Germany breaks the Hitler taboo

The Daily Telegraph ^ | August 24, 2004 | Kate Connolly

[MadIvan]

This is absolutely terrifying on a number of levels - firstly, the fact that critics praised the film before seeing it. And the admission that Hitler still dominates the German imagination...oh what a giveaway.

I hereby end British restraint on bringing up Fawlty Towers:

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[Cacique]

[river rat]

Rising in support of their Sand Nazi Cousins?

Semper Fi

[Wilhelm Tell]

This is where moral relativism and the politically-correct notion that everyone is a victim takes us -- the worst villain in at least modern times is portrayed as a helpless victim. We are supposed to feel sorry for the bloody creature as it hides behind children in its bunker. I have predicted for some time that the left's moral relativism and its admiration of mindless political power for its own sake will eventually cause the left to rehabilitate Hitler. The left gets all romantic about violent sociopaths so it is not surprising that they will eventually grovel before Hitler.

[Blackyce]

You've seen th film then? Or are you just assuming this is a sympathetic portrayal?

[Jim Noble]

And the admission that Hitler still dominates the German imagination...oh what a giveaway.

As is the fact that it remains necessary to ban the NSDAP fifty-nine years after its last legal meeting, to ban all writings, symbols, and political songs from that era, and to give the government the power to ban any other political parties who even think about thinking NSDAP thoughts.

I don't know about you, but I suspect the Jerries would be right back at it if allowed.

[MadIvan]

Portraying Hitler as soft spoken and enjoying chocolate cake is an attempt to "humanise" him. I have to say that the best scholar on the subject, Ian Kershaw, who wrote the definitive biography, was astonished by how dry Hitler was as a human being: very few outside interests, very few personal relationships, not much sign of sensitivity to others. He was entirely a political creature, the evidence suggests.

Regards, Ivan

[Caipirabob]

Next month's feature: "Stalin and Bambi's Adventures!"

[gracex7]

PLEASE... don't give them any ideas!

[Wilhelm Tell]

I think, putting on my amateur psychologist's hat, that Hitler was THE sociopathic person of all time. He did have an incredible ability to detect what a person's weakness was and exploit that. Other than that, he was a mediocre man. And I am fed up with how the left always wants us to see the "human" side of violent criminals. I have seen and read interviews of people like serial killers and war criminals, and it struck me that there was something just missing or even dead about the person -- such people are not fully human and it is wrong for anyone to try to humanize them.

[MadIvan]

Next month's feature: "Stalin and Bambi's Adventures!"

I knew I was right to admire the hunter who shot Bambi's mother. Too bad he didn't take out Bambi in the process. Then it would be "The NRA Saves the Day". ;)

Regards, Ivan

[longjack]

German ping.

© dpa...Actor Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler in the film "Der Untergang" (The Fall) - Hitler and the end of the Third Reich"

"FAZ-FAZ.NET"...."Ich muß das Böse in mir entdecken"

"Der Stern"....Bruno Ganz als Hitler

Bruno Ganz spielt Adolf Hitler. Foto: news.ch

"Bild.T-Online.de"....Neue Serie in BILD: Hitlers letzte Tage

longjack

[bvw]

He was only one small man, a painter of hideous landscapes.

[blanknoone]

The timing of this and the Ami Raus movement finally getting the Amis to Raus has to be causing some discomfort to various Eurinals.

Is anyone starting a pool on how long the Alsatians will be speaking French?

[Sam Cree]

"He was entirely a political creature, the evidence suggests."

I think he was something of an artist as well, not surprising at all I guess, when one considers even the modern trend among artsy people to favor totalitarian government.

But this is the kind of thing that makes it seem like allowing the 2 Germanies to unite was not a good idea.

[Stirner]

"It struck me that there was something just missing or even dead about the person -- such people are not fully human and it is wrong for anyone to try to humanize them."

Putting on my own amateur psychologist's hat, I can understand the impulse, when confronted by evil, to deny that the perpetrator is fully human because that would make him, in some sense, like us. However, it is profoundly dangerous to label people as non-people. That's exactly what Hitler and Stalin did. A person can be incredibly destructively evil and at the same time a fully human being who shows us how low a human being can go. To fear that I too could wind up in such a hell is not the same as sympathy for such devils.

[SunkenCiv]

Not talking about WWII and its immediate aftermath seems to be the way things were done (well, not done). By the 1960s, German school textbooks had (in reference to the Holocaust) "anti-Jewish measures were intensified."

[Mr. Jeeves]

But the tabloid Bild yesterday posed the question that an increasing number of critics will no doubt ask: "Should a monster be portrayed as a human being?"

All of the monsters are human beings. There has never been one of them who thought he was the bad guy. This film looks interesting.