Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Hitler's Blame

For Hitler, after many attempts of achieving his dream of being an artist, and failing at that, and doing absolutely nothing to solidify his dream of becoming an architect, the upcoming war would prove to be a turning point in his life. But before that, it seemed that he had no ambition or qualifications to do anything productive with his life. Basically, he was "nobody of Vienna" (87) and he didn’t do anything to change that...until the war came. He found a purpose, a new family with his regiment, and was probably content to be a soldier for the rest of his life.

He was respected among his comrades and was, by their standards, a pretty good soldier. He even received a "rare achievement for a corporal" (96), and it was due to a nomination by a Jewish officer. But he would "go off the deep end" (93) when others provoked him about losing the war. He was such a passionate proponent of German interests and when he found out that they had lost the war for real, he was more than upset. With the humiliation of this defeat, he determined that "wherever misfortune or harm befalls the German nation, a Jew is the culprit behind it" (103).
The question is, what made Hitler think that it was their fault? Was it simply because he thought they were a different kind of people? Or were they caught as a scapegoat for his already existing anti Semitism feelings?

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