Springtime for Hitler

Christopher Jones reports: "Beginning in September, two films are being released in Germany that upset the conventional picture of Adolf Hitler as Chaplin's comical "Great Dictator" or the embodiment of evil banality, both cherished characterisations in phoney Hollywood.  Two top actors in German speaking Europe, Bruno Ganz and Tobias Moretti have taken on the role of the Führer and both admit to portraying the Nazi chieftain as "a person" and not "a monster."  In Bernd Eichinger's saga "The Downfall" (scheduled for September 16) about Hitler's last days in his bunker, Bruno Ganz, an excellent Swiss actor who is part of Vienna's Burgtheater ensemble portrays Hitler so well that a few nights ago at a preview, the guests confessed to a certain "pity" or "sadness" regarding Hitler.  Suddenly, God forbid, the Führer was a person.  Sometime in 2005, "The Devil's Architect" will be seen.  In Heinrich Breloer's film, Tobias Moretti plays the Führer in a biography of Albert Speer, the garrulous Nazi armaments minister who was also Hitler's chief architect.  Moretti who always plays heroes, listened to the famous Finnish tape recording of Hitler, where the Nazi dictator talks normally.  It is the only document we have where Hitler talks like you and me.  To study up for his part Moretti listened over and over to this tape and recently told the FAZ newspaper, "As paradoxical as it sounds, when I play Hitler, I must defend him."
 
The FAZ's Frank Schirrmacher wrote that these two films "are the most important historical projects in Germany in many years," while others openly fret that the portrayal of Hitler as a member of the human race could engender some sympathy for him.  So what?  The reason that this mild "revision" has occured is that almost every major figure of the Second World War is dead and Hitler like his Third Reich has passed on into history.  It is not a revision to rehabilitate, it is revision to be able to understand the phenomenon Adolf Hitler".

RH: Will there be a revision so that we can understand the phenomenon Joseph Stalin?

Randy Black lived in Omsk and married a Russian. They and her mother now live in Texas.  He writes: "Mr. Jones’ post almost causes me to feel sorry for Adolph Hitler and the Germans. How could I have ever disliked “good old Adolph?” The man that directly caused the deaths of millions of Europeans for no other reason that the God whom they worshipped is certainly to be pitied. I suppose I should tell my mother-in-law to revise her thoughts on “the phenomenon Adolph Hitler.” She and her parents survived by eating tree bark, boiling grass and hiding in a hole in the ground for weeks in their region of western Russia after the Germans destroyed everything in their path during the invasion. I’ll tell her it was not really an invasion but simply the Germans in search of a new vacation destination.
I’ll run downstairs right now and tell her that Hitler was “a sympathetic person.” Thanks for correcting my misconceptions of “the phenomenon Hitler,” Mr. Jones".
 
 David Crow comments on Christopher Jones' piece "Springtime for Hitler":  "We would be remiss if we didn't recall the portrayal of Hitler as an effeminate flower child in Mel Brooks's wonderful satire "The Producers".  Probably not historically accurate, but it did give us the wonderful song:  "Springtime for Hitler und Germany.  Winter fur Poland und France ..." RH: I suppose that is the origin of "Springtime for Hitler".

Daryl DeBell writes: "I have to agree with Christopher Jones that "phoney (sic) Hollywood" i.e. Chaplin, created a parody of Hitler, but, to me at least, at the time Hitler was a parody of himself. My understanding at the time was that Americans generally could not take such a strutting, grandiose figure seriously. To their regret perhaps, neither could Chamberlain and other statesmen at the time. The great difficulty with international relations is that totalitarianism and the power that is implicit in it is intoxicating not only to the leaders but also to the followers. It creates a pathological, pernicious fantasy of purity and perfection, with idealization of those false virtues and virtual dehumanization or 'others'. I am willing to call Hitler a monster along with Stalin and Saddam Hussein, to keep it a short list; unfortunately they are all still human. So were Calvin and the perpetrators of the Inquisition. Zeal and self-righteousness are fairly good predictors of monstrosity. North Korea appears to be following an eerily similar path, minus the racial features so far as I'm aware, but they are small potatoes compared to Germany. Christopher Jones's report sounds suspiciously like an effort to initiate an apology for Hitler; with me that will not wash".

RH: "Phoney" also spelt "phony" is sad to come from Forney, the name of a man ho made cheap jewelry. Calvin is an interesting case. He was very scholarly and led a virtuous life.  However, the two tubs of wine which the city of Geneva gave him in addition to his salary did not have a mellowing effect, He exiled or executed his critics such as the Unitarian Michael Servetus. I never heard this discussed in Geneva,  Calvinists, i.e.also Presbyterians, try to excuse this by saying it was part of the mores of the time.  Horrible as it was, the Inquisition has been blown up by Spain's Black Legend.  When I was a small boy in England, in school we read a short story by Edgar Allan Poe (was it "The Pit and the Pendulum"?) which gave a ghastly account of the tortures of the Inquisition. No wonder the English and Americans subscribed to the Black Legend.  The Inquisitors undoubtedly drank more tubs of wine than Calvin.  I suppose wine brings out the basic character of an individual.  If I impress you as being  hopelessly mild, attribute it to the red wine I got into the habit of drinking in countries where the water is unsafe.

Randy Black provides the lyrics from "Springtime for Hitler"

Germany was having trouble, what a sad, sad story
Needed a new leader to restore its former glory
Where, Oh where was he? Where could that man be?
We looked around and then we found
The man for you and me.
And now it's..

Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Deutschland is happy and gay
We're marching to a faster pace
Look out, here comes the master race.

Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Winter for Poland and France
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Come on, Germans, go into your dance.

I was born in Dusseldorf, and that is why they call me Rolf
Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party.

Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Goosestep's the new step today
bombs falling from the skies again
Deutschland is on the rise again.

Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Uboats are sailing once more.

Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Means that soon we'll be going
We've got to be going.  You know we'll be going to WAR!

http://www.ladyofthecake.com/mel/prod/prsounds.htm

Christopher Jones described attempts to understand Hitler as a human, saying "It is not a revision to rehabilitate, it is revision to be able to understand the phenomenon Adolf Hitler". I commented "Will there be a revision so that we can understand the phenomenon Joseph Stalin?"  Christopher replies: "Cameron Sawyer in Moscow is far better qualified to answer about Stalin, but I should add that the story of Hitler's last days is based solely on the memoirs of Traudel Jung, one of his young secretaries.  As Joachim Fest pointed out, in our collective effort to convert Hitler from a flawed human into Godzilla, most historians lost the chance to interview others who were in the Berlin bunker when they were released from Russian captivity. (I saw one interview in a film made by SMERSH with an SS general who described his last meeting with Hitler, the death of the Goebbels family and the attempt to broker a surrender after their deaths -- impossible.  SMERSH then found the body of Blondie -- the dead pooch's picture was included)  In fact, Fest is behind both docu-films, acting as historical consultant, on "The Downfall" which is based on his latest book.  Curiously, it seems that again it was Fest who was instrumental in getting Albert Speer to start talking after the war and played again his editor.  This is one of my prime preoccupations with the history of this period.  Historians were/are just too politically correct to even talk to the right people. Another interesting personality who never talked much was Arno Breker, the sculptor of the Nazi Reich, who did all those classic figures in "Olympia" and the famous bust of Hitler.  Reportedly, the artist Hitler did not get along with Breker, although the sculptor spent the war working at Albert Speer's side"

RH:An ignoramus, I checked Google to find out about Godzilla.  From 628,000 (!) entries I chose this: "It was a peaceful and productive forum; lively, congenial and a bounteous source of useful information. Then one day, completely without warning, Godzilla arose from the depths and blew his scalding breath on everything in his path. A phalanx of Warriors mobilized to attack the monster, only to be crushed like so many toy tanks under Godzilla's mighty feet. Godzilla soon reduced the forum to searing and consuming flames. Just as abruptly, he rumbled back beneath the waves, leaving all to tremble in fear of his return. Net life would never be the same. Sadly, many netizens who survive a Godzilla attack will become Xenophobes". I could not download the picture of the dragon Godzulla, who is clearly very unWAIS. Turn WAISers into xenophobes?? Never!!!

As for SMERSH, here is a note on Ian Fleming's James Bond series: "Smersh (short for Smert' Shpionam ( ), or "Death to Spies") was formed during the Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front was the primary theater of combat between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. In Russia, the war is referred to as the Great Patriotic War (Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna in Russian), a name which alludes to the Russo–Napoleonic Patriotic War on Russian soil in 1812. Some scholars of the conflict use the term Russo-German War, while others use Soviet-German War or German-Soviet War.
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Smersh was also used to punish those with in the NKVD The NKVD, or Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del ( )­People's Commisariat for Interior Affairs, was the name for the political (or "secret") police in the USSR in one of the stages of its development.  it was allowed to investigate whomever it wished within the NKVD structure, department and directorate heads were not immune from it, and if it found even the slight bit of evidence that they were somehow involved in whatever plot it was that week, they would be arrested, and tortured by Smersh, forced to sign fake confessions, put on a show trial .Typically, show trials were used to deal with the political opponents of the current government or of the Church.

One of its most notorious moments was when they slaughtered many Polish officers in the Katyn massacre The Katyn Forest Massacre occurred in the Soviet Union, in a forest near Gnezdovo village, a short distance from Smolensk. Many Poles had become prisoners of war following the invasion and defeat of Poland by the Nazis and the Soviet Union in September 1939. The Soviets filtered out any army and police officers and gathered them in three camps: Kozielsk, Ostaszkowo and Starobielsk. In addition, an atrocity that was later blamed on the Germans. Smersh was also used by INO (the NKVD's later KGB The KGB, short for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Russian: ; English: Committee for State Security), was the name of the main Soviet Security Agency and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police agency from March 13, 1954 to November 6, 1991. The KGB's domain was roughly comparable to that of the American Central Intelligence Agency combined with the counterintelligence and internal security divisions of the FBI.    FCD, First Chief Directorate, responsible for foreign intelligence operations outside of the USSR) to hunt down "enemies of the people" outside of Soviet territory. Eventually Smersh's activities were slowed down, but they never really ceased. Its name may have changed as the NKVD changed, but its duties always remained the same".

RH: Can Cameron Sawyer tell us if James Bond is known in Russia?  There is obviously plenty of material here for the suggested explanation of Stalin as a human being.

Randy Black says he "watched James Bond movies on Russian television in the mid-90s; it always used only one translator for all the parts to do a voice-over translation of the English language adventures. Can you imagine one man doing all the parts, whether male or female. It was especially funny when Bond was romancing a female, listening to him profess love and then her responding, in the came, gravely, Soviet male voice.
 
Randy's Russian wife points out that "she was never told that Americans were a danger to the USSR and that she does not recall any Soviet-era movies that vilified the USA. "The USSR never produced a movie named, "The Americans are coming, The Americans are coming." (in difference to "The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming," the 1966 US comedy involving a Soviet submarine and some folks in Maine".

RH: Can Cameron Sawyer verify what Randy's wife says?

Randy's Russian wife said that "she was never told that Americans were a danger to the USSR and that she does not recall any Soviet-era movies that vilified the USA. "The USSR never produced a movie named, "The Americans are coming, The Americans are coming." ( cf. "The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming," the 1966 US comedy involving a Soviet submarine and some folks in Maine). Since Soviet propaganda was so anti-American when I was in the USSR, I asked if Cameron Sawyer in Moscow could verify what Randy's wife said. Randy counters: "Cameron Sawyer was not born, was not raised, nor educated in the Soviet Union in the 60s-80s as was my wife. I have learned one thing about my wife's word: She does not embellish or exaggerate events in her life experiences. If she states that the Soviets were not taught that the US was the villain planning attacks on the USSR, you can go to the bank and borrow money on her word. On the other hand, she states that they were always prepared for invaders from any sources, the US included among many. In her schooling, she was definitely not taught to fear America. Many other nations attacked or attempted to invade the USSR, from the Finns and Germany in the 1930s to the Chinese in the 1960s".  RH: The way to solve this issue would be to look at Soviet textbooks of the period. I have on my desk Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward, History Lessons. How textbooks from around the world portray US History. Russian sources are included, but I assume they are of the post-Soviet period. The authors may have some comments. I have also a copy of International Textbook Research, published in Germany. I am copying this to the editor, Dr.  Wolfgang Höpken.  I would be most grateful for any comments he wishes to make. Has his journal published any articles on the subject? Since there is a reference to movies, perhaps someone familiar with Soviet films has a comment.  As for Cameron Sawyer in Moscow, he has many friends who lived through the Soviet period.  They may have comments. "The Russians Are Coming" was a farce which I did not take seriously.