Ask me about Adolf Hitler.

[Quadstriker]

[ QUOTE ]

You guys win last post in this thread. BTW for clarification i have no problems with AC thinking hitler is great or whatever,

[/ QUOTE ]

How can you have so many posts in this thread, yet obviously didn't read a word of it?

[WiredSevens]

Hitler played chess.

How good was he?

I heard he wasn't that good, and thus I dont think he was great at military strategy.

Was he ashamed that he wasnt as good at chess as others?

[Triumph36]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
shadowrun:

you can have your own 'ask me about being a nit' thread. leave this subject to ac slater, please.

[/ QUOTE ]

whatever, my main point was that if someone really thinks they can learn about the human condition from reading a bunch of books/movies about hitler, then they are really missing out.

You guys win last post in this thread. BTW for clarification i have no problems with AC thinking hitler is great or whatever, rather my only contention is that a person thinks he knows all about the human condition from one man (that is only represents one extreme)

[/ QUOTE ]

god could you stop saying foolish things for a second

ac slater is fascinated by hitler. if he said 'i can understand the human condition through hitler', that's obviously a little deluded and you can attribute that to one man's curious passion and just let it go. but no, nitty you has to go and argue the point - 'NO HITLER IS NOT A WINDOW INTO MAN'S SOUL BLAH BLAH BLAH'. adolf hitler is a fascinating man and his life offers many lessons about humanity and the human condition - no one is saying he is the alpha and omega of humanity.

so in other words you are a nit

[schundler]

shadow,

Slater never called himself any sort of expert on the "human condition". All he said was that Hitler is a particularly interesting case study, and that from his study he's drawn some knowledge or insight into the human condition, a claim which seems reasonable.

[miajag]

[ QUOTE ]
Is there any evidence backing the theory that some, or all, of Hitler's downfall was the result of a world travelled teddy bear?

[/ QUOTE ]

lol

[ata]

[ QUOTE ]

whatever, my main point was that if someone really thinks they can learn about the human condition from reading a bunch of books/movies about hitler, then they are really missing out.

You guys win last post in this thread. BTW for clarification i have no problems with AC thinking hitler is great or whatever, rather my only contention is that a person thinks he knows all about the human condition from one man (that is only represents one extreme)

[/ QUOTE ]

ban

[wmonfor]

good thread IMO, slater does an excellent job of simultaneously fielding questions, explaining his desire for knowledge pertaining to Hitler, and fending off nits.

and shadowrun, go make your own [censored] thread about whatever instead of trying to hijack this one.

[Dynasty]

Did you read Traudl Junge's book and what did you think of it?


For those who aren't familiar with Junge, she was one of Hitler's personal secretary during the last 2.5 years of his life. She was in the Fuhrebunker until his death. She's a primary character in the film Der Untergang (Downfall) (which anybody who has enjoyed this thread should see).


This interview with Junge in 2002 is remarkable.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

[Hamish McBagpipe]

[ QUOTE ]
It is the obsession with Hitler but without the obvious historical context, i.e., the consequences of his rise to power that I think are disturbing some people in this thread, and frankly I find bizarre.


[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly. Well said. The OP has given us nothing more than what everyone who has read even a cursory biography of Hitler would and should already know. I find it hard to believe that most of you haven't run across most of this stuff at some point or another.

Hitler was a vegetarian, he liked animals, he was a failed artist and on and on. The OP has given very little connection between this kind of minutia and the much more important context of the man's political career, military success and failures, economic and national policies etc.

If an investigation into Hitler's sexuality, for instance, or other hypothetical triflings has the aim of finding out some greater human truth then fine, but I think this is nothing but a juvenile and sophmoric pursuit.

That is, many people when first confronted with literature and images of the Holocaust are drawn to the minutia. The experiments, the piles of bodies, the gas chambers, etc. Lots of 14 year old kids go through this stage. A fascination with the man behind it all is part of this process. However, a real academic study of all the events that this man affected - the military campaigns of the war, the Holocaust's historical/sociological roots and reprecussions, the political landscape of Germany etc. - depend little on whether or not [censored] Blondi was a Shepherd or a Dachshund. Hugely complicated subjects like the complicity of the German public to the Nazi's extermination policy or the Eastern front's failure hinge very little on whether or not old Adolph had a hard-on for his niece, as titillating as this bizarre side story may be.

I wouldn't go as far as to say, "He was friggin' nuts, leave it at that." But I would say that a fascination with his personal life, which we will never know much about, is about as useful as looking at the pictures of piles of boots recovered from death camps without understanding or investigating how that image came about.

[hongster]

Is Ian Kershaw's biography of Hitler your fav Hitler book or what?