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The Power of Evil
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The Power of Evil
People are created good by God. Some have become evil. Why? Many reasons exist. Motivated by power, religion, sexuality, political belief, greed, and jealousy, these men and women terrorized the world. Tens of millions of people died under these ruthless tyrants. People like Stalin, Hitler and Ilse Koch are examples of evil. Less we forget, we will review what they did.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953)
Born Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili on December 21, 1879 in Gori, Georgia (Russian Empire), he was one of four children. In 1913, he adopted the name, Stalin, which means “man of steal”. By 1894 he entered a Russian Orthodox Seminary to begin his training as a priest. Because of revolutionary ideas, he was expelled from the seminary in 1899. By 1927, Stalin was in complete control of the communist Russian party. Shortly, his tyrannical reign against tens of millions of people started. Under mysterious circumstances, Stalin died in Moscow on March 5, 1953.
What were some of his evil deeds?
- His first Five Year Plan (1932-34) for massive industrialization of the Soviet Union caused 5 million people to starve to death.
- In 1933 nearly a million Soviet citizens were sent to forced labor camps, prisons, deportation camps or resettlement areas.
- Between 1932 and 1934 over 1,000 congress delegated were arrested, executed or died in the Gulag labor camps because they opposed Stalin’s ideas.
- The bloody purges of all areas of society: political and private caused the bloody purges of 7,000,000 million people during 1934-38.
- During World War II (1939-45), tens of thousands of Russian deserters were punished by Stalin either by execution, labor camps, deprived of state allowances.
In summary, it is estimated that twenty million Soviet citizens were executed and approximately fourteen million languished in the Gulag camps at the time of Stalin’s death.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Born on April 20, 1889, the fourth child of Alois Schickelgruber and Klara Hitler in the Austrian town of Braunau became a charismatic demagogue power in Germany. His dreams to become a Catholic priest gave way to becoming an artist in Vienna. Vienna was a center for anti-Semitism and influenced Hitler’s hate of the Jews. Having served in World War I, he believed Jews, communists and some German Army officers betrayed the German people. And that is why, Germany lost the war.
Becoming politically active, he founded the Nazi party in the 1920’s. In January 1933, he was appointed chancellor and in August 1934, he consolidated his powers. By 1937, he outlined his plans of world domination. Those who objected would be executed by various means. Targets of his hate were communists, gypsies, eastern Europe peoples, Catholics, Protestants, homosexuals, Russian soldiers, and especially the Jews.
It is estimated that Hitler’s program murdered approximately 18 million people from 1933-1945. There were at least 6 million Jews, 1 million children, and 11 million others who were murdered.
Ilse Koch (1906-1967)
During World War II the infamous Ilse Koch was known as the “Bitch of Buchenwald” death camp. She was the wife of Karl Koch, the commandant of Buchenwald. Her hobby was collecting lampshades, book covers, and gloves made from the skins of the concentration camp inmates. She selected approximately 50,000 inmates for her brutality. Having no remorse or sorrow, she committed suicide on September 1, 1967 in Aichach prison in Bavaria, Germany.
These three people are only a few who became evil. Evil succeeds when good men and women do nothing or very little to combat evil. That is why education through dialogue is so important. It stops misunderstandings and hatred. We learn to appreciate one another’s similarities and differences and that we are all God’s children.
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