FACISM AND NATURAL SELECTION

Darwin's source of inspiration on this subject was the British economist Thomas Malthus's book An Essay on the Principle of Population. Left to their own devices, Malthus calculated that the human population increased rapidly. In his view, the main influences that kept populations under control were disasters such as war, famine and disease. In short, according to this brutal claim, some people had to die for others to live. Existence came to mean "permanent war."

In the 19th century, Malthus's ideas were widely accepted. European upper class intellectuals in particular supported his cruel ideas. In the article "The Scientific Background of the Nazi 'Race Purification' Programme", the importance 19th century Europe attached to Malthus's views on population is described in this way:

In the opening half of the nineteenth century, throughout Europe, members of the ruling classes gathered to discuss the newly discovered "Population problem" and to devise ways of implementing the Malthusian mandate, to increase the mortality rate of the poor: "Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into the houses, and court the return of the plague. In the country we should build our villages near stagnant pools, and particularly encourage settlements in all marshy and unwholesome situations," and so forth and so on. 1

As a result of this cruel policy, the weak, and those who lost the struggle for survival would be eliminated, and as a result the rapid rise in population would be balanced out. This so-called "oppression of the poor" policy was actually carried out in 19th century Britain. An industrial order was set up in which children of eight and nine were made to work sixteen hours a day in the coal mines and thousands died from the terrible conditions. The "struggle for survival" demanded by Malthus's theory led to millions of Britons leading lives full of suffering.

Influenced by these ideas, Darwin applied this concept of conflict to all of nature, and proposed that the strong and the fittest emerged victorious from this war of existence. Moreover, he claimed that the so-called struggle for survival was a justified and unchangeable law of nature. On the other hand, he invited people to abandon their religious beliefs by denying the Creation, and thus undermined at all ethical values that might prove to be obstacles to the ruthlessness of the "struggle for survival."

The Nazis' Aryan Racial Aberration

The Nazis again used Darwinist concepts to allegedly prove the superiority of the Aryan race. Darwin had proposed that as people evolved so their skulls grew larger. The Nazis embraced this idea fiercely and set about taking skull measurements to show that the German race was superior. In all corners of Nazi Germany comparisons were made showing that German skulls were larger than those of other races. Teeth, eyes, hair and other features were evaluated with evolutionary measurements. Individuals found not to match up to German race measurements were to be exterminated in the name of the principles of eugenics.
All this madness was carried out in the name of implementing Darwinist principles on society. The American historian Michael Grodin, author of the book The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code, reveals the reality in this way:

I think what happened was that there was a perfect match of Nazi ideology and Social Darwinism and racial hygiene as it developed in the turn of the 20th Century. 2

George Stein explains the subject;

National socialism, whatever else it may have been was ultimately the first fully self-conscious attempt to organize a political community on a basis of an explicit biopolicy: a biopolicy fully congruent with the scientific facts of the Darwinian revolution. 3

The famous evolutionist Sir Arthur Keith comments on Hitler as follows:

The German Führer is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the theory of evolution. 4

The author of the book Darwin: Before and After, Robert Clarke, concluded, Adolf Hitler: "...was captivated by evolutionary teaching - probably since the time he was a boy. Hitler reasoned ... that a higher race would always conquer a lower." 5 The political philosophy of Nazi Germany took shape under the influence of these ideas of Hitler's.

The author of the book Race and Reich, Joseph Tenenbaum noted that the political philosophy of Germany was built on the belief that critical for evolutionary progress were:

... struggle, selection, and survival of the fittest, all notions and observations arrived at ... by Darwin ... but already in luxuriant bud in the German social philosophy of the nineteenth century. ... Thus developed the doctrine of Germany's inherent right to rule the world on the basis of superior strength ... [of a] "hammer and anvil" relationship between the Reich and the weaker nations. 6

Adolf Hitler was not alone among Nazi leaders in his "war of ideological evolution." Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo, "stated that the law of nature must take its course in the survival of the fittest." In fact, all of the Nazi leaders were committed both to evolution and Germanic racism, as were most German scientists and industrialists during those dark years. 7

Hitler's Hatred of Religion

Another reason for the great importance Hitler attached to the theory of evolution was his seeing the theory as a weapon against religious belief. Hitler had a great hatred of Divine religions. Moral virtues such as compassion, mercy, and humility, ordered by Divine religions, represented a great obstacle to the ruthless and warrior Aryan type the Nazis wanted to create. For this reason, once the Nazis came to power in 1933 they tried to turn German society back to its old pagan beliefs. The swastika, a symbol from the old pagan cultures, was a sign of this return. The Nazi ceremonies held in every corner of Germany were a return to the ancient pagan rites. The idea of evolution, an inheritance from pagan cultures, fitted in exceedingly well with the ideology of Nazism for this reason. Hitler once revealed his attitude toward Christianity when he bluntly stated that religion is an:

...organized lie [that] must be smashed. The State must remain the absolute master. When I was younger, I thought it was necessary to set about [destroying religion] ...with dynamite. I've since realized there's room for a little subtlety ... The final state must be ... in St. Peter's Chair, a senile officiant; facing him a few sinister old women... The young and healthy are on our side ... Our people had previously succeeded in living all right without this religion. I have six divisions of SS men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. 8

Daniel Gasman revealed the reasons for Hitler's hatred of religion in his book The Scientific Origins of National Socialism:

Hitler stressed and singled out the idea of biological evolution as the most foremost weapon against traditional religion and he repeatedly condemned Christianity for its opposition to the teaching of evolution... For Hitler, evolution was the hallmark of modern science and culture. 9

Actually, the fundamental cause of the countless catastrophes visited upon the world in the 20th century was the character of such people as Hitler and the Nazis who had no religion. These people who denied the existence of Allah and believed that human beings had evolved to become developed animals, saw themselves as unchecked, with no responsibility to answer to anyone. Because they had no fear of Allah and the hereafter they knew no limit to their immorality and tyranny, and for that reason they mercilessly killed millions of people. The difficulties and pains there will be in a society without religion are clearly to be seen in the example of Hitler. And not just Hitler: as we shall see later Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Franco, Mussolini and the others who drowned the 20th century in blood were known for being completely devoid of religion. A lesson must of course be drawn from the nightmare which comes from lack of religion.

Whereas those who fear Allah and live by Qur'anic morality always bring peace, calm, security, plenty, and enlightened times to a society. People faithful to the religion of Allah never disturb the peace anywhere in the world, on the contrary they always encourage compassion, pity, friendship, faithfulness, and co-operation.

These pictures sum up the suffering, fear, terror, and anguish that Hitler and those who shared his views inflicted on humanity. Darwinism, which was the ultimate source of this nightmare, still continues to inflict suffering on mankind all over the world.

The Catastrophes Brought About by the Darwinist-Fascist Mussolini

In the same way that Hitler determined his policy by employing Darwinism, so his contemporary and ally Benito Mussolini made use of Darwinist claims and concepts to set Italy on imperialist and Fascist foundations.

Mussolini was a thorough Darwinist, who believed that violence had been a propelling force in history and that war led to revolution. For him, "the reluctance of England to engage in war only proved the evolutionary decadence of the British Empire." 10

At the head of the magazine The People of Italy (Il Popolo d'Italia), which he founded with financial assistance from the French government, he put the phrase, "He who has iron will also have bread." In other words he was telling the people that in order to be able to fill their stomachs they needed the power to wage war. Mussolini chose the axe as the symbol of Fascism and the Fascist Party. Because the axe was the symbol of war, violence, death, and massacre.

Mussolini's conduct, aggressive and prone to violence like every Fascist, is described in Denis Mack Smith's book. In his book, Smith stated that one of Mussolini's unchanging beliefs was aggression and his fundamental instinct was to resort to violence. 11

Like the other Darwinist-Fascists, Mussolini's warlike, aggressive and oppressive policies led to many people being massacred, being left without home and family, and to the country's being left in ruins. Violence and oppression were practised, by means of the Blackshirts, not only in his own country, but in others too. In 1935 he occupied Ethiopia, and by 1941 had had 15,000 people wiped out. He did not delay in backing and justifying his occupation of Ethiopia with Darwinism's racialist views. According to Mussolini the Ethiopians were inferior because they were of the black race, and being governed by a superior race like the Italians should have been an honour for them.

On the other hand he continued the oppression of the Muslims which had begun with Italy's occupation of Libya on Oct. 3, 1911, and actually increased the attacks aimed against Muslims. The occupation only came to an end with Mussolini's death in an agreement made on Feb. 10, 1947. During that period 1.5 million Muslims were martyred and hundreds of thousands wounded.

Mussolini, who has gone down in history for his ruthlessness and oppression, described the Fascism which he supported and put into practice in a speech:

Fascism is no longer liberation but tyranny, no longer the safeguard of the nation but the defense of private interests. 12

As we have seen in the examples from Hitler and Mussolini, Fascism, where the strong and cruel were right and superior and where the only way to success and development was brute force, aggression, violence, and war, was an implementation of Darwin's claims that "The strong live, the weak die," and led to suffering for millions.

The Fascist Franco and the Oppression He Gave Rise to in Spain

Another of the Fascist oppressors who turned the 20th century into a lake of blood was Franco. He organised the "Falange" movement in Spain with the support of the Darwinist Fascists Hitler and Mussolini, and brought great suffering and oppression to the people of Spain. Franco dragged his people into civil war, turning brother against brother, father against son.

During the Spanish Civil War an average of 250 people a day were killed in Madrid, 150 in Barcelona, and 80 in Seville. Some executions were carried out by driving nails into peoples' heads. Pitiless massacres took place all over the country. In a little mountain village to the north of Madrid, for example, 31 villagers were arrested because they had not voted for Franco, and of these 13 were taken out of the village by lorry and killed by the side of the road. The Fascists entered a town with a population of 11,000 near Seville and killed more than 300 people. As a result of the violent events which went on in this way some 800,000 people were killed in the civil war, and 200,000 more executed by order of Franco. Millions were injured or crippled.

Franco Gave Hitler the Population of An Entire Village to Test His Weapons On!

The greatest supporters of the Fascist Franco in the Civil War were Hitler and Mussolini. Franco did not leave his allies' support unrewarded: he made one of the cruellest and most ruthless agreements in history, giving small towns such as Guernica to the Nazis as a gift for them to test their new weapons on.

On the morning of May 5, 1937, the people of the small town of Guernica awoke to the death brought by giant bomber planes and tons of bombs, the new miracles of Nazi technology. The little town had been abandoned by Franco to the Nazi plane tests. 13

This event was only one of the products of this twisted philosophy which regarded human beings as laboratory animals. This philosophy, which left thousands of people to die just in order to test the power of its weapons and which crippled, injured, and tortured thousands of others, still lives today under different guises. This will continue for as long as Darwinist philosophy and similar oppressions which see human beings as a species of animal and war as the most effective means of progress are kept alive.

Darwinism's Preparatory Role in the First and Second World Wars

In his book Europe Since 1870 the famous British professor of history James Joll explains one of the factors leading to the outbreak of the First World War as being the belief of the leaders of Europe of the time in Darwinist ideas:

We have seen how Darwinian ideas had a great influence on the ideology of imperialism at the end of the nineteenth century, but it is important to realise how literally the doctrine of the struggle for existence and of the survival of the fittest was taken by the majority of the leaders of Europe in the years preceding the First World War. The Austro-Hungarian chief of staff for example, Franz Baron Conrad von Hoetzendorff, wrote in his memoirs after the war:

Philanthropic religions, moral teachings and philosophical doctrines may certainly sometimes serve to weaken mankind's struggle for existence in its crudest form, but they will never succeed in removing it as a driving motive of the world... It is in accordance with this great principle that the catastrophe of the world war came about as the result of the motive forces in the lives of states and peoples, like a thunderstorm which must by its nature discharge itself."

Seen against this sort of ideological background, Conrad's insistence on the need for a preventive war in order to preserve the Austro-Hungarian monarchy becomes comprehensible.

We have seen too how these views were not limited to military figures, and that Max Weber for example was deeply concerned with the international struggle for survival. Again Kurt Riezler, the personal assistant and confidant of the German chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, wrote in 1914: "Eternal and absolute enmity is fundamentally inherent in relations between peoples; and the hostility which we observe everywhere... is not the result of a perversion of human nature but is the essence of the world and the source of life itself." 14

Friedrich von Bernhardi, a First World War general and German Social Darwinist, was also one of these leaders. "War" declared Bernhardi "is a biological necessity"; it "is as necessary as the struggle of the elements of nature";it "gives a biologically just decision, since its decisions rest on the very nature of things." 15

As we have seen, the First World War emerged because of the European thinkers, generals, and leaders who saw waging war, spilling blood, suffering, and inflicting suffering as a kind of "development" and an immutable law of nature. The ideological inspiration which dragged this whole generation to ruin with these completely false ideas was none other than Darwin's concepts of "struggle for life" and "favoured races." Two years after Bernhardi said those words, the First World War, which was to bring about biological development (!) began, leaving behind it 8 million dead, hundreds of cities in ruins, and millions of wounded, crippled, homeless and unemployed. The roots of the Nazi war, which started 21 years later and left some 50 million dead, also lie in Darwinism.

Hitler often used to link his policies of war and genocide to Darwinism. He saw war as not only for eliminating weaker races, but also as a force for disposing of weaker members of the master race. Nazi Germany praised war partly for this reason, because in their twisted thinking war was an essential step for the progress of the race.

The evolutionist A. E. Wiggam explained "the belief that war develops men," on which Hitler based his policy, in a book published in 1922:

... at one time man had scarcely more brains than his anthropoid cousins, the apes. But, by kicking, biting, fighting ... and outwitting his enemies and by the fact that the ones who had not sense and strength enough to do this were killed off, man's brain became enormous and he waxed both in wisdom and agility if not in size ... 16

Hitler drew support from evolutionists such as Wiggam and saw war as an obligation for those who wished to survive. He stated this openly in Mein Kampf:

The whole world of Nature is a mighty struggle between strength and weakness-an eternal victory of the strong over the weak. There would be nothing but decay in the whole of nature if this were not so. He who would live must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this world where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist. To think otherwise is to "insult" nature. Distress, misery and disease are her rejoinders. 17

With the Darwinists' claims that the strong remained after the fight for survival and that species developed by this means being adapted to human societies, wars also began to be viewed as a necessity for the development of mankind. For example, Hitler ascribed Germany's greatness to the elimination by war of its weaker members over the centuries. Although the Germans were no strangers to war this new "scientific" justification was a force to back up their warlike policies.

Elsewhere, Hitler had claimed, "human civilization as we know it would not exist if it were not for constant war" 18

Haeckel proposed, on the subject of war, that the savage methods of the Spartans, one of the city states that made up Ancient Greece, should be implemented. He wrote that "by killing all but the 'perfectly healthy and strong children' the Spartans were 'continually in excellent strength and vigor'." 19

War was viewed as "an indispensable regulator" of populations all over Europe, and not just in Germany. "If it were not for war," German Social Darwinist Friedrich Von Bernhardi writes, "we should probably find that inferior and degenerate races would overcome healthy and youthful ones by their wealth and their numbers. The generative importance of war lies in this, that it causes selection, and thus war becomes a biological necessity."20

As we have seen from our account so far, Hitler and the Nazi ideologues who supported him saw war as a necessity with the inspiration they drew from Darwinism. And by implementing this necessity they visited various miseries on their own people, and on the other peoples of the world. From this point of view it will therefore be absolutely correct to identify Charles Darwin as one of those primarily responsible for the sufferings experienced in World War II.

Professor Dr. Jerry Bergman demonstrates the effect of Darwinism on the Second World War:

The evidence is very clear that Darwinian ideas had a tremendous impact on German thought and practice... In fact, Darwinian ideas had a tremendous influence on causing WWII, the loss of 40 million lives, and the waste of about 6 trillion dollars. Firmly convinced that evolution was true, Hitler saw himself as the modern savior of humankind... By breeding a superior race, the world would look upon him as the man who pulled humanity up to a higher level of evolution. 21

Of course there had been countless wars in the world before Darwin put his theory forward. But due to the effects of his theory, war was for the first time given a false approval by science. Max Nordau drew attention to Darwin's negative role in the subject of wars in an article called The Philosophy and Morals of War, which made waves in America:

The greatest authority of all the advocates of war is Darwin. Since the theory of evolution has been promulgated, they can cover their natural barbarism with the name of Darwin and proclaim the sanguinary instincts of their inmost hearts as the last word of science. 22

It was no coincidence that the 20th century should see the bloodiest wars the world has known, coming as it did after the 19th century, which was formed by the ideas of such materialist ideologues as Darwin, Marx, and Freud. Darwinism had prepared the theoretical and so-called scientific ground which would end in war, and the despots who saw war as indispensable for the growth of humanity killed a total of 60 million people in both world wars.

The Neo-Nazis

Even though Fascist leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini, and the Nazi organisations linked to them (the SA, the SS, the Gestapo) or Mussolini's "Blackshirts" today seem like a thing of the past, Neo-Nazi organisations which follow their ideas are still active. In recent years in particular, racist and Fascist movements have re-awoken in many European countries. At the forefront of these movements come the Neo-Nazis in Germany.

The Neo-Nazis consist of unemployed hooligans, drug addicts, and bloodthirsty types, and possess all features of the Fascist mentality. One news article about the Neo-Nazis shows how attracted they are to blood and violence:

Blood, honour, and fanaticism... It is possible to sum up the values of the members of the Fascist Olympia Group in just these three words. Today the organisation has 35,000 members. And in all their eyes can be seen the inordinate desire to rise. 23

The Neo-Nazis have been influenced by the same Darwinist understanding as their "greats," Hitler and the other Nazi leaders. On the Internet pages which they set up for Nazi and racist propaganda it is possible to come across Darwin's words and praise for Darwin, because Darwin gives support to all the Neo-Nazis' movements and ideas. In their pages, therefore, they put Darwinism forward as a theory which must be accepted, without feeling the need for any evidence.

The attacks and murders the Neo-Nazis carry out are completely ruthless. Neo-Nazis take pleasure in burning people to death, frightening them, and torturing little children, and Turks are one of their main targets. Neo-Nazis reveal their hatred and enmity of Turks in every corner of their Internet sites, and show this hatred in action. This statement about Turks appeared in one Neo-Nazi site:

For instance, if it were in my power today, I would like to see a large part of the Turks in gas chambers. 24

The name the Neo-Nazis base their enmity of the Turks on is once again Charles Darwin. The Neo-Nazis think they are providing a so-called scientific explanation for their hatred of Turks by making extracts from Darwin's false and unintelligent claims regarding them. On the last page of this chapter you can see some Neo-Nazi Internet sites which praise Darwin and show the kind of things they have to say about the Turkish nation.

Neo-Nazi violence against Turks and other peoples has recently been on the rise. The Turkish daily Sabah dated August 12, 2000 gave a list of Neo-Nazi attacks during the summer of 2000:

- In June, the windows of the El Rahman Mosque in the town of Gera in the state of Thüringen were broken.

- Two molotov cocktails were thrown at a Turkish mosque in the small town of Eppingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

- A molotov cocktail was thrown at the Green Mosque in the Utersen quarter of Pinneberg.

- A building lived in by Turks was set fire to in Memingen.

- In Bocholt a Turkish café and a building lived in by Lebanese were set on fire. Fourteen people were wounded, one seriously.

- In the East German town of Chemnitz the seven-month-old baby of an Iraqi family was thrown to the ground. The baby's face was injured when it hit the concrete. 25

There were much nastier incidents in the recent past. Taking Darwin's enmity of the Turks as their guide, the Neo-Nazis organised an attack on Turks in Möln in November 1992. Later, in 1993, five Turks were burned by Neo-Nazis in Solingen. 26 The press described this attack as, "The bloodiest racist attack in German history since the Nazi era." Attacks of this kind were often seen in the years that followed. Fires were started in Turks' homes, Turks were beaten and injured. As well as in Germany, similar attacks took place in Holland. In one attack directed at Turks a woman and her five children were killed. People who took part in the mourning march that was held received threatening letters with swastikas on.

These incidents are just a few of the racist attacks against Turks. Attacks and murders by these Fascist groups, the inheritors of Darwin and Fascists such as Hitler, still continue. Legal measures will not be enough to stop these inhuman groups' attacks. The sure way to put an end to them is to wage a serious ideological war alongside the legal measures. The outrages perpetrated by these people who see racism as a law of nature will not come to an end so long as Darwinist ideas are not knocked down as science.