Pictures From Hitler's Germany

[Ron61]

Many oif these you have already seen but some haven't been out long. There are about 100 of them and it takes a little time for the site to load them all.

http://2photo.ru/2008/12/26/print:pa...ii_life_c.html

Ron

[joyridin']

Those are just amazing.

[Silverback51]

Thanks for posting the link Ron.

Some interesting pictures in there. It amazes me how he could hold 10's of thousands of people spell bound at public appearences. If only he had channelled that ability to the side of goodness.

[Dan40]

No excuse for the monster Hitler was. I have no German blood anywhere in my family but you have to understand the situation in Germany when Hitler came to power. Inflation was in triple figures on an almost DAILY basis. Unemployment was out of sight, high in the double digits. There literally was no food! The Government was in turmoil. In the 90 days prior to Hitler's election, 45 German Governments had come and gone. Some not lasting a morning or afternoon!! It was chaos with anyone jumping on a soapbox and claiming he could fix things being put in charge. Then thrown out when they showed they had no plan. Hitler had a plan and an organization and a scapegoat, the Jews! Immediately they violated international restrictions on Germany and improved things a bit. The world ignored Germany and Hitler because then, AS NOW, the great depression was worldwide. All had their own fish to fry and had no time for a chaotic Germany.
His timing was historically perfect.
He built a Navy, against the Treaty of Versailles.
He built an army, against the Treaty,
He built an Air Force, against the Treaty,
But the WORLD had its own problems to contend with.
Hitler built the German infrastructure [sound familiar] and people had jobs and money. And they did not care how he did it. Sound more familiar?

[427sharpe]

I find the color pics of the Nuremberg rallies the most thought provoking. When I was stationed over there I visited a lot of Nazi sites, including the stadium. It seemed odd that a lot of the Nazi history is still there, especially in the buildings. A lot of Nazi office buildings were just reused, and the swastika markings pop up every now and then. The Germans are beginning to open the history a little and conduct tours of the sites (the Chancellery bunker where AH killed himself is a parking lot now). When I was there the first time, there was a small museum at the stadium...but VERY hard to find. Unpublicized and way off in a corner. If you asked people 'of a certain age' where anything Nazi-related was, you got a glare...if you were lucky. Now, groups are trying to find Himmler's grave. Himmler's daughter carries on the evil, and she is very involved in the Neo-Nazi movement. Don't know about Goerings daughters but wouldn't surprise me to see them in it as well. Rommel's only son was Mayor of Stutgart for a time, ans a passionate voice against the skinheads.

[twobjshelbys]

Thanks. May the world never forget.

Please remember that as we lose WWII vets daily ( more every day, the 1000/day reported in the press is probably very understated ) we also lose the same proportional number of survivors of the Holocaust.

[Ron61]

427,

I used to have some pictures of the inside of the Bunker but I think my parents gave them away. I did see the TV show where they opened it up for the last time to look for something and then sealed it and made the parking lot over it. And yes, for those wondering I do have German blood in me. I don't know the whole family tree, but there were rumors that a couple of my very distant ancestors were in the SS. That is just rumor though and my Father was shot in Cologne during the war. And as you said, there are more of the Hitler built things around than most of the world knows about. Did you see the underground Capital that he was building. It is huge and is almost as big as the above ground Berlin is today.

Ron

[427sharpe]

Adolf certainly tried to keep Speer busy! Had big plans for Berlin via 'Germania'' I guess he thought all that allied bombing was doing him a favor.
A curiosity; Hitler's nephew moved to US before WWII (after extorting Hitler one too many times) and served in the US Navy during the war. His kids (3 boys) were born and raised in New Jersey (how's THAT for punishment ) and 2 are still alive (one died in car wreck). Talk about a bent family tree!?!?
I attended a seminar in Dallas a few years ago about hate crimes, and one of the guest speakers was Silke Heydrich....Reinhard's daughter. She lives (lived?) in Louisiana at the time (pre-Katrina) she was very insightful about 'carrying the pain' and related how many of the Nazi kindern have gone out of their way to atone for their parents. Bormann's son became a priest, and one of his daughters converted to Judaism and lives in Israel. It would be a terrible thing to carry that kind of baggage for life.

[Cobrabill]

2 pics stand out for me.The one of "Fatso" with that "is someone gonna shoot me"look on his face.And the one of that slimebag Chamberlain.

[bomelia]

Those are some of the most amazing pictures. The photog (Life?) really knew what they were doing. You just do not see that level of photography much anymore. Today, motion in the pic would be considered annoying. But it brings them alive! The Volkswagon beetles looked like they have never changed.

It was also quite scary. I dunno why. Just was.

Thanks Ron,

Mike

[acindrich]

I was just in Nurnberg (sp?) two weeks ago. It was chilling to see Hitler in Markt Platz and to recognize it today. I saw a picture while there in a museum of Hitler and recognized a fountain in the background that now is steps away from the McDonalds I had lunch at that afternoon. It was chilling to think he saw the same sky above him I saw. And we went to the Zepplin field. That too was stunning to see in real life and to re-see it in those pictures but in its historical context. Today the Zepplin field is the starting grid for a racetrack, that was a bit odd to me. The museum there in his unfinished "conference center" is absolutely fascinating. It describes the conditions in Germany at the time of his rise and how he was attracted to Nurnberg and how Nurnberg was attracted to him. I've seen 4 concentration camps and have seen the Jewish side of existance and death from Nazi Germany. My visit to Nurnberg was an astounding look at the German side of it. It really is tragic to think of what one people did to another. I go to these places to "feel" the history that is there and to learn from it. If you ever get the chance go and see some of these things. See the D-day beaches and Pont du Hoc in Normandy, see Buckenwald or Mathausen or Dachau, See the remains of the Berlin wall. That stuff changes you.

[Dan40]

I have been to Dachau. It is probably the least notorious of all the concentration camps. Yet just walking through the open gate, the AIR CHANGES. 1 foot inside the gate there is a feeling of,,,oppression?,, something. And I do not believe in ghosts or the occult or any of that mumbo jumbo, but something IS there. I was there a couple of years later with some friends that wanted to see it. I took them to the gate. And said, "I'll be in that little beer garden across the road when you are done!", "I'm not going back in there, ever!"

[HI Cobra]

Dan40 - I hear you - I have been to Auschwitz and there is no mistaking the
smell that still remains in the ovens. Like you said, there is a presence there
when you enter. The day I visited was fitting: grey and drizzling.
For those that try to say it is a hoax - they are in total denial.

[twobjshelbys]

A dark time in human history.

The Twilight Zone episode, Death's Head - Revisited, disturbs me. Still.

http://tzone.the-croc.com/tzeplist/deaths-head.html