“Waste” like “Beauty” is in the Eye of the Beholder
Hitler lived here in Vienna as a struggling artist (1) during the years that virulent antisemitic mayor Karl Lueger was in office (2). It seems obvious to me that young Adolf took this antisemitism to heart. From his earliest days in public after WWI, Hitler blamed Jews for pretty much everything.
According to (IMO) the foremost Hitler expert, Ian Kershaw, WWII was first and foremost about ridding the world of Jews and anyone else who diluted the purity of Aryans. For this reason (again according to Kershaw), Hitler continued an obviously unwinnable military war, because it allowed him to continue towards his actual goal, extermination of the Jews.
So to say that Hitler “wasted” resources killing Jews you must think like a rational military commander who wants first to win military campaigns and not like a homicidal anti-Semite who first and foremost wants to kill Jews.
- One wonders what would have happened to Hitler had he been accepted to art school here. His artwork was not horrible.
- Papers found after Lueger’s death purport to show that Lueger didn’t actually believe the antisemitic rhetoric he spewed, he just used antisemitism as a method to maintain power.
