Introduction
The word monster, for many people, may bring up thoughts of vile and “scary” mythological creatures, while for some, a human may come to mind. Scholars have examined and modified the definition of a monster for centuries. Take the story of Frankenstein, for example. The creature created by Frankenstein is often remembered as the monster of the story, but various scholars have concluded the actual monster in the story was Frankenstein himself. This is due to his creation of said “monster” and his greed and hostility towards his creation. This example is a further indication of the fact that humans can be monsters, too (Swanepoel). A monster is not simply a scary mythological creature but a being that possesses the human qualities of brutality, selfishness, and oppression. In an essay on humanism, author Swanepoel defines an extreme perpetrator by three of the following culprits: murderous dictators, serial killers, and ideological killers. So, by this definition, Adolph Hitler is an extreme perpetrator, making him a monster.
Selfishness
Adolf Hitler
By birth, Adolf Hitler, an Austrian rose to become a Nazi leader and was among the most despised figures in world history. Hitler, born on 20th April 1889, participated first world war, where he served as the chief architect after he was rose as the Nazi leader. Then after the battle, the harmony experienced in Germany enraged him, which made him spend the entire life trying to undo the peace that already had belittled his adopted home nation (Yugie). To solidify and sustain control, he employed fear and violence, notably among the Brownshirts. He is, therefore, one of the human beings that justifies that monster can as well be human. His anti-Semitic tactics resulted in the slaughter of millions of Jews in the Holocaust and other individuals against his policies. Therefore, he established his status as one of humankind’s most evil figures, which is equivalent to being a monster.
Ordered his soldiers to “never withdraw”
Hitler was a selfless leader who never considered the lives of his troops as equally important like his self-gain from the war. He always believed in his men facing the enemy despite being overpowered, and this was Hitler’s most significant blunder in Russia. When the Germans’ fortunes began to deteriorate over the first wintertime, He ordered his forces to “never, ever withdraw .”(Yugie) It is risky because allowing soldiers to be slaughtered before an opponent outnumbers them in numbers and/or weaponry makes no sense. Stalin was a supporter of this dubious theory, choosing to prioritize pride over the safety of his troops. This decision depicts that Hitler was a selfless or rather ruthless and inhumane leader. If Hitler had not possessed the monster personality, he would have considered it far more effective to retreat on period and counterattack efficiently at the right time. Besides, his inhumanity was depicted on the no surrender policy such that if generals questioned his choice to surrender, such as Eric von Manstein, they were dismissed of command.
Invasion of Soviet Union
During the Eastern Front war, Adolf Hitler committed numerous discrepancies during the invasion of the Soviet Union. The first was just assuming that conquering the Soviet Union would be simple. The second issue was the six-week postponement of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi ruler’s choice to spare Mussolini’s troops throughout the Balkans. Similarly, the Nazis were unprepared to wage a protracted war because Hitler assumed that Russia might be defeated before the beginning of summer. Hitler was also depicted as a self-centered leader during the invasion of the Soviet Union, where He envied oil that the Soviet Union possessed and demanded the British surrender for peace (Yugie). He never believed in negotiations but rather believed that Britain would have no other option than to accept peace upon the fall Soviet Union. This was among the instances that Hitler would have applied other conflict resolutions techniques which could have fulfilled his wishes without harming others for his self-interest.
Declaration of war against the U.S.
As a German leader who was utterly self-centered and viewed things through his selfish viewpoint, Adolf Hitler declared war on the U.S., where his motivation to make such judgment seems to be self-destructive. This declaration stimulated the by making America, which was not involved in the European conflict (Yugie). This declaration was made in the aftermath of the “Japanese attack on the Hawaiian base at Pearl Harbor .”But why so? Hitler believed it would be beneficial to the German folk’s confidence.
Oppressive
Monsters often Categorize people into groups of “other.”
The non-Aryans in Germany were categorized as “other” as per Hitler’s perspective. He was supposed to consider all citizens as equally important and govern the nation as one. However, he termed non-Aryans as racially inferior (Bitesize). The Nazis punished persons they deemed to be of lower racial status. Hitler’s racial philosophy was predominantly anti-Semitic, but it also promoted prejudice towards the Blacks, who were also termed as other. Hitler then treated Jews as racial rivals, arresting, interning, and murdering them at will. Poles and other Slavs were considered inferior by the Nazis, who sentenced them to slavery, slave labor, and even death. Throughout Nazi camps, Jewish captives were subjected to the most heinous abuse, as “other.”
Lack of women working in factories
Besides, Hitler made his administration gender-biased, where women were oppressed, more so in the employment sector during his reign. Hitler felt that a woman’s responsibility was solely to be a mother and not to be employed outside in the factories, and this was since Hitler wanted these women to keep raising more Aryan kids as well as provide jobs for the jobless men(Bitesize). Monsters are always associated with the oppressive action of categorizing people under the gender model, and so was Hitler, suggesting his monster nature.
Resentment towards the Jews
Throughout the reign of Hitler, it was evident that he truly hated the Jews and considered that they had no place in Germany. Through “Mein Kampf” and other policies during his reign, he was committed to demonstrating why the acts performed against European Jews were so terrible in kind and magnitude, even though hostility was shared by an energized German population. Through this, European Jews in Germany were exposed to various oppressive actions such as limited access to social amenities compared. This justifies that he was a monster human who never advocated for equality, as this hatred also resulted in the Holocaust.
Favoring blonde hair and blue eyes
Hitler considered that those individuals in Germany with blonde hair and blue eyes were Aryan; hence he favored them and considered them superior to other races. Hitler was indeed a German, and persons with “blonde hair and blue eyes” are rather popular in Germany. Furthermore, he believed that most early Germanic people had such appearances(Bitesize). He desired Germany to revert towards its deep history, where the Germans were robust and powerful. His understanding of the situation was likewise poor. Blonde suggested you weren’t inclined to be a Middle Eastern Jew to them, even though Middle Easterners could as well possess such traits. He then favored Citizens with such appearances and protected them, unlike the other tribes.
Ruthless
Holocaust
As a Ruthless individual, Hitler executed the Holocaust, killing European Jews who lived in Germany. Hitler talked openly of his hatred for European Jews and his belief that they were not supposed to be in Germany. Initially, he had no intentions of mass killing at the time. The Nazi high brass came up with the notion and feasibility of executing European Jews just after the onset of World War II. Throughout World War II, Adolf Hitler, as the leader of the Nazi and its allies, carried out a systematic government-sponsored murdering of over six million Jewish people, as well as thousands of other non-German tribes (Grossmann et al.). Hitler was an evil-minded individual who was ruthless and considered himself more powerful and worthy than other people. New territory, the construction of a racial and religious pure form, and the extermination of European Jews and other political foes of Germany were among Hitler’s ideological ambitions.
Battle of the bulge
Hitler’s final effort to garner World War II through the battle of the bulge depicted that he was ruthless and never considered the significance of the consequences that might arise. He attempted to duplicate his 1940 victory by assaulting the Allies with the same method. The German troops were substantially smaller and less powerful than in 1940 because they lacked gasoline. They rallied against an opponent far stronger than the French army they had earlier attacked in 1940 (Burgan). Attacking the Russians and attempting to stop their progress would have been much more prudent, given that the Battle of the Bulge seemed hopeless from the beginning. Many soldiers perished through this ruthless approach, which can then be associated with his quest for selfishness rather than valuing life.
Conclusion
When defining a monster, it is usual that individuals neglect to take attitude and emotions into consideration. Monsters are not necessarily animals but human beings who suggest that they are not sympathetic or do not have feelings. However, people are not born monsters; they are created. Selfishness, Oppressiveness, and Ruthlessness are all character traits of a monster. If one possesses these traits, they are a monster. Adolf Hitler is an example of how his quest for leadership made him turn him a monster, as he made the lives of many people turn miserable, and this is why he is among the most-hated leaders in history. Therefore, human beings as a monster as a person who is known to be cruel, also frightening, or evil person who does evil things like killings, torture, massacre, and even extrajudicial killings.
Bibliography
Bitesize. “Life For Women And The Family In Nazi Germany – CCEA – GCSE History Revision – CCEA – BBC Bitesize”. BBC Bitesize, 2019, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxb8msg/revision/2.
Burgan, Michael. The Battle of the Bulge: Nazi Germany’s Final Attack on the Western Front. Tangled History, 2019.
Grossmann, Atina, Mark Edele, and Sheila Fitzpatrick. Shelter from the Holocaust: Rethinking Jewish survival in the Soviet Union. Wayne State University Press, 2018.
Swanepoel, Piet. "On defining the category MONSTER–using definitional features, narrative categories, and Idealized Cognitive Models (ICM's)." Eurex (European Association for Lexicography) Proceedings (2010) https://euralex.org/wp-content/themes/euralex/proceedings/Euralex%202010/134_Euralex_2010_9_SWANEPOEL_On%20defining%20the%20category%20MONSTER_using%20definitional%20features,%20narrative%20categories%20and%20Idea.pdf
Yugi, Jayden. “10 Mistakes By Hitler That Prove He Was An Idiot”. Medium, 2020, https://historyofyesterday.com/10-mistakes-by-hitler-that-prove-he-was-an-idiot-a8f97d0b81fc.
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