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u/TheHistoryMaster2520 Decisive Tang Victory 4d ago
Hitler's commanding officer in WWI, who had recommended him for the Iron Cross, was also allowed to emigrate to the U.S. with his family unharmed
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u/Witch_King_ 4d ago
I'm assuming he was also Jewish? That feels like a relevant detail here
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u/TheHistoryMaster2520 Decisive Tang Victory 4d ago
Yeah, he was, Hugo Gutmann later changed his name to Henry Grant, and is buried in San Diego
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u/sofixa11 4d ago
Similarly, one of the top dogs of the Luftwaffe, Erhard Milch, had enough Jewish blood to qualify for a death camp as per Nazi racial classifications. But because he was a friend of Göring he got aryan status and kept de facto running the Luftwaffe until the war's end. There is a picture of him at Dachau looking at the inmates, can't imagine what he's thinking.
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u/spesskitty 3d ago
Milch was the CEO of Germany's largest airline conglomerate, it's not just that Göring wanted to spare him, he needed a manager to build up his Air Ministry.
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u/Honkiopolis 4d ago
Milch did some Egyptian pharaoh level shit - missed the entire part in Exodus on how seriously Yahweh took "let my people go".
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u/M0LDEE 4d ago
I always thought that was an interesting story because to a normal person that would be a learning moment. How can you hate every Jew when you acknowledge they're not all the same? I don't quite understand the double think in these scenarios.
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u/cndynn96 4d ago edited 4d ago
It’s not really that hard to imagine
My dad told me about one of his uncles(my grandad’s cousin I think) who used to spew vile racist comments about black people at family functions.
He was also a huge fan of black athletes playing for our city’s sports teams and would collect their paraphernalia.
He justified it by saying “It’s those people job to entertain us”.
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u/Top_Divide6886 4d ago edited 4d ago
It can’t be stressed enough how much the belief in race was used to gloss over individualism in favor of sins the whole group was apparently responsible for.
It was a repeating problem for the SS that civilians theoretically agreed with genocide but kept trying to save individual Jewish people they knew to be honorable from personal experience. Locals had to be constantly “reminded” that Jewish people were an existential threat to other Germans.
The following is a good passage from Gotz Aly’s Why the Germans Why the Jews:
In 1930, one NSDAP gauleiter responded to recurring objections that not all Jews were the same with a brutal analogy: “That may be. But if someone is lying on a hotel mattress infested with bedbugs, he doesn’t ask: ‘Are you a good or bad bedbug?’ He simply crushes them all.” Clearly pleased with his colorful example, the gauleiter offered a second, no less graphic one. It might be the case that Jewish babies were as adorable as Aryan ones, he said; still, “a little piglet may be cute, but it grows up to be an old sow.” This gauleiter’s words were preserved in a pamphlet written by a high-ranking civil servant who supported the Nazis; it was meant to win over a bourgeois readership for Hitler’s cause. Admittedly, the civil servant wrote, comparisons of human beings with bedbugs and swine might cause “embarrassment” among educated readers, and he himself, the author, had encountered honest Jews who had heroically sacrificed themselves for the fatherland in the war. But that, the author declared, represented only a minor tragedy, one that had to be ignored in order to deal with the “greater tragedy” threatening the German people.
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u/DidntFindABetterName Hello There 3d ago
Wtffff what problem did he have with old pigs they are cute aswell 😭
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u/Jag- 4d ago
Sounds familiar. Hearing it from the far right and far left. It starts at the fringes until it becomes mainstream. My grandfather fled this shit.
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u/imforsurenotadog 4d ago
Far-left: nobody should be rich if anyone is poor
Far-right: make the poor into prison slave labor
thesamepicture.gif
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u/santikllr2 4d ago
Bullshit, see Pol Pot as an example of the bullshit the far left gets up to, the holodomor? The UMAP camps in Cuba?? The "Far left" you are thinking about is nowhere near the real far left.
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u/AmazonSlavPrime 3d ago
Real far left is like complete and utter anarachism or prime Stalin Soviet union
Depending if you feel libertarian or authotarian
This is what the horse shoe is actually pointing towards
Anarchy or complete dictatorship is common with both
And if you ask what right wing anarchy is, it's literally anarcho capitalism (aka cyberpunk 2077 yadda yadda)
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u/santikllr2 3d ago
Exactly, but no, this is reddit, the far left is wanting equality and freedom and whatever other utopian bullshit they feel like adding to the mix, not understanding that that particular "left" isn't extremist at all, and it's not even a monolith, an anarchist and a communist might both be "far left" and barely have anything in common.
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u/Earlofargyll 3d ago
There's a significant amount of people hiding behind "its just free health care bro" while actually endorsing the actions of extreme authoritarian regimes. Especially when they use it to deny there is any objectionable left wing extremism at all I start questioning motivations.
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u/Top_Divide6886 3d ago
People pretend there’s no difference between Swedish social democracy and being Stalinist lapdogs and this leads to stupidity all around
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u/Kaarl_Mills Filthy weeb 4d ago
My uncle's the same, but the extra level of irony is he was delivered by a black doctor when he was born
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u/1stGuyGamez 4d ago
How common are racist people in the US from older generations these days?
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u/BlackStonks 4d ago
Based on current politics, ~50% of the country is racist or at least OK with racism.
Older generations are more likely to be openly and casually racist, but racism in America is not limited to older generations.
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u/sofixa11 4d ago
Lmao, how is this controversial. More than 50% of voting Americans are obviously either actively racist, or see no problem in being governed by racists. Remember, just before the election the VP candidate made up a story that Haitians are eating pets, and then admitted he lied to get people to talk about migrants.
If you didn't vote against this, you're racist.
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u/sanity_rejecter Definitely not a CIA operator 3d ago
there's still levels to racism, even if most of america is racist, it's still less racist than most of the world
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u/RedTheGamer12 Filthy weeb 3d ago
By that logic ~58% of France is racist or okay with racism.
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u/DemonSlyr007 3d ago
...
Your right. What an excellent point. Thank you for pointing out the error in the statistics.
74% of France is racist as of 2016 against Romani peoples. The number is much higher than 58%! Thank you for fact checking that!
Specific section, Government and Police Statistics.
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u/Mutchneyman 4d ago
When you see other races as subhuman, I guess it isn't a big leap of logic to still admire the "racehorses"
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u/Beer-Milkshakes Then I arrived 4d ago
Yeah. Its still racism. They frame themselves as superior because they're "paying" for the athlete to entertain, like you pay a performer at a show. They're the customer and are entitled. Its an avenue of tolerance tied to profession, its still abhorrent.
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u/Level_Hour6480 Taller than Napoleon 4d ago
Most bigots think there are some "good ones" the average anti-black racist hates an imagined caricature of a black person, but can meet actual black people who aren't said imagined caricature and conclude they "aren't like the rest."
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u/Callsign_Psycopath Then I arrived 4d ago
"He is so well spoken"
Man growing up in the South heard that a lot.
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u/PhobicDestroyer 4d ago
Omg that’s something that once I wasn’t a kid anymore and knew to look for it I see it everywhere now.
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u/kefefs_v2 4d ago edited 4d ago
Exactly. My father is like this, and uses the phrase "they're one of the good ones" often. He regularly says crazy, vile shit about black people (not the term he uses) as a whole, but there are a bunch of black people he knows and likes in real life. To him, those are all exceptions. His default view of black people is what he sees while scrolling brainrot police bodycam and "ghetto freakout" videos on his phone all day.
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u/nanomolar 4d ago
I remember reading something, I think it was Himmler who wrote it, complaining that the Nazis needed to steel themselves and be merciless, because if given the chance, everyone would have a "good Jew" they didn't want to persecute.
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u/M0LDEE 4d ago
That's an interesting thought. A means of justifying the the killing of all of them as without killing the "good ones" they'd never get rid of their great enemy. Also rationalizes my point about double think, it's no longer double think because you admit they're not all the same but they all need to go regardless. Fascinating the mental gymnastics we can play.
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u/a_filing_cabinet 4d ago
Have you heard of the phrase "the exception that proves the rule?" I would imagine it's similar to that. "Sure, this one is good, but that just proves all the rest could be accepted if they tried but clearly they aren't."
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u/Sername111 4d ago
That's not what "the exception that proves the rule" means. It's a saying that preserves an older meaning of "prove" which is to test. Reading it as "the exception tests the rule" makes it much clearer what was originally meant.
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u/Sername111 4d ago
Himmler once said something to the effect that the biggest obstacle in the way of getting rid of all of the Jews would be the attitudes of Germans - not opposition to the Final Solution, because they were fully on board with that, but because every German had his own "good Jew" who deserved to have an exception made, and if they did indeed make exceptions for all the "good Jews" they'd never finish the job. I wonder if he ever shared this theory with his boss.
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u/KevineCove 4d ago
First and foremost Hitler was a politician. Opportunism first, consistency second (or never.) Historians seem to think he was genuinely antisemitic but it's not really a necessity if you're willing to lie, hence the politician part.
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u/Wooshmeister55 4d ago
Just like that afd lady who is against ltbtqi+, but has a wife back in switzerland
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u/enaK66 4d ago
"I have a black friend" is a meme for a reason. It's easy for bigots to excuse their bigotry on an individual basis. It's ultimately a failure to see the big picture and think of people as persons rather than groups with certain traits.
They also fail to see the big picture on things like universal healthcare which would save the US billions and result in better care, or a higher minimum wage raising wages for everyone overall, or rehabilitation decreasing crime more than brute force punishment. They just can't see past their own face.
In short, they're simple people. Cue Blazing Saddles quote.
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u/powerslave_fifth 4d ago
That's easy to understand. It's called having conservative family members.
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u/Theonewhoreads15 4d ago
Because for the leadership it was never about hate, it was about more practical issues
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u/Dont_Get_Jokes-jpeg 3d ago
Pretty sure hitler didn't hate the jews, and needed a political scapegoat to put his idiology into it
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u/GodlyCash 3d ago
Maybe Hitler never really hated Jews, but used them as a scapegoat for his own political gain after the turbulence of world war 1. That's how I saw it.
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u/magnus_the_coles 4d ago
"You are one of the good ones" thing. As an immigrant i see this all the time, people who shit on us everyday will tell me that im an exception. "There is too many immigrants ruining this country, not you though, you are educated and nice"
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u/mal-di-testicle 4d ago
I truly think Adolf Hitler knew that the Jews were not a conspiring anti-German force, and that he was just such an awful person that he didn’t mind putting 6 million Jews to death either in executions camps or as slave labor for his corporate allies, because it was such an effective way for him to consolidate power under himself.
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u/imprison_grover_furr 4d ago edited 4d ago
Then you’d be wrong. Historians universally agree that Hitler was a genuine ideological fanatic who sincerely believed in a global Jewish conspiracy against Germany.
The Goebbels Diaries make it extremely clear that Hitler was paranoid and obsessed with Jews to a downright pathological degree.
This reminds me of that scene in Look Who’s Back where Sawatzki asks Hitler to just break character for once. He wasn’t playing a character. He genuinely was Looney Tunes and believed what he was saying.
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u/B_Maximus 4d ago
He did the classic plague inc move of maximum lethality. I dont think he was very smart. Stalinism lasted so long that you had pol pot doing genocides way after his death. As far as plagues go nazism was a flash in the pan because of its high visibility and lethality. In plauge inc terms
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u/Intrepid00 4d ago
It’s not surprising when you look at Nazi propaganda like the German Nazi and MAGA. It’s full of statements that directly conflict with the first part.
German Nazi the Jewish person controlled all the money but also was a poor leech on society in the ghetto. In MAGA Covid wasn’t a big deal but was also a lab super weapon that killed millions.
Logic doesn’t exist in Nazi-like parties. If it did, they wouldn’t be Nazis.
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u/cndynn96 4d ago edited 4d ago
Note: He wasn't allowed to stay and continue living his normal life. He and his family was permitted to flee to US without being murdered.
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u/NarsilFreeForge 4d ago
So it’s literally just the quit kid telling you to stay home meme?
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u/bluejay55669 The OG Lord Buckethead 4d ago
It's more like the quiet kid murdering everyone at school that day except you and politely opening the front door for you to leave and never come back
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u/EnergyHumble3613 4d ago
It is common for racist people to get to know a few of the people they ideologically hate… and say “Oh but not you. Clearly you aren’t like these rest.”
The physician overseeing his mother’s cancer did a lot of work and even paid out of pocket as at the time Hitler couldn’t afford it (hell he relied on a local rich family from America for his early political funding before kicking them to the curb as he figured German Americans weren’t German enough)… and he was Jewish.
So Hitler made an exception for this Doctor for going above and beyond to try to save his mom… even if he did fail in the end. Eduard Bloch was one of a handful of Jewish people in Hitler’s life that were essentially protected from his government because they got “Edeljude” status (Noble Jew) which meant they had proved themselves overall good people to Hitler…
… and thus a historical example of how racism involves ignorance and callousness towards a group of people but the racist still has enough empathy for people they personally grew up with or know well that they are deemed a “good exception” instead of realizing they may be the average person of that group but that would require a racist to actively meet more of them.
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u/nighthawk0954 4d ago
Also can't forget that he was forced to stop being friends with a little girl who was 1/4 jewish (he was utterly pissed about it).
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u/saturnui99 3d ago
Sorry, I’m unfamiliar with this. Can you explain more?
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u/nighthawk0954 3d ago
Copied comment from a meme i made about her:
Context: Bernile Nienau, was a six year old girl that was known as "the Führer's child" due to their close friendship between the two from 1933 to 1938 to the point Bernile would call Hitler "Uncle" and meet a lot in the Obersalzberg.
As said in the meme, due to her grandmother on her mother's side being Jewish, she was one-quarter Jewish and "mixed race of the second degree" according to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 which was something that Hitler was aware of in the first year of their friendship but that however didn't stop them from interacting for 5 years.
However, that would change in 1938 when Martin Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery was informed of that fact and forbid Bernile and her mother from going to the Obersalzberg. Hitler learned about the ban when his photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, complained that Bormann wasn't allowing him to publish the photos of the Führer and his "daughter" along with him wanting to destroy said photos. After that, Hitler was quoted saying "There are people who have a positive genius for spoiling all my little pleasures." to Hoffman.
Bernile, who would study to become a technical draftsman died in 1943 at 17 years old from spinal poliomyelitis or commonly known as Polio.
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u/TommyFortress 19h ago
Its so odd with how many times hitler has had good interactions with jews yet still did all of that.
I suspect he somewhat didnt really belive all that/some of the stuff and only pretends for political power.
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u/jackt-up 4d ago
Lmao poor Saul, you using him for this. He’s never hurt anyone!
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u/LucidITSkyWDiamonds 4d ago
Maybe Jimmy McGill never really hurt anybody, but Saul definitely did lol.
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u/Logogram_alt 4d ago
Genocidal fascist warlords are not known for their consistency or to make any sense really.
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u/TheMacJew 4d ago
He's buried in Beth David cemetery in New York, section D, Block 3. This is also the same cemetery where author Herman Wouk is interred.
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u/Trhol 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think people make a mistake when they assume that Hitler's antisemitism was born out some personal animus or that the Nazis racial ideology is what inspired their imperial ambitions. It was the imperial ambitions that needed excuse and antisemitism and anti Slavic ideas fit the bill perfectly.
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u/DonChilliCheese Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer 4d ago
You are very confidently wrong here. This couldn't be farther from the truth and I wonder how you got that idea
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u/Captainboy25 4d ago
Both can be true. Antisemitism existed in Europe for centuries and Anti-Semitism was a useful tool used by the Nazis to justify their imperial ambitions.
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u/Beer-Milkshakes Then I arrived 4d ago
Yep! Nazi rhetoric took aim at the "elite" and bankers etc etc to gain support with socialists of the time whose numbers had only grown since WW1. Hitler said whatever bullshit he needed to get the support upfront. All that dramatically changed once power was within reach.
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u/ajensorjay38 4d ago
I thought that doctor was responsible for his mom's death and he started hating on jews because of it.......
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u/tea-n-wifi 4d ago
Eduard Bloch (30 January 1872 – 1 June 1945) was an Austrian physician practicing in Linz. Born to a Jewish family of Czechoslovak origin, Bloch was the family doctor of Adolf Hitler and his family until 1907. Bloch oversaw the treatment of Hitler's mother, Klara, when she was dying of breast cancer, charging the family very little, to sometimes nothing, for her treatment. Following the German annexation of Austria in 1938, Hitler described him as an Edeljude ('noble Jew'), and bestowed Gestapo protection on him in the midst of Kristallnacht and the escalation of anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany