Why do many emphasize Hitler as evil when Stalin killed 3 times as many, and Mao 4 times as many?

Because Hitler was defeated and neither Stalin nor Mao were defeated by the US and their allies.

I consider them both pretty evil. Consider this, Stalin's mass killings were mostly before WW II (100,000 a year), and mostly from his purges and 'collectivization in early 30's with the latest estimate of around 20-30 million dead. His genocide wasn't a full time occupation to his death, unlike Hitler, but that's where the comparison stops.

When comparing the two, both were evil, both put people in concentration camps, both committed genocide, both were dictators, both...well you get the picture. The one factor Hitler had over Stalin tho, Hitler was insane. Stalin was just angry and distrustful.

Other things to consider,Stalin killed more people, Hitler started WW II, Hitler killed the Jews and some people in his nation, but he started the war that resulted in many troops dying on both sides. Hitler may be considered the greater of both evils; tho Stalin killed more people it is said, Hitler's action ensured that those loses were as high as possible.

It is my conclusion that Hitler may be the 'evil-er" of them all, but comparing the them is ludicrous, now that i think about it, so just forget about it!

People often justify Mao and Stalin's killings as political killings 'needed' to stabilize their countries. Hitler killed with the intent of wiping out entire races/groups of people and had a racist agenda in his killings. I think that Mao and especially Stalin are left off the hook very much so by modern historians and writers. There are still plenty of people who agree with the basic philosophies of Mao and Stalin, though, many of whom are high in the academic ranks of the West and this perhaps contributes to this bias. Hitler's beliefs are virtually died out and very very few people still espouse his philosophies (though anti-semitism is still very much alive in parts of the world) but they get a lot of face time as they are universally considered to be wackos and are easy targets.All three were extremely evil but two still have wide support from Western intellectuals and are thus spared the rap that Hitler (fairly) gets.

You're right. I think that is because Jewish people made the biggest "stink" about it. And, rightly so of course, but there were so many others who were killed too. It's just that in America where we have a strong and influential Jewish population, you're going to hear more about Hitler and the Holocaust than anything else.

There has been so much genocide going on around the world in the last decade and even right now as we speak...Africa, Eastern Europe. But, people still talk about the Holocaust more than anything.

They didn't kill foreigners. And I never heard of any rumor that said together they killed 7 times as many as Hitler. Hitler was the cause of more than 50 million deaths, no dictator could be like him. But I agree that Stalin and Mao sucked!!

While several of the points made in the other answers are true, you've also got to remember that Hitler came from a country in the heart of the west, that had had Renaissance, Reformation, Rome. Mass killing wasn't such an aberration from things in Russia and China - witness Lenin, after all, and a whole plethora of killing in 19th-20th century Chinese history.

Hitler was evil, he had intentions and used it fully, he tried to exterminate the Jews, the gypies and russian POWs during the early part of the war.

Stalin was evil too, he demanded unquestioned loyalty and obedience, any wrong step and it is death. He jkills his political opponent and their supporters, he killed moe people than Hitler.

Mao tried economic reforms which failed resulting in wide-spread famine which killed millions. There was the cultural revolution which killed thousands, this was prepetrated by the infamous gang of four (including his wife) and you got to remmeber that Mao does not enjoy full autonomy against the ruling committee.

I know in most Western History books and perception, Mao is always protrayed to be the bad guy, but the real hard case was Chiang Kai Shek whom he defeated. Chiang wasd pro-American so he is forgiven by you for that, millions died of startvation under his rule too.

Pol Pot scored only two million deaths under his rule, do you not consider him evil too or would you care less?

Are your previous presidents who directed the war to exterminate the american Indian tribes evil of the same too?

With Mao I think it's just plain old racism. He only killed Chinese, so who cares. With Stalin, he gets a break for being on the winning side in WW2.

Adolf Hitler remains an archetypical embodiment of evil in world consciousness not because of the number of people he killed, but because of his justification for killing. He essentially gave one group of people free license to believe that they were better than all other peoples of the world and that they -- not God -- should have the right to believe who should constitute the human race. He gave those who believed in him the means, without the repercussion, by which to exercise hate in order to have someone else to blame for their shortcomings and to improve their own self-image. Imagine the schoolyard bully who beats up other kids because that's the only way he can feel better about himself. Now imagine that bully suddenly growing up and being handed a nation of millions willing to follow him anywhere because they believe it's their God-given right to annihilate an innocent group of people within their own borders, to "reclaim" and conquer territory, and to rule the world. Nevermind that Hitler had one of the most unprecedented, meteoric political rises in history or that he was voted as Time Magazine's Man of the Year prior to invading Poland. Nevermind that he reunified and reinvigorated a tired and beaten Germany following the end of the Great War, or that he built the Autobahn and invented Volkswagen. None of that is remembered by the vast majority of the population because his supremacist attitude truly epitomized evil. I'm not justifying the actions of Stalin or Mao, but what they did was cold and unfeeling. Their actions were a means to achieving a political, rather than a social end. Hitler's wholesale slaughter of millions of innocent people was passionate and full of hate. For the betterment of humanity, his actions should never be repeated and always viewed as a dark chapter and a tragedy in the human experience.

no one is calling Stalin, Hitler,or Mao angels waiting at the gate in heaven