Human beings tends to equate their own bodies with some body politic or another. This is true for most of us, but especially for political leaders. Rudolf Hess declared, “Hitler is Germany, just as Germany is Hitler.”

In Hitler’s mind, there was no separation between himself (his own body) and the German nation (the German body politic). Whatever happened to Germany—happened to him. He imagined that the “Jewish virus” he believed was causing the German nation to become ill—was entering his own body as well.

Thus, his panic, rage—and the “Final Solution.” Of course, when it comes to viruses and bacteria, there can never be a final solution: these micro-organisms are part of one's body, endlessly dividing and multiplying. Thus, no matter what Hitler did, he could not eliminate Jewish pathogens from presence within his body.

The Holocaust was not enough. Hitler had to conquer the Soviet Union to prevent Jewish viruses from flowing in from the East. "World conquest" for Hitler fundamentally was a struggle to rid the world of Jewish bacterium and viruses.

What a sad, pathetic, hopeless task, which could only end as it did.