The philosophies of Adolf Hitler and Jean-Paul Sartre appear worlds apart, but they can also be seen as opposing statements of the nature of human existence in the twentieth century. Hitler's views developed in the era after World War I as a response to the devastation visited on Germany and the imposition of various policies by the victors. Sartre's views developed in the interwar period with the rise of fascism and into and after World War II, again partially in response to the horrors of that war and the revelations about the truth behind Hitler's regime. Both can be seen as responses to an age of anxiety, through very different responses.
Hitler's views began with an analysis of history and took their lead from the economic and social conditions he saw around him. After World War I, Germany felt punished by the victors, who placed conditions on Germany and who took away much of Germany's power in order to protect themselves from retaliation and perhaps out of a sense of retribution as well. By the end of the 1920s, poor economic conditions created great resentment in Germany, and Hitler made use of this as he sought to promote German interests against all others in the world. He saw certain groups as Germany's enemies, and the list of enemies included the Jewish capitalists he blamed for all Germany's woes.
One of the forces of concern to Hitler was the rise of Bolshevism, triumphant in Russia with the Revolution in 1917. Hitler analyzes Marxism in Mein Kampf and shows that he has a different conception of the structure of society. He says that he has studied those who founded Marxism, and one of the reasons he opposes Marxism is because Marx was Jewish. He also opposes Marx's ideology, though much of what he says is clearly centered on Marx's Jewishness rather than on the elements of Marxism as a philosophy, as can be seen when he writes:
If, with the help of his Marxist creed, the Jew is victorious over the...