Figure 1.--
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Figure 1.-- |
Non-German historians since World war II have given little attention to German beyond a continuing focus on the dramatic events of the NAZI era. HBC has also given considerable attention to the NAZI era. This is in part because we consider it to have been the
world's most brutal totalitarian system. Some of our readers have taken issue with this. Many but not by any means all of those objectioins have come from German readers. A reader writes, "Assessing both historical and contemporary times, I see other totalitarian systems of similar brutality, hence I object to describing the NAZIs as the “the most brutal totalitarian system”. I think Stalin's rule for an example was more brutal. Allow me a counter-question: Are historians giving continuing focus – my emphasis is on “continuing” -, say, about the religious wars (in fact still continuing, e.g., in Ireland), the inquisition, the Napoleonic wars, the suppression of the Armenian people, of colonial wars in Africa, slavery and segregation in America, the suppression of native tribes (Indians) in South-America (Spanish and Portuguese) and North-America (USA), the circumcision of girls and the [? outlawry of mohammedan women]. Well, all is a matter of dimension. Some of these brutal situations are history, some are still ongoing." This is a fair question. We do believe that there was aspects of NAZI rule that was particularly heinous.
Non-German historians since World war II have given little attention to German beyond a continuing focus on the NAZI era. We are not entirely sure why historians have given and continue to focus on the NAZIs. Certainly the dramatic events of the NAZI era invite the attention of historians. This is true of other dramatic eras such as the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars in Europe or the Civil War in America. We suspect that the fact the NAZIs lost World War II is another factor. NAZI defeat mean that the death camps and concentratiion camps were over run as wll as a vast historical archive. By the same token, the Soviets were for years able to prevent detailed historical scrutiny of the crimes of the Stalinist era. There may well be other factors as well.
HBC has also given considerable attention to the NAZI era. This is in part because we consider it to have been the
world's most brutal totalitarian system. Some of our readers have taken issue with this. Many but not by any means all of those objectioins have come from German readers. A reader writes, "Assessing both historical and contemporary times, I see other totalitarian systems of similar brutality, hence I object to describing the NAZIs as the “the most brutal totalitarian system”. I think Stalin's rule for an example was more brutal. Allow me a counter-question: Are historians giving continuing focus – my emphasis is on “continuing” -, say, about the religious wars (in fact still continuing, e.g., in Ireland), the inquisition, the Napoleonic wars, the suppression of the Armenian people, of colonial wars in Africa, slavery and segregation in America, the suppression of native tribes (Indians) in South-America (Spanish and Portuguese) and North-America (USA), the circumcision of girls and the supression of women in Islamic society. Well, all is a matter of dimension. Some of these brutal situations are history, some are still ongoing." This is a fair question.
HBC has given considerable attention to the NAZI era. We have, however addressed other brutal regimes and historical eras. The history of the 20th century is in many ways obsessed with Hitler and the NAZIs and the Holocaust. But of course the NAZIs were not the only mass murders in history nor the most deadly in terms of body count. It is instructive to look at other historical instances of mass murder. While the 20th century has been the most deadly, other mass killings have occurred in many other centuries as well. In all of these historical events, there are no precise records of slaughter and estimates vary widely as to the number of people, almost always primarily innocent civilians, actually killed. In each of these
instances there were also profound social consequences. In many instances, especially with the eralier events, the full extent
of those consequences is not yet fully researched.
It may be best to say "one of" the bost brutal totalitarian regimes rather than the single most brutal. But HBC believes there are particularly heinous aspects of the NAZI era. The comparison here with historical regimes seems the easist issue to confront. Here totalitarianism is a 20th century phenomenon. The capabilities of the modern state and modern science gave the NAZIs capabilities that were not available to earlier eras. The contemprary aspect of NAZI totalitarianism adds to the horror. We do not expecpt the same ethical standards from Atilla the Ceasar, Atilla the Hun, and the Mongols as we do the modermn German people. The Western view of civilization is the constantly evolving of civilization. The NAZI attrocities occurred within the lifetime of many HBC readers and seem to be a descent into barbarity, a complete repudiatioin of Western civilization. The real comparison it strikes me is between the NAZIs and the Stalinist attrocities, although Japanese attrocities and Maoist killings also need to be addressed. The number of people killed by both Hitler and Stalin is mind numbing. It is quite true that it is difficult to find one worse than the other. It terms of the number of people actually killed, most historians believe that stalin was responsible for more deaths than Hitler. The famine induced in the Ukraine by Stalin was especially apauling. Why then do we say that the NAZIs were the most brutal. The principl reason that we think that the NAZIs were the most heinous regime is that the NAZI world view was primarially racial (biolgical). It is for that reason that the NAZIs targetted children. Several images we have found in building HBC in particular stick in our mind. We recall the Jewish boys being humiliated in front of their class. We recall the children in the Lodz Getto being collected while their parents were working, to be trucked away for liquidation. The argument that Stalin killed more people can be made only because the Allies defeated the NAZIs and stopped the killing. While the NAZIs succeeded in killing 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the goal was to kill all Jews. But the Jews were to be just the beginning. The NAZIs plans for the occupied East was to substantially reduce the Slavic populations. The numbers discussed by the NAZIs are huge, much greater than the Jewish Holocaust. And the killing almost certainly would not have stopped there. NAZI propaganda included vicious attacks on Orientals (except for the Jaspanese) and Blacks. It is this biological dimension that makes the NAZI region terrifyingly henious. The Stalinist terror in Eastern Europe after World War II was horendous, but no where did it reach the dimensions of what the NAZIs did and more horifically planned to do in the occupied East.
There have been so many unbelieveably brutal regimes in the 20th century that it is difficult to deferentiate between them as to degrees of evil. A we mentioin we see the NAZIs as the most evil, but in assessing the other totalitarian regimes it is indded difficult to destinguish between them.
We are unsure how to assess the Japanese miltarists. We know less about Japan than Germany. Japanese actions in China resulted in the deaths of millions. I am not sure just how many were killed. It certainly is comparable to the numbers killed by the NAZIs. The killing included large numbers of civilians. There were no gass chambers, but the Japanese military killed civilians with a wide range of actions, including the use of biological weapons. As far as we know the Japanese killing was done exclusively by the military which controlled the government. The Japanese also carried out attrocities in other occupied countries which were equally brutal, but did not reach the same level in numbers killed. As with the Germans planned, the Japanese attempted colonize occupied areas, especially Manchuria. It is not clear had the Japanese won, just to what extent the Japanese would have persued these efforts and what actions they would have taken with the resident population. There was a strobng element of racism involved with Japanese nationalism. Based on their actions during the War, the Japanese policies could have been horendous. One difference, however, is that the Japanese never persued eugenics as a sciene as did the NAZIs. As far as we know there were no "mersy killings" of handicapped children or genetic courts which steriloized large numbers of handicapped youth.
Stalin was responsible for more killings than Hitler. As explained above, however, this was primarily because the NAZIs were defeated in only 12 years. Stalin's terror as we have mentioned did not have a racial component. In fact Stalin was a Georisan and not even a Russian. As terrible as the Stalinist regime was, the ideology was to create a better world. There was no desire to wage genocides on a racial basis or to turn other nations into slave populations to service a racial master race.
We do not have enough information at this time to assess Mao and Communistr China in the 1940s-60s. We do know that very large numbers of people were killed ort died as a result of Mao's policies.
As terrible as we see the NAZI regime, one interesting aspect of the NAZI era was that there were men and women of conscious that opposed the NAZIs. The same seems less true of the other totalitarian regimes. There were Germans who opposed the NAZI take over. They were either arrested or forced into silence. There were churchmen her opposed the NAZIs, especially the Catholic Church. There was also the White Rose resistance group. Officers of the Wehrmacht ordered the arrest of SS men who committed attrocities in Poland (September 1939). This did not occur again when Hitler pardoneded the SS-men charged. There were also indivuals who passed on information to both the Soviets and Allies during the War. Most notably Admiral Canaris, head of the Abwer, was so repulsed by NAZI attrocities in Poland secretly took a number of actions against Hitler. Then there was also the plot which attempted to kill Hitler (July 1944).
A German reader writes, "Please do not generalise “the Germans”, “the Russians”, “the Japanese”, ect. Ideologic fanatism is always stirred up by dictatorial leaders who achieve power over a population; and in economically bad times (Russia 1918). The Russians have still such times and a coming dictator--Putin. In the radio news I just heard that Putin has plans to build-up the Russian nuclear weapns system again. Other examples ar Germany in 1933 and East Germany in 1950. Such dictators can use the cohersive power of the state to supress opposition and force poeople to follow their policies, no matter how misguided. Always there are other persons, educated or in responsible positions, who see the danger behind such ideologies; and these persons do not want to be thrown together in a generalisation with the ideologic, powerful “Leaders” (“Führer”)." HBC agrees that this is a fair comment. Even in NAZI Germany and Soviet Russia not every one thought alike and supported the regime's policies. HBC has undoubtedly not been as careful as we should have been in using these national terms. Of course it is not always possible when referring to a national group to fully explain the range of differences. For example we see major differences developing between America and Europeans today. That does not mean that there are not large numbers of Americans do not hold opinions similar to Europeans and Europeans (here it seems that there are fewer) more sympathetic to America. While these generalizations as our reader points out can be dangerous, it seems to HBC undeniable that there is a substantial and growing gap beyween Europeans and Americans.
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