[March 4, 2023] Think briefly about what Adolf Hitler should have done if he wanted to win the war. He would have enslaved the Jews and the Gypsies and worked them all to support his war effort toward victory. Of course, he wanted to liquidate them, but logic would say he would kill them only after he had won. Hitler was more evil than we think.
That is the logical thing to do if you want to win. But that is not necessarily a prudent conjecture about Hitler’s aims. Remember that Hitler was evil, and our assumptions about what he wanted might be wrong. We are in error if we believe that he aimed at the good that he promoted, by his own words, the glorious rise of the Third Reich that would rule for a thousand years.
By his own thinking, what should Hitler have done with the Jews and the Gypsies? Round them up, yes. Put them into concentration camps, yes. Kill them, no! Certainly not. Killing them during the war is counterproductive because he now must devote a substantial proportion of his war resources, especially while he was losing (as was happening in the last two years of the war). Hitler actually accelerated the rate of the killing of Jews and Gypsies.
What happened as Hitler was starting to lose those last two years? He believed the German people had betrayed him with weakness, and he was perfectly willing to accelerate the rate at which Germany was losing the war.
Hitler and his senior leadership under him had a choice during the last years of the war while losing. First, he could suspend his campaign to exterminate the Jews and Gypsies, win the war and then revive his extermination after his victory. Or, second, he could accelerate the mayhem while losing, even if that was grossly counterproductive.
What decision did Hitler make? He chose the latter to accelerate the mayhem of killing. Carl Jung proposes an idea. If you can’t determine why someone is doing something, look at the outcome and infer the motivation. If Hitler was after the extermination, then perhaps he was aiming at it.
This is the thing about warfare. You can attribute much of it to territoriality, a war for resources and glory, and that might just be a simple-mindedly over-exaggerated explanation of the superficiality of war. The idea that we fight over resources and glory is a simplified and inadequate explanation of war. These are often cover stories for real motivation.
Adolf Hitler’s real motivation in the war was the extermination of the Jews and Gypsies, over 6 million deaths, not the Third Reich and its glory. And that is why he was more evil than we think.
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Eek, this is not good but very insightful. 😊😊😊😊😊
Very very insightful, Gen. S.
Many psychologists have tried to unscrew the personality and motivations of Adolf Hitler since during and after WW2. Like Henry A. Murray, former director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, at the behest of the American OSS during the war, he put together a thorough profile that was detailed on Hitler’s youth and abuse by Hitler’s father. Now, once again, we have a reasonable idea that is wrong, that we are determined by our past and we have little control over it, as these Psychologists explain. I disagree and that is why Hitler was more Evil than we can imagine.
Looking that far back is difficult and fraught with challenges. Let’s concentrate on Hitler’s actions and then go from there.
I predict that the liberal insane will try to cancel Gen. Satterfield for writing on this topic. They cannot stand to have someone show a picture of Hitler or to write about his Evil ways. I think so because they can see themselves in Hitler and having someone like the great Gen. Satterfield remind them of it is just too much for their little brains.
As Gen. Satterfield writes, “Adolf Hitler’s real motivation in the war was the extermination of the Jews and Gypsies, over 6 million deaths, not the Third Reich and its glory. And that is why he was more evil than we think.”
I’m surprised. That is why I read Gen. Satterfield’s leadership blog every day.
https://www.theleadermaker.com
Remember that Hitler was evil, and our assumptions about what he wanted might be wrong. We are in error if we believe that he aimed at the good that he promoted, by his own words, the glorious rise of the Third Reich that would rule for a thousand years. He wanted to kill the “disgusting” Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and other “vermin” of the day. Winning the war was a secondary mission for him … and shocking.
It was Hitler’s sense of “disgust.” We should be more aware of that motivation.
And so we were shocked that the German Nazi military machine was still carrying out extermination of the Jews as the Allies were literally rolling up in tanks next to the concentration camps.
Interesting comment, Ron.
😊😎
On a side note here, I wouldn’t be surprised if the local snowflakes came out and had a hissy fit over using a historical photo of Adolf Hitler with a Swastika on his arm. They are triggered by anything that does not fit their narrow narrative of tyranny of the state. And, more importantly, they are more like Hitler than we might think.
………. and those same snowflakes and their political leftist leadership are just fine with killing people who do not believe in them.
God Bless, General Satterfield
Wow, Gen. Satterfield, you never disappoint. Some really serious logic here. And, a bit of philosophizing.
It is obvious, i think, from the perspective of an Army vet that Hitler’s aim was the domination of Europe and eventually most of the world in a quest for the forever Third Reich. He saw the Jews as standing in his way. Now, that said, why did he pick on the gypsies, gays, etc? And not just the Jews? That is because of his disgust over their lives and ultimately why this became his obsession, and not winning the war.
Yes, and I believe that Gen. Satterfield is making this same point and that this is what makes Adolf Hitler more evil than we orginally think or were taught. This part of his Plan is often unspoken. And it is why the Soviet war against the West is also evil.
We truly do not understand the depth of Evil (capital E). We study war strategy, like I did for decades, and yet do not study Evil and its manifestations. That leads us to the point that we are ignorant of Evil leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Xi, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and a long line of Evil leaders.
Thank you, sir!!!!!
Yes, Yes, Yes, we do not spend any real time discussing Evil and what are the parameters of it. Read Dante. Regarded as one of the most important literary works, Dante’s Divine Comedy spans a broad church of themes and styles from the dark, distinctive images presented in his version of Hell to the lyrical mysticism and theology of Paradise. It’s still read, discussed and analysed all around the world.
Right, look at the behavior and infer the reason.
“Carl Jung’s Theories: Archetypes, Personality, & Collective Unconscious”
https://simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html
Good summary and worth reading.
Well said, Army Vet. And I’m a huge fan of yours. Whenever you write your next article, I’ll be there reading it right away.
Excellent article today on a Saturday. Thank you Gen Satterfield.
Right Right Right …… excellent explantion.
Fred, you nailed it with that comment and this is one of the eye openers of my day. Studying history can be an advantage but we need a more and deeper look if we are to extract the important lessons and Gen. Satterfield has given us one of them. Infer motivation from action.
Of course, the snowflakes out there are only interested in their moral crusade and in doing so are more like Hitler than ever before. Strange, they don’t even see what they are doing because their minds are so corrupted by their Marxist ideology. ✔✔✔✔✔
… then you repeat the mistakes of others and fail to learn from them.
But, of course, we are all lazy and will not even if we believe deeply that we should read more about evil (big E) and discover more what EVIL is about and learn that it is different from mere tragedy.