Lately I've been finding scores of online articles, book references, and comic references to the Nazi Party and Hitler. Now I understand that it is a very sensitive subject for most, but how many references do we see in our day to day lives?
Just think about it.
No. Really think about it.
Once you become aware of this trend, you start hearing and seeing references everywhere. They may simply be offhand remarks like "Oh that professor is such a Nazi about grading" or it may be one of the many documentaries on the History Channel. It's unbelievable to see how such a travesty in European history has become a joke.
However a lot of the articles I have found are scholarly articles. Thank Goodness. But there has been a controversy in Germany about a new film that was released depicting the dictator as a Bed-wetting, illiterate, erectile-dysfunction suffering, man whose every problem is blamed on his parents.
Now being a German scholar, I've read a lot and studied a lot about Germany, the Third Reich, just about anything you can think of. World War II is a very interesting subject once you delve beneath just the war and the Holocaust.
I also, like many other German scholars I've talked to, get almost offended when people make very uneducated remarks about the Nazi Party and Germany. We're not necessarily defending them, but we would rather have you get your facts straight instead of looking like an idiot. Granted, the point of the film is to poke fun at Hitler, which is an almost brand new concept in Germany, at least in cinema.
But my main problem is, well, I look awfully Aryan.
With blond hair, blue(ish) eyes and a knowledge of the German language, I get instantly labelled as a Nazi if I try and correct these uneducated people.
It gets tiring.
With all of the resources on the web now, why don't people take more time to learn about the war? Why not learn about the Regime and realize that there's more to it than what they teach you in your high school's World Cultures class.
I was astounded today when I read Slate.com's reporter Clive James' article, "Adolf Hitler: How the intellectual climate in Germany shaped the future Fuhrer".
In the introduction, James said, "Statistics suggest, however, that a large proportion of young people now emerging from the educational systems of the Western democracies either don't know who he was or have only a shaky idea of what he did. One of the drawbacks of liberal democracy is thus revealed: Included among its freedoms is the freedom to forget what once threatened its existence."
Which brings me to another point.
In my German 415: Advanced Grammar class (I know, exciting right?) we've been discussing the idea of German guilt (Schuld) and remembrance (Erinnerung) of the atrocities that have happened.
At least in American pop-culture, it's near impossible to forget completely what has happened with so many references that happen every day. But what has been forgotten are the facts.
Facts.
Who knew a five letter word could be changed or forgotten so easily.
But then again, what about Nazis?
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