I wonder if any of his many biographers ever studied the subject.

We do know anti-Semitism was a very strong theme in European culture ever since the middle ages, he obviously took advantage of something for which there was already a strong predisposition. Whether it was part of his own psyche, or something he had been taught, or brought up with, or whether he just cynically devised it as a manipulative political tool, who knows? For all we know, maybe Hitler didn't even hate the Jews, maybe he just thought they were convenient for his purposes.

Scapegoating is a consequence of many ideologies, not just the Nazis, but the Communists used it as well, and it also played a role in this country: blacks, Indians, immigrants, Jews, Catholics, the Irish, Mormons, Mexicans, the Chinese, just about everyone has taken their turn on the shit list at one time or another. Today, its the Muslims' turn.

The term scapegoat comes from the old tribal custom of tying a goat up in a sack and having everyone in the village spit in it. The sins of the villagers were then transferred to the unfortunate beast, who was cast into a river or off a cliff, taking the collective sins and misfortunes of the village with it. It is sheer superstitious lunacy, but it is still employed today: "If it wasn't just for [insert your ideological enemy here], all our problems would all just go away."

It is pretty clear this is one of the founding philosophical principles of Christianity. Why should I be forgiven for my sins just because someone else is taking the rap for me? Even as a kid, that made absolutely no sense to me. But it guess it made sense to the Bronze Age mind.