the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editors of The Journal of
Interdisciplinary History
Adolf Hitler's Guilt Feelings: A Problem in History and Psychology
Author(s): R. G. L. Waite
Source: The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter, 1971), pp. 229-249
Published by: The MIT Press
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R. G. L. Waite
Adolf Hitler's Guilt Feelings:
A Problem in History and Psychology
A majorproblem in dealingwith the life of Adolf Hitleris that of determining
the extentto whichhe had confidencein himselfas a personandas a
politicalleader.This essaywill discussone aspectof his remarkably
complexpersonality,andwill show thatone of history'smostruthless
rulerswasbesetby feelingsof guiltandthe needfor self-punishment.I
Inpublicandprivatespeech,Hitlerrevealedhisconcernby talking
repeatedlyaboutunworthiness,
guilt,andconscience.He worried,for
in the sightof God andattempted
about
his
own
worthiness
example,
to quiethis doubtsin two ways.He protestedtoo muchthathe really
was worthy, saying,typically,"The GreatJudge of all time... will
And
alwaysgive victoryto thosewho arethe mostworthy[wiirdig]."2
again,"I carrymy heavyburdenswith dutifulthanksto Providence
which has deemed me worthy...."3 Another way of silencinghis own
doubtswas to insistthat,while he certainlywas worthy,otherswere
not. ThustheJewswereunworthyto be citizensof hisReichandmust
die. By I945 he reachedthe conclusionthatthe entireGermanpeople
hadprovedunworthyof him; theytoo shouldperish.4
Overandoveragainhe showedthathe wasbotheredby conscience
andfelt theneedof dullingits demands:
Onlywhenthetimecomeswhentheraceisnolongerovershadowed
by
the consciousness
of its ownguilt then will it find internalpeace.
is aJewishinvention.It is a blemishlike circumcision...
Conscience
R. G. L. Waite is Brown Professor of History and Chairman of the department of
history at Williams College. He is the author of Vanguardof Nazism: The Free Corps
Movement in Postwar Germany, 1918-1923 (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), was a co-translator
of Erich Eyck's A History of the Weimar Republic (Cambridge, Mass, 1962-3), 2V., and
is now working on a biography of Hitler which will combine the insights of history and
psychoanalysis.
I Another fragment of Hitler's personality is discussed in my chapter, "Adolf Hitler's
Anti-Semitism: A study in History and Psychoanalysis," in Benjamin B. Wolman (ed.),
PsychoanalyticInterpretationsof History (forthcoming). I am currently working on a larger
study, tentatively entitled "The Pathological Personality as Political Leader."
2
Hitler's New Year's Proclamation of I January I944, in Max Domarus, Hitler: Reden
und Proklamationen1932-1945 (Munich, 1965), IV, 2076. (Hereinafter cited as Domarus,
Reden.)Quoted in FriedrichHeer, Der GlaubedesAdolfHitler:Anatomieeinerpolitischen
Religiositdt (Munich, 1968), 445.
3 New Year's Proclamation of I January 1945, Domarus, Reden, IV, 2186.
4 H. R. Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler (New York, I947), 48.
230
[ R. G. L. WAITE
I am freeing men from... the dirty and degradingmodification of a
andmorality.
chimera called conscience
We must distrustthe intelligence and the conscience....
We must be ruthless... we must regain our clearconscience
as to ruthless-
ness.... Only thusshallwe purgeourpeople.5
Hitler was even convinced that dogs sufferfrom a "bad conscience."6
The Fiihrer felt guilty about something. But when a historian
attempts to give the precise reasonsfor those guilt feelings, he is reminded againof Trevelyan'strenchantadmonitionto those who would
try to make of history a science: "in the most important part of its
business, history is ... an imaginative guess."7
Aided by the insights of psychoanalysis, let us set forth here our
best guesses as to the causes of Hitler's feelings of guilt.8 One possibility
can quickly be eliminated. Hitler felt no remorse whatever over the
calculatedmurderof millions of "raciallyinferior"people, or the holocaustof war, or the annihilationof the village of Lidice, or the planned
destructionof the Fatherlandand the burning of Paris, or the squanderedlives of young Germansoldiers.Atrocitiesdid not disturbHitler.
Other guessesareneeded.
Hitler seemsto have felt unworthy of being the Fiihrerof a racially
pure Germanybecausehe suspectedthat he himself might have been
"guilty of havingJewish blood"-as the barbarousexpressionranin the
5 These passagesfrom Hitler'sspeeches,writings,and conversationswere collectedby
the psychiatristsand clinicalpsychologistswho drew up a valuablereport on Hitler's
personalityfor the Office of StrategicServicesduring World War II. The report was
written by Dr. Walter C. Langerwith the collaborationof ProfessorHenry A. Murray
and Drs. ErnstKris and BertramD. Lewin and is entitled "A PsychologicalAnalysisof
Adolph[sic]Hitler,"Typescript,DeclassifiedHistoricalOSS Records,NationalArchives,
Washington,D.C., n.d. (I943?), I39, 219. (Italicsaremine.) The Report is accompanied
by a three-volume "Source Book." (Hereaftercited as OSS Report or OSS Source
Book.)
6 Hitler was concernedabout the conscienceof Germanshepherddogs, particularly
after they had approachedfemale dogs. He said in a conversationof January25, 1942,
that they often returned "mit schlechtemGewissen."See Henry Picker (ed.), Hitlers
Tischgesprdcheim Fiihrerhauptqartier
1941-1942 (Stuttgart, 1965), I65.
7 G. M. Trevelyan, Clio, A Muse and OtherEssaysLiteraryand Pedestrian(London,
1913), 9.
8 I am happy to acknowledge my indebtednessto the following analystswho have
helped me in preparingvariousparts of this essay: Dr. GertrudKurth of New York,
ProfessorErik H. Eriksonof Harvard,Dr. Robert Harrisof the Austen Riggs Center,
Stockbridge,Massachusetts,and Dr. LaurenceN. Mamlet, staffpsychiatristof Williams
College. I am alsogratefulfor the criticalreadinggiven thisessayby ProfessorRichardO.
Rouse, Chairman,Departmentof Psychology at Williams.
ADOLF
HITLER
S GUILT FEELINGS
1 231
Third Reich. He had been so shakenin 1930 when he heard darkhints
thathis own grandfathermight have been aJew thathe senthis personal
lawyer, Hans Frank,to investigate.Frank'sreportwas not reassuring.It
said that Hitler's father was born out of wedlock to a certain Maria
Anna Schicklgruberwho had worked as a domestic in Graz, Austria,
"in the home of aJewish family by the name of Frankenberger."9
That
Frank'sinvestigationsmay have been in errordoes not alterthe crucial
fact that Hitler believedthattheymightbecorrect
and was hauntedby the
fearthat he himself might be "partJewish."I0He testifiedto this fearin
variousways. He took specialpainsto dictatethe preciselanguageof the
NurenmbergRacial Laws of 1935 and gave orders that not one word
should be changed.I The wording of Article Three is particularlyinteresting.Of all the civil disabilitiesforJews he might have ordered,he
set forth this one: "Jewsmay not employ female householdservantsof
German or related blood who are under 45 years of age."I2Hitler's
own grandmotherhad been forty-two when she gave birth to Hitler's
father.
Anxiety about aJewish grandfatherwas also shown when he projected his own fears onto MatthiasErzberger,a leader of the Center
Party whom Hitler accused of betraying Germany by accepting the
Versaillestreaty: "MatthiasErzberger... the illegitimate
son of a servant
girl andaJewishemployer,was the Germannegotiatorwho set his name
to the document which had the deliberateintention of bringing about
9 HansFrank,ImAngesichtdesGalgens:DeutungHitlersundseinerZeit aufGrundeigener
Erlebnisseund Erkenntnisse(Munich, I953), 320-321.
Io The research of Nikolaus Preradovic of the University of Graz does not support
Frank's conclusions. In the books of the Jewish Kultusgemeindein Graz there is a record
neither of the name Frankenberger nor of Frankenreiter, the name mentioned by Hitler's
nephew. True, the books of the Jewish congregation go back only as far as I856 and
Alois Hitler was born in 1837, but during all that time there was in Graz "not one single
Jew" because the Jews had been drummed out of the Steiermark in I496 and were
allowed to return only after I856. Preradovic did find the name Leopold Frankenreiter
listed as living in Graz in I837. But he was the son of a Catholic cobbler and his son-the
probable grandfather of Hitler (according to Jetzinger)-was ten years old in the year
1837, when the forty-two year old servant gave birth to a child. As Preradovic points
out, "A remarkably precocious boy!" (quoted in Der Spiegel [June 12, I957]). Simon
Wiesenthal, who knows as much about investigating Jewish family backgrounds as anyone, writes that he has searched through all the archives of Graz and could find no trace
of a Jew named Frankenberger having lived there. (Letter to the editor, Der Spiegel
[August 7, 1967].)
I
Bernhard L6sener, "Das Reichsministerium des Innern und dieJudengesetzebung,"
VierteljahrsheftefuirZeitgeschichte, 9. Jahrgang (I96I), 273. L6sener had been the legal
expert for "Racial Law" in the Ministry of Interior.
12 The full text of the laws is given in the Volkischer
Beobachter
(SeptemberI6, I935).
232
| R. G. L. WAITE
the destructionof Germany."I3The servantgirl in a Jewish household
was still on his mind years later. In one of his nightly monologues
during 1942 he told his entourageabout "a countrygirl who had a place
in Nuremberg in the household of Herr Hirsch,"who had rapedher.14
Hitler projectedguilt feelingsabout the impurity of his own blood
in anotherway. He sought to lessenhis personalanxiety by universalizing the guilt, saying that all Germanswere at fault. Thus he insistedthat
"All of us are sufferingfrom... mixed, corruptedblood. How can we
purify ourselvesand make atonement?"I5
There is furtherevidence that Hitler suspectedhis own blood was
tainted. Just two months after taking over Austria in March 1938,
Hitler had a survey made of the lovely little farming village of
Dollersheim-the village where his father had been born and his
grandmotherburied. The purposeof the survey was to determine the
suitabilityof the area for an artilleryrange for the Germanarmy. The
XVII was given ordersdirectlyfrom
commandinggeneralof Wehrkreis
"as
aspossible"for thatpurpose.6 The
soon
area
make
the
Hitler to
ready
inhabitantswere evacuated,the village was demolishedby artilleryfire,
and the gravesof the cemetery were renderedunrecognizable.'7Why?
There arethousandsof empty acresin this partof Lower Austria.Hitler
musthavechosenthisparticularvillageasanartilleryrangebecausehe felt
a greatcompulsionto wipe out-quite literally-the suspicionof his own
Jewish blood by obliteratingthe birthplaceof his father and the grave
of his grandmotherwhom he consideredguilty of contaminatinghim.
In the so-called "GestapoReports" of the Main Archives of the
Party,therearerecordsof severalseparateinvestigationsof Hitler'sown
family background.I8The most thorough of these inquirieswas made
13 GerhardL. Weinberg (ed.), HitlersZweitesBuch(Stuttgart,1961), 104. (Italicsare
mine.) As Weinberg points out, the rumoraboutErzbergerhad no basisin fact. The interestingpoint is that Hitler repeatedthe story in writing.
1941-1944(New York, I953),
14 H. R. Trevor-Roper(ed.), Hitler'sSecretConversations,
269.
(New York, 1940),230 (my italics).
I5 HermannRauschning, The Voiceof Destruction
LandesI6 GeneralKnittersched'sstatementmay be found in the Oberosterreichisches
archiv, Linz, Austria,Hitler Akten, Folder I6I. (Hereinaftercited as OLA with appropriatefolder number.)
17 The village still lies in ruins.I was unableto walk throughit in the summerof 1967
becauseit remains"off limits"to civilians.
derNSDAP, "Gestapoberichte,"Folder XVII A. (Hereinaftercited as
I8 Hauptarchiv
HAP.) Most of this archivalcollection,which is now in the FederalArchivesin Koblenz,
hasnow been microfilmedby the Hoover Institution.It is not clearwho was responsible
for the file marked "GestapoReports" but it seems highly unlikely that Heinrich
Himmler and the Gestapo would have dared to investigate so sensitive a subject as
Hitler'sown ancestrywithout his explicit approval.One importantgroup of documents
ADOLF
HITLER'S
GUILT
FEELINGS
| 233
in 1942-just prior to the onset of the massacreswhich killed about six
millionJews. Why were these specialinvestigationsundertaken?Hitler
rarelytalkedabout his own family. Why then did he have this remarkable concern about his ancestorsunless he was anxiously hoping to
prove thathe was a "pureAryan"-or at leastas Aryanashis own racial
laws required?
Hitler also manifestedhis concernabout "racialcontamination"in
both his public and privatelife. Racial purity was, of course,absolutely
basicto the whole theory of National Socialism,and in public speeches
he often spoke about "blood baths,""the blood order,"and "the blood
flag."But his concernaboutblood went beyond that.He worriedabout
his own blood and seems to have been convinced that there was something wrong with it. He becamea vegetarianpartlybecausehe thought
that a vegetable diet would purify his blood. And he regularlygot rid
of his blood by letting leechessuckit from him. Later,his quackdoctor,
Theodor Morell, drew it from him and preservedit in test tubes,19so
that Hitler could gaze at it apprehensively.
The feeling thathis own blood was impure contributedto his sense
of unworthiness and inadequacy in performing the role of mighty
Fiihrerof a raciallypure Reich. Hence he often looked anxiouslyinto a
mirror and askedhis valet for assurance,saying, "I really do look like
the Fiihrer.Don't I, Linge?"20As a young man he had been teasedabout
looking Jewish,zIand the suggestion continued to bother him.
on Hitler'searly life and family backgroundin the file was collectedin 1938 by Dr. R.
Bleibtreu,who was simply a partyarchivist,but thesedocumentsand otherscollectedin
1938by the Linzbranchof the Gestapowere takenover by Himmlerwho gave orderson
4 August 1942 "to give the documents personally and directly to Reichsfiihrer SS
Himmler."Evidenceof other Gestapoinquiriesinto Hitler'sfamily backgroundmay be
found in OLA, Hitler Akten, Folder3 which shows that the Gestapomade an investigation in 1941,and in the archivesof the InstitutfiirZeitgeschichte,
Munich,which gives the
negativeresultsof a Gestapoinvestigationof Hitler'sfamily conductedas late as December 1943-January I944. (Hitler Dokumente II41-53.) Another investigation is dated
3 March I935 (HAP, FolderXVII A).
seinerGeheimsekretdrin
I9 Albert Zoller (ed.), HitlerPrivat:Erlebnisbericht
(Dusseldorf,
1949), 87. Hitler accused theJews of sucking blood. In Mein Kampf(New York, I939) he
calledtheJews vampiresand spiderswho "suckthe people'sblood" (251)andin a speech
of May 3I, 1920 he talkedaboutJews as the "bloodsucker[Blutegel]of the people." (See
Reginald Phelps, "Dokumentation: Hitlers 'Grundlegende'Rede tiber den Anti4. Jahrgang[I968], 399.)
semitismus,"Vierteljahrsheftefiir
Zeitgeschichte,
20
See the series of memoir articlesby Heinz Linge, "KronzeugeLinge" in Revue
(Munich) (March 3, I956).
21
An acquaintanceof his Vienna period writes: "... Hitler at that time looked very
Jewish, as I often joked with him that he must be of Jewish blood...."(Reinhold
Hanisch, "I was Hitler's Buddy," The New Republic [April 12, I939], 272.)
234
j R. G. L. WAITE
Hitler also seems to have felt guilty about incestuousdesires.His
relationswith both his mother and his niece were very close indeed,22
and the word incestwas often on his mind.23Whether or not he actually
acted out his incestuousfeelings is not very importantpsychologically.
As Freudshowed us long ago, fantasiescan be as psychicallyformative
as realities.24
It is also possiblethat acutefeelingsof unworthiness,guilt, and selfloathing were a consequence of a massively masochistic sexual perversion. Hitler gained sexual satisfactionby having a young womanas much younger than he as his mother was younger than his fathersquat over him to urinateor defecateon his head.25
When confrontedwith datasuch as these, a biographerof Adolf Hitler
On the question of his intimate relations with his mother and niece, see my "Adolf
Hitler's Anti-Semitism."
23 In I919 he announced that the Jews had maintained themselves historically only by
"thousands of years of incest." (Quoted in Der Spiegel [July 24, 1967], 47.) And in a
particularly revealing passage in Mein Kanpf he wrote that Vienna was the city of Jews
and "the personification of incest" (I60). (Italics are mine.)
See Freud's letter to Fliess dated September 21, 1897, cited in Ernest Jones, The Lifj
24
and Work of SigmundFreud (New York, 1963, abridged ed.), 169-170.
Evidence regarding Hitler's sex life is conflicting. Usually reliable witnesses who
25
knew him well over a long period of time are emphatic that to their knowledge Hitler
was sexually normal. These people include his boyhood intimate, August Kubizek, his
valets, Karl Wilhelm Krause and Heinz Linge, both of whom served him for ten years,
and his private secretaries. It may be presumed, however, that none of them ever had an
opportunity to observe him indulging in aberrant sexual activity. This testimony to the
contrary, I have concluded that Hitler had the perversion mentioned here. The five distinguished American psychiatrists and clinical psychologists who collaborated on the OSS
Report on Hitler and described his perversions were all convinced that the evidence upon
which they reached their conclusion was completely reliable. (OSS Report, 138.)
Further research in the matter has persuaded me that their conclusions are tenable. For a
full discussion of the question, see my "Adolf Hitler's Anti-Semitism." Hitler invariably
had affairs with women whose age difference from his own was about the same as that
between his own father and mother. Alois Hitler was twenty-three years older than
Klara, whom he called his "niece" when they were married. Adolf Hitler was twentyeight years older than his niece, "Geli" Raubal, of whom he said, "Geli is the one
woman I could ever marry." He was twenty-three years older than Eva Braun, twentyseven years older than "Mimi" Reiter, about twenty-four years older than Renee
Mueller, and twenty-five years older than Unity Mitford. Miss Mitford probably never
had intimate sexual relations with Hitler. All of these young women committed suicide
or attempted to do so: Mimi Reiter almost succeeded in hanging herself in 1926; Geli
Raubal's suicide took place in I93I; Eva Braun's self-inflicted wound of 1932 came
within a quarter of an inch of her heart; Renee Mueller shot herself through the head in
the late thirties; Unity Mitford tried unsuccessfully on September 3, 1939 to kill herself
in the same way. Miss Mitford's attempted suicide seems to have been a consequence of
the despair she felt at having failed in her life mission of bringing England and Nazi
Germany together as allies.
22
ADOLF
HITLER
S GUILT FEELINGS
235
has at least three options. He can ignore such evidence as sensational,
and quitebeneaththe dignityof a serioushistorian.He
embarrassing,
canuse someof the dataselectivelyas unusualsidelights,showingthe
eccentricities
of his subject.Or he cantry to showhow a discussionof
Hitler'spsychological
andcan
abnormalities
hadhistoricalconsequences
of him as a person.With appropriate
help in a fullerunderstanding
here-let us sugtrepidation-andtrepidationis certainlyappropriate
some
historical
of
results
Hitler's
gest
personalfeelingsof guiltandunworthiness.
Most obviously,he soughtrelieffrom his burdenof guilt by an
elaboratesystemof defenses.Indeedhe displayedvirtuallyallthemajor
mechanisms
AnnaFreudhasdescribed
in herclassicalworkon the subject.26He relied heavily, for example, upon reactionformation. Thus
his perversionand voyeurismwere maskedbehind ostentatiously
a moralandasceticpersonwho forbade
prudishbehavior.He appeared
the tellingof off-colorstoriesin his presence,who didnot swear,who
deniedhimselfalcoholand tobacco,andwho objectedwhen women
wore lipstick.He complainedthatit was manufactured
from French
urine.27He showed that he was disturbedby the filth of his perversion
in the numberof times the words urine,filth, and dirt were on his
mind, saying,typically,thathe would free men from "thedirtyand
degrading"aspectsof conscience,or thatJews were "filthy,""unclean," "like a maggot in a rotting corpse."28His reaction formation
26 Anna Freud, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (New York, I964). He used
"denial" to get rid of unwelcome facts by declaring that they did not exist: he denied that
Russian tank production was as great as statistics showed. He "restricted the ego" by
carefully choosing "outside stimuli": he chose, for example, a chauffeur who was
shorter than he was and his entourage included several cripples(Julius Schaub, a secretary,
limped badly; his court photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, was a hunchback; and
Goebbels had a club foot) (see OSS Source Book, 912); he chose associates he could
dominate; when he could not succeed as an artist, he chose to become a politician and,
when he failed in that, he told Speer that he had always wanted to be an artist. He used
"denial by fantasy": as a youth he lived in a dream world; at the end in Berlin he conducted imaginary armies and plotted their progress on a road map as it disintegrated in
his sweaty hands. He "identified with the aggressor": he feared the Jews and therefore
adopted what he thought were their own methods, the use of cunning, deceit, and
cruelty-hence the importance to him of the bogus "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"
which proved to him that his fantasies of a "Jewish Peril" were justified. He "reverted"
to childhood by remaining infantile in his tastes, in his political beliefs, and in his temper
tantrums. On the ego and its defenses, in addition to Anna Freud, see Heinz Hartmann,
"Comments on the Psychoanalytic Theory of the Ego," PsychoanalyticStudy of the Child,
X (I950), 74-96; Norbert Bromberg, "Totalitarian Ideology as a Defense Technique,"
The Psychoanalytic
Studyof Society,I (1960), 26-38.
27
Zoller, Hitler Privat, 23I.
2-J.I.H.
28
Mein Kampf, 75, I 6, passim.
236
| R. G. L. WAITE
extremeandtook the formof excessive
againstfilthwasappropriately
He washedhishairat leastoncea day,bathedandchanged
cleanliness.
hisunderwear
He was
twicedaily,andscrubbed
hishandsfrequently.29
greatly concernedabout his body odors. One of the reasonshe became
a vegetarianwas because-like BenjaminFranklin30-he believed that
eating meat increasedthe objectionableodor of flatulation,a chronic
complaint of Hitler'swhich he sought to alleviateby taking enormous
quantitiesof "Dr. Gosterschen'sAntigasPills."31These effortsto make
his body odors less objectionablewere linked to his fear that he might
be partJewish.Jews, he insisted,had a peculiarand objectionableodor.32
Hitler also sought to lessenhisfeelingsof guilt through self-punishment-hence his abstentioushabitsand the masochismof his perversion.
It is even conceivablethathe actuallypunishedhimself physicallyto the
point of partialself-castration.33And time and again he promised to
29 Good descriptionsof Hitler'spersonalhabitsandtastesmay be found in the memoirs
of his privatesecretaryin Zoller, HitlerPrivat,and those of his two valets:Heinz Linge,
bei Hitler
"Kronzeuge Linge," and Karl Wilhelm Krause, Zehn Jahre Kammerdiener
(Hamburg,n.d.).
30 Benjamin Franklinwrote a half-seriousletter on the subjectof flatulationto the
Royal Academy of Brussels.The letter, which was never posted, may be found in the
Stevens Collection of the FranklinMss. at the State Department,Washington, D.C.
It readsin part: "He that dines on staleFlesh... shallbe able to afforda Stink that no
Company can tolerate;while he that has lived for some time on Vegetablesonly, shall
have that Breath so pure as to be insensibleto the most delicate Noses and if he can
manageso as to avoid the Report, he may anywheregive vent to his Griefs,unnoticed."
Hitlergave a varietyof reasonsfor becominga vegetarian:it diminishedhis body odors;
it would lengthen his life span ("Elephants,"he observed on one occasion,"don't eat
meat."); it was strongly recommendedby Richard Wagner; it would help to purify
his blood; it would cure constipation;andthe eatingof meatremindedhim of the bodies
of loved ones who had died.
einerPersdnalichkeit
3I H. D. Rihrs, Hitler:Die Zerstorung
(Neckargemiind,I965), 96.
The pills containedstrychnineand atropine.
32 Testimony of Reinhold Hanisch, OSS Source Book, 73. See also Mein Kampf:
"... the smell of these caftan wearers often made me ill" (75).
33 A classical discussion of the relationship between feelings of guilt and unconscious
desires for self-punishment is given in Sigmund Freud's paper of I916, "Some CharacterTypes Met with in Psychoanalytic Work," CollectedPapers(London, 1925), IV, 3 I8-344.
See also Ives Hendrick, "Unconscious Guilt and Punishment Phantasies," Facts and
Theories in Psychoanalysis (New York, 1939). My suggestion about self-castration is
speculative. The official autopsy performed on Hitler's body on May 8, 1945 by leading
Soviet pathologists shows that one of Hitler's testicles was missing: "The left testicle
could not be found either in the scrotum or on the spermatic cord inside the inguinal
canal, or in the small pelvis." (The full report is reprinted in Lev Bezymenski, The Death
SovietArchives[New York, 1968], 44-49.) If
of AdolfHitler: UnknownDocumentsfrom
mutilation had taken place, one would normally expect to find evidence of scar tissue on
the scrotum. But in this case the whole area was singed and burned. As a child and young
man Hitler apparently had been normal organically. The family doctor who examined
ADOLF
HITLER
S GUILT
FEELINGS
237
commitsuicide,the ultimatemasochistic
dissolution.
Amongthemany
childishgameshe playedwasa formof substitute
suicide.Hitlerdisliked
tyinghis own necktieandorderedhisvaletto do it for him. He would
hold his breathduringthe processand count slowly to ten. If Linge
him during adolescencereports no abnormality.(Dr. Edward Bloch, "My Patient,
Hitler," Collier'sMagazine[MarchI5 and March22, 1941].) And Hitler'sroommatein
Viennais emphatic:"I must categoricallyassertthat Adolf, in physicalas well as sexual
respects,was absolutelynormal."(AugustKubizek,TheYoungHitlerIKnew[Cambridge,
Mass.,I955], 299.) Afterhe reachedmaturity,Hitler'ssensitivityaboutbeing seennaked
may have a bearingon the question.He neverpermitteda doctorto give him a complete
physicalexamination,and he never allowed his valets to enter his bedroom. Given the
extent of Hitler'smasochism,it isjust possiblethathe mutilatedhimselfas an adult. Such
casesarecertainlynot uncommon among people with Hitler'stype ofpsychopathology.
(See Norman Reider, "Self Mutilationin Paranoia,"Journalof KansasMedicalSociety,
XXXVII [April I936], 133-136; Nolan Lewis, "Psychobiologyof the CastrationReaction," PsychoanalyticReview, XIV and XV [1927 and I928], 420-446; 53-84; 174-209;
304-323). By contrast,congenitalmonorchidism(the absenceat birth of a testicle) is
extraordinarilyrare.Indeedonly six caseshave ever been reportedin the entirehistory
of medicine.(J. KillingerBarney and Howard I. Suby, "Abnormalitiesof the Scrotum
and Testicles,"in Lewis'Practiceof Surgery[New York, 1955],IX Ii.) The possibilityof
self-castrationis also suggestedby other evidence. Hitler showed a continualand profound anxiety about castration.Psychologically,such fearsare evidenceof a deeperfear
(and, at the same time, analystswould say, a masochisticdesire)that he might actually
carryout the fantasy.Castrationanxiety manifestsitselfin many ways, but, becausethe
head representsthe penis, patientsmost notably dwell on the theme of heads and decapitationand may show a specificfascinationwith the Medusalegend. (See especially
SigmundFreud,"Medusa'sHead," CollectedPapers[London,I950], V, IO5-I06.)Hitler
was intriguedby heads and decapitation.He promised that when he came to power,
"headswill roll in the sand."When he flippeda coin to determinewhetherhe would go
on a picnic, headsdid not win. Headsinvariablylost. His elite SS wore the death'shead
as theirinsignia.When askedwhat he would do upon firstlandingin Englandhe replied
without hesitationthat he wanted most to see the place where Henry VIII chopped off
the heads of his wives. Both as a boy and as a man his favorite doodling was to draw
human heads (Testimony of a boyhood acquaintance,Wilhelm Hagmiiller, who had
been a boarderin the Hitler household on Humboldstrasse,Linz [OLA, Hitler Akten,
Folder 56]); Baldurvon Shirachrecallsthat aftermealsthe Fiihrerwould sit "Drawing
on one of the little cardshe alwayshad with him-mostly headsof men and women."
("Ichglaubtean Hitler,"serializedmemoirsin Stern[July23, I967].) Severaldrawingsof
the headshave been preservedin the Libraryof Congress,ManuscriptDivision. When
Hitler designeda sort of promissorynote for the Partyin the mid-I92os, he showed an
idealizedGermanwarriorholding in his right hand a sword drippingblood, while, in
his left, he held the severedhead of a woman suspendedby her blond hair. Under the
picturein heavy gothic type is printed,"Warriorof the Truth, Beheadthe Lie." It is to
be noted that the warrioris enjoinednot to fight, not to pierce, but to decapitatethe
young lady. (A photostatof the promissorynote may be found in the Libraryof Congress, Prints and PhotographsDivision, Folder 568.) Hitler was infatuatedwith the
Medusa.He once expressedgreatenthusiasmfor the mosaicMedusaheadin the rotunda
of the University of Munich; one of his favoritepaintings,by Franzvon Stuck, was a
sinister,flashing-eyedMedusa.When Hitler first saw the paintingin a book in Hanf-
238
[ R. G. L. WAITE
couldfinishthe knot beforeHitlerhad finishedcounting,the Fiihrer
was greatlyrelieved.34
AdolfHitleralsoindulgedin a formof self-punishment
whichmay
As McRandlewasfirstto
havehadimportanthistoricalconsequences.
suggest,Hitlerpunishedhimselfby unconsciousdesiresfor failureand
asa remarkable
Of course,hislife canbe seenquitedifferently,
defeat.35
a
an
hero
neurotic
with
successstory,
unlikely
playedby
dropoutof
LinzandViennawho hadfailedin allhis undertakings
andbeenjailed
at the startof hispoliticalcareer,butwho, withina decade,becamethe
masterof Germanyand then arbiterof Europe.Historiansareclearly
gifts and brilliantvicjustifiedin dwellingon Hitler'sextraordinary
staengl'shome he exclaimed, "Those eyes are the eyes of my mother!" (Hanfstaengl
interview,Munich,June 1967.)When he designedhis giganticdeskfor the new Chancellory in Berlin, three headsadornedthe greatfront panels.One of them was the head of
Medusacomplete with the writhing snakesemerging from her hair. (A picture of the
desk may be seen in Die KunstimDrittenReich,3. Jahrgang,1939,413.) On at leasttwo
occasionswhen talkingto foreign dignitarieshe made a specialpoint of insistingthat the
of Germans.(See the memoirs of the
so-called"Polishatrocities"includedthe castration
Swiss historianwho servedas the Leagueof Nations' High Commissionerfor Danzig,
CarlJ. Burckhardt,MeineDanzigerMission,1937-1939[Munich, 1960], 345, and of the
French Ambassadorto Germany, Robert Coulondre, Von MoskaunachBerlin,Erin[Bonn, I950], 422.) There is another aspect of
nerungendesfranzosischenBotschafters
Hitler'spersonalitywhich lends supportto the possibilityof self-mutilation.One of the
Most people shieldor disguise
of Hitlerwas his literal-mindedness.
strikingcharacteristics
theirfantasies;Hitler carriedhis out: he not only dreamedabout being a greatarchitect;
he actuallydrew up hundredsof detailedarchitecturalplans;when he wanted to "wipe
out" the memory of his grandmother'svillage, he had Dollersheim obliterated(see
above, 232); when he spokeof annihilatingtheJews, he was not being merelyrhetorical;
his concernabout suicidewas acted out by holding his breathwhile his valet tightened
his tie. Thus psychologicalevidenceas well as physiologicalsuggeststhe possibilitythat
Hitler actedout his fear-and masochisticcompulsion-of castrationby actuallymutilating himself. It should be said, however, that Norbert Bromberg, a distinguished
psychiatristwho has followed Hitler's careerclosely, rejectsthis hypothesis.He thinks
it far more likely that the missing left testicle was the result neither of monorchidism
nor self-mutilationbut of cryptorchism(an undescendedtesticle.) The absence of the
testicle in the inguinal canal or the small pelvis as reported in the autopsy could be
accountedfor by acute atrophywhich could have renderedthe undescendedtesticleso
small as to have gone unnoticedby the Russian doctors whose primary purpose was
to find the cause of Hitler's death, and not to investigate his genitalia. Further,Dr.
Bromberg doubts that Hitler was sufficientlysick to perform the psychotic act of selfcastration.In a forthcoming article Bromberg uses the studies of Peter Blos on the
psychologicalconsequencesof cryptorchismto conclude that Hitler's personalityfits
the patternwhich Blos has found in his patients.Blomberg may well be right. I have
neverthelesslet stand my conjectureof the possibilityof self-mutilation.
34 Linge, "KronzeugeLinge."
35 I am much indebtedfor this discussionto JamesMcRandle'sperceptivestudy, The
Trackof the Wof':EssaysonNationalSocialismandItsLeader,AdolfHitler(Evanston,I965).
ADOLF
HITLER
S GUILT FEELINGS
| 239
tories. And yet there is a curiouspatternof behaviorthat also needs to
this very complexpersonality.
be noted in attemptingto understand
Hitler
with failureandinvolvedhimhis
flirted
Adolf
life,
Throughout
in situationsthatwerefraughtwith dangerto himself
selfunnecessarily
andhismovement.
school,AdolfhadhadanexcelDuringhisfirstyearsin elementary
andranaway
lentrecord,buthe failedto get a diplomafromRealschule
to Vienna.He failedhis firstexaminationfor the academyof art,and,
when given a secondchance,he did not applyhimselfand faileda
second time. His first bid for power in I923 shows a similarpatternof
choosing the alternatives least likely to succeed. Throughout the
summer of 1923 he made no plans for seizing political power. He
gratuitously insulted the leading military figures of Bavaria and
Germany,GeneralsFranzRitter von Epp, Otto von Lossow, and Hans
von Seeckt-men whose supportor neutralitywas indispensableto him
if he planneda coup.36Having failedto make preparations,he suddenly
calledforth a greatnationalrevolutionwhich had no chanceof success,
loudly promising either total victory or suicide. Instead,he ran away
and hid in the summer home of a Harvard graduate, "Putzi" Hanfstaengl. Arrested and confronted by political disaster,he extricated
himself by brilliantdemogoguery.
Hitler's record during the "seizure of power" in 1920-1933 is
usually considered brilliant, perhaps because it was successful. And
surelythere were signs of both enormousenergy and political acumen.
But thereis also evidence of politicalmistakesso glaringas to suggestan
unconsciousdesirefor failure.He went out of his way, for example, to
alienatethe one great political force he needed to mollify, and ran for
the presidencyagainstPresidentField-MarshalPaul von Hindenburg.
Hitler'ssuccessin 1933 was due at least as much to the stupiditiesand
failures of Weimar's political leaders as it was to his own efforts.
Similarly, however one interpretshis foreign policy, it can be
viewed as an invitation to disaster.Three differinginterpretationsmay
be considered.First,if A. J. P. Taylor is right in insistingthat all Hitler
really wanted was a negotiatedrevision of Versailles,then the methods
he employed to attain that end were indeed "singularly inappro36 For viciousandunwarrantedattackson von Seecktandthe total absenceofpreparafor the period 27 Septembertions for a seizure of power see VolkischerBeobachter
8 November, I923. For Hitler'sfailureto organizeand alertthe SA about the Putschsee
an dieFriihzeitderPartei
Albert Krebs, TendenzenundGestaltenderNSDAP: Erinnertlngen
(Stuttgart, I959).
240
| R. G. L. WAITE
priate."37Second,if we areto supposethat Hitler wanted only a limited
war againstPoland to gain Danzig and the corridor,certainlyhis bellicose speechesagainstthe Western powers, his atrocitiesagainsttheJews
and other minorities, and his broken promises to Chamberlainshow
him proceeding in ways unlikely to isolate Poland and most likely to
assurehis victim of strong allies.Finally,let us supposehe reallyplotted
the great war of European conquest that he had promised in Mein
Kampf, again in 1925,38 in his second book of 1928, and in a dozen
speeches. If so, he made inadequatepreparationsfor fighting such a
war.39He got himselfinvolved in a generalconflictagainstthe Western
powers and still promisedtotal victory or total destruction.Once more,
largely throughintuition, skill, and luck, he was victoriousin the West.
Then he decided to attack Russia at the very time that it was trying
desperatelyto appeasehim by shipping Germanythousandsof tons of
supplies.While his offensive against the U.S.S.R. falteredand failed,
Hitler suddenly declared war on the United States, the greatest industrialpower on earth. Thus it was Hitler who took the initiative in
bringing about the kind of global war he could not conceivably win.
And during those titanic years from I94I-I944 Hitler dawdled and
dithered over the crucial question of a war economy for Germany.
Economic mobilization was not really declared until the autumn of
I944, that is, until well after"FortressEuropa"had been breachedfrom
the West and Russia was counter-attackingalong a thousandmiles of
the EasternFront. Only then, when it was much too late, did Hitler
hesitatingly,move in the directionof full economic mobilization.But
he could never bring himself to give clear ordersfor a complete war
economy.40
37 McRandle, Track of the Wolf, 200.
38 Albert Speer was astonished to learn that Hitler's sketch for a great triumphal arch
to dwarf the Arc de Triomphe had been made in 1925. He told an interviewer, "Now I
think you will see what I mean by the connection between his blueprints and his aggression. For the historians must ask themselves, 'Where was Adolf Hitler, the unknown,
in I925?"' (Quoted in James P. O'Donnell, "The Devil's Architect," New York Times
Magazine [October 26, 1969], 90.)
39 General Halder's diary shows clearly the deficiencies of munitions in 1939. There
were monthly shortages of 600,000 tons of steel, and no major improvements with
respect to a bad situation in powder could be expected before I941. Munitions in general
were in such short supply that no large-scale combat was possible. "Supply was sufficient
for only one-third of the available divisions for fourteen days. Current production was
just enough to keep the same one-third active." Halder's diary, 93-94, 99, cited in
Harold C. Deutsch, The Conspiracy
AgainstHitler in the Twilight War (Minneapolis,
1968), I90.
40 Alan S. Milward, The GermanEconomy at War (London, 1965), I06. Milward concludes, "Even in I944, when German armament production was so high, the economy
ADOLF
HITLER
S GUILT
FEELINGS
[ 241
In theend,ashe haddoneso oftenin hislife,he ranawayandhid,
this time in his air-raidshelterin Berlin.He killedhimselfby taking
poisonandhavinghis brideperformthe coupdegrace.4I
a lineof action
Throughouthiscareer,Hitlerseldomcontemplated
which characterized
withoutthinkingof defeat.The disjunctives
his
of
failure
the
and
of
almost
included
possibility
invariably
thought
suicide.Typically,in the midstof the BeerHall Putsch,he turnedto
Gustavvon Kahr,Lossow,andHansvon Seisserandsaid,"Youmust
be victoriouswith me or die with me. If thingsgo wrong,I havefour
bulletsin my pistol:threefor my fellowworkersif theydesertme, the
lastbulletis for me."4zHe contemplated
failureand suicideon many
other occasions:while hiding at the Hanfstaenglsummerhome in 1923;
in 1931afterthe suicideof his
uponhis arrivalin 1924 at Landsberg;
niece, "Geli" Raubal; in 1932 if he were not appointedchancellor;in
1936 if the occupation of the Rhineland failed; and on many other
occasions.43
Even at the very height of pre-warsuccesshe was concernedabout
failure.On November Io, 1938, for example,he addressedthe German
press in what should have been a moment of triumph. His first big
had been executedwith the
pogrom againsttheJews in the Kristallnacht
of
the
German
acquiescence
people. During the preceding months he
had enjoyed a seriesof other victories: the reintroductionof universal
military training; the reoccupationof the Rhineland; the highly successfulplebisciteapprovinghis withdrawalfrom the Leagueof Nations;
Anschlusswith Austria;and most recently the triumph of the Munich
agreement.And yet his speech of November io is studdedwith fore-
could not be called a full war economy." A perceptive discussion of the problem of
defining German "war economy" and "economic mobilization" is given in Berenice A.
in the ThirdReich(The Hague, 1968).
Carroll,Designfor Total War:ArmsandEconomics
Mrs. Carroll would seem to set the time of a war economy earlier than Milward, dating
it from the appointment of Albert Speer in 1942. But she notices that, even after Speer
was made Reich Minister for Weapons and Munitions, there already existed five
different "supreme Reich authorities," each with independent power over German war
production, and that Hitler continued to refuse to give orders for total economic
mobilization for war. (Ibid., 232, 239, 249.)
41 For a new interpretation of the death of Hitler, see my discussion in "Adolf Hitler's
Anti-Semitism."
42 Quoted in Werner Masur, Die Friihgeschichteder NSDAP: Hitlers Weg bis 1924
(Frankfurt am Main, 1965), 446.
43 OSS Report, 67.
242
| R. G. L. WAITE
boding. The words Angst, Riickschlag,Niederlage, and Misserfolg were
very much on his mind:
I musttellyou thatI oftenhaveone singlemisgiving
... I becomealmost
anxious.... I havehadnothingbut successes,
butwhatwouldhappenif
I were to sufferafailure? Yes, Gentlemen,even that can happen.... How
would [the masses]act if we ever had afailure? Formerly, Gentlemen,it
was my greatest pride that I built up a party that even in time of defeat
stood behind me....44
Certainlyin sending first his lawyer and then the Gestapo to investigatethe racialpurity of his own family he was taking an enormous
risk. Psychologicallyhe had basedhis very identity as a person on the
projection of his own feelings of guilt, inadequacy,failure, and perversion onto theJews; politically,he had stakedhis entirecareeron the
principle of Aryan superiorityand the terrible threat of the "Jewish
Peril" from which he was defending Western civilization. If his investigators had found that Hitler's own grandfather had been a Jew, he
could have been ruined by this disaster to both his psyche and his life
work.
Incidents surrounding the launching of World War II also suggest
preoccupation with prospects of failure. Albert Speer recalls that on the
night of August 24, 1939, when Hitler's pact with Stalin-which gave
him a free hand to attack the West-was announced, the Fiihrer met
with a small group of intimates at his "Eagle's Nest" overlooking
Berchtesgaden. The group stood out on the balcony to watch a spectacular display of Northern Lights as they pulsated and throbbed above
the Bavarian Alps. The dominant color was red, and the skies and
mountains and the faces and hands of the watchers were washed in
scarlet. Hitler saw an omen in the eery and foreboding light. He turned
apprehensively to his military aide and said: "This time we won't make
it without using force."45
The complexities and contradictions of Hitler's personality are
shown clearly in his conduct of the war. He displayed a great capacity
for innovation in his use of armor and airpower; and his military campaigns against Poland and the West were smashing triumphs. Further,
Hitler's successes as a tactician were, in the early years of the war,
matched by remarkable strategic insight. Indeed, a distinguished British
44 The text is given in Wilhelm Treue, "Dokumentation: Rede Hitlers vor der
deutschenPresse, o1 November I938," Vierteljahrshefte
6. Jahrgang
fur Zeitgeschichte,
(1958); see esp. 188-189. (Italics are mine.)
45 Speeras quoted in O'Donnell, "Devil's Architect,"88. (Italicsare mine.)
ADOLF HITLER S GUILT FEELINGS
243
militaryanalysthas concludedthat "No strategistin historyhasbeen
more cleverin playingon the mindsof his opponents-whichis the
supremeartof strategy."46
All thisis true.Hitler,it bearsrepeating,couldactwith devastating
andhis militaryabilitiesandvictoriesshouldnot be diseffectiveness,
careerwas
Yet
paraged. here too are suggestionsthathis remarkable
besetby unconsciousdesiresto punishhimselfin the very midst of
success.Therewasthecuriousrefusalto presshisadvantageatDunkirk.
Therewas the long hesitationandinactionafterthe fall of France-a
timewhen "Thewaveof conquestbrokeon theshoalsof delayandindecision."47Month after month during the critical summer of I940,
Hitler continuedto violate the cardinalprincipleof Clausewitz,an
authorityhe had studiedso avidly:"Oncethe greatvictoryis gained
thereshouldbe no talkof rest,of gettingbreath,or of consolidation,
etc.,but only of pursuit... of attacking . .."48
Insteadof concentratinghis forces againsthis only remaining
woundedEngland,Hitlerturnedto
enemy,anisolatedanddesperately
courthisNemesis.He senthisarmies-withoutwinterissue-marching
into Russia.Thathe set the datefor invasionin 1941on the precise
of Napoleon'sill-fatedcampaign(June22) is perhapscoanniversary
It is
incidental,butwhy didhe choosethe code-nameof "Barbarossa"?
as a crusader
true that Hitlersaw himself,like FrederickBarbarossa,
whosemissionit was to destroyan infidelEasternenemy;49but,asan
46 Sir Basil Liddell Hart, "Hitler as War Lord," Encounter,XXX (1968), 70.
47 Telford Taylor, The March of Conquest: The GermanVictoriesin WesternEurope, 1940
(New York, 1958), 366.
48 Quoted in ibid., 369. Taylor disagrees with Liddell Hart and argues that in his
western campaigns Hitler showed brilliance as a military tactician but gross inadequacy
as a strategist.
49 Hitler, although personally terrified of horses, approved a portrait of himself by
Hubert Lanzinger depicting him as a knight in shining armor mounted on a great stallion
and holding aloft the banner of the Nazi cross. He also may have felt drawn to Barbarossa because he liked to think of himself as immortal. According to German legend,
the great Barbarossa had never died; through the centuries he lay in a secret cave sleeping
an enchanted sleep. One day, when Germany needed him most, he would arise in glory
and establish peace and power in Germany. Some said the cavern was located in the
Kyffhausser at the edge of the Harz Mountains. Others said that it was in the Bavarian
Alps near Berchtesgaden. (James Westfall Thompson and Edgar N. Johnson, An Introduction to Medieval Europe [New York, 1937], 407.) Hitler seems to have preferred the
second location. His interest in immortality was shown in his plans for a gigantic Adolf
Hitler Mausoleum which would dwarf the Frauenkirche and last, he said, "until the end
of time." His personal sketch of the plans dated 2I June 1939 may be found in the
Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich. (See also the excellent unpublished monograph by Armand
Dehlinger, "Architektur der Superlative: Eine Kritische Betrachtung der N.S. Bauprogramme von Miinchen und Niirnberg," typescript, Institut fir Zeitgeschichte,
244
R. G. L. WAITE
avidreaderof history,50
Hitlerknewthatthe mostnotablethingabout
Barbarossa
was thathe was a failure.He had failedin five campaigns
theHoly Roman
againsttheLombardtowns;he hadfailedto centralize
Empire;he hadfailedto obtainhisobjectivesduringtheThirdCrusade.
And he had diedby drowning.AdolfHitlerwas pathologicallyafraid
of the water,5'andhadnightmaresaboutlossof breathandstrangulation.52Moreover,the wordsHitlerusedin announcingtheinvasionof
Russiaareworth remembering."Theworld,"he said,"will hold its
WhenAdolfHitlerheldhisbreathandcountedto tenwhile
breath."53
his valet tied his tie, he was symbolicallyenactingsuicideand selfdestruction.
Hitleralsosoughtto dullhisfeelingsof guiltby a kindof "introjection"
in whichhe took uponhimselfthe role of a greatmoralandreligious
a new reHe saw himselfas a messiahwho was establishing
leader.54
ligionandleadinga greatcrusadeagainstthe cosmicforcesof evil, that
It is not
is, the incarnateevil of "theinternational
Jewishconspiracy."
himself
to
Hitler
to
find
therefore,
veryseriouslycomparing
surprising,
"In
a
about
him
with
as
he
lashed
on
He
said
one
occasion,
whip,
Jesus.
drivingout theJewsI remindmyselfofJesusin the temple";55 andon
another,"LikeChrist,I have a duty to my own people.. ."56He con-
sideredhimselfbetrayedby ErnstRohm in 1934anddrewthe analogy
to thebetrayalofJesus,saying,"Amongthe twelveapostles,therewas
also a Judas...
"57
Munich, n.d.) Upon visiting Napoleon's tomb after the fall of France, Hitler commented, "My life will not end in the mere form of death. It will, on the contrary, begin
then." (OSS Source Book, 4Io.)
50 See the books on medieval German history that Hitler borrowed from Friedrich
Krohn during the years I9I9-I921. (Dokument 7 S 89, Institut fiir Zeitgeschichte, Archiv,
Munich.)
51 Personal interview with Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, Munich, May 1967.
52 See materials collected in OSS Report, 135.
53 Nuremberg Document, 872-PS, Trial of the Major War Criminals (Nuremberg,
I947), Documents in Evidence, XXVI, 396.
54 On the processes of introjection and identification see Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (New York, I945), 37, Io3, Io9; Nathan W. Ackerman and
andEmotionalDisorder:A Psychoanalytic
MariaJahoda,Anti-Semitism
Interpretation
(New
York, 1950), 68.
55 See the manuscript "Adolf Hitler," a special report compiled, presumably, by the
OSS, marked "Personal-Confidential" and given to President Roosevelt. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York, typescript (I942), 35-36.
56 See the semi-official biography by Georg Schott, Das Volksbuchvon Hitler (Munich,
1941), 74.
57 Domarus, Reden, I, 446.
ADOLF
HITLER
S GUILT FEELINGS
| 245
Thathe sawhimselfasthespecialagentof Godandidentifiedwith
Him was made manifeston many occasions:
of a
I go thewaythatProvidence
formewithalltheassurance
dictates
sleepwalker.58
to Hiswill.And
Godhascreated
thispeopleandit hasgrownaccording
Willen]it shallremainandnevershall
accordingto ourwill [nachunserem
it passaway.59
I believethatit wasGod'swillthatfromher[Austria]
aboywassentinto
of thenation.60
theReichandthathegrewupto becometheLeader
Lord's
work.61
I
am
for
the
off
the
By warding
Jews,
fighting
of his partyandhis Reich after
Hitlerpatternedthe organization
the Roman CatholicChurch,whichhadimpressedhim so muchas a
young boy.62He saw himself as a political Pope with an apostolicsuc-
cessionwhen he announcedto a closedmeetingof the faithfulin the
BrownHouseduringI930,"Iherebysetforthfor myselfandmy sucof the NationalSocialistDemocraticPartythe
cessorsin theleadership
I hopetheworldwill growasaccustomed
claimof politicalinfallibility.
The oathof
to thatclaimas it hasto the claimof the Holy Father."63
of the special
directobedienceto the Fiihrerwasstrikinglyreminiscent
oaththeJesuitssworeto thePope,andHitlerspokeof hiseliteSS,who
wore the sacred4164 and dressedin black,as a Societyof Jesus,from
which, he said, he had learnedso much.65
The boltsof excommunication
andanathemawhichHitlerhurled
not unlikethoseof a Gregory
and
heretics
were
non-believers
against
VII:
Woeto themwhodonotbelieve.Thesepeoplehavesinned... against
hasbeensaved.Today
allof life.... Itisa miracle
of faiththatGermany
thisNational
remember
to
morethaneverit is the dutyof theParty
58 Speechof 14 March 1936 in Munich, quoted in ibid.,I8.
59 Speechof 3 July 1937 in Breslau,ibid.(Italicsare mine.)
60 Speech of 9 April I938 in Vienna, ibid.
6i Mein Kampf,84.
62 His rivalrywith his fatheris brought out in an interestingpassage.After expressing
his admirationfor Churchfestivalshe writes, "It was perfectlynaturalthat the position
of abbotappearedto me to be the highestidealobtainable,just as thatof being the village
pastorhad appealedto my father."(Ibid.,7.)
63 Krebs, TendenzenundGestalten,123.
64 For a discussionof the relationshipbetween the symbol, 44,to Hitler'smovement,
see my "Adolf Hitler'sAnti-Semitism."
65
Hecr, Der Glaube, 302.
246 [ R. G. L. WAITE
Socialist Confession of Faith [Glaubensbekenntnis]
and to bear it forward
as ourholy [heiliges]
signof our battleandourvictory.66
Hitler chose a cross as the symbol and sign of his movement.
The Nazis, like the Catholics, had their prophets, saints, and
martyrs.Hitler'sfollowers who fell during the Beer Hall Putsch were
sanctifiedby Hitler when he said, in dedicating their memorial, that
their deathwould bring forth "a true belief in the Resurrectionof their
people ... the blood that they shed has become the baptismalwater of
the Third Reich."67The annualNazi march on November 9 from the
Biirgerbraiikellerto the Feldherrnhallewas a studied re-enactmentof
the stationsof the cross combined with the PassionPlay. The analogy
was made clear by the stresson "the blood that was shed for the redemption of the Fatherland."68
Hitler'sholy reliquarywas the Brown House which containedthe
sacredBlood Flagwhich had been born by the martyrsof November 9.
It was Hitler and Hitler alone who could perform the priestlyritual of
touching the Blood Flag to the standardsof the Brown Shirts.
Hitler substituted Nazi high holy days for traditionalreligious
holidays. They includedJanuary30, the day Hitler came to power in
the year he referred to as "the Holy Year of our Lord, I933,"69 and
April 20, the Leader'sown birthdayand the day when the Hitler Youth
were confirmedin the faith. The holiest day, however, and one which
served as a kind of Nazi Good Fridaywas November 9, celebratedas
the Blood Witness [Blutzeugen]of the movement.
Religions requiredevils. For National Socialism,theJewish people
played that part, and Hitler insisted that the German people could
achieve salvation only after they had destroyed the Jew who was, in
Hitler's words, "the personificationof the Devil" and the "symbol of all
evil."70 The concept was made unmistakablyvivid in the childish
rhyme:
Wer kenntdenJude
Kenntden Teufel.71
66 Ibid., 3 6.
67 See Hans Muller, "Der pseudoreligi6se Charakter der nationalsozialistischen
Weltanschauung," Geschichtein Wissenschaftund Unterricht(1961), Heft 6, 345.
68 Hans-Jochen Gamm, Der brauneKult (Hamburg, 1962).
69 Muller, "Der pseudoreligi6se Charakter," 345.
70 Quoted in Ernst Simmel (ed.), Anti-Semitism: A Social Disease (New York, 1946),
38-39. (Italics are in the original.)
71 Gamm, Der brauneKult, 184.
ADOLF
HITLER
S GUILT FEELINGS
247
Hitler also provided a sacredbook for his new religion, and Mein
Kanipfreplacedthe Bible as the traditionalwedding presentgiven to all
young Aryans. The close parallelbetween Christiancommitment to
God and the sacredoath of allegianceto Hitler is best seen in a description of public oath-taking recorded in the Nazi newspaper, WestdeutscherBeobachter:
"Yesterdaywitnessedthe professionof the Religion
of the Blood in all its imposing reality.... Whoever has sworn his oath
of allegianceto Hitler has pledged himself unto death to this sublime
idea."72
It is true that Hitler sometimes told his intimates that he did not
wish to be deified,73but he did little to stop his followers from exalting
him as saviour and messiah. Indeed, he directly approved the patent
paganismand Fiihrerworship of the Warthegauchurchas a model for
the church he planned after the war.74And he did not object to the
following version of the Lord'sPrayerwhich was recitedby the League
of GermanGirls:
Adolf Hitler,you areour greatleader
Thy namemakesthe enemytremble.
Thy ThirdReich comes,thy will aloneis law
upon earth.Let us heardailythy voice and
orderus by thy leadership,
for we will obey
to the end, even with ourlives.
We praisethee! Heil Hitler!75
It is to be noted that prayerswere given not only for the Fiihrer,but to
him as a deity.
In speeches and soliloquies, and in ways he may not have been
aware, Hitler himself spoke in the very words of Christ and the
scriptures-thereby revealinga considerableknowledge of the Bible. A
few exampleswill sufficehere: In dedicatingthe House of GermanArt
in Munich he observed,"Man does not live by breadalone."76In talking to the Brown Shirts on January 30, I936, he echoed the words of
Jesusto his disciplesas recordedin St. John's Gospel,77saying, "I have
72
Quoted inJ. S. Conway, The Nazi Persecutionof the Churches:1933-1945 (New York,
I968), I45ff.
73 Hasselbach Memorandum, "Hitlers Einstellung zum Christentum" (Bundesarchiv,
Bestand 441-443). See also the testimony of Albert Speer as given in O'Donnell, "The
Devil's Architect," 47.
74 See Conway, Nazi Persecution,3 1, 351-352, passim.
75 Miller, "Der pseudoreligiose Charakter," 341.
76 Quoted in Heer, Der Glaube, 266.
77
See St. John's Gospel 14:20; 15:5; 20:19-31.
248
R. G. L. WAITE
cometo know thee.Who thouart,thouartthroughme, andall I am,
I amthroughthee."78
He remindedone of hisdisciplesthat"Ihavenot
In a publicspeechin
cometo Germanyto bringpeacebut a sword."79
Grazin I938 he announced,"GodAlmightyhas createdthe Nation.
And whatthe Lordhasjoinedtogetherlet not Manset asunder."80
He was particularly
proneto Biblicalquotationswhen talkingto
the HitlerYouth.On September5, I934,he told them,"Youareflesh
of ourfleshandbloodof ourblood."8IIn 1932he advisedthemeither
to be "hot or cold, but the lukewarmshouldbe damnedand spewed
fromyourmouth."82The phrasingis too closeto the New Testament
to be coincidental.The Revelationof St. John reads:"I know thy
works,thatthou artneithercold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or
hot. So then,becausethou artlukewarm,andneithercold nor hot, I
will spewtheeout of my mouth."83
Duringone of the lastsupperswith his followers,Hitlerinvited
themto eatof theirLeader's
body,askingthemif theywouldlikesome
blood sausagemadefrom his own blood.84In effecthe was saying,
"Take,eat:thisis my body,whichis brokenfor you...."
The defensemechanismusedby AdolfHitlerthathadthe greatesthistoricalconsequence
wasthatof projection.Hitlermadehisown feelings
of guiltmorebearableby shiftingthefingerof guiltawayfromhimself
andpointingit atJews.Allporthasgiven a succinctdescriptionof the
processand has shown the connectionbetweenguilt and self-hatred
with the needfor projection:
Thehatedscapegoat
is merelya disguise
forpersistent
andunrecognized
self-hatred.
A viciouscircleis established.
Themorethesufferer
hates
thelesssureheis of his... inhimself,themorehehatesthescapegoat,
nocence;hencethemoreguilthehasto project.85
It needsto be emphasizedthatin Hitler'scaseboth the degreeof
amountof projectedhatredwere of
self-hatred
andthe corresponding
78 Quoted in Heer, Der Glaube, 262.
79 "Adolf Hitler," FDR Library. Compare Matthew o1:34: "Think not that I am
come to send peace but a sword."
80 Heer, Der Glaube, 34I. Compare Matthew I9:6: "What therefore God has joined
together, let not men put asunder."
81. The words are recorded in the well-known Nazi propaganda film, Der Triumphdes
Willens.
82 Domarus, Reden, I, 6I.
83 Revelations, 3:I5-I6.
84 Zoller, Hitler Privat, 232.
85 Gordon W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice(Boston, I954), 389.
ADOLF
HITLER
S GUILT
FEELINGS
249
truly monumental proportions.He hatedJews for many reasonsand
accusedthem of every conceivablecrime. But never did he become "so
emotional, so arbitraryand so absurd"86as when he fulminatedagainst
Jewish sex crimes, incest, and perversion-precisely those sexual aberrationsabout which he felt personallyso guilty. The direct projection
onto theJews of guilt felt as the resultof his own perversionsis shown
in an incident in 1938 involving the dismissalof GeneralWerner von
Blomberg as Minister of Defense. Hitler expressedoutraged shock at
the disclosurethat the generalhad marrieda formerprostitute.He used
the scandalas an excuse for dismissingan uncooperativegeneral, and
had the Gestapo collect incriminatingevidence against Frau General
Blomberg. They supplied him with photographswhich showed her
plying her profession by participatingin various forms of deviant
sexual activity. A man who has seen the photographssays that they
were of "the most shocking depravity."87What concerns us here is
Hitler'sinstinctivereactionupon firstseeingthe pictures.He saidat once
that the male partnerin the photographs"musthavebeenofJewish extraction."He then became "absolutelyconvulsed by the wildest antiSemitic outpouringhe had ever given vent to in his entirelife."88
Thus did the Jews become the hated personalenemy of Hitler and
his Reich. In destroyingthe Jewish people, Adolf Hitler was not only
"doing the work of the Lord."He was destroyingthe evil thing which
he felt within himself. This would seem to be the meaning of the
curious comment he once made to Rauschning: "The Jew is always
within us" [DerJudesitzt immerin uns].89
The historicalimportanceof this projectionis clear:The racialantiSemitism which lay at the very core of German fascism and which
producedthe greatestmasshorror of history was, among other things,
a directconsequenceof Adolf Hitler'spersonalfeelingsof guilt and selfhatred.
86
Gertrud Kurth, "The Jew and Adolf Hitler," The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, XVI
(1947),
I-32.
87 Hans Bernd Gisevius, Adolf Hitler: Versucheiner Deutung (Munich, 1963), 383-384.
Gisevius saw the photographs.
88 Ibid., 384. (Italics are mine.)
89 Hermann Rauschning, Gespriche mit Hitler (Zurich, 1947), 233. In the same conversation Hitler referred to Jews as the "invisible demon."