And now a little Godwin: Hitler couldn't drink a glass of water at the end either.

[NNadir]

For amusement in these tense times, I'm reading excerpts of Volker Ulrich's two volume biography of Hitler, where I came across, in the second volume ( "Downfall" ) a description of one of the dictator's last rallies, for the Reichleiters & Gauleitiers (Hitler's equivalent of the modern US Senate and House Republicans), in Berlin, on February 24, 1945, a little over two months before his suicide.

An excerpt, page 550, Volume 2, Hitler, Downfall, 1939-1945, Translation by Jefferson Chase, Knopf, New York, 2020:

...The sight of the frail dictator had brought tears to his eyes, recalled Wahl [Karl Wahl, the Gauleiter of Swabia] writing that for him it had been tantamount to the "end of the world."

Hitler seemed to sense how horrified the Reichsleiters and Gauleiters were and himself touched upon his poor health at the end of his speech. Only now did he truly understand Friedrich the Great, who had returned home from his military campaigns "a sick, broken man." Just as the Prussian king had been forced to spend the last years of his life "with a bent frame, plagued by gout and a whole gamut of other afflictions," Hitler explained, the war left deep marks on him. After trying and failing to raise a glass of water to his lips, he assured the listeners, "Today my hand trembles, and maybe my head will as well someday, but my heart will never tremble."

Hitler, in a final act of cowardice, swallowed cyanide and shot himself in the head on April 30, 1945, thus escaping justice.

The personalities of Hitler and Trump are striking for the similarities as described in this text, the lies, the megalomania, the narcissism, the laziness, the blame attached to subordinates, the failure to take responsibility for his own actions and the inability to perceive reality.

I asked for these books for my birthday, from my family, because of the reviews of the second volume of this biography, without naming Trump, listed all of these parallels.

Of course, Germany was destroyed by giving power to Hitler, and America has been badly damaged by giving power to Trump, but after much struggle, by the end of the 20th century, Germany had become a better nation than it ever was.

May America once more become as great as it was before 2017.

[tanyev]

1. Have you read Blitzed by Norman Ohler?

Apparently Dr. Morell turned Hitler into quite an addict and that was a big part of his poor health at the end.

[Javaman]

9. Great book!

hitler was a fucking drug addled mess in the end. Aside from his many physical ailments

[Laelth]

2. Hear! Hear! k&r n/t

-Laelth

[empedocles]

3. Hitler blamed the German people for losing the war, and ordered the destruction

of Paris.

Will traitortrump react similiarly, all out destruction. Gutting all those environmental regs a start?

[Mariana]

5. I expect he will do something like that.

He won't hesitate to hurt his supporters, either. He's always despised them, and he'll blame them for not fighting hard enough for him to win the election.

[paleotn]

8. Probably, but....

it's safe to assume a group of dedicated folks are crafting reversing EO's. Biden better warm up his writing hand. He's going to have a lot to sign on his first day in office.

[Mike 03]

4. Excellent. Thank you for this post.

[hatrack]

6. "Wohlt Ihr Den Totalen Krieg"?!? And the stadium shouted "JA!!!!"

This was in February 1943 - Stalingrad had ended three weeks earlier, the Allied invasion of North Africa was well underway and there was no way for the Nazi regime to make up the losses the Werhmacht had taken. The Final Solution was only then really ramping up with Operation Reinhard and the death camp expansions. The Nazis had largely lost the initiative on the Eastern Front and the Allies had just cracked the U-Boat code. The outcome was foreordained.

And the crowd called out for more.

EDIT

The English maintain that the German people has lost faith in victory. I ask you: Do you believe with the Führer and us in the final total victory of the German people? I ask you: Are you resolved to follow the Führer through thick and thin to victory, and are you willing to accept the heaviest personal burdens?

Second: The English say that the German people are tired of fighting. I ask you: Are you ready to follow the Führer as the phalanx of the homeland, standing behind the fighting army and to wage war with wild determination through all the turns of fate until victory is ours?

Third: The English maintain that the German people have no desire any longer to accept the government's growing demands for war work. I ask you: Are you and the German people willing to work, if the Führer orders, 10, 12 and if necessary 14 hours a day and to give everything for victory?

Fourth: The English maintain that the German people is resisting the government's total war measures. It does not want total war, but capitulation! I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?

Fifth: The English maintain that the German people have lost faith in the Führer. I ask you: Is your confidence in the Führer greater, more faithful and more unshakable than ever before? Are you absolutely and completely ready to follow him wherever he goes and do all that is necessary to bring the war to a victorious end?

Sixth: I ask you: Are you ready from now on to give your full strength to provide the Eastern Front with the men and munitions it needs to give Bolshevism the death blow?

Seventh: I ask you: Do you take a holy oath to the front that the homeland stands firm behind them, and that you will give them everything they need to win the victory?

Eighth: I ask you: Do you, especially you women, want the government to do all it can to encourage German women to put their full strength at work to support the war effort, and to release men for the front whenever possible, thereby helping the men at the front?

Ninth: I ask you: Do you approve, if necessary, the most radical measures against a small group of shirkers and black marketers who pretend there is peace in the middle of war and use the need of the nation for their own selfish purposes? Do you agree that those who harm the war effort should lose their heads?

Tenth and lastly: I ask you: Do you agree that above all in war, according to the National Socialist Party platform, the same rights and duties should apply to all, that the homeland should bear the heavy burdens of the war together, and that the burdens should be shared equally between high and low and rich and poor?

EDIT

http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/do_you_want_total_war.htm

[empedocles]

7. Great cites. Thank you

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Hitler executed 84 of his generals & All societies eventually deal with despots

History has many lessons. Not enough of us are paying attention, though our Founders studied the fall of Rome, and English history.

King John, Magna Carta
The Medici
Glorious Revolution, Cromwell
French, American, Russian Revolutions
Revolutions of 1848
Garibaldi
Norman, Saxon, Celtic invasions

They all craved power and you'd think we'd learn more. Eventually the power-hungry are defeated or executed, and new governments arise. Power and greed rise again, and religion is always hanging around.

We're lucky Trump is so blissfully unaware and mostly incompetent. Many should be imprisoned for decades.

[BarbD]

13. Great post.

[Initech]

11. I'm sure that Trump's inability to drink a glass of water...

Could be an indirect result of his crippling carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of his incessant tweeting 24 hours a day. But that is my observation.

[warmfeet]

12. I want him to drink glass after glass

of diarrhoea from Covid-19 patients. He can use two hands if required.



Fuck'em. That goes for his followers as well.

[BobTheSubgenius]

14. Know what else took a toll on his health?

Steroids and methamphetamines.

[rwsanders]

15. I don't know about 2017. My wife and I just watched "The Trial of the Chicago 7".

I'd love us to take the ideals of the Declaration of Independence to heart and put our nation back on the path to being everything it could be, not just good enough, not a bit "better" than others, but the inspirational experiment in self-rule that was started in 1776 and has kind of withered on the vine.

[marieo1]

16. History

WOW....thank you for sharing this with us, because, I probably will never ever read about Hitler and neither will I about DJT. I can't even stand to look at DJT. He is a disgusting piece of humanity.