On April 12, 1921, a speech was delivered to the Nazi Party and a crowd of common folk who already hated Jews or were looking for answers for the economic turmoil brought upon German from World War I. The author of the speech was Adolf Hitler, a man who spoke through anger, scapegoating, and persuasion. In the beginning of Hitler’s speech he was nagging about Jew actions that bothered him, but were not relevant to the problems of the people. He complained about Jew actions such as Jews being fat because they had not grown poor and Jews traveling on an express train to Europe watching naked dancers while the Germans were suffering. Instead of contemplating how the Jews were living, Hitler should have spoken on ways the Germans could better their living.
However, one quote gave a hint that the welfare of the Germans would get better. Hitler stated that Frederick, a former King of Prussia, “made his decisions influenced and supported by one thought alone, the welfare of the Prussian people” (Hitler, pg. 4). That statement told the people that Hitler planned to make a government that will have one goal in mind, to keep the wellbeing of the Germans. There were no facts in his speech of why he hated Jews, merely opinions and ignorant statements, such as: “By the man who can lie most artfully…the Jew” (Hitler, pg. 4). He stated that the German health resorts had two types of visitors, “The German who goes there, perhaps for the first time for a long while, to breathe a little fresh air and to recover his health, and the Jew who goes there to lose his fat.”
The whole idea of Hitler’s speech was to blame the Jews. He blamed them for the Stock and Exchange. He claimed that Jews were benefitting from the war while the Germans had to print off money to pay their debit, which caused severe inflation. He also claimed Jews worked solely for their benefit instead of the whole society. He believed that nationalism and socialism should be one and hated Jews for believing there was a difference between the two.
People were distraught with the Treaty of Versailles after World War I and were looking for answers. Hitler did not deliver intelligent answers, but gave people the answers they wanted to hear. He gave them a reason not to feel guilty of their own race and point the blame to the Jews. He succeeded in this through ruthless emotional annihilation of the Jews. There could not have been any other reason to blame the Jews than for the simple fact they were the easiest target, being that Jews have been blamed for many things for centuries and because they were blame for the death of Jesus Christ.
Hitler never used academic language in his speech because his goal was not to win a political election or to give an uplifting speech to upperclass colleagues. Hitler had one goal in mind and that was to persuade as many people as possible that Jews were an evil race and that they should be exterminated. He did use his religion and historical facts to support his blame that Jews were evil. He used an example of how Jesus was a fighter by destroying the temple when the Jews were using it to hustle. He also blamed the Jews for Jesus death because they accused Jesus as a criminal and led him to his crucifixion. If Hitler was more knowledgable about his religion then he would have known that Jesus did not die due to the Jews. Jesus willingly gave up his life whether it was Jews, Germans, or Americans who accused him as a criminal. It was inevitable that someone or some race was going to crucify Jesus.
“The Jew never works as a productive creator without the great aim of becoming the master” (Hitler, pg. 5). Where were the supporting details that made his accusation legitimate? Throughout the speech are accusations supported by another accusation with no supporting facts. Hitler did not quote any words from a Jew, nor did he state how the Jews felt about his accusations. Therefore, it is arguable that Hitler wrote this speech based on his own stereotypes and bitterness of the Jews.
“And to us he [referring to Jews] is harmful. Whether he harms us consciously or unconsciously, that is not our affair” (Hitler, pg. 6). Due to the lack of factual evidence, it is doubtful that the Jews consciously wanted to harm the Germans. What if the Jews did unconsciously harm the Germans? Why didn’t the Germans acknowledge their own faults instead of committing genocide for a crime they were not aware of? “‘The great master in the art of lying’ – the Jew” (Hitler, pg. 4). Lying about what? Calling the Jews the great master in the art of lying sounds intense, but Hitler failed to say what they lied about. Those words were not Hitler’s. He quoted those words from Schopenhauer. So it was not that Hitler witnessed Jews lying; he chose those words for the simple fact that it degraded Jews.
In conclusion Hitler had no valid points to hate the Jews. Neither were his accusations logical. He used emotion to sway the audience to his devious ambitions and spoke of irrelevant topics to validate his opinion. The speech is not famous for its political analytics, or for an inspirational speech that motivated the Germans to rise together and fix their financial issues. Hitler’s speech is famous for the blaming of the Jews which later caused deaths of millions of Jews who were brutally murdered for what? No logical reason at all.