#heinrich eichmann

[miuarchiv]

The file on preventing the emigration of Jews from France and Belgium, in order to accelerate the emigration of Jews from Reich territory. With translation.

Signed by Schellenberg on Mueller's behalf while the latter was absent.

This file was mentioned in Eichmann's trial(p1-p2), but in fact without obvious relation to the Madagascar Plan.

[mefistonotfound]

Coś z Himmlera i Mengele, z Eichmanna i Heydricha jest w każdym z nas

Guido Knopp "SS przestroga historii"

[justforbooks]

Hannah Arendt,

born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German-American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.

Her works cover a broad range of topics, but she is best known for those dealing with the nature of wealth, power and evil, as well as politics, direct democracy, authority, tradition and totalitarianism. She is also remembered for the controversy surrounding the trial of Adolf Eichmann, for her attempt to explain how ordinary people become actors in totalitarian systems, which was considered by some an apologia, and for the phrase "the banality of evil." Her name appears in the names of journals, schools, scholarly prizes, humanitarian prizes, think-tanks, and streets; appears on stamps and monuments; and is attached to other cultural and institutional markers that commemorate her thought.

Hannah Arendt was born to a Jewish family in Linden (now a district of Hanover, Germany) in 1906. When she was three, her family moved to the East Prussian capital of Königsberg for her father's health care. Paul Arendt had contracted syphilis in his youth but was thought to be in remission when Arendt was born. He died when she was seven. Arendt was raised in a politically progressive, secular family, her mother being an ardent Social Democrat. After completing secondary education in Berlin, Arendt studied at the University of Marburg under Martin Heidegger, with whom she engaged in a romantic affair that began while she was his student. She obtained her doctorate in philosophy at the University of Heidelberg in 1929. Her dissertation was titled Love and Saint Augustine, and her supervisor was the existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers.

Hannah Arendt married G��nther Stern in 1929 but soon began to encounter increasing antisemitism in the 1930s Nazi Germany. In 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power, Arendt was arrested and briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo for performing illegal research into antisemitism. On release, she fled Germany, living in Czechoslovakia and Switzerland before settling in Paris. There she worked for Youth Aliyah, assisting young Jews to emigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine. She was stripped of her German citizenship in 1937. Divorcing Stern that year, she then married Heinrich Blücher in 1940. When Germany invaded France that year she was detained by the French as an alien. She escaped and made her way to the United States in 1941 via Portugal. She settled in New York, which remained her principal residence for the rest of her life. She became a writer and editor and worked for the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, becoming an American citizen in 1950. With the publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, her reputation as a thinker and writer was established, and a series of works followed.

These included the books The Human Condition in 1958, as well as Eichmann in Jerusalem and On Revolution in 1963.

She taught at many American universities while declining tenure-track appointments. She died suddenly of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of 69, leaving her last work, The Life of the Mind, unfinished.

Arendt's five-part series "Eichmann in Jerusalem" appeared in The New Yorker in February 1963 some nine months after Eichmann was hanged on 31 May 1962. By this time his trial was largely forgotten in the popular mind, superseded by intervening world events. However, no other account of either Eichmann or National Socialism has aroused so much controversy. Before its publication, Arendt was considered a brilliant humanistic original political thinker. Her mentor, Karl Jaspers, however, had warned her about a possible adverse outcome, "The Eichmann trial will be no pleasure for you. I'm afraid it cannot go well". On publication, three controversies immediately occupied public attention: the concept of Eichmann as banal, her criticism of the role of Israel and her description of the role played by the Jewish people themselves.

Arendt was profoundly shocked by the response, writing to Karl Jaspers "People are resorting to any means to destroy my reputation... They have spent weeks trying to find something in my past that they can hang on me". Now she was being called arrogant, heartless and ill-informed. She was accused of being duped by Eichmann, of being a "self-hating Jewess", and even an enemy of Israel. Her critics included The Anti-Defamation League and many other Jewish groups, editors of publications she was a contributor to, faculty at the universities she taught at and friends from all parts of her life. Her friend Gershom Scholem, a major scholar of Jewish mysticism, broke off relations with her, publishing their correspondence without her permission. Arendt was criticized by many Jewish public figures, who charged her with coldness and lack of sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust. Because of this lingering criticism neither this book nor any of her other works were translated into Hebrew until 1999.[314] Arendt responded to the controversies in the book's Postscript.

Although Arendt complained that she was being criticized for telling the truth – "what a risky business to tell the truth on a factual level without theoretical and scholarly embroidery" – the criticism was largely directed to her theorizing on the nature of mankind and evil and that ordinary people were driven to commit the inexplicable not so much by hatred and ideology as ambition, and inability to empathize. Equally problematic was the suggestion that the victims deceived themselves and complied in their own destruction.[316] Prior to Arendt's depiction of Eichmann, his popular image had been, as The New York Times put it "the most evil monster of humanity" and as a representative of "an atrocious crime, unparalleled in history", "the extermination of European Jews". As it turned out Arendt and others were correct in pointing out that Eichmann's characterization by the prosecution as the architect and chief technician of the Holocaust was not entirely credible.

While much has been made of Arendt's treatment of Eichmann, Ada Ushpiz, in her 2015 documentary Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt, placed it in a much broader context of the use of rationality to explain seemingly irrational historical events.

In an interview with Joachim Fest in 1964, Arendt was asked about Eichmann's defense that he had made Kant's principle of the duty of obedience his guiding principle all his life. Arendt replied that that was outrageous and that Eichmann was misusing Kant, by not considering the element of judgement required in assessing one's own actions – "Kein Mensch hat bei Kant das Recht zu gehorchen" (No man has, according to Kant, the right to obey), she stated, paraphrasing Kant. The reference was to Kant's Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft (Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason 1793) in which he states:

Der Satz 'man muß Gott mehr gehorchen, als den Menschen' bedeutet nur, daß, wenn die letzten etwas gebieten, was an sich böse (dem Sittengesetz unmittelbar zuwider) ist, ihnen nicht gehorcht werden darf und soll. (The saying, "We must hearken to God, rather than to man," signifies no more than this, viz. that should any earthly legislation enjoin something immediately contradictory of the moral law, obedience is not to be rendered)

Kant clearly defines a higher moral duty than rendering merely unto Caesar. Arendt herself had written in her book "This was outrageous, on the face of it, and also incomprehensible, since Kant's moral philosophy is so closely bound up with man's faculty of judgment, which rules out blind obedience." Arendt's reply to Fest was subsequently corrupted to read Niemand hat das Recht zu gehorchen (No one has the right to obey), which has been widely reproduced, although it does encapsulate an aspect of her moral philosophy.

The phrase Niemand hat das Recht zu gehorchen has become one of her iconic images, appearing on the wall of the house in which she was born, among other places. A fascist bas-relief on the Palazzo degli Uffici Finanziari (1942), in the Piazza del Tribunale, Bolzano, Italy celebrating Mussolini, read Credere, Obbedire, Combattere (Believe, Obey, Combat). In 2017 it was altered to read Hannah Arendt's original words on obedience in the three official languages of the region.

The phrase has been appearing in other artistic work featuring political messages, such as the 2015 installation by Wilfried Gerstel, which has evoked the concept of resistance to dictatorship, as expressed in her essay "Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship" (1964).

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[ebelal56-blog]

The Surprising Fate of Hitler's Inner Circle

The end of World War II in 1945 marked not just the fall of a regime but the reckoning of its key figures. Picture the chaos, the despair, and the dramatic shifts in power as the Allies closed in on Berlin, the heart of the Third Reich. The fate of Hitler's close associates varied wildly, a kaleidoscope of justice, evasion, and self-inflicted endings that tell a gripping story of a world in turmoil. Take Heinrich Himmler, for instance, the head of the SS and one of the principal architects of the Holocaust. Himmler was captured by British forces in May 1945. You might think he would face justice for his horrendous crimes, but instead, he chose a coward's exit, swallowing cyanide before he could be brought to trial. His suicide speaks volumes about the fear and guilt that haunted these men. Did he think he could escape the consequences of his actions in death? Or was it a final act of defiance against a world that had turned against him? Then there's Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, who was not just a follower but a true believer in Nazi ideology. On May 1, 1945, in the depths of Hitler's bunker, he and his wife, Magda, made a horrific decision. They poisoned their six children before taking their own lives. It's chilling to think about the lengths they went to protect their twisted beliefs, even in the face of inevitable defeat. What kind of world do you have to live in to believe that death is a better option than surrender? Hermann Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe, had a different fate. Captured by the Allies, he stood trial at Nuremberg, where he was sentenced to death. But in a final act of defiance, he committed suicide with cyanide just hours before his execution. It's almost grotesque how these men clung to their lives, only to choose death when facing justice. What does that say about their character? Did they truly believe they were above the law, even in the end? Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, took a bizarre path. In 1941, he flew solo to Scotland, attempting to negotiate peace with Britain, a move that was as futile as it was desperate. After the war, he was imprisoned and later tried at Nuremberg, where he was sentenced to life in prison. He spent decades in Spandau Prison, ultimately dying in 1987, officially ruled a suicide. The irony is striking: a man who once held power and influence ended his days in a cell, a stark reminder of how quickly fortunes can change. Then there's Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect and Minister of Armaments. Unlike many of his associates, Speer admitted guilt during his Nuremberg trial. He received a 20-year sentence, and upon his release in 1966, he spent the rest of his life reflecting on his role in the Nazi regime. His memoirs offer a glimpse into the mind of a man who built grand structures for a regime that sought to obliterate millions. Was he remorseful, or was he simply trying to reshape his legacy? Karl Dönitz, who briefly succeeded Hitler as head of state, had a less dramatic fate. He surrendered to the Allies and was sentenced to ten years in prison at Nuremberg. Released in 1956, he lived until 1980. His story is a reminder that not all of Hitler's associates faced the same grim fate, but his legacy is forever tainted by the shadow of the regime he served. Now, let's talk about Martin Bormann, Hitler's private secretary. His fate remained a mystery for years after the war. He disappeared in the chaos of Berlin's fall, and it wasn't until 1972 that his remains were discovered. It's believed he died by suicide or was killed during those tumultuous final days. The uncertainty surrounding his end reflects the chaos of the time-a fitting end for a man who lived in the shadows of power. Adolf Eichmann, the major organizer of the Holocaust, took a different route. After the war, he escaped to Argentina, living under a false identity. But justice caught up with him in 1960 when Israeli agents captured him. His trial in Israel was a landmark moment, and the world watched as he was found guilty and executed in 1962. His story serves as a reminder that no matter how far one runs, the truth has a way of surfacing. Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most feared Nazi officials, was assassinated by Czech resistance fighters in 1942. His death, well before the war ended, shows the resistance and the fight against tyranny that continued even in the darkest of times. Hans Frank, the Governor-General of Nazi-occupied Poland, was captured, tried, and hanged in 1946. His trial was a stark reminder of the atrocities committed under his governance, and his execution served as a symbol of accountability for those who perpetrated such horrors. Wilhelm Keitel and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, both high-ranking officials, faced similar fates at Nuremberg, found guilty of war crimes and executed in 1946. Their deaths marked a significant moment in history, establishing a precedent for international law regarding crimes against humanity.

[agendaculturaldelima]

#ProyeccionDeVida

🎥 Biografías. Mujeres y Sociedad, presenta:

🎬 “HANNAH ARENDT Y LA BANALIDAD DEL MAL”

🔎 Género: Drama / Años 60 / Nazismo / Holocausto / Basado en hechos reales

⌛️ Duración: 113  minutos

✍️ Guión: Pam Katz y Margarethe Von Trotta

🗯 Argumento: Biografía de la filósofa judío-alemana Hannah Arendt, discípula de Heidegger, que trabajó como periodista en el juicio a Adolf Eichmann, el nazi que organizó el genocidio del pueblo judío durante la II Guerra Mundial, conocida por "la solución final".

👥 Reparto: Barbara Sukowa (Hannah Arendt), Janet McTeer (Mary McCarthy), Klaus Pohl (Martin Heidegger), Axel Milberg (Heinrich Blücher), Ulrich Noethen (Hans Jonas), Julia Jentsch (Lotte Köhler) y Nicholas Woodeson (William Shawn).

📢 Dirección: Margarethe Von Trotta

© Productora: Heimatfilm

🌎 País: Alemania

📅 Año: 2012

📽 Proyección:

📆 Martes 05 de Marzo  

🕖 7:00pm.

🏪 Cine Club de la Universidad de Ciencias y Humanidades (av. Bolivia 537 - Breña)

🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️ Ingreso libre con DNI.

[jhavelikes]

Supporters of Gessen, who is Jewish, and whose grandfather and great-grandfather were among family members murdered by the Nazis, have been quick to point out the irony of suspending a prize awarded in memory of Arendt, the German-born Jewish-American historian, philosopher and antitotalitarian political theorist who coined the phrase “the banality of evil”, in connection with the trial of leading Nazi Adolf Eichmann, which she covered as a journalist for the New Yorker. Samantha Rose Hill, author of the profile Hannah Arendt and editor of Arendt’s collected poems, called it “an affront to Hannah Arendt’s memory. By their own logic, the Heinrich Böll Foundation needs to cancel the Hannah Arendt prize altogether.” Another academic said that according to the reasons given for the decision, “Hannah Arendt wouldn’t get the Hannah Arendt award in Germany today.”

Award ceremony suspended after writer compares Gaza to Nazi-era Jewish ghettos | Germany | The Guardian

[elarafritzenwalden]

'Stadttheater Ingolstadt', theater Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany; 1961-66

Hardt-Waltherr Hämer + Marie Brigitte Hämer; Heinrich Eichmann (goldleaf murals), Hans Aeschbacher (obelisk sculpture), Haussmann & Haussmann (interior layout and decoration); photography by Fritz Maurer

see map | more information 1, 2

via "Cementbulletin" 36-37 (1968-1969)

[iridediluce]

HANNAH ARENDT, 1906–1975

Hannah Arendt era una pensatrice umanista che pensava in modo audace e provocatorio al nostro mondo politico ed etico condiviso. Ispirata dalla filosofia, ha messo in guardia contro i pericoli politici della filosofia per astrarre e offuscare la pluralità e la realtà del nostro mondo. Difendeva ferocemente l’importanza della sfera pubblica, ma era anche intensamente riservata e difendeva…

[the-empress-7]

I never thought it would be fair or feasible for Charles to give up the throne to William like some people want but this is different. I don't think he should be King if this is what he has been up to. What worries me sometimes is if the Queen has been involved with corruption but the media won't dare report on it because she is so beloved. I've heard gossip about the media waiting to open the flood gates after HM passes.

[alain-keler]

Lundi 24 janvier 2022.

Deux dates s’imposent en ce mois de janvier : Auschwitz Birkenau a été libéré par les troupes soviétiques il y a soixante dix sept ans le 27 janvier 1945.

Il y a quatre vingt ans, Le 20 janvier 1942, quinze hauts fonctionnaires du parti nazi et de l'administration allemande s’étaient réunis dans une villa de Wannsee, dans la banlieue de Berlin, pour discuter de la mise en œuvre de ce qu'ils appelèrent "la Solution finale à la question juive".

Une liste des populations juives en Europe a été établie pour cette conférence : elle apparaît en photo ci-dessus.

Les représentants de la SS à cette réunion étaient le Général SS Reinhard Heydrich, directeur de l'Office central de sécurité du Reich (Reichssicherheitshauptamt-RSHA) et un des principaux adjoints du SS-Reichführer Heinrich Himmler ; le général SS Heinrich Müller, chef de la division IV de la RSHA (la Gestapo) ; le lieutenant colonel SS Adolf Eichmann, chef de la division IV B4 de la RSHA (les questions juives) ; le colonel SS Eberhard Schöngarth, commandant à Cracoviede la RSHA pour le gouvernement général de Pologne ; le major SS Rudolf Lange, commandant des Einsatzkommando 2 du RSHA déployé en Lettonie à l'automne 1941 ; le major général SS Otto Hofmann, chef du bureau central pour la race et le peuplement (RuSHA).

La Shoah, génocide et crime contre l'humanité, est un drame unique. Il s'est agi d'une destruction massive, programmée avec des moyens scientifiques, pour anéantir un peuple en fonction de ce qu'il est. C'est-à-dire de son identité. Le génocide juif massacre six millions d'êtres humains pour la seule raison qu'ils sont juifs. Ce n'est ni le résultat d'une guerre ni d'un conflit. C'est la volonté unique d'anéantir un peuple, une culture, une histoire *. On va chercher les juifs partout où ils se trouvent sur le territoire européen.

 En relatant ces faits, je ne cherche pas à faire une comparaison ni minimiser les différents génocides qui ont ensanglanté la planète. Je veux juste rappeler ce que fut la Shoah, souvent remise en cause pour de mauvaises raisons politiques.

 Je n’oublie pas le génocide des arméniens, non reconnu par la Turquie, ni celui des Ukrainiens non reconnu par la Russie, ni celui des ouighours non reconnu par la Chine, ni le génocide des Roms dont le bilan humain reste encore de nos jours difficile à quantifier (https://www.la-croix.com/.../Le-genocide-Tsiganes-fait...). Je n’oublie pas le génocide des Tutsi au Rwanda**, ni celui du Cambodge par les Khmers rouges.***

À Birkenau il y a un endroit un peu à l’écart du reste du camp, c’est le sauna. C’est là que l’on faisait se déshabiller les nouveaux arrivants, qu’on leur tatouait un numéro, d���abord sur la poitrine, puis sur le bras. C’était l’antichambre de la mort. Aujourd’hui on peut y voir sur plusieurs murs des centaines de photos de la vie avant le crime absolu. C’est un endroit qui m’émeut beaucoup. Il y a peu de visiteurs, un silence respectueux.

La Rabbin Delphine Horveilleur écrit :

« Dans son livre Si c’est un homme, Primo Levi raconte qu’un jour au camp, tandis qu’il était assoiffé, il tendit la main vers un glaçon pour s’en désaltérer.  Le gardien le lui arracha violemment, et quand il demanda  pourquoi ? , l’autre répondit : « Hier ist kein warum », ici il n’y a pas de pourquoi ! ».

Tel fut le monde que des hommes ont construit pour y enfermer d’autres hommes en qui ils avaient cessé de voir des hommes, continue la Rabbin.

Auschwitz a été bien été la tâche la plus ignoble de l’histoire de l’humanité.

« Le terme génocide apparaît au cours de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, lorsque le juriste polonais Raphael Lemkin caractérise, en 1944, « la pratique de l’extermination de nations et de groupes ethniques ». Le terme « génocide » a par la suite été employé rétrospectivement pour le massacre systématique des Herero et Nama dans le Sud-Ouest africain allemand (1904-1908), celui des Arméniens par les Turcs (1915-1916), et enfin celui des Tutsi au Rwanda (1994) »****.

* https://www.humanite.fr/node/390583

** https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2019/06/03/genocide-un-terme-souvent-galvaude_5470652_3232.html

*** https://www.alloprof.qc.ca/fr/eleves/bv/histoire/genocides-au-20e-siecle-h1114

**** https://www.memorialdelashoah.org/archives-et-documentation/genocides-xx-siecle.html

[breakingthenarrative]

“In speeches, Hitler purportedly made apparently warm references towards Muslim culture such as: "The peoples of Islam will always be closer to us than, for example, France".[11] Hitler was transcribed as saying: "Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers [...] then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world."[12]

This exchange occurred when Hitler received Saudi Arabian ruler Ibn Saud's special envoy, Khalid al-Hud al-Gargani.[13] Earlier in this meeting, Hitler noted that one of the three reasons why Nazi Germany had some interest in the Arabs was:

[...] because we were jointly fighting the Jews. This led him to discuss Palestine and the conditions there, and he then stated that he himself would not rest until the last Jew had left Germany. Kalid al Hud observed that the Prophet Mohammed [...] had acted the same way. He had driven the Jews out of Arabia [...]”

[Amin al Husseini and Adolf Hitler, 1941]

“Amin al-Husseini became the most prominent Arab collaborator with the Axis powers. He developed friendships with high-ranking Nazis, including Heinrich Himmler, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and (possibly) Adolf Eichmann.[citation needed] He contributed to Axis propaganda services and to the recruitment of Muslim and Arab soldiers for the Nazi armed forces, including three SS divisions consisting of Bosnian Muslims.”

[bluecote]

heinrich eichmann, labyrinth concrete relief

werk 7/ 1968

[whenyouarenothing]

QUARANTINE TIME IS READING TIME. EMERGE less ignorant.

Books/Essays, Theory:

Karl Marx- Friedrich EngelsCommunist Manifesto(Fundamental piece for the social sciences, social movements of the 19/20/21 centuries

Karl Marx-The british rule in Indiahttps://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1853/06/25.htm

Sohrab Sepehri - The oasis of now.

Peter Sloterdijk - After God

Antonio Gramsci-gramsci-prison-notebooks-vol1

Secondary literature on Gramsci'sConception of Hegemony Gramsci

Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud-Hegel, Nietzsche and Freud on Madness and the Unconscious

Foucault-The Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 3) Michel Foucault, James D. Faubion, Robert Hurley, Colin Gordon, Paul Rabinow-Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984 Volume 3_ Power-The New Press (2

Zygmunt Bauman-(Themes for the 21st Century Series) Zygmunt Bauman-Globalization_ The Human Consequences-Polity Press (1998)

Hannah Arendt-Arendt-Eichmann-in-Jerusalem

Giorgia Agamben and Walter Benjamin-Bare-Life-and-Historical-Materialism-in-Agamben-and-Benjamin

Rainer Maria Rilke - Letters to a young poet

Rainer Maria Rilke - Stundenglas

Walter Benjamin-The reproduction of the artwork in the 21. century

Guy Debord-Society of the spectacle

Carl Schmitt- Carl Schmitt-The Nomos of the Earth -Telos Press Publishing (2006)

Carl_Schmitt_The_Concept_of_the_Political_Expanded_Edition____2007

Heinrich von Kleist - Penthesilea

Stefan Zweig - Magellan

Luis Borges - the Library of Babel

Renzo Novatore - Towards the Creative Nothing

Renzo Novatore - in the circle of life.

Friedrich Nietzsche-Genealogy of morals

Friedrich Nietzsche-Friedrich_Nietzsche - Human_All_Too_Human_A_Book_for_Free_Spirits_(1996)

Friedrich Nietzsche - Nietzsches critique on religion

Kenneth Waltz-Kenneth N. Waltz-Man, the State and War-Columbia University Press (2001)

Lucien van der WaalLucien Van Der Walt and Michael Schmidt Black Flame vol 1

Eduardo Galeano - Open_Veins_of_Latin_America

Wolfi Landstreicher-wolfi-landstreicher-critical-thinking-as-an-anarchist-weapon

Wolfi Landstreicher- wolfi-landstreicher-the-network-of-domination

Ludwig Feuerbach-Ludwig Feuerbach's conception of the religious alienation of man and Mikhail Bakunin'sphilosophy of negation

Emma Goldman - philosophy of atheism

Voegelin - on modern gnosticism

[e350tb]

Todesreich - Prologue

Berlin, 1962

Tempelhof was the largest airport in the world, or so the regime claimed. It was also one of the emptiest.

The incoming American ambassador had landed to great fanfare on the tarmac, the state-of-the-art Boeing wheeling up to the long, flat, semicircular terminal as the band played old Sousa tunes. The Washington Post filled the air, just audible from within the blue-furnished interior of the plane. Yet only a few other planes could be seen in the distance, nearly all of them bearing the markings of Deutsche Luft Hansa. The only exception was a sad old plane of the French national airline.

The door opened - the band swapped to the American national anthem as Ambassador Clay stepped through the door. At the bottom waited the delegation - the enemy, as some of the embassy’s new guards had quietly called them. At the front stood the beaming, portly martinet himself, one of the faces of the regime for the past three decades, his uniform glittering in the afternoon sunlight. He enthusiastically thrust an arm forward as Clay reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Herr Clay!” he exclaimed. “Welcome to Berlin.”

Clay’s smile looked like he’d just sucked a lemon, but he maintained diplomatic niceties nonetheless.

“Reichmarschall Goering,” he nodded, taking his hand. “It’s good to be here.”

The staff began their procession down the stairs, some more hesitantly than others. Takashi Shirogane in particular had reason for apprehension - he was one of the few Asians in the Foreign Security Service, and his sexual orientation, already carefully hidden from the Foreign Service, was even more unwelcome in Hitler’s Reich. Had Samuel Holt not personally chosen him as his bodyguard, he’d never had received such an important posting - as it was, he wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse.

He briefly felt the bulge under the jacket that indicated his service pistol and glanced towards Goering’s smug, sweating face. No, he told himself, we’re the first diplomatic mission to Berlin since 1941. It’s probably not a good idea to cause a diplomatic incident fifteen seconds after landing.

He pursed his lips.

Would feel pretty good, though.

As they walked through Tempelhof to the waiting diplomatic cars, their footsteps echoing in the nearly-empty arrivals terminal, Shiro took note of his surroundings. The shops all seemed to be shuttered, save for a single newsagent. There were a few people around, on telephones or in seats, but the animated way they spoke and the fact that they all seemed to be handsome and ‘Aryan’ made Shiro suspect they were plants. A few faded posters called for ‘pure-blooded, independent Germans’ to make new lives in Reichskommissariat Turkestan; it was clear they hadn’t been replaced for a long time. Nearly every official, be they a security guard or a clerk or a bandsman, all wore the insignia of the Luftwaffe.

The Reichsmarschall, who ruled the air force like a personal fief, clearly wanted to make an impression. It had, after all, been his idea to normalise relations with the United States and Great Britain; it was he who had spoken so forcefully about opening markets, about swamping American markets with Fanta and shiny new Volkswagens, and thus saving the Reich’s ailing economy. The whole mission was a cynical ‘hail mary’, the last throw of the dice to keep the ponderous, teetering state on its feet.

Shiro wondered how Goeing would take America’s terms for a trade deal.

They reached the cars - hand-selected, brand new Mercedes-Benz limousines. The Reichsmarschall’s personal car was huge and long, painted a pearl white and accented with gold. It resembled the kind of thing a Hollywood movie star or powerful gangster might drive, it’s obnoxious size augmented by armour plating. The bonnet carried two flags - the stars-and-stripes and the swastika. If Ambassador Clay found this distasteful, he certainly didn’t say it, continuing his conversation with Goering as he climbed into the car.

Shiro climbed into a smaller car a little way back, following Holt and his son (a trainee attache named Matt.) They said nothing as the cars powered away from the airport - Clay and Goering to the Volkshalle, the rest to the new embassy building. They said nothing for a while - the only sound was Matt’s finger’s tapping on the window.

“You tried calling Adam before we left London?” asked Holt.

Shiro shot a glance at the Luftwaffe driver behind the sound-proofed screen. He knew he couldn’t hear, but he didn’t doubt the car was bugged.

“Yes,” he replied. “He didn’t reply.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Shiro understood what that meant. The phones at the embassy would certainly be bugged - if he tried to call Adam again, he risked handing the Nazi government blackmail.

He sighed, gazing back out the window. They left the airport behind, pulling into the grey, concrete streets of modern Berlin. He felt a shiver as he passed each tenement, each sign, each monument labelled with faded or crumbling swastikas.

He felt like he was visiting Rome in its final days.

----

Wewelsburg, 1962

“The new American ambassador has arrived.”

Heinrich Himmler didn’t turn his head - he was gazing out one of the windows of the Obergruppenführersaal - the General’s Hall - over his Westphalian domain. The sun highlighted his midnight-black uniform; he almost resembled an evil spirit from the dark fairy tales the SS man had been told as a child.

“I see Berlin still hasn’t seen sense, then.”

“No, sir. Speer and Bormann have aligned themselves with Goering, albeit for their own reasons.”

“And the Wehrmacht?”

“Keitel still does whatever he thinks Hitler wants, so it’s difficult to say. Manstein favours opening up to the west, as far as we can tell; Model doesn’t, and we believe both are courting Rommel and Guderian.”

“The Navy?”

“Doesn’t care as long as somebody pays for their new U-Boats.”

Himmler grunted.

“We do have the Hitlerjugend,” continued the underling. “And I think we can rely on the Panzerkorps. And as long as Model thinks Hitler’s will-”

“Model is too inflexible,” said Himmler. “Talk to Rommel and Guderian directly. Guderian is a loyalist to the party, and Rommel can be plied easily.”

For a moment, the SS man thought he could see a hint of a smile on Himmler’s gaunt features.

“For the final destiny of the volk to be accomplished,” Himmler continued, “we must thwart these moderates. For that, we need a unified vision.”

He turned his head - the SS man could not see his eyes, his glasses shining in the sunlight.

“Contact Reinhard and the others and tell them to come,” he said. “I think it’s time they knew of the plan. Only the SS can secure the future of our Fuhrer’s vision.”

“Of course,” nodded the SS man.

He clicked his heels and raised his palm.

“Heil Hitler!”

Himmler returned the gesture almost lazily.

“Heil Hitler, Adolf.”

Adolf Eichmann walked away, leaving Himmler to contemplate. He gazed out, once more, at the natural, pure surroundings of Wewelsburg Castle. This, he reminded himself, was what he fought for. 

The rest would be cleansed with fire.

[elarafritzenwalden]

‘Stadttheater Ingolstadt’, theater Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany; 1961-66

Hardt-Waltherr Hämer + Marie Brigitte Hämer; Heinrich Eichmann (goldleaf murals), Hans Aeschbacher (obelisk sculpture), Haussmann & Haussmann (interior layout and decoration); photography by the architect, Helmut Bauer

see map | more information 1, 2

via “Das Werk” 54 (1967)

[evilelitest2]

100 Days of Trump: Day 7, Conspiracy (2001)

So today is Holocaust Remembrance Day and so I want to talk about the movie Conspiracy.

Which is about the Wannsee Conference, the 1942 meeting of the Nazi SS under Reinhard Heydrich where the Holocaust as a policy is planned out.  The movie is basically a dramatization of the meeting and what makes this wroth watching is how its about the way the perpetrators of Genocide rationalize this stuff to themselves.  Everybody at this meeting is a high ranking Nazi, all of them are horrible people, but we are seeing them interact in their own context.  I think a big reason why Trump was able to get elected even as he co-opts Neo Nazis rhetoric is because the pop culture perception of Nazis is so cartoonist evil and over the top you can’t take them seriously any more, they are just evil monsters with no humanity and so it is really easy for people to not feel like they are remotely responsible.  After all, the Nazis are 

The Bad Guys

So I can’t be like them, they are so over the top evil that it can’t be like me. So when actual Neo Nazism returns en force, people don’t even recognize it because we have been desensatived by these over the top images.

   This movie doesn’t do that, its showing them all as human beings, abliet particularly vile ones, and shows them in their own context.  There isn’t a hero, there isn’t a traditional plot, this is just watching 15 men talk about and plan out the Final Solution, and the ways that they mentally rationalize what they are doing.  What is interesting is that the actual final Solution was not actually planned at the meeting, the SS had already started it prior to the meeting, the meetings true purpose was to get all of the other departments invoked on board with the program.  Cause the Holocaust wasn’t just a morally abhorrent policy that serves as one of the greatest examples of human evil in history, though it was, it was also self destructively stupid.  Killing 6.5 million jews doesn’t help the Nazis win the war, it just takes resources away from the Eastern Front.  Nobody at the meeting in the film is a complete sociopath nor  are any of them stupid, and yet they go along with this stupid and utterly psychotic policy, mostly because of...well peer pressure.  Even though most people at the meeting actually oppose extermination, they would rather do something else that is less crazy, but because Heydrich, Muller, and Eichman have already planned the meeting ahead of time, what was unthinkable two horus ago becomes the national policy.  THis is how evil wins, by people not really feeling comfortable opposing it, if something horrible is proposed in a flashy manner and pushed through quickly, most people fall along with it because they don’t want to feel the pressure.  

   But that isn’t the main reason why I think you should watch the movie, its because of something the director couldn’t have imagined, watching this movie is like looking at an Alt Right Forum.  Seriously, if you want to understand how Fascists think, how they interact with each other and behave in their own context, this is basically the only movie that really gets into their head like that, I cannot think of any other movies that do that, or TV shows for that matter.  The meeting here could be a group chat on 8chan or a discussion on /POL/.  To fight against fascism we need to understand how it happens, and this movie is an excellent gateway to seeing this stuff in action.