Were the Nazis evil

He is generally considered evil by most people's standards.

Evil is a difficult area to explore, because the concept of evil, like any other Word needs a definition and all definitions of evil are different. Author John Kekes defines evil by its malevolence, its excess, and its lack of moral justification. While the Nazi regime certainly met and far exceed these requirements, Hitler's role is rather complex.

A tome could be written about this, but, as an original poster pointed out, Hitler was a highly disturbed individual on many levels; we'll never get a complete picture of his psychological profile. But it is true that this man had quite an awful life and could almost be looked upon with sympathy prior to the end of World War I, at which point his discovered talents as a demagogue imbued with unparalleled will and drive, though his unique outward projection of his deep inner self-hatred from a failed existence led to a fanatical drive to to destroy those branded for Germany's post-war catastrophe. Hitler had tremendous charisma, tremendous. There is no doubt that after the incorporation of Austria he was seen as a hero and was loved by millions of people.

Unfortunately this hateful man also harbored tremendous brutality, and potential for extreme evil; Hitler actually wanted war, first demonstrated when he took up the idea of destroying Czechoslovakia in 1937 against the desire and advice of his military high command and even his Nazi associates. And war brings out the worst in human beings. The euthansia programs, the destruction of Poland - their people, the clergy, their culture - and the Holocaust in general would not have been possible without WAR, and Hitler was war's chief exponent. His destruction of Poland combined with a long-time pathological hatred of Jews - the scapegoats - opened up the human misery of the Nazi regime, and the abyss of the Holocaust really began to gain pace with the invasion of Russia in 1941, which was Hitler's war - no ordinary war - but a war of annihiliation. This demonstrated his brutality to the greatest degree as he personally wanted the complete destruction of all communists, Jews, partisans, both the cities of Moscow and Leningrad ("to teach them a lesson"), and sanctioned the murderous rampages of the SS under Heinrich Himmler and the other important Holocaust architects.

Hitler was evil then, yes very much so, but the atrocities of Nazi regime was far more than the sum of its parts, and Hitler was a part - though he more than anyone else was responsible because of his personal form of power, ability as an enabler, and symbol of a morally repugnant ideology.