Adolf Hitler on The State, part 3 – Racial Hygiene and Physical Education

FROM MEIN KAMPF, SUMMARY OF CHAPTER TWO OF VOLUME TWO, pages 69-87 of the dual-translation. (See here for series introduction.)

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2.10 - A folkish State should begin by raising marriage above the level of being a constant scandal to the race. […] In our present state of law and order, this brave, bourgeois-national world looks upon it as a crime to make procreation impossible for those who suffer with syphilis, tuberculosis, hereditary diseases, and also cripples and cretins. But the actual prevention of procreation among millions of our very best people is not considered an evil, nor does it offend against the noble morality of this social class, but rather encourages their short-sighted laziness.

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The fact that the churches join in committing this sin against the image of God, even though they continue to emphasize the dignity of that image, is quite consistent with their present activities.They talk about the Spirit, but they allow man, as the embodiment of the Spirit, to become a degenerate proletarian.Then they are amazed at how little influence the Christian faith has in their own country, and at the depraved 'ungodliness' of this physically and therefore morally degenerate riff-raff. Then they try to make up for it by converting the Hottentots and the Zulu Kaffirs, and to grant them the blessings of the Church.

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The folkish State will have to make up for everyone else's neglect in this area. It must put race at the center of all life. It must ensure its purity. It must declare that children are a people's most valuable treasure. It must see to it that only those who are healthy shall beget children. There is only one disgrace: for ill or defective parents to bring children into the world; and one highest honor: to refrain from doing so. … [The State] must ensure that the normally fertile woman is not restricted by the financial irresponsibility of a political regime that sees the blessing of children as a curse to their parents. The State will have to abolish the indifference by which it handles the problem of social amenities for large families, and will have to be the supreme protector of this greatest blessing of a people.

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If only for a period of 600 years, those individuals who are physically degenerate or mentally ill were to be prevented from procreating, humanity would not only be freed from an immense misfortune but also restored to such a condition as we at present can hardly imagine.

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The folkish worldview must finally succeed in bringing about a nobler era in which men will no longer pay exclusive attention to breeding dogs, horses, and cats, but will improve the breed of the human race itself. It will be an era in which one class knowingly and silently renounces, while the other joyfully sacrifices and gives. That such a thing is possible cannot be denied in a world where hundreds and thousands voluntarily accept the principle of celibacy, without being obliged or bound to do so by anything except religious injunction.

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Naturally, our wretched army of contemporary bourgeois won't understand this. They will ridicule the idea, or shrug their shoulders and groan out their eternal excuses: “Of course it's a fine thing, but it can't be done!” … [I]f a generation suffers from defects that it recognizes and admits, and is nevertheless quite pleased with itself—as the bourgeois world is today—and is satisfied with the cheap excuse that nothing can be done, then such a society is doomed.

Education Principles of the Folkish State

2.11 [E]ducation must initialy be directed towards the development of sound physical health; as a general rule, a strong and healthy mind is found only in a strong and healthy body. The fact that geniuses are sometimes not robust in health, or even sickly, is no proof against this. These cases are only exceptions that—as everywhere else—prove the rule. But if the mass of people is physically degenerate, it's rare for a great spirit to arise from such a swamp.

[I]t is character that has to be developed first of all, especially will-power and decisiveness, along with promoting a readiness to accept responsibility; technical schooling comes last. ... Physical training in the folkish State is therefore not a matter for the individual alone, nor is it a duty that rests primarily on the parents and only secondly or thirdly on the community, but rather it's necessary for the preservation of the people who are represented and protected by the State.

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Today, even in the high school curriculum, only two short hours per week are reserved for gymnastics, and it's not even obligatory but left to the individual. This is a gross disproportion … Not a single day should go by in which the young pupil doesn't have one hour of physical training in the morning and one in the aftrernoon, and of every kind of sport and gymnastic.

There's one sport that should be particularly encouraged: boxing. … The fact that a young man learns how to fence and then to duel is considered quite natural and respectable, but boxing—that's brutal! Why? There's no other sport that demands such lightning-fast decisions or that gives the body a steely flexibility. […] If our entire intellectual upper-class had … learned to box, it would never have been possible for low-lifes, deserters, and other such riff-raff to carry through a German revolution. The success of this revolution wasn't due to the bold, courageous energy of the revolutionaries but to the lamentable cowardice and indecision of those who ruled the State at that time and were responsible for it.

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The army offers the best example of the fact that the knowledge of one's physical ability develops a man's courage and militant spirit. … The excellent training that German soldiers received before the war imbued the members of the whole gigantic organism with a degree of confidence in their own superiority that even our enemies never thought possible.

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Our German people, who today lie broken and walked-upon by the rest of the world, need the power that comes from self-confidence. But this self-confidence must be instilled into our children from their early years. … We must have no illusions: The collapse of our people was overwhelming, and the efforts to put an end to this misery must also be overwhelming. … Only by a superabundance of national will-power, a thirst for freedom, and the highest passion can we recover what has been lost.

To be continued ...