One modern myth that refuses to die is that Hitler went berserk after one of his testicles went missing. The whole of WWII, the Shoah, and with it the death of tens of millions is all explained just on the basis of the one missing testicle. This Time article addresses the issue well:
This is an example of what Ron Rosenbaum calls a classic example of a "one shot theory". Vast complexities and nuances are all contracted down to a single, miniscule point of origin. If it weren't for the missing testicle it would have never happened. Or as Norman Finkelstein said in his critique of Daniel Goldstein that theories about the Holocaust or about the origins of WWII are either multicausal and academically credible, or monocausal and of no academic value.
Of course another "one shot" theory about the origins of WWII and the Holocaust was that it happened because Hitler was the leader of a grand conspiracy to "transform the world into a Wagnerian drama". If it weren't for that damned opera composer, it would have never happened. As with the missing testicle story, this equally monocausal and grossly reductivistic myth simply refuses to die.
Readers are urged to stop reading this type of speculative nonsense, which often involves Nazi UFOs, satanism, werewolves, missing testicles, grand operatic conspiracies, or secret Antarctic bases, and instead read credible academic studies of this vastly complex era from which we still have much to learn.
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