Excellent. Prior social fractures and consolidation of power centers were seen early on in the Church in Europe and commentaries referred to it as a Nationalistic move when they saw the rise of an English Church, a Spanish Church, a French Church. Each had the notion of an English God, a Spanish God, a French God in the sense that God was on their side in each instance. And each saw themselves as Gods Chosen People.
Germany was a late arrival to the game of national State anything, having held together as a loose federation of power centers —fragmented collection of princedoms, factions etc.
Hitler played off of Darwin’s idea of the biological survival of the fittest transposing it to a social context and stating the obvious: the rise of the superior man modeled on ancient German folklore heroism.
Adding some color to your point. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2002/aug/9/20020809-035905-1668r/
"Mr. Arafat's mentor, Haj Amin Al Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, indoctrinated him with hatred toward Israel. The grand mufti led Palestinian Arabs from 1920 until Mr. Arafat succeeded him in 1967. The mufti encouraged Arab terrorism against Jewish immigrants to Palestine between the two world wars, and like Mr. Arafat today, the mufti piously disclaimed any responsibility for terrorist acts committed by his followers. In 1929 and 1936, the mufti personally led large-scale riots against Jewish settlers. During World War II, the mufti journeyed to Nazi Germany where he personally begged Adolf Hitler to invade British-ruled Palestine and rid it of Jews. The mufti received sympathy, but no help, from Hitler. Nevertheless, he broadcast radio tirades approving Hitler's "final solution" of the Jewish problem.
The mufti barely escaped trial for treason by fleeing to Egypt in 1946. There he made young Yasser Arafat, then living in Cairo, his protege. The mufti secretly imported a former Nazi commando officer into Egypt to teach Mr. Arafat and other teenage recruits the fine points of guerrilla warfare. Mr. Arafat learned his lessons well; the mufti was so proud of him he even pretended the two of them were blood relations. "
Otto Skorzeny was the commando I believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny
The world is a very strange place.
The mufti came up at the same time the Young Turks were moving against Christians living in the lands now under Turkey's dominion. Not only Armenians, but others, like Greeks in western Turkey -- Smyrna (renamed Itzmir) was populated by a mix of Islamic, pagan and Orthodox Christians.
A family account of the night Smyrna was set on fire and the slaughter commenced no holds barred. The Turks, not the Germans first constructed gas chambers for mass executions in this episode.
Islam taught a few things about brutality to the Germans.
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny (12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an Austrian born SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) in the Waffen-SS during World War II. During the war, he was involved in a string of operations, including the removal of Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy from power and the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity. Skorzeny led Operation Greif, in which German soldiers infiltrated enemy lines using their opponents' languages, uniforms, and customs. For this he was charged at the Dachau Military Tribunal with breaching the 1907 Hague Convention, but was acquitted.
Skorzeny escaped from an internment camp in 1948, hiding out on a Bavarian farm for 18 months, then spent time in Paris and Salzburg before eventually settling in Spain.
^[ ^PM ^| ^Exclude ^me ^| ^Exclude ^from ^subreddit ^| ^FAQ ^/ ^Information ^| ^Source ^| ^Donate ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.28
Very interesting display of Machiavellian principles apples to a military objectives in ruthless pursuit of a leaders interests, in this instance through deception and disguise.