As a Brit, I was wondering why Americans are obssesed with Hilter and Nazis?

Question

Do you think their constant TV programming, movies, discussion, and questions are really representative of a secret love for Nazism?

"Only in America can you have a museum dedicated to a crime perpetrated by a foreign people, against a foreign people, on foreign soil."

---Henry Kissinger on United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (He's Jewish)

Obviously it should read Hitler.

I'm guessing you've never watched programming on the History Channel, or as many people in America call it the Hitler Channel.

Answer 1

I think its a morbid fascination. Like looking at a train wreck. Its disgusting and you want to look away, but you just can't.

I caught a Daily Show segment during the last Congressional election in the U.S. 2006, and they showed over 50 politicians comparing a policy or opposition candidate to either Hitler or Nazism.

I think that the American psyche has such a strong indoctrination as to the manifest evil of Hitler, that World War II history has stopped being simply history and taken on "mythical" proportions.

It's overused like the F--- word. People use it today as an insult because they are too ignorant to think of something better to say.

Answer 2

i do not like generalization.
you can say the history channel has segments on Hitler all you want, but i can say most people don't watch the history and they rather watch MTV.
And if you say there are people that worship Hitler than i can say those people have a overblown fantasy from a future that will never be.

you must understand that America is a pot of culture. so there will always be people who wants to do something first (like create a Henry Kissinger on United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) or be more incline to a certain event of history (like Hitler or Stalin)

basically a lot of wierd things happen here but i can say the same for europe.

Answer 3

I do agree there are a lot of movies about the holocaust, but most of them are not really focused on the act of Nazism, the biggest part have to do with specific people and places, for example Ann Frank.

I don't think that we are obsessed with the thought of it I just think that we are glad it didn't happen here and we remorse for those it did happen to. Everyone is subconsciously trying to make sure that no one falls under that type of leader here. The more you research and learn about something the more that you can see when it is trying to happen again. The more prepared you are and ready you are to stop it.

Let's also look at how many movies and such there are about slavery, wars, the depression etc...all of which happened here.

Making a movie or airing television programs...it's all about the ratings, and if you want ratings you have to make something that will get a rise out of people. --People are always the most horrified when they know that what they are watching really happened.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

As an American, I was wondering how you know that we have this obsession we seem to not know we have. When certain people (Hitler and the Nazis) kill millions from another group of people and try to take over the world, I would think that it would not be a minor footnote in history. If you remember Americans gave their blood in what was one of the biggest wars (if not the biggest) of the century, of history. Why would we not have some museums, some tv shows, some movies about this. Hitler and the Nazis represent the kind of carnage and destruction that is now possible in the modern era of weaponry and now they are not even modern.

Answer 6

Contrary to what some may think, most of us Americans are not wrapped up in being self serving and self centered. Most of us care about the things happening to other people, in other countries.

And, there are many Americans that are the people who fled Europe, or the children & grandchildren of them - those who were lucky enough to get out.

Not to mention - I believe it was the Americans that helped to discover Hitler's atrocities, that were some of the first to go into the camps, and to help defeat the Nazi movement! There were Americans that died there, too. Its also part of our history. I had family that died in Germany.

You need to understand American culture... as members of a free democratic society, things like understanding genocide, dictatorships, and totalitarian rule are important. Understanding the alternatives helps us to understand the importance and blessings of a free society.

There is no secret love of nazism here. There is profound sympathy for anyone, any nation, any group, that is oppressed. Even America has its dark history that we study, and discuss constantly - a little horror called slavery. We remember that, too.

Answer 7

No its not a secret love for nazism its fascination and yes obsesion over how one low class person such as Hitler was able to rise from the gutter and total poverty, reach the highest positio in german politics transform a democracy into a totalitarian government, create a non existant furor against jews and plunge the world into a war that by chance they did not win. Having been in the verge of defeating two world powers such as England and Russia together.

Claiming the war 50 million dead (50,000,000)
All this, basically done by one ex corporal of the emperial german army.

A worthy man to be studied.
Historically a worthy case to be analized.
An event to be seriously taken into account.

Answer 8

Probably because we consider helping to defeat the Nazi's as one of our greatest accomplishments as a nation. I think it also has to do with the fact they were completely evil, and so they make good, or at least simple, villains in literature and movies. You don't have to try to show the human side of Nazi's. You don't have any sympathy for a Nazi who gets killed. I'd feel worse about stepping on a spider than shooting a Nazi. And since our recent wars in America haven't been so cut and dry, and we don't know who the bad guy is all the time, and people like Osama and Saddam who 2 decades ago we were giving weapons, money, and political support, suddenly became the bad guys, its nice to remember when the bad guys all wore evil looking uniforms, made speeches about racial supremacy in that evil sounding german language, and marched down the poor helpless French's streets.

Answer 9

We Americans are not obsessed with Hitler and the Nazis. It was one of the worst times in history. People have to remember what happened so it won't happen again. Other villaneous leaders have committed similar horrific acts but those in the concentration camps provide a grim pictorial of what happened in WW II.

Answer 10

Many Americans fiercely supported Hitler and the Nazis.

George W. Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush, for example. He laundered money for Hitler and sold oil to the Nazis even after Germany declared war on the US. He and his entire family should have been tortured and shot for such treason.

Imagine how much better off the world would be today if the entire Bush family had been eradicated in the 1940s.