Customer Reviews

Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The book makes short shrift of the old characterization of Hitler as a vegetarian. I first had doubts about this point after watching Triumph of the Will. In that film, Hitler and all of his minions were pudgy and sweaty, tell-tale signs of carnivorousness dining habits. Meat eaters generally appear unhealthy and their midsections look as though someone stuffed a dodge ball down their shirts. The author draws from multiple sources to prove that Hitler had vegetarian phases in which he gave up meat in order to gain a little relief from flatulence and profuse sweating before proving that he had no convictions beyond this. In addition to favoring liver dumplings and squab, he was partial to stamping out vegetarian organizations in occupied countries of Europe.

I dinged the author a star on his slight tangent on whether Christ was a vegetarian or not. Vegetarians sometimes go to extremes in defending a healthy and humane diet. This includes torturous turns of reasoning to make Christ into a vegetarian even though he himself gave fish to the hungry. (American fundies do the same thing when trying to reconcile Christ's creation of wine from water as well as his use of wine at the Last Supper.) Being the Son of God, he could have summoned delicious tempeh dishes, but he didn't. It's unlikely that there were many Semites of classical antiquity who would have practiced vegetarianism. Even John the Baptist ate locusts for protein despite his extreme asceticism.

I am sick and tired of hearing that hitler loved animals and was a vegetarian- neither fact is in evidence, and is argued well in this book- it deserves a space on the shelf-

Vegetarian? Non-smoker? Maybe, maybe not, but I've personally seen many film clips of Hitler petting, rubbing, hugging (and maybe even kissing?) his German Shepherds... what do you have to do to qualify as an animal lover? I haven't done any research (I have to work for a living), but I imagine that some vegetarians are the sweetest people you'd ever want to meet, and others are terrible human beings.

Tell people about the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables (it probably is best) don't resort to propaganda like the Nazi's you decry... these days, more and more people can see right through it.

Hitler was both a vegetarian and animal lover. He was also an environmentalist. Despite the mechanized death Hitlerian Germany rained down on humanity, he had plans to turn Germany and his lebensraum into a bucolic, rustic paradise. Stop trying so hard vegans and animal righters. A fanatic is a fanatic is a fanatic is a vegetarian is an environmentalist.

This book is utter non-sense. Regardless of the opinions people may have on Hitler in relation to politics, it is entirely fact that he was a vegetarian during his last 10 years or so of life (he was very concerned about his health and old age). It is also a fact that he was an "animal lover". If anyone researched the origins of animal rights in Western Civilisation, they would notice it comes from Nazi Germany. Still today, Germany is still very supportive of this as a legacy of that, compared to other countries in Europe/related.

Do not pay to be lied to.