Hitler & His Reliance on the Armenian Genocide

An article by Frank    3 Comments

On 1 September 1939, Hitler unleashed hell on Poland with the support of the Soviet Union. It ended the following month on 6 October when Germany and the Soviet Union annexed and carved up Poland for themselves. It was the beginning of WWII.

On August 22 of 1939, Hitler gathered his generals together to explain what was about to take place – it was the day before Germany signed the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union where the Soviets guaranteed their military support for the invasion of Poland should Britain and France go to war with Germany over the invasion.

During the briefing with his generals, Hitler made this statement:

Our strength is our speed and our brutality. Genghis Khan chased millions of women and children to death, consciously and with a happy heart. History sees him only as a great founder of states. It is of no concern, what the weak Western European civilisation is saying about me. I issued the command – and I will have everybody executed, who will only utter a single word of criticism – that it is not the aim of the war to reach particular lines, but to physically annihilate the enemy. Therefore I have mobilised my Skull Squads, for the time being only in the East, with the command to unpityingly and mercilessly send men, women and children of Polish descent and language to death. This is the only way to gain the Lebensraum, which we need. After all, who is still talking today about the extinction of the Armenians?

Cf. Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik: Series D (1937-1945), 13 vols., Walter Bußmann (ed.), vol. 7: ‘Die letzten Wochen vor Kriegsausbruch: 9. August bis 3. September 1939′, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1956, p. 171. No ISBN

The last sentence in that statement is critical. Hitler was relying on the silence of Western powers over the Turkish massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians (beginning in 1915)  for his own genocide of the people of Poland so that Germany could turn it into part of its own nation. That same sentiment was relied upon for the extermination of 6 million Jews. The Armenian genocide and the Jewish Holocaust are intimately connected. The Jewish Holocaust is now a part of the global landscape, a recognized historical reality that serves to remind us of the atrocities humanity is capable of. The Armenian genocide on the other hand remains an awkward political quagmire that many choose to stay silent over, not recognizing it for what it was.

Hitler saw the silence and lack of condemnation over the Armenian genocide as a green light to pursue his own ruthless, brutal agenda and he believed that because of that example, he would get away with his own hell on earth. The difference was that many other nations had agreements with Poland – so it was never going to go unnoticed, whereas the Armenians had no strong allies.

Over the last week we have witnessed the continued fog that exists around the Armenian genocide.

During his election campaign, President Obama pledged to do what neither Clinton nor Bush had done, formally recognize that what took place for the Armenians was genocide. That opportunity has presented itself in a resolution passed by the congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee that formally recognises that massacre as genocide. The resolution will now be sent to the full House.

You would think that Obama would be fully supportive of the resolution based on statements made during his campaign, but he is not. Just before the vote took place, the Obama administration expressed its objection to the resolution using the reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia as its motivation. That motivation seems problematic when the President of Armenia backs a formal recognition of the massacre as genocide.

It makes political sense that Obama would object to the resolution since Turkey is a key ally in the Middle East and an important route for troops heading in and out of Iraq, but with history glaring at us and Hitler’s words using silence on the Armenian genocide to justify his own brutality whispering in the ears of any politician who would seek to sweep this one under the carpet, it is time someone took the difficult step to formally recognize the massacre for what it was – the deaths of at least 1 million Armenians in a campaign that aimed to systematically wipe them out, demands it.

Germany was able to move on, recognizing its sins and learning from them. Turkey must go on that same journey. If it truly seeks reconciliation with the nation of Armenia then it must own and be accountable for its past wrongs – the genocide being the central offence. Indeed every nation must be willing to account for the wrongs of the past since those wrongs so often lead to issues in the present. Reconciliation demands personal accountability.

If we allow for silence and avoidance of the Armenian genocide, then the words of Hitler remain true and justifiable – those words from one of the most brutal killers of last century need to be left ringing hollow if we truly wish for reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and not just an absence of open hostility.