The love for the homeland that the Nazis proclaimed and in whose name they rallied large segments of the German people was not love for the true Germany, for Germany as it actually was. Their love did not concern a Germany that is a nation among other equal nations. It was love for a Germany as it ought to be according to their feelings: a Germany greater than the other European nations. It was love for an ideal Germany. Neither did Hitler love Germany as it truly was. What he loved was a vision of Germany and its greatness. The Nazi war and the entire atrocity of those years was the desperate move of a nation rapidly sinking to a second or third-class position. The Germans saw this war as their last attempt to prove worthy of their ideal self-image. One could argue that it was not necessary to exterminate millions of Jews for the Germans to learn to live with a less glamorous image of themselves. However, powerful social formations rarely compromise peacefully with the limitation of their power. They turn again and again to leaders who project before them the image of a superior greatness, who address them in the name of high values and call them to resist the threat and fight for collective superiority and its ideals. Like wild animals, powerful nations become very dangerous when they feel cornered, when they feel that the balance of power is tipping against them, that their values are threatened, and their superiority is fading. When these phenomena are observed, people usually resort to violence. And then wars break out.