I am not an expert on Hitler. But my father is.
He toured post-war Germany extensively in 1957 and ’58 as a child performer. And he often recounts the stories. He befriended teenage Lebensborn children (if you don’t know what Lebensborn children are …well …before you post anymore about Hitler you should read about them). He visited an SS widow and got a peek at her husband’s uniform and Luger (that he’d committed suicide with), she had stored in an old trunk, in the attic.
These and other intense experiences in Germany sent my father on a life-long quest to understand this sociopath (Hitler) and the country that allowed itself to be dragged into one of the darkest chapters in world history. My dad is a Hitler/Nazi buff the way Indiana Jones’ dad was a Holy Grail buff.
As the son of a man with this hobby (one might call obsession) I learned a lot about Hitler and the Third Reich just by osmosis, growing up. My father would weave WWII stories into his sermons. He would talk about new books he was reading on the subject. When I was nine-years-old I bought him a book on the battle of Stalingrad for Christmas. Not a tie or a pair of socks. A book …on the battle …of Stalingrad. Yeah …it was kinda like that.
The thing my father and I have often discussed, through the years, is the eye-rolling art of comparing American presidents to Hitler. It is such an absurdity we find it amusing …and frustrating. It’s often just a punch line. Like the Soup Nazi wasn’t really a Nazi. He was just mean. The Nazi part made it funny. You know …over-the-top. Like “grammar Nazi” or “spelling Nazi.” Nobody is really a “Nazi.” It’s our representation of something we consider jarring, strident, intractable and inhumane.
But the truth about Nazis isn’t funny at all. It’s bloody and horrible and gut churning. And it involves machine guns and butchery and inhumanity on a scale that takes your breath away. Nobody is really a “soup Nazi” …unless they served it in a concentration camp.
The idea of comparing an American president to Hitler is just as absurd …from any angle, in any context. The American system ITSELF pretty much prevents “Hitlers” from showing up. And America ITSELF is anathema to what Hitler was trying to create. An American ANYTHING or ANYONE is hard to fit into the Hitler model. It’s just not apples to apples.
There are some fundamental things to understand about Hitler:
1. He took over a small, failing state that didn’t have separated government, enumerated powers or checks and balances. It’s difficult for a guy like that to show up here, in this system.
2. His entire political career was violent from the beginning. There was always death in his wake. He didn’t just suddenly “turn” violent. It was a pattern …as it always is with sociopaths. This is THE most important thing to watch; the violence. I always keep an eye on who is rioting …breaking things …throwing rocks and bombs. It doesn’t make them Nazis. But it signals how far they’re willing to go.
3. He entered office with his own personal military construct (the SS) with allegiance to him ONLY. They would carry out things the regular military would never carry out: i.e. the murder of private citizens and political opponents. Nothing like that exists or COULD exist in America. We simply wouldn’t allow it.
4. He didn’t start out just killing Jews. He started out euthanizing people with special needs …for the betterment of the care-givers’ lives. (You can decide which side of the aisle favors the extermination of “inconvenient” people).
5. He disarmed the population, then nationalized healthcare and education. (Two-out-of-three of those are Bernie Sanders moves …But, guess what? Bernie isn’t Hitler either …not by a long shot)
The list goes on and on. But the deal is this:
Hitler was a real life murdering sociopath.
He wasn’t just a charismatic speaker who incrementally fell into bad behavior.
He wasn’t just a racist corrupted by unfettered power.
In other words, you or I probably couldn’t end up being Hitler. A garden variety KKK leader probably couldn’t end up being Hitler either …or a community organizer …or a New York real-estate tycoon.
It’s not that easy or simple.
NONE of our American presidents have ever been Hitler. But the people of Germany certainly thought FDR was a murdering dictator when B-17s started dropping bombs on them. This is why you have to KNOW what you believe and why you believe it. Good guys and bad guys are often in the eyes of the beholder. And they often look similar in the fog of conflict. I would imagine Japanese Americans in internment camps wondered if their president was Hitler-like. Nope. Horrible act …but not close to Hitler.
To that point, ironically, the American president who could’ve actually been likened to Hitler (before Hitler) in some of his methods was …wait for it …Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln broke more constitutional law than any other president in U.S history. He imprisoned political opponents without due process. He suspended habeas corpus. He was personally responsible for the deaths of six hundred thousand people.
He invaded countries that had declared their own sovereignty and forced them back into a union they didn’t want to be a part of. He unilaterally annexed Nevada, without 60 thousand residents, (a pre-requisite for becoming a state) in order to carry it and win the 1864 election. In other words, he pretty much rigged it.
And when he was killed by the highest paid and most famous actor of his day (ironic …don’t you think?), the actor screamed “death to tyrants!” (in latin) because the man thought he was being a patriot for ridding the world of a dictator. But he wasn’t …and he didn’t.
Lincoln did all of those things to end and win the Civil War. And today we love him for it …as we should. Because in the end, his vision was right …even though his methods were suspect in the heat of the moment.
When people think they’re seeing a Hitler, they might actually – sometimes – be seeing something closer to a Churchill. Before WWII everyone thought Churchill was the big bad wolf. His own people hated him and thought he was a Hitler type character (again …pre-Hilter). But he just kept saying, “guys …I’m telling you. This Hitler guy is the real problem. Not me.” And he turned out to be right. There’s a difference between an abrasive leader who makes you uncomfortable …and a despot.
Now, people are comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. And the countdown has officially begun, to …well …I don’t know …but something really bad. I get that someone who is combative with the press and who wants to vet refugees and shut down open immigration fits the bill some are always looking for when it comes to finally getting their “Hitler” villain.
But if you study enough about it, you realize the guy vetting and banning refugees is probably not Hitler …the guy CREATING refugees probably is.
If we keep looking for Hitler in every United States president we disagree with, we’re not going to recognize the real one when he actually shows up …in a different country.
What a crock of shit.If Hitler would have died in 1939 he would have been known as the greatest leader Germany ever had.He took back control of the currency from the Jewish Banking Establishment and in 7 years turned Germany into an economic / military superpower.Most of the evidence of the so called Holocaust is also bullshit. It is one of the biggest lies ever told to Western society.Prove me wrong before you piss and moan about racism.
So the movies of the GI’s liberating the Camps were faked?
RiNS:
You are truly dull. Do you suppose the GIs liberated the camps in 1939? Course you did. Thanks for demonstrating your mastery of history. If Hitler hadn’t started WWII he would have been known as the greatest statesman of the 20th Century, the man who united Germany, something even Bismarck couldn’t accomplish. He lifted Germany out the disaster of Weimar and Versailles, something FDR couldn’t do.
You didn’t answer his question; just heaved insults. Not an argument.
Neither is saying Hitler would have been the greatest blah, blah, blah…IF HE HADN’T STARTED WWII! Hilarious. Besides, you don’t know that, pure speculation on your part.
Following your logic, how about this: Barack Obama would have been known as the greatest US President in history if he would have eliminated the Federal Reserve.
He did it by starting WWII, that is what gave unified purpose to the German people -the only thing that could- and eventually also gave a death to the Third Reich you seem to admire Hitler for creating.
I hate to bust your me know more shit bubble junior, but it was war enthusiast Churchill who started WWII and played a YUGE role in fomenting WWI. If Hitler had been allowed to destroy Communism/Stalin in the East , the world would now be a better place, but then what would the MIC doe for fun and profit? The USA did a very stupid think attacking Germany.
Two books and please STFU about it until you get some real knowledge about how the bloodfest known as WWII came to be.
Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World Paperback – July 28, 2009
by Patrick J. Buchanan (Author)
Great Wars and Great Leaders: A Libertarian Rebuttal Paperback – April 2, 2015
by Ralph Raico (Author), Robert Higgs (Foreword)
and free here:
https://mises.org/library/great-wars-and-great-leaders-libertarian-rebuttal
I guess a lot of TBP readers are coming to see the truth.
As others have said, while the existence of concentration camps was 100% real and was not hidden by the Nazi regime, the Zionist claims of “6 million dead” is not only not proven but in fact not plausible, with all the implausible efficiencies and logistics that would be required for that, and comparing the post-war census of Jews to the pre-war census and known emigration.
I’m not denying that the Nazis murdered large numbers of people, including large numbers of Jews. But realistic numbers of Jews killed are closer to 1M, with much of that the on the spot killings as the SS went into villages. A lot of those massacres were incredibly brutal – many cases of villages being herded into a barn or church which was then set on fire – yet oddly those provable, brutal massacres don’t get so much attention, while the sci-fi claims of mechanized death camps killing Jews by the millions gets all the PR. Propaganda.
If you aren’t already aware of this, take 10 minutes to do your own research, it will quickly be obvious. And once you’ve done that, look up the Armenian genocide, the Holodomor (Ukraine under the USSR / Stalin), and the general murderousness of the USSR from 1917 until Kruschev. Then look up what religious-ethnic group controlled 95% of senior political posts in the USSR during that era. Hint: it wasn’t Orthodox Christians and it wasn’t Nazis.
I’ve yet to see one Hollyfucktard movie made about the 66 million Christians killed by Bolshevik Jews …not one.
Jewish Bolsheviks Murdered
66 Million In Russia
http://www.rense.com/general77/bols.htm
Some good points there. There were concentration camps, but no way did they have the technology or labor capacity to incinerate the alleged millions.
As for war, Hitler, Churchill, FDR, Stalin, and the Polish leaders were all bad actors in different ways. Lots of self interests got them all on the path to war. The History Channel slant that Hitler was the centerpiece is childish history at best.
He was ok, ’til he said Lincoln was right. Slavery had nuthin to do with it (Read DiLorenzo).
But if the takeaway is that U.S. Presidents haven’t been Hitler, then yeah, that is silly.
Lincoln was the worst kind of despot. No other nation had to fight a war to end slavery-though Lincoln didn’t give a wit about blacks. He managed to kill 700,000 Americans through his egoism and vanity. He destroyed a third of the USA for over 70 years. Worse his excesses have never been matched ever, although FDR, Wilson, LBJ and Obama tried.
Yeah, as a Southerner I don’t agree “Lincoln was right.”
Here’s two good books on the Civil War by Clyde Wilson:
Understanding the War Between the States
Southern Independence: Why War?
And here’s one on Reconstruction:
Washington’s KKK: The Union League During Southern Reconstruction
This stuff didn’t happen in a vacuum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacist_uprising
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are interesting. Karl’s second wife was Russian, and a bit of an enigma.
This was on the heels of the 1917 Russian revolution. By 1919, the Jewish-run Bolsheviks were well on the path to genociding the ethnic German middle-class in Russia. In fairness to the Jewish communists, this was a continuation of Tsarist policies, but they did continue it. Seemingly gleefully.
https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/research/scholarly/meetings_conventions/dr_sinner.html
The NSDAP could not have been unaware of these events. It was not unreasonable for them to view a communist government coming to power in Germany as a precursor of the complete extermination of the German people.
It is difficult to lend any credence to Jewish moans of victimhood, when they went there first.
Always remember that the winners write the history. Pearl Harbor was a dastardly sneak attack when I was young. Recently declassified documents show otherwise. The stinkin’ Japs & those dirty Nazi bastards didn’t want to control the world after all, but we’re still taught that & most believe it. The entanglements of ridiculous treaties assured the shit was going to hit the fan. A redux, or just a continuation, of WW1. Standard Oil made $$ from both sides, Ford made $$ from both sides, the list goes on. Follow the $$. Hitler was the devil, Lee Harvey was the lone gunman, the Civil War was about slavery, 6 million died in the camps, it’s all a sham. It’s all about $$ & power. The real psychopaths are still walking free & causing mayhem.
Bionic Mosquito’s ongoing project “Timeline to War” is a real interesting read for anyone who may be interested.
Pt.1
http://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/p/timeline-to-war.html
& Pt. 2
http://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/p/timeline-to-war-begini.html
Wow. The fact that this blog even allowed an article this historically ignorant to be published destroys The Burning Platform’s entire credibility. This is a total shill piece and as far as I’m concerned, “outs” the entire group, whoever they are, behind this front of a website. At this point in the game, anyone who has not done their own REAL independent research into WWII is either controlled opposition or a complete fool. In either case, no one should be listening to them.
What do you expect from a Pentecostal tent-kid that struck it big writing songs and now lives in San Francisco with an adopted Chinese baby…
The writing is definitely with the standard, talk-out-of-both-sides-of-the-mouth “gee whiz, the mass murdering ideologists on our side were bad, but not as bad as the other guys we empowered” bullshit.
Like his Churchill comment, about the guy who set up the Lusitania sinking to get the stupid Tanks into The War to End All Wars.
The fact that this blog allowed the moronic assessment of TBP by this dickwad on the basis of one article just convinces me further that if you give an idiot the means to express and expose his idiocy to the world, he will do so in the worst way possible; by assuming he is the lord judge and final say in a matter. That job is already filled by Stucky.
Somebody please flip Oberonadon over, he’s done.
Well EL Coyote, that is a statement from you I can get on board with.
Wipper, we are not enemies. I heckle people for sport, it means nothing. I simply want to respond so that folks don’t get the impression that their opinion is unseen and unheard.
They are on a national blog, for god’s sake. They should give it their personal best and be responsible for what they say.
We are listening, we are aware.
Sic ’em EC.. Maybe shithead Oberonadon would be happier trolling some weasel infested left wing site, but we know that won’t happen because, unlike TBP, he would be banned after his first stupid comment. As far as I know . and I’ve been around the webs, TBP is the only site that does not censor speech. Oberpissdon should consider himself fortunate to have found his way here.
Look, these kinds of articles are predictable, there is always somebody with some expert knowledge that will end the debate. Somebody who knew somebody who knew the real JFK shooter, the real identity of DB Cooper, the real hiding place of Jimmy Hoffa…
One person with a paucity of proof wants to quell all questioning: I knew Hitler, Hitler was my friend, Trump is no Hitler.
End of argument, everybody go home.
Wow, you’re brainwashed. Let me tell you, sport, all you know about History is a lie. The Government tells you a story, like the media. That story supports the government and has little to do with truth.
Hitler didn’t want War. He wasn’t invading anyone. He was just taking back German Territory with German people that were stolen by the Versailles Treaty. Most of the Germans didn’t like being forced into other countries against their will. The Poles were allowing Germans to be raped and slaughtered. Churchill instigated attacks to make Hitler invade. Britain and France had no intention of honoring their “treaty” with Poland.
Its interesting to see the Allies didn’t declare War on Stalin, even though he invaded Poland at the same time. It was all a blatant attempt by that washed up drunk Churchill to get a reason to start a War. That stupid asshole destroyed and bankrupted the British Empire to save his career. He was kicked out of the Government during WWI for the disaster at Gallipoli, the worst massacre of Australian Troops ever. That lazy asshole didn’t bother scouting the beach, and the Aussies couldn’t climb the cliffs and were slaughtered.
Hitler closed the banks and erased the unpayable debts by the International Jewish Bankers. World Jewry declared War on HIM in 1933. The Jews started the War.
My grandmother was in a concentration camp. Unfortunately, she died when I was young, and I was too young to ask any details about it.
Interestingly enough, she was born in Checkoslovakia but ended up living in Germany.
Adolf Hitler Superstar…
“I am not an expert on Hitler. But my father is. He toured post-war Germany extensively in 1957 and ’58 as a child performer. ” — article
Ummm, TOURING Germany in nineteen fucking fifty-seven does NOT make you an expert! So solly.
You want experts? You talk to people like my parents — and the parents of other folks here, like maybe Suzanna — who, you know, LIVED UNDER the Hitler regime. And not some assclown who “toured” Germany for two fucken years.
You talk to their kids — people like me, who have heard countless first hand stories. Not that I would say anything about because I don’t and won’t. I’m somewhat like Llpoh and, unknown to most of us here until recently, his extensive theology background. I have read extensively about Hitler and that era of Germany’s history. Why? To understand my parents better. I have listened to their stories, few as they might be. The German Club has hundreds of stories told by many who lived in that time. I’ve heard many of them … from early childhood on up.
I’m not bragging. It just so happens that I know a little about the subject. And in my humble opinion, this guy is mostly full of shit.
For example, this small gem — “He took over a small, failing state ..”. Small??? There are about 50 countries in Europe now — ok, less back then — but, Germany is/was in the Top 5 or so in size and population. He’s a moron. Failed states don’t produce thousands of planes, tanks, ships, artillery, and other HOME made weaponry that rivaled the world’s superpowers in less than a decade. He’s a moron.
I rarely ever comment on Hitler/Germany/Nazi posts. Most people are full of shit. Most have no knowledge other than what they can google just before posting. Everybody thinks and acts like they’re experts. All that is ever revealed, even when it’s true, is tiny little glimpses of what Hitler was … and never the complete picture. “Hitler was this — no, that!, — he believed this, no that!” It’s a huge and complicated picture really.
Hitler experts (and I’m NOT one) are like people who claim to know the most complex Being in the universe …. God. “God is this. God is that. God told me this. God wants you to do that.” Gimme a damn break! You don’t know jack shit about God … you just think and pretend you do. That’s what Hitler experts are like. And just like God experts, a Hitler experts will get really really pissed off at you if you disagree with them … to be followed by name calling and lame ass fake facts to back their claims. It is a worthless fucken endeavor …one I refuse to take part in.
His premise is correct though. Calling everyone you don’t like a “Hitler” is just plain asinine. Tiring. Ignorant. Nonsensical. More than anything, it shows the utter stupidity of the person making the claim. And via massive overuse it is really losing the ability to produce its intended reaction; shock and awe. “That James Quinn- he’s a real Hitler!!” should only result in one big Y-A-W-N!! If everyone is a Hitler, no one is a Hitler.
The author is a real dick. Or, is he a pussy? I don’t even know the difference between the two. Is a pussy worse than a dick? They’re just two more overused words. Maybe he can write about that next time.
I noted last time when I said I’d back off Trump, that folks now are too young to react appropriately to the Hitler name-calling, that they can’t relate to a person who is part of ancient history. The modern era begins with Kennedy. There are folks here who think the British invasion was begun by the Beatles.
I’m reading a book about Dietrich Boenhoffer. In it there is an interesting assertion. I say assertion because the story is just presented as a fact as if everyone knows it’s true … yet, in many years of reading about this I’ve never seen it before.
Anyway, the assertion is/was that a coiterrie of the High Command was poised to conduct a coup that would have been triggered by Hitler ordering occupation of the Sudentenland. However, in the 11th hour, Chamberline flew in … thereby causing the plotters to question everything and not following through. That is, there was going to be a coup but Chamberline’s action stopped it. Interesting possibilities there.
There are many curious facts about the whole German deal in the 30’s and 40’s. One that I can’t escape is that Hitler did allow the British Army to escape at Dunkirk through personal intervention. Why? Lot’s of good theories there.
Finally, I am persuaded that the western powers viewed Germany through Hitler, as a shield and dagger pointed at the Russians. They funded and armed him in the 30’s. Thus, he served the western elites’ purpose until Poland.
“5. He disarmed the population ”
Um…no he didn’t .The “good guys ” aka the allies disarmed the German people after WWI .Hitler restored German citizens right to bear arms… except the Jews, but then they weren’t Germans were they?
How nonsensical – supposedly ‘Putting An End To This Hitler Nonsense…’ with such nonsense. I completely understand the merits in hearing both sides of an argument, but this article is just retarded.
Have you ever seen the movie The Village? It’s about a group of people living in a 18th-century village surrounded by a forest and the predominant theme is that in the forest there are a race of monsters- “Those We Don’t Speak Of”- that will kill anyone unwise enough to venture there, but that a truce has been established and serves as the only protection against resumed hostilities between the two groups is enforced by a constant vigilance and blood offerings.
I have no idea what M Night Shamalayan was trying to represent when he wrote this movie, but the parallels are very close. Hitler was a boogeyman to an entire generation of Americans who didn’t know if they’d be victorious. What Germany did was unique in terms of industrialization, defeating the banking cartels, regenerating a spirit within a unified people that could be used for purposes of good or evil- and like most cultures, a mix of the two depending on what side of the cultural divide you happened to live. After his defeat as in most wars, Hitler would have been relegated into the hall of shame as another defeated adversary, like Napoleon, King George, Jefferson Davis, The Kaiser- but instead, he was crafted into a character that defined “Enemy” or “Evil” for political purposes that served other ends. Like the elaborate monster in The Village, it was a charade meant to frighten people away from the forest (unapproved thought/socio-political ideology/racial collectivism) that posed a threat to those who sought their own political hegemony. The elites running The Village in the movie are the older generation who fled from the modern world in order to protect their families from the dangers of urban violence and their initial reasons for creating a mythology to reinforce their isolation were based on fear and as a result of trauma. That it was not based on truth was secondary to the protection of their world view, to tell a lie in the object of a greater good was justified and pretending that there existed a monster where there was none was essential in perpetuating their particular culture.
Anyone who looks at history dispassionately- and I will grant you that it is extremely difficult to do that-can see that there are no exclusively “evil” people/nations/ideologies and no exclusively “good” ones either. We dropped atom bombs on civilian populations. We can justify those actions by pointing to losses that we might have suffered in their absence, but it is the actions that must be judged, not the intents. I am certain having read through this period of history from multiple viewpoints that the Germans felt no different than the Italians, the Japanese, the British or the Soviets concerning the actions that they took in order to promote and defend their own particular worldview. The difference is that the defeated people do not write the history.
Literally Hitler is a version of “Those We Don’t Speak Of”- a creation designed to limit our understanding and knowledge, not offer us greater freedom of choice.
Look at some of the advances Germany made during that era- The first interstate highway systems, the jet engine, neo-classical art that was uplifting- if we say that any of these are useful, beautiful, innovative or valuable, does that make us a Nazi by default? If one group of people are inherently bad or evil then everything associated with them is tainted.
So just researching that time or those cultural, political and social theories is somehow “dirty” and unacceptable and the most potent tool to prevent anyone from challenging the bad, evil or degenerate aspects of our present culture is to tar them with the brush of being a Nazi or a Hitler.
Freedom is one of the most fragile human conditions we have ever experienced, the true liberty to follow one’s thoughts wherever they may go has always been limited by those who seek to impose some form of control over the population in order to ensure their own hegemony.
At this stage of history and knowing what we do it is intellectually lazy to use those terms where they do not apply, but it is politically expedient. So much has been invested in the Hitler(tm) Brand that the purveyors no longer have logical and rational defenses of their plan, but the ever-present fear that invoking “Those We Do Not Speak Of” brings to the collective subconscious.
Like Nietzsche said, “if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee”
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Joacquin Phoenix as The American People, foreground, Donald “Literally Hitler” Trump as “Those We Do Not Speak Of” background.
Who the hell is Regi Hamm? I saw one person comment that he’s a singer. Never heard of him.
San Fran. Need I say more?
hello,
I am not an expert, but I heard many people, that were living
in Germany during the war, talk about their experiences.
As an only child, not seen and not heard, sitting in the corner or
under a table, I listened to a room full of people that had a schnapps
or a few beers beforehand. This in the USA, from people that immigrated
after the German mandatory 5 year wait/application process. I have also done
my share of reading, dispassionately, at that…at least by this point.
My conclusion is the WWll was started/controlled by international bankers.
Next, Jews were unpopular in Germany. Certainly not the everyday persons,
but those that “took over” the country and monopolized/controlled it. The
Power People. Third, war is a brutal business. Once the warriors get started
they loose their discrimination and their humanity. It is the innocent population
that takes the most casualties and starves. Brutality thrives as warriors become
inhumane. That said, Jews were forced into work camps, and protestors were
also sent there. There wasn’t anymore pastoral life/farming, and rationing of
food and all goods was in place. People certainly died in the work camps from
the lack of food, clothing, and shelter. Disease spread and many died. Hitler
did not build death camps, he built work camps. Work camps became death
camps. Anyone that didn’t want to join the “Party” (or wasn’t allowed to)
suffered. No job, no food, and likely harassment.
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, 2007
This tells a fair story of small town Germany. My Mom (91) read
it first…request, we put it on her Kindle. As it was, neither of us “enjoyed”
the book, but Mom said it was an accurate depiction.
I repeat, international bankers fomented the war, and financed it.
Thanks, Suzanna
PS: I was born just after the war, parents applied and waited the 5 years.
We were part of the 2 suitcase immigrants. We did not sneak into the US
or receive benefits. We had a “sponsor”…had my parents failed, we would
have been deported.
Here’s a bit of Hitler history I bet no too many know about. Hitler visited the UK in his early life prior to his failed artist phase and stayed for a short while in Liverpool.
Actually if he had been given a bit more credit for his water colours the entire unpleasantness of 1939 – 1945 could have been avoided all together. Personally, I blame it all on those picky/elite Profs at the Vienna academy of fine art.
Something to consider for those who believe that Germans elected the national socialists, because they woke up one morning were in a bad mood.
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Fascism happens, when the only alternative is communism.
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“The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William L. Shirer is a fairly objective assessment of the time. Lots of good information in there, like:
Albert Speer was the man responsible for Germany ( a nation largely without oil, some coal, few substitutes) being able to hold out and fight for so long; a man so dangerously capable and creative that the Soviets insisted he be held as the last man in Spandau(?) prison, long after the others had died / been released
The initial deceptions (Reichstag fire, Polish “radio station” attack, others) that Hitler and Goebbels used to justify war to the sceptics among the German people
The atrocities on both sides: the firebombing of Dresden, the Blitz, the Russian campaign, the concentration camps, the Norwegian / Denmark / Yugoslavian conquests: terror as a tool of war
And much more. There was plenty of evil to go around in those days …