HITLER

However evil, tyrannical and racist Hitler was, he was a remarkable individual. His rise to power was phenomenal, and when he had power, he used it to the full - as have many other ruthless dictators. What made Hitler a standout was his great powers of oratory – a gift that his peers in tyranny, Stalin and Mao Zedong, lacked. For a long time after the war, part of the way of mocking and belittling Hitler was to show a few seconds of his ranting and then comment on it unfavourably. Fair enough for the allied side. By visiting the YouTube (and other such), we are able re-evaluate recent political events. Make no mistake – I am not a Hitler supporter and I detest his doctrines and his methods. But he is a memorable figure.

When historians are asked who was the figure who most influenced the course of history in the twentieth century, they almost invariably choose Hitler. (Many website commentators chose Einstein or Gandhi, but worthy as these individuals are, their choice is optimistic rather than realistic.) The historians’ choice isn’t approval but recognition of Hitler’s dominance over the course of events. Hitler’s domination of Germany was reinforced through use of the aeroplane – and the radio. The prop aeroplane enabled him to appear all over Germany in a single day, while the radio ensured that virtually every household could hear his promises of German’s economic improvement and impending military glory.

It is an (almost) irresolvable debate as to who was more evil – or caused the greatest loss of life – Hitler, Stalin or Mao Zedong. Despite their godlike status (always a sign of moral degeneration), all three were guilty of crimes against humanity on a virtually unparalleled scale. Yet Mao is still venerated in China for setting up the system of communism and the foundation of modern China. Stalin’s hegemony was supreme while he lived but was subsequently undermined by Khrushchev. Hitler failed - whereas Stalin and Mao succeeded in that the systems of government they formulated, lasted, and they lived out their time until death ended their hegemony. By losing and by committing suicide, Hitler is rendered into a curiously tragic figure, a Wagnerian god who is more dramatically evil. The death of Hitler is a grand drama, the deaths of Stalin and Mao, by comparison, are examples of banal flatlining.

Hitler’s speeches were composed by himself and carefully rehearsed. As described by Clive James in his book Fame in the Twentieth Century (and guess who has more mentions than any other individual?): “It was his idea to enter a rally always from the rear of the auditorium, so that he appeared to emerge from among the people as the expression of their desires, the embodiment of their dreams about a better fate.” And here’s the calculated windup:  “He started by not talking at all, while the audience - already driven berserk by Hess – gradually calmed down. Waiting, Hitler looked like an ordinary man faced with too big a task. The audience grew apprehensive … All Germany held its breath as one. Into the silence Hitler launched his first soft words, the grammar dubious, the sentiments execrable, but the voice even at such a low pitch, already as brain-curdling as Kulminator, the most fatal brew of the Munich Beer Festival.”

If you watch the ten minute excerpt of one of Hitler’s most dramatic speeches you will notice how after each burst of applause - which he quiets with a gesture - his intensity rises a notch. Hitler says that a constantly changing vision has been replaced by a fixed pole – and with that the people rise to their feet and give the Hitler salute multiple times. “Not that I believe - but that I fight!” storms Hitler. “It is our wish and our will that this State and this Reich last a thousand years.” In other words it will equal the Roman Empire in duration. And then - oh rhetorician’s brilliance - he begins to thrust his hands forward towards the audience, shake his head, then crosses his arms over his heart – thus he appeals to them to enjoin with his words confirming that what he says comes from the heart. And then gives the smallest of smiles, a brief triumphal lift of the eyebrows – gestures and expressions only visible to the close up of the camera.

In the career and oratory of Hitler, we see a refutation of the Tolstoyan theory that history is driven by millions of decisions made by many individuals rather than prominent leaders imposing their will on the people and history. The success of Hitler and his defeat were due to military decisions usually made by the leaders at a high level not mysterious historical forces. Most of the time, soldiers obey their generals so the individual at grassroots level is subsumed beneath military and political command. However, it is true that the high war rhetoric of Hitler met with an enthusiastic response from Germans. It was a two-way dialogue but the initiative came from Hitler.

As is well known, Hitler’s principal military mistake was the invasion of Russia though it did not seem like a mistake initially. His reasons for invading Russia were four fold – he wanted living space for the German people – this was a mask for an imperialistic ambition to conquer the lands of those occupied by lesser beings - in this case, Slavic people. Second, he wanted to destroy Bolshevism. Thirdly, he wanted to rid the world of Jews. And half the world’s Jews lived in Russia. Fourth, he wanted to isolate England so that it would realise resistance to Germany’s military might was doomed to failure.

However, the reasons why he thought he would succeed were more specific. Stalin had killed up to ninety per cent of his generals. That meant Russia’s military commanders were inexperienced. Second, the Russians had fared badly against the Finns in 1940. Third, Hitler believed that Bolshevism was a corrupt system that would collapse. Fourthly, by attacking first he had the element of surprise. Fifth, his invading army was numbered between three and four million. At the smallest estimate, it was still five times the size of Napoleon’s Grand Armee that had invaded over a hundred years earlier. Sixthly, the German army was battle-experienced and so far defeated every army set against it with contemptuous ease.

In any event, for a raft of disputed reasons following Stalingrad and Kursk, German forces began to be driven back. This process had already began when they failed to reach Moscow in the winter of 1941.

Hitler ruined any chance of success by continually sacking his generals – Rundstedt was sacked four times, Guderian, the gifted panzer leader, twice. Though Manstein, Germany's most brilliant general, was able to retake Kharkov when the odds were seven to one against him, his attempts to reason with Hitler, usually over strategic withdrawals, were always overruled. If Hitler had let his generals alone, as Stalin (in a reversal of his earlier terrible purges) allowed his generals a measure of independence, it is conceivable that Germany could have won the war.

What would have been the outcome had Hitler not made so many mistakes e.g , bombing London instead of southern airstrips; letting the Brits evacuate from Dunkirk; delaying both the invasion of Russia and the start of the battle of Kursk;  not letting the full force of Army Group Centre sustain its attack on Moscow; not letting Manstein take charge of the Eastern Front against the Russians; not supplying his troops with winter gear; using the world's first military jet as a bomber instead of as a fighter; stop-starting the V1/V2 rocket programme; not consolidating his European victories enabling Germany to become the world's greatest superpower, declaring war on the United States – is an intriguing conjecture. Had Hitler recruited the Russian-hating Ukraine against Stalin, who knows what would have happened.

That will do for the heavy metal.

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A few off- beat stories about Hitler and the Nazis:

 

1. Mistakes at Stalingrad

Despite the well-earned reputation the Germans have for efficiency, they sometimes parachuted in the wrong supplies to the freezing, starving troops encircled at Stalingrad eg summer clothing, pepper (four tons), condoms, food spices. Meanwhile, the German troops began eating some 10, 000 horses, plus rats and eventually resorted to cannibalism.

 

2. Death by German chocolate

In mid 1943, MI 5 discovered the Germans were planning to assassinate Churchill with explosive chocolate. The metal substance concealing the explosive was covered in a thin layer of rich dark chocolate wrapped in expensive looking black and gold paper. Sounds familiar? It was to be carried on a tray into the dining room of the War Cabinet. British spies rumbled the plot and informed Lord Rothschild, a peacetime scientist, who asked artist Lawrence Fish to make a poster of the lethal confectionary. It took seven seconds for the explosive to detonate so one wonders what would have happened during the time of biting metal to the realisation something was not right. According to the delicioushistoryblog, the Nazis also planned comparable subterfuges with tinned plums, throat lozenges, shaving brushes, batteries, wood and … stuffed dogs. Both Churchill and Hitler were highly partial to chocolate.

 

3. German Love Dolls

Alarmed by Himmler’s comments over German soldiers contracting syphilis from French prostitutes, Hitler ordered the making of love dolls. Dr Rudolf Chargeheimer directed that the synthetic flesh of the dolls must feel the same as real flesh; that the doll’s body should be agile and moveable as the real body; that the doll’s organ should feel absolutely realistic. One is curious whether today’s love dolls measure up. Made of tensile and elastic polymer, the German love dolls did not have blonde hair and blue eyes like the Barbie dolls modeled on 1950s German sex dolls.  Apparently, Himmler liked them so much (!) he ordered fifty of the polymer babes. They were smaller than life size, and trialed in Jersey. The mind boggles. However, the idea was not put into practice. It is thought that the love dolls perished during the bombing of Dresden.

 

4. Hitler’s toilet seat

Hitler had a splendid 433-foot long yacht, named Aviso Grille. One of the toilets from this yacht was found at a garage in Greg’s Auto repair ship in New Jersey. Apparently, the vessel passed through several owners’ hands before being sent to New Jersey to be broken down as (s) crap metal. Built in 1935, the toilet looks like any white porcelain toilet. The current owner sagely remarks, “I seriously doubt there are any Hitler remnants down there after all these years.” Not unless you haven’t been flushing it, Greg. So far Greg has resisted selling it. Hitler’s desk fetched 250,000 pounds so a Hitler souvenir can be a good investment. Greg does not charge people to look at it, or even use it. Yes, it’s been restored to full working order.

 

5. Two of Hitler’s favourite movie (s):

King Kong

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Rumour has it King Kong is psychoanalytically juicy. The lone super ape who is king of the jungle is fascinated by a blonde and “rescues” her. Can we factor in the Jewish equation? Not easily. But wait ... Kong did trash New York. Presumably, after he had declared war on America, Hitler could have drawn some vicarious satisfaction from the vanquishing of one of his major enemies.

Snow White is more problematic. Was the wicked witch Jewish? Did Jews work by subterfuge in order to poison the “Snow White” innocence of Germany? We need a blond princess here, a Rapunzel. I can’t see Hitler identifying with any of the dwarfs. Contrary to Orwell’s famous remark about it being difficult to find a dictator over the height of five feet six, Hitler was five foot eight. He looked small because his German generals were often taller than him. Orwell also remarked that dictators often exhibited an “almost general and sometimes quite fantastic ugliness.” Hitler was no handsome blonde Nordic beast but you couldn’t call him ugly.

6. Hitler’s non Military Achievements

In 1938, Hitler was declared Man of the Year by Time magazine. The award is given to the person, group idea or object who most influenced history “for better or for worse” in that particular year. So giving the award to Hitler is not a mark of approval – and is therefore not inappropriate. What was highly inappropriate was him being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1939. Sensibly, the prize was not awarded until 1944. And then to the International Red Cross. The prize was changed to Person of the Year in 1999. However, when a woman was selected eg Wallis Simpson in 1936, she was headlined as Woman of the Year.

 

7. Hitler Memorabilia and Kim DotCom

According to Colin Espinor’s blog, it is illegal to collect Nazi memorabilia in Germany, France, Hungary and Austria but not in other countries. The now world-famous-in-New Zealand Kim DotCom, already convicted of illegal data uploads and internet piracy and the subject of an over enthusiastic raid on his large Coatesville mansion, has a first edition of Mein Kampf signed by Hitler. DotCom has denied supporting any of Hitler’s views. This is contradicted by Cameron Slater’s blog of March 26, 2014 which states that Alex Mardikian, a former friend and advisor to DotCom, reported his boss as saying that he idolised Hitler and considered him the greatest German who ever lived. Dotcom says he has also bought a pen owned by Stalin and one of Churchill’s cigar holders. Dotcom says his motivation for buying this war memorabilia is because he is a keen fan of the gaming franchise Call of Duty which has episodes set during World War 11. Keith Locke wrote in his blog on March 31 2014, that DotCom is Jewish and forthrightly anti-Nazi. Is the jury still out?