POSITION PAPER

Anusha Randhawa – 27095

Keeping in view Hitler’s perceived views about race and people, I disapprove of his argument
because it is backed by flawed logic and is based on wrong assumptions coupled with biased
statements.
Following are some of the arguments set forth by Hitler in his autobiography Mein Kampf.
According to Hitler, one of the finest laws of Nature is the maintenance of the unmixed breed,
which is a phenomenon that prevails throughout the entire natural world. He further states that if
the case were different the progressive process would cease, and ‘even retrogression might set
in’. He argues that nature sustains progress by well-defined conditions of life so the weaker will
have to submit and stronger will dominate. Hitler’s claim that rests upon the questionable
assumption that when one despises the laws of race, he interferes with a prerequisite condition of
all human progress.
Furthermore, He then proceeds giving instance of Aryans as the mighty standard-bearers of
culture, who alone shaped the world of creativity, art, science and technical skill with their
expertise, and even influenced culture of the Eastern World to a great extent.

The next point he makes is that Jew offers the most striking contrast to the Aryan and Jew never
had a civilization of his own; ‘Jewish State has absolutely no territorial boundaries and in two
domains of art, namely architecture and music, the Jew has done no original creative work.’

If we scrutinize his claims regarding dominance, it is a representation of a wholly racist and

ignorant ideology, reducing lower rank people of the society to mere submission while lending
complete power to the stronger group and a blow to the many years of settling down war and
holding the banner of Human Rights; justice, equality, freedom. Berlin stated in his famous
paper ‘Equality as an Ideal’ that ‘equality does not need any justification, but only inequality
does’ (281-326). Racism is an irrational concept, one that should have diminished ages back.
While the point he makes about Aryans’ excellence later is certainly true, but it does not
necessarily follow that the reason of Aryans’ downfall was adulteration of their blood due to
intermixture with the originally conquered race.

He exhibits a clear sense of irrationality by blaming racial intermixture for the aggravation of an
entire dynasty. If we approach his argument logically, there has never been any discovery in
science of humans that would advocate the fact that blood intermix influences human behaviors,
or their response to external activity. It is nothing but straight facts that behavioral studies and
psychology certainly prove that social reaction or response varies from person to person rather
than big groups of people reacting to something in the same way and facing same consequences.
Moreover, contrast to Hitler’s view about Jews, truth is that ‘Jews throughout Europe made key
contributions to the intellectual life, art, science, and commerce of medieval and Renaissance
Europe’, as remarked by Boeihm. The art that does survive reveals awareness by Jews of the
artistic currents of the day. There is no Jewish parallel to Saint Peters (neither the “Old” one built
by Constantine nor Julius II's), nor Hagia Sophia, the temples of Varanasi, nor the Forbidden
City.

Another part of Hitler’s argument deals with his apparent prejudice against Jews and their role in
Germany. He claims that Jews gradually made trade their complete monopoly and used money
and servile flattery to bring political power of princes under their control. He is importunate on
the grounds that the most decisive cause of the collapse of Germans was lack of insight into the
racial problem and failure to recognize Jewish danger. Countering this argument, I would add
that he actually overlooks more significant causes of this happening, such as lack of communal
unity and absence of a determined spirit among common public of Germany, for instance
German princes being inadvertent enough to give financial and social strength to a foreign group
i-e Jews.

The bottom line is that Hitler’s arguments were wronged in several ways and one needs to
observe his ideas with closeness in order to make a stance. Hitler is indeed one of those many
people in history around whom controversies revolved both during their lifetime and afterwards.

702 words

Bibliography
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf
Journal Article, Equality Richard Wollheim and Isaiah Berlin. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.
New Series, Vol. 56 (1955 - 1956), Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The
Aristotelian Society
John-Stewart Gordon. Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
IEP. Article, Moral Egalitarianism
Milan Hauner. Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1978), pp. 15-32, “Did
Hitler Want a World Dominion?” (From jstor.org)
Boehm, Barbara Drake, and Melanie Holcomb. “Jews and the Arts in Medieval Europe.”
In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jewm/hd_jewm.htm, 2008
Fine, Dr. Steven. “Writing a history of Jewish architecture”. Created by Smarthistory.