The Hitlerites

[PrinceMyshkin]

The Hitlerites will never die
and their work will never be done
as long as there’s a quasi-Jew,
the son or the daughter of
the son or the daughter of
a Jew, or the beam of a Jew
in their eyes.

[MorpheusSandman]

It's certainly scary to think of there still being Hitler-like monsters out there, but as one criticism of the film Downfall (based on Hitler's last days) noted, the scariest thing wasn't that the man was a monster, but that the monster was a man.

[Bar22do]

The Hitlerites will never die
and their work will never be done
as long as there’s a quasi-Jew,
the son or the daughter of
the son or the daughter of
a Jew, or the beam of a Jew
in their eyes.


Your poem, Prince, moving, painful and to the point, is a sort of a promise that alongside the insatiable rage, the beam will last, inexhaustible. Thank you.

The worst about Downfall, I would say, is that that a movie was devoted to Hitler's last days, and awoke, in certain, empathy for him..

[PrinceMyshkin]

It's certainly scary to think of there still being Hitler-like monsters out there, but as one criticism of the film Downfall (based on Hitler's last days) noted, the scariest thing wasn't that the man was a monster, but that the monster was a man.

Very much to the point! It is all too easy to dismiss Hitler (or Pol Pot or Stalin or Milosevich) by calling them "evil" and thereby dismissing them from the closest socio-psychological scrutiny. There is a book, the title of which escapes me, that examines the way the Hitler-phenomenon and the Holocaust have been used by different people to advance their own theories or their reputation.

The cover features a photo of a very sweet, 2 or 3 year old baby - Adolf Hitler - and I remember being seized by violent mental conflict, thinking how it might have been if someone had squashed that (poor innocent?) child at that age!

[Virgil]

Sad but true and a good short piece. Now here's a place where the repetition works remarkably well: "the son or the daughter of" and in back to back lines no less! Boy I get chills of evil as I read it, especially the concluding phrase, "the beam of a Jew/in their eyes."

[MorpheusSandman]

The worst about Downfall, I would say, is that that a movie was devoted to Hitler's last days, and awoke, in certain, empathy for him.. I thought that was rather the best aspect. As Prince went on to discuss it's important that we don't divorce these "monsters" from the race of men because it makes it easier for us to deal with them. I don't think any portrayal, no matter how sympathetic, would ever attempt to downplay the evil that the man do. But it's easy to forget that Hitler was a kind of celebrity in Germany; certainly amongst Germans who wasn't even aware of the genocide. And it's very difficult to brainwash a nation without having a great degree of charm and magnetism that makes people want to follow you (especially without question).

[PrinceMyshkin]

Many thanks, Bar, Morpheus and Virgil.

[SleepyWitch]

I think the repetition works well, too. it slowed down the reading for me and made me pause and think

[PrinceMyshkin]

I think the repetition works well, too. it slowed down the reading for me and made me pause and think

There's a likable German guy whose been coming to the cafe I frequent. After showing off to him my recital from memory of the opening of the first of the Duino Elegies, I got to thinking about the strange love-hate relationship between Germans and Jews (apart from the tragic era)...There are some hard to pin down ways in which we are alike.

[SleepyWitch]

There's a likable German guy whose been coming to the cafe I frequent. After showing off to him my recital from memory of the opening of the first of the Duino Elegies, I got to thinking about the strange love-hate relationship between Germans and Jews (apart from the tragic era)...There are some hard to pin down ways in which we are alike.

what do you mean hard to pin down? we both like kvetching, for one thing. that's easy to pin down :D ..

[PrinceMyshkin]

what do you mean hard to pin down? we both like kvetching, for one thing. that's easy to pin down :D ..

Kvetching is fine but how about blintzes & Semmelklösse?

[Babbalanja]

Take that, Hitlerites.

Regards,

Istvan

[JackieGinger]

I like it...a lot!
It is so powerful and expressive!

[pygmyhippo9]

Very much to the point! It is all too easy to dismiss Hitler (or Pol Pot or Stalin or Milosevich) by calling them "evil" and thereby dismissing them from the closest socio-psychological scrutiny. There is a book, the title of which escapes me, that examines the way the Hitler-phenomenon and the Holocaust have been used by different people to advance their own theories or their reputation.

The cover features a photo of a very sweet, 2 or 3 year old baby - Adolf Hitler - and I remember being seized by violent mental conflict, thinking how it might have been if someone had squashed that (poor innocent?) child at that age!


Was the book you mentioned by any chance The Hitler Myth by Ian Kershaw?

[Babbalanja]

"In Germany they first came for the Communists..." - Pastor Martin Niemöller

Regards,

Istvan

[PrinceMyshkin]

Was the book you mentioned by any chance The Hitler Myth by Ian Kershaw?

Exactly. Thanks for filling in what I was unable to remember.


"In Germany they first came for the Communists..." - Pastor Martin Niemöller

Regards,

Istvan

The whole of which is a most moving declaration, along the lines of John Donne's "No man is an island..." and Rabbi Hillel's “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?"