The Meaning of Hitler

Assortment of Hitler -Nazi themed, but otherwise unrelated people, events, stories, etc. Absolutely no central theme, no chronology and limited context. Apologies to many well spoken experts possibly unaware editors were third-graders. The title is as obscure as it is misleading. At best the film portrays contemporary neo-nazis and right-leaning groups. What is the meaning of "The meaning of Hitler"?

Only two countries vote against UN resolution condemning Nazism and that was in November 2021. Can you guess who ? Well, on United Nation web page you'll find your answer and expose the hypocrisy. Hint:....... nah is to easy.

This was a rather lame attempt to vilify Adolf Hitler and his personality. A documentary should at least make a cursory attempt to present both sides of the coin. Instead we get a hodgepodge of Hitler haters and ill-equipped pseudo historical speculators. The non-credential talking heads they used to justify the points they unconvincingly spewed out discredited the documentaries dubious message.

Anyone with any actual historical knowledge of the title character gets mocked and libelled. There was nothing mentioned about how Hitler became so enormously popular among the German people; nor any mention of his many accomplishments. Since his time frame in history is mainly focused around the Second World War, perhaps something should have been mentioned about the numerous battles his military engaged in; both successful and unsuccessful.

It should also be noted that no one has yet to lay claim to the cash award offered by the British historian David Irving.

When this documentary stuck to the subject at hand - Hitler- it was actually pretty good and interesting. I liked how they self-recognized that there is documentary after documentary on the subject of Hitler, and here they are...making a documentary about Hitler!

Unfortunately, they often strayed from this focus, and went into a hard left rant on the current state of the world, which I found unnecessary, and quite frankly, not always appropriate. France wins the World Cup, the French are celebrating in the streets, and I'm supposed to be concerned that this is a dangerous example of nationalism?

But the most absurd part was weaving Donald Trump into this documentary. It is a tired device, and shows how unhinged the filmmakers must be. Can't I watch something nowadays without someone dragging Trump into it? To use the current cliche, Donald Trump must be living rent-free inside the filmmakers' heads. If you want to make a documentary comparing Donald Trump to Hitler, by all means, do so. Just be upfront about it. Don't try to bait-and-switch us.

"The Meaning of Hitler" tries to do a lot of things. It broadly succeeds in some of them. But what was this documentary actually trying to do?

Well, let's first look at what it does succeed with:

It draws our attention to the fact that Hitler was initially just a regular guy. However, Hitler was very unusual for the fact that he had no friends, no family, had no children, was socially "outside". These would seem to be the symptoms, not causes, of his delusional megalomaniac rise. Also apparent through the documentary, is the observation that Nazism and its monstrous crimes are things that really happened because humans are capable of it.

Where "The Meaning of Hitler" loses its message a little is (perhaps) in looking at the recent return of the hard-right ultra-nationalist movements. These dangerous developments should give us cause for concern that the lessons of history have not been learned. Today's younger generations know nothing of war. We need to work to make sure they never do.

"The Meaning...." deals summarily, severely and correctly with anti-Semitic Holocaust deniers.

Overall, this documentary does succeed in pointing out and attempting to rectify and remove the strangely attractive characterisations that Hitler has been given in some parts of modern culture. We must learn the lessons of history and not repeat the mistakes. A little incoherent, but necessary watching.