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Part 2
Hitler did not describe himself as a "vegetarian" until 1937. It may have been prompted by an emotional response to the death of his niece who had been in love with him and who may have taken her own life. That at least was the thinking of Hitler's close friend Frau Hess: "He had made such remarks before, and had toyed with the idea of vegetarianism but this time according to Frau Hess, he meant it. From that moment on, Hitler never ate another piece of meat except for liver dumplings."7 About this passage, which is cited in John Toland's biography of Hitler, Dr. Kalechofsky comments: "This is consistent with other descriptions of Hitler's diet, which always included some form of meat, whether ham, sausages or liver dumplings."8
Furthermore, one could infer that Hitler was not a true vegetarian from the poor state of his health. In his letter to the Times , Richard Schwartz mentioned that Hitler had suffered from excessive sweatiness and flatulence. Besides those maladies, he also suffered from rotting teeth, acute gastric disorders, hardening of the arteries (a typical meat-eater's disease), a liver ailment9 , and he had incurable heart disease (progressive coronary sclerosis)10. His doctors gave him heavy doses of drugs that included a ten per-cent cocaine solution11 , strychnine-based pills12 , and injections of pulverized bull's testicles.13 Certainly, he didn't enjoy the robust health that has come to be associated with vegetarianism; on the contrary, his symptoms were those associated with a heavy intake of animal foods.
Moreover, during the Reich, vegetarians were forbidden to organize new groups or to start publications. A leading vegetarian magazine, Vegetarian Warte, suspended publication in Frankfurt in 1933. A competing journal, The Vegetarian Press, was allowed to limp along during the Nazi years, but it was severely hamstrung: It was prohibited from using the term "vegetarian movement," and it was barred from publishing the time and place of vegetarian gatherings.
Consequntly,vegetarians, willing to run the risk of imprisonment or worse, were compelled to meet in secret. Hitler outlawed the Mazdean society--which was based on the vegetarian teachings of Zoroaster--ostensibly because its president, Dr. Rauth, was Jewish. But all other vegetarian societies were declared illegal and were forced to become members of the German Society for Living Reform. Members of these former vegetarian societies were subject to searches in their homes; during these raids, the Gestapo even confiscated books that contained vegetarian recipes. While he was chancellor, Hitler did nothing to advance the cause of vegetarianism in Germany. With a stroke of his pen he could have made vegetarianism the dietary law of the land. Instead, he did everything he could to thwart it.
In the course of doing the fact checking in the Hitler biographical literature, I couldn't help noticing how passionate Hitler was in his denunciation of the evils of tobacco. He said, "'I wouldn't offer a cigar or cigarette to anyone I admired since I would be doing them a bad service. It is universally agreed that non-smokers live longer than smokers. and during sickness have more resistance.' "14 In fact, he had a standing offer of a gold watch for anyone within his circle who would forswear tobacco. To his mistress, Eva Braun, however, he gave an ultimatum: "'Either give up smoking or me.' "15 It struck me that if Hitler had been a bona fide vegetarian, he would have been as outspoken against flesh-eating as he was against smoking, but I searched in vain for any such diatribe. Certainly, there was no standing offer of a gold watch for giving up meat-eating; nor did he give Eva Braun the ultimatum "Give up meat-eating or me."
Finally, I decided to check the reference to Hitler's favorite dish in Dione Lucas's The Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook.. It's worth noting that Dione Lucas was a sort of precursor of the popular television "French" chef, Julia Childe. One of the first to open a successful cooking school in the US, Lucas was also one of the first chefs to popularize French Cuisine on television in the 1950s and 60s. During the 1930s, prior to her coming to the US, she had worked as a chef at a hotel in Hamburg, where Adolf Hitler was one of her regular customers. On one of my book hunting forays, I found a copy of her Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook in a second hand book shop. Blowing off the dust and cobwebs that had settled on its covers, I opened it and turned to page 89. There, as plain as the Chaplinesque mustache on the Fuhrer's face, was Hitler's favorite recipe.
"I learned this recipe when I worked as a chef before World War II, in one of the large hotels in Hamburg, Germany. I do not mean to spoil your appetite for stuffed squab, but you might be interested to know that it was a great favorite with Mr. Hitler, who dined at the hotel often. Let us not hold that against a fine recipe though."16
Almost as revealing as the opening paragraph was the one that followed it: "One of the great nuisances about eating squab is the dozens of tiny bones you must contend with for every morsel of flesh you get. By the time you have finished, your plate looks like a charnel house, you are exhausted, and there is a lingering suspicion that the game was not worth the candle."17 Seated in his Berlin bunker, gripping the 7.65 Walther pistol that would end his life, Hitler must have echoed Lucas's sentiments as he surveyed the ruins of his Reich--the charnel house that was Europe, the physical and mental exhaustion; and the sense that the game was not worth candle. It's all there--the fall of "the thousand year Reich" in a dish of squab!
Hitler is presumed to have died from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound; his mistress, Eva Braun, from a self-administered dose of potassium cyanide. When Hitler had consulted his doctor as to the most efficient method of committing suicide, his doctor recommended that he shoot himself through the temple, and at the same time, bite down on an ampoule of potassium cyanide. It is noteworthy that Hitler, this alleged vegetarian and lover of animals, had no compunction about first testing the cyanide on his dog Blondi.18
It is ironic that people should be so willing to gloss over the truth about Isaac Bashevis Singer's absolute commitment to the welfare of animals, yet be so willing to believe a myth about Hitler's vegetarianism. It is also ironic that my letter to the editor about Isaac Bashevis Singer's vegetarianism would have touched off a chain of letters that ended by exploding the myth of Hitler's vegetarianism. Of course, there is no cogent reason why this myth should have embarrassed a movement that contributes so much to "the health of chickens," as Singer once phrased his concern, the health of humans and the ecological health of the planet. Nonetheless, it doesn't hurt to have it finally settled on the record that Pythagoras, Leonard da Vinci, Tolstoy, Shaw, Gandhi, and Singer were vegetarians, but that Mr. Hitler--who liked his pigeons stuffed and roasted--was not.
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About the Author
Rynn Berry is the historical advisor to the NAVS (North American Vegetarian Society) and is on the Advisory Board of Earth Save. In his lectures, articles, and books, he has specialized in the study of vegetarianism from an historical perspective. His first book, The New Vegetarians, was a collection of biographical sketches and interviews of famous contemporary vegetarians. His second book, Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes is a biographical history of vegetarianism that ranges from Pythagoras and the Buddha to Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Beatles and beyond. In his new book Food for the Gods: Vegetarianism and the World's Religions, Rynn has written essays on vegetarianism in each of the world's religions: Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He has also included conversations with prominent vegetarian thinkers from each of these religions. In the back of the book FFG has collected delicious vegan recipes from each religious tradition. Rynn is also the author of the monograph Why Hitler Was Not a Vegetarian, which according to Publisher's Weekly "lays to rest the myth that Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian." Rynn contributes frequently to both scholarly and spiritual publications.
At the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia, where Rynn did his graduate and undergraduate work, he specialized in ancient history and comparative religion A popular lecturer, in New York, where he lives, Rynn teaches a college course on the history of vegetarianism (the first of its kind in the nation). His hobbies include book collecting, listening to classical music, translating ancient Greek authors, and theater-going; his favorite pastimes include running, swimming, tennis and cycling. With co-authors Chris Suzuki and Barry Litsky, Rynn is also the author of the best-selling restaurant and shopping guide, The Vegan Guide to New York City.
1 Robert Payne, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler(New York: Praeger, 1973), pp. 346-7.
2 Roberta Kalechofsky, "Hitler's Vegetarianism: A Queston of How You Define Vegetarianism," (Unpublished Essay, 1997).
3 ibid., p.1.
4 "Vegetarianism," The Encyclopedia Britannica,1911 ed., 27-28, p. 967.
5 Italics mine.
6 Fritz Redlich, Hitler: Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet(Oxford: OUP, 1998), pp.77-8
7 John Toland Adolf Hitler(Garden City: Doubleday, 1976), p. 256.
8 Kalechofsky, op. cit., p.2. br> 9 Toland, op cit., p.826.
10 ibid.,p.745.
11 ibid., p. 821.
12 ibid., pp. 824-5. br> 13 ibid.,p. 761.
14 ibid., p. 741.
15 ibid.,p. 741.
16 Dione Lucas with Darlene Geis, The Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook (New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1964), p. 89.
17 ibid.,p.89.
18 Redlich, op. cit., p.216.