What did Hitler think about Americans??

[IamSid]

Well there is the European thread.. The title says it all. And no saying "Hitler did nothing to the jews before 1941 when that was obviously not true."

 

[luiz]

Hitler had great admiritaion for some particular americans, and also for some achievments of the United States. He specially admired Henry Ford* (he had a poster of him in his office) and the industrial might of the US.

OTOH, Hitler dispised the multi-ethnic american society and considered it corrupt, controlled by Jews and doomed to self-destruction. He also hated with passion the financial stablishment of NY (whom he accused of beign controlled by Jews and of instigating numerous wars to weaken the german people. He also accused them of financing the soviets).

*Ford himself was a staunch anti-semite

 

[nonconformist]

OTOH, Hitler dispised the multi-ethnic american society and considered it corrupt, controlled by Jews and doomed to self-destruction. He also hated with passion the financial stablishment of NY (whom he accused of beign controlled by Jews and of instigating numerous wars to weaken the german people. He also accused them of financing the soviets).

Yep, Luiz more or less got it down to a tee.
I might add that I think that Hitler might have considered them more uncouth and loutish than Europeans

However, the point in your first post I feel I should correct.
The Nazi programme always stated that Jews were inferior, and they actively discriminate dagainst hrem, and used eugenics and sterilization.
However, prior to 1941/1942, the plan wasn't to exterminate them. In fact, it was to exile them all to Madagascar.
However, at the Wansee conference, it was decided to exterminate them.

 

[SomethingWitty]

Well, there was the Bund party, a group of American Nazis in the late thirties. They had something like 25,000 members.

http://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/gallery/images/1939 - Pro-Nazi German American Bund rally.jpg

And roughly 15% of the eligible US population at the time was a member of the KKK. And he enjoyed business with plenty of American companies, Ford as Luiz mentioned, IBM, lots of banks.

So he definitely would have liked some Americans.

But then again, he was a, particularly, bitter WWI vet. So there was probably a deep seated hatred of our government.

 

[Verbose]

The whole "melting pot" idea would was complete anathema to the Nazi ideas of nation and race.

They were pretty decisive about the need for a nation to be somehow "pure", and the US was a mongrel whichever way they looked at it.

Though Hitler did particularly enjoy Disney-films. "Snow White" was a favourite.

 

[Reno]

Though Hitler did particularly enjoy Disney-films. "Snow White" was a favourite.

When Snow White was released in 1937, it was something that had not been seen before. Even Mafia bosses in America whent to see it.

 

[IamSid]

Well good old Walt was an anti-semite also! (Not as bad as Ford though..)

 

[Alone]

Did Hitler ever visited US (privatly or officialy)?

 

[bombshoo]

No Hitler never visted the US, I dont think he even left Europe...The farthest he went was probably Ukraine.


I remember reading Hitler really wanted to win the support of the German-Americans, because he considered the ones who went over and established themselves some of the most able and brave of all the German people.

 

[luiz]

I remember reading Hitler really wanted to win the support of the German-Americans, because he considered the ones who went over and established themselves some of the most able and brave of all the German people.

He also encouraged German-Brazilians in the Southern Region to form a New Germania... and he actually thought that would happen

 

[EdwardTking]

No Hitler never visted the US, I dont think he even left Europe...The farthest he went was probably Ukraine.

I heard Hitler signed on as a merchant seamen for a few weeks
and left Europe and visited Liverpool, England, for a day or two.


He approved of US eugenics programs,
such as sterilising the mentally ill.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Well, there was the Bund party, a group of American Nazis in the late thirties. They had something like 25,000 members.

I heard that, although he thought the Bund was useful, he didn't really do anything to actually support it (and didn't want the group's leader from actually becoming too powerful).

 

[Riesstiu IV]

When Snow White was released in 1937, it was something that had not been seen before. Even Mafia bosses in America whent to see it.

What was so special about the 1937 release?

 

[privatehudson]

I heard Hitler signed on as a merchant seamen for a few weeks
and left Europe and visited Liverpool, England, for a day or two.

This stems from an unpublished manuscript found in the New York Library entitled "I married Hitler's brother" by Bridget Hitler who married Alois Hitler. Alois (Adolf's half brother) and Bridget did indeed live in Liverpool for many years in the Toxteth part of the city and it's alleged that Adolf turned up there in November 1912 and left in May 1913. However other than the manuscript (which is dismissed by many historians and biographers as fiction) and the fact that that period of Adolf's life is a mystery there's no proof he ever did go there. Kershaw for example points out that he was recorded as being in a men's home in Vienna during February 1913.

Alois left Britain in 1914 never to return, even marrying bigamously in 1916 and being charged for it in 1923. Bridget and Alois' son William briefly considered cashing in on his Uncle's power but got nowhere. He eventually refused to give up his British nationality and left Britain for America in 1939. He joined the American Navy during WW2 serving in the medical corps and being honourably discharged in 1946.

According to research by a British journalist David Gardner, William apparently married a German girl Phyliss after the war, moved into the medical field and eventually set up a blood analysis laboratory. There were four sons, Alexander (1949), Louis (1951), Howard (1957) and Brian (1965), Howard died in a car crash in 1989, the rest survive. The family go by an adopted name now apparently. According to the Journalist William died in 1987, Bridget in 1969. William's Wife Phyliss claimed the manuscript was made up but her son Alex claimed it was all true.

Regardless of the truth or otherwise what is certain is that the house Bridget and Alois lived in suffered a rather ironic fate. During the Blitz on Merseyside it was blown to bits by the Lufwaffe!

 

[rilnator]

Hitler had great admiritaion for some particular americans, and also for some achievments of the United States. He specially admired Henry Ford* (he had a poster of him in his office) and the industrial might of the US.

From what I've read, Hitler despised American democracy and saw them as a nation of 'gangsters'. He also seemed oblivious to America's potential industrial might or held it in low esteem (hence his eagerness to declare war on them).

Then again Hitler changed his mind and opinions from day to day so its hard to know what he ever really thought.

Hitler had a poster of Henry Ford in his office? Where did you here that one?

 

[Reno]

What was so special about the 1937 release?

Because that's the original year when Snow White was released.

And also back then movies like Snow White weren't really considered "only for kids". So, a lot of adults (Like i mentioned the Mafia bosses) whent to see it.

 

[privatehudson]

Hitler had a poster of Henry Ford in his office? Where did you here that one?

I think it's a mistaken point if Wiki is to be trusted. There was apparently a portrait of Ford in the Nazi Party Headquarters in Munich.

In Max Wallace's 2003 book The American Axis: Ford, Lindbergh and the Rise of the Third Reich, he recounts how a Detroit News columnist named Annetta Antona arrived at the headquarters to interview Hitler in 1931. When she asked the future Fuhrer about the portrait, he told her, "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration."

It's very likely that the principle reason for this is that Ford had been awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle by the Nazi regime, given "in recognition of [Ford's] pioneering in making motor cars available for the masses."

 

[Verbose]

And also back then movies like Snow White weren't really considered "only for kids". So, a lot of adults (Like i mentioned the Mafia bosses) whent to see it.

On top it was he first full-length animtead feature-film, in full colour, with an amazing score of classical music.

And the quality of the artwork was amazing. And not just the animation. All the backgrounds for Snow White were designed by one of Sweden's leading fairy-tale illustrators (the old series "Tomtar och troll" for those of us of the Swedish persuasion) brought in to work on the look of the thing.

It really was something never seen before, and it picked up something like 8 Oscars in 1937.

 

[luiz]

From what I've read, Hitler despised American democracy and saw them as a nation of 'gangsters'.

Yep, that´s what I said in the second part of my post.

He also seemed oblivious to America's potential industrial might or held it in low esteem (hence his eagerness to declare war on them).

I believe you are wrong here. He recognised that the US had the most powerful industry in the world. Of course he didn´t fear them that much, since he considered americans cowards and doubted the potential of a multi-ethnic nation.

Hitler had a poster of Henry Ford in his office? Where did you here that one?

I read it in Jonh Lukac´s The Hitler of History. Anyway, Hitler´s admiration of Ford is well known and documented.

 

[nonconformist]

On a distant tangent, Hitler's private tgrain was caled Amerika, but had its name changed for propaganda after 1941 (much like the crusier Deutschland)