In this blog post I’m going to be answering 3 questions: What did you see in text that surprised you?, What reminds you of today?, and Talk on the major elements of Hitler’s thoughts.
What did you see in text that surprised you?
There were actually many things that surprised me while reading this text. A general thought that came to my mind was just how antisemitic Hitler was. Obviously everybody knows this, but it truly is surprising to see how Hitler blames every little thing on Jewish people. To me it is just so interesting to see how someone can blame a group of people for any and all problems. While reading around I also found the beginning of chapter 9 interesting. On page 199 was the quote and it reads,
“Since I regularly woke up before five o’clock in the morning, I had gotten in the habit of putting a few left-overs or crusts of bread on the floor for the mice which amused themselves in my little room, and watching the droll little beasts chasing around after these choice morsels. I had known so much poverty in my life that I was well able to imagine the hunger, and hence also the pleasure, of the little creatures.”
This quote gave me an eerie feeling and insight into who Hitler was as a person. He seems controlling and quite twisted in the fact he is toying with mice and their hunger.
In chapter 11 I was also surprised at what I saw in the fact that Hitler claims that Judaism was fake and that Jewish followers weren’t a real group and had no real morals. In turn he claimed that the Protocols of Zion were not a forgery. This idea is very strange because even when the Protocols of Zion came out they were judged to be very false.
What reminds you of today?
From the quote above about the mice, it doesn’t remind me specifically of today but the fact that during the Holocaust the poor victims in the concentration camps were starved and almost toyed with as if they weren’t people. This idea is very disturbing, and it is disgusting that people were treated like animals and toyed with just like Hitler toyed with the mice. He himself says how he related to the mice, but continues to treat them the way he does.
Elements of Hitler’s thoughts
Nationalism comes into the book very early, and stays as a topic throughout the book. There was also the idea of national socialism where you actually have be part of a certain group to be able to partake in its benefits. In this case it was the Germans who were of the aryan race who were able to partake in this idea. One idea that did not show up often was “lebensraum.” This term is the idea that a country needs more room to thrive more as a country.
To conclude, there were many more ideas that could have been included in each question which says a lot about the text and how there are many talking points about this text. This book did give and interesting viewpoint in the fact that it is written by Hitler though.