baby hitler; to kill or not to kill?

Question

if tomorrow for just one single hour
you were sent back in time to when hitler was a one year old baby, your standing there face to face with him,
what you can see before you is an innocent child
but you know in the future this child will be an evil man who will kill millions of innocent people including children...you have a gun in your hand...your option is to kill hitler and save millions of innocent lives and live with the sin on you or you can leave him alive and everytime you hear of these innocents that were killed at the hands of hitler well they could have been saved by you...what would you do??

ehhh yeh you only have one hour back there in that time with Hitler...after you choose to kill him or not you have to come back to now and you cannot return....

Answer 1

Kristen - This is not something I could even answer without a lot of thought and discusssing with friends and mentors. I am a pacifist and I do believe that all killing is wrong and yet I would be faced with killing and knowing that in doing so I was saving the greater. So it would be a matter of breaking a strong ethical and religious belief while knowing that in doing so many would live and many would not suffer. Can I live with killing on my conscious or can I live with not killing and the knowledge of millions of lives ended because of my lack of action.

But, if we could vote for best question...you have my vote. GB

Answer 2

I would leave the child alone.Knowing I have only one hour to be there I would prepare an essay on the right and wrong passions of mankind. The cruel consequences of the wrong decisions made upon pride. Upon arrival I would drop the gun and go directly to an Austrian law firm. A law firm that research has shown to have survived the first world war, and leave the essay with payment in gold with that law firm; to be given to Corporal Adolf Hitler of the German Army upon the end of the war.
After that I would leave knowing that I have done what I could without shedding any blood. If I were to come back and find that it did not work, and that World War Two had still followed the history that you and I know? Then I would still lay the blame on Adolf Hitler and his henchmen.
The odds are that if Hitler was killed by me in the nineteenth century; then some other evil man would have committed the same atrocities as Hitler did. Would we have to go back again for another hour and kill that baby as well?
I don't think we can change history with the butterfly effect.

Answer 3

You are giving a choice between a past which we know, and a past which we don't know.

Indirectly, Hitler did bring about some good. The world united to confront a terrible power. Hitler served as good example of how we should handle such individuals in the future. The US lost its isolationist attitude and became a world power (some question whether that is a good thing).

Like anything terrible, we fought it, we defeated it, and became better because of it.

Here's a scenario where if you killed Hitler, the world could have possibly have been worse off.

Mussolini rises to power. Instead of attacking Europe, he decides to go after key areas in Africa. Nobody really cares, but Africa provides Italy with vasts amount of raw resources. Time continue s on for a bit, and Italy becomes the dominant economic power in Europe. Italy now wields tremendous influence on the European continent.

Japan also by this time has become an economic powerhouse in the east. The US now relies on Japan for a significant percentage of its imports. In the meantime, the USSR forges economic deals with both Japan and the Italian empire.

Both Italy and Japan have funneled a massive amount of funds into their military.

Since the US continued in its isolationist policy (and lack of military developement), the Japanese fleet dwarfs the US naval power in both strength and technology. Simultaneously, the Italian war machine has become monstrous due to the eager influx of funds from foriegn powers wishing to cash in on the massive success of the Italian economy.

At this point, the fate of the world is essentially sealed. Most countries rely on at least one of the two economic powers for significant goods, and all the funds flowing to the two world powers has made their armies all but invincible. Even if the "allied" countries banded together, it would be unlikely that they would be able to stop thir expansion, since some countries would be more than willing to become members of the new empires rather than get annihilated.

That's just one of the billions of scenarios that would be possible.

In other words, history has played out like it has, and all in all it has played out relatively well. I would not be so arrogant nor naive enough to risk the history we have now for one the could possibly (and somewhat likely) be worse.

~X~

Answer 4

Well, this is an interesting question. Do u kill a baby u know will grow to be the biggest murderer in history or do spare this child and hope that despite the horrible things he will do, hope the world will learn a lesson from his actions and learn what a horrible thing hate can lead to. The Holocaust led to a mass change in the way people treated other people. When they saw the pictures of these poor innocent people mauled, maimed, beaten, starved, shaved, etc... they realised how horrible hatred could be and many tried to reform their ways and lessen the discriminatory actions they took. Is this lessening of prejudice a good thing? Yes. Is the way it came about a good thing? No, sadly, it is not. I wish their was a way to come to the conclusion many came to after the Holocaust that didn't involve one twisted man murdering and torturing MILLIONS of innocent women, children, and men, but i don't think there is. At the same time, one could simply put that gun to the baby's head and pull the trigger, but think more about what this would CHANGE. What good could come out of shooting baby Hitler? A LOT! But how about the bad things? Hitler did help the economy and lifestyles of millions of poor starving lost Germans during his time in power... Without him, millions of Germans might have died. But without him, millions who died in the Holocaust would still be alive and millions of soldiers lost in the war he caused would still be alive... so i want to know WHAT WOULD YOU DO?? this was a very good question. have a wonderful day and a nice holiday season, dear!!!!

Answer 5

Well, the immediat thought would be "OMGYEAH!" or something of the sort. However, one must stop and think. In any way, shape, or form, is messing with the past really a great thing to do?
First of all, killing babies may be funny nowadays (don't quote me on that) but back then it probably would have been worse. Congradulations baby killer, how are you gonna get out of this one?
What I want to know is, can I leave? Can I shoot baby Hitler and high-tail it back to the now?
And If I do come back to the future/now, and I don't like how the world, or lack there of, is, can I go back and not kill baby Hitler?
And what if Mrs. Hitler just decides to have another baby.
What if that baby ends up worse than Hitler.

You just don't know how the past is going to effect the future. The saving of all those lives couldn't possibly be the -only- thing that changes.

Answer 6

I don't have any moral quandary killing hitler.

But... truly, I am not an anti-semite, I cannot imagine what the world would be like without Hitler. Would the world be better? It takes ALOT of pain for humans to understand the truth.. From what perspective do I decide? The present-- the future... How do I tell which world is better? It's very hard to make such assessments. And also madness to side with Hitler-- but I am skeptical.

Answer 7

Assuming that you could do all that, whats to say that by killing him would improve the situation. The biggest fear would be that it makes the situation worse. What if Hitler was the lessor of two evils, or three evils. And if you did kill him what is to say that the situation being changed would not change yours. Would you be able to go back home, or would you vanish because of a bizarre "butterfly" effect.
I don't know that I could do it to begin with, would it not make me like him? And If I could do that what would stop me from killing others that I didn't like. What if I didn't care for Christians and decided to go back and kill the Christ child. Where does it end.
And just so you all know I am a Christian.

Answer 8

Do not kill.

Actions taken in real time lead to unknown consequences. But actions knowingly taken retroactively (if and when it becomes possible) kill the lives lost to the changed timeline.

Your personal timeline would be broken. The post-war baby boom, the technological advances, etc., would not occur, and a significantly high percentage of persons in today's timeline would not be born, possibly you. In other words, in killing Hitler, your actions would directly cause the cessation (aka death) of millions of baby boomers, probably more than Hitler killed. You'd also kill all those who otherwise lived because WWII technological advancements (Airplanes went from biplanes to Jets, Radar was perfected, Medicines were developed, plastics were perfected, etc.).

The same ethics that causes you to revile Hitler should prevent you from changing a known timeline, and for the same reasons.

Answer 9

Killing Hitler or his father makes no difference. In fact it makes things worse. I killed Hitler, his brother took over, that was worse. His brother had no interest in women. I killed one then both parents. You think Hitler was the only one available? There are always others. He was actually the lesser of evils. His lust for women was his weakness...He was introduce to a prostitute to give him a STD. Without the STD, he conquered England and the USSR. The US was under the threat of ballistic nuclear missiles. Killing people is not the answer, but controlling them is. But control is not precise. Even with Hitler getting a STD, the other side had to be helped. They didn't know initially, the Germans were using a directional radio beam to navigate their bombers. They didn't know the location of the V1 or the V2 rocket sites...a secret report had to be created and given to the Finnish consulate...who gave it to the Brittish. I don't think you know how close the world was to having Hitler and his kind in complete control. By all rights, Germany did win the war. We change this.

There are no innocents.

Answer 10

If you could go back into time and were able to kill Hitler when he was a baby, would you do it? You wouldn't dare kill him, haven't you learned not to mess with the space time continuum?

Consider the possible consequence. You kill Hitler as a young child, years later, say 1933, Ernst Roehm instead becomes dictator, in mid 1930s, HE decides to begin 'heavy water' experiments which lead to the first nuclear bomb built in 1939. With that device, he easiliy defeats mother russia and the allies, and the Final Solution is 'completed.'

Your mistep in the space time continuum caused the death of ALL European Jewry and enslavement of half the planet...way to go!....you should'a stayed home in bed where it was safe and leave the living to others..