There was a book that used to fascinate me as a child. Unlike the other 3,000+ books and magazines in my dad’s sprawling library room, this one had no picture on the cover. It did not even have the author’s name printed in the conventional way. Across a plain white paperback background was printed the phrase “Hitler’s Mein Kampf.’ Back then, I had no idea how unfortunately important that book once was, or the full implications of the shouty, disjointed, ranty stuff written inside it.
In fact, if you read Mein Kampf from the mindset of a 7-year-old child who is not able to fully grasp the human disaster that Nazism was, Adolph Hitler in his own words sounds almost funny. Not funny because the book projected wit or humour in any way, but funny because it was so hilariously bad. Reading Hitler in his own words, you very quickly realise that this man was no intellectual or visionary – this man was probably the most fortunate man in history to make it anywhere near the Bundestag as a politician. His thoughts are disjointed; his conclusions, tangential and staccato; his reasoning is junior secondary school level at best.
How on earth did this moron go from being a failed art student to somehow becoming the supreme leader of one of the world’s most powerful industrial economies? How did he inspire enough loyalty to get his loyal lieutenants to carry out all kinds of atrocities? If all you have to go on is Hitler according to his own pen, the picture will never add up. Which was why something I happened to watch in passing a few days ago, ended up expanding my mind and providing important context for Hitler’s Fulani tribute act currently preparing to barricade himself inside Aso Rock and destroy the 20-something years of electoral democracy Nigeria has managed.
Hitler’s Circle of Evil – Just A Circle of Stomachs
The Netflix documentary “Hitler’s Circle of Evil” provides precious context about how Adolph Hiedler, a thoroughly unspectacular failed Austrian art student became Der Fuehrer, Supreme Leader of Germany who led a proud nation into a catastrophic war against everything and everyone. As it turns out, Hitler’s much-touted ability to use rhetorical arguments and powerful speech mannerisms to inspire loyalty around him was significantly less important in building the Third Reich than is acknowledged these days.
The disappointing reality, in fact, was that the fawning, sycophantic loyalty that Hitler enjoyed from the Nazi structure around him was much more mercantile than it was ideological. As the documentary outlined, Hitler’s inner circle was not one harmonious group of proud Aryans singing from the same crib sheet, but rather a motley crew of warring interests fighting bitter hidden wars against each other to discredit each other and gain favour in Der Fuehrer’s eyes in the process.
Indeed, the ‘Final Solution,’ which is what the Nazis are remembered for more than anything else, came out of this toxic brew of stomach politics, backbiting, and actions of expedience or convenience. In an attempt to impress Hitler with how tough on Jews they could be, different members of the Nazi hierarchy kept upping the stakes in mistreating Jewish people until atrocities like Dachau and Treblinka happened.
This resonated deeply with me because, in a Nigerian context, it is easy to relate with how lickspittle politicians and civil servants trying to curry favour from higher up, end up enabling and committing atrocities without necessarily setting out to do so expressly. This awful phenomenon is aptly captured by the work of a woman in 1963 who sat through the trial of one of the last prominent Nazis to be captured, Her name was Hannah Arendt.
The Best Nazis Were “Just Doing Their Jobs”
In 1963, when a daring Israeli overseas operation in South America captured Adolf Eichmann and brought him to Tel-Aviv to face justice, political theorist Hannah Arendt wrote the book “The Banality of Evil.” The book was inspired by Eichmann’s drab, expressionless description of overseeing a Nazi death machine that murdered Jewish civilians. Instead of the rabid monster, she expected Eichmann to be, she discovered that he came across as little more than an officious civil servant.
To him, whether his assignment was to oversee the erection of a block of classrooms or to oversee the murder of 10,000 innocent civilians, a job was a job. Duty was duty. His job was to take orders and never talk back or ask questions. As far as he was concerned, he could not be held responsible for the things he took part in because they did not originate with him. This was the last time the infamous “We were just taking orders” defense was ever seriously used in court again.
Just like during the Nuremberg trials, the Tel Aviv trial of Eichmann established that “we were just taking orders” is not a valid excuse to shield one from responsibility for one’s actions. As Arendt later noted in her book, the best kind of Nazis from the 3rd Reich’s point of view, were the quiet, diligent, officious, low-to-mid level officers and civil servants who simply “did their jobs.” the most effective and most dangerous Nazis were the ordinary housewives who reported their Jewish neighbours to the SS because that was what they were told to do.
Watching this documentary provided a fresh sense of perspective about the current slide into total chaos and Hitler territory which Nigeria is going through. When inevitably the current regime ends as all regimes eventually do, there will be those who will claim that they are not to be held responsible for their roles in making General Buhari’s atrocities possible. Tolu Ogunlesi, Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi, Babatunde Fasola, Chris Ngige, Godwin Emefiele, and many, many others will pull this card.
Others lower down the food chain will claim that they were merely working for a paycheck. These excuses must not be allowed to fly. Nearly 60 years ago, it was comprehensively established that passive, craven, banal evil born out of self-preservation and worship of the stomach, is worse than even the active, passionate evil of Adolph Hitler himself.
The same principle must apply to Nigeria too.
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