Preface
These are not the words of a boot-licking sycophant. They express the reverent attitude of a large portion of the German public toward the words of their Fuehrer. That this fantastic book, with its atrocious style and its countless contradictions, could become the testament of the German nation, is in itself illustrative of the state of mind that made Hitlerism possible. Today a large part of Germany accepts Hitler’s contention that human existence is controlled by the laws of an eternal conflict and struggle upward. Man must understand says Hitler, “that in a world in which planets revolve about the sun and moons about planets, in which force is master over weakness and either makes it an obedient servant or encompasses its destruction—that in such a world there cannot be special laws for the human race. It too must bow before the eternal verities of the final truth … In this eternal struggle humanity has grown to greatness—in eternal peace it will go down to destruction …”
Who are the strong? Hitler develops his race theory to find the answer. It is, says he, “the key, not only to world history but to all human culture.” He violently disavows the Marxist principle that “Man equals man,” and in its place postulates a conception of race that sees in the Aryan the Divine instrument that must guide the destinies of our civilization. “What we see before us today of human culture, of the products of art, science and technical achievement, is almost exclusively the creative produce of the Aryan.”
On closer examination, however, we find the author qualifying this sweeping statement. Actually it is only the German Aryan who will attain to world leadership. To other nationalities Hitler reserves unto himself the right to give the accolade, as a great ruler bestows special recognition on deserving subjects. Nor is it sufficient for a people to use the German language as the background of its cultural life. “A racially alien people,” says Hitler discussing the ‘Germanization of the Polish element,’ “which expresses its alien thoughts in the German tongue, comprises the greatness and the dignity of our national heritage by its own inferiority.” Later he defines National Socialism as a
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