Nazism
Evil and IdWednesday, July 11, 2012 by Ben Cohen | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In Freud's Last Session, Mark St. Germain's superlative play about a hypothetical encounter between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, there is a telling moment when the founder of psychoanalysis admits that he was slow to grasp the boundless evil of Nazism: "It took near tragedy for me to see Hitler for the monster he is."
Editors' Picks
Communist Colluders Anne Applebaum, Jewish Chronicle. After World War II, East European Communist parties sought to burnish their image as nationalist patriots. How did they do it? Anti-Semitism, of course.
Night and Fog dir. Alain Resnais, Criterion Collection. Featuring real footage from Auschwitz and Majdanek, Resnais' 1955 documentary Nuit et Brouillard made audiences worldwide witnesses to the brutality of the concentration camps. (Video; free link, expires November 19th)
The Fuhrer Was Not Amused Nigel Jones, Spectator. From average Germans to Jews in concentration camps, gallows humor was one of the few weapons of resistance against the Third Reich. So, Hitler tried mightily to repress it.
Hitler’s Greatest Enemies Elisabeth Sifton, Fritz Stern, New York Review of Books. “One truth we can affirm: Hitler had no greater, more courageous, and more admirable enemies than Hans von Dohnanyi and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”
Last Chance to Quiz Granddad David Crossland, Spiegel. Historian Moritz Pfeiffer intended his new book about his own grandparents’ Nazi past to encourage others to question their aging relatives. But young Germans just want to move on.
Admitting France’s Crimes François Hollande, New York Review of Books. “The challenge is to fight tirelessly against all forms of falsification of history: not only the insult of Holocaust denial, but also the temptation of relativism.”
Paralympic Pioneer Blair Thornburgh, Forward. A refugee to England from Nazi Germany, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann’s groundbreaking treatments for traumatic paraplegia provided the platform for what has become the Paralympics.
Hitler’s “Loathsome Nephew” Victoria Cavaliere, New York Daily News. Having fled Nazi Germany for Britain in 1940, William Patrick Hitler wrote to President Roosevelt asking to join the “struggle against tyranny and oppression.”
Jewish Studies without Jews Geoff Vasil, DefendingHistory.com. The Lithuanian government lavishes funding on museums dedicated to commemorating the country's extinct Jewish culture. The problem is that Lithuania's Jewish culture is still alive.
A Story with Two Twists Kate Connolly, Los Angeles Times. Hitler blocked Jewish high-jumper Gretel Bergmann’s participation in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. She was replaced on the team by an athlete of ambiguous gender—and the gold went to a Hungarian Jew.