper. New York City: Enigma Books, 2000.
3. Brians, Paul. “The Influence of Nietzsche.” Washington State University. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/nietzsche.html.
4. Degrelle, Léon. “The Enigma of Hitler.” Friends of Léon Degrelle Cultural Association. http://www.motstand.org/hitler.html.
5. “Dietrich Eckart, Rosenberg, and White Russian Creators of Nazi Ideology, Part I,” Esocial Science News 2005. http://sociologyesoscience.com/national_treasure/nideology.html.
6. Eckart, Dietrich. Translated by William L. Pierce. “Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin: A Dialogue Between Adolf Hitler and Me.” Historical Review Press. http://www.ety.com/HRP/booksonline/mosestolenin/moses6.htm.
7. Helmreich, Ernst. The German Churches Under Hitler. Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1979.
8. Hitler, Adolf. Hitler’s Letters and Notes. Translated by Arnold Pomerans. Edited by Werner Maser. New York: Bantam Books, 1973.
9. Hitler, Adolf. Hitler’s Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf. Translated by Krista Smith. Edited by Gerhard Weinberg. New York: Enigma Books, 2003.
10. Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Boston: First Mariner Books, 1999.
11. Hitler, Adolf. “Munich Speech of April 13, 1923.” Hitler Historical Museum. http://www.hitler.org/speeches/04-13-23.html.
12. Hitler, Adolf. “Munich Speech of September 18, 1922.” Hitler Historical Museum. http://www.hitler.org/speeches/09-18-22.html.
13. Irving, David. Hitler’s War. London: Focal Point Publications, 2002.
14. Kaufmann, Walter. Nietzsche. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1974.
15. “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor: September 15, 1935.” Middle Tennessee State University. http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/nurmlaw3.html.
16. Macintyre, Ben. Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992.
17. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Genealogy of Morals. Edited by Paul Negri. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003; 1887.
18. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Will to Power. Edited by Walter Kaufmann. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968; 1901.
19. Pranaitis, Rev. I.B. “The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians.” biblebelievers.org. http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/talmud1.htm.
20. Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960.
21. Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs by Albert Speer. New York: Galahad Books, 1970.
22. The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler. Video. Narrated by Bill Treharne Jones. BBC documentary 1989; Focal Point Publications, 2000.
23. Toland, John. Adolf Hitler. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1976.
24. Wagener, Otto. Hitler – Memoirs of a Confidant. Translated by Ruth Hein. Edited by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.
25. Weber, Mark. “The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia’s Early Soviet Regime.” Journal of Historical Review. Institute of Historical Review. http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14/v14n1p-4_Weber.html
End Notes
[1] Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, (Boston: First Mariner Books, 1999), 65.
* Hitler refers to what he believes are the true teachings of Christ, which the Jews and their collaborators, many of which were Christian, had perverted. See Hitler’s Table Talk, pp. 76, 342, 344 & 722. See also Memoirs of a Confidant, pp. 115, 140-141, 186-187.
[2] Dietrich Eckart, “Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin: A Dialogue Between Adolf Hitler and Me,” trans. William L. Pierce, Historical Review Press, http://www.ety.com/HRP/booksonline/mosestolenin/moses6.htm. See also Wagener where Hitler says, “The financial power of the Jews was thus consolidated as never before. The promise of the Old Testament had seemed to have reached fulfillment: ‘All nations shall be subject to you…and so on’” (p. 187).
[3] Ben Macintyre, Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche, (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992), 184.
[4] Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1974), 37.
[5] William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), 102.
[6] Paul Brians, “The Influence of Nietzsche,” Washington State University, http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/nietzsche.html.
[7] Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals, ed. Paul Negri (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003), 14.
[8] Kaufmann, Nietzsche, 75.
[9] “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor: September 15, 1935,” Middle Tennessee State University, http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/nurmlaw3.html.
[10] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 58, 305, 310, 328.
[11] Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals, 10.
[12] Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, ed. Walter Kaufmann (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968), 864.
[13] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 120.
[14] Ibid., 300.
[15] Ibid., 314.
[16] Nietzsche, Genealogy, 10.
[17] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 295.
* In a private conversation with Martin Bormann, Hitler claims that Jesus was not a Jew but half Roman, a belief he probably acquired during his study or contact with the teachings in the Jewish Talmud. See Table Talk, pp. 76, 77. Léon Degrelle, Commander of the Wallonie Division of the SS-Sturmbannführer from 1943-1945, has confirmed for us that Hitler had studied both the Talmud and the Bible and had a deep understanding of Jesus Christ. “Hitler was a very godly man who venerated the Lord.” (“The Enigma of Hitler,” http://www.motstand.org/hitler.html).
[18] Ibid., 290.
[19] Ibid., 612. Nietzsche, Genealogy, 10.
[20] Adolf Hitler, video documentary, (1987; United Entertainment, Inc., 2005).
* Degrelle said, “Nietzsche taught him much about the willpower.”
[21] Shirer, The Rise and Fall, 102-103.
[22] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 303.
[23] Nietzsche, Genealogy, 9.
[24] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 315 – 316.
[25] Martin Bormann, Hitler’s Table Talk 1941 – 1944: His Private Conversations, trans. By Norman Cameron & R.H. Stevens, edit. by H.R. Trevor-Roper, (New York City: Enigma Books, 2000), 76.
[26] Otto Wagener, Hitler – Memoirs of a Confidant, trans. by Ruth Hein, edit. by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr., (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978), 140.
[27] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 267.
[28] Adolf Hitler, “Munich Speech of April 13, 1923,” Hitler Historical Museum, http://www.hitler.org/speeches/04-13-23.html. See also Table Talk, p. 77.
[29] Dietrich Eckart, “Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin: A Dialogue Between Adolf Hitler and Me.”
[30] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 306-307, 325.
[31] Hitler argued in Mein Kampf that the Germans needed to get back in touch with their primitive, natural roots of ‘barbarism,’ but at the same time he would not condone primitive religious worship. Table Talk includes a private quote from Hitler, which supports this notion. He said, “It seems to me that nothing would be more foolish than to re-establish the worship of Wotan. Our old mythology had ceased to be viable when Christianity implanted itself” (p. 61).
[32] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 287.
[33] Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs by Albert Speer (New York: Galahad Books, 1970), 95.
[34] David Irving, Hitler’s War, (London: Focal Point Publications, 2002), 183.
[35] The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler, video, narr. by Bill Treharne Jones, BBC, 1989; Focal Point Publications, 2000.
[36] See Wagener, Memoirs of a Confidant.
[37] Bormann, Hitler’s Table Talk, 76.
[38] Rev. I.B. Pranaitis, “The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians,” biblebelievers.org, http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/talmud1.htm.
[39] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 325.
[40] Pranaitis, “Talmud Unmasked.”
[41] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 306.
[42] Pranaitis, “Talmud Unmasked.”
[43] “Translator’s note: The meaning of this is that Mary was called Stada [prostitute] because, according to what was taught at Pumbadita, she left her husband and committed adultery. This is recorded in the Talmud and by Maimonides. Pantera, a Roman soldier, was alleged to be Jesus’s real father.”
[44] Bormann, Hitler’s Table Talk, 76.
[45] Pranaitis, “Talmud Unmasked.”
[46] Ernst Helmreich, The German Churches Under Hitler, (Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1979), 279.
[47] Paul Brians, “The Influence of Nietzsche,” Washington State University, http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/nietzsche.html.
[48] John Toland, Adolf Hitler, (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1976), 703.
[49] In Mein Kampf, Hitler argued that the Jews were destroying Christianity and Catholicism. He argued that they were “anti-religious” and “atheistic” and he pointed to Soviet Russia as the living example of this “evil”, “atheist” Jewish ideology (351, 379, 382, 384, and 660-663).
[50] Adolf Hitler, “Munich Speech of September 18, 1922,” Hitler Historical Museum, http://www.hitler.org/speeches/09-18-22.html.
[51] Pranaitis, “The Talmud Unmasked.”
[52] Hitler, “Munich Speech of September 18, 1922.”
[53] Hitler, Mein Kampf, 660-661. Note: Here he is referring to the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion referenced on pp. 307 and 308. See also Wagener, pp. 70-71.
[54] Irving, Hitler’s War, 182-184.
[55] Wagener, Memoirs of a Confidant, 139-140.
[56] Pranaitis, “The Talmud Unmasked.”
[57] Ibid.
[58] Wagener, Memoirs of a Confidant, 139-140.
[59] Bormann, Hitler’s Table Talk, 6.
[60] Adolf Hitler, Hitler’s Letters and Notes, trans. by Arnold Pomerans, edit. by Werner Maser, (New York: Bantam Books, 1973), 278-283.
[61] Hitler discussed Jewish-Soviet atrocities numerous times. Verified by “Dietrich Eckart, Rosenberg, and White Russian Creators of Nazi Ideology, Part I,” Mein Kampf, Memoirs, Table Talk, and Hitler’s Second Book: The Sequel to Mein Kampf. “Grigori Zinoviev [Jewish head of the Soviet Comintern], speaking at a meeting of Communists in September 1918, effectively pronounced a death sentence on 10 million human beings: ‘We must carry along with us 90 million out of the 100 million of Soviet Russia’s inhabitants. As for the rest, we have nothing to say to them. They must be annihilated.’ In the Communist seizure of power in Russia, the Jewish role was probably critical” (Mark Weber, “The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia’s Early Soviet Regime,” http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14/v14n1p-4_Weber.html).
Special End Notes
1. It is debatable whether or not Hitler adopted these ideas from Nietzsche and/or Schopenhaur (whom he refers to more often…see Mein Kampf, p. 305 and Table Talk, pp. 89, 358), or from the Bible. Fellow National Socialist Julius Streicher had declared while on trial, “…I have repeatedly emphasized the fact that the Jews should serve as an example to every race, for they created the racial law for themselves—the law of Moses, which says, ‘If you come into a foreign land you shall not take unto yourself any foreign women.’ And that, Gentlemen, is of tremendous importance in judging the Nuremberg Laws. These laws of the Jews were taken as a model for these laws” (Julius Streicher, Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol. 12).
2. Hitler’s ‘Aryanization’ of Christ was, with little doubt, derived from the Jewish Talmud. Bryan Rigg, in Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, proposes a hypothesis regarding Hitler’s ‘Ayanization’ of Christ, which I find non-testable and problematic at best. “Hitler ‘Aryanized’ Christianity to make it conform to his world-view. To do so, Hitler had to declare that “Jesus was not Jew” [emphasis added]. Bryan Rigg, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, (Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2002), 185.
3. See Memoirs of a Confidant which portrays Hitler’s philosophy on the origins of religion and the “urge,” with particular attention given to Christianity, pp. 314-315.
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