Hitler exhibition in Berlin bunker asks - How could it happen?

[webfact]

Hitler exhibition in Berlin bunker asks - How could it happen

By Michelle Martin

 

A replica of the original bunker office of German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is pictured during a media tour of the exhibition entitled 'Hitler - How Could it Happen?' in a World War Two bunker in Berlin, Germany, July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - More than 70 years after Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker in the final days of World War Two, an exhibition in the capital examines how he became a Nazi and what turned ordinary Germans into murderers during the Third Reich.

 

For decades it was taboo in Germany to focus on Hitler, although that has begun to change with films such as the 2004 "Downfall", chronicling the dictator's last days, and an exhibition about him in 2010.

 

The exhibition "Hitler - how could it happen" is set in a bunker in Berlin that was used by civilians during World War Two bombing raids - close to the bunker where Hitler lived while Berlin was being bombed and which is not accessible to the public.

 

It examines Hitler's life from his childhood in Austria and time as a painter to his experience as a soldier during World War One and his subsequent rise to power. Other exhibits focus on concentration camps, pogroms and the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews.

 

It ends with a controversial reconstruction of the bunker room where Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945 - replete with grandfather clock, floral sofa and an oxygen tank. The exhibit is behind glass and is monitored by camera, with visitors forbidden to take photographs.

 

Exhibition curator Wieland Giebel, 67, said he had been accused of "Hitler Disney" for putting the room on show. But he defended the decision, saying the exhibition focussed on the crimes carried out by Hitler's regime, adding: "This room is where the crimes ended, where everything ended, so that's why we're showing it."

 

He said he had been asking how World War Two and the Holocaust came about ever since playing in the rubble of post-war Germany as a child, and said the exhibition attempted to answer that question.

 

"After World War One a lot of Germans felt humiliated due to the Versailles Treaty," Giebel said, referring to the accord signed in 1919 that forced defeated Germany to make massive reparation payments.

 

"At the same time there was anti-Semitism in Europe and not just in Germany ... and Hitler built on this anti-Semitism and what people called the 'shameful peace of Versailles' and used those two issues to mobilise people," he added.

 

Giebel, who has a personal interest in the topic because one of his grandfathers was part of a firing squad while the other hid a Jew, said he also wanted the exhibition to show how quickly a democracy could be abolished and make clear that undemocratic movements needed to be nipped in the bud.

 

He said the exhibition showed some Germans became Nazis as they stood to gain personally when the property of Jews was expropriated, while others were attracted to the Nazis because they were unhappy about the Versailles Treaty and "followed Hitler because he promised to make Germany great again".

 

The exhibition, which features photographs, Hitler's drawings, films portraying his marriage to longtime companion Eva Braun, and a model of Hitler's bunker, has attracted around 20,000 visitors since opening two months ago.

 

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-28

[Rancid]

52 minutes ago, Emster23 said:

May I suggest following US politics currently in real time if you want to know "how could this happen?". Difference mainly that Hitler was not inept

It isn't just the US, an ignorant electorate fed BS by the media is a worldwide trend. Hence the scramble to label any alternative interpretation of events as "fake" news so as to maintain the establishment meme.

 

Fascism in part is the co-joining of government and industry, something alive a well in the West and yet we fail to perceive it for what it is. Monopolies and multinationals rule, wars are even fought in the name of their profits, so called regulators are bought and paid for, as are the politicians. Red tape is so over the top it stops small businesses from building, less competition emerges.

 

The rise of Nazism is a complex issue, a revolt against the over-burdensome Versailles Treaty, nationalism, propaganda, perceived Jewish control of finance, fighting communism and so on. Doubt many Germans fully realized what they were signing up for, again unpleasantly similar in many ways to modern times.

 

The irony is that those that proclaim "how could it have happened?" are today marching to the same drummer, therein I suppose lies the answer.,

[klauskunkel]

How could a demagogue become the leader of a government? Guess what, he was voted in...

The real question is: Why has it happened again?

[Rimmer]

A troll post has been removed

[johnnyonesock]

17 hours ago, Rancid said:

It isn't just the US, an ignorant electorate fed BS by the media is a worldwide trend. Hence the scramble to label any alternative interpretation of events as "fake" news so as to maintain the establishment meme.

 

Fascism in part is the co-joining of government and industry, something alive a well in the West and yet we fail to perceive it for what it is. Monopolies and multinationals rule, wars are even fought in the name of their profits, so called regulators are bought and paid for, as are the politicians. Red tape is so over the top it stops small businesses from building, less competition emerges.

 

The rise of Nazism is a complex issue, a revolt against the over-burdensome Versailles Treaty, nationalism, propaganda, perceived Jewish control of finance, fighting communism and so on. Doubt many Germans fully realized what they were signing up for, again unpleasantly similar in many ways to modern times.

 

The irony is that those that proclaim "how could it have happened?" are today marching to the same drummer, therein I suppose lies the answer.,

a great post ..the term Nazi is used to conjure up the "Hollywood version" of Hitler and the events surrounding WW2 in peoples minds....Hitler actually hated the word....the correct term is National Socialism

 

Nazi - an insult in use long before the rise of Adolf Hitler's party. It was a derogatory term for a backwards peasant – being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the National Socialists emerged.. Opponents seized on this and shortened the party's title Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, to the dismissive "Nazi"

[Andaman Al]

2 minutes ago, johnnyonesock said:

a great post ..the term Nazi is used to conjure up the "Hollywood version" of Hitler and the events surrounding WW2 in peoples minds....Hitler actually hated the word....the correct term is National Socialism

 

Nazi - an insult in use long before the rise of Adolf Hitler's party. It was a derogatory term for a backwards peasant – being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the National Socialists emerged.. Opponents seized on this and shortened the party's title Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, to the dismissive "Nazi"

It just goes to show that every day's a school day 

[jhonnie]

exhibition should be taken down , anything glorifying or normalizing this psychopaths life is an affront to all who suffered under the Germans 2nd  attempt of world domination

[simple1]

2 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

It just goes to show that every day's a school day 

From the Daily Telegraph...

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8843158/Why-Hitler-hated-being-called-a-Nazi-and-whats-really-in-humble-pie-origins-of-words-and-phrases-revealed.html

[Prbkk]

7 minutes ago, jhonnie said:

exhibition should be taken down , anything glorifying or normalizing this psychopaths life is an affront to all who suffered under the Germans 2nd  attempt of world domination

That's one way of looking at it...and has been the majority opinion/official policy in Germany since the end of the occupation. The other side is that Germany is a totally different place now and it's citizens are, of course, more than capable of viewing these events/exhibitions without becoming attracted to the philosophy of Nazism.

In fact there are many permanent exhibitions in venues throughout the country ( just without the personal elements involved in this one).

IMHO, it's a good thing to put more sunlight on this period of a German history. Young people are sometimes attracted to that which is verboten, if only for the very reason it is so. 

 

[Kiwiken]

Hitler was no more Despotic than Napoleon, King Leopold of the Belgiums, The Roman Empire, Gengis Khan or any of the other great butchers of History. WW2 as it is called was no more than a continuation of the First World War. The Death Camps may have been an upgrade on the British Concentration Camp System but mass killing was nothing new. And is seen again in the M.E, Africa and close to Europe in the Balkans.

Better people take their time to understand the why ? Than to simply cleanse and deny just saying what a Despot.

No Nation has clean hands . Torching 100's of thousands with incendiaries in their homes or killing innocents with drones and cruise missiles is just as evil.

Fascism still exists today. only it is Economic . Money power used to deny medicine and care to the less fortunate is just as Despotic as Death Squads.

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.   The topic is NOT about US politics.  

[Denim]

.......undemocratic movements should be nipped in the bud.

 

Indeed. Thailand take note.

[boomerangutang]

4 hours ago, jhonnie said:

exhibition should be taken down , anything glorifying or normalizing this psychopaths life is an affront to all who suffered under the Germans 2nd  attempt of world domination

                        Hitler was, as much as anything else, a product of the part of all peoples' character which seeks to adulate someone.  Religion is a prime example.  So are rock stars, movie stars, monarchs, sports stars, billionaires, etc.  

 

                          People are not much different than wolves.  They seek an alpha male to bow down to, to tell them how to think.  How different was Hitler's rise to top of the power pyramid than Mussolini's or Idi Amin's, or Stalin's, or Pol Pot's, or Mao's, or Marcos', or Franco's, or Bokassa's, or Papa Doc's, Sukarno's, or Trump's....?  Not much.

 

                                        In a way, it's good to have a Hitler display.  It may get younger generations to ponder the dangers of putting too much faith in one well-publicized control-freak man who winds up controlling everyone.  Btw, it happens on all other planets where there exists intelligence above a magpie.  

 

 

 

[baboon]

4 hours ago, jhonnie said:

exhibition should be taken down , anything glorifying or normalizing this psychopaths life is an affront to all who suffered under the Germans 2nd  attempt of world domination

What happened, happened. No point in trying to deny / cover up history. I think such exhibits are a good thing as it gets people talking and reflecting.

As an aside, I like the way the Kremlin still has the red stars for the same reason. Nobody seems to complain about them, do they?

[Grouse]

The OP is about "how could it happen?" and I think it IS useful to consider this in a contemporaneous world. Whenever we have a large proportion of dissatisfied people who feel down trodden, left behind, disenfranchised there is an opportunity for demagoguery.

 

Putin

Farage

Trump

"square head" you know who

Le Penn

 

Have all used tactics similar to Adolf.

 

They will make you feel proud again, restore the country to former glories. It's all the fault off ****** ( fill in the blanks).

 

We should be very conscious of this and be forewarned ?

[Grouse]

Interesting to see the portrait of Frederick the Great, Hitler's hero.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great

 

There's a good documentary about him on YouTube. Well worth watching!

 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Grouse

[johnnyonesock]

4 hours ago, Denim said:

.......undemocratic movements should be nipped in the bud.

 

Indeed. Thailand take note.

do u really believe that a two party system that seems to be the norm in most western countries is actually democracy?..of course you dont. in fact the elites/bankers/hidden hand buy off both sides and install their agents in the positions of power and thats why we have constant wars ,financial crashes while half he world doesnt even have clean water to drink

 

[maewang99]

well, for starters....

the Nazi party..... that Hitler joined..... didn't say anything about occupying all of Europe and all of the Russian empire.. and exterminating civilians en mass until a little later on....

if you were to make a timeline for what happened... you know, get out a ruler or straight edge of some kind with the bottom being the year something happened....

it would be from 1920... to 1940 something.

with Hitler's suicide towards the end of the timeline chart.








 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by maewang99

[johnnyonesock]

10 minutes ago, maewang99 said:

well, for starters....

the Nazi party..... that Hitler joined..... didn't say anything about occupying all of Europe and all of the Russian empire.. and exterminating civilians en mass until a little later on....

if you were to make a timeline for what happened... you know, get out a ruler or straight edge of some kind with the bottom being the year something happened....

it would be from 1920... to 1940 something.

with Hitler's suicide towards the end of the timeline chart.








 

 

let me remind you that it was Britain and France that declared war on Germany in 1939 in retaliation to Germany reclaiming the lands stolen from it by The Treaty of Versailles in 1919....note on the second map that the USSR invaded the east of Poland two weeks later but for some reason Britain and France neglected to declare war on Stalin

[Denim]

1 hour ago, johnnyonesock said:

do u really believe that a two party system that seems to be the norm in most western countries is actually democracy?..of course you dont. in fact the elites/bankers/hidden hand buy off both sides and install their agents in the positions of power and thats why we have constant wars ,financial crashes while half he world doesnt even have clean water to drink

 

 

                                         ----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Don't trouble yourself to guess what I believe. My beliefs are my privilege as your beliefs are yours.

 

Here are at least 8 parties that contested the last British election.

 

Conservative

Labour

Liberal

SNP

DUP

Sinn Fein

UKIP

Green

 

 

How is that word “democracy” to be interpreted? My idea of it is that the plain, humble, common man, just the ordinary man who keeps a wife and family, who goes off to fight for his country when it is in trouble, goes to the poll at the appropriate time, and puts his cross on the ballot paper showing the candidate he wishes to be elected to Parliament—that he is the foundation of democracy. And it is also essential to this foundation that this man or woman should do this without fear, and without any form of intimidation or victimization. He marks his ballot paper in strict secrecy, and then elected representatives and together decide what government, or even in times of stress, what form of government they wish to have in their country. If that is democracy, I salute it. I espouse it. I would work for it.”

 

Winston Churchill—House of Commons, 8 Dec 1944

 

 

Men write many fine and plausible arguments in support of monarchy, but the fact remains that where every man in a state has a vote, brutal laws are impossible.

Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Denim

[johnnyonesock]

Here are at least 8 parties that contested the last British election.

 

Conservative

Labour

Liberal

SNP

DUP

Sinn Fein

UKIP

Green

 

the point being that because the elites/bankers/hidden hand  also own the media corporations that deny all those other parties a fair hearing at election times and go out of their way to deliberately smear any party that looks like it may make headway..UKIP is the prime example...the late great George Carlin sums up the way todays world works in this excellent 3 minute video

 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by johnnyonesock

[Denim]

1 hour ago, johnnyonesock said:

Here are at least 8 parties that contested the last British election.

 

Conservative

Labour

Liberal

SNP

DUP

Sinn Fein

UKIP

Green

 

the point being that because the elites/bankers/hidden hand  also own the media corporations that deny all those other parties a fair hearing at election times and go out of their way to deliberately smear any party that looks like it may make headway..UKIP is the prime example...the late great George Carlin sums up the way todays world works in this excellent 3 minute video

 

 

 

What Mr Carlin says has popular appeal because most of what he says is true. Critical viewpoints like this are pretty common  but it is a lot easier to criticize than to come up with a better alternative to democracy. For all it's flaws , democracy allows for a peaceful change of government at the hands of the people regardless of the fact that the rich and powerful  lobbies do their best to get the result they want.

 

The worst case scenario  is where the common man has no choice or say in who governs him and ONE party or group grabs power and hangs on to it.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely .