Hard Truth To Swallow: If Hitler Didn’t Exist The World Would Be Worse Than It Is Now

There is a common saying that everyone serves a purpose, no matter how terrible they may be. This is an example of how even one of the worse tyrants in western history, Adolf Hitler, also served a purpose.

Disclaimer: I am not a historian nor a social scientist. This is a calculated guess by a non-expert of some things that would likely be different, and things that would still be the same if the tyrant Adolf Hitler didn’t exist, based on some of the lesser-known facts of what transpired leading up to and during the second world war. Please feel free to point out any historic inaccuracies you may find.

A common troupe in many movies and other media is the question of if you could step into a time machine and go back and kill Hitler as a baby, or prevent him from being born, would you? The ethical dilemma in this troupe is if it is morally right to take the life of an innocent baby that hasn’t done anything wrong yet but will grow up to commit some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

This troupe however never explores how different the world would be if this was done, if it would be better or worse, and if it would be ethical to change the lives of billions. This is a thought experiment of that question.

One of the main things that would still occur in an alternate universe where Hitler doesn’t exist, is that it is highly likely that World War 2 would still happen, but it would unfold very differently from how it did. It’s also likely that the war would occur a bit later than it did historically.

While Hitler was directly responsible for starting the war, he couldn’t have done so if there wasn’t a deep seated desire among the German people to go to war. To understand why 1930s Germany was eager for war you need to look back at the end of the first world war.

At the end of what at the time was called the Great War, three main things occurred, that set the stage for a second great war: 1. Germany lost resoundingly, 2. The allied forces blamed Germany for causing the war and the atrocities and damages that occurred, 3. The allies decided to humiliate and severely punish Germany for the war.

Germany was stripped of all of its colonies and was forced to pay restitution to the allies for the war. This, along with punitive sanctions implemented by the allies crippled the German economy for the decades to follow, leading to its eventual collapse. Germany was also banned from having a military following the war. Germans, a very proud people, were internationally shamed and treated like pariahs.

All of this led to building frustration and desperation among the German people and a deep resentment towards the rest of Europe. It was this frustration that Hitler was able to tap into and use to rise to power.

Removing him from history would mean someone else would take his place. Now while Hitler was able to masterfully fire up a crowd with his charisma, he was not a brilliant strategist.

Hitler was also extremely arrogant and firmly believed that he, and the German Nazi regime by extension, was invincible. This led to him making several costly mistakes before and during the war. If Germany had a more capable and intelligent leader, the outcome of the war could very well have been extremely different.

One of the first huge blunders he made was that after Germany, Japan and Italy created their Alliance, Stalin the leader of the USSR (Russia) requested to join this pact. Hitler completely ignored this offer and later attacked Russia because of his hatred for the Stalin communist regime.

Hitler’s eventual invasion of Russia which split his forces into a European/Western front and USSR/Eastern front, and the subsequent embarrassing loss on the eastern front severely weakened his campaign.

Had a more capable and forward-thinking leader been ruling Germany they would have seized the opportunity to turn the vastly powerful USSR into an ally instead of an enemy. This would also secure the entire eastern border, allowing Germany to focus exclusively on the western front. Germany might very well have captured Britain in this scenario.

Additionally, having the USSR as an ally also means that both Germany and Japan could’ve received much needed weapons, supplies, reinforcements, and fuel that would’ve greatly enhanced their war effort.

Prior to WWII Japan received nearly 90% of its fuel from the United States. When the US put an embargo on exports to Japan due to their involvement in the war it nearly crippled Japan. The pressure of dwindling fuel supplies directly led to Japan’s discussion to attack the US.

Prior to the attack on Perl Harbor US President Franklyn Roosevelt was eager to join the war to flex the US military muscles, build up its war machine, aid its allies in Europe, and put the Axis powers in their place. He just had one huge issue. Ever since World War I the American people were wary of getting involved with conflicts that had nothing to do with them, and instead developed a very isolationist mentality.

Roosevelt’s strategy was to antagonize the Axis powers and force their hand in such a way that the US would be compelled to join the war effort. The United States provided weapons and other supplies to the United Kingdom, while cutting off all supplies to Japan, and imposing crippling sanctions against them.

This put Japan in a precarious situation, with their fuel supply quickly dwindling while fighting an expensive war. Importing fuel from the USSR was out of the question since their ally Germany was not only at war with the USSR but was pressuring Japan to declare war on them as well.

With only three months of fuel left and convinced that once they launch their campaign into South Asia, the United States would retaliate, Japan made the fateful decision to attack Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in the hopes of crippling the US Naval fleet in the Pacific.

This event gave Roosevelt all the justification needed to declare war on Japan. Germany declared war on the US days later, sealing their fate.

Another major mistake Hitler made was the fact that the Axis powers were an extremely loose alliance that didn’t really coordinate their strategies, or actions throughout the war. Each country was essentially just doing their own thing with the understanding that they would not attack each other. Germany didn’t even know beforehand that Japan was going to attack Pearl Harbour. There was no kinship or bound between the three Axis nations, they just tolerated each other.

Another major historic event that could’ve unfolded very different is Germany had a different leader is the Jewish holocaust. It is important to note however, that while Hitler was able to stroke hatred of the Jewish people to a fanatical level, the distrust and resentment towards them was already very prominent throughout all of Europe and the United States. Antisemitism was very widespread prior to WWII.

Hitler was also not the architect of the “Final Solution”, but he did approve it. It is therefore possible that the holocaust could’ve occurred just as it did historically it is also possible that it could’ve been much worse if the alternative leader was just as hateful.

However, it is also possible that the opposite could have occurred. Germany could’ve had a leader that wasn’t as hateful and bloodthirsty as Hitler. In such a scenario German concentration camp might’ve been more akin to the US internment camp of Japanese citizens. While still extremely atrocious they were not as deadly.

Alternatively, Germany could’ve had a leader that was not keen on wasting resources on projects that were not directly related to the war effort, and instead focused on winning.

If Germany and the Axis powers had won the war, or if the holocaust did not occur, it is almost certain that the nation of Israel would not exist today. The horrific atrocities of the holocaust essentially guilt-tripped the US into creating Israel, and the rest of the world into going along with it.

One final major difference a more levelheaded leader could’ve had on history, is that if Germany has accepted the USSR into their alliance, and there was greater cooperation between the various member nations, it is extremely likely that German and Russian scientist working together would’ve built an atomic bomb before the United States.

This, along with everything else already mentioned, would’ve drastically shifted the outcome of the war in their favor. The first atomic bomb could’ve been dropped on London.

All of Europe, Asia and Africa would’ve been under Axis control. Latin America and the Caribbean would likely be next, with some nations probably requesting to join the Axis alliance.

This would leave just the United States and Canada as the remaining holdouts. The threat of a German attack from the East, and Japanese attack from the west, and a Russian attract from the south, and the prospect of a nuclear bomb dropped on Washington DC, might’ve been enough to tip the scale, and result in a very different world.

There is no way of telling what such a world would look like. Maybe the Book/TV show The Man in the High Castle, which explores a similar concept can give a hint. There is also no telling if such an Axis alliance would survive long after the war. The member countries didn’t really like each other.

But a few things can be inferred. The United States would probably not have emerged as the world’s leading superpower, influencing and shaping the course of history for the last 80 years. NATO would never exist and the USSR would probably still be a single nation. If a cold war did develop it would likely be between the former allies of Germany and USSR, and there is no guarantee it would remain cold.

Many of the countries that gained their independence from European powers after the war might have remained under the control of Germany, especially since the resentment of having their colonies striped from them was a direct motivation for war.

And finally, while Germany today has come a beacon for democracy and inclusion, Nazi Germany was the complete opposite. With all the problems the world has today, a world controlled by fascism would be far worse than it is today.

But then I’m not an expert. What do I know? It’s not like fascism is rising right beneath our noses in the historic beacons of democracy. Right?