Through the first few chapters of this book, I came understand Hitler in a way that I would have never expected. Beyond that conventional stoic, monstrous and ruthless guise of the infamous dictator we are all too familiar with, lies the story of an ordinary and surprisingly relatable youth.
It is inevitable that the environment in which one is raised can play a critical role in forming his or her persona and views of the world. While we can make the same case for Hitler, who experienced various setbacks while growing up in a rather repressive and male-dominant family, we simply cannot solely rely on Hitler’s past in understanding his present. I think the circumstances and conditions of his era give equally convincing justifications for his gross outlooks. During a time when the German empire was plagued by mounting internal conflicts as a result of the socio-political scene, socio-economic problems, disputes within the government, growing nationalism, dissent from the minorities, among many others, it is only natural for a hot-blooded, psychologically unbalanced youth like Hitler to find scapegoats to blame, even though they had hardly contributed to all the crises.
Hitler's irrational mentality continued to manifest itself as it served to satisfy his or any other anti-Semite’s psychological need for a guilty party. Though his hatred may be groundless, Hitler’s deception was not one that could be easily overcome because in his twisted mind, he had found the root to the problems surrounding him. If it all made sense to him, why would he bother to look for an alternative?
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