The Nazi movement, which committed horrifying atrocities against the people, was based on racial superiority. Adolf Hitler, who was the main architect of the Nazi organization, was supported by many intellectuals. Many leaders of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) had many things in common. They all believed in the destructive Nazi nightmare of racial hatred and ethnic cleansing. What was the psychology behind such a fascist movement, which violated basic human rights? Were they psychologically deviant?
Psychologist Gustave Gilbert analyzed many Nazi leaders, like Herman Goering, Albert Speer, von Ribbentrop, Rudolf Höß (the commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp), etc., during the Nuremberg trials and revealed the inner nature of the Nazis. He found that Nazis lacked empathy. In their personal lives, they were good husbands and fathers. They loved their children. But when the dark side of their nature came into action, they could kill tens of thousands of men, women, and children in the gas chambers. After committing these crimes, their conscience was not shattered. They had no guilty feelings.
Nazi leaders conspired to wage war, committed crimes against humanity, and felt that they were doing it for the betterment of the German people. They saw other races, especially Jews, as subhumans. There are many theories beneath Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Some Germans believed that they lost WW1 as a result of the betrayal by the Jewish businessmen who did not support the war efforts. But the truth was there were many Jewish officers who fought for Germany during the Great War. Hitler had personal experience that led to deep mistrust and hatred against Jews.
Hitler’s mother was suffering from breast cancer, and she was dying. When her Jewish doctor broke the bad news to young Hitler, he thought that the physician was responsible for her death. Hence, hefty anger and prejudice were building inside his mind from young days. He was capable of generalizing this anger and prejudice against the Jewish people. When he came to power, Hitler’s leadership caused the Holocaust, or the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during WW2.
Nazis committed atrocities in the occupied territories. In Eastern Europe, especially in the USSR, they unleashed horrible aggression. Women were raped in front of their husbands and children, men were killed in masses, and some were driven to forced labor. In all these events their lack of empathy and lack of remorse were pronounced greatly. According to Gustave Gilbert, Nazi leaders had a dual nature. Above all, they believed that they were doing the right thing.
Based on the interviews of the Nazi leaders, Gustave Gilbert published a book called Nuremberg Diary in 1947. These documents disclose the psyche of the Nazi leaders. When the Nazi leader Herman Goering was interviewed by Gustav Gilbert, Goering said, "Of course the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. . . . But after all, it is the leaders of the country that determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along."
People can always be brought to the will of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Goering was obsessed by Hitler’s personality. On one occasion Goering said my conscience is the Führer's (Hitler's) conscience. They were ready to follow Hitler under any circumstances. Therefore, many Nazi leaders shared a common mental structure.
Nazis were able to create a mass hysteria and mass conditioning of the German people. Millions of people believed in Nazi propaganda and adored Hitler. There is no doubt that Hitler was a charismatic leader and an excellent orator. Gilbert studied the inner nature of Adolf Hitler. In 1950, Gilbert published The Psychology of Dictatorship. In this book, Gilbert made an attempt to portray a profile of the psychological behavior of Adolf Hitler.
Why did Hitler preach racial superiority? Has he had any doubts about his origin? Hitler’s grandmother Anna Maria Schicklgruber became pregnant while working as a servant in a Jewish household. Hitler made daring attempts to conceal this factor and had fears that his pure Aryan blood was contaminated. When he was about to be the absolute leader of Germany, one newspaper published an article stating that the shape of Hitler’s nose is more Hungarian than German. Hitler was furious about this article, and eventually he hunted the journalist who wrote it. Hitler admired the music of Wagner. Wagner was an anti-Semite.
As a boy, Hitler was tormented, humiliated, and mocked by his father. Hitler’s father punished him for the slightest mistake he made. When he became an adult leader, he ruled Germany with an iron fist. His aunt Johanna was a schizophrenic patient, and little Hitler was terrified by his aunt’s psychotic behavior. In the later years, Hitler ordered the termination of every person with a mental disability in Germany. He could not stand them.
In his speech in April 1937, Hitler said,
All that concerns me is never to take a step that I might later have to retrace and never to take a step that could damage us in any way. You must understand that I always go as far as I dare and never further. It is vital to have a sixth sense that tells you broadly what you can and cannot do.
Hence, Hitler was determined to continue his destructive efforts despite the protests made by the civilized world. He misinterpreted the religion and used it to justify his atrocities against Jewish people. In his autobiography Mein Kampf (p. 46), Hitler mentions the following statement.
I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. In standing guard against the Jew, I am defending the handiwork of the Lord.
Henry Murray, a prominent personality specialist at Harvard University, hypothesized that Hitler was deeply confused about his sexuality. Analyzing the metaphors in his book Mein Kampf, Murray says that Hitler was unable to come to terms with his complex sexuality. Henry Murray claimed that Hitler was both impotent and a "fully fledged masochist." His niece, Galee, became tormented by his sexual jealousy and committed suicide. Hitler’s sexual inadequacy may have led to exorbitant cravings for superiority. Lothar Machtan has argued in his book The Hidden Hitler that Hitler was homosexual.
Although Hitler proclaimed that the Third Reich was invincible and would last for thousands of years, the system was collapsing in front of his eyes. On the verge of defeat, his passion for Germany changed dramatically. Adolf Hitler issued his infamous "Nero Decree," the order to destroy all German industry and infrastructure. Hitler’s Minister of War Industry Albert Speer sabotaged this auto-destructive plan. On 30 April 1945, when the Red Army was advancing, Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun in the Führerbunker.
The psychology of Nazism demonstrates the savage part of human nature. Leaders can tune the people and make them hate and terminate other ethnic groups without remorse. When people are being desensitized, they follow the leaders blindly. Influential charismatic negative leadership can bring total chaos to humankind.
The following poem reveals the lifetime suffering of a victim of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the magnitude of trauma caused by the Nazi ideology.
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