The Top-10 Most Evil Men of the 20th Century — and Cautionary Lessons We Can Draw From Their Success
The 20th century is the most violent century in history. While that century witnessed many great leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela, it had more than its “fair” share of utterly evil leaders. Here is my top-10. As it turns out, they are all men.
At the end of the article, I will draw three lessons from these case studies that are as relevant today as they were in the 20th century.
#10. Dr. Josef Mengele (1911–1979)
No list of 20th century evil men is complete without Dr. Josef Mengele, whose nickname Todesengel (“Angel of Death”) says enough. He was a “micro” leader, of the medical team at the Auschwitz death camp. But there was nothing micro about his atrocities. He selected victims to be killed in the gas chambers, and happily administered the gas himself. That is bad enough, but what earned him his place in this top-ten of infamy is his experimentation on humans. Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his research into genetics and heredity. He was fascinated by twins. The experiments he performed on twins included amputation of limbs, intentionally infecting one twin with typhus or some other disease, and transfusing the blood of that twin into the other. He experimented to change the eye color included injecting chemicals into the eyes of living subjects. And so on. Dr. Mengele has become the stereotype for the mad scientist for whom ethical boundaries are a nuisance, who would do anything to satisfy their lust for knowledge. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the Mossad, he died peacefully, never having been captured. Rest assured, he resides in the Ninth Circle of Hell.
#9 Mengistu Haile Mariam (1937- )
Mengistu Haile Mariam rose to power in 1977 as member of the murderous Derg regime in Ethiopia, which had toppled and murdered Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. His policies were to modernize Ethiopia’s economy along Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist lines. Land, companies, banks, etc., were all nationalized. Farmers were compelled to join collectives. The free market was abolished. Not surprisingly, it was a disaster. People resisted, famine ensued, and economic destitution was widespread. This did not stop Mengistu. Widespread resistance was met with brutal force. Between 1.2 and to 2 million people were killed during his regime. According to the Times, it was not uncommon to see students, suspected government critics, or rebel sympathizers hanging from lampposts each morning. Mengistu himself is alleged to have murdered opponents by garroting or shooting them, saying that he was leading by example. Yes, we really need such examples…. Human Rights Watch describes his regime as “one of the most systematic uses of mass murder by a state ever witnessed in Africa.” After the collapse of the Soviet Union, his position became untenable and he fled the country.
#8 Idi Amin (1925–2003)
Idi Amin ruled as dictator of Uganda after launching a military coup in 1971. His nickname is “Butcher of Uganda.” Amin’s behavior steadily worsened during the 1970s. He expelled all Asians and handed over their businesses to his cronies, which led to a collapse of the economy. Yet, the Asians were “lucky” compared to his violent persecution of rival Uganda tribes, who were killed by the tens of thousands. The total death toll of his regime amounted to half a million out of a population of 10 million. He was feared for feeding victims alive to crocodiles. He boasted that he kept the decapitated heads of political enemies in his freezer, although he said that human flesh was generally “too salty” for his taste. His megalomania knew no limits. Among his titles were “Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas” and “Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa.” He was deposed in 1979 and fled to Saudi Arabia. He never expressed any remorse for his brutal deeds. He was the subject of a Hollywood movie, Last King of Scotland.
#7. Saddam Hussein (1937–2006)
Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. The common thread is his life was his morbid thirst for power, absolute power, no matter how high the cost in human blood. Saddam was notable for using terror against his own people, including mustard and nerve gas to subdue the Kurds. He attacked Iran in 1980. The war ended in a stalemate and one million dead. Having learned nothing, he invaded Kuwait in 1990, leading the First Gulf War, and another 85,000 dead. Uprisings after the war led to the death over some 150,000 civilians. The list goes on until he was toppled in 2003 by American and Allied forces, and hanged in 2006. Good riddance.
#6 Kim Il-Sung (1912–1994)
Kim Il-Sung was the dictator of North Korea from 1949 till his death in 1994. The official name of North Korea is the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.” All of it is a lie. There is nothing democratic about North Korea. The people are treated as slaves, and it is not a republic but a de facto kingdom with leadership going from father to son. Kim invaded South Korea in 1950, and in this war some 3 million people perished, including 12–15% of North Korea’s population. Subsequent Stalinist economic policies and widespread repression led to poverty and famine in which hundreds of thousands, if not millions, died. Sadly, the country has not improved much under his son and grandson, both of whom are utterly ruthless, evil leaders in their own right. What a family…
#5 Leopold II (1835–1909)
The Belgian king Leopold II was a nasty piece of work. He deserves inclusion in this list by what happened in Congo, which he acquired as his private property in 1885 in the Berlin Conference when much of Africa was divided among European powers. From the beginning, he was in it for the money, extracting maximum amount of wealth from this huge colony. Millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated, killed, or died from disease during his rule. Failure to meet rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Forced labor was instituted to increase production. Around 10 million people died during his brutal regime in Congo. Not that he cared. To paraphrase the title of Frank Zappa’s greatest album, “he was only in it for the money.” Things got so bad that in 1908, he was forced to hand over the colony to the Belgian state.
#4 Pol Pot (1925–1998)
Pol Pot was the leader of the Communist Khmer Rouge. He grabbed power in Cambodia in 1975 and set about to create a communist paradise on earth. Not surprisingly, it was worse than Dante’s Seventh Circle of Hell (violence). To fulfill his vision of an agricultural society, the urban population was forcible relocated to the country side to work in collective farms. Money was abolished and all citizens were made to wear the same drab black clothing, which made Mao costumes look fashionable. Intellectuals were summarily murdered-this included people who wore glasses. This experiment in social engineering costs the lives of about 25 % of the population, and was immortalized in the Hollywood movie Killing Fields. His evil government was toppled after four years by invading Vietnamese forces.
#3 Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)
In any list of evil men, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ranks high. Stalin rose to power in the 1920s, after the death of Lenin. A succession of Five-Year programs industrialized the country but at unimaginable human costs. This, and forced collectivization of agriculture, to led to widespread famine, which costs the lives of countless millions. Then came the “Great Terror” involving purge after purge of the party apparatus and society. Millions were sent to forced labor camps, their death, or both, the death rate in the Gulags was horrific. Almost all senior Red Army officers were purged shortly before Hitler attacked, ensuring the dismal performance and the horrific losses in the early stages of World War II. In the early 1950s, he was planning another bloody terror but thankfully he died before he could unleash it upon the harried nation.
#2. Mao Zedong (1893–1976)
Mao was a successful guerrilla fighter against the Japanese invaders and the corrupt Kuomintang government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In 1949, he had overcome them all and the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed. It went downhill ever after. In the purges of the early 1950s, millions of “wealthy” peasants, intellectuals, and “saboteurs” were killed. Then came the “Great Leap Forward” (1958–1962) one of the most insane experiments in social engineering ever. Private plots were abolished and communal kitchens were introduced. It was a disaster. Production plummeted and the ensuing “Great Chinese Famine” cost the lives of up to 45 million people. Not having had enough, a few years later, the “Great Helmsman” launched the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” in 1966. Millions of people were persecuted and suffered public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, hard labor, and execution. Some of my Chinese friends suffered that fate. When Mao died in 1976, the country’s per capita income was lower than Congo’s, and China had lost over 55 million lives. Not that Mao cared. Purity above everything else — his purity.
#1. Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
Any list of evilness of all time should be topped by German Chancellor and Führer Adolf Hitler who came to power (democratically!) in January 1933. His mad quest for revenge, conquest, and ethnic cleansing nearly succeeded. In December 1941, nearly all of Europe was under his heel. Underestimation by others (Chamberlin!), his support of unconventional ideas (attack through the Ardennes), and the brilliance of the German soldiers and generals brought the world on the brink of disaster. But dictators tend to overreach. After Stalingrad , the Third Reich lost battle after battle, and in May 1945, after Hitler committed suicide, Germany unconditionally surrendered. The country lay in ruins, six million Jews were murdered, and World War II mourned some 55 million dead. Hate, racism, xenophobia, and megalomania are but a few words to describe this man. Sadly, his legacy continues to inspire some people up to today.
The one-million dollar question: Why did people follow them ?
Now, this question has haunted historians, leadership scholars, and social scientists for decades. The chilling truth is that these men could not have been in power for so long if they did not have some claim of legitimate authority, however warped it may have been. After all, they depended on the help of others. I use the three archetypes of legitimate authority proposed by Max Weber to classify the (main) basis of the authority of each leader.
Legal, bureaucratic authority, based on the position they had in the party that had (grabbed) the right to rule the country: Mengele, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim, Saddam, Mengistu.
Traditional authority on the sanctity of old traditions of heritage, kingship and tribal leadership: Leopold II, Idi Amin.
Charismatic authority is vested in the exceptionalism of the leader, his (alleged) exemplary character and heroism: Hitler, Mao.
Three lessons for us now and here
#1. The two greatest criminals drew on charismatic authority. Although they also had legal authority, their charisma made them so special and powerful. Charismatic authority is the most dangerous of the three. We are all fallible. Idolization of a man — any man — is very, very dangerous. We could see that in action on Jan. 6, 2021.
#2. Bureaucratic authority was the legitimate basis for the majority of the evil top-10. They can ‘hide’ behind bureaucratic rules (“Befehl ist Befehl”). Bureaucracies are faceless, impersonal, relentless. It makes me wonder what this means for the future, with bureaucracies ever expanding.
#3. They were greatly helped in committing their atrocities by the help of others — or at least by the impassivity of the multitudes. In 1867, the British philosopher John Stuart Mill explained, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” Just read Daniel Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners. If good men and women, all of us, stand up against evil, against dictators, liars, and demagogues, our society will be better, much better.
I am the author of Time to Lead: Lessons for Today’s Leaders from Bold Decisions that Changed History. My latest book, Warrior, Queen, Scientist, Activist: Gritty Women Who Bent the Arc of History, was published in March 2024. My personal website is www.jbsteenkamp.com. I’m https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbsteenkamp/ on LinkedIn and https://twitter.com/steenkampjb on Twitter.
