history essay 2

CHAPTER VI

WAR PROPAGANDA

AT THE time of my attentive following of all political

events, the activities of propaganda had always been of extremely great interest to me. In it I saw

an instrument which just the Socialist-Marxist organiza- tions mastered and knew how to apply with expert skill. I learned very soon that the right use of propaganda repre- sents an art which was and remained almost entirely un- known to the bourgeois parties. Only the Christian-Social- ist movement, especially during Lueger's time, acquired a certain virtuosity with this instrument and it owed much of its success to it.

But it was shown only during the War to what enor- mously important results a suitably applied propaganda may lead. Unfortunately, everything has to be studied on the other side; for the activity on our side was more than modest in this respect. However, the very failure of the en- tire enlightenment on the side of the Germans a fact which was bound to stare in the face of every soldier now caused me to occupy myself still more thoroughly with this question.

There was often more than enough time for thinking, but it was unfortunately the enemy who gave us only too good an object lesson.

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For what we failed to do in this direction was made up by the enemy with really unheard-of skill and ingenious deliberation. I learned infinitely much more from the

enemy's war propaganda. But time marched on without

leaving an impression on the brains of those who most of all should have taken this as a lesson; partly because they deemed themselves too clever to take lessons from others, and partly because the honest will to do so was lacking. Was there any propaganda at all on our side? To my regret, I can only answer no. Everything that

was actually undertaken in this direction was so incomplete and wrong from the very first moment that it not only did not help, tnit sometimes did considerable harm.

Insufficient in form its nature was psychologically wrong :

this was necessarily the result of a careful examination of

the German war propaganda. It seemed that one was not quite clear about the first

question, namely: Is war propaganda a means or an end?

It is a means, and therefore it has to be judged from the

point of view of the end. But its form has to be properly

adapted to the aim which it serves. But it is also clear that

the importance of its aim can be a different one according to the point of view of the general demand and that there- fore propaganda is also defined differently according to its

inner value. But the aim for which the War was fought was the most sublime and the most overpowering which man is able to imagine: it was the freedom and independence of our nation, the assurance of subsistence for the future, and the honor of the nation; something that, despite all opinions to the contrary, is still present today or rather ought to be present, as nations without honor usually lose their freedom and independence, which, in turn, cor- responds only to a higher justice, as generations of scoun- drels without honor do not deserve freedom. But he who wants to be a cowardly slave must not and cannot have

230 MEIN KAMPF

ful that can exist in human life is and remains the yoke of

slavery. Or does this Schwdbing decadence perhaps per- ceive tne present-day fate of the German nation as 'aes- thetic

1

? There is certainly no need to discuss this with the

Jews, the modern inventors of this culture perfume. Their

entire existence is a protest incarnate against the aesthetics

of the Lord's image.

But once these^, points of view of humanity and beauty are beside the point where the struggle is concerned, they cannot be applied as a means to measure propaganda.

During the War propaganda was a means to an end, but this in turn was the German people's fight for existence; thus propaganda could therefore be looked upon only from

the principles proper to it. Then the most cruel weapons were humane if they conditioned the quicker victory, and beautiful were only those methods which helped the nation

to secure the dignity of its freedom.

This was the only possible attitude towards the question of war propaganda in such a fight for life or death. Had the so-called responsible authorities made this clear

to themselves, the uncertainty about the form and the ap-

plication of this weapon would never have originated; for this is also only a weapon, though a frightful one, in the

hand of the expert.

fThe second question of actually decisive importance was the following: To whom has propaganda to appeal? To the scientific intelligentsia or to the less educated masses?

It has to appeal forever and only to the masses! : Propaganda is not for the intelligentsia or for those who unfortunately call themselves by that name today, but scientific teaching. But propaganda is in its contents as far from being science as perhaps a poster is art in its pre- sentation as such. A poster's art lies in the designer's ability to catch the masses' attention by outline and color. The poster for an art exhibition has to point only to the art

WAR PROPAGANDA 231 of the exhibition; the more it succeeds in this, the greater therefore is the art of the poster itself. Further, the poster is to give to the masses an idea of the importance of the ex-

hibition, but it is in no way to be a substitute for the art

represented by the exhibition. Therefore, he who wants to

occupy himself with art itself has really to study more than the poster; yes, for him it is by far not sufficient merely to 'walk through' the exhibition. It may be expected of him that he bury himself in the individual works by thoroughly looking them over so that then he may gradually form a just opinion for himself.

The situation is a similar one with what today we call

propaganda. The task of propaganda lies not in a scientific training of

the individual, but rather in directing the masses towards

certain facts, events, necessities, etc., the purpose being to

move their importance into the masses' field of vision. The art now is exclusively to attack this so skillfully that

a general conviction of the reality of a fact, of the necessity

Hitler says he awakened during the War to the importance of propaganda, discovered that German methods were too

high-brow and too little adapted to drum up popular emotion, and learned that the first rule of the propagandist must be to find out what will affect the masses. In view of the fact that

propaganda became a fundamental concern of the Nazi r6gime, some attention to Hitler's contributions to this science is called for. There is a convenient analysis in Propaganda Analysis, Vol. I (New York, 1938). This essay, prepared by experts, reveals very clearly how the various weapons of the militant

propagandist e.g., calling names have been employed. It

relegates to a position of minor importance, an aspect of the

matter on which Hitler lays great stress that the propa-

gandist who is trying to wage war must eliminate the 'esthetic' and concentrate on stirring up hatred. Therefore this may be

emphasized here. Many are convinced (and base this convic-

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of an event, that something; that is necessary is also right,

etc., is created. But as it is not and cannot be science in it-

self, as its task consists of catching the masses 9

attention,

just like that of the poster, and not in teaching one who is

already scientifically experienced or is striving towards

education and knowledge, its effect has always to be directed

more and more towards the feeling, and only to a certain extent to so-called reason.**

All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its

spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of

those towards whom it intends to direct itself. Therefore its spiritual level has to be screwed the lower, the greater the

mass of people which one wants to attract. But if the prob- lem involved, like the propaganda for carrying on a war, is

to include an entire people in its field of action, the caution

tion on long personal experience) that the most effective in-

strument in the Nazi propagandist's hands has been the

spectacle of cruelty. When masses of men have been repressed for a long time by adverse social, political and economic con-

ditions, they seem to accept the open expression above all

the open demonstration of hatred with deep satisfaction.

Almost every war is followed by strange manias of persecution which affect the civilian population more than they do the

returning soldier, unless that soldier deems himself a victim of ingratitude. Thus after 1918 the United States witnessed the

spread of the Ku Klux Klan, a crusade against the 'Reds/ and several anti-negro riots in major cities. In France hostility to American and other foreign troops was so marked that

cantonments had to be evacuated more speedily than had been

planned. In Germany, at all events, one principal reason why the

Rightist revolt against the Republic succeeded was the progres- sive emphasis upon hatred in action. The bloody repression which marked the end of the short-lived 'Soviet' state in Bavaria did not arouse sentiments of pity in all the citizens of

WAR PROPAGANDA 233 in avoiding too high spiritual assumptions cannot be too

great.

The more modest, then, its scientific ballast is, and the more it exclusively considers the feelings of the masses, the more striking will be its success. This, however, is the best

proof whether a particular piece of propaganda is right or

wrong, and not the successful satisfaction of a few scholars or

'

aesthetic '

languishing monkeys. This is just the art of propaganda that it, understanding

the great masses' world of ideas and feelings, finds, by a correct psychological form, the way to the attention, and further to the heart, of the great masses. That our super- clever heads never understand this proves only their men- tal inertia or their conceit.

But if one understands the necessity of the attitude of

Munich. The Hitler putsch of 1923 made the Party more

popular in the city than it had been before. When the Nazis drove dissenters or imaginary dissenters from their meet-

ings with cudgels, their audiences grew larger. Few people in

Germany were at bottom anti-Semitic, but the joy large num- bers felt in promises of blood-curdling treatment to be meted out to the helpless minority made them responsive to the sug- gestion. Smashing windows and street fighting were relied

upon to win the crowd. The propagandists encouraged them all.

' We shall reach our goal,' declared Goebbels, *

when we have the courage to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us as tradition, as education, as friendship and as

human affection.' In the Vienna of March, 1938, ordinary citizens who had hitherto gone about peacefully, confessed to a

strange delight in the sufferings visited upon the Jewish group. After a while that craving subsides in the great majority, to be

followed by widespread loathing of what is termed 'barbarism. 9

The pogrom of 1938, for example, elicited widespread open criticism. With such lapses of fervor the agents of propaganda must deal.

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the attracting skill of propaganda towards the great masses, the following rule then results:

It is wrong to wish to give propaganda the versatility of perhaps scientific teaching. The great masses

9

receptive ability is only very limited,

their understanding is small, but their forgetfulness is

great. As a consequence of these facts, all effective propa- ganda has to limit itself only to a very few points and to use

them like slogans until even the very last man is able to imagine what is intended by such a word. As soon as one sacrifices this basic principle and tries to become versatile, the effect will fritter away, as the masses are neither able

to digest the material offered nor to retain it. Thus the re- sult is weakened and finally eliminated.

The greater the line of its representation has to be, the more correctly from the psychological point of view will

its tactics have to be outlined.

For example, it was completely wrong to ridicule the ad-

versary as was done in Austrian and German propaganda in comic papers. It was basically wrong for the reason that when a man met the adversary in reality he was bound to re- ceive an entirely different impression; something that took

its most terrible revenge; for now the German soldier, under the direct impression of the resistance of the enemy, felt

himself deceived by those who so far were responsible for his enlightenment, and instead of strengthening his fight-

ing spirit or even his firmness, quite the contrary occurred.

The man despaired. Compared with this, the war propaganda of the British

and the Americans was psychologically right. By introduc-

ing the German as a barbarian and a Hun to its own people, it thus prepared the individual soldier for the terrors of war and helped guard him against disappointment. The most terrible weapon which was now being used against him then

appeared to him only as the proof of the enlightenment al-

WAR PROPAGANDA 835

ready bestowed upon him, thus strengthening his belief that his government's assertions were right, and on the other

hand it increased his fury and hatred against the atrocious

enemy. For the cruel effect of the weapon of his enemy which he learned to know by his own experience appeared to him gradually as the proof of the already proclaimed 'Hunnish' brutality of the barbaric enemy, without, how-

ever, making him think for even a moment that his own

weapons could have, perhaps, or even probably, a still more terrible effect.

Thus the English soldier could not even for a moment have the impression that his country had taught him the

wrong facts, something which was unfortunately the case to such an extent with the German soldier that he finally rejected everything that came from this side as 'swindle* and 'bunk' (Krampf). All these things were consequences of the fact that they believed they had a right to assign to

propaganda just any idiot (or even 'otherwise* clever peo- ple) instead of understanding that sometimes even the

most outstanding judges of the human soul are barely good enough for this purpose. Thus the German war propaganda offered an incom-

Allied propaganda as such had no lasting effect upon soldiers

at the Front; and we may be sure that Hitler was thinking rather of what could be done to keep enthusiasm alive among civilians. By 1917 French soldiers doubted every word that their papers printed; and yet those papers were no longer en-

couraging waves of hatred but were stressing lofty ideals such

as religious resignation and the beauty of a difficult task

patiently done. '

I do not believe that the veteran soldier can

thrive on hatred,' said an able writer at the time. And the

greatest triumph British propaganda ever achieved was the

promulgation of what later on became Mr. Wilson's '

Fourteen

Points.'

CHAPTER XI

NATION AND RACE

are statements of truth which are so obvious that just for this reason the common world does not see, or at least does not recognize, them. At times

the world passes these well-known truisms blindly and it is most astonished if now suddenly somebody discovers what everybody ought to know. The

'

Columbus eggs '

are lying about by the hundreds of thousands, only the Columbuses are rarely seen.

Thus, without exception, people wander about in Na- ture's garden; they think they know almost everything, and yet, with few exceptions, they walk blindly by one of the most outstanding principles of Nature's working: the inner seclusion of the species of all living beings on earth. Even the most superficial observation shows, as an

almost brazen basic principle of all the countless forms

of expression of Nature's will to live, her limited form of

propagation and increase, limited in itself. Every animal

mates only with a representative of the same species. The titmouse seeks the titmouse, the finch the finch, the stork

the stork, the field mouse the field mouse, the common mouse the common mouse, the wolf the wolf, etc.

Only exceptional circumstances can change this; first of all the compulsion of captivity, as well as any other impos-

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of what we understand by the word 'man.' He is the Prometheus of mankind, out of whose bright forehead

springs the divine spark of genius at all times, forever re-

kindling that fire which in the form of knowledge lightened

up the night of silent secrets and thus made man climb the

path towards the position of master of the other beings on

this earth. Exclude him and deep darkness will again fall

upon the earth, perhaps even, after a few thousand years, human culture would perish and the world would turn into a desert. -4-

If one were to divide mankind into three groups: culture-

founders, culture-bearers, and culture-destroyers, then, as

representative of the first kind, only the Aryan would come in question. It is from him that the foundation and the walls of all human creations originate, and only the external form and color depend on the characteristics of the various

peoples involved. He furnishes the gigantic building-stones and also the plans for all human progress, and only the exe- cution corresponds to the character of the people and races in the various instances. In a few decades, for instance, the

entire east of Asia will call a culture its own, the ultimate

bases of which will be Hellenic spirit and Germanic tech-

nique, just as is the case with us. Only the external form will (at least partly) bear the features of Asiatic character.

It is not the case, as some people claim, that Japan adds

European techniques to her culture, but European science and techniques are trimmed with Japanese characteristics.

the Decline of the West that cultures arise and fall cyclically; and Hitler here provides a convenient illustration of why they fall. Therewith the riddle proposed by Spengler is solved; the 'culture-making' folk is that which, obeying the law that

only the fittest survive, embarks on conquest and exploitation; and the 'culture-destroying folk

9

is the slave breed which

tempts the aristocratic group into intermarriage. This i

Nietzsche materialized.

NATION AND RACE 399 But the basis of actual life is no longer the special Japanese culture, although it determines the color of life (because out-

wardly, in consequence of its inner difference, it is more visible to European eyes), but it is the enormous scientific and technical work of Europe and America, that is, of

Aryan peoples. Based on these achievements alone the East is also able to follow general human progress. This creates the basis for the fight for daily bread, it furnishes

weapons and tools for it, and only the external makeup is

gradually adapted to Japanese life.

But if, starting today, all further Aryan influence upon Japan should stop, and supposing that Europe and America were to perish, then a further development of Japan's

present rise in science and technology could take place for a

little while longer; but in the time of a few years the source

would dry out, Japanese life would gain, but its culture would stiffen and fall back into the sleep out of which it was

startled seven decades ago by the Aryan wave of culture.

Therefore, exactly as the present Japanese development owes its life to Aryan origin, thus also in the dim past foreign influence and foreign spirit were the awakener of the

Japanese culture. The best proof of this is the fact that the latter stiffened and became completely paralyzed later on. This can only happen to a people when the originally crea- tive race nucleus was lost, or when the external influence, which gave the impetus and the material for the first de-

velopment in the cultural field, was lacking later on. But if it is ascertained that a people receives, takes in, and works

over the essential basic elements of its culture from other

races, and if then, when a further external influence is lack-

ing, it stiffens again and again, then one can perhaps call

such a race a 'culture-bearing' one but never a 'culture-cre-

ating' one.

An examination of the various peoples from this view- point evidences the fact that in nearly all cases one has to

400 MEIN KAMPF

deal, not with originally culture-creating, but rather always with culture-supporting peoples.

It is always about the following picture of their develop- ment that presents itself:

Aryan tribes (often in a really ridiculously small number of their own people) subjugate foreign peoples, and now, stimulated by the special living conditions of the new terri-

tory (fertility, climatic conditions, etc.) and favored by the mass of the helping means in the form of people of inferior

kind now at their disposal, they develop the mental and

organizatory abilities, slumbering in them. Often, in the

course of a few millenniums or even centuries, they create

cultures which originally completely bear the inner features

of their character, adapted to the already mentioned special

qualities of the soil as well as of the subjected people.

Finally, however, the conquerors deviate from the purity of

their blood which they maintained originally, they begin to

mix with the subjected inhabitants and thus they end their own existence; for the fall of man in Paradise has always been followed by expulsion from it.

f Often, after a thousand and more years, the last visible trace of the one-time overlords is shown in the fairer com-

plexion which their blood has left, in the form of the color, to the subjected race, and in a petrified culture which they had founded as the original creators. For, just as the actual and spiritual conqueror lost himself in the blood of the sub-

jected, thus also the fuel for the torch of human culture progress was lost! As through the blood the color of the former masters keeps a faint glimmer as a memory of them, thus also the night of the cultural life is faintly brightened

by the creations that remained of the erstwhile bearers of

light. These now shone through all the barbarism that has returned, and in the thoughtless observer of the moment they awaken only too frequently the opinion that he sees the picture of the present people, whereas it is only the mir-

ror of the past at which he is looking.

NATION AND RACE 401 Then it may happen that such a people for a second time,

nay, even more often in the life of its history, comes into touch with the race of its one-time suppliers of culture, without a memory of former meetings necessarily being present. The remainder of the blood of the one-time mas- ters will unconsciously turn to the new apparition, and what first was only possible by compulsion will now succeed with the help of their own will. Then a new culture wave makes its entrance and lasts until its bearers have once more been

submerged in the blood of foreign peoples. It will be the task of a future culture and world history

to make researches in this sense and not to suffocate by re-

flecting external facts, as this is unfortunately only too

often the case with our present science of history.

Merely from this sketch of the development of '

culture-

bearing' nations results also the picture of the origin, the

work, and the decline of the true culture-creators of this

globe, the Aryans themselves.

Just as in daily life the so-called genius requires a special

No definition of the word 'Aryan* is acceptable. German lexicographers were hard pressed to hit upon an accurate

description. The term itself is probably of Sanskrit origin, and seems to have meant 'friends/ It was next assumed that these 'friends' were Indo-Germans, who (it was further as- sumed) had invaded India and subjugated the 'lesser breeds/

Finally 'Aryan* became just a synonym for 'Indo-German.' The 1931 edition of the encyclopedia Der grosse Herder said:

'Recently some have used (ethnologically, in an incorrect way) 'Aryan* to indicate Indo-Germans in general. In this case,

the term is used as in the nature of a slogan in the struggle over the self-determination and preservation of our race against

Jewry, which is of a different order.' For this and similar

definitions (surely discreet enough), the earlier volumes of this

encyclopedia were ordered withdrawn from circulation. In

practice the word is officially used today as a racial term

402 MEIN KAMPF

cause, often even a real impetus in order to be made con-

spicuous, the same is also the case with the ingenious race in the life of the peoples. In the monotony of everyday life

even important people often seem unimportant and they

hardly stand out over the average of their surroundings; but as soon as they are faced by a situation in which others would despair or go wrong, out of the plain average child

the ingenious nature grows visibly, not infrequently to the

astonishment of all those who hitherto had an opportunity to observe him, who had meanwhile grown up in the small- ness of bourgeois life, and therefore, in consequence of this

process, the prophet has rarely any honor in his own coun-

try. Never is there a better opportunity to observe this

than during war. In the hours of distress, when others de-

spair, out of apparently harmless children, there shoot sud-

denly heroes of death-defying determination and icy cool-

ness of reflection. If this hour of trial had never come, then

hardly anyone would ever have been able to guess that a

young hero is hidden in the beardless boy. Nearly always such an impetus is needed in order to call genius into action.

excluding Jews and negroes. The second are frowned upon because (i.a.) they are admitted into the French army; and

because, it is hoped, sympathy for the Nazi cause may be thus awakened among Southerners in the United States.

Delegations of 'Brahmins 1

have, however, been cordially welcomed to the New Germany.

Parallels to this can be found in the writings of Pan-Germans like Heinrich Class and Count Reventlow. In an address delivered during 1932, Hitler declared; 'Let them call us in- human! If we save Germany, we shall have done the greatest deed in the world. Let them call us unjust! If we save Ger-

many, we shall have repaired the greatest injustice in the world. Let them say that we are without morality! If our

people is saved, we shall have paved the way for morality!'

NATION AND RACE 403 Fate's hammer stroke, which then throws the one to the ground, suddenly strikes steel in another, and while now the shell of everyday life is broken, the erstwhile nucleus lies

open to the eyes of the astonished world. The latter now re- sists and does not want to believe that the apparently 'identical' kind is now suddenly supposed to be a 'differ- ent' being; a process which repeats itself with every eminent

human being. Although an inventor, for instance, establishes his fame

only on the day of his invention, one must not think that

perhaps his genius in itself had entered the man only just at this hour, but the spark of genius will be present in the

forehead of the truly creatively gifted man from the hour of his birth, although for many years in a slumbering condi- tion and therefore invisible to the rest of the world. But some day, through an external cause or impetus of some

kind, the spark becomes fire, something that only then be-

gins to stir the attention of other people. The most stupid of them believe now in all sincerity that the person in ques- tion has just become 'clever,' whereas in reality they them- selves now begin at last to recognize his greatness; for true

genius is always inborn and never acquired by education or, still less, by learning.

This, however, may be said, as already stressed, not only for the individual man, but also for the race.-*- Creatively active peoples are creatively gifted from the very bottom and forever, although this may not be recognizable to the eyes of the superficial observer. Here, too, external recogni- tion is always only possible as a consequence of accom-

plished facts, as the rest of the world is not able to recognize

genius in itself, but sees only its visible expressions in the form

of inventions, discoveries, buildings, pictures, etc. ; but even

here it often takes a long time till it is able to struggle

through to this knowledge. Exactly as in the life of the in-

dividual important man his genius or extraordinary ability

404 MEIN KAMPF

strives towards its practical realization only when urged on

by special occasions, thus also in the life of the peoples the real use of creative forces and abilities that are present can take place only when certain presumptions invite to this.

We see this most clearly in that race that cannot help having been, and being, the supporter of the development of human culture the Aryans. As soon as Fate leads them towards special conditions, their latent abilities begin to

develop in a more and more rapid course and to mold them- selves into tangible forms. The cultures which they found in such cases are nearly always decisively determined by the available soil, the climate, and by the subjected people. The latter, however, is the most decisive of all factors. The more primitive the technical presumptions for a cultural

activity are, the more necessary is the presence of human

auxiliary forces which then, collected and applied with the

object of organization, have to replace the force of the ma- chine. Without this possibility of utilizing inferior men, the

Aryan would never have been able to take the first steps towards his later culture; exactly as, without the help of

various suitable animals which he knew how to tame, he would never have arrived at a technology which now allows him to do without these very animals. The words 'Der Mohr hoi seine Schuldigkeit getan, er kann gehen' [The Moor has done his duty, he may go] has unfortunately too deep a meaning. For thousands of years the horse had to serve man and to help in laying the foundations of a development which now, through the motor-car, makes the horse itself

superfluous. In a few years it will have ceased its activity, but without its former co-operation man would hardly have arrived at where he stands today.

Therefore, for the formation of higher cultures, the exist-

ence of inferior men was one of the most essential presump- tions, because they alone were able to replace the lack of

NATION AND RACE 405 technical means without which a higher development is un- thinkable. The first culture of mankind certainly depended less on the tamed animal, but rather on the use of inferior

people.

Only after the enslavement of subjected races, the same fate began to meet the animals, and not vice versa, as many would like to believe. For first the conquered walked be-

hind [in later editions read : before] the plow and after

him, the horse. Only pacifist fools can again look upon this as a sign of human baseness, without making clear to themselves that this development had to take place in order to arrive finally at that place from where today these apostles are able to sputter forth their drivel into the

world.

The progress of mankind resembles the ascent on an end- less ladder; one cannot arrive at the top without first hav-

ing taken the lower steps. Thus the Aryan had to go the

way which reality showed him and not that of which the

imagination of a modern pacifist dreams. The way of real-

ity, however, is hard and difficult, but it finally ends where the other wishes to bring mankind by dreaming, but un-

fortunatelyremoves it from, rather thanbrings it nearer to, it.

Therefore, it is no accident that the first cultures origi- nated in those places where the Aryan, by meeting lower

peoples, subdued them and made them subject to his will.

They, then, were the first technical instrument in the serv-

ice of a growing culture.

With this the way that the Aryan had to go was clearly lined out. As a conqueror he .subjected the lower peoples and then he regulated their practical ability according to

his command and his will and for his aims. But while he thus led them towards a useful, though hard activity, he not only spared the lives of the subjected, but perhaps he

even gave them a fate which was better than that of their former so-called

'

freedom/ As long as he kept up ruthlessly

406 MEIN KAMPF

the master's standpoint, he not only really remained 'mas-

ter* but also the preserver and propagator of the culture.

For the latter was based exclusively on his abilities, and, with it, on his preservation in purity. But as soon as the

subjected peoples themselves began to rise (probably) and

approached the conqueror linguistically, the sharp separat-

ing wall between master and slave fell. The Aryan gave up the purity of his blood and therefore he also lost his place in the Paradise which he had created for himself. He be- came submerged in the race-mixture, he gradually lost his cultural ability more and more, till at last not only mentally but also physically he began to resemble more the sub-

jected and aborigines than his ancestors. For some time he

may still live on the existing cultural goods, but then petri- faction sets in, and finally oblivion.

In this way cultures and realms collapse in order to make room for new formations. The blood-mixing, however, with the lowering of the

racial level caused by it, is the sole cause of the dying-off of old cultures; for the people do not perish by lost wars, but by the loss of that force of resistance which is contained

only in the pure blood.

All that is not race in this world is trash.

All world historical events, however, are only the expres- sion of the races' instinct of self-preservation in its good or in its evil meaning.

That is, security is better than freedom. And security, carried to its ultimate in the 'total mobilization

9

of the nation, is very well analyzed by Rauschning. The masses still cling to the residue of personal liberty, of self-determination, which has been left to them. Yet all such things must disappear com-

pletely before the absolute 'security' which is the inherent ob-

jective of the Hitlerite revolution has been reached.

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community and not by sickly imagination on the part of

cowardly know-alls and critics of Nature,

Just in such times, when the ideal attitude threatens to

disappear, we can at once recognize a reduction of that force which forms the community and thus gives culture its

presumption. As soon as egoism becomes the ruler of a na-

tion, the ties of order loosen, and in the hunt for their own

happiness people fall all the more out of heaven into hell.

Even posterity forgets those men who only serve their own advantage, and it praises as heroes those who renounce their own happiness.<

The Jew forms the strongest contrast to the Aryan. Hardly in any people of the world is the instinct of self-

preservation more strongly developed than in the so-called 'chosen people/ The fact of the existence of this race alone

may be looked upon as the best proof of this. Where is the

people that in the past two thousand years has been ex-

posed to so small changes of the inner disposition, of char-

acter, etc., as the Jewish people? Which people finally has

experienced greater changes than this one and yet has

always come forth the same from the most colossal catas

trophes of mankind? What an infinitely persistent will for life, for preserving the race do these facts disclose!

Also the intellectual abilities were schooled in the course

of centuries. Today the Jew is looked upon as 'clever,' and in a certain sense he has been so at all times. But his reason is not the result of his own development, but that of object lessons from without. For also the human mind is not able to climb the heights without steps; for every step forward

he needs the foundation of the past, and, moreover, in that

comprehensive meaning which can be revealed only through general culture. All thinking will rest only to a very small

extent on one's own realization, but to the greater extent

NATION AND RACE 413 on the experiences of the time past. The general level of culture supplies the individual, mostly without his noticing this, with such a profusion of preliminary knowledge that

now, armed in this manner, he can set out towards further

steps of his own. The young boy of today, for instance, grows up among a truly vast number of technical achieve- ments of the past few centuries that now, as being matters of course, he no longer pays attention to many things which were still a riddle to great minds a hundred years ago, though for the follow-up and the understanding of our

progress in this field it is of decisive importance for him.

If today even a genius of the twenties of the past century were suddenly to leave his grave, he would find it much harder to make his way about in the present time than this is the case of an average boy of fifteen of today. For he would lack all the infinite prerequisites which the individual

takes in, so to speak, unconsciously, during his adolescence

in the midst of the general culture of the corresponding time.

As now the Jew (for reasons which will immediately be- come evident from the following) was never in the pos- session of a culture of his own, the bases for his spiritual

'The Jews, 1

said Chamberlain, 'are neither a race nor a

people They are the unique example of a purely parasitic product of decay.' This point of view is based to a certain ex-

tent on a corrupt reading of a sentence in Mommsen's Roman

History, which reads: 'In the Old World, too, Jewry was an

active ferment of cosmopolitanism and national decomposition, and was for that reason a preferred full-fledged member in the Caesarian States, the politics of which were in truth nothing but cosmopolitanism, and the folkdom of which was essentially

nothing else than humanity/ Mommsen meant that the Jews, uprooted from their Fatherland, lived everywhere and served

as links to tie Rome to the provinces. Chamberlain built up an elaborate theory to account for this 'parasitic product.' The

414 MEIN KAMPF

activity have always been furnished by others. At all times his intellect has developed through the culture that sur-

rounds him*

Never did the reverse process take place,

t For, even if the Jewish people's instinct of self-preserva- tion is not smaller, but rather greater, than that of other

nations, and even if his spiritual abilities very easily create

the impression as though they were equal to the intel-

lectual disposition of the other races, yet the most essential

presumption for a cultured people is completely lacking, the

idealistic disposition.

In the Jewish people, the will to sacrifice oneself does not

go beyond the bare instinct of self-preservation of the indi-

vidual. The seemingly great feeling of belonging together is rooted in a very primitive herd instinct, as it shows itself

Jews were, he thought, a race mixed with other races too

diverse in character to permit assimilation. They had married with Arabs and Syrians, and were as a result degenerate.

Original sin as described in the Old Testament was, he held,

only the 'sin of blood* i.e., the sin of intermarriage with

inferior breeds. Few Nazis prior to 1933 put much faith in these teachings, at which Ernst Roehm is known to have

laughed. To them Jew baiting was merely a highly effective form of drumming up prejudice against the hated Republic, which had given jobs to Rathenau, Eisner, Hilferding, and

others. Even today one hears honest Nazi dissent from the official anti-Semitism, but this is probably more or less in-

grained in youth. There was abundant protest against the

November pogroms, but little of it was publicly manifested. The popular readiness to be stirred to a passion over the

Jews witness the 'Juda vcrrecke' (May the Jews die) out-

cry which the youth organizations in particular have taken

up seems based partly on willingness to detest all things not strictly German (a consequence, no doubt, of the disap- pointments and privations that followed the War) and partly

NATION AND RACE 415 in a similar way in many other living beings in this world. Thereby the fact is remarkable that in all these cases a

common herd instinct leads to mutual support only as long as a common danger makes this seem useful or unavoidable. The same pack of wolves that jointly falls upon its booty dissolves when its hunger abates. The same is true of

horses, which try to ward off the attacker in common, and which fly in different directions when the danger is gone. With the Jew the case is similar. His will to sacrifice is

only ostensible. It endures only as long as the existence of

the individual absolutely requires this. However, as soon as

the common enemy is beaten and the danger threatening all is averted, the booty recovered, the apparent harmony among the Jews themselves ceases to make way again for

on economic unrest. The Jew was represented as one who pro- fited by the inflation, or as the major cause of business and

professional competition. But it is difficult to make a good argument to show Jewish economic dominance in pre-Hitler Germany, nor as Jewish cultural influence noteworthy outside Berlin. What can be said is that an unwise cult of publicity sometimes overstressed the importance of individual Jews.

Many believed that anti-Semitic propaganda could be stopped if it were shown that Jews had contributed a great deal to the

reputation of Germany abroad. Almost precisely the opposite effect was achieved. For a digest of statistics concerning the

Jew in business, cultural and professional life, cf. The Jews in Nazi Germany, edited by the American Jewish Committee. A somewhat better case could be made out against the Jewish

proletariat, since it was largely recruited from eastern Europe and was not immediately able to throw off the manners of the

ghetto. But it was far too small and too isolated to be a factor of importance in German life, excepting as a source whence certain types of photography might be derived. The labor

groups, both Marxist and Christian, frowned upon anti-Semi-

tism.

416 MEIN KAMPF

the inclinations originally present. The Jew remains united

only if forced by a common danger or is attracted by a com- mon booty; if both reasons are no longer evident, then the

qualities of the crassest egoism come into their own, and, in

a moment, the united people becomes a horde of rats, fight-

ing bloodily among themselves. If the Jews were alone in this world, they would suffocate

as much in dirt and filth, as they would carry on a detest- able struggle to cheat and to ruin each other, although the

complete lack of the will to sacrifice, expressed in their

cowardice, would also in this instance make the fight a

comedy.< Thus it is fundamentally wrong to conclude, merely from

the fact of their standing together in a fight, or, more rightly expressed, in their exploiting their fellow human beings, that the Jews have a certain idealistic will to sacrifice them-

selves.

Here, too, the Jew is led by nothing but pure egoism on the part of the individual.

Therefore also the Jewish 'State* (which is supposed to

be the living organism for the preservation and the propa- gation of the race) is territorially completely unlimited.

For a certain limitation of a State formation by space always presupposes an idealistic attitude by the State race, espe- cially above all a correct conception of the notion 'work/ In the same measure in which this attitude is lacking or

absent, every attempt at a formation or even at the preser- vation of a territorially limited State fails. But with this also the basis on which a culture alone can originate is eliminated.

For this reason, however, the Jewish people, with all its

apparent intellectual qualities, is nevertheless without any true culture, especially without a culture of its own. For the sham culture which the Jew possesses today is the property of other peoples, and is mostly spoiled in his hands.

NATION AND RACE 417

t When judging Jewry in its attitude towards the question of human culture, one has to keep before one's eye as an essential characteristic that there never has been and con-

sequently that today also there is no Jewish art; that above

all the two queens of all arts, architecture and music, owe

nothing original to Jewry. What he achieves in the field of art is either bowdlerization or intellectual theft. With this, the Jew lacks those qualities which distinguish creatively and, with it, culturally blessed races.

But how far the Jew takes over foreign culture, only imi-

tating, or rather destroying, it, may be seen from the fact that he is found most frequently in that art which also

appears directed least of all towards invention of its own, the art of acting. But here, too, he is really only the 'jug-

gler/ or rather the ape; for here, too, he lacks the ultimate

touch of real greatness; here, too, he is not the ingenious

creator, but the outward imitator, whereby all the turns

and tricks he applies cannot deceive us concerning the inner

lack of life of his creative ability. Here the Jewish press alone comes lovingly to his aid, because about every, even

the most mediocre, bungler, ^provided that he is a Jew, it

raises such a clamor of hosannas that the rest of the world

finally actually believes that it sees a real artist before its

The statement that there had been no Jewish art in olden times is highly questionable. Historians of liturgical art now believe that the decorative schemes of early Christain churches

may have been derived in part from the Synagogue. At all events, the Gregorian Chant certainly owes much to ancient

Jewish music. To term all modern Jewish art 'derivative* is injudicious, particularly in Germany, as witness Max Lieber- mann in painting and Erich Mendelsohn in architecture.

Modern Jewish stars of the stage include Elisabeth Bergner, Max Pallenberg, and Fritz Kortner. The most famous Jewish theatrical director was Max Reinhardt.

418 MEIN KAMPF

eyes, whereas in reality it has only to deal with a wretched

comedian.

No, the Jew possesses no culture-creating energy what-

soever, as the idealism, without which there can never

exist a genuine development of man towards a higher level, does not and never did exist in him. His intellect, there-

fore, will never have a constructive effect, but only a de-

structive one, and in very rare cases it is perhaps stimulat-

ing, at the utmost, but then in the form of the original pro-

totype of that 'Kraft, die stets das Bose will und dock das

Gute schafft '

[that force which always wants evil and never-

theless creates good]. Any progress of mankind takes place not through him but in spite of him. As the Jew never possessed a State with definite terri-

torial boundary, and as therefore he never called a culture his own, the conception arose that one had to deal with a

people that had to be counted among the ranks of the nomads. This is an error that is as great as it is dangerous. The nomad certainly possesses a definitely limited living space, only he does not cultivate it like a sedentary peasant, but he lives on the yield of his herds with which he wanders

about in his territory. The simplest reason for this is to be seen in the poor fertility of a soil which therefore does not

permit of settlement. But the deepest cause lies in the dis-

parity between the technical culture of a time or a people and the natural poverty of a living space. There are do-

mains in which even the Aryan is unable to become master of the soil in closed settlements and to make a living from it, except by the technology he developed in the course of more than a thousand years. If he did not have this tech-

nology, then he would either have to avoid these territories

or he would also have to struggle along as a nomad in per- petual wandering (provided that his thousand-year-old education and custom of settlement did not make this ap- pear simply impossible to him). One has to consider, how-