Our popular image of Hitler hinders our wariness

Proper to compare Trump to Hitler?  As I said before, no and yes.  But it is more than that.  Much of our conception of Hitler and the Nazis is founded on myth, and I would say dangerously so.

The myth of Hitler as a ranting fool.

Our modern impression of Hitler, formed by hundreds if not thousands of books and visual portrayals, is that he was a shrieking lunatic, and we then sit in wonder about how an entire nation could follow him.  Of course that impression is mostly wrong.  Hitler was not the fool conjured up by so many films, such as Inglorious Basterds.  

Were another evil clown Hitler like that to emerge in our modern life, he would be easy to identify and avoid. 

Hitler crafted his own image, and it wasn’t just Triumph of the Will.

The real Hitler was much more subtle than the Hollywood Hitler, and hence more dangerous. 

Hitler was deeply involved in his own portrayal.  He controlled every photograph, every motion picture, and every audio recording of himself (except one).  

The classic self-image of Hitler was Riefenstahl’s propaganda masterpiece Triumph of the Will, where a god-like Hitler flies through the clouds, to land and be greeted by an adoring population at Nuremberg.   

But all triumphalism all the time would become boring.   To foster an impression of personal modesty, Hitler awarded himself no medals and avoided Goering-style showy uniforms.  Hitler wanted to be seen with children and associating with artists and architects.   

It’s easy (now) to underestimate Hitler.

Hitler was intelligent.  He was a skilled politician.  He took over Czechoslovakia without firing a shot, humiliating Britain and France in the process.  In so doing, Hitler measured up his opponents and played well every card in his hand.  A bumbling fool could never have done that, nor indeed have become Chancellor of Germany.

Hitler’s normal conversational speaking voice was recorded only once, in June 1942, when he visited Finland to meet with Field Marshall Mannerheim.  Part of the conference was secretly recorded by the canny Finns.  In this recording, Hitler’s voice is smooth, and he is thoughtful, pausing sometimes to carefully choose his words. 

The role of ridicule.

Of course there is always a place for lampooning dictators, and this has its own power, especially if it comes during the dictator’s lifetime. 

Indeed, ridicule can bring down a dictator, as in the case of Nicolae Ceaușescu, whose rule, and life, lasted only five days after he was openly mocked at what should have been a routine staged rally. 

Robespierre provides another example.  On 8 Thermidor Robespierre was at his most powerful.  On 9 Thermidor, when his ally St. Just was interrupted in the Convention, and Robespierre himself sputtered for words, he was brought down when a deputy shouted:  “The blood of Danton chokes him.”  The next day Robespierre and his clique went to the guillotine.

What does this mean for us now?

Our society has chosen to portray Hitler, in many cases literally, as a cartoon figure.  In other cases Hitler is depicted as a raving madman.   These portrayals, while they certainly have their place,  make it too easy to fall into the comfortable illusion that another Hitler will be easy to spot. 

He won’t be.