Sunday, November 29, 2009

Was Hitler a vegetarian?

I always heard loose talk about Hitler being a vegetarian. Personally, I have no idea if he ate meat or not, and I don't think it's particularly relevant to anything, but I did come across a reference to what might be an authoritative source speaking on the matter. On page 41 of the book Entropy and the Magic Flute by Harold J Morowitz, he refers to an article:

An article translated from the German publication called Die Wiesse Fahne volume 14, 1933, attributes the following quote to Dr. Goebbels: "Adolph Hitler does not drink alcohol or smoke and, moreover, is a vegetarian." The unsigned article goes on to say:

"Brother National Socialist, do you know .. that your Fuhrer - out of persuasion and out of love for the world of animals - is a vegetarian ... ?

"... that your Fuhrere is the strongest opponent of any form of animal torment; especially of vivisecton ... "
This is obviously Nazi propaganda. Everything Goebbels said was Nazi propaganda. After all, he was the Nazi minister of propaganda.

So, there it is, on the internet, a suitable reference. Now, all you need is the appropriate volume of Die Weisse Fahne. That's The White Flag, though Google's translation system has some trouble with it thanks to the double ess.