Facts about: Hitler's [So-Called] Vegetarianism
by Roberta Kalechovsky
The continual allegation that Hitler was a vegetarian is
usually motivated by a wish to discredit vegetarianism by those who oppose
it. Good morality or good health policy should neither be motivated nor
discredited by whether evil people embrace a certain principle. As Peter
Singer said, "The fact that Hitler had a nose doesn't mean we should cut
off our noses." The Nazis implemented many health policies such as
anti-smoking and anti-pollution legislation, pregnancy and birthing
measures for women, that we regard as good measures. However, the
allegation that Hitler was a vegetarian is so qualified that one can only
call Hitler a "vegetarian" by excluding from the definition of "meat" food
such as ham and sausages, which he ate all his life. Robert Proctor calls
Hitler a vegetarian "of sorts" (The Nazi War on Cancer, p. 134), which is
the most that one can say of his vegetarianism.
Biographical material about Hitler's alleged or
qualified vegetarianism are contradictory. He was sometimes described as a
"vegetarian," but his fondness for sausages, caviar, and occasionally ham,
was well known. Proctor writes that while Hitler was often held up as "the
model of Nazi lifestyle," witnesses also noted backsliding. "Otto D.
Tolischus in 1937 in The New York Times pointed out that the Führer was a
vegetarian who 'does not drink or smoke' but who also 'occasionally
relishes a slice of ham' along with delicacies such as caviar and
chocolates." (Ibid.) Proctor is content to state that Hitler was a
vegetarian who "occasionally would allow himself a dish of meat," (p. 135)
and quotes The New York Times as stating that in addition to ham and
caviar Hitler also occasionally ate squab. Whatever kind of vegetarian
Hitler was, he was not the kind that Gandhi was.
Hitler's alleged vegetarianism was often coupled with a
description of him as an ascetic individual. For example, the April 14th,
1996 Sunday magazine edition of The New York Times, celebrating its 100th
anniversary, included this early description of Hitler's diet in an
article previously published on May 30, 1937, "At Home With The Führer."
"It is well known that Hitler is a vegetarian and does
not drink or smoke. His lunch and dinner consist, therefore, for the most
part of soup, eggs, vegetables and mineral water, although he occasionally
relishes a slice of ham and relieves the tediousness of his diet with such
delicacies as caviar...."
Robert Payne, in his biography of Hitler, The Life and
Death of Adolph Hitler (Praeger, 1973) takes exception to the view of
Hitler as an ascetic, and believes that it was deliberately fostered by
Goebbels to project an image of Hitler as pure and dedicated to his
mission:
Hitler's asceticism played an important part in the
image he projected over Germany. According to the widely believed legend
he neither smoked nor drank, nor did he eat meat or have anything to do
with women. Only the first was true. He drank beer and diluted wine
frequently, had a special fondness for Bavarian sausages and kept a
mistress....His asceticism was a fiction invented by Goebbels to emphasize
his total dedication, his self control, the distance that separated him
from other men....In fact, he was remarkably self indulgent and possessed
none of the instincts of the ascetic. His cook, an enormously fat man
named Willy Kannenberg, produced exquisite meals and acted as court
jester. Although Hitler had no fondness for meat except in the form of
sausages and never ate fish, he enjoyed caviar.... (p. 346)
Another biographer, John Toland (Adolph Hitler,
Doubleday, 1976) describes Hitler's early student diet as consisting of
"milk, sausage and bread...." (p.30), which was most likely due to
poverty.
Hitler described himself as a vegetarian in a letter to
a friend, dated 1911. His vegetarian practice at this time seems to have
been temporary and due to stomach problems. In 1938 he again declared
himself a vegetarian. This declaration was regarded as an emotional
response to the death of his niece, who was said to have been in love with
him and who died under mysterious circumstances. (She may have committed
suicide. There is even speculation that Hitler had her killed.) Hitler's
friend, Frau Hess, described Hitler's response to his niece's death in
this way: "From that moment on...Hitler never ate another piece of meat
except for liver dumplings." p. 256). This is consistent with other
descriptions of Hitler's diet, which always included some form of meat,
whether ham, sausages or liver dumplings.
Some of Hitler's associates, such as Martin Bormann, ate
the same food Hitler did at Hitler's dinner table, but later was observed
to be eating meat in the kitchen.
Hitler's reputation for being a vegetarian seems to
consist solely of his not having eaten red meat. The effort to describe
Hitler's eating habits as vegetarian requires changing the definition of
"vegetarian" to exclude liver, ham, and sausages from the list of meats,
and changing the definition of "animal" to exclude pigs.
Hitler did exhibit a sympathy with a vegetarian diet,
but paradoxically, vegetarians and the vegetarian movement in Nazi Germany
were persecuted. Vegetarian societies were restrained, subject to raids,
and "books that contained vegetarian recipes were confiscated by the
Gestapo." Janet Barkas has a good account of this period in German history
in her book, The Vegetable Passion. German vegetarian societies were
forced to leave the International Vegetarian Union; they were prohibited
from organizing and from publishing material, but individuals were not
molested and "could exchange their credit notes for meat for dairy
products. About 83,000 vegetarians participated in this program."
What kind of vegetarian was Hitler?---Obviously a
limited and contradictory one. If you were a committed vegetarian and
belonged to a vegetarian society, you wouldn't want him to know about it.
Source:
http://www.micahbooks.com
