When Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany, his propagandists circulated the story that he had been born in a manger, an obvious allusion to Jesus Christ, coming back to save the world.
To this day, otherwise rational people will insist that the Fuhrer, born 122 years ago, is still alive, with the same certainty as adherents of the Elvis Presley Lives cult believe in the immortality of their idol. Others are unshaken in their belief that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building in Washington was actually a friendly tourist visit.
Similar delusions going back to the Nazi era continue to influence us today, according to the documentary film “The Meaning of Hitler,” opening August 13 in American theaters. The film is based on the book of the same title by Sebastian Haffner.
The Journal interviewed the film’s co-directors, Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, who assembled a battery of top scholars to cull their thoughts on the lasting impact of the Fuhrer’s reign on succeeding generations.
Epperlein was born in East Germany, and Tucker was born in Hawaii. They are married to each other and neither is Jewish (although Tucker said that their daughter studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and lives in Israel.)
The resultant film caps a four-year inquiry in nine countries into decades of cultural fascination with the Nazi leader and the ramifications of such a fascination on present politics.
Among the American and Israeli mega-thinkers they assembled were Martin Amis, Yehuda Bauer, Saul Friedlander, David Irving, Serge Klarsfeld and Deborah Lipstadt.
Although none of the experts would go so far as to make a direct comparison between ex-President Trump and the German dictator, it was pointed out that there are some similarities in their techniques to rally and maintain their grips on ardent followers.
Both leaders infused a sense of victimhood into their followers, and by playing on their real and perceived grievances established a strong sense of solidarity with them.
“This is a difficult time around the world … and where does the hate come from?” Tucker asked rhetorically.
The Journal raised the somewhat heretical question of whether history actually repeats itself and whether we can mold a better future by learning from the mistakes of preceding generations.
To the endlessly repeated warning that “those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it,” the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel countered that “the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”
An example of the latter observation is mankind’s enthusiasm for war from the first cavemen to the latest super-weapons.
“The Meaning of Hitler” opens Aug. 13 at the Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles and the Town Center in Encino. The film is also available through Video on Demand.
