Adolf Hitler (n.) was caught in an untenable paradox: he wanted to found a stable order on perpetual change and no negation.

Albert Camus on Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Joseph Stalin

Nobel Prize

time travel

Jewish

dad joke

bunker

trivia

Austrian

art school

homelessness

chemical warfare

mustache

World War I (WWI)

gas mask

prison

coup

election

At the present time, Hitler is an outcome of Rousseau; Roosevelt and Churchill, that of Locke.

is a veritable reductio ad absurdum of "progressive" thought.

[Hitler is] a veritable reductio ad absurdum of "progressive" thought. (1943)

is the negation of God erected into a system of Government.

It seems likely that more will be written about Adolf Hitler than about anyone else in history with the exception of Jesus Christ. … As long as people are fascinated by the range and depth of evil, Hitler will find readers, for he was the Molech who devoured human beings in a regime that was "the negation of God erected into a system of Government."

is the yardstick that lets everything shorter than it call itself acceptable

had a recipe: first simplify, then repeat endlessly.

Hitler's recipe is therefore: First simplify, then repeat endlessly. This will be effective.

worked in the same branch as actors do: he created illusions.

Yes, as he convinced many millions of Germans. It’s not without good reason that comedies about Hitler often concern actors who should play him. Just think about Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” (1940) or Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or not To Be” (1942). There’s no doubt about it, Hitler worked in the same branch as we do: he created illusions.

hated, above all else, not Communism, but Austria-Hungary, on account of its tolerance for ‘inferiors’.

For Hitler first hatred was not Communism, but Austria-Hungary... And he loathed it for what? For its tolerance! He wanted eighty million Germans to rule with an iron hand an empire of eighty million ‘inferiors’—Czechs, Slovaks, Magyars, Jews, Serbs, Poles and Croats.

is probably the last of the great adventurer-conquerors in the tradition of Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon.

Adolf Hitler is probably the last of the great adventurer-conquerors in the tradition of Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon, and the Third Reich the last of the empires which set out on the path taken earlier by France, Rome and Macedonia. The curtain was rung on that phase of history, at least, by the sudden invention of the hydrogen bomb, of the ballistic missile and of rockets that can be aimed to hit the moon. In our new age of terrifying, lethal gadgets, which supplanted so swiftly the old one, the first great aggressive war, should it come, will be launched by suicidal little madmen pressing an electronic button. There will be no conquerors and no conquests, but only the charred bones of the dead on an uninhabited planet.

Holocaust

concentration camp

animal rights

syphilis

disease

penis

farting

museum

J.R.R. Tolkien

genocide

Judaism

nation

living space

master race

Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Schutzstaffel

Volksgemeinschaft

annihilation

Auschwitz

destruction

dictatorship

hate

hatred

prejudice

totalitarian state

socialism

communism

Heinrich Himmler

hitlerism

nazi

Shoah

World War II

Mussolini

Germany

Adolf Eichmann

nazism | national socialism

Night and Fog

Nuremberg Laws

military

anagram

famous last word

Isaias Afwerki

Julius Caesar

Periander

authoritarianism

Beer Hall Putsch

bigotry

Demagogy

evil

fanaticism

fascism

Final Solution

Mein Kampf

monster

nationalism

Nazi Party

patriotism

propaganda

racism

swastika

Third Reich

totalitarianism

tyranny

WWII

demagoguery

dictator

eugenics

fascist

Volkswagen

made his god a political argument and a way of reaching an impressive climax at the end of his speeches; while he was successful he chose to believe he was inspired, and in defeat he considered himself betrayed by his people.

Actually his god was a political argument and a manner of reaching an impressive climax at the end of his speeches. As long as he was successful, he chose to believe that he was inspired. In the hour of defeat, he considered himself betrayed by his people. Between the two nothing intervened to announce to the world that he would ever have been capable of thinking himself guilty in relation to any principle.

was caught in an untenable paradox: he wanted to found a stable order on perpetual change and no negation.

Hitler's untenable paradox lay precisely in wanting to found a stable order on perpetual change and no negation.

was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by calculated cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance.

It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by calculated cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance.

was kept alive by action alone; for him, to exist was to act, which is why he and his regime could not dispense with enemies.

Action alone kept him alive. For him, to exist was to act. That is why Hitler and his regime could not dispense with enemies.

ended where his creed of pure action had to end: having made war the law of existence, in defeat he wanted his own people destroyed, a beaten nation having forfeited the right to live.

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