Would you kill baby Hitler?

[Digital_Muse]

This is always such a dangerous subject, but consider: both Hitler and Einstein's mothers considered abortions. Where would we be without Einstein and would we be better off without the common enemy of Hitler? There simply is no way to know.

[Freimeier]

" He who is without sin.... "
I'd adopt him, care for him like a real son, and do my best raising him not to become the leader of the NSDAP, but a kind, caring person.
If everyone else did the same with their children back then, no world war 2 would have happened.
Main issue here is, that too many think that violence can change the world to the better. It can't. Violence will always
result in more violence. Kindness, in turn, will result in kindness....eventually.
There is this one Zen Buddhist story, I forgot how it went properly, but here's my version of it:

A monk lives on the side of a mountain, just getting enough food from the villagers to get by.
One day, at night, they monk is awaken by sounds from the back of his hut. Calmly he stands up
and sees a man stealing his food. The man runs off, the monk after him
,, Dear brother, you have forgot a sack of rice! You can't live off of just dried fruits ! "
Shouts the monk waving the rice sack.
The man is caught eventually, and tried for several crimes, the monk joins the trial -
,, This man did not steal, he left a sack of rice at my hut. Whatever he took that night
was his. " This statement saves the mans live.
After two years in prison the man is free again and joins the monk in his hut, crying tears of
joy.

[Irish Wolf]

An interesting answer but one that does not fit the question Freimeier. Given the limitations I set up, you can only kill him or leave him where he is.

[Freimeier]

Hurm.
Leave him be. I have no right to kill another human being, especially not when it has not yet committed any form of crime.
If we give one person the right to kill another person to prevent some form of evil, how long will it take until fundamentalist christians are allowed to kill homosexuals, Socialists allowed to kill bankers and policemen to kill everyone who breaks the law. It's all about perspective.

And, if we follow the philosophy of preventive action, it just ends in a circle:
Person A has not yet commited a crime, but Person B feels the need to kill Person A to prevent said crime.
Person A realizes Person B's intentions and tries to prevent this by killing Person B.
It's nothing but a dead end.
" If everyone was peaceful - everyone would be peaceful. "

Walking the path of violence is extremely deceiving, it appears as if you may find a solution through " enough " violence.
In the end, however, it will only result in more violence, because there is just no weapon to end all wars. ( Atleast not
without wiping out organic and synthethic life itself ).


Also, why is the question about Hitler, and not -for instance- about Stalin or Mao Zedong?

[The Cynic]

Interesting debate, but the answer would be no. The amount the world changed and evolved
for the greater good post WWII is staggering. Nothing in history should ever be regretted or
wished undone, no matter how heinous. Only viewed as a lesson. This is a mild example:

Did you know the majority of the toy companies of the modern age produced goods for the
army? Without the war, much we are familiar with today wouldn't even existence. Of course,
mere children's playthings is nothing, but that is just a comparison to everything else on a
MUCH grander scale. I apologize if I come off is brutish - but wars are necessary, and they
will always existence. There is nothing we can do about the past, nor the future, in that
regard. But it is entertaining to imagine.

[Sheoul]

I apologize if I come off is brutish - but wars are necessary,

I disagree. Wars are never necessary. Sometimes fighting in them is, but murdering thousands of people rather than trying to achieve goals through discourse and peaceful means will never be necessary, it's a quick answer for idiot rulers :P

[TheFinalOne]

My god... People actually voted yes...

Instead of killing him wouldn't it be better if we tried to understand why he became what he became? Why did he choose that path? Was there a specific incident? Why did he choose Jews as the main target? Does he not know that he looks less Aryan than the Jews he so wished to 'exterminate'?

Killing someone even before he had the intent of doing something wrong is just abhorring. Very unfortunate indeed.

Some of you wanted to kill a baby. Perhaps we should kill you when you were born so that you never had such a disgusting thought in your mind? Perhaps we should kill Harry S. Truman when he was a child? Perhaps George Bush? Perhaps Osama? You know what? Let's us kill everybody a few months after they were born because after all, who knows which one of us will kill next...

mm-hmm. --looks at his gun-- party time, mon amour.

Anyway, within restraints, no never ever.

[Unconditional]

If you went back in to time and killed baby Hitler then you would be a murderer. Think of it like this; let's say that killing baby Hitler did prevent the Holocaust and in the end the world really was a better place because of it. All that means is that when you returned to your time (which would be vastly different whether for better or for worst) then you would be a baby killer because that means that the only history of Adolph Hitler that would exist (maybe) is that he was an innocent child that someone brutally murdered.

For all of those people who said they would do it I want you to think about that but I also want you to think about this. Have you ever looked down the barrel of a gun at another human being with the intention of pulling the trigger and ending their life? I have. Saying that you would do it is a whole lot easier than actually doing it. Now while you think about that, think about the fact that at the end of that barrel there would be a baby who has commited no sin and is unable to even comprehend what you are about to do.

Now imagine that a time traveller appears before you with a gun pointed at your face, telling you that he has to kill you because you commit some great atrocity in the future.

So what would I do with my five minutes beside baby Hitler? I would leave a note. I cannot possibly imagine what I would say in this note and I'll not dwell on it either. However, I would love to know what YOU would say in the note. I am amazed at how quickly the human race turns to violence and death as the way to solve the world's problems. Even if that violence and death is against a child that might otherwise be saved.

[Saarai]

Leave Hitler where he is. Stay in his life and try to change what could have made him into the man he became. Or not because there are some things that came about because of WWII that we needed. Even if it did take an attempted genocide to get those things.