Friday, April 22, 2005

Adolf Hitler (Part 1)

I realize that my history students are pretty fascinated with this man known as Hitler. Not surprising, he is one of the few villains who captured the peoples’ imaginations with his troubled life. He was a tragic figure and his early life was peppered with snippets which can be seen in many instances of people lives. He was an anti-hero, which you cannot see in people’s nowadays. Not that I have particular admiration for him but it seems that the villains that actually come close is like Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, Osama Bin Laden and of course Michael Jackson. In fact till this day, we struggle to understand how this son of a petty civil servant managed to convince an entire nation to go along with his dreams of world conquest and racial superiority. I am not trying to put the record straight but just to make this person more human. In fact I found some stuff through books and the net which will give a better insight of this man. But as I say although the information is correct, I have choose to to it in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

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~~~~The JUICY PARTS~~~~

Adolf Hitler, born April 20, 1889, is undoubtedly one of the most puzzling personalities of our time. He became a vegetarian and purportedly loved animals (he even left bread crumbs for the mice in his apartment), played games with children, and lovingly offered gold watches to friends who promised to quit smoking. (And this is also the same man who sentenced millions of men, women, and children to death without a second thought)

Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schickigruber. Maria worked for the Frankenreithers, a Jewish family, as a servant. There has been speculation that Alois' father was the nineteen-year-old son of the family While postwar research casts some doubt on this story which portrays Adolf as one-quarter Jewish, Hitler himself feared that it might be true and tried to cover up any evidence of the matter. Whether true or not, the Frankenreither family financially supported Maria until her son was fourteen.

Hitler's father had three wives (but divorced only one of them), seven or eight children, and at least one more child out of wedlock. One wife was thirteen ears older than him, another twenty three years younger, and one—Hitler's mother—was his foster daughter. Hitler's godfather was a Jew named Prinz. (talk about incest, polygamy, and a total warped family tree - this is the particular type of broken dysfunctional family which create all this problematic situation in the first place. Like I always say, everything happens happens for a reason)

Hitler was not born in Germany, but rather in (at that time) Austria-Hungary. (Hitler is the classic example of foreign talent, the very people that Singaporean government are actively pursuing. Remember Goh Chok Tong who say we need high quality talents to help boost our economy, while Hitler is indeed the classic one! Andf by the way who said the Germans were xenophobic?)

Hitler's sister Paula claimed that Adolf got a sound thrashing every day from his father. Although Alois was strict, it was not clear that he was any more so than the average German father of that period. (Alois should be glad he is not in present day situation, he would have gotten in trouble with the law for beating up children. Children have rights OK... Yah right..)

Hitler idolized his mother and personally nursed her during her last few weeks as she lay dying of cancer. Her physician, Dr. Edmund Bloch, was a Jew. Alter her death in 1908 the grieving Hitler promised the doctor he would be forever grateful for the care he took of his mother. (by gassing the doctor's fellow jews, what a way to show gratitiude)

At age eight Hitler attended a Benedictine monastery school. He longed to become an abbot, but barely escaped expulsion when he was caught smoking. The monastery's coat of arms, displayed in various parts of the school, prominently featured a swastika.

Hitler hated school and his teachers hated his insolence. When he finally finished high school he celebrated by getting so drunk that he fell into unconsciousness When he awoke he could not find his graduation certificate to show his mother. He returned to the school to get a duplicate. The headmaster was waiting for him with his original certificate, It had been torn into four pieces and used as toilet paper. The humiliated future fuhrer then made a vow to touch alcohol never again. (Drinking is bad; Drink, don't drive, all messages brought to yu for authorised medical experts and traffic police)

Hitler was a voracious reader of Karl May’s Western novels, which were very popular in Germany at the time. May was a German who had never visited the United States, so he made up facts about the geography and the habits of American cowboys and Indians. Hitler later claimed that everything he knew about America came from May's books, and that he got the idea of concentration camps from reading about American Indian reservations. (hitler would have failed his comprehension and SS also, how did he get that horrific idea of a concentration camp from the Americans The American are advocates of freedom and human rights! Hm... wait a minute...)

Hitler's half brother Alois, Jr., served time in jail for thievery on at least two occasions and was a bigamist. He was banished to a concentration camp in 1942’because he talked too much about Hitler as a youth. (That should stop you from squaling about your younger sister/brother or any body. They may become PM in singapore one day and then you know...)

Hitler's first youthful love was Stephanie Jansten. He composed a number of love poems In her honor including one he called “Hymn to the Beloved,” and apparently falsely believed from her last name that she was Jewish. In spite of his passion and his confession to his best friend that he would jump off a bridge into the Danube to commit suicide, taking Stephanie with trim, he never once got up the nerve to talk to her. It wasn't until many years later that she discovered she had once been the object of the fuhrer's ardor. (Loser)

Hitler's view of the world, also based in fantasy, began to significantly take shape. He borrowed large numbers of books from the library on German history and Nordic mythology. He was also deeply inspired by the opera works of Richard Wagner and their pagan, mythical tales of struggle against hated enemies. His friend Kubizek recalled that after seeing Wagner's opera 'Rienzi,' Hitler behaved as if possessed. Hitler led his friend atop a steep hill where he spoke in a strange voice of a great mission in which he would lead the people to freedom, similar to the plot in the opera he had just seen. (So when we say Hitler was a loony, we were quite spot on, he was indeed hal-loo-cinating)

A little bit more about this man, young Hitler also had this sense of delusion towards Stephanie. He would stare at her as she walked by and sometimes followed her. He wrote her many love poems. But he never delivered the poems or worked up the nerve to introduce himself, preferring to keep her in his fantasies. He told his friend Kubizek he was able to communicate with her by intuition and that she was even aware of his thoughts and had great admiration for him. He was also deeply jealous of any attention she showed other young men. In reality, she had no idea Hitler had any interest in her. Years later, when told of the interest of her now famous secret admirer, she expressed complete surprise, although she remembered getting one weird unsigned letter. (Loser X 2)

Unable to get into art school, Hitler moved to Liverpool, England, to avoid, the draft. However, on a visit to Vienna, the authorities caught up with him, and he entered the army just as World War I was breaking out. He was a message runner In those pre-radio days, and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery under fire, thanks to the recommendation of his commanding officer, Hugo Gutmann, who was Jewish. By this time Hitler, however, was already deeply anti-Semitic. ‘

While in the army, he loved sketching and painting bombed-out buildings. (So he did have this obsession with blown up stuff whic probably account for the fact that he destroyed so many property in the Second World War. To paint them perhaps?)

Corporal Hitler was a dispatch runner, taking messages back and forth from the command staff in the rear to the fighting units near the battlefield. He was an unusual soldier with a sloppy manner and unmilitary bearing. But he was also eager for action and always ready to volunteer for dangerous assignments even after many narrow escapes from death. Hitler, unlike his fellow soldiers, never complained about bad food and the horrible conditions or talked about women, preferring to discuss art or history. His fellow soldiers regarded Hitler as too eager to please his superiors, but generally a likable loner notable for his luck in avoiding injury as well as his bravery. (in the army we call these people xiao "on" or too "on the bolla". Anyway these are the usual sabo kings who will get themselves into trouble with the rest of the guys- most probably getting a blanket party...)

One month before Germany surrendered he was blinded by a chlorine gas attack and didn't fully regain his sight until the war was over.


I guess there were so much juicy parts on this man and I should continue with the next part. On a side note. Perhaps some of you have notice that I am starting to use pictures more to spice up the blog. Share your comments whether you like the new format. Or I should continue with the words and talk and bore.. :P


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1 comment:

Unknown said...

this gives a lot of info on Hitler..
I'm interested to know more about his love story with stephanie i.e. what were his plans for the future if he had got married to her etc etc...