Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The Things You Learn By Reading Mein Kampf



Adolph Hitler was obsessed with a national language:

Today perhaps some can appreciate the greatness of the Germans in the Reich's old Ostmark, who, with no one but themselves to depend on, for centuries protected the Reich against incursions from the East, and finally carried on an exhausting guerrilla warfare to maintain the German language frontier, at a time when the Reich was highly interested in colonies, but not in its own flesh and blood at its very doorstep.

As everywhere and always, in every struggle, there were, in this fight for the language in old Austria, three strata:

The fighters, the lukewarm and the traitors. (11-12)
he also viewed women as passive conduits of national identity:
This sifting process began at school. For the remarkable fact about the language struggle is that its waves strike hardest perhaps in the school, since it is the seed-bed of the coming generation. It is a struggle for the soul of the child, and to the child its first appeal is addressed:

'German boy (emphasis mine), do not forget you are a German (emphasis mine),' and, 'Little girl (emphasis mine), remember that you are to become a German mother. (emphasis mine)' (12)

Hitler, Adolph. Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971.

2 comments:

FM said...

ZOMG! W4D is BLACK!!!

emily1 said...

see my latest post. i upgraded to the advanced template. the colors and layout are going to change. i'm not sure i like the black background.