Something needs to be said

[Peter_K]

(...)
By the way...the Nazi's didn't invent the concentration camp. Us Brits did that during the Crimean war !! Don't I feel proud now 'eh ?

(...)here.

I thougt it was during the Boer War.

[Airbus_A320]

He united Germans by appealing to thier nationalism at the time when their national identity was lacking. But specifically by giving them a common enemy, the jews. Thus allowing German people to blame the jews for everything wrong with the current state of affairs instead of righty blaming themselves. Thus providing a scape goat. He joins other tyrrans that stayed on message while maintaining control using force. Nothing original about it.

He's far from great speaker. I don't speak German but I doubt a lot is lost in translation. His speaches are kind of like a boy band that can't sing but still puts on a hell of a show by appealing to naive 14 year old girls.

This didn't work out too well. Number of technological advances were made during that period but none could ever be attributed to Hitler. All he did was allow engineers and scientist to do what they do.

In my opinion, if he had intelligence he'd recognize that occupation of the world would have never worked long term. Nothing brilliant about him.

The blame for the failure of the German economy and the eventual rise of Hitler which resulted from this is the result of the Allied powers of WWI trying to "punish" Germany for WWI. The Treaty of Versailles set the stage for WWII. If Germany wasn't brought to it's knees the way it was after WWI and "forgiven", Hitler might never have come to power. In the beginning the Nazi's were not thought of as much and didn't have much support and were marginalized. Eventually they were able to come to power because of the reasons that Jordan, Chasen and z740 described, even if Hitler wasn't a super genous he had the charisma to get people to follow him.

[Crunk415balla]

He was evil. He was insane. He had severe sexual perversion. But even if he didn't write his own speeches, as some claim he didn't, and even if he wasn't any smarter than the average joe, any total moron can't deliver a speech in such a way to unite an entire country and over time totally maniupulate his ideas. Nor could a total idiot rise to the top of such a powerfull group as the Nazis.

Were they right in their ideas? Did they NOT commit unspeakible atrocities?

There is nothing right about what the Axis powers did to the world in the 30s-mid 40s. And I do not idolize Hitler. I am just stating an opinion I gathered after MUCH research on the subject of WWII, which I am very fond of.

So before anyone calls me a racist, the majority of my Grandpa's 7 siblings married Itallian Jews. All of his brothers fought the Germans in WWII. He himself wound up in the Pacific, although he stood in line for 11 hours to sign up for the Marines in hopes that he could fight the Germans when he heard of the atrocities in Europe. He is still in tears to this day when he re-calls.

Go ahead and quote me, but don't dare put words in my mouth.

Just to add: Lets not forget that Hitler and his advisors sucessfully brought Germany out of an enormous debt and Economic slump. Lets see Bush do that...except without the halocaust afterwards.

[brianw999]

I thougt it was during the Boer War.

Actually...yes...you're correct. That was a good bottle of red tonight !!

[Airbus_A320]

He was evil. He was insane. He had severe sexual perversion. But even if he didn't write his own speeches, as some claim he didn't, an total moron can't deliver a speech in such a way to unite an entire country and over time totally maniupulate his ideas. Nor could a total idiot rise to the top of such a powerfull group as the Nazis.

Were they right in their ideas? Did they NOT commit unspeakible atrocities?

There is nothing right about what the Axis powers did to the world in the 30s-mid 40s. And I do not idolize Hitler. I am just stating an opinion I gathered after MUCH research on the subject of WWII, which I am very fond of.

So before anyone calls me a racist, the majority of my Grandpa's 7 siblings married Itallian Jews. All of his brothers fought the Germans in WWII. He himself wound up in the Pacific, although he stood in line for 11 hours to sign up for the Marines in hopes that he could fight the Germans when he heard of the atrocities in Europe. He is still in tears to this day when he re-calls.

Go ahead and quote me, but don't dare put words in my mouth.

I understand your points perfectly and they make sense. Having the kind of understanding you do, shows that you can actually analyze things. Unfortunatly most people working in education are not really that intelligent and just do whatever will make themselves look good, so that's probbaly why they watched you. I bet some guy was like "IMMA GONNA CATCH MA SELF A NAZI AND GET A PROMOTION". Same mentality carries over to the security "professionals" that think that by harassing airplane photographers they are going to catch a terrorist. And I'm sure there are plently of other examples of what I'm talking about out there.

[Crunk415balla]

Well, it was that report and the fact that my freshman year I tried to start a German cultrual club since all we have are Asian clubs. They told me no because "Some people are still uncomfortable with what the Germans did."

My reply:

"Japan bombed us, yet they get 2 clubs here!"

So I was sent out of the conference and marked as a potential neo-nazi...as if I was even THINKING about WWII when I wanted to start the club...just figured there were a lot of german/itallian people at my school and thought a club should represent some of us, seeing as Asian people make up 75%+ of my school yet they have over 12 clubs focused on their culture, like 1 or two per nationality isn't enough. I just felt Europe could be better represented. The way these schools are so hyper-sensitive is beyone me.

[Airbus_A320]

Well, it was that report and the fact that my freshman year I tried to start a German cultrual club since all we have are Asian clubs. They

told me no because "Some people are still uncomfortable with what the Germans did."

Using that logic, I hope there aren't any Chinese clubs. Because you know Tienamen Square, Tibet, many people aren't comfortable with those things
either. Or Japanese clubs since their rule over the islands they took over in the Pacific and treatment of POW's during WWII was so benevolent.

The sad part is that everyone pays for the actions of a few. All Germans suffer because of Nazism, even if they didn't agree with Hitler (and many
even hid Jews in their own houses, at great risk to themselves). And if they were caught not being 100% loyal in that kind of police state, you just arrested or killed. One of the ironies I've noticed that those who try to make a big show of how they "don't have any prejiduices" eventually
show that they are the most prejudiced of all. Just like those religious freaks that talk about morality and what not and why this and that is
evil, then they go and rape kids or cheat on their spouses.

[einesellesenie]

Hitler economics: a view.

[Vinco]

The blame for the failure of the German economy and the eventual rise of Hitler which resulted from this is the result of the Allied powers of WWI trying to "punish" Germany for WWI. The Treaty of Versailles set the stage for WWII. If Germany wasn't brought to it's knees the way it was after WWI and "forgiven", Hitler might never have come to power. In the beginning the Nazi's were not thought of as much and didn't have much support and were marginalized. Eventually they were able to come to power because of the reasons that Jordan, Chasen and z740 described, even if Hitler wasn't a super genous he had the charisma to get people to follow him.

Now we're getting into whether treatment of Germany post WWI was just and that's a whole new topic. In my opinion Germany got off easy considering they started two World Wars in less than 40 years resulting in millions dead and wounded. Vast occupied territories were raped and pillaged. Century old land marks destroyed. Entire villages were erased overnight. Whole families seized to exist. And in large part of the world people began referring to their lives as before and after Germans. Growing up in Ukraine I remember my grandfather's neighbor telling my mom that I looked a lot like her son. My mom asked her about him. The Germans shot him because they thought he may join the resistance. He was 12. She cried everytime she saw me...this was 40-50 years later. My mom's little brother who was four during the WWII died because they had no food. She dug a shallow grave in frozen ground in the middle of nowhere and carried on with two other kids. And Babyi Yar is a ten minute walk from where I grew up...100,000 jew murdered in three days. There were too many lives affected to say Hitler was brilliant. You just don't do that.

[Airbus_A320]

As stated before there is a difference between brilliance and being good or evil. You can be brilliant and evil. And even whatever the play on words may be, he certainly had something about him that got people to believe that killing Jews would solve Germany's problems. And just an FYI, I am of Ukranian and Panamanian herritage. My grandparents were taken from Ukraine and were made to work in Germany during WWII. And don't forget the Soviets that moved across Eastern Europe as they pushed the Germans back weren't exactly nice either.

My point about the aftermath of WWI was that if Germany wasn't rung out by the allies after WWI and the economy wasn't pushed into the gutter, maybe Hitler wouldn't have come to power. If the economy was doing well, people might have just said "this guy is a moron who wants to start wars and get us into trouble when we are doing fine as it is". But because things were going so badly, and he said "I'll make you strong again" they decided to follow him, then once people realized what was going on, it was too late to do anything even if they wanted to.

Germany got off easy after WWII, hell, they were helped to rebuild and form a new government by the allies. And really, what else was there to do. Hitler was dead, and the Nazi leadership that didn't escape was brought to trial. Some of the engineers/scientists were brought to the US to help out with our space program. And today they are doing fine, eventhough many still think of them as monsters, racist, and whatever. The Germans I have come into contact with have been perfectly nice, so I don't see why they as a whole should be villified more than anyone else.

[JordanD]

I know you probably know this, but don't forget that it was not only Jewish people that were targeted by the Nazis. I think that it's a disservice to only mention one section of the many victims of the Holocaust, when there are so many groups of people that need to be remembered as well.

[Crunk415balla]

There were too many lives affected to say Hitler was brilliant. You just don't do that.

And that is how taboos are born. Its just like the kid everyone hates at school. Everyone is afraid to say 1 good thing about him because they're afraid they'll be bombarded by everyone who hates him. Whereas you may hate him yourself, you just realise he possess one human quality.

There is really nothing you can say to Hitler's credit other than he was able to seize control of a country, which doesn't in itself show stupidity.

[JordanD]

And that is how taboos are born. Its just like the kid everyone hates at school. Everyone is afraid to say 1 good thing about him because they're afraid they'll be bombarded by everyone who hates him.

There is really nothing you can say to Hitler's credit other than he was able to seize control of a country, which doesn't in itself show stupidity.

I wouldn't necessarily say anything "good" has been said about Hitler here in the first place, although I think (unfortunately) it has been interpreted that way.

[Crunk415balla]

I wouldn't necessarily say anything "good" has been said about Hitler here in the first place, although I think (unfortunately) it has been interpreted that way.

Well, yeah. No one on here is supporting Hitler or his decisions. They're just stating what they belive to be true.

[Airbus_A320]

And that is how taboos are born. Its just like the kid everyone hates at school. Everyone is afraid to say 1 good thing about him because they're afraid they'll be bombarded by everyone who hates him. Whereas you may hate him yourself, you just realise he possess one human quality.

That kid is also usually somehow effected by that kind of treatment by his peers, and eventually he may decide that he's going to something to even the score. I'm not saying that this was the case with Hitler, but usually when kids are mistreated by their peers they end up screwed up in one way or another. Just something to think about.

Maybe the kid wants to be a loner, and that's his choice, or maybe there really is something wrong with him where other people have a good reason to dislike him. And I'm sure this is the case at times. But more often than not it seems that those kids who are picked on are just picked on because they are easy targets for whatever reason, and if you get to know him, he might not be that bad. Maybe trying to be a friend to someone who is like that could make a difference to them and make them feel better and decide to not shoot up the school or become a hitler. And many times it is the ones that are brilliant to at least some degree (eventhough they might not show it overtly) that are picked on. I know this is off topic, but just something to think about.