Have you ever wondered how the most famous dictator of the world, Adolf Hitler, had brainwashed millions of people to become his blind followers? How did this person become the most famous dictator of the world? Which techniques and strategies did he use to become so? Today is the 132nd birth anniversary of Hitler. Come, let’s find out these things .
Another interesting story that I would like to tell you is of Albert Einstein. The most famous scientist in the world and how he was treated by Hitler. Come, let’s find out. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, had said that there are basically 3 techniques to persuade people. Ethos, Logos and Pathos.
Today, these are also taught in the MBA in Advertising courses as well. I’ll give an example of toothpaste. Suppose, I have to sell this toothpaste to you. Ethos means that I will establish my authority. To put across my point. I will tell you to buy this toothpaste because 90% of dentists certify that it is good. So you should buy it. Logos means that I will use logic to build my argument. Buy this toothpaste because it has Fluoride. And fluoride helps to fight against the cavity in your teeth. And finally, Pathos means that I’ll use emotions to persuade you. Buy this toothpaste because the ingredients are locally produced. Because the ingredients are from your country you will feel proud while using this toothpaste. This is why you should buy this toothpaste. The thing is that friends when you sell products like Paan Masala, there are no logical arguments for why people should buy it. So advertising companies often use Pathos or emotions to sell products like Paan Masala. The world will fall at your feet when you use this product. Show that you are patriotic.(Approximation of taglines.) Slogans that bring about feelings of pride and happiness in you.
Talking about politics, friends, a dictator is like the Paan Masala of politics. If a common man thinks logically and votes according to the data, he will never vote for a dictator. This is why a dictator has to rely on Pathos or emotions to get people to vote for him. If you love your country,vote for me. If you respect your soldiers,vote for me. Many people are convinced by these emotional speeches. But when a logical person hears these he’ll ask; why should the people vote for him because they respect the soldiers? Using Pathos and emotions only is not enough to make someone a dictator. If a person wants to truly become a Dictator,he has to eradicate logic completely. This what Hitler did. On 10th May 1933, more than 25,000 books were burnt by the Nazi Party officials. They called the books ‘un-German’ or anti-national. They had tried to ban several books before. But regularly, under Hitler’s Germany, there used to be bonfire events where books were being burnt. Which books were these? Books of almost every type. It had Marxist literature, books on psychology, liberalism and democracy, books that were written by Jewish people, foreigners, books on art, theatre, psychology, almost every type of books that, the Nazi Party believed, went against their party and dictatorship was burnt.
The Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbelsjustified this by saying that “The future German man will not be just a man of books but of character.” At this time, such articles were being published that tried to demoralize logic completely. Like “pure reason was all too human and dangerous and contrary to nature when applied to real life.” “Blood and race lead people to the power of nature.” Pseudoscience was also largely prevalent. Dubious research papers were being published which stated that the Germans were of a superior race. That their blood was pure and the other human races were in a sub-human category. Inferior to them. A so-called inventor in Austria once saw the moon and dreamt that the moon might be made of icebecause it looks white. So he said that the whole universe including all other planets must be made of ice. He published his theory titled”Worl Ice Theory“.
It even sounds so logically incorrect. But people like Hitler promoted this theory that the world beyond the Earth was made of ice. The Nazi government also gave an honorary Doctorate to this so-called inventor. In this situation, all the intellectuals in the country:historians, professors and scientists, they were being oppressed. Universities and colleges are the only places in a country where logic is heavily discussed. The universities were being tightly controlled by the Nazi Party. To the extent that the senior university professors of all the top universities were appointed by the officials of the Nazi Party. And the subjects taught in the universities were also strictly limited to furthering the Nazi ideology.
If it wasn’t adhered to, the professors of the universities were terminated. In such cases, there were very few people who were brave enough to speak out because their own jobs were at risk. One rare example was the most famous scientist in the world, Albert Einstein.
Einstein had always openly and publicly criticized Hitler’s party. After Hitler came into power he decided to resign from his job as a mark of protest. He was in the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin. He resigned from that job. And even said that he wants to leave the country. Not only this, but he also said that he wants to give up his German citizenship. That he didn’t want to remain a citizen of a country where equality wasn’t practised. During this time, the puppet media in Germany that was bought off by Hitler, relentlessly defamed Einstien.
Baseless news was published against him. And caricatures were published of him with a nose like a Jew’s. You already know how the Jews were defamed and criticized in Nazi Germany. Not only this, the officials of the Nazi Party in Berlin, burnt the scientific research papers of Einstien. Some newspapers also claimed that Einstein was plotting against the country with the Communists. Albert Einstein was made to be the number one public enemy of the country. As if he were the biggest traitor at the time. The Nazi propaganda minister, Goebbels had printed a photo of Einstein with the words “Not Yet Hanged” as the title. It goes to show that there was a threat to his life. This is why he left Germany and went to Belgium. There he got security from the Belgium royal family from the threat to his life. On August 30th 1933, Einstein’s philosopher friend Theodor Lessing was murdered by Nazi extremists. And the people who murdered him were lauded in Germany. They were immediately and immensely honoured for their action. Immediately after this, the newspapers asked if Einstein was next. There was even a financial reward announced to anyone who would kill Einstein. Einstein had to leave Belgiumand seek refuge in England. He took refuge in a rural area. 24×7 there were English bodyguards with him.
In case a Nazi spy reached England to kill him. But fortunately, this did not happen. And Einstein wrote his Unified Field Theoryin a no-name rural village of England. Which we study today. But we’ll talk about this story some other time. Getting back to Germany,another famous technique of Hitler was to create fear among the Germans. To create a fake enemy of the country that did not even exist. But to use that as a base to scare the citizens. And to portray himself as the hero who would save the country from these non-existent enemies. In this case, the bogus enemies were the Jews. Conspiracy theories were createdand dubious news was spread showing the Jews to be responsible for the defeat of Germany in World War I. How the Jews were the internal enemies of the country who were destroying the country. Such propaganda posters were printed. which showed how the Jews were responsible for Germany losing in WWI and the economy crashing. Obviously, this was not true because there were 1 lakh Jews in the German military. Of which more than 12,000 were martyred in the war.
When the Nazi Party spoke about Socialism, the Jews were blamed for Capitalism. That the Jews were the moneylenders who hoarded all the money among themselves. But in the later years when the Nazi Party started taking funds from the corporates, started practising crony-capitalism themselves, then the Jews were blamed for Communism. The Jews were blamed for Capitalism, Communism, for losing the war, and also for the collapse of the economy. You would ask; why did the citizens of Germany believe in it?
There are two main reasons for it. The first was that all media was completely in the hands of Hitler. The media showed the same news. The citizens had no other source of news so they believed in it. The second reason is that the unemployment was high, the economy was at a low, and poverty was increasing so the people started believing these things.
The next strategy of Hitler was to portray himself as the Messiah who would be the saviour to save the country. In 1923 a biography was written on Hitler. In the biography, Hitler was compared to Jesus Christ. That he was the person who would save Germany. It was later found out that this biography was written by Hitler himself. He compared himself to Jesus Christ. But while publishing the book, he used the name of his friend. It was later revealed that Hitler had praised himself. 2 years later Hitler wrote his autobiographyMein Kampf. The book contained many outright lies. He claimed that he came from a poor family and had to do physical labour but it was later revealed that it was all a lie and he had never done any physical labour in his life. Obviously, the media also portrayed him as a messiah. In the 1930s election, the ballot cards did not have the name of the Nazi Party instead, they had the term “Hitler Movement” written on them. He wrote his name where the party’s name should have been. A question that arises now is that if the media had to be bought, funds would’ve been needed. Where did these funds come from? This is only half true, friends, because the media can be pressurized and intimidated,journalists can be jailed to buy off the media. Still, there are people who seek money only.
Hitler used to get large corporate fundings. All of the renowned German companies that you know today, Volkswagen, BMV, Kodak, Siemens, Nestle, Fanta, Ford and all these companies funded Hitler. Some years ago it was reported that because of public pressure, these companies paid compensatory fundsto the Jewish families who had escaped Hitler’s era and survived till now. As you know, friends, in India as well, many people were inspired by Hitler. One name that comes to the forefront is of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Similar to the concept of pure German race on the basis of ethnicity in Nazism, Savarkar used the word Hindutva to talk about the pure Indian race on the basis of ethnicity. According to him, Hindutva was a political ideology. Where the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains were included and the Muslims and Christians were outsiders. Jews were compared to the Muslims in India. Today, many people use the words Hinduism and Hindutva interchangeably. But if you talk about the Hindutva that Savarkar had used, the political ideology, then Hinduism and Hindutva have a world of difference between them. Hinduism is an ideology that believes in the motto that the whole world is a family. Internationalism. On the other hand, the Hindutva ideology depicts superiority.
That some people are superior and others inferior. Some in the circle and others outsiders who are beneath them. Like Savarkar, there were some Muslims as well who depicted superiority in their ideologies. Like Chaudhry Rahmat Ali who wanted a separate country for Muslims. He believed that Muslims were superior to others. Such ideologies were repeatedly seen time and again throughout history. Another example from India is Golwalkar. He had openly shown his appreciationfor Nazi ideology. This ideology isn’t limited to India and Germany. Iranian dictators had portrayed the western countries as inferior to them. There were people in Pakistan that depicted the Ahmadiya minority to be inferior to themselves. These are seen repeatedly over time. Savarkar’s ideology is so brutal that he had criticized Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj about capturing the women from the enemy camp and treating them with respect. He wanted rape to be used as a political tool. Another interesting fact about Savarkar is that there is a book written on him,“Life of Barrister Savarkar”.
It was written by a person named Chitragupta. In this book, Savarkar was heavily praised. In 1987 when this book was republished,the publisher revealed that Chitragupta wasn’t anyone other than Savarkar himself. It’s the same as what Hitler did. When you see and understand all this,you have to remember one solution. Think logically and let logic have the upper hand over Pathos, feelings, emotions. Like Dr Ambedkar had said. Do not become a blind follower of any party or any politician.