June 24, 2015

"The owner’s father’s dying wish had been that a certain room should be kept locked. I knew Hitler had lived there..."

"... and so finally persuaded him to open it and it was exactly as it had been when Hitler slept in the room. On the desk there was a blotter covered in Hitler’s signatures in reverse, the drawers were full of signed copies of Mein Kampf. I bought it all. I sleep in the bed, although I’ve changed the mattress."

From a Guardian article, "The man who sleeps in Hitler’s bed/Kevin Wheatcroft has quietly amassed the world’s largest collection of Nazi memorabilia. Now he wants to share it with the world. What is behind this dark obsession?"
The electricity was off in one wing of the house, and we made our way in dim light through a conservatory where rows of Hitler heads stared blindly across at each other. Every wall bore a portrait of the Führer, or of Göring...

We passed along more shadowy corridors, through a door hidden in a bookshelf and up another winding staircase, until we found ourselves in an unexceptional bedroom, a single unshaded light in the ceiling illuminating piles of uniforms. On the walls of the room were a host of gaudy naif paintings and objects in display cases. “They all belonged to the Krays,” Wheatcroft said. “That’s my other great love, the Kray twins.”...

25 comments:

rhhardin said...

A guy used to base his Messerschmidt 108 [sic] at the airport I used, and he had to move it after complaints.

An unimpressive airplane but with some Me109 lines in the air.

Curious George said...

Not one "I stand with Walker" bumper stickers in the room!

Anonymous said...

What is behind this dark obsession?"

Wait, are we talking about Hitler, or General Lee?

Hagar said...

It's worth money by this time.
No need to search for other motives.

mccullough said...

Like an Elvis obsession

Bay Area Guy said...

Weird.

Hitler wasn't some imaginary bogeyman personifying evil a la Satan.

He was a real live, socialist dictator who invaded several countries and murdered millions of people, who was thankfully beat by the combined forces of the Soviet Army from the East and the American/British armies from the West.

In fact, he was a mere piker compared to Josef Stalin, who murdered millions more.

The bottom line is that WWII was mostly a grudge match between two genocidal dictators, one Russian, one German. We sided with the Russian one.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lemondog said...

Ugh!!!!!!!

Rick said...

Weird.

On many levels. He's one of seven children, but the only inheritor of the father's wealth that enabled the collection.

He no longer speaks to his siblings.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

I see an instructive parallel between the Left's banning of these historical icons, and ISIS blowing up Buddhist statues.

Same instinct, different target (for now).

Fascism is a phenomonen of the Left.

MadisonMan said...

The obvious link.

PuertoRicoSpaceport.com said...

What is behind this?

Socialism.


Bay Area Guy:

You are right that Hitler with his 12mm was a piker compared to Stalin. And Stalin was a piker compared to Mao.

Trivia note: Wisconsin's LaFollette family gave us the National Progressive Party. The UW History center calls its emblem "A circumcised swastika"

http://www.lafollette.wisc.edu/images/publications/otherpublications/lafollette/laflegacy.html


A National Socialist writer, after hearing Phil(?) LaFollette speak went home to Germany and wrote in a party magazine that LaFollette was a National Socialist but would never be be able to say that in the US. National Progressive was as close as he could get.

John Henry

Michael said...

I suppose they will have to burn down the house with Kevin in it.

Monkeyboy said...

In a hundred years historians will be praising him for keeping all that stuff and not destroying it.

In a thousand years historians will be writing treatises on how Hitler expanded trade and shook up a stagnant world (see Khan,Genghis)

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It is indisputably true that Britain has the best eccentrics in the world.

Wince said...

Did anyone see the John Oliver segment on the inexplicable mainstream popularity of Hitler imagery in Thailand?

Totally bizarre and hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wraq6VnXmGo

gerry said...

The must be a Hirohito obsessive somewhere.

traditionalguy said...

Hitler was a crazy German Army Corporal that received personal empowerment talents from member of a supernatural Cult that arose from a revelation coming from a Russian spirit medium called Madame Helena Blavatski. She had written popular works channeling various evil powers claiming to be Egyptian Sun gods.

The easy old hatred of Jews then popped up as Corporal Hitler's announced purpose and struggle, but really he just wanted to kill everybody on earth, and he very nearly did.

damikesc said...

Technically, he really hated Jews several years before WW I while living in Vienna.

traditionalguy said...

Everybody in catholic ruled countries of Europe hated the Jews before WWI.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Traditionalguy, do you ever have any support for the things you say?

traditionalguy said...

@unknown...It's all in the in depth history books. What I say only sounds different because it is not what PhDs want to discuss in superficial surveys of a presumed rational people's of The Austro-Hugarian Empire, the Russian Empire, The French Empire, the British Empire, the German Empire, and the Catholic Church of the Roman Empire. They called that a balance of power, like it was rational and worked out, but it was never in balance for longer than 20 years.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Fascinating article. I avoid collecting anything seriously, but it's always interesting to read about obsessives.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Some of the things that you say are very controversial and you state them as uncontroversial facts. You also say tantalizing things and then don't explain. You also don't explain the significance of a lot of it. Blavatsky was just another charlatan and if you're saying that Hitler used her techniques to gain power over Germany you definitely want to source that.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Gerry, I don't know about Hirohito, but there are lots of Yamamoto fans.