Could the Nazis be regarded as heros if.....?

Question

If we were to read up our history books, we will realised that historic leaders such as Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napolean, Peter the Great or even Genghis Khan were fondly remembered in history as great leaders. Octavian Caesar was even remembered as a great warrior that brought prosperity to the Roman Empire. This is in spite of the fact they conquered people.

My question is this.

Today, Nazism is despised and looked upon with discontent by everyone around the world, especially among those in Europe who suffered under Hitler's treachery. History books do not speak favourably of Hitler and the Nazis. Even contemporary Germans resented being associated with them. I have also every reason to believe the history books of the future will not speak fondly of Nazis and Hitler.

However, had Hitler WON the war, and Nazism thrived on into the distant future, do you think the people of the future will remember the Nazis in a bad light? Or will they also be fondly remembered of just like Alexander the Great or Octavian Caesar? Will history books oif the fure treat Hitler as a hero?

Answer 1

Honestly no for one simple reason, the men you mentioned aren't known for being heroes. They're known for being conquerors, dictators and murderous thugs.

For the most part they were savage, ruthless and killed in their way to get to where they were. That's not exactly what I consider to be noble.

Answer 2

You can view history as a water flow that always goes to a certain point. Sometime, you might have "delays" or "detours", but the final result will always be the same. Nazism was a freak that thrived on the problems that faced Germany after WWI, and even if Hitler had won the war, Nazism would have never prevailed on the long run. When you start to isolate people based on their body features, where would that lead you eventually? The last result you can get is a kind of standards that fit only one person, Hitler himself. And who would have accepted to see a world filled with ugly monkeys like him?
Let's go back to your other examples. Greatness is a relative thing. We someone says that Napoleon was a great leader; it doesn't mean that he was Great. He was an intelligent military leader, that's it. The first thing that any sane human being will see about him is that he started wars for his own personal glory. This is not greatness. Something like that could be said about all the other dictators you mentioned.

Answer 3

Nazis are the Political faction of Germany during the early 20's to mid 40's. Although the NSDAP was a popular party, not all Germans actually belonged to the Party. However many people did support the regieme.
During the war, there where many German Heros who fought valiantly and Honourably compared to many and have been honoured by there enemies as well, during and after the war.
To name a few, Rommel, Model, Guderian, Doneitz, Steiner, Kesselring, von Runstedt, Bock.... And those are just the Ranking Officers, there are others like U Boat Commanders, Fighter Pilots and other Army Personnel.
It all depends on perspective.
As for the future, I doubt if the Nazis regieme will ever be looked on fondly by Historians, there is just too much nastiness and denial made throughout its brief History. Also the whole situation on how they took power and the tactics used are a good reminder on how country can go from a democracy to a totalitarian state very quickly.

Answer 4

Even though Hitler did all the horrible thing he did he is consider by most people as an outstanding leader. Only a true leader would have gather all the followers that he had and make them believe that he was doing the Right thing. Only a true leader would have enter the German government in a way that no one might have suspected that he was plotting something as horrible as the Holocaust. You have to say that the men was a genius like any other villain but they just simply used their intelligence in a way that didn't contributed to humanity how it should have. Take Hitler he made a lot of great things for Germany: he ended unemployment in a matter of month he raised German economy in less than a year he turn Germany in one of the greatest countries in the world even though Germany Had suffer a lot after the WWI and was left in ruins. The man was a total Genius. Still I dont thing he would have gotten any further with his bad ideals because the world was just to big and the Arian race was just a small percent compared to all the raises in the world.

Answer 5

I find it hihgly doubtful that mainstream history books will ever talk favourable of Hitler and the Nazis. The examples used are from centuries ago, and there will be no living person or close relative to contradict the 'great' Caesar etc.

The memories of Nazi atrocities are still fresh in the minds of people who lived through it, and to praise Nazism, or even to speak of the Nazi ideals favourably I doubt will ever happen for that reason.

We are encouraged to study that period of time to ensure that lessons from the past have been learned adn will not happen again. Sadly this is not the case and there have been many instances of genocide since the fall of the Third Reich.

There are some, a small minority who will indeed praise Hitler and there are a small group of historians, one in particular and I cannot remember his name off hand, who deny the Holocaust ever happened.

These people are in the minority and i seriously doubt these thoughts will ever become mainstream. I cannot even see Nazism being praised in many years to come due to the volume of texts that have been written on this matter. Compare that to surviving texts from Roman times for instance.

Finally, the Nazis although conquered people, this was only for a short period of time, which has been highly documented as a bad period in history.

Great question though!!!

Answer 6

I would not say Genghis Khan was "fondly remembered" - remembered as a warrior perhaps. Hitler was a disaster, the other's you mentioned at least accomplished something- what did Hitler actually do? He lost. All he did was trick innocent civilians into death in a sneaky way- he was just a sociopath with power. Genocide requires no skill as a leader, it is cowardly and self serving, instead of strenghthening Europe he destroyed it (Poland, etc...) Hitler just wanted some "master race" of blonde/blue even though he was short and dark, this demonstrates his insanity. Hitler did not bring ANY good to anyone- not even to the Germans. There is nothing good or valiant about Hitler, his technique was to murder those who had no chance of fighting back- he did no good to anyone, only bad. If you read up on Peter the Great and Alexander you will see they were VERY different than Hitler. How could Nazi's be hero's? They did nothing heroic! Unless it is heroic to slaughter innocent women, children and men just because he felt like it- he is like Sadam Hussein- is he a hero? NO. Hitler is in the history books, not because he was heroic but because he was a MONSTER. I do not see this changing.

Answer 7

Usually the victors write the history and had the nazis won, the views and history books would be totally different. As an analogy, when the Japanese have the Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorials every year, counter arguments are brought up, especially by the Chinese about the dreadful atrocities done in the late 1930's in China like the rape of Nanking and how the school books in Japan have totally swept this under the carpets or out of existance. If you read the book or see the 1992 movie, "Fatherland" by Robert Harris, you will get an interesting idea on this alternate history scenario where the nazis won WWII.

History books do blame the Treaty Of Versailles, rise of communism and chaos of the Weimier Republic as well as the Great Depression, not to mention vestiges left by the late 19th century's philosophy on Social Darwinsim for setting a good atmosphere for the the rise of the Nazis. Hitler at first did positive things like restoring Germany's pride, getting the economy going and the unemployed back to work. Many celebraties from the British monarchy to Charles Lindbergh admired their progress and ways of doing things.

The big blight, ie negative historical judgement against the nazis will always be the extermination of the Jews along with less mentioned ethnic and handicapped final solutions. As you surmised those other figures of history had their own blitzkreigs and conquered but they never went out to exterminate a race once and for all. Punishment for resisting them could be severe but if you surrendered and accepted their form of government, life continued and you went about business as usual. The Jews and those others did not have that luxury. They could not collaborate, join the German army, scream Hiel Hitler or sing the Horst Wessel Song to be saved. They were targeted and singled out for extermination and that was that.

Addendum: For those who think the holocaust was a myth and fabrication think again German organization and effeciency was its own undoing. For all the great inventions they made from the V2, jet fighters to the assault rifle and enigma machines, it didn't occur to any of them to invent and use good paper shredders.
Documents whining from how slow the extermination process was going with citations of numbers "proceessed" to the last gold tooth crown and spectacles were all left as evidence... I suppose they still thought victory was possible even to the bitter end.

Michael Kelly

Answer 8

The major difference would be that there are still people alive today who suffered abd who lost friends and family at the hands of the Nazis.

The other people you mention were running around conquering and murdering folk a long long time ago and nobody who suffered under them is alive now.

There were some great tacticians and soldiers fighting for Hitler and some of them were admired by the Allied generals but Hitler himself was never considered a great tactician and he tended to let his beliefs rule his descisions even when his generals advised something else.

Maybe the conquerors of the past were bad soldiers as well but nobody knows for sure although Napoleon was always considered to be a good leader.

The time factor means the Nazis are still remembered for their atrocities so they are not mainly remembered for their soldier abilities.

Answer 9

The historic leaders you mentioned are not remembered fondly.
This is where your question and logic went wrong. They might be remembered as capable leaders, military strategists, politicians, etc, but they are not remembered FONDLY.
Another problem with your logic is that you are comparing individual leaders of the past to a movement. Alexander or Genghis Khan or another strong and cunning individual just led the masses of people who had no idea what they were doing.
Nazism was a movement. The majority of German population WILLINGLY and EAGERLY followed Hitler.
What will future generations think of the Nazis? I hope the same as all decent people think of them now. Unfortunately many young people do not know and do not care to know about this.

Answer 10

Absolutely not - they could never be seen as heroes.

For example, while Napoleon is well known for his victories and his abilities as a general, he still is not known as a hero, but rather more as a tyrant.

The Nazis rule of europe was known for the atrocities committed, and the 6 million Jews and millions of others murdered. Even if the Nazis had won the war, there would be so much evidence of those attrocities that it would still be well known today.

Furthermore the politics of Nazism would still be seen for what it is - the politics of bullying, finding a weak victim blame them for the ills of the world and use the hatred generated to unite people. Even if we were brought up under it, most of us would be able to see it for what it is.

What the Germans had going for them was a modern tactic (Blitzkrieg) and modern equipment for that purpose. That does not outway the absolute horror of the attrocities committed, the ruthless murders and torture against women, children the young and old.

Answer 11

They say that history is written by the winners. This does not really explain why Hitler is vilified. Hitler and his evil regime deserved to be vilified. I could be wrong, but I don't remember that any of the other great leaders that you mentioned were guilty of genocide, or certainly not because of their race. The Nazi regime was evil and don't forget that many brave people lost their lives either fighting it or being exterminated by it. Perhaps far too much about Hitler and for too little about the Allies is taught in schools today.