EVERYONE MUST DIE

          Richard A. Koenigsberg

Nazism was religious faith. Hitler declared that “Deutschland uber Alles” (Germany above all) was a profession of faith “mightier than any earthly faith.” Jews symbolized absence of faith in Germany, i. e., unwillingness to sacrifice their lives. Hitler imagined Jewish German men had shirked fighting and dying during the First World War. 

Nonetheless, Hitler believed Jews had not sacrificed their lives in the First World War. This became an obsession that stayed with Hitler throughout his life. In Mein Kampf (1923), Hitler wrote (upon returning home from the front) about his discovery that “offices were filled with Jews. Every clerk was a Jew and every Jew was a clerk.” Hitler was "amazed" by the “plethora of chosen people at home” and could not help comparing them with their “rare representation at the front.”

Hitler’s complaint—defining the course of everything that followed—was that Jewish-Germans had not sacrificed their lives during the First World War in the same proportion as non-Jewish Germans had. Jews were disloyal and had actively shirked duty. Beneath  Hitler's complaints about the “Jewish race” lay a simple belief: Jews were a people unwilling or unable to sacrifice for a national community. They were evil--beyond the pale--because in Hitler's view the essence of a civilized human being was willingness to sacrifice one’s life for a national community

            Hitler became enraged contemplating this idea that so many loyal German soldiers had died at the front during the First World, whereas Jews had not died at the front (a claim that was not accurate). Why were the best men losing their lives while the worst  men survived? This ma\d no sense. Men who did the good thing were “rewarded” with death or bodily injury. Men who did the bad thing—avoiding military duty—were "rewarded" with survival. Why were good men dying while bad men survived?

Having become Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, Hitler began planning a Second World War. He understood millions of German men again would sacrifice their lives. This time, however, Jews would not get off scot-free; would not be allowed to shirk their duty. They too would be compelled to become “obedient unto death;” to forfeit their lives when Germany asked them to. As German soldiers were dying, Jews too would have to die. Unlike during the First World War—when according to Hitler German men had died whereas Jewish men had not died, this time Hitler would make certain that Jews died too.

A sign at the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp read: “This is not a holiday resort but a labor camp. Just as our soldiers risk their lives at the front to gain victory for the Third Reich, you will have to work here for the welfare of a new Europe.” What “work” was Hitler asking Jews to perform? Their work or job was dying. Just as German soldiers were dying at the front, so Jews would be compelled to die at the behest of Germany. The death of German men and death of Jews fulfilled Hitler’s ideology: everyone must die for the country.