Life: Adolf Hitler: Up Close, Never before published Photos

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I respect everyone who has commented on the post, but I am surprised by people's easy separation of Hitler's crimes against humanity from the rest of his deeds. If you saw images of Osama Bin Laden feeding the poor would you start writing words of praise for his humanitarian deeds? No you wouldn't because he is a misguided, religious zealot, murderer. I understand Bin Laden's motivations of 911 attack exist and are not cartoon evil, but they are to many misguided, religiously radical and murders.

Hitler orchestrated the genocide of millions of innocent people. Of course he was a human being. Of course he was mainly a politician and mainly involved with mundane, behind the scenes meetings and didn't get his hands literally dirty. But when I look at images of him of any type, I am nonetheless looking at a terribly disturbed person no matter what he doing.
 
This is now a political debate and this will be my last post in this topic. Feel free to discuss further by PM if you wish.

I'm sorry, but I cannot accept that the man did any good for any German.

Then maybe you should speak to some Germans who lived at the time. In a time of the worst hardships Germany has faced in decades he brought unemployment to zero. He built up the city, built the autobahn. The VW beetle was entirely funded by the Nazi regime, and Hitler himself gave Ferdinand Porche the order to build the car because he envisioned a Germany where anyone could drive regardless of social status. Hence the name Volkswagen (people's car). He did the same thing with radios creating Volksradio directing government funds to improve the quality of life for the people. He got the youth involved in programs (admittedly with the goal of eventually bringing them into the army) however till the day he died my grandpa never once regretted being part of the Hitler Youth programs. They taught him to fly a plane, repair engines, and basically built up his entire career with useful skills that he continued to apply long after war, and these were skills he would never have been able to access himself due to poor background and low social status.

So yes the man was a monster. The world probably would have been better off without him, but he definitely did some good for many Germans. So much so that in some cases they followed him blindly through a part of history that most of the world wishes to simply forget.

I respect everyone who has commented on the post, but I am surprised by people's easy separation of Hitler's crimes against humanity from the rest of his deeds. If you saw images of Osama Bin Laden feeding the poor would you start writing words of praise for his humanitarian deeds? No you wouldn't ...

Yes I would, but I don't because it doesn't happen. Osama for everything I have been able to see is a religious psycho who seems to think of nothing but killing infidels. He did not do the things he did to improve the quality of life for his people, his actions never gained praise from more than a few fellow terrorists, let alone the population of several countries combined.

Praise is given where praise is deserved. Hitler was a monster. Yet he did not take over Germany by tyrannical force, he did it by playing politics and in the process did some amazing deeds.


I'll leave you with some food for thought. Your daughter runs into the street in front of an oncoming bus, just before she gets hit a stranger runs through the street and sweeps her up and brings her to safety. Later that night you go home and turn on the news to find that this guy who just saved your daughter has walked into the city and started randomly killing people.

What do you think about this person, what would your neighbour think who has no idea about the events earlier in the day?

Think about that one for a little while, and PM me the answer, because I suspect if this thread keeps going it'll get blocked. I've stated my opinion and I won't return to this thread.
 
Yeah, he brought unemployment to zero all right. Mass murder, businesses being closed left and right and/or turned over to others who supposedly better met certain racial standards that would definitely lead to a few job openings, and some real prosperity for those left behind to take advantage, cough....

I always tend to laugh ironically when people come forward and talk about how much good Hitler did for the Germans and their economy. Yeah, he brought Germany out of bad times but he did it by spilling the blood of millions. Nice, brutally efficient bit of economics that.

Oh come on you folks didn't think it was ALL about racial idealism, did you? NOT. It was also very much about making jobs, money and the fast acquisition of it. Hitler needed money to shore up the German economy and to start a war.

So he got it by stealing money, art works, businesses and also unfortunately in the end by killing many people. FYI, a LOT of the gold that funded the German war effort came from people's lost businesses and the belongings of those later executed. The Nazi's were so desperate for it in the end they used to take out gold teeth after they gassed people. They'd melt the gold down, make bars, and then send it to Berlin to be added to treasury to fund the war effort. Munitions etc, they were quite literally bought with blood tainted gold.

Hitler was a monster no matter which way you look at it.

As for the photos, they're historically interesting but frankly I've seen much better examples in Life and elsewhere. It's actually not too unusual to see pictures of Hitler smiling and "at home" so to speak. They took a lot of "nice" Hitler pictures for propaganda back then. There are even pictures of him with his follower's children where he looks like a fond uncle. Looking at him you'd never, ever think he was the guy who ordered "The Final Solution." He looks so benign. The ones that get me most? The ones with the animals. Can you imagine that they LIKED him? They apparently did though.

These are okay, but they lack the power of some of the stuff they've published. I'm sure there are more, by others too, if you go to Life and look. My Grandparents had stacks of old Life magazines when I was a kid and I spent a lot of time looking at them. As I recall there was one series in particular that they did, photos by some bigwig Nazi's wife. Those were very intimate indeed. He was even sitting with Eva Braun in several of them which he rarely did in public. The woman who did a lot of his propaganda films took some home movies too. They had one big article on those, with stills. Those are just fascinating really. They really stuck with me. I was pretty young then, but I still remember half thinking he couldn't possibly be the man everyone said was so bad. He looked so normal, so NICE, shudder.
 
Were are not really doing this are we?.... do we need anyones opinion of what hitler did on a photography forum?... No.
Just a take on the photos would have been nice.
I am supprised some people keep reeling facts off like the entire world doesn't know already... please.
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