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National socialism,[Note 1] abbreviated Nazism and also known as Hitlerism, is an antisemitic, German nationalist, and fascist ideology developed by Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party from 1919 to 1945, and other Nazi ideologues. It was the state ideology of Nazi Germany as well as various other countries under Nazi occupation. National socialism has its roots in Christianity, traditionalist conservatism, social Darwinism, occultism, the Völkisch movement, right-wing populism, agrarianism, historical European antisemitism, and anti-communism.
Nazism advocates for the unification of the German-speaking peoples under one state (albeit to the exclusion of those deemed to be of "non-German" or "non-Aryan blood"), the colonisation of foreign lands and the deportation or extermination of their peoples to make room for German settlement, and the annihilation of communism wherever and whenever it presents itself.[1]
Nomenclature[edit | edit source]
Use of 'socialism'[edit | edit source]
National socialism is not a socialist ideology, despite using the term "socialism". Hitler used this term as a popular and effective slogan to push Nazism to the German people. Hitler was against socialism (as a mode of production) and Marxism.[2]
Pro-Aryan racism[edit | edit source]
Hitler incorrectly claimed that people of an Aryan race are the sole pioneers of human society and kept humanity alive. This claim contradicts the Marxist theory of societal progression.
All that we admire in the world to-day, its science, its art, its technical developments and discoveries, are the products of the creative activities of a few peoples, and it may be true that their first beginnings must be attributed to one race. The maintenance of civilization is wholly dependent on such peoples. Should they perish, all that makes this earth beautiful will descend with them into the grave.
— Adolf Hitler, My Struggle (German: Mein Kampf) (p. 225).
Every manifestation of human culture, every product of art, science and technical skill, which we see before our eyes to-day, is almost exclusively the product of the Aryan creative power. This very fact fully justifies the conclusion that it was the Aryan alone who founded a superior type of humanity; therefore he represents the architype of what we understand by the term: MAN.… Should he be forced to disappear, a profound darkness will descend on the earth; within a few thousand years human culture will vanish and the world will become a desert.
— Adolf Hitler, My Struggle (German: Mein Kampf) (p. 226).
He believed that non-Germanic ethnic groups could never be fully assimilated even if they spoke German and that Germanizing the Slavs would reverse the process of Germanization and destroy "exactly those qualities that once enabled conquering people to rise victorious." He believed Africans, Asians, Jews, and Poles could never be true German citizens. He supported the U.S. policy of rejecting most immigrants besides those from northern Europe.[3]
Antisemitism[edit | edit source]
See main article: Antisemitism
Hitler describes Semites not as a religious community, but instead as a race. He formed an unfounded conspiracy theory that Jews use their language to cloak their "inner thoughts" and used Esperanto as an example.
On this first and fundamental lie, the purpose of which is to make people believe that Jewry is not a nation but a religion, other lies are subsequently based. One of those further lies, for example, is in connection with the language spoken by the Jew. For him language is not an instrument for the expression of his inner thoughts but rather a means of cloaking them. When talking French his thoughts are Jewish and when writing German rhymes he only gives expression to the character of his own race.
As long as the Jew has not succeeded in mastering other peoples he is forced to speak their language whether he likes it or not. But the moment that the world would become the slave of the Jew it would have to learn some other language (Esperanto, for example) so that by this means the Jew could dominate all the more easily.
— Adolf Hitler, My Struggle: 'CHAPTER XI: RACE AND PEOPLE' (German: Mein Kampf) (p. 240).
Anti-communism[edit | edit source]
Hitler believed that Jews were responsible for the creation of Marxism and frequently used the term Judeo-Bolshevism. In 1926, he claimed that Lenin killed and starved 30 million people. During the Second World War, Hitler said the same about Stalin and said he, "exercised the most cruel tyranny of all times".[4]
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "Since the destruction of the Communist Party we experience one attempt after another, though growing ever weaker as time passes, to found and to sustain the work of Communistic organizations of a more or less anarchistic character. [...] The National Socialist State in its domestic life will exterminate and annihilate even these last remnants of this poisoning and stultification of the people, if necessary at the cost of another Hundred Years War." —Hitler, Adolf (1934); Baynes, Norman H. (1939).: The Speeches of Adolf Hitler (April 1922 — August 1939). Volume I. Oxford University Press. The Roehm Purge. Speech delivered by Hitler in the Reichstag on 13 July 1934. p. 299.
- ↑ “It was during this period that my eyes were opened to two perils, the names of which I scarcely knew hitherto and had no notion whatsoever of their terrible significance for the existence of the German people. These two perils were Marxism and Judaism.”
Adolf Hitler. My Struggle: 'CHAPTER I: IN THE HOME OF MY PARENTS' (German: Mein Kampf). - ↑ Domenico Losurdo (2023-08-13). "The International Origins of Nazism" Red Sails. Archived from the original on 20223-08-15.
- ↑ Ludo Martens (1996). Another View of Stalin: 'Stalin and the anti-fascist war' (pp. 228–229). [PDF] Editions EPO. ISBN 9782872620814
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ German: Nationalsozialismus