whats with the sudden interest in hitler?

Question

i dunno why. after reading anne frank and watching several video clips on youtube, ive been completely into hitler. despising him so much my classmates think im wierd. getting annoyed at people who say they "like" him... reading any articles i can find on wikipedai about him or the nazis or anything to do with that time. searching for pics on the holocaust and watching as many clips as possible. paying ore attention than usual in civics class(history) when we're studying hitler. getting moody everytime i srch on him... why? it really is a nightmare to me. the way he was so unfair to sooo many. yet, no matter how much i just want to forget it all, i cant. its like an obsession which i dont completely and hardly enjoy. .... whats with this interest anyway????

Answer 1

as a german who was born 7 years after the war endet, i schooled during a period where history always endet 1933. we learned nothing about hitler in the school way back then. yes it was in the books but when we reached 1933 the school year was over. so what we learned was mainly from parent and relatives. those people were of that generation and had mixed thoughts. either they said nothing or they had been against him all the time, which i don't believe,because those were few and far between. and then there were those who still admired him.
today it is different since it is past and our duty lies only in preventing a repetition. belonging to a different generation, i acknowledge the evil of hitler, but neither am i ashamed to be german nor do i join the chorus of those, who feel guilty and clamor for more "wiedergutmachung" for what he did.
he was evil yes no doubts, but it is in the past.
japanese war atrocities are forgotten, american atrocities against the native americans are forgotten, british atrocities in africa, india or australia are a story of the past and even the cruel genocide of ruanda is barely mentioned today, considering it was only a few years ago.
people tend to forget, however not in the case of the nazis and hitler.
anne frank is certainly a very moving story, but the lesson to be learned is not in the cruelty of the nazis, but in humanity of those, who helped.
as for you personally i believe that your obsession will fade and other interesting topics come along. don't feel bad about it, it is natural curiosity, wanting to know everything about a theme, which is fascinating for you. in young years i was fascinated by space and the attempts of humans to go there, so i learned and read and knew everything that was to be known, today its about 6721. priority in my life.

@tylerdurden your remark was uncalled for in my view. germany is a much different place today, then it was way back in the thirties and forties.

@screaminfiero your figures are a bit off. hitler killed about 6 million jews and not 14 million, not that it makes a difference, because even one is one to much.

Answer 2

I have also studied a lot about the Holocaust after I read Anne Frank's diary and other documents from that time. And I definitely get more than annoyed if people say they like him, or what good things they think he has done, or if they compare him to Bush (although I don't like Bush, but this comparison is absurd). But actually I always had less interest in Hitler but more in his victims and read all reports from Holocaust survivors that I could get. Actually I don't want to give Hitler the "honor" to take interest in his sick mind.
This is a part of history that we should never forget.

Answer 3

Hi ya
I can´t explain why you are so interested in Hitler all of a sudden. I mean,he WAS a cruel man.
I am 29 years old - and I´m German I´ve grown up with the German history and I still feel ashamed when I´m abroad and I have to say that I´m German.... which is really stupid cause there is hardly anybody left of the war generation. The generation of my parents was the one that re-built the country and paid for what had happened...
But, please, please, please, don´t mix hixtory with the present.
One movie came out about two years ago and I´m quite sure it was exported and translated into English. Not sure about the title now. It´s something like "the last 28 days of Hitler". If you can find that, that´s a brilliant film!
But - let it go. We must never forget or forgive what happenend, but we must not let this man still rule our lifes!

Answer 4

It is natural to be curious about significant events in history.

I have found that many people have become fascinated with learning about Hitler and Nazi Germany in the last few years.

With so much going on in the world, and so many being compared to Hitler, it would only be natural that you would become curious.

Learning about Hitler is a bit addicting once you get started. His life is so twisted on itself that it is a bit like unraveling a good mystery.

I applaud and encourage you to study as much as you can. There is so much dispute regarding Hitler's life, and religious beliefs, or lack there of. It does take some time to get through what is fact and what is opinion.

Answer 5

The Nazis, particularly Adolf Hitler, have acquired a status pretty much equivalent to 'the face of evil.' People just happen to hate them, because, well, they think they're just plain evil. It's not really surprising that you find an loathing of Hitler. If you want to turn away from Hitler, you may want to read instead on the rape of Nanking, and other Japanese WWII activities. They, after all, did kill more people. Numbers, I believe were over 10 million. Interestingly enough, the Japanese didn't earn the 'face of evil' status.

Answer 6

The movie Tsiss refers to was called Der Untergang in German, Downfall in English, and it IS brilliant. It manages to humanize Hitler without forgiving him.

A fascination with Hitler is understandable, I think. Like someone before said, it's difficult to understand that one man's fanaticism could lead to a world war in while 30 million died, not to mention the attempted genocide of an entire culture and the murder of many millions of others, all for the sake of making Germany somehow "purer."

The whole WWII era has fascinated me since elementary school, so my answer may be biased.

And although I have nothing but hatred and contempt for Hitler and everything he stood for, I don't think he was a "mad man" OR a "military mastermind." He was the ultimate hard-ball politician, who was able to pressure the other leaders of Europe into letting him take the Sudetenland and then the whole of Czechoslovakia, and then unite Germany with Austria, to re-form the German Reich, in direct violation of the Versailles treaty, which broke down that Empire for a reason!

And when neighboring Poland refused to play ball, he manufactured a border incident and invaded.

As for his being a "military mastermind," HE certainly thought he was! He would never have invaded Russia if he had been, nor bothered saving Mussolini in Greece or North Africa. The closest he came to being a military mastermind was during the planning for the Ardennes offensive in December 1944, but he didn't have enough tanks or troops -- or gasoline! -- to make that work. And by then, it was too little, too late.

Good luck in your studies. Don't let Hitler and Naziism consume you to the point where you wish he'd won!!

Answer 7

OK, first off, I am Jewish. I can feel the hate for someone like Hitler. What made him such the big deal that he was, was the fact that he could use mass propaganda to change a whole nation! When he spoke, people jumped! I actually feel he was a genius for the way he controlled people, but I feel he should have absolutely used it in a positive way, and not to kill over 14 million Jews. For one he got cocky, and two he was a coward. Not only that, at the time of the holocaust, Germany was doing so well with many advances scientifically, medically, and technology. Almost due to the fact they used many of the LIVE Jews as lab rats. Hitler was all about control and fear. In the end, he feared his end, so he stuck a bullet in his head...like I said, what a coward.

Answer 8

Don't get too worried - its natural curiousity, absolutely essential for a budding historian.

You'll find that, once you've satisfied your curiousity, you'll want to move on to other subjects, or other people, or other periods.

I was fascinated by Alexander the Great when I was younger and that eventually lead to a life-long interest and career in humanities and art history.

Answer 9

Its that time of year in school where the history books have reached, next month, it'll be about the 50s and the Cold War

Answer 10

If you've never come across him before and are just finding out about him for the first time, I think your curiosity is natural. Evil as he was, as a person he is a fascinating character to find out about. Don't feel bad about hating people who say they "like him". I think that's a perfectly natural response, given his actions! Find out as much as you like about him, but don't forget, there are other people out there too, some of whom have done good for the world, learn about them too.