# 60 years ago today **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 30, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894 "2005-04-30T22:12:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/41 "2005-05-03T15:02:34Z")
Wow, pitting Hitler on his (anti-)birthday. How bold. What did he ever do to you? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/42 "2005-05-03T15:02:56Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > And war has existed for even longer. Does the fact that war was pre-existing exempt a nation’s leader from responsibility for starting another one? > > I know the answer to this, and so do you. I didn’t say he should be exempt from responsibility, I’m saying that the Nazi phenomenon should not be treated as something Hitler did all by himself as though the people had nothing to do with it. I’m not saying let Hitler off the hook, I’m saying _don’t let the people off the hook_. Nazi Germany was not about one person it was about millions of willing citizens who bought into his bullshit. I’m saying that Nazi Germany has to be looked at as a mob phenomenon and not mythologized as a magical act by an evil superhuman. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/43 "2005-05-03T15:57:30Z")
When I was growing up in a small town in southwestern Pennsylvania in the 1970s, whenever we studied World War II and the Holocaust, my classmates were always certain it couldn’t happen here, that we were somehow different from the Germans. These were the same classmates who ruthlessly, daily picked on my best friend because she was handicapped and on me because I was English and different. I knew damn well it could happen here; I saw traces of the roots of it in the way my friend and I were treated and I vowed to fight it. Neither Hitler nor the German people were inhuman monsters; the German people were ordinary people who were given someone acceptable to blame for their economic ills. Remember the situation in the 1930s. The Great Depression was raging in Europe as well as in America and Germany was particularly hard hit because of reparations from World War I. Inflation was rampant and anti-Semitism was more or less normal. Hitler gave the people an acceptable target to blame for their ills, much as I gather some of the mullahs in Saudi Arabia are doing today, only the mullahs are using America. Oh, by the way, **Carnal K** , Hitler’s attacks on England during the Battle of Britain are why my mother was evacuated as a little girl and her first memories are of hiding under a kitchen table during bombing raids. During the Holocaust, he also killed family members of one of the few friends I had in high school. Does that answer your question? CJ ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/44 "2005-05-03T16:14:33Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > I disagree. Mao and Stalin, while absolutely brutal to their own people, did not precipitate a World War. There is vastly more blood on Hitler’s hands. Riiiiiiiiight. It’s not like Stalin invaded Poland to start WW2. Oh, wait… ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/45 "2005-05-03T17:56:27Z")
> [@](#): > > _Siege said:_ > Oh, by the way, Carnal K, Hitler’s attacks on England during the Battle of Britain are why my mother was evacuated as a little girl and her first memories are of hiding under a kitchen table during bombing raids. During the Holocaust, he also killed family members of one of the few friends I had in high school. Does that answer your question? Yes it answers my question. You were not born when Hitler was alive. Seriously, I find it quite comical that someone would give a mild ass Pitting to Hitler. Surely you see that? It struck me as particularly funny because I had just heard the A Whitney Brown stand up a few weeks ago with the bit (paraphrased): "You know everyone accepts Hitler as the most evil guy ever. Not many people however, myself included, sit around stewing and think ‘Oh I wish I could get my hands on Hitler for just 5 minutes!’. You know why? Because Hitler never stole my bike." (that’s the guy he wants 5 minutes with) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/46 "2005-05-03T18:05:05Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Wow, pitting Hitler on his (anti-)birthday. How bold. > > What did he ever do to you? Aside from almost kill my father? Nothing. But we need to remember his evil lest it happen again. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/47 "2005-05-03T18:24:22Z")
Well if you miss my point & joke, fine. Just don’t everyone start calling me a Hitler defender. lol ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/48 "2005-05-04T11:52:27Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Riiiiiiiiight. It’s not like Stalin invaded Poland to start WW2. Oh, wait… He didn’t invade Poland to \*start \*WW2 – he waited for the Germans to invade first. Of course, the non-aggression pact certainly didn’t do anything to discourage Hitler, and the secret protocol for dividing Poland proves that his intention to invade Poland predates the German invasion. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/49 "2005-05-04T12:40:36Z")
\*"And looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on vibes. Nice!"\* ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894/50 "2005-05-04T12:55:57Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Hitler was not some supernatural demon but _was_ a human being. He can happen again. [Gag Halfrunt] He’s just zis guy, you know? [/Gag Halfrunt] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-years-ago-today/301894.md?page=2)