The Logic of the Holocaust: Hitler sought to "balance the scales of death."

Hitler believed that Jews had shirked their duty to fight and die in the First World War. This idea burned through his mind beginning in 1920 and was a central theme of Mein Kampf. This question or problem--why had non-Jewish Germen men died in the First World War and not German Jews--obsessed and tormented Hitler throughout his life. Until he finally came up with a solution to the problem: the Final Solution.

Where Jews had not sacrificed their lives in the First World War, now they would die in the Holocaust. "If I have the right to send the pick of the German people into the hell of war without regret for the spilling of precious German blood," Hitler declared, "Then naturally I have the right to destroy millions of an inferior race that breed like vermin."

The Holocaust sought to "balance the scales of death." This time, during the Second World War, Jews would not be exempt. As German soldiers were dying in battle, Jews would die in the Holocaust. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

For Hitler, the question of why the best men had died while the worst survived--quickly mutated into: “Why had German men died at the front, whereas Jewish men were safe, comfortable and secure at home."

Hitler had witnessed the death and dismemberment of hundreds of his comrades during the First World War. And was aware (Mein Kampf,1924) that two million German men had died. Although deeply wounded by Germany’s defeat, he did not adopt an antiwar posture; nor did he abandon his love for the German nation. As a patriot, he claimed it would have been a “sin to complain” about the death of so many of his comrades because—"after all—were they not dying for Germany?

Diverting attention from the issue of the meaning of why so many Germans had died, Hitler posed another question: Why had some men died, whereas other men had survived? Why had the best men (those who volunteered for military service) died; whereas the worst men (those who shirked their duty to serve in the military) survived. This question burned through Hitler’s mind, heart and body.

The issue of why the best men died while the worst survived quickly mutated: “Why had German men died at the front, whereas Jewish men were safe, comfortable and secure at home. In Mein Kampf (1924), Hitler wrote that upon returning home from the Western Front, he discovered that “all the offices were filled with Jews.” He claimed that nearly “every clerk was a Jew and nearly every Jew was a clerk.” He was amazed at this “plethora of warriors of the chosen people” and could not help comparing them with their “rare representatives at the front.”

Contemplating the idea that Jews had shirked their duty to fight and die for Germany, Hitler became enraged, writing in Mein Kampf: “If the best men were dying at the front, the least we could do was to wipe out the vermin.” The following passage foreshadows the Final Solution:

If at the beginning of the War and during the War twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the people had been held under poison gas, as happened to hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers in the field, the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain.