Aside from the fact that there is ample evidence in the historical record showing that Hitler regularly consumed animals*, it is far more important to note that it is completely irrelevant whether he did or didn’t … Just as Mahatma Gandhi, Benjamin Franklin, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, John Wesley, Leonardo da Vinci, Paul McCartney, Plato, Pythagoras, Isaac Newton, St. Frances of Assisi and Voltaire having been vegans doesn’t make veganism more morally compelling, so Hitler being a vegan (even if he were, which he wasn’t) wouldn’t make it any less so. Indeed, if it were ever to be shown that Hitler had even gone vegan for one week of his life, that information would actually be a positive for Hitler — not a negative for veganism.

And finally, here’s an interesting thought for all you non-vegans making this argument: if Hitler was so bad because of what he did to millions of Jews the 1930’s and early 1940’s, what gives you the right to argue in favor of an industry that exacts even greater cruelties on BILLIONS of equally innocent and equally sentient beings today?

 

Current status of this Myth: Overthrown
Justification it provides for eating animals: NONE

*Even though he may indeed have dabbled in the health benefits of a vegetarian diet, Hitler was known to regularly consume liver dumplings, Bavarian sausages, stuffed pigeon, and caviar. Indeed, there are many first-hand reports from hotel staff and personal chefs that attest to the fact that he ate dishes made of animals or animal products until his bitter end. Indeed, according to Robert Payne (Hitler’s biographer), the claim that Adolf was a vegetarian was actually made up by Goebbels to make him seem more moral, more ascetic and – somewhat ironically — more like Gandhi.

Filed under: Minimizing the Myths of Meat by Scaughdt