Yea Jackson was a real piece of work. And yes you are also correct that he was a massive inspiration for Hitler, most Americans don’t know that. Hitler would quote portions of Jackson’s speech to Congress about the Indian Removal Act during his own speech about the Jewish people. In fact, Hitler didn’t actually come up with very much on his own in terms of the annihilation of the Jewish people and conquer of Europe. In Jackson’s speech to Congress he called it the “the final solution to the Indian problem” which should sound quite familiar to those who know WWII history. Everything from ghettos, work camps, mass extermination, medical experiments, stolen children, sterilization, and death marches were straight out of Jackson’s playbook.

In one of Hitlers speeches he says that he wanted to “make Germany greater than even the great American empire which had succeeded in creating a perfect society for God’s chosen race, chaining any of the savage native inhabitants still alive in camps to work and starve.” He would also go on to say, “the East will be our Redmen and the Volga our grand Mississippi.” When Nazi Germany did finally invade Poland the German newspapers quoted their head general (iirc), “Go East young men, go East!” His plan wasn’t just war, it was settler colonialism à la USA style and all of his top generals were aware.

If anyone is ever in any doubt about how horrifying the conquest of hundreds of Indigenous Nations really was just remember this. As absolutely and indescribably evil as Hitler was, he wasn’t completely successful, Jackson was.