Was Hitler really EVIL?

If hitler was evil then so was Roosevelt for the manhattan project (aka) the atomic bomb, and if you wanted to draw the line out even further so was albert Einstein for help with development of the atomic bomb. Japan attacks pearl Harbor and kills 2000+ people so the US Drops 2 atmoic bombs on them killing 200000+ people.

The everyone in the whole world is evil in there own little way, and if the Nazi's would have won the war Hitler proably would be regarded as one of the greatest rulers and generals. Winners of wars create what we call history and if hitler won history would be created by the nazi's.

Originally posted by Kid Kurdy
I see a lot of stupid talk of people who don't know what they are saying. Nice little theories written down behind their computer about Being Evil.

Don't make me laugh.

If some of you were in the concentration camps during WW II, only to see your wife and children die, to eat rats, to dig your own grave, to be physically abused in every way and so on... you would know the face of evil. And you would hate it.

Unless of course you consider the people killed there as less then human and a waste of space, in which case it was not evil but just a necessity and a cleaning up operation.

Wouldn't be the first time genocide was justified. A means to an end.

What is the point here?!
Of course no one sane would call himself/herself evil. But Hitler wanted to eradicate millions of people, telling about it as early as in Mein Kampf. If one believes in evil, he cannot deny that such act is evil.

Originally posted by dirkdirden
If hitler was evil then so was Roosevelt for the manhattan project (aka) the atomic bomb, and if you wanted to draw the line out even further so was albert Einstein for help with development of the atomic bomb. Japan attacks pearl Harbor and kills 2000+ people so the US Drops 2 atmoic bombs on them killing 200000+ people.

The everyone in the whole world is evil in there own little way, and if the Nazi's would have won the war Hitler proably would be regarded as one of the greatest rulers and generals. Winners of wars create what we call history and if hitler won history would be created by the nazi's.

Everyone has good and evil inside him, but do you really judge Hitler`s and Roosevelt`s actions the same way?

Originally posted by Lord Melkor
What is the point here?!
Of course no one sane would call himself/herself evil. But Hitler wanted to eradicate millions of people, telling about it as early as in Mein Kampf. If one believes in evil, he cannot deny that such act is evil.

Of course I and many others can.

Look if Hitler believed that the Jews were nothing and worthless and just taking up space and destroying the good German race, which he genuinely did and if he believed that the German race should be saved above all else, and that everybody should work there very best to make sure it prevails while all other races fall, if he really believed all that then it's really easy to make the killing of 6 million Jews and countless other people justified. After all, in the end it was all done for the greater good, a necessary sacrifice. Not evil because those Jews weren't any good to begin with.

Hell we had pope's justifying the inquisition and the crusades, Imams justifying Jihads and Fatwas, really murder even mass murder and genocide aren't that hard to justify as long as you believe you are doing it for some greater good. And there is no greater good that makes it easier to justify your actions then religion. Which is the same thing that brought the concept of good and evil into our lives.

Originally posted by Fishy
Of course I and many others can.

Look if Hitler believed that the Jews were nothing and worthless and just taking up space and destroying the good German race, which he genuinely did and if he believed that the German race should be saved above all else, and that everybody should work there very best to make sure it prevails while all other races fall, if he really believed all that then it's really easy to make the killing of 6 million Jews and countless other people justified. After all, in the end it was all done for the greater good, a necessary sacrifice. Not evil because those Jews weren't any good to begin with.

Hell we had pope's justifying the inquisition and the crusades, Imams justifying Jihads and Fatwas, really murder even mass murder and genocide aren't that hard to justify as long as you believe you are doing it for some greater good. And there is no greater good that makes it easier to justify your actions then religion. Which is the same thing that brought the concept of good and evil into our lives.

So I assume you don`t have your own concept of evil? Most human beings need something like the sense of right and wrong, even if it is often flawed.

He was behind the idea of burning babies alive. It was his idea for the mass slaughter of Jews and it was he alone who hired men to torture them. Animals were treated better than the Jews at the time.

Hitler did not find it a problem that Jewish woman were raped, or killed. He did not have a conscience. He did not feel empathy, shame, or remorse. He was a murderer, and a very evil man.

Originally posted by Lord Melkor
So I assume you don`t have your own concept of evil? Most human beings need something like the sense of right and wrong, even if it is often flawed.

My own? Yes of course I do... But the world is not black and white and my own concepts of good and evil are not universal values. So Hitler was evil in my eyes, he wasn't in his own. So no I can not answer this question with an absolute as it's still just a matter of personal opinion.

Originally posted by Ambience
He was behind the idea of burning babies [b]alive. It was his idea for the mass slaughter of Jews and it was he alone who hired men to torture them. Animals were treated better than the Jews at the time.

Hitler did not find it a problem that Jewish woman were raped, or killed. He did not have a conscience. He did not feel empathy, shame, or remorse. He was a murderer, and a very evil man. [/B]

I agree up until teh last part. You can't say he was evil. At least not if you mean he was absolutely "no doubt about it" evil. If you want to say he was evil to you I am all for it.

Originally posted by Lord Coal
What do you think? Was he really evil, or just misquided or misunderstood?

My opinion is this:

While many of his actions were undeniably evil (The final solution, etc) as a man I believe he was not. I think he believed that what he was doing was for the best, therefore he was simply misguided. In my personal opinion the difference between someone DOING EVIL and someone BEING EVIL is INTENT. Hitler's intent was to do what he believed was right, therefore his actions were evil but he was not.

Waiting for the flamings from those of Jewish/Romany/Balshavik/non-aryan backgrounds, homosexuals and those given a one-sided education.......

are women evil? 😐

Originally posted by Bardock42
I agree up until teh last part. You can't say he was evil. At least not if you mean he was absolutely "no doubt about it" evil. If you want to say he was evil to you I am all for it.

But he did not do a single good thing in his life.
His life revolved around the death of other people. It was his very idea which sparked the biggest terror the world has ever seen.

I watched one movie, one single movie where Nazi's took a shovel and threw a new born baby into a fire. How is that not evil?

How could any person think of doing such a thing? I find, in my heart, he was the worst person this world has ever seen. I only wish he died stript of is power, begging for his life. The bastard.

Sorry. Don't mind me.
Just my opinion.

But I'm not refusing to see the other side of the argument. I don't think it's wrong. But truly.

He craved power, and he got it. He rallied people together like nothing the world has ever seen. He made them stronger, built them up, and made them a stronger nation. They were the under dogs, and they soon became the most powerful, feared and most powerful people in the world.

Although he brought people together by hate. He did not start off his election by saying "I want to mass murder the Jewish people, and unleash such a horror the world has never seen! Vote for Hitler!" No, he earned people's trust. Then slowly as he crept up into the upper echelons of power. Then he found a common enemy.

He convinced people to work for nothing, and they did. Then he began gaining trust and power. Enough power to forsaken the Jewish people. The labor slowly mutated into slavery. Hitler got away with it. And his sheer brilliance threw the entire world off guard. He could have had everything. But lost it.

He was a devilishly brilliant man. But I found him evil. I think he was.

Originally posted by SpadeKing
are women evil? 😐

the answer lies in the above question 😬

Originally posted by Ambience
But he did not do a single good thing in his life.
His life revolved around the death of other people. It was his very idea which sparked the biggest terror the world has ever seen.

I watched one movie, one single movie where Nazi's took a shovel and threw a new born baby into a fire. How is that not evil?

How could any person think of doing such a thing? I find, in my heart, he was the worst person this world has ever seen. I only wish he died stript of is power, begging for his life. The bastard.

Sorry. Don't mind me.
Just my opinion.

But it is you who is saying he didn't know a good thing. How do we know that killing people is not a good thing? How do we know that starting a war is not a good thing? We just can't.

There just is no absolute good or evil we could judge by.

Though as you say you feel it in your heart. I can agree with that. He was evil to me too. And to most others. But we can't make up or pretend that there are absolute morals,just because we don't want to call someone evil. We know of no such moral code, we can't know of sucha moral code, it doesn't exist, it can not exist.

Originally posted by Ambience

[/I watched one movie, one single movie where Nazi's took a shovel and threw a new born baby into a fire. How is that not evil?

How is that evil?

Originally posted by ~Flamboyant~
How is that evil?

It's cold blooded murder. Killing an innocent child, a baby.
They are defenceless, and they just threw them into the fire without mercy. They slaughtered them.

Originally posted by Bardock42
But it is you who is saying he didn't know a good thing. How do we know that killing people is not a good thing? How do we know that starting a war is not a good thing? We just can't.

There just is no absolute good or evil we could judge by.

Though as you say you feel it in your heart. I can agree with that. He was evil to me too. And to most others. But we can't make up or pretend that there are absolute morals,just because we don't want to call someone evil. We know of no such moral code, we can't know of sucha moral code, it doesn't exist, it can not exist.

This is what I love about you, you are always so right. He did one good thing. Well, not really, it was a byproduct of a bad thing. But a good thing none the less. He stopped the depression.

No absolute evil? Come over to my house when my mom's PMSing. You can see the fires of hell in her eyes. =P

He could have been insane, but by the way he talked and he intelligence he used while speaking. That excuse is shot. Maybe he didn't mean for it to elevate to that level. Maybe by the time he realized the depth of what he was doing he wanted to stop it. But the German people would not tolerate it. But, I doubt it. I just didn't want to seem blond to the other side of the argument.

I noticed something when talking about this. When people are united by a common hate, their efforts are so much more enthusiastic then when fueled by good. Although when things revolve around hate, there is always a bitter end.

Originally posted by Ambience
This is what I love about you, you are always so right. He did [b]one good thing. Well, not really, it was a byproduct of a bad thing. But a good thing none the less. He stopped the depression.

No absolute evil? Come over to my house when my mom's PMSing. You can see the fires of hell in her eyes. =P

He could have been insane, but by the way he talked and he intelligence he used while speaking. That excuse is shot. Maybe he didn't mean for it to elevate to that level. Maybe by the time he realized the depth of what he was doing he wanted to stop it. But the German people would not tolerate it. But, I doubt it. I just didn't want to seem blond to the other side of the argument.

I noticed something when talking about this. When people are united by a common hate, their efforts are so much more enthusiastic then when fueled by good. Although when things revolve around hate, there is always a bitter end. [/B]

The thing is that I do not deny that I find him evil. Even if he did not do one good thing to us, we can not objectively claim that he was evil.

How would we decide what is evil? Killing? Raping? Robbing someone? Stealing food for your family to survive? We just can't judge it objectively. Every action we make is neither good nor evil. We might like it or we might not like it, but it is not absolutely evil or good. It is neutral. Raping and killing a five year old, buying a pack of coffee, giving your life to save someone from a burning house ... all neutral and equal actions. Objectively.

As for Hitler, if we judge him fairly, we might have to admit that he did the best thing for us anyone ever did. Do you think we would nearly live in the rather peaceful and prosperous paradise Americans and Europeans live now, if it wasn't for the cruels of the second world war? To me it changed the world for the better, though, admittedly in an obscene way.

Well, I guess I will finish with a very intelligent quote that I think shows how I feel. And how it is:

"Maybe there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue, they's just what people does. Some things folks do is nice and some ain't so nice, and that's all any man's got a right to say. "

- Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Bardock42, I disagree completely. What you should accomplish in life is happiness and happiness for others. Maybe there is some benefit to killing, that humans can't understand, but what are the chances? Maybe we are just here on earth without a "mission" (liking killing.) Besides, the idea that we humans would come to life through an amazing evolution from the first bacteria, then learn that killing is good is a counter-intuitive concept.

Originally posted by KingTut
Bardock42, I disagree completely. What you should accomplish in life is happiness and happiness for others. Maybe there is some benefit to killing, that humans can't understand, but what are the chances? Maybe we are just here on earth without a "mission" (liking killing.) Besides, the idea that we humans would come to life through an amazing evolution from the first bacteria, then learn that killing is good is a counter-intuitive concept.

See, you do not disagree completely. Hitler's genocide though bringing a lot of happiness might in the long run have created more happiness. Can you say for sure it didn't?

Also, though you see happiness as the end of all, why should it be absolute. And why should we try to accomplish it for others? Also, Hitler tried to accomplish it for himself and "his" people.

You can't really deal in absolutes when talking about it. We don't have an absolute code of morals. We don't know whether something is right or wrong. We don't even know whether something can be absolutely right or wrong. Though it is unlikely.

How could something be absolutely evil? Where comes that absoluteíty from?

We need to distinguish between our personal concepts of morals, which might very well find Hitler evil. And absolute concepts that we do not know, can not know and most likely do not exist.

It doesn't change anything, it is just the actual description of what is going on.