. the whole attention of a people must be focused and concentrated on this one question [the sin against blood and race], as though to be or not to be depended on its solution" (249).Hitler had a special liking for the classical proverb "Mens sana in corpore sano", which appears in Mein Kampf three times in its German translation of "Ein gesunder Geist in einem gesunden Krper" (A healthy mind in a healthy body). As the following example will show, even this proverb was rather perversely put into the service of Hitler's racist plans. The way he makes use of this classical health ideal can only be described as absurd. In the first part of the book Hitler writes, "Above all, in our present education a balance must be created between mental instruction and physical training. The institution that is called a Gymnasium today is a mockery of the Greek model. In our educational system it has been utterly forgotten that in the long run a healthy mind can dwell only in a healthy body. Especially if we bear in mind the mass of the people, aside from a few exceptions, this statement becomes absolutely valid" (253). Barely two hundred pages later, Hitler returns to this proverb, but there he manipulates it in an even more obviously. Hitler speaks no longer of a balance between the mind and the body, but he clearly prefers the "krperliche Ertchtigung" (physical training) or "krperliche Gesundheit" (physical health) over the mind or intellect. The Greek ideal is lost, as the proverb is used to help justify Hitler's powerful racial politics; "And as in general the precondition for spiritual achievement lies in the racial quality of the human material at hand, education in particular must first of all consider and promote physical health; for taken in the mass, a healthy, forceful spirit will be found only in a healthy and forceful body. The fact that geniuses are sometimes physically not very fit, or actually sick, is no argument against this. Here w...
