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Page 155 of that Hitler psychological analysis performed by the OSS in 1943: > "8. Hitler might commit suicide. This is the most plausible outcome. Not only h
by pp19dd 7y ago
Page 155 of that Hitler psychological analysis performed by the OSS in 1943:
> "8. Hitler might commit suicide. This is the most plausible outcome. Not only has he frequently threatened to commit suicide, but from what we know of his psychology it is the most likely possibility. It is probably true that he has an inordinate fear of death, but being an hysteric he could undoubtedly screw himself up into the super-man character and perform the deed. In all probability, however, it would not be a simple suicide. He has much too much of the dramatic for that and since immortality is one of his dominant motives we can imagine that he would stage the most dramatic and effective death scene he could possibly think of..."
- philwelch 7y agoHitler’s suicide wasn’t so dramatic as all that, aside from the fact that it was Hitler.
- pp19dd 7y agoYou're right. What I found fascinating is how these guys theorized their way into the ballpark of what happened. They proposed eight possible future outcomes as the war unfolded and to their credit listed this one as the most likely one. Though to be fair, the passage in context didn't so much as predict suicide but warned about a staged suicide's propagandizing impact on future generations.
- philwelch 7y agoThere was a lot of weird, now-discredited crap in that profile TBH. The part where Hitler’s grandmother was a maidservant to “Baron Rothschild” who secretly fathered Alois Hitler was mostly bizarre and unsubstantiated gossip. But the fact remains that psychology was at the time (and remains today) a very immature science, so combining that method with source data collected through the fog of war by a spy agency is bound to go down a few weird directions.
- Fnoord 7y ago> [...] This is the most plausible outcome. I'd like to know how they got to that conclusion. Apart from that, the way he committed suicide actually wasn't dramatic: "The will was a short document stating that they had chosen death over capitulation, and that they were to be cremated [..]" [1] which is how it happened. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_will_and_testament_of_Adolf_Hitler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_will_and_testament_of_Ado...
- pp19dd 7y agoTheir operating premise was to assume that Germany would suffer successive defeats. They theorized specifically about what might happen to Hitler as the war unfolded and Germany shrank, to prepare counter-propaganda efforts. The list is a mixed bag. 1. Dies of natural causes - "remote possibility." Best outcome if he died of a common disease to break 'the myth of his super-natural origins.' 2. Seeks asylum - "extremely unlikely." They suspected he'd restrain himself from escaping. 3. Killed in battle - "real possibility." 4. Assassinated - "undesirable" because of martyrdom. 5. Goes insane - "has many characteristics which border on the schizophrenic." 6. Seized in revolt - "unlikely" 7. Captured - "most unlikely possibility of all." 8. Commits suicide - "most plausible." Some smart people there, but they're not fortune tellers and didn't claim to be. The PDF: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-02646R000600240001-5.pdf https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-02646...