Nazi ideology was built on the fantasy that individual human bodies belonged to and were fused with the state or "body politic." This was the central idea: NO SEPARATION between Hitler, the nation and the German people. Oneness: fusion unto death.
Key Aspects of the "Body Belongs to the State" Concept:
Nationalism as a Fantasy Nazism was a collective fantasy: citizens imagined that their actual bodies were part of an omnipotent body politic (Germany).
Totalitarianism and Identification: Hitler imagined human beings as cells within a gigantic organism; leaves upon a tree. Individuals could not exist separately from the German body. Hitler's fantasy was fusion unto death.
The idea of "Conquest" is a smokescreen that nearly every historian buys into. Hitler himself bought into this fantasy. But his deepest desire was to kill every Jew in the world; an impossible dream.
Sacrifice for the Nation: The mantra "the individual must die so the nation might live" was the driving force of Nazi ideology, justifying the sacrificial death of millions in genocide and war.
The German Body was Diseased: Nazi ideology was an "immunological" effort to restore the health of the German organism by removing Jews (the perceived source or cause of Germany disease).
Summary: Nazism functioned by convincing citizens to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the body politic, which served as a substitute for their actual physical bodies.
Nations are bodies: According to Nazism, one's body belonged to the state. German bodies (human beings) were conceived as cells of the national body.
The nation as an immortal organism: Hitler imagined that he and every German was fused with a gigantic, massive object. This massive body politic fused with their actual bodies.
The nation's disease: Hitler identified Jews as source of Germany's disease. The "Holocaust" (as historians call it) was for the Nazis the Final Solution to the problem of death. Hitler sought to destroy every Jew on the planet (an impossible dream). ed
