By Daisy Ditzy
There is an exceptionally fine documentary coming to TV on the life of Adolf Hitler, the founder of Nazism.
Filmed on location in Austria and Germany, this documentary succeeds were previous ones have failed by incorporating sweeping landscapes, the Alps, Berchesgaden, Berlin, Dachau, and other places with a breath of knowledge from scholars such as David Irving and David Duke.
The documentary will be narrated by Professor Reinhard Arseloch of the University of Munich. Robustly researched and beautifully filmed, combined with Arseloch's inviting demeanor and assuring gravitas, "The life of Adolf" is well worth watching. It is a vivid corrective to the fear and misinformation that surrounds Nazism and its founder.
Braunau am Inn
"One hundred and twenty-four years ago, a man was born here in Braunau, Austria, who changed the course of world history", Arseloch says, adding that he "wants to explore the many complexities of Adolf's life and times and how they still affect today's real world. I want to uncover the real Adolf."
Most viewers will learn facts about Hitler and the movement he founded that they never knew.
Here a few of mine.
1 Adolf was an orphan.
Actually, his father, Alois, who was an Austrian Customs official died when Adolf was 14. His beloved mother, Klara, who everyone said was a saint of a woman, died of cancer when Adolf was 18. By all accounts, Adolf was close to his mother and was beside himself with grief when she died. The family doctor who attended her, a Dr Bloch, was Jewish, and after his mother's death, a grateful Adolf thanked the doctor for all he had done for his mother.
2 Adolf's first and only love was not Eva Braun.
Actually, it was Geli Raubel, his niece, who was Adolf's first love. Geli and her mother lived with Adolf in Munich prior to his ascension to power. By all accounts, he was very fond of her and quite protective-especially when she was having an affair with Adolf's driver, Emil Maurice. In 1931, while Adolf was on a speaking tour in Germany, Geli was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in Adolf's flat. Adolf had just left Munich hours before she apparently killed herself. Her death has never been fully explained.
3 There are no statues, monuments or plaques marking Adolf's birthplace.
Well actually, during the Third Reich, there were. The Gasthof Pommer, an inn in Braunau where little Adolf was born, was turned into a tourist site after the Anschluss. People could walk upstairs and see the room where Adolf was born. However, since the end of World War II, modesty has taken over. For a few years, there was some sort of peace memorial there, but the Pommer has been sold, and I am told there is absolutely no marker there that this is where Adolf was born-surely in keeping with his wishes.
Gasthof Pommer
4 Munich is not the shrine of Nazism
Munich is where the Nazi movement was born, but Adolf selected Nuremberg as the shrine of Nazism. it was here that he staged his annual party rallies. For today's devotees, they can still visit the Zeppelinwiese, where the rallies were held and can even stand at the very spot where Adolf made some of his most famous speeches.
Zeppelinwiese
5 The term "Nazi state" doesn't mean what you might think.
Nazism was not just for Germans; it was for all. During the time of Adolf, the Nazi state extended to many parts of Europe, like Holland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, France, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and much of Russia. And that term, "Volk" has been unfairly translated to suggest that only Germans were "Volk". Any dictionary will tell you that "Volk" means people in German, just as in English we say, "That's all, Folks", that is merely a direct translation from the German.
"Th th, that's all, folks."
I've never heard "The Producers" reviewed in quite this way before.
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