The Origins of Totalitarianism

Although neither Hitler nor Stalin are biographical focuses of Arendt’s work, their influence is widespread and the subject of her political philosophy. Arendt was personally affected by the totalitarian rule of Adolf Hitler after she was arrested and imprisoned for researching antisemitism in Germany as Hitler was rising to power.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) ascended from the ranks of what Arendt calls “the mob,” or the social fringes of society. Using propaganda, Hitler sought to create a totalitarian movement which centered on the ideology of Aryan superiority. Hitler perpetuated the idea that his totalitarian movement was under the direction of God and divine ordained. Arendt suggests that Hitler’s propaganda relied on antisemitic attitudes that had been exploited in Europe for centuries and was, therefore, easily understood.

Hitler’s totalitarian movement ultimately led to the Holocaust, the systematic killing of six million Jews and millions of others including Soviet prisoners of war, ethnic Poles, Roma, and LGBTQ people, among others. Arendt asserts that Hitler’s international and widespread appeal was largely due to his capitalization of existing racism, and his political reign serves as a warning against totalitarian ideologies and the political weaponization of racism. 

Arendt explores both Stalin and Hitler’s rise to power and how their totalitarian movements came to fruition over time by capitalizing on the ideologies of racism and imperialism.

Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was the fascist dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). After Vladimir Lenin died, Stalin took control of the Bolshevik party, utilizing terror and fear to control the Soviet Union. Under his rule, the Soviet Union became a superpower, but the conditions for its peoples were dire and millions were murdered.

Stalin killed anyone who opposed his rule or decisions, and he mobilized and empowered secret police. Like Hitler, Stalin utilized propaganda to legitimize himself as a rightful political leader and to control the population. Arendt suggests that (also like Hitler) Stalin did not have what he needed to maintain a continued reign of power. 

In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), a French artillery officer of Jewish descent, was accused of espionage and treason. He was tried and convicted for trading secrets with Germany, then imprisoned on the French penal colony called Devil’s Island. Almost immediately after his deportation, evidence proving Dreyfus’s innocence was presented to French authorities. However, those who attempted to bring Dreyfus’s innocence to light were silenced at every turn. Major Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy later confessed forging Dreyfus’s signature under the orders of his commanding officer Colonel Sandherr. A few days later, Colonel Henry also confessed to contributing to the forgeries which framed Dreyfus. Despite these confessions, Dreyfus’s pathway to exoneration was long and arduous, revealing the depths of antisemitic bias in France. 

The Dreyfus affair sparked several violent antisemitic riots, fights, and duels. Arendt describes the Dreyfus affair as a “dress rehearsal” for later totalitarian movements (10). The antisemitism which the Dreyfus conviction surfaced made France vulnerable to the antisemitic and racist rhetoric of Nazi totalitarianism, even though Dreyfus was exonerated in July 1906 and reinstated into the French army; he fought throughout World War I. He later survived an assassination attempt by a right wing journalist, and his innocence is undermined by far-right activists to this day. 

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was a British statesman who served as British Prime Minister twice in the 19th century. Disraeli contributed to the development of the Tory party and the economic ideology of imperialism. Disraeli was Jewish, which Arendt suggests he accentuated through dress and manner to attract high society’s attention and interest. Disraeli’s father had chosen to have his family baptized into Christianity which later secured Disraeli’s ability to join Parliament. Yet, Disraeli capitalized on his difference as a person of Jewish descent to his political advantage. 

Disraeli was highly influential in world affairs and one-nation conservatism and is seen by some as the founder of modern conservatism. Arendt condemns Disraeli as being disconnected from the actual experiences of Jews in Europe at the time of his political ascent. English Jews carried a different kind of social acceptance than Jews in other parts of Europe. Arendt states that Disraeli is responsible for creating a set of stereotypes about Jewish influence and criticizes him for believing himself to be a divinely selected leader among a divinely chosen people. Arendt suggests that Disraeli’s ambition determined his positions and that he greatly contributed to the conservatism and imperialism which led the way to totalitarianism.