Hitler’s Struggle, Mein Kampf

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Why did you want to read Mein Kampf (My Struggle)? 

•  Initially I wanted to see how transparent Hitler was.  How clear were his statements?  Abraham Foxman writes in the Introduction:  “Mein Kampf’s existence denies the free world the excuse of ignorance.”
•  Hitler’s opening words.  “To an ever-increasing extent world history became for me an inexhaustible source of understanding for the historical events of the present; in other words, for politics.  I do not want to ‘learn’ it, I want it to instruct me.  (p.16)  Reading this book is one of the steps in answering the question ‘How could the Holocaust happen?’
•  History fascinates me.  It is so interconnected: one really cannot understand WW2 without a knowledge of WW1; the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 is an important context of WW1, Napolean etc. etc.  A mentor long ago convinced me of the value of primary source documents. 

What was your overall impression?

I agree with Mussolini who called it ‘Hitler’s boring book‘.  Hitler considered himself a gifted orator.  He was no writer.  It was hard to follow his circular logic.  Much of his rhetoric was vitriol and vituperation.  Frankly, it was agony to read.  My husband could not understand my compulsion to make it through to the end. 

Was there anything to like?

Surprisingly, yes. 
•  Describing the poverty of his youth: “Hunger was then my faithful bodyguard.” (p.21). 
•  “The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. ”  (p.180)
•  This phrase tickled me: “a sneak and a spineless lickspittle”
•   He advocated strong sports and physical fitness programs for boys. 
•   Hitler’s commentary on (generic) committee members: “…who were in a kind of continuous pregnancy with excellent plans, ideas, projects, methods.”  He said that the best means of making them harmless was to assign them to some real work.

So.  How did he really feel about the Jews?

•  Gradually, I began to hate them [Jews].  p.63
•  I had ceased to be a weak-kneed cosmopolitan and became an anti-Semite. p. 64
•  All who are not of good race in this world are chaff.  p. 296
•  personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew  p.324
•  The Jew is the great master in lying.

Whom, besides the Jews, did Hitler hate?

•  Pacifists
•  Marxists (particularly that Jew, Karl Marx)
•  Parlimentarianism
•  Western democracy
•  Mixed races (particularly in Slavs)
•  Signers of The Treaty of Versailles
•  Bastards, physically degenerate, mentally sick
•  France (inexorable mortal enemy of the German people)

Were there any foreshadowings of Hitler’s invasions?

•  Hitler describes correct foreign policy as “a strengthening of our continental power by gaining new soil in Europe.” (p.612)
•  These circles never even began to realize that Germanization can only be applied to soil and never to people.  (p.388)

Final thoughts?

Mein Kampf is a witness against Hitler and his followers.  He clearly articulated the philosophy of Nazism.  While the horror of ‘The Final Solution’ wasn’t revealed, the open hatred of Jews is never hidden.  

I Have Never Forgotten You

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He didn’t mask his disappointment.  It’s a documentary?  Exhausted from a long work week, my husband anticipated a light comedy … something … easy.  Three minutes into the movie we were fully engaged, and flat out in love with Simon Wiesenthal.  When the credits rolled, we wept in silence, wrapped in a shawl of sorrow. 

Why was this movie so appealing?  It taps into our sense of justice.  N.T. Wright writes, “…we all share not just a sense that there is such a thing as justice, but a passion for it, a deep longing that things should be put to rights, a sense of out-of-jointness that goes on nagging and gnawing and sometimes screaming at us…”

I Have Never Forgotten You tells Wiesenthal’s story with a montage of archived interviews, televised speaking engagements, and biographical narrative.  Blessed with a steel-trap memory, this Shoah survivor weighing 99 pounds was able to sit down and write ninety names of Nazi war criminals soon after he was liberated.  With his role in finding Adolf Eichmann, Simon Wiesenthal’s fame as a Nazi hunter grew to international proportions.      

This was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.  Sorrow was not only a daily companion, but an essential part of the man he became.  He made room for it in his life; he didn’t try to deny its existence or keep it locked up in the cellar of his soul.  His eyes welled up often.  He was a grief-carrier, and the grace with which he carried his grief is truly a thing of beauty.  He was warm and jovial, a joke maker and a story teller.  And his smile…his smile melted my heart.

I knew the name, had heard some stories.  I expected a man of intense, slow-burning anger, a vigilante bent on revenge.  But there is a vast difference between revenge and justice.  Solid in the face of opposition, Wiesenthal worked tirelessly; courageous when attacked, he methodically organized the avalanche of information, determined in his duty, persistent to the end.  Ben Kingsley said that he was an instrument of healing for thousands of people.
       
This is the best movie we’ve seen in 2009.  I highly recommend it with the caution that there are Holocaust images and content. 

Criticizing Churchill

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In Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War” Pat Buchanan argues that both World Wars could have been avoided.  He places a huge amount of culpability on Winston Churchill for both wars.  If you follow the link, under product description are six bullet points that list major Churchillian blunders.

I don’t have patience with all the “might have”s posited, as in if Churchill had ignored this, Hitler might have… Anyone can argue from the might haves, but Buchanan really works at backing up his conjectures with facts.   Buchanan firmly believes the both the Kaiser and Hitler had no interest in England, that they would have stopped at France in their appetite for land. 

The criticism of Churchill that sticks to him – in my mind – is his alliance with Joseph Stalin.  Buchanan compares this with Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement with Hitler.  Many people are not aware that Stalin was responsible for more considerably more deaths than Hitler was.  (Joseph Stalin, Pure Evil – not for squeamish shows videos of labor camps coupled with a gorgeous choral rendition of the Lord’s Prayer).  How both the USA and Great Britain could ally themselves to Stalin baffles me.  (My husband suggests that Hitler was a greater threat and that we needed Stalin to fight against Hitler.  Nothing is clean and tidy in war.)

Having been raised to adore Churchill, it was jarring to hear him so blatantly criticized.   To be sure, Churchill made mistakes (who would argue that he didn’t?) but I don’t believe you can pin both wars on him.  This book is hands down the best written book and most documented one I’ve read this year.  Whatever he is, Buchanan is a wordsmith, par excellence.  I listened to an audio version of this book and could follow the complex but cogent arguments without any problem.  Hearing the book, my husband inevitable stopped and listened instead of walking away. I only recommend it for those with a working knowledge of both wars.            

I Scream, I Shout, Who Listens?

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Carson and Noah in training (my son and grandson)
Clarification:  I am not screaming or shouting at my guys!
After I wrote this post, I saw the picture and thought it was cute. 
Isn’t that a cute baby?


Television is thus not simply the dominant medium of popular culture, it is the single most significant shared reality in our entire society.  Christendom was defined as a region dominated by Christianity.  Not all citizens of Christendom were Christians, but all understood it, all were influenced by its teaching, all institutions had to contend with it.  Christianity was the one great assumption of Christendom.  I can think of no entity today capable of such a culturally unifying role except television.  In television, we live and move and have our being.

…television, serve[s] in our culture a role once reserved for God: the role of defining reality.

There is a price today for the ease of images over words.

Entertainment is the one constant in our lives.

…the addiction to diversion…

Ours is the cult of the electronic fragment.

Excerpts taken from Chapter 10, “Popular Culture’s Medium” in All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes, by Kenneth A. Myers, 1989.

When I talked on children’s literature recently, I argued that reading with your child on your lap is altogether different from watching a DVD with a child on your lap.  My primary argument was the power, the beauty, and the glory of words, and the joy of experiencing them with a child.

Words are powerful!  Words are the way we communicate, the necessary components for a conversation. Reading a book is like opening a present: the gift is words to season our speech, words to nurture our spirits.  Words are fascinating and fun.  Words can unlock emotions, bring understanding.  How often have you experienced something that you felt incapable of expressing, only to read a book and exclaim, That is exactly what I meant to say, but didn’t have the words for it.  Words nurture us.  Books will give you words, ideas and stories.

If we used the analogy of food, what would consuming weeks of day-in/day-out television be?

I’d say boxed cereal or K-rations. Albert Marrin writes, “One never felt full after a K-ration meal.  Soldier food was dull and tasteless.”  When did you feel full after watching a show?  Often there is no response at all; the show just covered a void.  Sometimes you feel slimed.  The most recent episode of The Bachelor drew a lot of irritated comments from bloggers.  Why would anyone watch it in the first place?  Do we really want to “nourish” our soul and spirit with that essence of tubercular spittle?

See, I knew it. 
I knew I would get the “screamin’ meemies.” 
My kids know this voice. 
[deep, cleansing breaths]

It is too easy for me to crusade about television because that is the medium “under control” at my house.  I’m very interested in how this translates to the internet (a medium I cannot say is completely under control).  They can both be addictive, time-consuming and there are issues with each medium regardless of content. 

I would love to see a second edition of this book after twenty years.  How do we move from thoughtless consumption of contemporary culture to thoughtful engagement in the age of TIVO, wifi and text messaging? 

I’m flirting with the idea of subscribing to Mars Hill Audio (see link above) to get more thought-provoking commentary.  From their website:

We believe that fulfilling the commands to love God and neighbor requires that we pay careful attention to the neighborhood: that is, every sphere of human life where God is either glorified or despised, where neighbors are either edified or undermined. Therefore, living as disciples of Christ pertains not just to prayer, evangelism, and Bible study, but also our enjoyment of literature and music, our use of tools and machines, our eating and drinking, our views on government and economics, and so on.

A gulp of All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes on Google Reader. 

Food on Vacation

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My new friend Lois and I have been holding meetings of our two person button club.  I truly enjoy our time together and come away rewarded with a new story, more information on buttons (you can tell a lot about a button by biting it…no joke!), and a deeper friendship with a woman right around the age my mom would be if she were alive.

This week Lois had this framed piece up.  Three menus from three different motels around Yellowstone Park in July, 1949.  Memories from a vacation she enjoyed with her family.

• Interesting breakfast options at Mammoth Springs Hotel: 

Eggs: boiled, fried, shirred or scrambled  what are shirred eggs? * eggs placed in small buttered dishes with a dash of cream and baked until whites are set
Omelets: plain, ham or jelly  ever heard of a jelly omelet? Sweet + eggs? No appeal to me!
Toast: dry, milk or butter  I’ve only known milk toast as a metaphor! M.F.K. Fisher calls it “a warm, mild, soothing thing, full of innocent strength”

• Lunch options at Canyon Hotel

Grilled Halibut, Hungarian Goulash or Fresh Alaskan Shrimp Salad   yu-uhmmm!
Cauliflower Polonaise  boiled cauliflower, fried in butter, w/ bread crumbs and chopped boiled eggs
Brown Betty Pudding consists of apples, lemon peel, brown bread, suet (!) and spices

• Dinner menu items at Old Faithful Inn

Chilled Tomato Juice  this makes me salivate.  What a splendid beginning!
Steamed Sweet Rice and Peaches, Coude    ?????
Grilled Cube Steak, Colbert    more ??????
Boysenberry Cobbler  I’m ready to go back in time
Cheese and Saltines   I’m amused that this is in the dessert section

How much fun is that?  What a fine memory to have on your kitchen wall!  My family laughs because every description of a vacation always starts and ends with the food.   One of our rules when we travel is that we don’t eat anything we could get in our hometown.  You won’t find us at Denny’s in Alabama.  (You won’t find us at Denny’s at home either!)  We always try to avoid franchises.  If there is a local specialty (like sauerkraut on pizza in North Dakota) we’re game to try it.

Your turn!  What’s the best food you’ve had on a trip?

A Display of Ignorance

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Ah Sarah, Sarah, Sarah.

“I didn’t want to show my ignorance” – that’s the wrong road for an intelligent young woman to travel.

Showing ignorance is how we learn, it’s how we get strangers to tell us their stories, it’s how we experience the world fully.

False sophistication – putting on a cool knowingness – is the road to ignorance.  You should never be afraid to say, “What is that?” No need to preface it with an apology.  I say this from bitter experience, Sarah. 

I wasted some of the best years of my life in pretending to a worldly sophistication that stopped my education right in its tracks.  Even today, people looking at me imagine that I know all sorts of things that in fact I’m stupid about.  […]

Remember this little life lesson, Sarah. Some of the great journalists of our time have found that nothing works so well in gathering information as a display of ignorance.

~   Garrison Keillor responding to a listener’s question

You know that feeling in a conversation when someone has casually mentioned a word/topic/event and you have not a clue what he or she is talking about?  Do you smile and bob your head, hoping that illumination is just around the corner and will arrive in time to rescue you?  Or do you ask for an explanation or clarification?

I’d guess I’ve wasted three decades bobbing and bluffing my way through life. 

At my twentieth high school reunion a guy approached me with exuberant pleasure.  He called my name out from a distance and bounded over like a gazelle. It’s not that I didn’t recognize the man he’s become.  I didn’t know the yearbook picture on his name tag. His name did not ring a bell. But he’s talking about sitting next to me in World History.  After a second look at his name tag, I arranged my face into a smile.  “John! How’ve you been?”  I exclaimed, while inside I frantically shuffled my mental rolodex: who is this guy?who is this guy?who is this guy? 

I have learned the most in a bluff-free life from a lovely friend who is blessed with charming simplicity.  Whenever I use a word she doesn’t know, she simply says “I don’t know that word.  What does that mean?”  No apology, no pretending, just a question.  It is so refreshing. 

I have learned from her ignorance so much more than she learned from my intelligence.    

My Lucky Star

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When a teen-aged Czech girl living outside of Prague heard Fred Astaire singing “You Are My Lucky Star” she was captivated.

I sang it as I heard it, phonetically, with no idea of the meaning.  To my ears the opening words sounded like some imaginary Czech words, Jú ár majlakista…

Zdenka Fantlová decided on a whim that she ought to learn to speak English.  When the race laws expelled her from her final year of school in 1940, she attended the English Institute in Prague and learned the language under teachers from England.  When it came to the darkest, blackest hour of her life, when she was hours from death, that knowledge of English saved her life.

Her fathers final words to her, words spoken while he was being arrested by the Gestapo, sustained her through her long journey: Just keep calm.  Remember, calmness is strength.  My Lucky Star is a remarkably calm narrative of a survivor of Terezín, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Kurzbach, and Bergen-Belsen. 

Somewhere inside each of us is a survival kit.  We never know where it is, or what is in it, until it opens at the critical moment.  It contains no drugs or bandages, just firm instructions about what to do – and the necessary strength to do it.   

After reading Fantlová’s memoir, I wanted to know more. 

I watched Fred Astaire singing You Are My Lucky Star.

Terezín (also called Theresienstadt) was presented as a model Jewish settlement with a flourishing arts culture, but in reality was a transit camp to Auschwitz.  Fantlová participated in theater productions; there were jazz bands, string quartets, choirs and symphony orchestras. Prisoner of Paradise (follow link to see archival photos) tells the story of Kurt Gerron, an actor and director who was forced to make a Nazi propoganda film. Terezin Chamber Music Foundation has a wealth of information.

Anne Sofie von Otter recorded Terezín/Theresienstadt, songs composed by inmates.  Listen to the samples and weep at the depth of soulful expression.  They are not all mournful melodies; some are sprightly, full of zest.

             

Finally I wanted to know more about Fantlova herself.  I found these photos (the left taken in 1946 and the second current) along with an interview at Radio Prague.

I recommend this book on several levels.  Most holocaust literature I’ve read has come from Polish, French, German or Dutch perspectives.  This is the first Czech author I’ve read.  It’s shorter length (201 pages) and level voice makes it, perhaps, a good entry book into the often traumatizing genre of holocaust literature.  While there is pain, hunger, loss, death in her journey, Zdenka’s calm writing  makes it all bearable to read.

If You Liked the TJ’s Video

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Check this out.  It’s the original song that the Trader Joe’s was based on; hat tip to Laurie, who sent me the Trader Joe’s video.

It is a Brazilian pop song (hi Hope!) called Aguas de Marco (translation Waters of March) sung by Elis Regina.  Interesting that the Portuguese lyrics indicate the end of summer, but the English translation mentions “the promise of spring.” 

Open the lyrics in a new window and you can follow along.  If I had a young student learning Latin or any Romance language, I could think of some fun exercises to do with this song. My guys aren’t crazy about this, but I could wash floors to this music, dance around with my rag.  Oh yeah!

Enjoy.


You will be humming this music later, I promise you!

Trader Joe’s

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If I could import one store and one store alone into my small town, it would be Trader Joe’s.  Good stuff at good prices. The closest TJ’s is 4 1/2 hours away.  But I have friends and kids who always ask before they come, “What do you want from Trader Joe’s?”

Do any of you shop at Trader Joe’s?  What do you like to buy there? 

(We buy 90% of the wine we consume there ($2.99 Charles Shaw), Oatmeal stout, cranberry juice, flax, trail mix, dried apples, shower gel, spaghetti sauce, tomatoes and produce.  We would buy a lot of frozen stuff if we lived closer.)

Thanks to Laurie, one of my TJ’s shuttle-people, who sent me this YouTube.