II. NAZISM AND THE IDEOLOGY OF NATIONALISM

According to the ideology of nationalism, the central entity or unit governing political and cultural life is the nation. Each individual “belongs to” a particular nation and attains identity by virtue of his or her relationship to the nation, and its “national life.” Nationalism assumes that people identify with, become attached to and experience “emotions”—often intense ones—in relationship to one’s nation (people “love” their nations, and sometimes hate it).

Within the ideology of nationalism it also is assumed that people have opinions about and emotional responses toward other nations. One’s emotional response toward other nations typically will be less positive than one’s response toward one’s own nation, and usually less intense (except when the other nation is the “enemy” of one’s nation).

Nations seek to be “strong” or powerful. A nation manifests strength by virtue of its capacity to defend itself—or conquer other nations. It is assumed that each nation has “enemies” bent upon harming or seeking to destroy one’s nation. This assumption generates institutions and vast expenditures devoted to “national defense.”

Nazism represented an extreme form of nationalism. Hitler preached to his people: “Your life is bound up with the life of your whole people. The nation is not merely the root of your strength; it is the root of your very life.” He asked his people to acknowledge their profound dependence upon Germany, declaring:

Our Nation is not just an idea in which you have no part; you yourself support the nation; to it you belong; you cannot separate yourself from it.

Nazism insisted that Germany be everything to Germans: “Our future is Germany. Our today is Germany. And our past is Germany. Let us take a vow this evening, at every hour, in each day, to think of Germany, of the nation, of our German people.”

Hitler declared that Deutschland uber Alles (Germany above all) was a “profession of faith” that fills millions with a great strength, with “that faith which is mightier than any earthly might.” Hitler presented himself as a model of faith and devotion. His oratory revolved around persuading others to share his faith and devotion: to love Germany as deeply as he did. By virtue of faith in and devotion to Germany, Hitler promised Germans that they would become endowed with “great strength.”

Hitler explained to his people, “You are nothing, your nation is everything.” This was the dialectic that defined Nazi Germany. Human beings in and of themselves were “nothing.” One’s nation, on the other hand, was “everything.” Therefore, to become something—overcome nothingness—one needed to identify with one’s nation.

Or one might say that in order to become “everything” (by virtue of identification with one’s nation), one had to become nothing. Self-inflation required self-negation. To internalize the power of one’s nation—partake of its omnipotence—one had to erase one’s individuality. Hitler’s Nazism simultaneously was an orgy of nationalistic self-glorification and an orgy of self-abnegation. What was glorified was the collective. What was abnegated was the actual human being, who traded in his or her individuality in order to become “one” with Germany.

Rudolf Hess introduced his Fueher at mass-rallies declaring, “Hitler is Germany, just as Germany is Hitler.” Hitler reveled in his identification with Germany. At the core of Nazism was the mystical sense of “oneness” between Hitler and Germany. Nazism did not differ from ordinary nationalism that posits an intimate tie between the life of the individual and national life. What Hitler did was to carry the ordinary idea of “identification with one’s nation” to an extreme, bizarre conclusion. Nazism revealed the heart of darkness contained within “love of country.”