I was stationed in Nuremberg, Germany for three years during my time in the armed forces. I’m not proud to say I didn’t know anything about the history of the place when I arrived at the popular Bavarian American Hotel on Bahnhofstasse. However, I soon learned this is the city where the International Military Tribunal was carried out after World War Two. As Hitler coiled and twisted his way into political power, Nuremberg became the spiritual center of Nazism. The “Nuremberg Trials” were designed to judge the leaders of Hitler’s war machine in the very same city that hosted the annual rallies of the Nazi Party. In 1938, some 700,000 supporters crowded onto the parade grounds in Nuremberg for the largest Nazi rally ever held.
In the military you’re taught to “know thine enemy.” Living in Deutschland for three years prompted me to became more acquainted with Herr Hitler and his goose-stepping Nazis. After my tour of duty in Germany, while attending Bible College, my first serious attempt at writing a research paper was on the topic of the influence of Winston Churchill’s speeches during World War Two. In the paper I compared the wartime speeches of Great Britain’s Leader, Winston Churchill, with those of Germany’s Leader, Adolf Hitler.
You can learn a lot about a person by their speech. In fact, Jesus tells us, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45 NKJV). Jesus also said the evil one is a murderer and the father of lies (John 8:44), which causes me to assert that death and lies are running buddies.
For over three decades, I’ve reflected on the war that’s being called the deadliest military conflict in the entire history of the human race. I reckon that’s an event which merits some attention. I’ve especially taken note of the one person who was the greatest catalyst for that war: Adolf Hitler, the doomed dictator of Germany. The rise and fall of this evil man goes beyond any Shakespearean tragedy ever written, because when Hitler fell, he took his own nation down with him. I can sum up my thirty-plus years of reflecting on WWII in just four words: Hitler lied, Germans died.
So, what did Hitler lie about? His list of falsehoods is a long one, but before we look at a specific lie, let’s first consider what he said about the art of deception. The following passage is taken from Mein Kampf, Vol.1, Chapter 10. The context is Hitler making the claim Jews were behind the outrageous lie that the German military lost WWI. Hitler states:
“In this they [the Jews] proceeded on the sound principle that the magnitude of a lie always contains a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil, and that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds they more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a little one…” Adolf is saying when Jews lie, they’re following a sound principle that the bigness of the lie carries a certain amount of weight in and of itself. Therefore, a gigantic, massive lie is more persuasive than a little white lie.
Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, wrote about this same principle in a 1941 article entitled "From Churchill's Lie Factory." Goebbels states, “The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.”
From these two quotes we can conclude both Hitler and his minister of propaganda believed in the principle, the sound principle - mind you, of the big lie. So, what was Adolf Hitler’s big lie? Racial Superiority. Someone has well said, “Racial superiority is a mere ‘pigment’ of the imagination.” I contend it's a wicked imagination! Hitler claimed that among the various races of people on earth, there is a “master race” of people who possess the blood of an ancient “root race” of people called the Aryans. This highly evolved Aryan race is responsible for all that’s good in society: culture, health, the arts, music, literature, etc. The Nordic and Germanic people have the purest level of Aryan blood, therefore, Germany is the homeland of the master race.
But all is not well in paradise. There’s a cosmic battle going on, an eternal struggle for Lordship over the earth. Other inferior races of “subhuman” people are plotting against the Aryan race. These inferior races, which consists of Slavs, Blacks, Gypsies, and especially the evil Jews, seek to contaminate the pure Aryan blood of the German people by race mixing or interracial relationships.
Hitler said, “Blood mixture and the resultant drop in the racial level is the sole cause of the dying out of old cultures; for men do not perish as a result of lost wars, but by the loss of that force of resistance which is contained only in pure blood. All who are not of good race in this world are chaff.” Mein Kampf, Vol.1, Chapter 11. In this same chapter he states, “The result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following: lowering of the level of the higher race; [and the] physical and intellectual regression and hence the beginning of a slowly but surely progressing sickness.”
In order to halt this racial/national sickness, the Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. It had two parts. The first part said only people of “German or kindred blood” could be citizens of Germany. The second part, called the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, banned marriage between Jews and non-Jewish Germans. It actually criminalized sexual relations between consenting Jews and Germans. Such relationships were labeled as “race defilement” and resulted in thousands of people being convicted and sent to concentration camps.
What role did the big lie play in the Holocaust and WWII? One could argue the big lie is the #1 cause of both these tragic events. It’s impossible to know the exact figures, but an estimated 70 - 85 million people died in this deadliest military conflict in human history! And the whole crazy affair was based on the wicked imagination that the subhuman races of the world had initiated a blood poisoning war of extermination against the Aryan race, and so Germany was duty bound to subjugate and exterminate their enemies in self-defense. Millions upon millions of people perished. This is the horrific aftermath of Hitler’s big lie.
The United States Office of Strategic Services conducted a psychological profile of Hitler during the war. The report reveals “his primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”
Instead of embracing the biblical worldview that all races are “under sin” and in need of the Savior Jesus Christ (see my post “Can a Black man change his skin?"), Hitler deceived his fellow citizens into embracing their old cultural religion of blood and soil. The nation of Germany paid a terrible price because of this wicked imagination. Cities all over Deutschland were reduced to rubble. A fifth of all living spaces was bombed-out, leaving 20 million Germans homeless!
In October 1945, the chief prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg brought charges against 24 leading German officials, among them was Dr. Hjalmar Schacht. Herr Schacht served in Hitler’s government as President of the National Bank from 1933 to 1939. His views on the re-armament of Germany created a clash with Hitler. Consequently, he was dismissed as President of the Reichsbank in 1939. After the assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944, Dr. Schacht was arrested by the Gestapo, and he remained a prisoner in Germany until April 1945. In spite of his resistance efforts, Dr. Schacht was indicted for “conspiracy” and “crimes against peace.” He was later acquitted. Please consider carefully his closing remarks during the Nuremberg trials:
“I have never felt disappointed by Hitler, because I had not expected more of him than my appraisal of his personality allowed me. But I certainly consider myself deceived, swindled, and cheated by him, to the highest degree because, whatever he had previously promised to the German people, and thereby to me, he did not keep afterwards. He promised equal rights for all citizens, but his adherents [loyal followers], regardless of their capabilities, enjoyed privileges before all other citizens. He promised to put the Jews under the same protection foreigners enjoyed, yet he deprived them of every legal protection. He had promised to fight against political lies, but together with his Minister Goebbels, he cultivated nothing but political lies and political fraud. He promised the German people to maintain the principles of positive Christianity, yet he tolerated and sponsored measures, by which institutions of the Church were abused, reviled, and damaged…He mobilized the Gestapo against personal liberty. He gagged and bound all free exchange of ideas and information. He pardoned criminals, and enlisted them in his service. He did everything to break his promises. He lied to, and deceived the world, Germany, and me.”
So, there you have it. Hitler lied. But when his big lie of racial superiority failed to stand up against the rigorous test of reality, he retreated to his bunker and killed himself. "Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him" (Psalm 140:11 KJV). Hitler lied, he died, and he took down six million fellow German citizens in the process. Our national leader Daniel Webster said, "History is God's providence in human affairs." Founding Father Patrick Henry stated, "I know no way of judging the future but by the past."
Wake up America, lest we forget this vital lesson from recent history. Ask yourself: How did the people of Germany fare after they went along with the evil lie of racial superiority? What can we learn from this pathetic episode of human history? Evil is real. Evil thrives via lies. Death and lies walk together hand in hand. Consequently, according to Proverbs 12:22 KJV, “Lying lips are abomination to the LORD.”
"The tongue also is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and is itself set on fire by hell." ~ James 3:6 NKJV
“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” ~ Proverbs 6:16-19 KJV
"The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man." ~ Psalm 5:5-6 NKJV
Hitler is dead, but the evil lie of racial superiority lives on. The sin of racism is one of three shortcomings we will overcome as we experience “The Spiritual Awakening of America.” Our nation is under attack today. Political remedies have failed us. A true spiritual awakening is our only solution! Click on the title or book to learn more!
Grace, Peace, and Jahspeed!
