By: Dr. Jerry Bergman
Montpelier, Ohio
After WWII ended, a major concern was understanding what caused a war that cost the lives of an estimated 50–56 million military and civilians, with an additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine.
Historians have documented that towards the end of the war, when the Nazis had to make the choice between winning the war and killing Jews, destroying the Jews was their priority.
An example, toward the end of the war when the choice was shipping troops and supplies to the Eastern war front and transferring Jews to the extermination camps, Hitler chose to exterminate the Jews.
One claim is that Hitler hated Jews because he had some very bad past experiences with them. According to the documented evidence, Hitler’s experiences with Jews were consistently positive.
When Hitler lived in “Männerheim Brigittenau hostel in Brigittenau, Vienna, a number of Jews lived there with whom he reportedly was on excellent terms.
Most of his paintings were sold by Jewish dealers that Hitler was also on good terms with. One of the most loyal buyers of his paintings in Vienna was the Jew Samuel Morgenstern.
Hitler once expressed his admiration for Rothschild for sticking to his religion, even though this meant he could not use the German courts to settle valid grievances.
Throughout most of 1918, the Jew Lt. Hugo Gutmann (1880 –1962) served as Adolf Hitler’s direct superior. Gutmann later recommended Hitler for the award of Iron Cross, First Class, a decoration rarely awarded to persons of Hitler’s low Gefreiter rank.
The decoration was presented to Hitler in August 1918 by the regimental commander, Major von Tubeuf. Hitler wore this medal throughout the remainder of his career, including while serving as Führer of Nazi Germany.
In 1938, Gutmann was arrested by the Gestapo, but released as a result of SS personnel who knew his history. Gutmann, due to Hitler’s intervention, received his full Nazi Germany pension until the end of the Second World War.
Hitler’s mother’s doctor in Linz was the Jewish physician Eduard Bloch (1872 –1945). He was also the family doctor of Adolf Hitler and his family when they lived in Linz until 1907.
Bloch had a special fondness for the Hitler family. When Hitler’s mother, Klara, was dying of breast cancer, Bloch billed the family at a reduced cost, sometimes even refusing to bill them outright. In 1908, Hitler wrote to Bloch assuring him of his enormous gratitude for his loving care given to his mother when she was ill.
Hitler also expressed his appreciation with gifts. One gift was a valuable large wall painting which, according to Bloch’s daughter, Gertrude (Trude) Kren (born 1903 in Austria; died 1992 in the U.S.), was lost. As late as 1937, Hitler was concerned about Bloch’s well-being and called him an Edeljude (a “noble Jew”).
When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, the 66-year-old Bloch wrote to Hitler asking for protection. In response, Hitler awarded Bloch special protection and personally intervened to ensure his safety.
Bloch stayed in his house with his wife undisturbed until the formalities for his emigration to the United States were completed. Without any interference, they were able to sell their family home at market value, highly unusual with the distress sales of emigrating Jews at the time.
Even Nazi expropriation of Jewish assets through the Reich Flight Tax was also ignored. Moreover, the Bloch’s were allowed to take the equivalent of 16 Reichsmarks out of the country.
The usual amount allowed to Jews was a mere ten Reichsmarks. Dr. Bloch lived in the United States until his death from stomach cancer in 1945.
In October 1918, Adolf’s unit of over 100 soldiers was exposed to a gas attack while fighting the British. German soldiers were treated locally and Adolf was transferred to Pasewalk Hospital.
The diagnosis that Adolf’s loss of vision was not organic, but rather “hysterical amblyopia.” This diagnosis was made by Jewish neurologist Dr. Karl Kroner.
When the Holocaust began, Dr. Kroner was arrested and deported to Sachsenhausen, but on Hitler’s orders was released. With Hitler’s help Dr. Kroner and his non-Jewish wife obtained visas to Iceland and later emigrated to New York in 1945, where he lived until his death in 1954.
Many more examples could be cited. Furthermore, I was unable to find a single example of a negative experience Hitler personally had with Jews.
The reasons for Hitler’s determination to eliminate Jews include because he was fully convinced that they were, except the Edeljudes, an inferior race and had to be exterminated as part of the Nazi’s goal of producing a superior race based on Darwinism. In this race conclusion, Hitler had the full support of academia, both in Germany and the United States
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Dr. Bergman is a multi-award-winning teacher and author. He has taught in the science and psychology area for over 40 years at the University of Toledo Medical College, Bowling Green State University, and other colleges. His 9 degrees include a Doctorate from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He has over 1,800 publications in both scholarly and popular science journals that have been translated into 13 languages. His publications are in over 2,400 college libraries in 65 countries. Bergman has spoken over 2,000 times at colleges and churches in America, Canada, Europe, the South Sea Islands, and Africa.
