Hitler was a vegetarian
It’s weird. The “Hitler was a vegetarian” thing. I was involved in an online discussion of vegetarianism recently and someone posted the cryptic message… “Hitler was a vegetarian. (Enough said!)”
Now, the person posting was almost certainly just making a stale wry comment. But still they got me thinking. See, having been a fairly strict veggie for most of my life (I recently relaxed things a little for health reasons), it’s a line I’ve heard time after time. But I’ve never really understood it. Leaving aside the somewhat salient fact that he wasn’t, in fact, a vegetarian; what’s a person trying to say when they claim “Hitler was a vegetarian”?
Are they saying: “being a vegetarian doesn’t make you a good person”? Is that really it? Because I don’t actually know anyone who claims that it does. Most vegetarians simply feel that their conscience won’t permit them to be involved with the meat industry (for ethical or ecological reasons). The rest eschew meat for more direct “empathy” reasons. Only a total nutter, or a sanctimonious fourteen year old, would make the claim that their diet makes them a good person. Certainly nobody serious.
Vegetarians believe that involvement in something so questionable as the modern meat industry is a choice they simply don’t need to make. So long as an adequate alternative diet is readily available; as it is; then choosing not to eat meat is no different to choosing not to participate in blood sports. It doesn’t make you a good person to obey the dictate of your conscience. Merely a normal one.
That said, the odd hostility with which vegetarianism is often met makes me wonder if there isn’t a lot of defensiveness going on… like maybe there’s lots of people not listening to the dictate of their own conscience. Can you imagine hassling someone at the dinner table because they don’t like badger-baiting?
Apparently Hitler also wore socks. Oh, and I’m told he liked to listen to music. Next time you encounter someone listening to a cd, why not point out that “Hitler was a music listener”. Then add enigmatically, “enough said” as though you’re making some general point about listening to music. If the person listening to the music is also wearing socks (and is eating vegetables), it’s probably best to scream “FASCIST!” and beat them to death. Y’know… just in case they decide to annex the Rhineland and invade Poland.
Right on all counts – except that since I gave up bear-baiting I have felt suffused with virtuousness on a daily basis.
…makes me wonder if there isn’t a lot of defensiveness going on…
You reckon?
February 2nd, 2007 | 9:34am
by Larry Teabag
Very well said, jim. But you neglected to inform your readers that ALL your socks have little swastikas all over them & that’s a fact.
February 2nd, 2007 | 6:05pm
by mahoopla
While there’s an element of truth to that, mahoopla, it’s only because – try as I might – it’s damn near impossible to keep you away from my sock drawer with that little embroidery kit of yours.
You’re a strange man and no mistake.
February 4th, 2007 | 9:33pm
by Jim
As you say, the counter-argument “Hitler was a vegetarian” is usually intended as an argument that vegetarianism doesn’t make you a good person – or even makes you a bad person – which doesn’t make sense logically.
Perhaps a more interesting area to explore is why Hitler was a vegetarian (or somebody who objected to eating flesh). My analysis is that Hitler was somebody obsessed with purity – racial purity was one aspect of this, bodily purity was another aspect. He did not want to be ‘polluting’ his body by eating flesh.
I do think there is an element of this with some vegetarians and vegans – so if you are looking for the common thread, this is where to look.
February 4th, 2007 | 10:56pm
by Peter
There maybe something in that Peter. Thing is though; Hitler was a pretty damn obsessed kind of guy. I feel quite certain that if he’d felt meat was somehow “impure” and polluted his body, he’d have become a strict vegan in a second (and probably mandated it for all Germans). But actually, he only experimented briefly with a vegetarian diet in the early 20s (for health reasons). He abandoned this very quickly and was never truly vegetarian. Indeed the German Vegetarian Society was closed down by the Nazis, and its members persecuted. Plus, Nazi propaganda would often show hale and hearty aryan families, after a hard day at work, sitting down to a dinner-table dominated by a piece of meat.
So while your idea does sound like it may have some merit, I’m not 100% convinced. Biographers have often marvelled at the sheer number of different dietary regimes that Hitler went through. He was a very strange man (and a meth-freak) and he clearly held many strange ideas about lifestyle and diet. However, his supposed distaste for meat was never enough to make him become a genuine vegetarian, and that speaks volumes in my view. Hitler acted upon his beliefs, and he wouldn’t have eaten meat if he believed it was impure.
On your other point… that some vegans and vegetarians see meat as being a ‘pollutant’, it’s very possible. Of course, given the modern tendency to pump our farm animals full of hormones and antibiotics, they probably have a point.
February 4th, 2007 | 11:36pm
by Jim
Love this. Enough said. 😉
February 5th, 2007 | 4:05pm
by darice
heh heh heh. I will have to try that out.
It’s good to see you back!
btw, thank you for your very kind comment…. it’s been a bit of a rough week as I tend to be an overly sensitive young thing
February 9th, 2007 | 5:49am
by L
Just musing here, not criticizing.
I’m a vegetarian, and I must admit that the imp of mischief seizes me whenever I see examples of famous vegetarians (like Gandhi, GBS, LdV etc.) on a website or a food festival, and my thoughts wander in the direction of proposing to add Hitler to the list.
I’m wondering whether on blogs/forums, Hitler is brought up by mischief mongers whenever others bring up the greats and link them to a vegetarian diet, as if it validates their choice, or as if there is a cause-and-effect link between vegetarian diet and greatness/”goodness”.
If so, then I’m wondering why I haven’t experienced greatness despite being a vegetarian for 17+ years. And where do you stop with the link? From what I’ve read, Gandhi also slept naked (different from having sex) with young girls to test himself. Should we ascribe that behavior to his vegetarian diet too?
In India, a huge number of people are vegetarians and go about their lives without giving it a second thought. Only here in the US do the vegetarians have to somehow validate their choice and defend it, probably because they (we) are a small minority.
I haven’t read Hitler’s biographies, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is more to it (Hitler and vegetarian diet) than meets the eye, as Jim mentions above.
-Amit
February 16th, 2007 | 12:02am
by Amit
I read that Hitler only used vegetarianism as a treatment for some digestive disorder. Forgive me if someone mentioned that and I didn’t see it skimming the comments.
The last line there is hilarious. My cat is concerned because he’s never seen me laugh this hard.
February 19th, 2007 | 10:38am
by LC
Hi Jim,
I understand that Hitler wasn’t vegetarian at all. Even though he stuck to a veggie diet for health reasons, he still retained a fondness for German sausages.
Regards,
Paul G
February 20th, 2007 | 9:21pm
by Paul Gogarty
Amen.
I have to say, maybe I’m paranoid, but I don’t think people bring up Hitler and his supposed vegetarians to show that vegetarianism doesn’t make you a good person. I think they actively want to equate vegetarianism with being a bad person. Like, you spit in the face of everything that is good and decent and normal about our culture and way of thinking. The way Hitler did.
Anyway, isn’t it a rule that whenever someone compares you to Hitler their argument is immediately rendered invalid because of sheer hyperbole? As true in politics as in food/diet conversations.
(enough said)
February 20th, 2007 | 10:41pm
by bazu
Hitler was not a vegetarian. He had a gut disease (quite probably complicated by his heavy intake of morphia) that caused immense pain; he found that avoiding some foods alleviated this pain. Meat was one of those foods (and he still ate it from time to time).
Ideologically he was not a vegetarian and he was not really a vegetarian by choice. So your “Hitler was a vegetarian” people can stuff that in their pipe and smoke it.
DK
April 25th, 2007 | 12:27am
by Devil's Kitchen
Thanks for the comment, DK. Though I did make that point above (comment 5). Still it’s always good to have someone else telling the “Hitler was a vegetarian” people where they can shove their ideas. I wouldn’t have chosen their pipes, myself. But I guess the sun doesn’t shine there either.
April 25th, 2007 | 4:51pm
by Jim