Was Hitler evil?

I don't believe in evil, but delusion. When we see "evil" deeds, I think it is best to try to understand the set of beliefs that would make those deeds justified or even heroic - not so that we can embrace these delusional beliefs, but so we can avoid similar delusions

When I mention this disbelief in evil, I am often asked if this applies to history's greatest monsters. Surely Adolf Hitler was evil?

Let's look at some of his motivations and mistaken beliefs

1) The "Racial degeneration" crisis

There was a climate crisis-level consensus among academics for many years expressing deep alarm about rising incidence of chronic disease. We know now this was related to diet, especially the rise of early processed foods, but the leading hypothesis for years was that racial admixture was degrading the health & viability of western populations. This was an extinction-level trend that justified extraordinary measures, just like Just Stop Oil protestors feel compelled to lay down in front of traffic. The crisis was partly resolved when the West began fortifying processed foods, restoring some of the vitamins and minerals that natural foods once provided. After the war, the connection between chronic disease and racial panic was unpleasant and so the crisis was dropped and we kept eating seed oils & other novel processed "foods" as chronic disease worsened.

2) The "Shrinking markets" problem

Hitler believed a number of Marxist and communist ideas (yes, the national socialist party was socialist). One of those ideas was that industrial capitalism would exhaust itself. Hitler's Germany had grown prosperous on the back of technology and industry, but he believed that as Germany sold equipment to other nations in exchange for agricultural products, those nations would industrialize and Germany would no longer be able to sell them industrial products. This would leave Germany without enough farmland to feed the population which had grown in excess of subsistence. Thus Germany needed to conquer agricultural countries before they could industrialize, hence the quest for Lebensraum, living space.

The proper alternative is comparative advantage - even if one country (or firm, or person) is more productive than another in every pursuit, as long as the less productive has different capacities they can still specialize and trade, to mutual benefit. If you can produce 10 gallons of milk or 5 apples, and I can produce 1 gallon of milk or 1 apple, you are more productive than me. But - each of your apples "costs" 2 gallons of milk and mine "costs" only one. So there is (almost) always the possibility for specialization & gainful trade.

3) Collective "Struggle"

There's a reason Mein Kampf bears the title it does (meaning: my struggle). Hitler viewed races as collective entities, with the individual fully subordinate to the racial tribe. Combining the above crises, Hitler viewed the German people as embroiled in a struggle for survival or extinction. Either his race would triumph or be destroyed, thus justifying any atrocity to prevent racial admixture or acquire lebensraum. This explains also the fanaticism of many Nazi soldiers.

The proper alternative is mutual flourishing - trade for mutual benefit. The Central & Eastern European Jews possessed a variety of useful skills which their murder deprived the host populations.