What does this little boy have to do with one of my favourite questions to discuss in class? I’ll tell you in a minute.

On this day in 1889 in a quiet village in Austria a boy called Adolf Hitler was born. (Yes, that’s him on the photo) I don’t think that I need to explain who Hitler was and what he has done. We all know that he led the Nazi regime in Germany between 1933 and 1945 that was responsible for the deaths of millions of people.

The question that I like to debate in class, and that has been often debated by historians, is: Would you kill baby Hitler?

Many students instantly say: ‘Yes, of course!’ They think that if you would kill baby Hitler, you would prevent World War Two and the Holocaust from happening. These students believe (although they don’t realize it) in the historical concept of ‘agency’: the belief that individuals have the power to (personally) change the course of history by their actions.

There is also another group of students and historians, including me, who would not kill baby Hitler because they think World War Two could not have been prevented. If we would kill Hitler, another ‘Hitler’ would rise and lead Germany into a new war. Why? Because it was not the person, but the circumstances that led to World War Two: Revenge feelings because of WW1, an economic crisis that drove people into the arms of the Nazi party, the fear of communism etc. These historians believe in ‘determinism’. The theory that historical events are caused (determined) by political, economic, and social circumstances.

Of course, both factors play a role in history. It is a mix of both agency and determinism. Maybe if we killed baby Hitler, the new Hitler would not have invaded Russia for example. This is what we call ‘what if’ history and we will never know for sure.

What would you do? Would you kill baby Hitler? And do you think history is shaped by individuals or circumstances? Let me know in the comments! 

Originally posted on Instagram on April 20, 2021