By Robert S. Wistrich, from The Partisan Review, Spring 2001
Article Description by Corinne Gilroy
24 October 2001 (Revised 25 October)
In this day and age, rare would be the person oblivious to the tragic stories of the Holocaust. Through books like “Night” and the “Diary of Anne Frank”, not to mention films like “Schindler’s List”, we have all become achingly familiar with Nazism, Hitler, and the genocide and horror that spurred World War II. It is this low point in human history (and all of our sympathetic, emotional reactions) that often surface just at the mention of the very word “fascism”.
Under the presumption of knowledge of the Holocaust, the article “Was Nietzsche a Fascist Thinker?” functions dynamically. Without any awareness of the monstrosity attached to fascist politics, the very title of the article fails to have much power. Indeed, anyone keen on the philosophies of Nietzsche (an interest almost exclusive to the intellectual crowd) would also be roped in, but by and large, fascism is weighted with far more subtext. As someone who has heard interesting quotes by Nietzsche, fascism and philosophy combined forces to make this article practically irresistible to me, despite its length.
Just as one might expect, Robert S. Wistrich’s article delves deep into mid 20th Century Germany to discuss how Nietzsche possibly inspired Hitler’s totalitarian dreams. He describes Hitler’s “apocalyptic visions” as having “seduced a whole generation of Germans into a Faustian pact with the Devil,” making it clear that the accusation thrown at Nietzsche, planting an idea into the head of a tyrant, is no small matter. Indeed, Nietzsche believed himself to be the Antichrist, detested convention and glorified barbarism-- as Hitler might have admired. With this allegation, thousands upon thousands of people who met their doom in concentration camps would have a new mind to thank, in part, for their premature departures from this earth.
If any claim to the responsibility of Nietzsche for Hitler’s dictatorship were accepted by intellectuals and publicized, I don’t imagine educators could ever again approach his work in the same “academic” light. After all, holding him up as an exceptional thinker would be as good as slapping the face of families everywhere who lost loved ones in the Holocaust. There might even be a future onslaught of gross hyper-critique of any and all other revered philosophers, people eager to learn what societal degenerates had owed their ideas and practices to supposed “great” minds.
Although he upheld decidedly elitist, nihilistic views, Nietzsche was a fervent admirer of the tenacity and good will of the Jewish peoples of Europe, especially in the face of the adversity they have had to overcome. In spite of how vehemently he detested doctrine and dogma in general, Nietzsche was firmly opposed to anti-Semitism of both Christian and secular varieties. This conviction, over and above any other tendencies, makes it obvious that the Nazis had to pick apart and distort the philosophies of Nietzsche in order to use them to reaffirm their political leanings.
Though the titular question was not devoid of sarcastic pretense, it was still rather comforting to arrive at the so-called “happy ending” of the article. The author constantly played with the reader, insinuated his belief that Nietzsche was innocent, expressed both sides of the argument, and in doing so sashayed frustratingly from one claim to the other. It became obvious, not far in to the reading, that Hitler’s distorted mind played into his choosing of Nietzsche as an inspiration.
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