Abstract
Is it right to be surprised that people who are conventionally ‘bright’ can do things that turn out to be obviously wrong? Shouldn’t intellect provide insulation against inhumanity? According to former SS officer Melita Maschmann, half-education played a ‘catastrophic role’ in causing National Socialism.1 Both Adolf Hitler and the ideological guru of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, Alfred Rosenberg, performed erratically at school.2 It is easy to be convinced that National Socialism was a philistine movement, made up of members either unable or untrained to think critically.
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Fighter of Mind and Fist
M. Maschmann, Account Rendered. A Dossier on my former Self. New York: AbelardSchuman, 1964, p. 207.
Hitler’s recollections are in Mein Kampf London: Hutchinson. (1985 edn). Ch. 1 ‘In the House of my Parents’.
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© 2003 Martyn Housden
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Housden, M. (2003). Fighter of Mind and Fist. In: Hans Frank. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230503090_2
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