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Aimé Césaire
Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany and principal architect of the Holocaust, whose legacy Césaire addresses throughout the Discourse on Colonialism. Namely, while most Europeans and Americans consider Hitler and the Nazis’ racism, nationalism, and sadism to be an anomaly in global history, Césaire instead argues that Hitler’s genocidal policies toward European Jews were an extension of similar policies that other European nations had been implementing in the Americas, Africa, and Asia for centuries. In this sense, he argues that the Holocaust was evidence of colonialism’s “boomerang effect”: Europe had long since decided that torturing, murdering, and enslaving non-European peoples was a legitimate and acceptable political strategy, and most of the European aristocracy shared the same white supremacist prejudice, including anti-Semitism, that Hitler began to direct toward Europe itself during World War II. Césaire does not mean to minimize the atrocities of the Holocaust, but merely to show that they were part of a larger pattern of European imperialism and genocide. In fact, the Holocaust was a symptom of an underlying problem that, to this day, still has not been resolved.
Adolf Hitler Quotes in Discourse on Colonialism
The Discourse on Colonialism quotes below are all either spoken by Adolf Hitler or refer to Adolf Hitler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Section 2
Quotes
Yes, it would be worthwhile to study clinically, in detail, the steps taken by Hitler and Hitlerism and to reveal to the very distinguished, very humanistic, very Christian bourgeois of the twentieth century that without his being aware of it, he has a Hitler inside him, that Hitler inhabits him, that Hitler is his demon, that if he rails against him, he is being inconsistent and that, at bottom, what he cannot forgive Hitler for is not the crime in itself, the crime against man, it is not the humiliation of man as such, it is the crime against the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the “coolies” of India, and the “niggers” of Africa.
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Section 4
Quotes
The supreme goal of the People-State is to preserve the original elements of the race which, by spreading culture, create the beauty and dignity of a superior humanity.
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Adolf Hitler Quotes in Discourse on Colonialism
The Discourse on Colonialism quotes below are all either spoken by Adolf Hitler or refer to Adolf Hitler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Section 2
Quotes
Yes, it would be worthwhile to study clinically, in detail, the steps taken by Hitler and Hitlerism and to reveal to the very distinguished, very humanistic, very Christian bourgeois of the twentieth century that without his being aware of it, he has a Hitler inside him, that Hitler inhabits him, that Hitler is his demon, that if he rails against him, he is being inconsistent and that, at bottom, what he cannot forgive Hitler for is not the crime in itself, the crime against man, it is not the humiliation of man as such, it is the crime against the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the “coolies” of India, and the “niggers” of Africa.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Section 4
Quotes
The supreme goal of the People-State is to preserve the original elements of the race which, by spreading culture, create the beauty and dignity of a superior humanity.
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Page Number and Citation:
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