In Mein Kampf (1925), Hitler stated that the most precious blood in the First World War had “sacrificed itself joyfully” in the faith that it was “preserving the independence and freedom of the fatherland.” More than once, Hitler said, thousands and thousands of young Germans had stepped forward to “sacrifice their young lives freely and joyfully on the altar of the beloved fatherland. 

Contemplating the millions of Germans who had died in the First World War,  Hitler asserted that it would have been a “sin to complain”—because after all, were the men not “dying for Germany?”

Why is it so important to study Nazi Germany? Because Hitler's social movement constituted the paradigm or raison d'etre of Twentieth Century political violence. Lurking beneath each case of war and genocide in the Twentieth Century is the sacred object--one's nation. This entity is bedrock.

Post-modernism" has deconstructed just about everything. But what remains is "the country:" the foundation for "history" and the writing of history.

What terror lurks in the heart of man? What evil lurks in the heart of man?

It begins and ends with the idea of the nation or country. Hitler took this paradigmatic idea and ran with it: showed us what it is and what it is capable of doing. "The horror, the horror."

Still, we live within this phantasy, this dream--clinging to the mother-country.