April 29, 2014
"Hitler rarely got out of bed before 2pm."
From a front page article in the Washington Post titled "Hitler’s former maid remembers the good life at Der Fuhrer’s mountain retreat" that presents what it calls — I am not kidding — "tidbits about life at Hitler’s home away from home." For some reason the Post sees fit to take a cutesy tone, telling us, for example that at night, Hitler "liked to steal away to the kitchen for a bite of 'Fuhrer cake,'" which was "a specially prepared" cake. Specially prepared... they made the cake he liked. Steal away... what? Am I to picture the man tippy-toeing through the corridors lest somebody interfere with his access to cake?
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Bill DeBlasio likes to sleep in too. Time for a "DeBlasio is like Hitler" tag!
Springtime.
I think you can still get Fuhrer cake at Starbucks, but its a small piece and its like five bucks so....
What a sweet little normal man sneaking his cake at night. I bet he never have boasted about water boarding murderers. That mean stuff must have come from rogue bureaucrats in the Cincinnati SS Ofice.
Your profession of outrage does you credit, professor. (Etymology! Were I the gracious host, I could drool over that for a couple of paragraphs like an overentitled Beavis or Butt-Head.)
But is it really necessary? I think all are agreed that Hitler was human and had human traits. Such as vegetarianism, teetotalry, nonsmoking, prescription drug abuse, the grooming of facial hair, and now, to cap it for you, a little of the more harmless sort if human hypocrisy, bourgeois decency even, that makes one tiptoe down the hall for a taste of midnight vice as opposed to ringing the alarms for a pair of Totenkopfs to bring back the booty, and while they're at it, murder someone and make frosting with the blood.
Do we know that Hitler himself ever pulled a trigger on a live human?
No, while he was of course the eminence of the project, he had, like Obama or Reid, "people for that."
As for the maid, are you really the one to critique the feeble reminiscences of an old woman about the last time her life, the life she knew, was whole? I bet being Hitler's maid was a good gig. I don't think we have to kid ourselves that she pulled any triggers either. Oh sure, if she had slipped a tablet into his coffee, maybe we would have been spared X horrors, then again the SOE canceled the assassination attempt because they thought otherwise.
So what? You reject banality in all its forms? Like Meade does racism? And others, evil? You don't reject the evil, you just reject the banality.
I hope it is needless to say that unlike Cedarford or his new Mini-Me, Oso Negro, I am not defending Hitler or attacking Jews. We are constantly being reminded to consider the foe's humanity. So remember, Hitler was a Homo sapiens just like you and he. He scratched, he farted, he stank if he did not bathe. If he had your blood type then you or he could have transfused one another at need. (Just like a Jew or a Negro.) And he liked a taste of sweets and for no one to know it.
Why harden your heart, professor? Would knowing all that stop you from putting a bullet in his ear in 1932 if you had the chance? It wouldn't have stopped me. I would have willingly destroyed him knowing I was destroying a man, with hands, feet, and a body shaped somewhat like mine.
Perhaps I would even go to hell. My opinion is, if you relented because you were squeamish and nobody had sufficiently abstracted the truth for you, I would deserve to have you waiting for me when I got there.
Gee give the man a break! sometimes you want to get away from all the maids and servants and sycophants and just slice the damn cake yourself! You must admit the image of Herr Hitler tiptoeing through the stone halls of his retreat -I see him in blue and white striped pajamas- is kinda cute...
This kind of confirms Franz Leibken's recollections of The Fuhrer from "The Producers".
Did he play a lot of golf too?
Well he and Michelle like to sleep in. Oh, wait, this is about Hitler.
And this is what a "business reporter" for the WashPo writes about? Drivel.
Did I stumble into the blog that time forgot?
J Lee--
My first reaction was that the other Post would have used the much better headline (and reference): "Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden."
I see a weekly series on AMC entitled,"Schloss Berchesgarden Nachte" with the tag line,"Das Leben ist besser im Berghof".
Translation:
Berchtesgarden Nights
Life is better at Berghof
Mein Kake is sehr gut! Wo ist meine Kake?!?!? Herr Hitler, hast du meine Kake getippietoed?!?
Why do we think Hitler was unusually evil?
Stalin killed his millions as well. Moa was not to be outdone as he murdered millions of Chinese. While Stalin and Mao were murdering their fellow human countrymen, American lefties were making worshipful pilgrimages to Russia and then China to view the wonders of Communism. They would bring back glowing reports of the Commie utopias. Even today, there are still thousands of lefties who wax nostalgic about the Commie killers, particularly if they are handsome like Che Guevara. Che looks so good on tee shirts doesn't he my leftie friend?
Now our leftie friends have found a new totalitarian movement to stoke their fires. Right now, all over the Middle East there are many wannabe Hitlers who would gladly exterminate every Jew in Israel if they had the opportunity. One of the best sellers in many countries is Protocols of the Elders of Zion. No wonder our leftie friends have placed Islam at the top of their totem pole of victims to be protected and advanced at all costs.
This is what passes for editorial judgment at a newspaper that likes to think that it is taken seriously and wonders why it isn't.
As Franz Liebkind expressed it, "The Fuhrer was sweet,the Fuhrer was kind, the Fuhrer was good."
Can't the man just eat his waffle?
Revealing that in many ways Hitler was an ordinary enough man (nice to dogs, etc.) is I suppose a tiny scrap of information about him that's consistent with other accounts. Although I'd think remaining interest mostly focuses on what made Hitler, Hitler?
In any case, is the claim that "The maids greeted Hitler’s girlfriend Eva Braun with 'Heil, merciful lady.'" seems odd. Is that corroborated anywhere else?
Hitler loved sweets but didn't think it suited his image to be seen eating them. Thus, the "stealing away".
Similarly, everyone pretended Eva Braun was a secretary--he thought his popularity with women would suffer if he married, and he liked the image of being "married to Germany". So, even though they'd go upstairs together to bed, in the daytime they didn't do things together, and Braun was frequently left to herself during the day, which is how she got to be friends with the Speers, who didn't think themselves too high to associate with a mistress.
Gnädige Frau means madam.
"Do we know that Hitler himself ever pulled a trigger on a live human?"
Given that he was a soldier who fought in WWI, we can assume he did.
Fun fact: Hitler was a rock-ribbed libertarian.
Time for a "DeBlasio is like Hitler" tag!
What time does Obama get out of bed in the morning?
"Post sees fit to take a cutesy tone" Be reasonable, he was not BusHitler, he was a real world leader who deserved respect from sycophants (psychophants).
Thusly, WaPo reminisce the misunderstood world leader, who had the foresight to nip the apartheid Jewish state in the bud, with affection.
Illuninati said...
Why do we think Hitler was unusually evil?
Stalin killed his millions as well. Moa was not to be outdone as he murdered millions of Chinese
Could we agree that they were all unusually, if not uniquely, evil?
Do we need this distinction?
As long as the Furhercake is locally sourced and human rights certified, it sounds ok. Totally ironic yah (said with maximum Vocal Fry).
Does anyone remember that 'Hitler Wore Khakis' ad?
Tank said:
Could we agree that they were all unusually, if not uniquely, evil?
Do we need this distinction?
That's the point. They are not uniquely evil. Althouse's post illustrates the banality of evil. There are probably thousands of potential Stalins, Maos, and Hitlers walking among us right now patiently waiting for their chance to bring their evil musings into reality. We are still fighting WWII while tyranny descends upon us.
This article would have been repulsive on any day, but coming the day after Yom HaShoah it is particularly despicable.
@garage: Fun fact: Hitler was a rock-ribbed libertarian.
Horseshit. Unless by "libertarian" you mean "the polar opposite of libertarian". Hint: National Socialist German Workers' Party. Big into state control of everything and fair distribution of evil profits.
"Hitler envisioned the ideal German society as a Volksgemeinschaft, a racially unified and hierarchically organized body in which the interests of individuals would be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or Volk. Like a military battalion, the people’s community would be permanently prepared for war and would accept the discipline that this required. .. Fascists defended the Führerprinzip (“leadership principle”), the belief that the party and the state should have a single leader with absolute power. Hitler was the Führer and Mussolini the Duce, both words for the “leader” who gave the orders that everyone else had to obey. The authority of the leader was often enhanced by his personal charisma."
Robert Cook said...
"Do we know that Hitler himself ever pulled a trigger on a live human?"
Given that he was a soldier who fought in WWI, we can assume he did.
He was a decorated soldier in WWI but he was mostly a rear area messenger (REMF).
Cook,
Read SLA Marshall. Or keep making an ass out of u and me (especially u).
If you get the slice with the little Star of David trinket in it, you have to buy the next Führer Cake.
He wanted to call it the "Waffel SS", but had to give in...ditto the "Luftwaffel"
That the WaPo has descended to this! I expect Jeff will put the WaPo on Amazon, under "News"Paper.
Another reason for morning people to feel superior.
Hint: National Socialist German Workers' Party.
The guy that abolished labor unions and collective bargaining [hmmm, why does that sound familiar?] was a socialist? Whoa!
garage mahal said...
Fun fact: Hitler was a rock-ribbed libertarian.
Hitler was a progressive socialist. He greatly admired Woodrow Wilson and Margret Sanger.
You should,maybe, read some history sometime.
Hitler used brute force of the government to abolish unions and collective bargaining.
So did Scott Walker.
I'm not saying Scott Walker is Hitler, but they do share some strikingly similarities.
That postmodern author and some here need to read some more, say Albert Speer. Would give them some much needed insight into life at the Berghof. BTW, old Adolf did not abolish labor unions. Beginning the night after his appointment to Chancellor, he had the union leaders arrested and stuck into camps. Then he did what he did to any other German organization: forced them under control of the NSDAP. Gleichschaltung.
"Hitler was a progressive socialist."
Still wrong, Rusty. No matter how much you wish it to be true, it'll always be wrong.
He tiptoes down the hall in his jammies with a button bottom and turns his head back to look at you with a mischievous smile, putting one finger to his lips at that diminutive mustache, "Tee hee," before turning back and tiptoeing on for cake.
So Cook, find any True Scotsmen lately?
So what?
Churchill rarely got out of bed before noon much of the time while he was Prime Minister during WWII (of course, he spent some of the prior morning hours reading and dictating responses to messages in his dispatch boxes...) But he was also partly sleeping off the previous brandy-fueled night that often found him laboriously crafting and practicing his famous writings and orations well into the wee hours of the morning. FDR spent hours of many days in the White House playing solitaire, bridge, and poker while drinking martinis and smoking cigarettes incessantly.
Those were the days when our leaders focused on results rather than feeling the need to always be seen in constant motion and harassing the citizenry. We might all be a lot better off if Obama and his chief minions stayed in bed until 2p and then drank, smoked, and played cards until they passed out until noon the next day!
But wussy Scott Walker forgot to abolish the public employee unions. He just stopped mandatory membership and dues withholding for some of them. That made union members free to quit paying the union tax.
@garage: Neither unions nor collective bargaining are illegal or abolished in Wisconsin. Try again.
The unions have zero power, even less than someone not in a union. And Walker scheduled convoluted elections where he rigged the re-certification rules so that even when a union votes 329-15 to re-certify, they still fall short. Ask AFSCME Council 24.
For contrast: 73% of eligible voters in Wisconsin didn't vote for Walker in 2010.
Wheee!
@garage: You can't even see the goal line from where you moved those goal posts.
Humanizing Hitler is a bad practice. Comparing modern politicians to Hitler because you disagree with them is despicable.
"Humanizing Hitler is a bad practice."
Actually, it is good practice. It allows us to see that he was not a uniquely perverse individual, one who will (or can) come along only so very very rarely. Rather, it lets us see that he was all too common, and alerts us to be wary of all who seek power, to be aware that--just as many ordinary, average people can become killers--any person seeking or holding power is a potential Hitler or Stalin.
There could be a dozen (or a hundred) potential Hitlers holding offices great or small throughout the land right now. (By definition, those who seek power wish to wield power...itself a danger sign.)
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