Answers to Quora Questions by Yair Davidiy
Was Hitler really against Jews, or did he use anti-semitism as a political tool?
https://www.quora.com/Was-Hitler-really-against-Jews-or-did-he-use-anti-semitism-as-a-political-tool
(25 March, 2018, 9 Nisan, 5778)
The question is:
Was Hitler really against Jews, or did he use anti-semitism as a political tool?
Both option are correct. Hitler used Judeophobia (anti-semitism) as a political tool. It was what got him to power. He was fulfilling a need of the German people to find a victim preferably the Jews. On the one hand, Hitler was often pushed from below to hasten his anti-Jewish measures and take them to an extreme. Public opinion and the cravings of his underlings speeded the extermination process.
On the other hand Hitler himself once he started wanted as a many of the Jews dead as possible. This became a war aim with precedence above other considerations. Allies of the Germans in the Baltic States also joined the Germans in order to kill Jews.
Why Hitler acted in such a way is another matter. He seems to have believed himself possessed by the devil. There is nothing to admire in Hitler in regard to ideology. He had none. Even the Germans were expendable. Killing Jews became the one aim he wanted to push through to the end. Because he was this way his followers followed him. We see the same phenomenon today in the world-wide condemnation of Israel for simply existing and making a half-hearted attempt to defend itself.