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| Photo courtesy of gettyimages |
There is no excuse for what Adolf Hitler took the world through. No matter how hard his childhood was, as an adult, he had the opportunity to do the right thing. Instead, he chose to let the anger that he had accumulated over the years control him and ended up causing immense pain that will be remembered in history from generation to generation. As I read through his story from childhood, I keep asking myself “Ifs”. He went through one rejection after another all the time falling and standing up to try his luck again.
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“It is just as impossible
for us to imagine having been fascinated by a Hitler. People who were treated
with respect as children, who weren't drilled to become robots with the aid
of mistreatment, will never want to die out of "faithfulness to the Führer"
or send thousands of human beings to Stalingrad against all reason just
because some madman planned it. But Hitler's generals stood at attention In
the Fürher's headquarters, and all counter-arguments dissolved into fear and
mental paralysis or, on the other hand, into enthusiasm when they heard him (the father) speak. This
disastrous political blindness that cost millions of people their lives
proves conclusively what our grandparents so hotly denied: that in every case, physical as well
as psychological abuse of the child is not only harmful but
highly dangerous. Not only for the individual but under certain circumstances
for whole nations” Alice Miller, 1988 |
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Before he turned into a
monster that terrorized the world, Hitler was a resilient, focused, admirable
young man who loved school and being with friends, amongst whom he acted as the
hero and the leader. Despite the
challenges that existed in his family, Hitler made good of what he had.
He grew up with a
disciplinarian of a father. His
discipline was so extreme that he could cane a child over thirty strokes. For the love of his mother Hitler learned to
block out the pain. That however did not
mean that he wasn’t emotional. When his brother died, no one was there for
him. He mourned by sitting on the wall
of the cemetery where he could see his brother’s grave and spent hours and
hours looking at the grave. People saw
him and probably for the fear of his father, no one made any effort to help him
mourn. His mother was mourning more than
one child therefore she wasn’t there for him.
Society in most
cases does not consider the children’s emotions. We assume that they don’t know what is
happening. We try to shield them from
the truth but they know, they may not understand and because of that we leave
them with a lot of questions that they try to find answers on their own. If somehow Hitler got help to deal with his
father’s anger and harsh discipline, if he had someone help him manage his
emotions, if he had someone to take him through grief he may have been a
different person in adulthood.
Hitler was gifted academically. He found academic work easy and in his childhood he was an excellent student. He had a photographic mind that would look at a building and draw It exactly from memory. That is a very exceptional gift that needed to be nurtured. Unfortunately, there was no one to support him. As it is with academics today, you can only qualify to take a particular career when the subject combination is right. The fact that Hitler did not have any academic papers to support his natural gift, he could not make it to art school or architectural studies. He pushed himself to approach the Arts school which he believed he was capable of doing well but he was turned down. When he was at his best academically and looking forward to doing art, his father decides he has to be a government worker like him.
This may be true for some of us today. Parents feel they have
a right to choose careers for us. Some
of us take it and do whatever the parents want, others take the training and
later divert to what they are passionate about.
For Hitler, there was no academic prowess if he wasn’t going to be an
artist. He purposely decided to do
poorly in school, made fun of teachers, and got involved in all sorts of mischief to get back at his father.
Besides academics Hitler
loved the Catholic Church which he was introduced to during his family's migrations in different cities. He sang
in church and loved the church's architectural features. He dreamt of becoming a
priest and went further to make sermons that were long. If only that love for the church, the love of
singing and the dream to be a priest had caught someone’s eye and nurtured him,
there is a possibility he could have turned out to be something else.
I loved his zeal
for leadership. He read a book that
he found in the house and created a hero whom he emulated in his role-playing. He loved being a hero and the
other children were to act dead. He did
it repeatedly until the other children got tired.
This too went unnoticed. From a
very early age therefore Hitler showed leadership skills no matter what
form. Though he repeated a class that left him older than his peer and therefore he had a following, it was still
something that could have been cultivated for a good purpose
His father’s death was
as if he had a heavy yoke that had been placed around his neck removed. He felt a sense of freedom. There was no one to control him anymore and
he said goodbye to all forms of control, home, school, and familiar environment and
he went to the big city where he felt he would have the freedom to do what he
wanted. It is in Vienna that he failed
to join an art school and was instead advised to become an architect for which
he didn’t have the necessary academic qualification. Without a career, no home, and no school, Hitler
found himself in the streets fending for himself through painting. He did paint and sell and if someone had seen
this and given him support, he could have ended up being a happy painter.
Though unfortunate
things happened in his life, there were very many opportunities in which he
would have been assisted to become a good person. If teachers had taken a keen interest and
observed his performance decline, they would have taken measures that would
have saved him from dropping out of school and nudged him to do what he felt
was his passion. If the priests had also
taken a keen interest in him he could have become a strong Catholic follower or a
priest. If his father and supported his
passion for art and encouraged him to do it alongside formal education, it is
possible Hitler would have taken another path of life.
What is interesting is that
he actualized in his adult life the war heroism in his childhood. He loved an author called May who created a
character called the Old Shatterland.
Old Shatterland fought and defeated his enemies through bravery and willpower. Those are two attributes that
strongly presented themselves in his quest to defeat all the enemies of
Germany. His early practice in
presenting long sermons probably played a part in his becoming an outstanding orator. This is a child who knew what he wanted to be
but the how to get there is what he missed.
Today, a number of young people are going through the same challenges.
It is important for us
to understand and help others understand that dealing with traumatic
experiences early heals and gives one an opportunity to form healthy
relationships without carrying baggage that may cause harm to unsuspecting
people around us. Emotional trauma is
probably the most dangerous type of trauma because it has no physical scars
that can be seen. The scar is in the
heart and in the mind and unless someone offers to tell their story and thus starts the journey of healing, they could cause great harm to innocent people around
them including their own families.
As we engage with
children and youth in various forums or institutions identifying these wounded
young people could save them from making harmful decisions in the future. The endless killing of young men and women in the name of love gone sour should not happen at all. Being rejected is not unusual, not everyone will love you the way you love them, feelings are personal and we can't force them on others. Children should not kill their parents because they feel
