Recently for history, I've been reading a book title, Hitler. The book gives a description of Hitler's life from birth until death. Over the past 5 years or so, I have taken a large interest in dictators when I'm bored. Hitler to me is a truly perplexing case. Most people claim that Hitler is an awful man, and I agree that he did horrible, horrible things. However, we forget that Hitler was once a child, and that some things had to influence him before he became they tyrant that we know him as.
Hitler was born into a family with a strong, stern father who was a drunkard and would beat his children and wife. Hitler's mother dotted over Hitler more than any of her other children. The mix of an abusive father and an overprotective mother aren't a very good mixture. While some kids can get out of it alright, some do not. As I read the book, I started to see that as his life progressed, that there was something terribly wrong with him that stems from a mixture of different things. The family situation kept him with a child-like mind throughout his entire life. Because of this, he had to find someone to blame for his failings, it just happened to be Jews because he believe they made sure he didn't get into the Vienna art school, that I believe had a nice amount of teachers who were Jewish. It all points to a lack of development based on the family situation and it seems other mental problems that we would now consider bi-polar, malignant narcissism, and others.
As I was reading the book there was a page describing the Hitler that no one knew except his inner circle. This Hitler would gorge himself on sweets until he was sick, he would throw temper-tantrums when he didn't get his way. This included him laying sprawled on the floor banging his fists and feet into the floor. To relax he would watch King Kong and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He would also play with blocks. He would build armies and towns only to "blow them away" with block cannons. Finally, he was afraid to be alone and he made the SS check his room every night for "him." Hitler would sometimes even wake in the night screaming that "he" had been there and would turn blue and he would babble until the panic left him. We do not know who "he" was. I assume it is Hitler's father. While reading this, I couldn't but help feel an overwhelming amount of sympathy for this man. Much I am sure, to the chagrin of my Jewish friends.
None of this makes up for Hitler's genocide of Jews, prisoners, homosexuals, gypsy's, invalids and the elderly, but it shows that maybe Hitler possibly didn't have as much control as we believe. This man had a brilliant miltary mind when he wasn't acting like a child. Yes, he killed millions of innocent people, so did the Allied forces as well, but he single-handedly killed millions. However, there is something far greater at work than an evil Hitler. His multiple personalities point to a psychotic break somewhere and point to multiple mental illnesses. It also points to the two opposite forms of affection showed by his parents that made him a tough son of a bitch who was a momma's boy who never seems to have progressed socially passed a junior high student. I am sure most will hate me on here for this, but I really don't care. Hitler was an awful man, but I feel sympathy for him because he wasn't entirely evil as we make him out to be. There is more to him than we want to believe or look at, we do that to any monumental figure be it good or bad. This distorts our view of them, and breeds hatred or love when we haven't heard the whole story.
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