The Jew, Politician and Theoretician, and Hitler's Insecurities

In Mein Kampf, Hitler portrays his idea of Jews in warped and sometimes ludicrous ways. Hitler expresses that he began to identify the Jews around him and found that “the offices were filled with Jews” and “nearly every clerk was a Jew and nearly every Jew was a clerk” (Hitler 193). To Hitler, the Jews seemed to occupy office jobs and were usually clerks. Hitler also refers to the Jew as a “spider” that was “slowly beginning to suck the blood out of the people’s pores” (Hitler 193). He often refers to the Jews with insect and bug imagery, suggesting that the Jews were everywhere, crowded and perhaps appeared as swarms to him. Hitler often makes the Jews out to be harmful beings that should be exterminated. In addition to the insect and bug imagery he uses, Hitler also refers to Jews as things that contaminate and harm others. Some of the many harmful things Hitler refers to the Jew as are “disease,” “toxins,” “virus,” and “symptoms of decay.”

Hitler implies that the Jews were contaminating the human society and should be removed before they destroyed the rest of human society. He suggests that the idea of successfully collaborating with Jews is not possible, and that “there can only be the hard: either – or” (206).

Hitler often seems to subtly suggest that he is the one politician who wants to and is capable enough to put an end to problems and contamination caused by the Jews, though he does not state this directly. After stating that there can only be “the hard: either – or” of the Jews, he goes on to say that he then decided to go into politics. This suggests that perhaps, solving the problems of the Jews and those created by the Jews was what motivated him to get involved in politics. Later, Hitler talks about the differences between a successful theoretician and a successful politician and how “a union of both in one person is almost never found” (211). Hitler then states that over the years of human existence, “it may happen once more that the politician is wedded to the theoretician” (211). Hitler clearly saw the existing political parties as incompetent when he refers to the status and characters of “all existing parties, their programs, their purposes, and their activity” as “complete helplessness” and “total despair” (222). Perhaps Hitler was suggesting that he was both the successful politician and theoretician combined. Maybe he did not think of himself as the man with both qualities, but strived to be that man. Perhaps Hitler’s recognition and identification of what the country needed, both in Mein Kampf and his speeches, offered a kind of solution for the people, which gave some of them hope and therefore respect for Hitler.

Whether intentionally or not, Hitler at some moments portrays his insecurities. Hitler was not sure whether or not to join the German Workers’ Party at that time partly because he felt that he may not have been capable of transforming the party into his ideal successful political party. He expresses doubt in his capabilities when he said, “What prerequisites did I myself bring to this task?” (223). He states that he was “poor,” “without means,” “numbered among the nameless,” “one of the millions whom chance permits to live or summons out of existence without even their closest neighbors condescending to take any notice of it,” and finally, his “lack of schooling” (224). This suggests that Hitler is financially lacking and has no easy access to resources, and feels that he was one of no identity and of insignificant status in society. He implies that he is not important and that his survival depended on luck and chance alone. He suggests that his lack of schooling was a problem that would always arise in his road to becoming successful. Hitler then later says that his lack of schooling is something that the “so-called ‘intelligentsia’ always looks down with a really limitless condescension on anyone” who has not been through proper schooling (224). Hitler’s use of “so-called” to refer to the inteligentsia and his use of rhetorical questions such as “What are teh man’s abilities? What has he learned?” suggests a mocking tone. At the same time, it suggests that the expectations of higher society made him feel inferior. He states that “the biggest empty-head” is “worth more than the brightest boy who happens to lack these costly envelopes” if he is “wrapped in enough diplomas.” Hitler did not have academic certification and is suggesting that his lack of proper academic credentials has prevented and will continue to prevent his superior capabilities from being recognized.

Being in the army gave Hitler an identity and purpose, and was something he could be proud of after previous disappointments in his life. He states that during his time in the army, he was “able to perform useful services to the institution which had been so close to [his] heart” (216). Knowing that he was a persuasive speaker was also a boost to his self-esteem because he “could boast of his success,” as during his lectures, he led “many hundreds, indeed thousands, of comrades back to their people and fatherland” (216). Perhaps penning down his insecurities followed by his successes was part of his intention of making people sympathize with him.