Hitler’s Evil Did Not Die With Him

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
April 30, 1999

If I asked you "What happened fifty-four years ago today," what would you say? The answer is: on April 30 th, 1945 Adolph Hitler first shot to death Eva Braun and then himself. So ended the Third Reich. I would have thought that hisignoble death, the total destruction and ruination of Germany, the devastation of Europe and the perishing of more than ten million people in World War II would have completely terminated any fascination of him and Nazism forever!! There was nothing to emulate; nothing to admire; nothing to duplicate!! I say this not as a Jew thinking of the Holocaust; not as an American, of whom the war took the lives of tens of thousands soldiers and hundreds of millions of dollars. I say it as a human being, as a person, a citizen of the world.

How, fifty-four years after his death, can anyone look up to Hitler and Nazism?

How could Harris and Kleibold be so fascinated by it to do what they did?

What is it that did not die with him in the bunker?

How can young people kill like this and scheme to kill even more, and kill themselves?

What makes them tick?

There are many answers, I suppose, but I would like to focus on one.

 

There are those people, many or few, who believe in nothing.

Nothing matters.

There are no rules.

There are no values.

There is no authority beyond themselves.

Life has no intrinsic value.

Nothing has meaning.

Nothing matters but the self and its desires.

The philosopher Nietzsche saw that the Romanticism of the 17 th and 18 th centuries would lead to the loss of all traditional values represented by the modern slogan "God is dead". He feared, correctly, that the final result might be an assertion of no values at all – a position called nihilism, the belief in nothing. All external sources of rules and law are rejected. The center of everything is the self. Hitler is the best example of a nihilistic person. He rejected all rules; values and law except those, which he chose. He was the beginning and he was the end of everything.

It is nigh impossible to say whether or not Harris Kleibold ever heard of nihilism or could understand its philosophy. But they acted it out. Their lives are vivid proof and terrible testimony. The evil at the root of Hitler and Nazism is certainly complicated. It did not die with him and his movement, but has survived his grave. And even if unstated, is one of the underlying motivations of this tragedy in Colorado, and explains their fascination with him and Nazism, and the behaviors of others that act this way.

When I began writing this sermon on last night, the USY officers were meeting in the dining room with Ruby. I came down and mentioned that I was working on this sermon and we began discussing it. It was a wonderful conversation. To recapitulate a little: the issue is not whether we break one law, parents are responsible, or "kids" want their privacy. The question is in the big picture, how do we see society? Is there some reason, some explanation, why we should or should not behave in a certain way? What is the "big" vision that shapes us, that shaped those boys? I answered them that the crux of the matter is how we see ourselves in society. We are not, individually, the locus and focus of society. We arepartners and participants in humanity. The world doesn't revolve around me. I am part of the world. To have a just and fair society there must be rules that protect each of us and insure that we can live in safety and security, and be able to follow our dreams. Secularism cannot answer us. Ultimately this entire vision of society and ourselves rests on our belief in God. That last sentence opened their eyes, so I explained.

Our Jewish faith is grounded in the belief that a higher, the highest power of the cosmos specifically created us and our world. That specificity sanctified all existence, the physical world, animal life, human life. In our creation, He imparted a spark of sanctity in everything and everyone. Each piece is necessary. Every iota requires respect. Every living being is holy. Judaism labels this "Nivrah b'tzelem" – "being created in God's image." This belief is the underpinning to the rest. This is the 'klal gadol', the underlying principle of our faith. Secondly, beyond just creating us, God entered into a brit, a covenant with all humanity. The Noah story is a critical piece of Torah, not a child's made-for-TV fantasy tale, because in it God our creator demands/commands us to live morally and ethically; to live by the rules that protects every holy being. The Rabbis learned from the Biblical text what they called "Sheva Mitzvot B'nai Noach" – "The Seven Noachide Laws" that gird and support human existence. Judaism views these laws as the moral foundation for a just human society.

From that basis Judaism enunciates in our morning prayers the cardinal virtues of charity to the poor, our perpetual presence before God, honoring parents, hospitality to wayfarers, visiting the sick, respecting the dead, devotion in prayer, study of the Bible, and making peace between people.

People who truly believe these concepts could not walk into high school and murder students or build bombs to blow up the building.

People who believe in God the creator who demands morality and ethical behavior have no need of shot guns, rifles, and semi-automatics.

People who believe in God, the holiness of each individual and the sanctity of life, even in differences, act with respect and tolerance to others, regardless of any differences.

People who believe in God have a compelling motivation to make this a better world by healing, building, loving and sanctifying life.

Our belief in God leads us to all this, and fills us up with beauty, meaning and purpose. Then we want to live, every day, hour, and minute, and want the same for others as well.

We will teach our children these lessons to the degree that we believe them ourselves and live them in our personal lives. We do not preach values and virtues. We live them. We explain them. We emulate them. We show them the way. And we discipline with love, so that they will build a good society, perhaps better than the one they inherit.

May the anguish of Littleton, Colorado never be repeated.

May our faith motivate us, indeed, all society, to eradicate this evil from our midst, bring us closer to God and to peace.

Amen.