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The banality of evil / the Hitler photos

yahoo news. a trove of Hitler photos is being revealed. also mirror. more with people in dailymail. In the photos with humans (as opposed to furniture), I keep thinking, "how dare they look relaxed and happy". But they look just like.... people.

On a side note, it's interesting that the only photo with a large group includes a Vatican minister. Shame! Shame! And interesting to think about, why THAT particular photo was chosen to publish.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on January 28, 2012 at 6:40am

I can't say that I'm surprised that there is a certain banality to the photos. From Hitler's point of view, it was just another day at the office and he was just another guy doing his job. Certainly, it's not every man whose job it is to conquer the world and commit genocide, who is convinced that "tomorrow belongs to me." We just all have our niche, I suppose ... [HOOBOY!]

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on January 28, 2012 at 10:25am

I was moved by the reminder that, no matter how heinous a person's actions or views might be, there is a side to them that is human. I understand it doesn't mean they are any less evil. Who knows, maybe a T. rex was living to its children, but I still wouldn't want to meet one in a dark alley. Somehow the photos bring that home to me in ways that words do not.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on January 28, 2012 at 10:30am

Fact is, though, it remains the ACTIONS that count ... all of them, and not just the niceties that make the home movie reel. Yeah, I've heard the one about "a enemy is not evil in his own eyes" and all that ... but actions, the impact of those actions and whose interests those actions impact and how ... that remains the bottom line for me.

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on January 28, 2012 at 12:13pm

I do find myself wanting to see more photos. It's the "rubbernecking while driving past a car wreck" thing. Morbid fascination. I wish I did not, it serves no purpose.

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Permalink Reply by Dogly on January 28, 2012 at 8:15am

The guy in the red dress and hat is a Cardinal. Top dogs under the pope. from Wikepepedia

Dress of Cardinals

The following dress is used by all Cardinals, whatever holy Orders they may possess, whatever their rank in the College of Cardinals, and whether they are from religious orders or the secular clergy:

Choir Dress

Scarlet^[10] wool^[11] choir cassock^[12] trimmed^[13] in scarlet silk^[14]
Scarlet silk rabat, scarlet stockings, and black shoes without buckles^[15]
Scarlet watered-silk sash with fringes
Rochet^[16]
Pectoral cross^[17] suspended from a cord of scarlet silk entwined with gold
Scarlet wool mozzetta trimmed in scarlet silk, or on very solemn feasts^[18] scarlet watered-silk cappa magna with scarlet silk cape
Scarlet watered-silk skullcap (with scarlet lining)^[19]
Scarlet watered-silk biretta without tuft (with scarlet lining)
Ring^[20]

Such sartorial splendor!

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on January 28, 2012 at 10:15am

I wondered about the editorial choice, publishing that photo over apparently thousands of choices. Was the photo in better condition? Or was the editor making a statement about Catholic complicity in the Nazi regime?

Certainly the relationship between catholic hierarchy and the nazis was complicated, with thousands of priests being killed by nazis, and the nazi regime taking over monasteries a la Henry the 8th. The Catholic leadership tried to reduce persecution of Catholics by Nazis. But then again, Hitler cited the Catholic history as inspirational in its persecution of Jews, and the examples, and the Catholic leadership worked together with the Nazi leadership.

At the Bishop's conference, Hitler said: "I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc., because it recognized the Jews for what they were. In the epoch of liberalism the danger was no longer recognized. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented. I do not set race over religion, but I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the Church, and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions.