DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWISH PATHOGEN (The Final Solution)

Hitler conceived of the German nation as a living organism, a real body politic. He thought of the German people as cells of this body politic. Each German human being constituted a single cell, and these cells were woven together to create the German organism. Hitler was an early embodiment theorist, speaking of the German people as the “substance” or “flesh & blood” of the body politic.

An otherwise sound German body was, Hitler believed, threatened by the presence of a virulent disease contained and working within this body. The source of this disease was variously described as a Jewish virus, bacterium or parasite.

Hitler was in a continual state of hysteria regarding the threat posed by this Jewish pathogen. One may understand his speech-making in these terms. He is ranting and raving, trying to alert the German people to the Jewish threat—wake them up. His speeches draw attention to the Jewish disease within the body politic, persuading the German people to take action against this threat. If action was not taken, Germany would die; the body politic would succumb to the Jewish disease—and cease to exist.

The “Final Solution” was a collective struggle to destroy the Jewish pathogen and thereby to “save Germany from death.”