We've seen that upon declaring war with Poland, Hitler asked the German people to be willing to die for Germany: to "Lay down their lives" for their country.

And he added in this declaration of war that if anyone tried to evade this national duty to lay down one's life, this individual would "perish."

So the Second World War was fought--and as Hitler had insisted and required--millions of Germans laid down their lives. But all good things must come to an end.

Still, it ain't over till it's over (Yogi Berra). Toward the very end--as Soviet soldiers entered Berlin--there were some who were not willing to lay down their lives. Stephen Fritz notes that German soldiers suspected of desertion were often executed and left dangling from trees with placards around their necks that read "cowardice in the face of the enemy."

Sixteen-year-old Hans-Rudolf Vilter never forgot the picture of chaos in Berlin in 1945, especially the deserters and apprehended soldiers that one saw hanging on lampposts and trees with the sign, “I hang here because I am too cowardly to defend my fatherland.”

Die for Germany or we will kill you.

These deserters fulfilled the ideology or dream or desire that Hitler had articulated in his declaration of war. Those who were not killed in battle were executed or hung on lampposts or trees. 

One soldier recalled that armed German officers gave his unit no choice but to attack enemy lines, where it was likely they would be slaughtered. The other option was clear: be shot by your own leaders.

Units established special formations whose instructions were to "make immediate use of their weapon in order to enforce obedience and discipline." The situation in which many German soldiers found themselves, said soldier Helmut Altner, was devilishly simple: “There were only two possibilities: Death by a bullet from the enemy, or by the ‘thugs’ of the SS.”

Die or we will kill you.

Thus did Hitler fulfill the prophecy that he had conveyed in his declaration of war on September 1, 1939. Fulfill one's duty by fighting for Germany and dying or--attempting to evade the fulfillment one's duty--be killed.

This murderous ideology ended only when Germany surrendered and there was no more war and no more dying to do.

Of course, if Hitler had had his druthers, the dying would have gone on forever. But all good things must come to an end.

And having solved the problem of Hitler's relationship to war, my theorizing on this issue will soon come to an end.

Richard Koenigsberg

August 18, 1945 (I mean 2021)