After Hitler rose from being the Madman of Munich to a dizzier success as the Barbarian of Berlin, he did not fail frequently to refer to himself in his public speeches as being the instrument of a God-ordained mission, the holy co-worker with Divine Providence. "I can only thank God Almighty for giving me the strength and knowledge to do what had to be done," he told the Reichstag in the midst of the war. He spoke of the mission which Providence had entrusted to him. But in the end his mission turned out to be nothing more than an insane desire to exploit the bodies of all non-Germans and enslave the minds of all Germans. He talked in public of relying on the Almighty God but actually in private relied on the Almighty Gestapo. He spoke, too, of the New Order he was creating which would unify Europe. But in the last scenes it turned out to be merely the old tyranny in new disguise. In his book Mein Kampf Hitler preened himself on being an astute psychologist. So far as the appeal to all that is basest and worst in men was concerned this is undoubtedly true. But so far as the understanding of all that makes up the pattern of human existence was concerned it is undoubtedly false. In the end he showed himself to be the worst psychologist history has yet known. He was astute enough to hit on the urgent need of mankind for dynamic leadership, its acute yearning for a Moses to bring it out of the confusion in which it found itself. But being himself mentally unbalanced he could and did lead it into only more and not less mental confusion, more and not less physical misery.
-- Notebooks Category 11: The Negatives > Chapter 3 : Their Presence in The World > # 216
