Download or read book Our Contempt for Weakness written by Harald Ofstad and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes Nazi ideology, including antisemitism and the mental mechanisms that made the Holocaust possible, mostly on the basis of Hitler's "Mein Kampf". Mentions the concept of race as a metaphysical entity, so that it was not individual human beings but an evil power that was being exterminated; the demand for obedience, which implied that those who gave the orders for atrocities kept their distance from the distasteful reality, while those who were close to that reality saw themselves as merely carrying out orders; the influence on Hitler of Lanz von Liebenfels's esoteric racial theory; and the projection of Nazi aggressiveness on its enemies, especially the Jews. Warns that many elements of Nazism were merely an extreme expression of aspects of modern Western society that still pose a threat today.