Published: 12:00 AM, 21 October 2026
Adolf Hitler: A Critical Contemplation on His Actions and Historical Significance
Nazifa Bashir
Stereotypically, we consider a criminal as someone worse than others without trying to figure out why he has become an evildoer. However, literature teaches us to view the world from the eyes of both a villain and a hero, where sometimes the antagonist becomes the role model. Adolf Hitler is such a complex individual who is generally and widely seen as the worst culprit in the world history being responsible for the death of millions of Jews and other people during the WWII. Nevertheless, Hitler’s actions raise exploratory questions including – why did Hitler brutally kill millions of people based on their religion? Or, is Hitler alone responsible for the WWII?
Adolf Hitler, an Austrian-born German politician was one of the biggest dictators of the world who had a poor and harsh struggling life during his early ages. After losing his mother at the age of 18, he started earning his livelihood by selling his paintings on the streets, though his talent had been shattered down after getting rejected from the ‘Academy of Fine Arts Vienna’. Despite being physically weak, he had a powerful manipulative voice that helped him work as a messenger during the WWI. Later, he joined politics and turned ‘National Socialist German Workers Party’ to ‘Nazi Party’ and became its leader and chancellor of Germany.
After losing the WWI, a peace document named ‘Treaty of Versailles’ was signed, where the Allied powers imposed all the responsibilities of the WWI on Germany. The treaty was aggressive, violent and destructive against Germany which forced them to accept every rule and restriction as a defeated nation. The conditions they were bound to admit include –
1. 132 billion dollars of penalty was imposed on Germany which had been distributed among Britain, France, and America.
2. German’s destroyers and submarines were taken by the Allied powers.
3. German’s border, military force and soldiers were forcibly reduced.
4. German’s colonies in Africa were divided among Britain, France and other Allied nations.
5. German’s Air force and Naval force were threatened and the production of weapons were diminished.
All these trigger warning conditions caused jingoism or extreme nationalism in German people, especially Hitler provoking him to start the WWII. Therefore, an ordinary antisemitic soldier becomes the worst dictator in the history by killing approximately 6 million Jews in the holocaust and around 11 to 17 million other citizens during the WWII. What Hitler had done causing genocide and holocaust can never be justified. However, can a single person be accountable for such brutal massacre?
The term ‘Antisemitism’ or hatred against Jewish people based on their religion, culture, and ethnicity was not invented by Hitler. Rather, Jewish citizens were exiled and abandoned from different countries including Switzerland, Spain, Sicily, Hungary, Portugal, Austria, Poland, Italy, Germany and other nations since 722 BCE to present, because of religious and political conflicts and economic exploitation. Today, most of the global businesses and institutions are run by Jewish organizations as Meta, Oracle, Google, Dell, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Adidas, Puma, Starbucks etc. That means, Jews are indirectly controlling the whole world which was a concern for Hitler. Moreover, it was claimed that, during the WWI, Jews supported and helped the enemy countries which caused the loss of Germany with extreme economic collapse and overall worse condition (Full documentary: Villain created by system, 2025). Moreover, as Hitler was rejected from the arts school by a Jewish professor, it might also have triggered him to raise anger against the community. All these plots had initiated Hitler to become an antisemitic dictator of Germany, though the concept of antisemitism was continuing from thousands of years ago.
If we turn back the pages of global history, some overwhelming names come to the front. Mao Zedong (1893-1976), a Chinese leader is one of them who wanted to transform China from an agricultural country to an industrial nation. His project ‘Great Leap Forward’ took everyone’s land under his control and forced people to overwork having unrealistic targets despite human capability which caused the biggest man-made famine in China between 1959 to 1960 causing the death of around 15 to 45 million citizens. Zedong also opposed a campaign named ‘Cultural Revolution’ to torture and murder the ones who were against him. In total, he killed estimated 40 to 70 million people throughout his lifetime (Margolin, 1999).
Joseph Stalin (1922-1953), a tyrant of the USSR is a perfect example who made the entire Russia a camp and assassinated about 6 to 20 million people by establishing ‘The Great Purge’ or ‘Great Terror’ where those who went against Stalin, he had either murdered them or exiled them to Gulags, Arctic and Siberia under the temperature of -40 degree celsius. Without warm clothes and sufficient food, they were forced to work and die. Stalin also caused ‘Holodomor’, a man-made famine between 1932 and 1933 (Getty et al., 1993). Purges, gulags and famine brought about more than 2 crores of deaths by Stalin who was nominated for ‘Nobel Peace Prize’ twice.
Hideki Tojo (1884-1948), a Japanese autocrat formed a hidden biological and chemical warfare project named ‘Unit 731’, where scientists used to do bone-chilling experiments on refugees and prisoners such as performing surgery without anesthesia or spreading bacteria, plague, germs, or gas to observe them suffering intensely. Pushing biological weapons or putting the victims on extreme temperature to watch them froze and break them down were common factors in the research. In this way, between 1936-1945, estimated 50 lakh to 1 crore people were killed brutally by Tojo (Johnson, 2022). After getting exposed, those scientists were even hired by America rather than getting punished.
Notwithstanding, three distinct countries from different parts of the world were simultaneously fighting with imperialistic ideology, where Japan was expanding its territory in Asia, Mussolini was attempting to restore the Roman empire from Italy, and Hitler was striving to conquer Europe to establish the kingdom of Germany. All these incidents indicate that, not only Hitler was responsible for WWII. If leaders like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Hideki Tojo, Benito Mussolini, Leopold II, and other dictators have assassinated millions to show their power through totalitarian rule, then why does only Adolf Hitler get all the blame? Some of these autocrats are even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize or seen as philanthropists while their harsh actions are praised as steps toward progress or cultural change.
Nevertheless, if the faulty ‘Treaty of Versailles’ was not imposed on Germany, then WWII might not have happened. Aren’t the nations responsible who provoked Hitler through this agreement? Nonetheless, only Hitler is accused in front of the world as he failed the war. Since history is biased, it is always written by the winners who glorify themselves as Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) quotes, “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” But, what if Hitler had won the war? In that case, people might have viewed him as a great leader who was proud of his German heritage. Instead of being seen as someone who acted against the Jews, his actions could have been celebrated in our history books.
Nazifa Bashir teaches English
language and literature at
Central Women’s University, Dhaka.
