The world media are buzzing with news of “Dear Friend Hitler” a new bollywood film about the romance between Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun, starring Anupam Kher as Hitler and former Miss India, Neha Dhupia, as Eva Braun:
The director of the film characterizes it as a “romance,” and … “[r]eports have suggested that the script includes a scene where Hitler and Miss Braun are in bed–although this has not been confirmed. [link]
The movie’s title comes from letters sent by M.K. Gandhi to Hitler, which addressed him as “Dear Friend” [link]. As we’ve noted previously, Mein Kampf has long been popular in India, most lately as a management book in the same mold as “Who moved my cheese” so nobody in India will object to the idea of Hitler as friend to the nation.
Kher has been cast for his supposed resemblance to Hitler, and Dhupia for the scintillating wisdom and insight she brings to bear, such as this product of her extensive research:
“How do you marry the most hated man in the world? I think it’s by taking each day at a time,” [link]
Luckily, we already know how Hitler feels about Bollywood:
Lastly, all the news stories agree that there are no plans for any dance sequences in this film, which is a shame because (a) I suspect that the dancing is the only thing that would make this film watchable for me and (b) I’d love to see the love dances from this movie performed at a wedding. (Mutineers, you are warned!) Since there’s no word yet about whether there will be any songs (without the dance) I remain hopeful.
Al Beruni, have you tried this?
You think the Telegraph piece, with a publisher saying he had moved 10,000 copies in the last 6 months and was only one of many publishers was fluff? How about all the people who have seen it first hand?
For those of you who haven’t prejudged the issue, here’s a good Global Post piece about India’s fascination with Hitler.
The funny thing about this being evidence of my “issues” is that it’s totally uncontroversial amongst my IBD friends. They think the only “issues” are in the minds of the Americans. Meanwhile you’re trying to deny the whole thing and say that any discussion of it is mark of Indophobia. Go figure.
Ennis isn’t making this up…
Here’s a citation from another article, from the Times of India
Ennis – I am still waithing for you to name an indian MBA college which uses Mein Kampf as an instructional text. Please oblige, as you apparently believe this to be true.
And, yes, the Telegraph piece is an obvious piece of sloppy fluff – it names no colleges, only that a Delhi publisher has printed 10,000 copies – and it ends by quoting some baptist fanatic from Nagaland(!) on “hindu fascists”. But then the Telegraph is a western newspaper, so its all A-OK.
@delurker
Speaking of context, we might as well acknowledge that an interviewee’s words are often taken out of context to make a journalist’s point. Anyway, I saw another different version of the story on sify.com, an Indian website, where you can read a larger quote from the director. Also, the last para of the Times article quotes one of the producers as saying that he doesn’t condone Hitler’s barbarism. So, I don’t think we’re talking about idiots here–they are aware of the historical context. Nor do I think Anupam Kher is an ignorant hick. So while you may seize upon Dhupia’s casting and her inane response to a stupid question (seriously, how do you answer a question like that in a soundbite), there are other indicators that this project may have potential. I would also take the fact that the director of the movie has a theatre background as an indication that he is more thoughtful than your average SLB-type of filmmaker. (esp if he’s from the Bombay theatre scene).
Look, I’m not saying that this endeavour can’t result in tripe–tackling the history of other peoples is always ill-advised if you don’t have the requisite knowledge. (IMO, most Hollywood movies about the Holocaust are just cheaply sentimental and completely superficial. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the most nuanced and sensitive Holocaust/ Hitler movies of recent years, like The Pianist or Downfall, are from people with a closer personal connection to/ knowledge of those events.) I am, however, questioning what seems to be a knee-jerk response to the idea of someone who may or may not be from “Bollywood” having the audacity to tackle this topic.
Yes, Al Beruni’s examples were not equivalent. I can’t think of any examples of Hollywood (and I mean the LA studio system) movies about polarizing figures from Eastern nations that might be more appropriate. There’s probably no way they’d cast a film with non-white leads anyway, and any movie that might be set in a non-white culture usually has to have some connection to a white person in that culture (see Last Samurai, Out of Africa etc.), which is offensive in its own way (you know, we’re always relegated to background props in white people’s stories, at least in Hollywood). I think his larger point still holds though–we Indians don’t have a monopoly on Stoopid.
Thousands killed in the capital city with impunity and no word mentioned every year and the only refrain is shut up, forget, that’s yucky.
Ennis, this is a thoroughly bizarre statement. There is no doubt that there is an inadequate appreciation in India of the horrors visited by Hitler upon the world, and there is a fair amount of macabre fascination with him. I don’t however see how somehow mentioning that it is used as a management book is supposed to invoke instinctive horror, and further how that is an indicator that he is friend to the nation.
There is absolutely no doubt that Mein Kampf, inspite of its vile ideas, stirred a nation to support Hitler (along with a confluence of other factors), so it was a tremendous success as an example of motivational rhetoric. Especially because of the ideas it advocated. Studying it to understand its techniques seems perfectly acceptable to me. (To take a leaf from Manju’s book, I will compare such study to Obama invoking Reagan as a transformational figure. It is undoubtedly true, despite the vile nature of many of the transformations).
Further, the article is very poorly sourced. To mention that it is used as a management textbook, as if that by itself is horrible, and not seeing fit, or being able to name a single management school that actually does it means one of two things – either, the reporter didn’t or couldn’t find such schools, or the schools the reporter did find were pretty disreputable. Neither does the reporter much credit in her inclusion of this tidbit.
And honestly, I’m much more aghast at people being made to read tripe like “who moved my cheese”. BTW, it is Adolf.
I said:
Where did I say that it was a textbook assigned in an MBA program? When did I say it was an instructional text? Heck, where does the article say that?
Most management books, like “Who moved my cheese?” are read by business folk on their own. They’re written for a popular business market, not for students to use in class. Do you think most of the business best sellers you see in the airport are assigned text at a university? Or that if they are not, this makes them any the less “management books?”
If you’re going to latch on to a tiny part of the post, at least read it first so you can characterize it accurately. Sheesh.
And yes, for an old book to continue to be printed like this, 10,000 copies in six months, is evidence of popularity. I can’t think of many books from the 1930s in America that sell like that.
Bose, Gandhi and everyone in India and just about everywhere else in the world, at that time, did not know about the final solution of Hitler and his Nazis. Bose was doing realpolitik – as someone else mentioned – the enemy of my enemy thing – during WW2. No Indian owes Hitler any thanks. Bose later realized that Hitler did not give a damn about India, “The lack of interest shown by Hitler in the cause of Indian independence eventually caused Bose to become disillusioned with Hitler and he decided to leave Nazi Germany in 1943.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose
This director is an idiot and the actors seem like airheads. They should first go to Auschwitz and other death camps, and go to Germany and see their holocaust museums and then go to Israel to see the holocaust testimonies before filming.
No one cares about the love life of an evil genocidal totalitarian dictator and his equally racist and bigoted girl friend. They are both despicable. All the dictators had their female sidekicks. Stalin apparently was a real ladies man in his day.
@ 56 · Rajul on June 11, 2010 5:02 PM
When you say studying Mein Kampf “to understand its techniques seems perfectly acceptable to me,” do you not pause to consider what its “techniques” were? Among other things, it demonized an entire people, what Hitler called “the Jewish peril.” That “technique.” craven and vile as it is, is a common play among history’s tyrants. Of interest to political philosophy, yes, but as for the motivational rhetoric you mention, no.
Is opinion of the Nazis in India influenced by the fact that many members of the Nazi elite had an interest and enthusiasm in various Hindu texts and ideas? Himmler liked to think of himself as being similar to Arjuna, for instance; he read Sanskrit, prized the Veddas, and is said to have never gone anywhere without the Bhagavad-Gita. How does this play out in India?
As a DBD i heard as much praise as censure for Hitler during my years in India(or maybe i had a fringe group of friends). However, i believe that most people read the book out of curiosity rather than fascination. Like someone above pointed out it’s probably because our school curriculum didn’t emphasize the destruction he had wrought. History lessons were pretty cut and dry. Friends that sympathized with Hitler would urge me to read the book for his perspective. You know, two sides to a coin argument(his side of the story isn’t fair and certainly not compelling to me, but i have to admit that i am curious sometimes). A few even drew parallels between the Indian independence struggle and Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship. Some educated Indians believe that if we had adopted Hitler’s strategy we would have achieved our freedom from the British sooner. I still haven’t read the book. It’s on my Amazon wish list but i’m a worry wart and don’t want anyone to spot it on my bookshelf, not to mention that the book is a potential Pandora’s box.
24 · Abhi on June 11, 2010 10:22 AM · Direct link Boston Mahesh, I am pretty appalled by your ignorant comment. Hitler was a terrible leader. He led his nation to utter destruction and then committed suicide. There is no way you can possibly spin that and you should not even try. It is revisionism at its worst.
I stand by my comment. I do agree that his actions eventually led to the destruction of a unified Germany, and, you’re right, he did commit suicide. Ummm…Was Prithvi Chauhan a bad leader? Based on the logic I hear, he must have been awful since he lost a battle and he committed suicide with his loyal servant.
I’m not spinning anything, Abhi. Hitler accomplished a lot, and this, too, when the other global economies were stagnating. However, when measured in the long term horizon,he was HORRIBLE.
Ennis, your statement is provocative at face value, but I don’t see a lot to object to it. Maybe there’s ignorant Indians out there who idolize Hitler and buy copies of Mein Kampf. Well, there are plenty of ignorant people everywhere.
But there’s nothing on the internet besides the poorly sourced article you linked to support your claim. Also a google trends search on Mein Kampf wrt India says there isn’t ‘enough search volume to show graphs’. In comparison, there is enough search volume for Ayn Rand, Fountainhead, even Feynman in India. So apparently there’s more interest in Feynman in India than in Mein Kampf(Mein Kampf and Feynman are neck and neck in the US).
In your defense, there are plenty of searching for Hitler in India, as across the world, but I don’t think that’s the same as an interest in Mein Kampf.
Reflecting on years past, it seems that the Oppenheimer quote was more popular. In fact, I think information about the Nazis was carefully censored because of the questions that would have to be answered raised WRT the National Socialist ideology in a country that is constitutionally socialist.
the article repeatedly says students buy it. if you are going to claim that they are students in the school of life, well, i have a bridge in heidelberg to sell you.
and i see that you see fit to latch on to a part of my post and not the rest, because your statement is the kind that seems problematic only if one doesnt think about it.
Oh that meticulously sourced and thoroughly vetted article?
umm, that is exactly my point.
57: And yes, for an old book to continue to be printed like this, 10,000 copies in six months, is evidence of popularity. I can’t think of many books from the 1930s in America that sell like that.
You aren’t looking hard enough. This is from the wikipedia entry for Mein Kampf in the section on availability in different countries:
United States: can be found at almost any community library and can be bought, sold and traded from many websites like Amazon.com and Borders Book Store. The U.S. government seized the copyright during the Second World War as part of the Trading with the Enemy Act and in 1979, Houghton Mifflin, the U.S. publisher of the book, bought the rights from the government. More than 15,000 copies are sold a year.[16]
In just the last few years of the British empire, 3 million Indians died as a result of the Bengal famine and 1 million in the partition. That despite these events – for both of which the British were more or less directly responsible – Indians are expected to despise Hitler – a distant shadowy figure of whom they have no immediate experience to relate to – more than the Brits, and that somehow Hitler should be a figure more odious than, say Churchill, says something interesting about some mindsets.
Now this is irony.
Mein Kampf is ranked #55 in Amazon’s ‘Biographies & Memoirs’ section, sandwiched right between two versions of Anne Frank’s autobiography (#50 and #57) (link).
Check out the ‘most helpful’ reviews: they are surprisingly positive.
oh those crazy Indians with their primitive thirdworldian ways and reading habits.
The British Raj should be despised for its atrocities in India. But that doesn’t make Hitler and the Nazis admirable just because they were far away and for whatever historical reason were not colonizers of India. European colonizers did not treat their non-European colonies well no matter if they were British or German. Just because the Germans did not colonize India doesn’t mean they would have necessarily been any less cruel than the British. If it had been the German Raj instead of the British Raj, Hitler probably would have thrown Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah into a death camp if not shot on the spot seeing the ruthless way they dealt with opponents within Germany.
Hitler probably would have thrown Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah into a death camp if not shot on the spot seeing the ruthless way they dealt with opponents within Germany.
perhaps and if the British had kept America colonised who knows how many Americans would have died in what famine or partition or jallianwala bagh massacre. And yet Americans neither hate the British nor do we expect them to – to the exclusion of Hitler. We don’t expect others to share our likes and dislikes based on what if this had happened or that.
In Mein Kampf Hitler looked towards Britain as an example to follow,”Although other races would resist this process, the Aryan race had a duty to control the world. This would be difficult and force would have to be used, but it could be done. To support this view he gave the example of how the British Empire had controlled a quarter of the world by being well-organised and having well-timed soldiers and sailors.” http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERmein.htm
So if any Indian in India foolishly thinks this MK is a good business book, they would probably do better if they studied how the British became so well organized with well timed soldiers and sailors. Hitler looked at them as an example of how to control the world.
We don’t have to like or dislike the same things with the same degree of intensity, but that is differ from projecting Hitler as a “friend” of India (“nobody in India will object to the idea of Hitler as friend to the nation.” in Ennis post) which is what this director seems to want to portray Hitler as a friend of India’s. That man was no other country’s friend. Bose found that out as I pointed out in an earlier post. None of India’s free India campaigners knew a thing about the final solution. During the war it was realpolitik, how to leverage this war to gain India’s Independence, and the people Indians should thank are Indians for their freedom.
India’s long time ally Russia on the other hand views MK this way:
“Russia’s government will ban the sale of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf†after prosecutors determined the autobiography violates a federal law against extremism.
The book will be added to the federal list of extremist materials because it expresses “militarist views, justifies discrimination and also justifies the extermination of non-Aryan people,†the Prosecutor General’s Office said on its Web site today.” http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-26/russia-bans-hitler-s-mein-kampf-for-justifying-extermination-.html
Not surprising considering Hitler’s goals in Russia:
“In Mein Kampf Hitler declared that: “The external security of a people in largely determined by the size of its territory.” If he won power Hitler promised to occupy Russian land that would provide protection and lebensraum (living space) for the German people. This action would help to destroy the Jewish/Marxist attempt to control the world: “The Russian Empire in the East is ripe for collapse; and the end of the Jewish domination of Russia will also be the end of Russia as a state.”
To achieve this expansion in the East and to win back land lost during the First World War, Hitler claimed that it might be necessary to form an alliance with Britain and Italy. An alliance with Britain was vitally important because it would prevent Germany fighting a war in the East and West at the same time.” from the same link @75
The White Rose (Germans who were executed because they opposed the Nazis)
“Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Kurt Huber, Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf were executed in 1943 for publishing and distributing leaflets hostile to the government of Adolf Hitler. This is an extract from the second White Rose leaflet published in 1942.
It is impossible to engage in intellectual discourse with National Socialism because it is not an intellectually defensible program. It is false to speak of a National Socialist philosophy, for if there were such an entity, one would have to try by means of analysis and discussion either to prove its validity or to combat it. In actuality, however, we face a totally different situation. At its very inception this movement depended on the deception and betrayal of one’s fellow man; even at that time it was inwardly corrupt and could support itself only by constant lies. After all, Hitler states in an early edition of “his” book (a book written in the worst German I have ever read, in spite of the fact that it has been elevated to the position of the Bible in this nation of poets and thinkers); “It is unbelievable, to what extent one must betray a people in order to rule.”
We do not want to discuss here the question of the Jews, no do we want in this leaflet to compose a defence or apology. No, only by way of example do we want to cite the fact that since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way. Here we see the most frightful crime against human dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the whole of history.” http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERmein.htm
Probably to the same extent the opinion of Nazis in Christian nations is influenced by Hitler subscribing to traditional Christian dogmas and attitudes towards Jews, the majority of the SS being practicing Catholics, the concordat the Catholic Church signed with Hitler, etc.
Germans are creeped out about this:
“Embarrassing Moments
I was glad I avoided the usual Hitler conversation. Pakistanis always hone in on that topic whenever they talk to Germans. “We’re Aryans too,” they say, because there was an Indo-Germanic race, the Aryas. Besides, Hitler was a military genius, they add.
Sometimes it’s better to keep quiet about one’s German origins. It’s embarrassing because people here think they’re doing you a favor by expressing their admiration for the Nazi leader. I suspect most Indians and Pakistanis have no idea what this man did. They see him as the bold Führer who took on the British and Americans.
In the Islamic world, not just in Pakistan but right across from Iran to northern Africa, anti-Semitic sentiment of course plays a role. Conversations with German visitors rapidly turn to the injustice being suffered by the Palestinians who were robbed of their land.
The Desire to be Swallowed up by the Ground
One can try to cut such conversations short, like a German acquaintance of mine did recently. He told a taxi driver in Iran he should stop talking nonsense because he as a dark-skinned person wouldn’t have survived long in Nazi Germany. The taxi driver looked at him surprised and said: “But I’m Aryan!”” http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,683966,00.html
Sounds so pathetic.
Ironically, the British Raj is admired much more than Hitler, even though people should know better.
@ 79 · ds on June 12, 2010 1:57 PM · Direct link
What Christian dogmas did Hitler subscribe to, as you write? Please provide a credible source. It is well known Hitler frequently called Christianity the great “scourge” of history and a religion fit for slaves.
See this quote from his right-hand man:
“Hitler usually concluded this historical speculation by remarking, ‘You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness….†-Albert. Speer, Inside the Third Reich
“My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice. And as a man I have the duty to see to it that human society does not suffer the same catastrophic collapse as did the civilization of the ancient world some two thousand years ago — a civilization which was driven to its ruin through this same Jewish people.” (Adolf Hitler, in a speech delivered at Munich, April 12, 1922; from Norman H. Baynes, ed., The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1, New York: Oxford University Press, 1942, pp. 19-20.)
“The greatness of Christianity did not lie in attempted negotiations for compromise with any similar philosophical opinions in the ancient world, but in its inexorable fanaticism in preaching and fighting for its own doctrine.” (Mein Kampf, Vol. 1, Chapter 12)
“And the founder of Christianity made no secret indeed of his estimation of the Jewish people. When He found it necessary, He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of God.” (Mein Kampf, pp. 174)
I’m not here to argue about Hitler’s religious views or religion in general. This is simply a response to your first post in which you posited that Nazis drew their inspiration from Hinduism, which is not entirely true. And to the extent it is true, they drew far greater inspiration from Christianity for their terrible deeds.
@ 83 · ds on June 12, 2010 7:30 PM · Direct link
I do not mean to argue either, but I realize it may have come off that way. I did not posit that Nazis drew their inspiration from Hinduism. Rather, I mentioned that the Nazi elite–most prominently, Himmler–had an interest in and enthusiasm for various Hindu ideas–Jyotish astrology, the idea of a Brahmin elite, the Gita, etc. This is a well-known fact, not something one posits, and it stands out given that Germany was predominantly a Christian nation and surrounded by Christian nations. So it stands to reason that it may be of interest in India.
The examples of Hitler’s rhetoric provided do not substantiate the claim that Hitler subscribed to Christian dogma. On the contrary, such rhetoric is to be expect from a specious orator rallying the masses. His private commentary illustrates this. Some Nazis were Christians, to be sure, but most of the elite was not and Hitler was not. In fact, they planned to delegitimize the Christian church in Germany.
See:
“Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery….When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Let’s be the only people who are immunised against the disease. (p 118 & 119) -Hitler’s Secret Conversations 1941-1944, Farrar, Straus and Young
Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure. (p 43)
etc
83 ds
The notion that Hitler was actually a hindu/pagan and not really christian is part of a general opinion amongst extremist christians.
I was once part of an discussion between a dalit indian who was a christian convert, american jews, hindus and so on. We discussed Ambedkar, appreciated his achievements, regretted the appalling types of caste-discrimination still visible in india. Somehow we turned to the question of european jews and their challenges in europe. Suddenly, the dalit christian said: well, the trials of european jews and the holocaust were appalling, but he understodd why it happened as Hitler was actually a hindu!
There was a stunned silence for a while, subsequently several of us indicated firm disagreement with this view. But the fellow held to this opinion. It transpired he had been taught this at the religous entity that sponsored him and he felt that this opinion had firm foundations. Indeed, he offered to show us his sources and educate us about this matter!
Well, what Christians being taught about Hitler is true for Minn Post http://www.minnpost.com/globalpost/2010/06/14/18865/whats_up_with_all_the_nazi_symbols_in_india They assume that it is only Hindus in India interested in Hitler, ignoring what the German Speigal found that it is also part of the Muslim world. see link in #80
So interestingly European race psuedo science created the Aryan race theory, and the British teach it in India, Europeans love the idea of a master race, and see Indians at best the degraded Aryan. As shown in the Minn Post white europeans try to link Aryan/Nazism with Hinduism. Then afterwards pretend Hitler was not ever Christian but either Pagan or Hindu apparently,
Yet when Hindus show how the Aryan race theory is debunked, that Arya is about being noble of character and that it never meant race, Hindus are attacked. A no win A Catch 22 of sorts. And this stupid racist theory from the racist Europeans of the 19th and 20th century is still being taught in India’s schools.
Feels like a set up of ridiculous proportions.
“Until two years ago, a typical Mumbai (Bombay) bookstore sold 40-50 copies of Mein Kampf a year. Now the figure is more like several hundred copies annually. ” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8660064.stm
Why the uptick these last two years? This seems strange.
Is too much being made of it selling in India compared to other countries? In that article it said “ Crossword, an India-wide chain of book stores, has sold more than 25,000 copies since 2000″ , ten years ago, so that would be say 2,500 year. India has a population of 1 billion people.
In the same article it said “In the US, it sold 26,000 copies last year 2009. In 2005 it sold 100,000 copies in Turkey in just a few months. The Arabic imprint is popular in the Palestinian territories. “
So in 2009 alone in the US with 300 million people it sold more copies than in all 10 years in India that has 1 billion people. In one year, 2005, in Turkey that has a population of ~72 million 100,000 copies were sold.
India 1 billion people 2,500 sold/year America 300million people 26,000/year Turkey 72 million people 100,000/less than 1 year
So why is India getting all this disproportionate attention and why aren’t countries like US and Turkey being asked what is up with these countries?
Anupam Kher drops out of movie
“”Considering the ill-will that the project is generating among my fans, I wish to withdraw from it as I respect their sentiments,” Kher said in a statement released to Reuters. ” http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/film-on-hitler-sparks-outrage-among-jews-in-india-1.296779
No comments on whether or not Hitler is popular in India, I don’t know. Although Bal Thackeray’s nephew was quoted in one of the Indian news magazines saying that ‘Hitler had great organisational skills and discipline’ or something like that.
As to whether Hitler was a great leader however…come on. He completely and utterly destroyed Germany. Today displays of patriotism are still taboo in Germany. The Weimar Republic was a time of economic crisis and severe inflation but also of a cultural and artistic renaissance. Bertholt Brecht, Kurt Weill, Max Ernst, Kirchner, Otto Dix etc. were all famous artists from the Weimer Republic. When the NSDAP came into power, that was the end of that era. Let’s not even talk about the gas chambers and all…no time in history has there occurred genocide such an industrial scale, so casually. And it seems from the rise of different facist/extreme right political parties in Europe as well as in India (!) that we have not learned anything from history. ‘Wir haben es nicht gewusst’ should not be used as an excuse anymore, especially in this age of information.