Hitler’s Self-Defeatism

George Victor gave a lively presentation using materials primarily from his forthcoming book Hitler: The Pathology of Evil (Dulles, VA: Brassey’s, 1997, ISBN 1-574-88132-9, $24.95, Tel. 1-800-775-2518). He is a psychologist and psychotherapist who has retired to devote his time to scholarship. There were 12 participants involved in the discussion of the materials, with communications on the subject from a variety of colleagues, including Sander Breiner (psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Wayne State University) and John Hartman (psychologist and psychoanalyst, University of Michigan). The meeting was held in Manhattan on the Upper East Side in the office/apartment of Mary Lambert who is a psychoanalyst.

In customary format, each participant introduced her or himself and stated one or more questions that they had regarding the materials, which Forum members received a month in advance of the meeting. Some of the participants and their questions were: Ralph Colp (psychiatrist and Darwin biographer, Columbia University): “What is new in Hitler: The Pathology of Evil?” and “How does Hitler’s masochism relate to his anti-Semitism?”; Ted Cox (psychoanalyst and sociologist, private practice): “How Hitler is used as a scapegoat [for people’s bad feelings based on the premise that] ‘All evil is out there’.”; David Felix (historian, biographer of Keynes and Marx, CUNY): “What is the relationship of subsequent development to paternal beatings?” and “Hitler was beaten by a brutalizing father, while Keynes was beaten by an empathetic father.”; David Lotto (psychoanalyst and psychologist, University of Massachusetts): “What is the relationship of the Holocaust to World War II?” and “How is Hitler’s self-defeatism related to his guilt?”; and Paul Elovitz (historian and psychotherapist, Ramapo College): “What is the relationship of Hitler’s masochism to his sadism?” and “What brought you to this subject and what countertransference feelings did you have in working on Hitler?”

George Victor began his presentation with a rather personal and moving discussion of his feelings about Hitler throughout his life, starting with the statement, “I find Hitler in myself.” Born in 1928, Victor remembers hearing about Hitler as a very small boy. His elders said that Hitler was both an enemy and crazy, but Hitler did not seem to be crazy since he was doing what leaders normally did which was to conquer territory. At age 12, Victor found a copy of Mein Kampf which he read. At age 14, he wrote his first publication, a letter to the editor of the New York Post, in which he proposed that for every Jew killed, a German should be killed after the war. This was to be both deterrence and vengeance. He feels that he has some “survivor’s guilt.” He also feels that he is a rebel. He is Jewish and his wife is of German descent, and both “over-identify with the victims.” While they were travelling in Germany in 1991 he became frightened by the sight of a sign for Dachau. He was repulsed by the very name and could not breathe easily until the last sign for it was well behind him. Subsequently, he and his wife made a visit to the concentration camp at Dachau which disturbed them greatly even though it was not a death camp. He returned to America with a wish to explain what happened there which

Page 78

led to his book.

Victor cited the words of E. Bertrand Jackal, who became a historian to explain the phenomenon of Hitler, “We know much but understand little,” despite there being over 100 books on Hitler in print and about 100,000 articles through the years. He quoted John Lukacs’ statement, “We’ll never know the source of Hitler’s obsession with Jews” [a statement with which this reporter strongly disagrees], and noted that Herrmann Goering and Rudolph Hess, whom Hitler designated his successors, were not particularly anti-Semitic. He also gave examples of various Nazi leaders such as Alfred Rosenberg and Hans Frank who balked at the administering of the Holocaust. He says that there is no explanation of the Holocaust that is adequate and finds it interesting that a number of leading Nazis are reported to have had Jewish ancestry. One of them, Hans Frank, while awaiting death at Nuremberg, wrote that his investigation as attorney to the Führer proved that Hitler was partly Jewish. Victor feels that “Hitler saw himself [unconsciously] as Jewish” and cites that in his book, 30 things Hitler said about Jews he also said about himself. To Hitler, killing Jews was always more important than victory. Victor and most scholars think, notwithstanding Christopher Browning to the contrary, that the extermination program seriously weakened the war effort. Considerable resources were utilized for the extermination which otherwise could have been used for fighting. Hitler’s so-called blunders, his mistakes, were really calculated risks to prolong the war in order to have time to kill all the Jews. Several examples of these so-called mistakes, such as letting the British escape at Dunkirk, were presented.

The presenter then went into “the exotic jungle of masochism,” noting that he prefers “the term self-victimization to moral masochism.” He suggested that Hitler’s masochism was connected with the sterilization of 400,000 people in a public program. And in his book, he presents new information on a “secret program to sterilize three million other Germans who had some Jewish blood without their knowing it.”

Sexual masochism was not the primary part of the presentation, but some time was devoted to it at the request of the group. Besides the examples and sources Victor wrote up in the preceding article in this issue of Clio’s Psyche, reference was made to Ernst Roehm’s having said Hitler had a “behind fetish.” He had the maid make and remake the bed while he watched with enjoyment, looking at her buttocks. Also, according to Bridget Hitler (his sister-in-law), Hitler’s niece Geli Raubel was pregnant by her Jewish artist lover whom she wanted to marry, and she committed suicide because Hitler would not let her leave since he saw this as a betrayal. The presenter said he thought that the suicides of the women around Hitler were not, as asserted by other writers, linked to his “demonic lovemaking” — his masochistic demands. Bridget Hitler was accepted as a valuable source by Victor. In response to Paul Elovitz’s repeated requests for verification of sources who had direct, firsthand knowledge, Victor acknowledged that at some points, like all historians, he has to speculate, but that “in my work I tend to be over-inclusive and over-accepting of sources.” There were quite a number of differences of opinion.

Ralph Colp and Paul Elovitz viewed Hitler as having low genital sexual energy while Victor felt that Hitler had high sexual energy. There was some discussion of material from his adolescent friend, Kubizek. The discussion of Hitler’s sexuality included the mention of reports that he experienced orgasm while giving speeches. There was no debate regarding Hitler’s association of sexuality with disease, especially syphilis. Ernst Hanfstängl was mentioned as an important source. David Felix had the feeling that Hitler was “an ice box.” Ralph Colp presented a case of a man who needed sexual stimulation precisely because of his low level of sexual activity. Mary Lambert cited the case of James Joyce, whose wife Nora defecated on him so that he would be stimulated enough to have sex.

Victor presented his evidence that Hitler was beaten between the ages of seven and eleven. A turning point was when Hitler, at the age of ten, according to his own account, became determined not to feel but rather to let himself be beaten without crying out. He trained himself, like Lawrence of Arabia (T.E. Lawrence) and G. Gordon Liddy, to repress his feelings. Mary Lambert raised a point regarding the beating of children and masochism.

Jerry Wolf, a layperson who is a member of the Forum’s Advisory Board, asked, “What is the appeal of men like Hitler?” There was considerable discussion of the erotic and sexual side of Hitler as expressed in oratory. Victor said that a key element in the Nazi leader’s speeches

Page 79

was the following formulation: Germans are good. They live in misery because of their enemies: Jews, bankers, Bolsheviks, and so forth. Because Germans are good and have suffered, they are entitled to have their forbidden wishes fulfilled.

The idea of Aryans as victims was mentioned. Hitler feared he was developing stomach cancer and worried that his life would be limited and therefore felt an enormous pressure to carry out his program quickly. Victor agreed that Hitler was suicidal as well as quite hypochondriacal. He tried to avoid x-rays but still had some. He saw many doctors but limited their examinations of him.

The presenter described Hitler as living on the streets without a roof, adequate clothes, or food, for a year, though Hitler himself claimed it was a four-year period. Paul Elovitz demurred, citing the evidence of Hitler’s receiving an orphan’s pension — at the expense of a younger sister, who received less as a result — as well as money from his hunch-backed, schizophrenic maternal aunt. While Victor readily acknowledged that Hitler exaggerated, there was a definite difference of opinion over Hitler’s actual living conditions during the period, especially before Hitler moved to the more comfortable Mannerheim (rather like the YMCA) facility for men. Paul argued that if Hitler did live in or on the edge of poverty it was mostly by choice rather than necessity. It was because he sought to create in the external world the incredible sense of loss he felt within after the death of his mother and his failure to win acceptance into art school.

The presenter noted that Hitler’s claim that his military unit, the List Regiment, was reduced in four days from 3,600 men to 611 men was a great exaggeration as indicated by Mazer. He also noted that there was a mixture of truth and lies in Hitler’s claims and said that Sidney Jones, Hitler in Vienna (1983), has the most detailed reconstruction of the Vienna years. One of the factors in this period was the requirement from age 20 to sign up for the Austrian draft. Hitler avoided such service because he so despised the multinational/multiracial Austro-Hungarian state which his father served. Victor reported that Hitler eventually had his physical examination for the draft and was rejected for malnutrition. He had problems with his digestion, which doctors suggested were psychosomatic in origin. After Geli Raubal’s death, he protested that meat on his plate reminded him of her body, and his vegetarianism became stronger, according to the presenter.

Following was a discussion of Hitler’s alleged vegetarianism. Several people referred to Hitler as a vegetarian. Paul Elovitz, however, noted that he would eat lobster [though he worried about the “humane” way of cooking it], sausage, and so forth, but seems to have avoided red meat at many points in his life. There was also a discussion of his health. Dr. Colp, a psychiatrist who is a former surgeon, inquired about a lesion on his left leg from 1935 as well as intermittent paralysis of one arm and one leg which caused him to drag one of his feet at times. At other times Hitler had a tremor in his arm and leg. Some people think Hitler had Parkinson’s disease, starting in 1941. A friend of Hitler thought he had syphilis which he got from a Jewish prostitute in Vienna.

The Jew as Hitler’s double became a subject of discussion with Ted Cox pointing out the inclination to be obsessed with a double. Victor cited Gordon Craig’s discussion in The Germans (1991) of the similarities between Jews and German Christians which led to the scapegoating of Jews. A participant cited William Wilson from an Edgar Allan Poe story. In it, the hero’s double shows up and at first he’s fascinated but before long the hero begins to feel so threatened by his double that he then kills him. The concept of the double in literature and psychology helps to understand some of the processes of splitting the world into good and bad. Paul Elovitz cited Freud’s reference to the “narcissism of minor differences” as an explanation of why Hitler hated Jews, who were only marginally different than other Germans, rather than people who were radically different such as Africans or Asians whom he hated far less.

Victor suggested that Hitler deliberately sabotaged the entire campaign in the Soviet Union as a way of prolonging the war, a necessary condition for murdering Jews. Below is an exposition of his theory. The Führer insisted that advances should be along the entire 1,000-mile-long front which soon became a 2,000-mile front as the armies advanced. Leading German generals, on the other hand, wanted to quickly capture Moscow. Very early on, Leningrad was surrounded but Hitler gave orders that the northern capital was not to be allowed to surrender, leading to a 1,000-day siege. Hitler also stripped the central army group that was advancing on Moscow of tanks and at a crucial moment ordered the

Page 80

advance on Moscow to be suspended.

The presenter repeatedly expressed his appreciation for Rudolph Binion (Leff Families Professor of History at Brandeis University), for “helping me with almost all of the ideas with this book.” Rudy also disagreed with almost all the ideas, but, in Victor’s opinion, eventually came around to accept some of his central notions. The psychologist’s appreciation of the “enormous help” from this generous historian colleague and author of Hitler Among the Germans (1976) was heartfelt.

Raushning was cited as an important source who quoted Hitler as saying that homosexuals make the best Nazis — that only they are “uninhibited” and able to engage in the violence his revolution required. There was some discussion of Roehm’s sexual preferences. An important idea that everyone agreed with was of Hitler as such a conflict-ridden person that he elevated and destroyed the same people. The question of whether Hitler had ever directly killed another human being was also raised. Victor said that for the 50 battles during World War I in which he participated, there was no mention that he killed a person himself, though he boasted of his regiment killing the enemy. He did take French prisoners. As a message carrier (dispatch runner), he had an extraordinarily dangerous job. Paul Elovitz said that Hitler’s sense of specialness came from having been surrounded by death in childhood as he was in the war. He felt he survived for some special purpose. His birth was preceded by the death of his mother’s first three children and then followed by the death, when he was about 11, of a younger brother. Then he became an orphan at 18 years of age.

Victor, Ralph Colp, and others spoke of just how handicapped in dealing with life Adolf Hitler was: Hitler had no regular job, he didn’t feed himself properly, and he could not form and maintain intimate human relationships. Victor spoke of his hallucinations and that he had a breakdown at age 19 after the death of his mother. At age 29, he thought an angel from God came to him. Paul Elovitz noted that this apparition appeared to Hitler when he was in the psychiatric ward of Pasewalk Hospital near Berlin. He had been blinded by mustard gas in World War I and largely recovered, but when he learned of Germany’s defeat and the Armistice, he relapsed into hysterical blindness. Hitler’s recovery was associated with what Elovitz called a “concretized psychosis”: from then until the day he died, Hitler held Jews to be responsible for all of his ills and the ills of Germany. If he gave up this notion he would go crazy.

There was a discussion of just when Hitler decided on the “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.” Heydrich had reported the deportations of Jews was not working. Victor said that Hitler moved toward the plan to kill German Jews in June, 1940. The Wannsee Conference of January, 1942, was about implementation and, in fact, the council was planned some six months earlier. Victor estimates that Hitler made the decision to kill Jews in October, 1940. He thinks the decision to invade the Soviet Union was related to the plan to kill Jews since this began the systematic slaughter of Jews.

David Lotto asked, “What was Hitler guilty about?” The answer that the presenter put forth was as follows: Hitler felt rotten to the core of his very being. He even changed his name. At 17 he changed the way he wrote the “Ad” of his first name to resemble “W” and then had himself called “Wolf” as both a first and a last name. He was so guilty about being an Austrian that he lied about his country of origin. Hitler felt very guilty about his sexual desires. His sister, Paula, felt that Hitler was treated worse by their father Alois than were the other children.

This report on the Forum’s meeting of September 27, 1997, was based on Paul Elovitz’s notes, which are necessarily incomplete since he was both its chair and an active discussant. George Victor responded to the draft of this report and made a number of content and stylistic changes. In the course of Victor and this reporter’s continuing the discussion during lunch, the college professor made the point that, while it was hard to have reliable information on Hitler’s sex life, there is a most clear-cut pattern of Hitler’s being attracted to suicidal women. The presenter thanked him for making a point that he had not previously considered. It should be noted that both the group and the presenter of the Work-in-Progress paper on “Hitler’s Self-Defeatism” masochism were most appreciative of each other and conducted the discussion with enthusiasm but never in an angry or derogatory tone. This is partially a result of 14½ years of working to always create a safe climate in which psychohistorical ideas can grow.

Page 81