This one came from a man of the cloth whom I only know as Fr C+ (and one other pen name) in response to my ten-part Hitler series while I was traveling:
I am enjoying this series you are putting out, as it shows that the reasons for the rise of Nat.Soc. in the Fatherland (My paternal grandparents were [name deleted] from Deutschland) was due to Communist uprisings, Jewish involvement in the workings of a sovereign country, and a fear and hatred of the Bolshevik menace: something that is never mentioned at all in any school text or historical program.
Rather, the NatSoc movement seems to rise, hydra-like out of a satanic void, as the Hollywood spinmeisters would make it to be...
In regards to that, I found at a major video chain store (Hollywood Video!) a copy of "Triumph des Willens" (Triumph of the Will) and thought I was now, (in my forties, you understand) mature enough to view this 'propoganda' film of the 'evillest empire on the face of the planet'.......
What I found while watching this film, was a sincere affability on the face of the German crowds, a sincere patriotism, and a conviction of spirit, even a smiling Hitler (Why are we never treated to THOSE pictures when Mr Adolph is shown in books?!) that reminded me of the American political conventions that I witnessed on the TV of the early days of the 1960's, when moment by moment political coverage of the Kennedy-Johnson-Nixon campaigns was all a young boy could watch during those weeks....
I found myself trying to force down the gorge that almost, pavlovian-like, wanted to rise to my consciousness, in watching this film!! And I realized that I, who had never even considered Hitler, the "Holocaust" WWII, or any of these items until only a few years ago, even I, who had always been so unwilling to follow the 'masses' simply because I wanted to think for myself, as my Irish-French mother had always taught me, even I had been brainwashed!
So, a few more observations, before I close:
I realized that electric amplification of sound in large areas was not at the stage where we have it today, and that that was at least part of the reason for much of the 'angry shouting' speaking at public forums, we often see mis-characterized when viewing any 'clips' of Hitler- for ALL of the public speakers in this film shouted, simply often to merely be heard!
I also realized that the uniforms and jackboots were a legacy of the more formal, Hapsburg royal regimentation era that had immediately preceeded the 1930's and that it was not unusual to see masses of men in 'brown shirts' but a source of pride and a camaraderie in a corps united against a cause - much like our soldiers wear "dress whites" or 'dress blues' for a formal occasion- except here in the US, the concept of 'dressing up' for anything nowadays means that a woman wears a sarong or skirt of denim, and a man throws on a sports coat over some torn jeans, and loafers without socks, and calls it 'dressing up'! (How the mighty have fallen!)
So, as a denim bedecked and corn-rowed overbeaded, flare jean crowd reincarnates itself in its hedonistic image for yet one more round of tasteless fashion aping the lackluster '70's, we cannot begin to see the world through the eyes of a culture that prided itself on uniforms, etc. Am I right?
Anyway, I am beginning to see that the 'bogeyman' of popular myth about Mr Adolph, was not as the Antichrist incarnate, (for that is yet to come) but as a man who sought to free his country from a foreign menace......
Fr C+
Thought for the Day:
"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream by night."
(Edgar Allan Poe)