[Diva]

It doesn't even look like Hitler but I understand your frustration. I'm curious to know Schroeder's family history you mention in your post. At my parish Church we have lots of Germans and Austrians Indeed the parish was founded in the 1830s by German immigrants to Detroit. The first pastor's name was Vandendriessche and they called the church Kirchen Wald because there was a cholera epidemic in Detroit and they had to settle in the woods outside the City. Of course the Church is now inside the City of Detroit and the second oldest parish. Many of the streets nearby are named for some of the original German families. We are now called Assumption Grotto.

Also, our parish benefits from an order of priests called the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, many of whom are Austrian or German. We in the US are now considered missionary territory. : )

[ukman]

Schröder's father was already an impoverished labourer before he was conscripted and later killed in Romania in 1944, just after his son was born. I think it was last year his grave was finally found in some Romanian village, and Schröder made a trip there to pay his first and last respects.

His mother later remarried, but the family was unlucky and stayed poor all through the 50s, and was the German equivalent of "white trash". But he worked his way up out of poverty by sheer hard work and ambition. It explains a lot about his character.

Considering the consequences Hitler's war had for him personally, I consider this defacement of his picture to be distasteful and also very childish, to say the least.