Schwarzenegger Admired Hitler, Book Proposal Says

The New York Times ^ | 10/03/03 | ADAM NAGOURNEY and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

[Rocko]

Three Amigos.

[Windcatcher]

Yay! I was beginning to lose hope.

[Callahan]

What's almost funny is that Arnold is too liberal for most non-libertarian Freepers, but he still gets flat-out called a Nazi by the Lib dirt-machine. Wonder what they'd be saying about if he was a real conservative. Remember this guy agrees with half their agenda and this is the thanks he gets.

[pogo101]

Arnold Schwarzenfuhrer made it easy for them, didn't he?

As Mr. Curry jumps into the DumpSter with Bob Mulholland. You actually call him a Nazi? Shame.

[carbon14]

Anyone can get a sense of Arnold Schwarzenegger's core values by the reflections of his youth as recounted by his Jewish mentor:

---

Alfred Gerstl, the man who would mentor Schwarzenegger, was born between the two world wars, the son of a Jewish father, with a grandfather who was a cantor in Brooklyn, and an Austrian Catholic mother who converted to Judaism for her wedding. Alfred would eventually become president of the upper house of the Austrian parliament, but in the late 1950s and throughout the '60s, he ran a club for student athletes in Graz.

Gerstl said he took it upon himself to teach the young men, Arnold among them, about a history his country was denying and about the dangers of anti-Semitism and fascism.

"I gathered the young people together for sports, but the condition was they had to listen," Gerstl, 80, said in an interview at his apartment in Graz. "Arnold was very inquisitive. He always wanted to know why we were against the Nazis. He always understood the need to protect the weak."

In after-school sessions at his home, Gerstl would play records of operatic music and tell Arnold that the beautiful voices he heard were those of persecuted Jews. Gerstl, his son Karl, Arnold and others would have long talks about sports and life and, occasionally, politics.

It is unclear how much of that early indoctrination stuck. Schwarzenegger, who left Austria for good in 1968, has said he "hated" the arts as a child and retained youthful prejudices until spending time in a more open, progressive United States.

Gerstl is fond of remembering a brave schoolmaster in Graz in the early 1960s who arranged a field trip to Mauthausen, the main Nazi-era concentration camp in Austria that was preserved as a museum.

Reactionary groups attacked the man for airing Austria's dirty laundry. Although Schwarzenegger did not go on the field trip, he was among the youths who staged a counter-demonstration in defense of the headmaster, according to Gerstl.

Now, Schwarzenegger's many admiring friends in Thal and Graz hold up these anecdotes as evidence that he could not possibly be anti-Semitic.

---

When you consider how anti-semitic Austria was for hundreds of years, it is extremely remarkable that Arnold took part in a demonstration in support of the headmaster who wanted to educate his students about Nazi atrocities. That says more about him than anything the New York or LA Times could ever say with their "Puke-litzer Prize" journalists.

[Imal]

This is some fine opposition research, all righty.

[Joy Angela]

Yep. The Democrats are afraid of what Governor
Arnold will mean in the 2004 Presidential Election.

HIllary Clinton wrote her college thesis about Saul Alinsky, the author of "Rules for Radicals."

One of Alinsky's rules is to ACCUSE the "enemy" of what
you are and of what you do.

All this Nazi-calling from the Left makes
me think that they are following Alinsky and
hoping to deflect anyone who starts to notice
that it is Hitlery and HER comrades who are
marching to the beat of the manical-dictator.

Watch and Learn.

"Living History" right before our eyes...

[tpaine]

You once again demonstrate your complete lack of honor, kevin..

Thanks.

[Kevin Curry]

"My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it . . . People need somebody to watch over them. . . . Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave." A. Schwarzenfuherer, US News & World Report 1990

[BradyLS]

But Arnold Schwarzenfuhrer made it easy for them, didn't he?

The funny thing is that Europe has always been more sensitive to acclaimations about admiring Hitler for any reason-- and Schwarzenegger couldn't help but have grown up in the sort of PC -climate we have today.

As a guy in his twenties, he almost certainly could have picked anyone with a popular rags-to-riches tale. And with his desire to experience throngs of admirers in a stadium, he could have picked rock stars like The Who or Led Zeppilin.

If true, it sounds like Arnold wanted to convey the sort of hero-worship he craved and fellow Austrian Adolf was the closest comparison he could make.

[Kevin Curry]

My, my, tpaine. How have you come to adore a "statist" as avowedly power hungry as A. Schwarzenfuhrer?

[BradyLS]

I wish I'd read your post first. I should have considered the source first.

[BradyLS]

I've always warned that Hillary will be America's first Chancellor.

[maro]

When I was in college, I was known to do Hitler imitations. I used to put a black comb under my nose. I watched "Triumph of the Will" when it played on campus. I don't think any of that makes me a Nazi or an anti-semite--I was mocking them--but if I were ever nominated for a judgeship, it's quite likely some idiot would dig that stuff up and draw ridiculous inferences. This is a trashy accusation.

[BradyLS]

As Mr. Curry jumps into the DumpSter with Bob Mulholland. You actually call him a Nazi? Shame.

Actually, Anyone (not necessarily you) who calls McClintock supporters "Tomikazes" has certainly woken up with Mr. Mulholland's fleas.

And Kevin Curry did not call Arnold a Nazi.

[BradyLS]

The same goes for anyone who calls McClintock supporters Tomikazes. And for the same reasons.

[Dems_R_Losers]

This has Richie Ross' fingerprints all over it. I said a few weeks ago that this campaign would get unbelievably nasty in the last week. This is Ross' MO - he is the master of the October Surprise.

(In case you missed it, Richie Ross is the political guru of Cruz Bustamante and was Willie Brown's hatchet man when he was Assembly Speaker. He is the single sleaziest political operative I have ever encountered in 30 years of working on campaigns.)

[Kevin Curry]

What does it mean? It means he's a reformed national-socialist who, for political convenience, has made an outward demonstration of penance toward the Jewish people.

The fact remains: he has a deep thirst to exercise personal power over people he does not consider his equals--which in his mind (by his own admission) is about 95 percent of the world's population.

[joesnuffy]

Guess Arnnie can count on the muslim vote then eh?

[tpaine]

Adore?
Get a grip curry.
Arnies a clown, but here's ~our~ bozo, not the republocratic systems. Maybe he'll do some good for CA politics, as Jesse did for MN...