Hitler and Stalin: The Roots of Evil

Watching it now on the History Channel. Thoughts to come.

— Stalin had a ‘warfare psychology’ … an ‘enemy complex’

— a lot of the experts are people who try to retrospectively psychoanalyze these people. I have some doubts about this … for many reasons … but there’s no doubt that it is an interesting speculation. Not to use it as an ‘abuse excuse’ – let us NEVER go down that road … but I think to NOT ask these questions is a huge mistake. It means that we localize evil people like Hitler and Stalin as anomalies … just crazy anomalies … and I think we ignore their psychology at our peril

— Cliche, yes, but Hitler and Stalin were both short, and were BUMMED about it.

— Stalin was only five foot four. He wore platform shoes. I forget this about him.

— Hitler was a bad student.

— Both were on the road to be priests.

— Both had artistic dreams … painting and poetry (Hitler and Stalin, respectively). It was a self-pitying impulse in them, however … and also a way to rebel against their parents. Stalin’s poetry: starting out as floridly romantic and lush … and descending towards nihilistic narcissistic claptrap. Hitler, the same with his art. No validation anywhere. No validation for their art. How did they internalize these rejections?

— No love from parents.

— Again: I’m just liveblogging. But also: i want to make clear that just by typing this I am not saying “Oh, Stalin’s father beat him … poor Stalin!” Anyone who knows me should know that I would never say that, but it’s hard to tell … people have poor reading comprehension and also a kneejerk know-it-all response to stuff like this.

— What is it that creates a serial killer? Not that they should be EXCUSED for thier actions … but what are the factors that go towards creating a Charlie Manson? Or a Ted Bundy? Are there any similarities? What can we glean from their beginnings?

— I happen to believe that the more we understand, the better off we are.

— Through observation it has been shown that many serial killers start off by killing animals, when they are children. This is USEFUL information, in terms of perhaps helping a child who is screaming for help. There are patterns … maybe a serial killer could be stopped in his infancy, if it is noticed by his parents, or a teacher, or a neighbor, that he is compulsively torturing cats …

— I have abhorrence towards applying this philosophy towards genocidal dictators … but I do see the point of it. I really do.

— Stalin was “a loner, a very bitter and unpleasant person” – says Prof. Ted Friegurt. “He never took part in social activities. He was always apart, and bitter, and nasty.”

— Stalin caught Lenin’s eye … He wanted to rise to the top of this new communist party.

— Hitler still searching for himself, trying to be a painter. (Reminds me of Eddie Izzard’s re-enactment of this: “I … can’t get the flowers right in this painting … I must now kill EVERYONE IN THE WORLD …”)

— Hitler only painted landscapes. Never people. Hmmmm. Rejected to go to some academy of art in Vienna … because of this whole can’t-paint-people thing. So bitter by rejection that he blamed it on the Jews on the board of the acadmy.

— He was destroyed by his mother’s death. Lost the ability to function.

— World War I … “In his army service, Hitler was the happiest of any time he was in his life … Sanctioned killing gave him an outlet to his murderous rage …” said by some expert.

— Hitler began to feel that he was ‘chosen’ for some great role in history.

— Stalin loved humiliating his sons. Contempt. (I’ve seen some of the letters he wrote about his sons … no love there. Total coldness.)

— The mysterious death of Stalin’s second wife Nadya. Nobody agrees how she kicked the bucket. Either she killed herself, or Stalin himself killed her. Or one of his minions did.

— Omigod, little home movie of Eva Braun in a dirndl skirt and little apron, swinging around a pole. Never seen her in action before. She was a plump milk-fed girl. Hitler thought she was “the ideal German woman: cuddly, cute, and naive.”

— “I am the mistress of the greatest man in Germany” … excerpt from Eva Braun’s diary.

— “Anyone who read Mein Kampf should have known where this all would read …” So says the son of Hitler’s personal aide … sorry, didn’t catch his name.

— Live footage of Stalin. Jeez, amazing.

— Oh man. Footage of Kirov giving a speech. Kirov. Stalin’s beloved friend. But he was too popular. The murder of Kirov ascribed to Stalin’s enemies in the party … BUT it was engineered by Stalin. It was used as an excuse to begin the Great Terror. Think of the coldness. The calculation. There’s some footage of Stalin at Kirov’s coffin. Holy shit. The murder of Kirov used as an excuse to kill literally millions. There’s Stalin, being all sad at Kirov’s coffin. I am gobsmacked.

— Members of Stalin’s Politburo were so afraid of him that everyone was afraid to stop clapping for him … the ovations went on and on and on (famous anecdotes about this) … Finally, they figured out that they would ring a BELL to signal to people “stop clapping” so that no one would EVER be the first one to stop applauding.

— The re-touching of photos … Photo historian David King has assembled the largest collection of photos from the Soviet era – he studies the photos – and studies the re-touching – what he calls “a second death” – a total elimination of a human being – as though he never existed. Let’s get HIM out of the photo. He was never there!!

— King noticed that some of the re-touchings were more violent than others. Some people were just splashed wtih India ink in photos – others had their faces hacked at with razor blades. King speculates, “I think that the more violent of the re-touchings were a way to prove that you were a good Stalinist.” Chilling.

— Hitler’s destruction of the village of Dollershem … used the village as a shooting range … Ruined churches, hollow walls … Apparently, the hospital there had the birth certificate of his father in the archives. Evidence of his possible Jewish blood. An entire town destroyed, people killed … to avoid the reality of his past. Surrounded by enemies … he chose to be a predator.

— Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa. Invasion of Russia. Footage of surrendering Russian troops. Hands in the air.

— Stalin kind of flails about for a couple of weeks … as though he can’t believe this has happened. Finally, he “pulls himself together”.

— Now the showdown in Stalingrad.

— If a soldier retreated from Stalingrad … he would be shot … and his family (of course) would be subject to retribution. Catastrophe, all around.

— Defeat at Stalingrad. Hitler became dependent on amphetamines. Showed signs of drug toxicity – leading to more paranoia. Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Interview with Hitler’s damn BUTLER about his tremors. whoo boy!

— In the famed bunker: the charred bodies of Eva and Hitler … and on a desk a folder of Hitler’s paintings of pastoral Austria. The Russians, when they burst in, found it.

— Stalin paraded German prisoners of war through Red Square, to whip up the public rage.

— The whole “accused doctor” trials in Russia. Which was mainly anti-Semitism, cloaked in some bullshit. Jewish people moved, en masse, out into Siberia.

— Stalin’s dying moment as described by his daughter. Right before he went … he raised his stumpy left arm, with a pointed finger … as though he was accusing and damning all those he left behind.

— evil, cruelty, the murder of millions … Hitler and Stalin: demonic twins of history!!

And so there you have it. My liveblog of the History Channel special on Hitler and Stalin!