Wednesday, April 30, 2008

THE LAST DAYS OF DER FÜHRER.

I tells ya, history is a fascinating subject. Around this date, sixty-three years ago...

The last days of history's most famous madman fascist dictator Adolf Hitler were nothing short of dramatic. As the Soviet Red Army slowly moved in, destroying the last vestiges of Nazi power, Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun, along with other Nazi officials and personnel hid in an underground bunker, aware that their "glorious perfect Aryan German utopia" was crumbling and that they were about to face the Allied victors who were going to make them pay for their horrific crimes against humanity. I especially resent the Nazis for the terrible things done to my fellow gay men, hence the now common use of the pink triangle as a sign of unity, born out of that terrible time.

An excellent film depicting these events is
Der Untergang, which almost faithfully re-creates those harrowing events, and my first ever film from Netflix some two years ago. Hitler was a deeply emotional man, well aware of his evil, totally in control of what he had done and what he was about to do: commit suicide in order to avoid the severe punishments which awaited him. His mistress Eva Braun on the other hand, was a woman whom many see as an innocent victim, unaware of the barbaric regime the Nazis had implemented, a carefree young woman who lived a very short but leisure-filled existence. Personally, I abhor the woman, for I am not entirely convinced the bitch was that out of it, or had no idea of what was really going on. In that German film I just previously mentioned, her portrayal is that of a very happy carefree and most irritating individual; she encourages the others in the Führerbunker with her to continue dancing, as the sound of gunfire and bombs above from the approaching Soviets rocks the place and disturbs the peace! MY GOD WOMAN! COULD SHE HAVE REALLY BEEN THAT AIRHEADISH?! I just don't buy it! I JUST DON'T! F**K HER! Even more frightening are the comments on YouTube clips such as this one praising the wench!

With certain defeat and the Soviets practically at the bunker's entrance, Adolf and Eva decided they would end it all, but not without having a small civil ceremony to get married, so that they could die as husband and wife. To make sure the cyanide pills he had were the real deal, Hitler had his adoring and loyal German Shepherd dog Blondi poisoned. She effectively died, which many say broke Hitler's heart and others who witnessed the innocent canine's tragic demise. Ironically, Hitler loved animals, especially dogs, and rumor has it Eva hated Blondi, often kicking her. In his private study, Hitler bit into a cyanide capsule and shot himself in the head. Eva followed, but she only swallowed the fatal pill, and did not blow her airhead noggin off. Interestingly, Eva was only 33 years old. Both confirmed dead, Nazi officers took the bodies outside and tried to burn them, but only got so far as the Red Army moved in. Their semi-charred corpses were in a bomb crater for a good while I believe, then dug up some years later and thoroughly burned to ashes and thrown in the Elbe River so as to not have a gravesite to attract modern-day psycho Hitler supporters.

There's a lot more to this incredible story, but this post has been long enough. Watch that movie I mentioned above. It is quite compelling.

10 comments:

dit said...

WOW! This is a very important day, and most do not know it. I sure did not. Thanks for the information. Power is crazy and it makes people crazy.

LBIC said...

Thanks for the movie recommendation. I'm going to have to check it out.

mouse (aka kimy) said...

well, shit I was commemorating anniversaries for april 30th on the mouse today and somehow missed this one ....

that was one twisted fella!

Anonymous said...

That is not true. They moved to St. Olaf and lived happily as Fred and Eva Schtichlemeir. The Fuerer... "Fred" was even the locay High School P.E. Teacher!

The Art of Trey said...

Wow, that was only sixty-three years ago...that's not that long. My parents were both alive then and lived through that stuff (albeit very young). Thanks for a fascinating post.

molly said...

very interesting, i didnt know eva braun was so....i guess either stupid or assholish? either way, not cool.
NO PRESSURE to do the 5 things tag if you dont want to! just wanted to give you some props :)

M- Filer said...

That YouTube video is kind of disgusting when you think of it. Why glamorize someone who was so intimately connected to one of the worlds most notorious monsters? nd set it to romantic music? Yuk.

Ladrón de Basura (a.k.a. Junk Thief) said...

As a good little 1/2 Jew, I always celebrate this day. I'm 1/2 French and can sympathize with Marie Antoinette a bit (albeit her roots are Austrian not French), but Eva? Bleh, no. However, "Der Untergang" is one of my favorite films. Some folks criticized it for humanizing Hitler. I think it's important to show that he was a human and a monster, reminding us that everyone has the capacity for cruelty within them and that it can come back to destroy the oppressor.

I celebrated the day last night by watching the interesting "Escape from Auschwitz" documentary on PBS. It was an enlightening chronicle of Jewish heroism that I'd not known about before.

Troy said...

so much neverending evil in this world. i think i will never watch any news again.

Bobby D. said...

Is this the film starring Bruno Ganz? My German is bad, and I forget the title of the one I saw, but it starred Bruno--he was also the main angel in Wim Wenders Wings of Desire. (another GREAT flick)
Ganz is a great actor-- he was also in Italian films, maybe Bread and Tulips is one -- I don't know why I can't remember titles. We could be Netflix buddies.