John Keegan notes that, as a messenger in–and out–of the trenches, Cpl Hitler had been extraordinarily brave. It was just that he continued to think like a corporal when he became the big boss, with the accompanying belief that generals are idiots.
I propose tomndebb’s inverse corollary to Godwin’s Law: “As an online discussion about Hitler grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving someone who isn’t Hitler approaches 1”
On Review:** Koxinga!**
Not to mention he did a mean interpretation of Judy Garland at the Palace!
A man’s a man, no matter how long you’ve known him. As Himmler himself notes, it’s one thing to yell “death to X”, and another one entirely to keep one’s lunch when X is coldly shot right in front of one’s eyes.
Sachsenhausen had a crematorium (I should know, the visit was part of my high school German class student exchange program. They got Versailles, we got a concentration camp. Didn’t feel all too fair at the time :p)
Two objections :
- They were labor camps, meaning some of the inmates were sent to work in factories and facilities outside the camp, so there were even more opportunities for civilians to witness the plight of the detainees firsthand.
and
- Even if they weren’t outright murdered, they *were *being worked to near death, ill fed, poxridden, beaten and so forth. That kind of treatment leaves visible stigmatas that, IMO, are even more shocking. I’ve seen piles of corpses from different genocides, but nothing compares to the piles of barely recognizable skeleton-men that came out of the camps.
And I don’t think the majority of Germans, being humans, could so easily rationalize these kinds of sights merely by thinking “oh well, they’re slavs, and war prisonners, and jews, and communists, they’re not real people”.
In fact, I know so.
One of my favourite books is part 2 of a series of autobios by French author/editor François Cavanna, titled “Les Russkofs” (doubt it ever was translated though). In it, he relates how when he was 18 years old he was shipped off to Berlin as part of the STO, kept in a kind of concentration camp-light where he made artillery shells, was fed kohlrabi soup every day, did everything he could to shy off work, made friends, fell in love with a Russian girl held in a different part of the camp, then lost her in the chaos of Allied victory.
Anyhoo, to the point before I lose myself : one of the more moving passages of the book describes how, late in the war, he one day was on a Sonderkommando (the squads sent throughout Berlin to help survivors of the latest bombings, repair what could be repaired and tear down what couldn’t), and met an old lady on the tramway. As he was getting off, she bumped into him and silently (but discreetly, since it was strenglisch verboten on pain of death) passed him some bread tickets, which were of course worth a fortune at the time. As he turned back to watch the tram leave, he saw the old lady sobbing (again, quietly : display of negative emotions equalled defeatism, also strenglisch verboten by then) and wondered just how bad he must have looked to elicit such a reaction. The whole episode marked him so profoundly that the book is, among others, dedicated to that nameless German lady ; and is otherwise full of other, more mundane accounts of “nice Germans” among the less common, but even more terrifying in comparison, absolute asshole Germans.
Just as it’s too easy to dismiss Hitler as a monster, it’s too easy to pigeonhole the Germans that put him in power as either all Nazi fanatics, or robots, or silent accomplices.
So there’s that human, humane aspect to keep in mind. Which, IMO, was being actively and deliberately crushed by the Nazis, who, apparently and in the context of German cities (as opposed to within the camps themselves, outside Germany proper etc…) reserved even harsher punishments to Germans who were perceived as failing the race/country/Führer by fraternizing, commiserating, helping or having sex with the victims of the regime as they gave to the victims themselves.
Hitler and his rag tag team of braincases put the boot on everyone’s neck, not just the untermensch.
Huh. That was even more rambling of me than usual.
Fair enough - my apologies.
I think this points to an important distinction in Nazi tactics towards different types of Jews. Western European Jews, including German ones, were more integrated. People had Jewish neighbors, Jewish doctors, Jewish friends, Jewish school and work mates. While Judaism could be sold as the enemy, it was harder to sell individual Jews as that enemy. Eastern Jews, however, were much more “alien” to the Germans who came across them - being mainly the Wehrmacht and the Order Police (excluding the SS here because, well, the successful level of indoctrination there was much higher). Convincing the German military that they were the enemy and needed killing was much easier.
Even then, the shift from direct killing by Germans to “industrial” killing in the camps was needed to make the whole action more mentally tolerable.
A great pair of books to read are Victor Klemperer’s diaries - I Will Bear Witness. He was a German Jew, married to a Gentile, a language professor and a veteran of World War 1. As such, he was among the most protected of German Jews, and the books provide a wonderful insight into the slow stripping away of every right he had. There’s great commentary on his interaction with gentile Germans. What he makes clear though is how rare good interactions were, especially once the war started.
I’ve read a fair amount on the German resistance to the Nazis. Part of the problem was the great success the Nazis had in destroying the organization of the SPD and unions (with the full cooperation of Conservatives, other Nationalists, Industrialists and elements of the Churches). The KPD because of its cell mentality seemed to survive a little better, but was pretty much hamstrung too. Once the collective organizations for potential resistance were destroyed, there wasn’t a lot of chance left.
Exactly! If we are looking to history to not repeat itself, perhaps we should ask ourselves if there are people alive today who in the right context could cause great loss of life and pain and suffering? Seems to me that we might be able to do something about context. But what are you going to do about folks with goofy ideas?
Is Ben Laden the cause of all that is wrong in the middle east or is it something else? If we get rid of Ben Laden does it all get better?
If China grows to be the world economic power resulting in substantial decline in the American standard of living, will a charismatic leader rise up to lead Americans in battle against all things Chinese?
Remember we had a guy in high office that said he was put there by God.