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HITLER BOOM
Healthy or Dangerous?
by
Keith Stump
Al\c:r ncarly
thlrty
years of supprcssion of
lbe dceds of the Hitler era, the West .Ger–
m>n
publie IOday is
be••&
dduged by a
ftoocl
'Of
boob.
ma~unes.
and ñlms a.bout
()CT'f'dlii'éfai>d1ús twelve-yur ReiciLThe
Gcrman.s bavc a word for the pbcnomcnon
-
Hillcr-wclle. or ...Hitler Wave."
In 1973 alone, founeen major books ahout
the life ond timos of Adolf Hitler competed
ror thc attcnc.ion or West Ocrman readers.
One of them. Wemer Maser's succ:ossful
Adolf
/lit/e-: úgmd,
Myth
GM
R<olity,
was
seriaJ.iud
in
tbe
masa cucubtion news–
weetly
Dor Spi•geC
AoOther boot. Joaehim
Fest's massive
Hitler,
o
8/of'OI'hy,
was
seria–
lized in IS
ports
in the popular pic<ure news–
weekly
Storn.
In addition
10
tbe major hardbacks. bun·
drec!J of paperbact books on virtuaUy every
aspect of the Third Reich add
10
the Hitler
tidal wave.
NumtroU$ moúon pacc:ures have
álso
ap–
peared in the
past
two
yean.
The
Britisb·
made film, "Hitler.
The
Last
Ten- Days."
s!Jirring
Alee
Guinness. was a great deal
more suceessfuJ
in
Wc~t
Ocnnany rhan
it
was in che United States.
.
For lhe more serious students of lhe
Rei ch. hardcover editions of Hitler's
speeches (in four volumes) and Goebbels'
speeches (in two volumes) have been made
avaU.ble.
Fuelish Americans
by
Oexter
H.
Faulknor
Wt~hlf,gfott
8ut-.u Ch;.l
The clever
slogan.
"Oon't
Be
Fueliob."
an
be:
sc:en: almost
evc.~herc
in Ameria.
coday - eveo oo the
rear
bumper of cars
exceedin& lbe SS.mile·per·hour speed limit
on rhe highway. Mere slogans, it would ap·
peor, do not oecessarily change people's atti·
tudes toward
th~
misuse orcnergy.
As John Quarle•. O.puty Administratar of
the United States EnvironmenlAI Protection
Ageney puu it: "Our soeiety seems nowbere
near ready
to
mak.e a real commiunent to –
tDC1'1)'
conservatiou...
Ounng the tougbest part or the
1974
oil
cmb.llr¡o, tbe govemment camc fonh witb
WEI!K I!NDING APRIL
S.
197S
And ln pe:rbaps thc most exhaustive
ven–
tute
10
date.
a new
bimonthly masazine
ealled
D41 Dritre Relch
(The Third Reich)
appeared on West Gennan n.-nc!J
in
1974. A
¡;opulai:,.yr.,
'<:ororful
histoij
-or
Germany from 1933
10
194S, the magazine'•
Sl
planned issues will auempt to clarify the
Hitler era. One noted
critic,
1\owever, ha.s
char¡cd that
ir
"glamorizes" the Nazi era
instcad.
The inevitable quentoo in all the.se ven–
tura
is
whether
th.is
Hitler boom
iodic:ates
oost>lsic
yeaming for the "glorious days" of
the Reíd!, or wbether
11
is
men:ly a healthy
r=amination or
what
eauaed
!he
niglumare.
To be fair. it •bould be noted that lbe
Gcrman.1
m
ay p<>S$ibly be blamed for baving
more
interest
in thc Reich
than they
reaUy
do. There appean
10
be oomparatlvely little
interest
in
Hitler amoo¡ Gcnnany's
pre-–
dominantly lenist-orient.ed studeots and
othtr young GermaAS today. Half
of
thc
10<>1
populalion of West Germany today
was hom lller World War
11.
Hitler was not
thelr
problem. and many
are
genuinely unin–
tcrcsted and uncooeemed.
The
current
intcrest lics prima.rily with the
¡cncradoo that w-as in iu 20's toward the
end
of lbc Reidl - thooe old enougb to have
been aware of Hitler, but
100
young
10
·bear
any administrativo responsíbility for wbat
the Nazis did.
hundreds of ideas to ímplement fuel oon–
scrvation,
amon.g them the ronnation of
ea.r
pool.,
the banning of display lighting. thc
shuuin¡ off
ot
television aner mid.night and
the eliminatioo of automobile air coodi–
tioncrs.
Unfonunately, few of these releas
bave
suMved
10
any degree. Outs1de the lowered
naliOnwide speed limll - violated llagrantly
almost cverywhere - the United St.ttes ha..s
no
mandatory progra,m to save energy. At–
cording to the Fede1111l!oer&Y Administrator
Frank G. Zarb, "Maodatory coonpliance in
thc country geiS rejected like
a
transplaoted.
orgart...
The Federal Ener¡y Adminlstration esti·
mates that the United SIJites wastes 30 per·
eent ofthe ener¡y it buys and produees..Y<l
energy demand
has
beco steadily growin&
raster thon supply - a n annual growth in
lfone of lbe purposes oftheir interest is
10
disoover "How was
Ibis
possibler with
bopes of avoiding a repetilion. then it's all
well and
good
sociolosists and historians
elaim.
A$
one American joumali.st
asked~
"'Can
Amcricans
scriou~ly
criticize a Oer–
onun wíllingness to look suaight at the most
revohing aspe<ts oftbeir own history'/"
tr.
in addition. anolhcr
purpose
ls
to sc:pa–
rate the popular myths about Hitler from
reality and to present an objec:<ive analysis
Of the
man,
Ibis
lOO oould be
a
healthy sigo.
Therc have, however. been cbarges botb
in West Germany lJld, especially, in Com·
munist East Gcnnany.
or
..
sini.ster"
histori–
ca1 distortions and "mlnimization and
mitigation" of sorne of thc blacker sides of
the Hitler
era.
Thc Soviet newspaper
PrrJvdo
has
gnne
so far asto charg< thot these worts
are
pan
of a devious plot to sonen up
umus–
pecting Germ.,. for a retum to tbe days of
tbe Reieb -
10
mate the publíc ready
again
to acx;ept tbe ideas
o(
a retum to rig.btist
authoritarianism.
This may be going too far. Outthere
is
still
a dan¡er that even an innoeent aucmpt
toso
thorougbly dredge up lho past oould back·
fire.
Not since the early
J930s
has
there been
such uneer!Jiiftty
in
West Germany (oot
10
meotioo Westem Europe), with naWn& ift.
ftatioo, pnlitical
disilluoionmen~
growing
unemploymen~
and social unresL Should
problerns ooncinuc
to
mount in West Gcr·
many. bringing the natíon cvcntually to the
brinlc of economic collapse and social cbaos,
this preoeeupalion with díctatorship
in
the
mus
c:oosáousness
cou.ld manifest itself in
the form of a popular willin&D<JS
10
aban–
don
democ:ncy for
a
system
wbicb
could
more speedily deal with ur¡cnt. life-and-
""aesth nalionál problems.
Coupled wilh sucb a desire there would
llkely be the
hop•
that such a govemment
would lcnow
this
time
how
far
to
¡o
and
would avoid the hideous excesses of tbe pasL
Some in Gennany have already gone so far
asto eall for a "little Hitler"
10
deliver them
from their national problems.
Sebastian H>U'na, the DOled Anglo-Ger–
mao joumalisl,
has
observed that Hitler got
to the lOp
b<eause
he wu the only messiab
around, and lbe Germao pcople needed a
rncssiah - ooe
to
promise
quic.k.
painlcss
solution.l
10
their complex problems.
Somc
política! observe!'$
are even oow
oommenting
on an
appareot desirc not only
in
West Germany but also througbout West–
em Europe for
mong<r
ktllkrtlúp.
Former
West Gennan Chancellor Willy Brandt
ex·
pressed fe.an prior lO
bis
resignalioo
1ast
year that Westem l!urope has only 20 to 30
more years of demoeraey len. Others have
been less optimis:tic.
Such are the potentíal dangers sbo uld
Gcrmans and olbers look too long at the
llood
of
glo6sy
pieturu of the "glamorous"
and "human" sides offascism and ignore the
lessons
of
the biuer rruit of the Nazi
era.
o
oonsumption of nearly
S
pereen~
compared
with a supply growlb of3 pereent.
But now
the
once chcap and abundant
cncrgy
re.soutees th.al baV'e
madc
possible
the human lahor-uving deviees and tbc
abundant creative comforts that are so
in·
graioed
in
lbe
Ameritan life·style
are
zoom–
in&
up
in
cost
and declirung in supply.
As
a
resuh our national altitudes aod our oational
practica
must
dtange.
As
Presiden< Ford told the nation in
bis
reeent enet&Y mewgc: "Part of our trouble
Í$
that we bave been sclf·índulgcnt. .. and
oow the
bill
has come due."
Dr. RusseU W. Peterson. Chairman of the
President's Council on EnvironmenlJII
Qua!·
uy rccently expressed ooDCCm over tbe gen–
eral ímpressioo that the ener¡y erisis
will
be
over
in
10
10
IS
yun and Americans can
rela.x
and
~reswne
our
comfortable tate of
Herodotus
on Holidays
ll was ahout the yesr
S2.S
B.C. when
Oarius, a one-timelcing or Persia, decided
10
oonduct an experimenL Sum.moning a group
ofGreek
sold.ieiS
10
his court,
be
lold them
be would pay any amount tbey
wisbed
ir
they would eat their fathers upon death. The
Greeks were aghast and refused the
otra
at
any price. Thcn in their presence, Darius
caUed
in
some of bis
tnd1an soldiers
wbo
cwtomarily ate their ralhers aner deatb. and
asked for wha< sum they would bum lbem
¡nstead. Tbe lndia.n soldien were
also
ap-–
palled and refused lbe olfer immediately.
l!ach .....
borrilied al the
<USlOm
or lbe
other.
From tbe above e><periment, Herodotus,
the ancicnt historian. drcw che oooclu.sloo
that
cwtoms ruiNmen.
'fodky we
also
have customs. lt
is
our
HERODOTUS
circJt
485-425 8. C.
CUSIOIO
in
the
sprio¡
lO portray
rabbi.ts
lay•
in¡egs.
In the faU, our chlldren dress as evil spirits
and &O
from
house lO bouse. Then in lbe
dead orwintcr. wc cut a trcc out of a forest
and plaoe
it
in
our livin&
rooms.
Unfortu.oately,
eve:o
today,
Hetodotus
ls
ttill righL
Customs rule me... Fot
ir
one "'Ould
de–
ade
oot
10
foUow certalD of these man-made
customs, be would be immediatdy
ostra·
ciud by lbooe around him,
The apostlc Peter said lbat "we ought
10
obey God lll ther t.han meo" (Acu
5:29).
lf
Herodotus were writins about your lifc,
would he say that customs ruled you. or
would be write lb>t God ruled your choice
ot
customs?
~
- N. G~tneGriffin
economic growth. our American standard of
living."
.
Thc ttouble
is,
expctlJ are sayillg, lhal
Americans are sti11 usinf
roo
much energy.
not fully reali%i11g tbere
11
no hottomless piÍ
of ener¡y available. Wc may well be
se<Íft!
lbe proverbial bandwriting on tbe
wall,
apelliog out the end of an abundance of
cbeap fuels. Altitudes and values
wiU
bave
&o
cb.ange.
Conservatioo laws
will
haveto
be
adhered
10.
People will by necessity become
le&S
materiaJistic. Smaller
cars, required
re–
eyctin_g. aod eveo thc joy or making some–
thin¡ last a liule longer will
re~lace
the old
American ..
throw
away..
mcnta.hty.
lf
these altitudes don't ebange. however.
we
might
see, as
ooe commentator said in a
¡Joomy prediction,
"a
lot or war on this
planet.. as
it
beoomes ""'vcry ditficuh for–
cveryone
to
share wharlittle we
ha
ve... O
11