LONDON: Adolf Hitler had a “messiah complex” and became increasingly obsessed with the perceived Jewish “enemy within” as World War II turned against Germany, according to a secret 1942 assessment unveiled Friday.

The British intelligence report, which lay apparently unread from the war until its recent rediscovery, found that the Nazi dictator turned to “Jew-phobia” as the likelihood of defeat increased.

The wartime analysis, now made public by the University of Cambridge, was commissioned by social scientist Mark Abrams and written by his colleague Joseph MacCurdy, a Cambridge academic.

Abrams, a world-renowned pioneer of market research and opinion polling, worked with the BBC’s Overseas Propaganda Analysis Unit and the Psychological Warfare Board during World War II.

“At the time that it was written, the tide was starting to turn against Germany,” said Cambridge historian Scott Anthony, who led research into Abrams which resulted in the paper being unearthed in a family collection.

“In response, Hitler began to turn his attentions to the German home front.

“This document shows that British intelligence sensed this happening.

“MacCurdy recognized that, faced with external failure, the Nazi leader was focusing on a perceived ‘enemy within’ instead — namely the Jews.

“Given that we now know that the ‘final solution’ was commencing, this makes for poignant reading.”

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2012/May-04/172334-paranoid-hitler-had-messiah-complex-secret-uk-analysis.ashx#ixzz1tsv4ybqu
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)