# Was Hitler really smart? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-really-smart/541457 "2010-06-01T03:39:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-really-smart/541457/61 "2010-06-03T21:55:56Z")
> [@Joanie](#): > > If that is true, then: > > 1. why did he order his General Rommel to “fight to the last man” in N. Africa? > 2. why did he order his General Pauling to “fight to the last man” in Stalingrad? > 3. why did he order his demolition teams to destroy Paris when they retreated back to Germany? > > In the first two cases, both generals refused to follow his orders. They recognized those orders for what they were (mass suicide) and they refused to participate… The 3rd general refused too. Paris was not demolished. > [@](#): > > There are several other examples that I can’t quite remember off the top of my head. If anyone else can help, I would appreciate if you would join in and post any other examples of Hitler’s decisions that were self-destructive Consciously self-destructive? It can be argued that the order to invade Russia was the most-self destructive. Very late in the war when it was clear even to Hitler that the war was lost, he ordered a scorched earth policy. Nothing of value was to be left for Germany’s enemies to use. Albert Speer quietly launched a campaign to prevent this, thinking there needed to be something left so Germany could rebuild. Hitler’s reasoning was for all of these “last man” decisions was “victory or death”. And he believed a German who surrendered German territory did not deserve to live. Essentially, he believed that Germans no longer deserved Germany since they were losing it. Hey, at least he was consistent. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-really-smart/541457/62 "2010-06-03T22:06:49Z")
> [@Joanie](#): > > I understand that he wanted to defeat and occupy Russia because it had so much “living space” (not to mention the oil wells in Romania). But, I never t heard that he wanted to \*\*destroy \*\*Russia exactly - just that he wanted to destroy the Russian people (perhaps by forcing many of them to work as slaves) and then populate Russia with Aryans. > > But I have never heard of him having any desire to destroy Poland or the Polish people. This is something new to me. Can you explain why he wanted to destroy Poland and/or the Polish people? If it was because he considered the Poles to be sub-humans, I believe he considered many, many countries to be populated by sub-humans. Why would he direct any more hatred towards Poland than he would towards many of the other countries populated by non-Aryans? When I say Hitler wanted to “destroy the nations” of Poland and Russia, I mean destroy the peoples and their cultures, not the **land,** which he wanted, for Germans to live on. Hitler did not **hate** Poles and Russians the way he hated Jews, but he **despised** them, as [_Untermenschen,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untermensch) “subhumans.” It was all part of his racial ideology. They were in the way of the German [_Herrenvolk,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrenvolk) occupying land the Germans could use, therefore they needed to be killed or enslaved. It was like the traditional white American attitude towards the Indians, only much fiercer and much more systematic. ---
**Author:** ![Joanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@Joanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joanie)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-really-smart/541457/63 "2010-06-03T23:34:15Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > The 3rd general refused too. Paris was not demolished. > > Consciously self-destructive? It can be argued that the order to invade Russia was the most-self destructive. > > Very late in the war when it was clear even to Hitler that the war was lost, he ordered a scorched earth policy. Nothing of value was to be left for Germany’s enemies to use. Albert Speer quietly launched a campaign to prevent this, thinking there needed to be something left so Germany could rebuild. > > Hitler’s reasoning was for all of these “last man” decisions was “victory or death”. And he believed a German who surrendered German territory did not deserve to live. Essentially, he believed that Germans no longer deserved Germany since they were losing it. > > Hey, at least he was consistent. Expanding on your “last man” point, I recall that when he was a few hours away from his death, he was reported to have said that the German people all deserved to die because they had failed him. They were not strong enough and not capable enough to win the war. He blamed the loss of the war on the German people and refused to take any of the blame for the loss - despite all those insane decisions which were really the cause of the loss. BrainGlutton, Thank you for your explanation. On another tangent, I have always found it interesting that the Nazis managed to kill more people with their V2 rockets - not when they exploded on London - but during the manufacturing process in the underground factories. I’m not sure what point to make about this. But it has always seemed very interesting to me that the overall process of construction was so inefficient that more people died by building the weapon that were killed as a result of the use of the weapon. That is just fascinating to me. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-really-smart/541457/64 "2010-06-04T17:30:12Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Not many people know it, but the Fuhrer was a terrific dancer. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-really-smart/541457/65 "2010-06-05T01:59:43Z")
He was a great tipper too, IF you survived. But if he didn’t have you killed, you could count on 30%. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-hitler-really-smart/541457.md?page=3)