A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

I watch very few videos about World War II. I'm more interested in what happened afterward. Accordingly, this one is about what happened following Hitler's death in the bunker in 1945, specifically the Soviet cover-up of the investigation into the Nazi kingpin's suicide.

Deutsche Welle sets the table. it's an uncharacteristically sloppy synopsis, corrected below.

Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker as the Red Army closed in on Berlin on April 30, 1945. But legends about the Nazi dictator's lived on. Was his body ever found? Did he manage to escape?

After Hitler, aides poured gasoline on his body and set it alight in the garden of his chancellery. A few days later, the Soviets discovered the remains. But the body was burned beyond recognition, and they could not be sure it was his. Only after a top-secret investigation could Hitler be positively identified, thanks to information provided by his dentist.

At the same time, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin publicly stated that his army had been unable to find Hitler’s body. Wild rumors swirled about Hitler's death. Stalin even accused some of the Allies of helping him escape. What were the secrets behind this deception? What happened to the two German women who helped identify Hitler's body?

The documentary states that Hitler's dentist, Hugo Blaschke, had left Berlin and could not be located by the Soviets to identify the dead man's teeth (he subsequently was captured in the American zone).

This task fell to Blaschke's assistant, Käthe Heusermann. She's the one German woman who helped identify the body, the other Russian woman being Elena Rzhevskaya, who finally was able to write the book about what actually happened, but only after the USSR disintegrated in 1991.

Evidently Rzhevskaya was a powerhouse; what isn't mentioned in the film is that she was Jewish, a noteworthy fact because of Stalin's anti-Semitic proclivities. Given what she knew, and how Stalin wished it to be kept under wraps, it's amazing she lived to tell the tale.

I watched a documentary about this Hilter fellow's book, "My Snuggle," and I'm hoping to stay out of Facebook jail by being coy.

Another brief and informative Deutsche Welle documentary film about a book that reads like one man's account of his untreated nervous breakdown -- and yes, I did read it while studying history at IU Southeast.

It's gibberish, and that's also why it's a genius product under capitalism, because there'll always be a market for unadulterated lunacy. 

You can still buy Adolf Hitler’s credo all over the world, under the counter in some places, on the Internet or simply at the bookshop in others. But did Hitler actually write it himself? And was it really a blueprint for war and the Holocaust?

Hitler’s "Mein Kampf" was first published in 1925. The 700-page work has been translated into 18 languages, sold over 12 million copies and been revised numerous times since Hitler's death. Almost everyone knows of it, yet hardly anyone has actually read it. "Mein Kampf" is a book of paradoxes, famous yet unfamiliar - fascinating and repellant at the same time.

Munich Tales 2018: "The Beer Hall Putsch Tour."

Perhaps the ultimate expression of beer in political terms was Adolf Hitler's "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich in 1923. One needn't be a Nazi to reflect upon this marriage of large, agitation-friendly venues and takeover tactics.

The Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, also known as the Munich Putsch,and, in German, as the Hitlerputsch, Hitler-Ludendorff-Putsch, Bürgerbräu-Putsch or Marsch auf die Feldherrnhalle ("March on the Feldherrnhalle"), was a failed coup d'état by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler—along with Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff and other Kampfbund leaders—to seize power in Munich, Bavaria, on 8–9 November 1923.

To me the above video is bizarre, as when the 20-somethings cheer at the host's prompting. However, it's also a good way to view bits and pieces of Munich. It's hard imagining another major city where beer is such an integral component of everyday life that it becomes a vital facet of attempts to overthrow the government.

During the famous “Beer Hall Putsch” of November 1923, the revolutionaries used all of Munich‟s major beer halls as staging grounds. Whereas most of the putsch saga unfolded at the Bürgerbräukeller, the Löwenbräukeller on the west side of town also played a role in the events of 8-9 November 1923. Drunken storm troopers filled the beer hall on the Stieglmaierplatz awaiting their Führer’s order to “march.” Ernst Röhm, leader of the SA, interrupted the drinking to give patriotic speeches whenever the brass band took a break. By 11:00pm that evening, Storm Troopers and other right-wingers had packed into all Munich‟s beer halls, waiting for something to happen. The police knew that something was afoot. They knew about the large numbers of SA men at the Löwenbräukeller. They knew too of a “Völkische Rechtsblock” (Right-Wing Racist Block) meeting at the Hofbräuhaus. And the police knew of the meeting held by Gustav von Kahr and the Bavarian government at the Bürgerbräukeller. What the police did not realize is that most of these men were armed, and had hidden weapons and ammunition at or near these beer halls, waiting for the command to action (Gordon 1972: 314-335).

Hitler marched into the Bürgerbräukeller with his SA, but the army had not joined his revolution. Von Kahr and his ministers, unsure of the situation outside the beer hall, decided to “play along with the comedy” until they could find an opportunity to escape. Later, when Hitler left the beer hall to attend to some other business across town, the triumvirate pleaded with Ludendorff for their release. Ludendorff let them go “on their word of honor” that they would continue to support the putsch. Once free, von Kahr and company quickly called for army reinforcements to retake control of the city and suppress the putsch (Dornberg 1982: 68-90). The next day, the “Hitler putsch” ended in gunfire on the Odeonsplatz, just north of city hall. Hitler‟s political career, and the National Socialist Party looked finished ...

A worthwhile documentary: "Eva Braun: Life and Death with the Führer."

There's not much to be said about Adolf Hitler that hasn't been said before, and hundreds of thousands of times. However, Eva Braun's rare color film footage makes this Deutsche Welle documentary worth watching.

It might not be up for long, so if you're interested, watch it soon.

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Eva Braun: Life and Death with the Führer

Eva Braun was Adolf Hitler's secret mistress for more than 13 years. To this day she is viewed as a naïve, apolitical appendage to the dictator and mass murderer. This two-part documentary calls into question the image of the vapid young woman at the Führer's side. Eva Braun met Hitler in 1929 and became his lover when she was just 17 years old. During the years of their relationship, she evolved from an average middle class girl to the uncompromising partner of the mass murderer. She remained true to Hitler until death. On 30 April 1945 Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. A day earlier, the dictator had married her. But who was this 'bride of evil' really? Hitler's architect Albert Speer referred to her after the war as one of the "disappointments of history". Kept out of the public eye, she spent most of her time in Munich or at Hitler's Berghof residence in the Alps. There she lived officially as the dictator's private secretary. Historian Heike Görtemaker has tracked down and assembled the puzzle pieces of Eva Braun's life in a groundbreaking biography. Behind the assumed gaiety, the author finds a resolute woman who pursued her goals with tremendous toughness right up to her death. For this documentary, filmmaker Michael Kloft conducted detailed interviews with Görtemaker and evaluated the many private films made by Eva Braun as well as the countless photo albums she compiled.

Goebbels, Baarová and Hitler: "Those who make history do not have the right to a private life."

I'm not sure what suddenly made me think of Josef Goebbels and Lida Baarová, perhaps some sort of free association that afflicts history buffs.

The story of Goebbels' affair with Baarová is well-known, but I'm still fascinated to learn that even in 1938 it was front page news in the Chicago Tribune.

When the Czech actress Lida Baarová, who has died aged 86, first went to Berlin in 1934 and began mixing with leading Nazis, she felt as if she was in heaven. The regrets came later. Six decades on she told me of the offers to go to Hollywood, which she had turned down. If she had got out of the clutches of the Nazis, she observed, she could have been as famous as Marlene Dietrich.

Perhaps. But at the time she basked in the attention she received from Adolf Hitler's followers, particularly his propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels. She will be best remembered for the affair she had with him, which threatened his career, rather than for her acting.

Up to a point, Goebbels' incessant womanizing was of no concern to Hitler, even when involving an "inferior" Slav like Baarová. However, things changed when Goebbels threatened to become a living refutation of Nazi "family values" propaganda. Hitler was compelled to act.

A year later, Goebbels’ infatuation pushed matters to a head. While Magda Goebbels had appeared willing to accept Baarová as a mistress, one of a series of Goebbels’ actress flings, he was now asking for divorce and was apparently willing to give up his top Nazi post and leave Germany to be with his lover. He apparently suggested a post as ambassador to far away Japan.

Goebbels’ bid for a divorce and offer of resignation prompted a furious intervention from Hitler. He rejected both requests and told his minister that those who made history did not have the right to a private life. He forced Goebbels to promise he would never see Baarová again– a promise he kept. In a final telephone call Goebbels told Baarová that he loved her.

Just about everything we know about Hitler as an obsessive crackpot supports the idea that he'd feel exactly this way: "Those who make history do not have the right to a private life."

Of course, many of us would say that the private lives of public officials have nothing at all to do with politics. What did Bill and Monica have to do with the Clinton administration's ruinous tilt toward neoliberalism?

And yet it's entirely likely, as with Hitler's intervention to separate the parties involved in Goebbels' love life, that similar personnel decisions (reshufflings, appointments, terminations) with wider ramifications often are taken for petty reasons pertaining to private lives.

A boss might not be able to fire underlings having a fling, but he or she might reassign the parties to different areas of the company. And, speaking of terminations, not every divorced couple can continue working near each other.

Isn't Fleetwood Mac the exception that proves the rule?

Now we happily return to our regular Goebbels programming, though not before we ask:

What would have happened in WWII if Goebbels would have been with Baarová in Japan?

That's right; I was wrong. Goebbels got his ideas for propaganda from American advertising, not the other way around.

It can't happen here: A timely documentary film about Nazi "propaganda mastermind" Joseph Goebbels.

So, you think you've heard it all about Nazi Germany? Welcome to the "untold story of the Third Reich’s relationship with drugs."

More placid Sunday reading.

High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history, by Rachel Cooke (The Guardian)

.. The book in question is The Total Rush – or, to use its superior English title, Blitzed – which reveals the astonishing and hitherto largely untold story of the Third Reich’s relationship with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, morphine and, above all, methamphetamines (aka crystal meth), and of their effect not only on Hitler’s final days – the Führer, by Ohler’s account, was an absolute junkie with ruined veins by the time he retreated to the last of his bunkers – but on the Wehrmacht’s successful invasion of France in 1940. Published in Germany last year, where it became a bestseller, it has since been translated into 18 languages, a fact that delights Ohler, but also amazes him.

No conscience for football players? As Colin Kaepernick is savaged, let's not forget August Landmesser.

"If you can't stand for the national anthem, get your sorry ass out of this country."
-- Courageous Facebook Lodger

Conscience is a tough concept, isn't it? We're for it, until we aren't. It's absolutely vital to safeguard OUR right to the exercise of conscience, but yours?

Of course -- so long as we agree with each other.

I've seen the photo above many times, and back in 2014, I finally decided to see if there's a story.

There is. The significance to me is that while the circumstances in this instance are ones about which we've long since reached general agreement (Nazism, Hitler, the Holocaust), it is not banal to suggest that non-conformists of many sorts in our own purportedly "free" country can imagine themselves in Landmesser's shoes.

As an atheist, permit me to inform you that it happens all the time. In my reckoning, any time it's the occasion for all of us to perform the same rote act (pray publicly, declare allegiance to the flag) at once, it's time to consider dissenting.

Speaking for myself, I'll always stand for the national anthem and pledge of allegiance in honor of my father, a World War II veteran of the Marines. But I will not recite the pledge of allegiance aloud, because "under God" has no place in it.

August Landmesser, The Man Behind The Crossed Arms (All That Is Interesting)

 ... There is no telling how many men in that crowd were acting out of fear, fully aware that failing to salute the Fuhrer was akin to signing his own death certificate. Knowing that it was, in fact, Hitler standing before the crowd makes the disobedience all the more admirable, but what may seem like an act of justified transgression was at its core a gesture of love. August Landmesser, the man with his arms crossed, was married to a Jewish woman.

Welcome to a masterpiece of satire: "Hitler Hears Bernie Sanders Won't Stand Down."

Thanks, RC. But I still like this one best.

The man behind the crossed arms.

I've seen this photo for a very long time, and finally decided to see if there's a story. There is. The significance to me is that while the circumstances in this instance are ones about which we've long since reached agreement (Nazism, Hitler, the Holocaust), it is not banal to suggest that non-conformists of many sorts in our own purportedly "free" country can imagine themselves in Landmesser's shoes. Any time it's the occasion for all of us to perform the same act (pray publicly, declare allegiance to the flag) at once, it's time to consider dissenting.

August Landmesser, The Man Behind The Crossed Arms, (All That Is Interesting)

The photo above has floated around the internet for a few years now, popular for one of its subjects’ subtle yet profound acts of nonconformity. There is no telling how many men in that crowd were acting out of fear, fully aware that failing to salute the Fuhrer was akin to signing his own death certificate. Knowing that it was, in fact, Hitler standing before the crowd makes the disobedience all the more admirable, but what may seem like an act of justified transgression was at its core a gesture of love. August Landmesser, the man with his arms crossed, was married to a Jewish woman.

Hitler, Oasis and Noel's thoughts on aging.

It's old, but it's good. Hitler's Reaction to the Oasis Split (Downfall parody) is one of ten Oasis facts at The Observer, including Noel Gallagher's thought on aging:

"I don’t stay up for two or three days on end, fuckin’ talking shit about aliens, but I’m becoming more of a belligerent old man, you know what I mean? It’s the usual. When you get to a certain age you find that other people’s opinions don’t really matter anymore, and you get kind of uncomfortable with your place in modern life."

Noel's right about that. Oasis is defunct, and will not perform at Boomtown Ball. Too bad; I could use me some "Cigarettes and Alcohol" right about now.

The internet guide to Oasis

Fisticuffs, swearing, brilliant put-downs and some decent tunes – the brothers Gallagher are a gift to the social media age. Introducing the top 10 Oasis facts we can learn online...

The Hitler home movies: The "banality of evil."

Almost seven decades after Adolf Hitler perished, his story still fascinates and repulses. The story of how Lutz Becker found Eva Braun's home movies follows.

The Hitler home movies: how Eva Braun documented the dictator's private life, at The Guardian

Eva Braun was the most intimate chronicler of the Nazi regime, capturing Hitler's private life with her cine-camera. But it was only the obsession of artist Lutz Becker that brought her films to light. Robert McCrum and Taylor Downing uncover the story of the footage that shocked the world

Lutz Becker was born in Berlin, he says, "during the anno diabolo, 1941. Mine was the generation that was sent into a dark pit." Meeting this survivor of the Third Reich, now in his 70s and living in Bayswater, London, it's hard to suppress the thought that Becker, a distinguished artist and film historian, has conducted most of his life in a circle of hell.

Becker's childhood passed in the fetid, terrifying atmosphere of Berlin's air-raid shelters as the Allied raids intensified and the city was reduced to burning rubble ...

And let me tell you, he's plenty mad.