Hitler or Stalin: Who Was Worse

[Middle-aged Europe]

At least Hitler revived the German economy

One could argue that Stalin turned Russia from a mainly agrarian society into a modern industrial country. Saddam Hussein did a lot for women rights and Ataturk slaughtered over a million Armenians, but pulled Turkey into the 20th century. So what?

And btw, Hitler didn´t just kill jews, but gypsies, other religious minorities such as Jehovah´s witnesses, homosexuals, handicapped people, communists and/or socialists, other political opponents, prisoners of war as well as large ammounts of civilians in occupied countries (mainly in eastern europe, where the "inferior races" lived). Besides, he was responsible for the bloodiest war in human history. It´s not just "oh, he killed only a few million jews".

Regarding the question who´s worse, Hitler or Stalin (or Mao?), check out this interesting site: http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/tyrants.htm

It all depends on the way you´re counting and what sources you´re using. Usually, most right-wingers want Stalin to be worse than Hitler, while most left-wingers are doing the opposite.

For Hitler´s death toll, check out: http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Hitler

For Stalin´s death toll, check out:
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Stalin

Anyway, because I consider myself a left-winger, I voted for Hitler.  But from a objective perspective, it really doesn´t matter who´s "worse".

[Middle-aged Europe]

Josef Stalin

Only reason why people would vote for Hitler is because they lack information when it comes to Stalin...

I guess my five semesters in contemporary history were totally useless. Damn!

Well, okay, the reason why I voted for Hitler had a at least partially ironic or even sarcastic background.

or are Jewish themselves

Either that or a gypsy, or gay, or handicapped, or a Jehovah´s witness, or a communist, or a Pole, or a Czech etc. Why are people so obsessed with the Jews here? Okay, it was one of the biggest victims groups of Hitler´s regime, but is the life of a Jew more worth than of a gypsy?

Anyway, would you say that people who name Stalin as the worst are Russians? Are you a Russian?  Because you claimed, that people who see Hitler as worse are probably Jewish.

...and are bias.

Granted, people who say that Hitler was worse are clearly biased against Hitler, but are people who say that Stalin was worse not biased against Stalin then?


What I´m trying to say is, that is a bit cynical to say "well, Hitler killed only a few millions Jews and by the way, his economic policy was not as bad either". You can´t say "dictator A was the worst dictator ever, because he killed a number of X million people and dictator B is therefore the lesser evil because he only killed a number of X minus 1 million people. Besides, dictator B only slaughtered obscure minorites." Hitler was surely as mad as Stalin. And if Stalin killed 20 million people and Hitler "only" 15 or if Hitler killed 34 million and Stalin 20 million really doesn´t matter. They were both assholes.

I think people are so pissed about Stalin here because a) he was allied with the United States and b) he GOT AWAY with his crimes in the end, while Hitler was a) fought with all means and b) he got what he deserved. But if you ignore these "minor" facts for a moment, they´re both equal.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Those other than Jews were not set up for EXTERMINATION for NO apparent reason. It is still a huge mystery to most people why he picked on them. People lose sleep over it.

I think I once heard that Hitler´s parents had anti-semitic prejudices themselves or something like that. Although they surely did not indoctrinate him to gas all Jews in his childhood, he was raised and socialized to dislike all Jews because just they are Jews. It´s the same with the Austrian right-wing populist Jörg Haider. His parents were both members of the NSDAP/Nazi party during the Third Reich.

To have anti-semitic parents doesn´t make you automatically a Nazi, but it can help a lot.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Though I do disagree with Hitler on almost every single issue he preached I do think he helped the economy of Germany revive from the Depression. I think the whole war could have been largely avoided if the French hadn't been so pushy on the Germans demanding so much money that it bankrupt Germany. Also the French actions in the Rhineland were absolutely dispicable. The Treaty of Versaille is exactly the reason that WW2 happened.

I believe I read somewhere that Germany´s economy already began to recover when Hitler became chancellor. So, it would be the merit of the preceding governments and Hitler took just the credit.

An other argument would be that the economic boom was mainly achieved through the massive military build-up that took place in the 30ies. To rise the defense spending (in this case, it would be more a "attack spending", I suppose ) by hundreds of per cent with the goal to conquer the whole continent (world?) and to exterminate a whole religious group isn´t exactly something I would nominate someone for the Nobel prize for economics.

But I agree with you on the Treaty of Versailles, although we had probably done the same to the French, if we had been the winners of World War I.