Question:
did Hitler every kill anyone HIMSELF?
swordfish
2012-06-27 22:25:56 UTC
Hitler gave the orders to slaughter the Jews, but did he ever actually kill anyone? did he shoot anyone or make them stand in line and wait for their turn to disrobe and be executed? certainly he is possibly the most EVIL man in history, but weren't the ones who carried out his orders just as bad, if not worse? they were the ones who looked into the eyes of children and families as they were killed.

but did hitler kill anyone himself, with his own hands?
Twelve answers:
anonymous
2012-06-27 23:52:38 UTC
Not after the War, but he would give orders directly for people to be executed - if he didn't like the prison sentence someone had got, he would increase it. For example, a Jew who committed a petty crime and got two and a half years had his sentence stepped up to execution. In essence, Hitler portrayed himself a political leader, not a mass murderer. (If he had killed anyone personally, people who didn't need to know would have found out.) When I say he was a political leader: his politics, however, involved using the SA and the SS, especially the Totenkopf, to kill, torture or maim individuals and he approved plans with use of forced labour, such as Goering's Four Year Plan. He was an extremely unreliable worker (despite propaganda messages to the opposite) and his way of ruling within the party was to give out vague and overlapping duties to various officials who then argued amongst themselves - largely about how things were to be done and who should do them. This meant no-one could take over his position as Fuehrer.

Also, Hitler did not want any Herrenvolk (Aryan Germans) to die if not absolutely necessary. The only people he wanted to kill were lesser races such as the Slavs, Untermenschen and Lebensunwertes (Africans, Jews, gypsies) as well as people who undermined the regime such as prostitutes and drunks. He was too important to kill any of these people himself however. Even in the Night of Long Knives, he left the killing to the SS.

There's no doubt he organised the mass murder of millions of people, but he never killed anyone himself - apart from himself.
anonymous
2016-05-17 07:03:56 UTC
No one can know for sure what Hitler was EXACTLY thinking, but from my history lessons I remember he killed himself before he got killed. He knew he wasn't winning this war so he basically took his own life to stop someone else taking his. I don't think he stopped believing in himself, he still believed he was right. Like most people, in an argument even if people are proving you wrong you will still fight and say your right. Hitler was exactly the same. He didn't want to be arrested, put to death or be killed on the spot by a soldier so he killed himself along with his mistress, 40 hours his wife, Eva Braun. Hope I could help!
jariya
2012-06-29 03:25:33 UTC
Hitler did order in addidition to making war and genocide some of his own officers and associates to be killed Like Rommel, Rohm etc and also the Officers in charge of defending the Brirdge at Remagen. During World war 2 there is no record that Hitler did not personally shot anyone accept finally himself



Hitler was a corporal in World war1 and during that war Hitler shot and killed many people while fighting them. He has written about these killings in his book Mein Kampf.
Bilbo
2012-06-27 22:38:40 UTC
Given that the preferred method of execution was poisoning by Prussic Acid gas there was not much looking into anybody's eyes - and the people doing much of the dirty business were other prisoners. Plenty of documented instances of Sadists like Mengele and Koch - and there is no doubt Hitler deliberately tapped into the latent anti-semitism of the German people.



Hitler decided that the leaders of the July Bomb plot (Operation Valkyrie) should have a slow death - so I think we can safely assume he wan't personally squeamish in the matter of killling. They were hung with piano wire from meat-hooks. Their executions were filmed and later shown to senior members of the party and the armed forces - I would have thought that fitted your particular preoccupation.



Others were tried and duly executed for Crimes against Humanity - but the instigator of the the Holocaust was Hitler (he even wrote a book declaring his intentions) and so he bears the responsibility for starting the war and the Holocaust - without his leadership it could reasonably be supposed that neither would have happened.



I would have thought Chairman Mao rather more evil given the death toll of 70 million Chinese in the cultural revolution (almost as many as all the people who perished in WW2) - but people seem less aware of this.
Jigaar
2012-06-28 01:08:59 UTC
Hitler served as a runner (courier) in WW1 so he might have killed some, but it was static warfare then. Near the end of WWII, he gave cyanide pills to his wife and children before killing himself.



Oh, and Hitler is NOT the most evil man in history. Stalin is by far the most cruel, having killed TWICE as many of his own people more than Hitler did in Holocaust.
Jay
2012-06-27 22:36:44 UTC
He was a soldier in the German army in WWI so he might have killed someone then.



But as far as I know he neve executed anyone himself. He was quite careful to distance himself from the holocaust and other murders that were perpetrated under his name. His name does not appear on the Wannsee Minutes that ordered the "Final Solution" so while many murders were made in his name there is little tangible evidence to link him to them. Other than that he didn't get his hands dirty.



Those committing crimes under orders were tried at Nuremburg after the war and the "Nuremburg Protocol" that following orders is no excuse if crimes against humanity are committed has become accepted in international law.
anonymous
2012-06-27 23:07:48 UTC
Hitler served in the German army during WWI as an orderly and was wounded, but I don't think he was in combat then. He did give Eva Braun cyanide before committing suicide when Berlin was about to fall. It was his first act as a married man. Throughout Hitler and Eva's relationship he would not marry her until the very last few hours, then he killed her. What a ****.
michinoku2001
2012-06-28 00:33:24 UTC
He possibly killed his niece, Geli Raubal. She did die after being shot with Hitler's gun and it was attributed to suicide-that much is fact. However the rest of the Geli story is very complicated. As I understand it he was a courier during WW1, so presumably he didn't kill any of the enemy.
Petra
2012-06-29 11:23:21 UTC
He killed his wife, Eva Braun, before committing suicide.
anonymous
2012-06-27 23:09:07 UTC
Yes he did.
spinelli
2012-06-27 22:28:52 UTC
Well, he killed himself. So. Yeah.
anonymous
2012-06-27 22:29:58 UTC
Yes, he did//:


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