haha!
hh;)
Or, it could mean Moe Howard’s version of HH: Hang Hitler!
Wow. I’ve never heard of her, but she’s simultaneously almost the weirdest and the most impressive person I’ve ever read about.
Well, she was from Cleveland.
Hitler was a very charismatic figure. Many witnesses agree that he was very persuasive in argument. For true believers in Nazism, anything he said was right. For the masses, being distant and unapproachable probably increased his attractiveness.
First of all, I gotta nitpick; the man’s first name was Adolf. He’s sufficiently famous that it really shouldn’t be misspelled.
Secondly, I would have to think that it would be impossible to rise to absolute power over a huge nation-state WITHOUT having some charm, unless it was handed to you by virtue of monarchial succession. Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, any nasty dictator you can name who worked their way from nowheresville to the big chair, they all had charisma.
I agree. Hitler for a long time seemed to regard Speer almost as a son or younger brother; they were very close, from all I’ve read. Speer could probably only confess, near the end in the Fuhrerbunker, to not carrying out Hitler’s scorched-earth orders because he knew Hitler still had a regard for him that would not lead to his immediate execution.
Good point. I read Speer’s memoirs years ago-and I agree that Hitler liked and trusted Speer. What I would like to know about: those last days in the Fuhrerbunker-there were the fanatics (like Goebbles) who wanted to die with their great leader…and then the guys who wanted to live…and were wondering how to get the hell out (and avoid the Russian Army).
How did Speer survive? Presumably he was offered a cyanide capsule…gahh!:eek:
There were semi-regular flights out of Berlin until the very last few days before Hitler’s suicide, IIRC, as well as overland routes. I don’t believe Speer was offered poison; few were. Most of those in the bunker survived, one way or the other, even Hitler’s closest aides. Perhaps oddly for the dictatorial, narcissistic monster he was, he didn’t require, and actually didn’t seem to expect, everyone around to join him in death.
Again I strongly recommend the aforementioned Downfall.
I never tire of that joke.
Well, despite what many might think, one group that didn’t like him was - Berliners!
Supposedly there was an interviewer who once asked Hitler what he was afraid of most and his answer was “Berliners”.
The reason was that Berlin voters did not vote for him or the Nazi Party.
I know when I lived in Berlin, it was a small source of pride for older Berliners to be able to say, “at least we never voted for that Arschloch (asshole).”
Granted, in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter, but in their last “free” election, the vast majority of Berliners voted against him.
On the other hand, Hitler won the election.
Most/all politicians who mangage to get elected are liked, by a LOT of people.
I think in retrospect most people eventually came to dislike him, but probably most people liked him at the time.
Its like today trying to find someone who admits to voting for Jimmy Carter - we know somebody must have liked him at the time, but today nobody wants to admit it.
I’ve read some bios of people who worked with him, such as his secretary and other members of his personal staff, and he was always described as cold and businesslike but not unlikeable. Which would make sense, since these bios were written by staff of his.
It seems the only time he let his guard down was with his dogs, and they described him joyfully playing with the dogs as much as possible
From John Toland’s biography concerning Hitler as a soldier in World War I: “Despite his lectures on the evils of smoking and drinking, “Adi” was generally liked because of his reliability in a crisis. He never abandoned a wounded comrade or pretended to be sick when it came time for a perilous mission. Moreover, he was a good companion during the long, tedious stretches awaiting action. Being an artist actually drew him closer to his barracks mates. He would draw cartoon sketches on postcards illustrating comical moments of their life.”
Berlin was a left wing area. It was a Communist and Socialist stronghold, and almost always voted for one of those two parties.
Not really, no.
Hitler lost his campaign for President in 1932. He was then appointed, not elected, Chancellor. In the subsequent Reichstag elections the Nazis won 44% of the seats - more than anyone else, but not a majority.
Hitler and the Nazis then used a series of political maneuvres to essentially eliminate democracy. The 1934 plebiscite than merged the offices of President and Chancellor was both illegal and, incidentally, occurred after all other political parties had been banned, so in effect democracy had already ceased to exist.
So the truth is the German people never elected Adolf Hitler. He was a very popular politican with lots of broad-based support, and they elected a lot of Nazis to the Reichstag, but there was never an election in which most Germans voted Nazi, and at no time was it ever the democratically expressed will of the Germans than Adolf Hitler be in charge of the country.
Regarding the “Fuhrerbunker”-I understand it was pretty well concealed-the Russians didn’t learn of its existance for some time. Had the people inside locked the doors, how long could they have survived down there?
Nazi stalwarts (like Martin Bormann) had trouble escaping Berlin…I imagine that staying with Hitler was becoming increasingly dangerous, so if you wanted to live, you probably were wise to get out of Dodge.
One of Hitler’s last acts was that he had one of Eva Braun’s brother-in-laws (Hermann Fegelein) shot because he tried to get away from Berlin. Plus some of those guys like Bormann were hoping that if they stuck around, Hitler would reward them by passing on power to them. He had Himmler thrown out because he tried to negotiate separately with the West. Sounds stupid but those blockheads might have figured they could negotiate with the Allies and maybe not be treated so harshly. Remember Hirohito was later allowed to remain Emperor of Japan and there are arguments as to how much he had to do with World War II.
Who else besides me would LOVE to see some of those cartoons?
Here’s some Hitler artwork, including some of the stuff he did during WWI:
Hitler has quite a cult following on UTube. They just keep taking one scene from a movie and changing the words and skits. Hilarious!