WHAT IS WAR?
In our conventional way of thinking, war is driven by motives like the wish
for conquest or territorial expansion, the defense of boundaries, and the
pursuit of national interests. Standard historical accounts of the Second
World War state that Hitler sought "living space," that he dreamt of
building a "vast German Empire sprawling across Central and Eastern Europe,"
that his aim was to "wage a war of conquest against the Soviet Union" and to
make Germany the "most powerful state in all of Europe." But careful study
of Hitler's speeches and writings show a startling pattern that belies these
interpretations: War was prompted by Hitler's deeper wish for the
annihilation of himself, his nation and the German people.
Hitler stated: "We do not want to have any other God, only Germany." He
glorified warfare as an activity that required his soldiers and people to
sacrifice their lives in the name of the object that they worshipped in
common--their own nation. Writing about the First World War (in which two
million German soldiers were killed), Hitler said: "When in the long war
years Death snatched so many dear comrades and friends from our ranks, it
would have seemed to me almost a sin to complain-after all, were they not
dying for Germany?"
Hitler asserted that "Any man who loves his people proves it solely by the
sacrifices which he is prepared to make for it." He stated that National
Socialism meant acting with a "boundless and all embracing love for the
people, and if necessary to die for it." He proclaimed that giving one's
life for the community constituted the "crown of all sacrifice."
Tens of thousands of books have been written about Nazism, the Holocaust and
World War II. However few scholars take the trouble to listen carefully to
Hitler's words, which reveal what he thought he was doing. Here is what
Hitler said on September 1, 1939, speaking before the Reichstag as German
planes and troops crossed the Polish borders in a devastating Blitzkrieg:
As a National Socialist and a German soldier, I enter upon this fight with a
stout heart! My whole life has been but one continuous struggle for my
people, and that whole struggle has been inspired by one single conviction:
Faith in my people! I ask of every German what I myself am prepared to do at
any moment: to be ready to lay down his life for his people and for his
country. If anyone thinks that he can evade this national duty directly or
indirectly, he will perish.
In this passage, Hitler articulates his thinking about the war that is about
to begin and provides a preview of what is going to occur. He asks every
German to do what he was prepared to do (and eventually did). Hitler goes on
to say that if anyone thinks he can "evade this national duty"--the
obligation to lay down one's life for his people and country--he will
"perish." In short, Hitler stated: Either die for Germany, or Germany will
kill you.
_____
To read Richard Koenigsberg's papers listed below,
PLEASE
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=8ohup7n6.0.d75zm7n6.85y8w8n6.1&p=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.
earthlink.net%2F%7Elibraryofsocialscience%2F> CLICK HERE
* AS THE SOLDIER DIES, SO DOES THE NATION COME ALIVE: The Sacrificial
Meaning of Warfare
* DYING FOR ONE'S COUNTRY: The Logic of War and Genocide
* THE LOGIC OF THE HOLOCAUST: Why the Nazi's Killed the Jews
* THE SACRIFICIAL MEANING OF THE HOLOCAUST
* AZTEC WARFARE, WESTERN WARFARE: The Soldier as Sacrificial Victim
_____
As the Second World War progressed with the invasion of Russia, Joseph
Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, noted with satisfaction that "the
German soldiers go into battle with devotion, like congregations going into
service." General von Runstedt admonished the soldiers of World War II to
emulate the example of their brothers in the First World War: "The heroic
death of a German soldier is not something to be forgotten. Instead, it
should inspire everyone who remembers it to die in the same way, to be as
strong, unswerving and obedient, to go happily and as a matter of course to
his death."
Hitler declared war on September 1, 1939 by asking every German to lay down
his life for his people. World War II was the vehicle through which Hitler
acted out this sacrificial fantasy. While the history books observe and
portray the scene as quintessentially aggressive, beneath the will to power
was the will toward abject submission. Hitler felt compelled to-and clearly
did--ask his own people to submit absolutely to the nation-state; to die for
Germany.
War represents an activity in which the self is cast off in the name of the
collective. When Hitler proclaimed to the German people, "You are nothing,
your nation is everything," he meant it. Nazism sought to obliterate
individuality. As the nation was exalted to become "everything," so were
human beings degraded to become "nothing."
To bring Hitler's ideology to fruition, everyone would have to become a
sacrificial victim. No one was exempt. Toward the end when the war was lost,
Germany could have surrendered; many German lives could have been saved. But
Hitler could not bear the idea that some might escape the sacrificial
obligation. He refused to abandon his dream. His fantasy required total
participation. The sacrificial offering had to be complete.
Stephen Fritz, after studying the action on the Eastern front, noted that
German soldiers suspected of desertion were often executed and left dangling
from trees or poles with placards around their necks. Sixteen-year-old
Hans-Rudolf Vilter never forgot the deserters hanging on lampposts and trees
in Berlin in 1945, marked with the sign proclaiming, "I hang here because I
am too cowardly to defend my fatherland."
Hitler refused to allow his people to acknowledge that the war was lost. He
continued to require that they "lay down their lives," thereby fulfilling
his prophecy that one would either die in the process of fighting for
Germany, or perish. One soldier recalled with bitterness the fall of 1944,
when armed German officers gave his unit no choice but to attack enemy
lines. The other option was clear: be shot by your own leaders.
Units established special formations whose instructions were to "make
immediate use of their weapons in order to enforce obedience and
discipline." As Helmut Altner wrote caustically, the soldiers' situation was
devilishly simple: "There were only two possibilities: Death by a bullet
from the enemy or by the 'thugs' of the SS." Thus did Hitler fulfill his
dream of war and enforce the sacrificial fantasy: Either die for Germany, or
be killed.
_____
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