NY Observer > Adolf Hitler http://www.observer.com/taxonomy/term/24851/feed Articles from Observer.com en Why Didn't the Nazis High Five? http://www.observer.com/2008/why-didn-t-nazis-high-five

THE HITLER SALUTE: ON THE MEANING OF A GESTURE
By Tilman Allert
Metropolitan, 106 pages, $20

What if the Nazis had greeted each other with high fives instead of that stiff-armed, sharp-handed salute? What if Germans had been allowed to say hello to one another by name instead of invoking their Führer?

Tilman Allert’s The Hitler Salute, a joyously sharp account of a massively evil slice of human history, doesn’t treat the Nazis’ obligatory two-word, one-arm greeting as a product of evil, but as its enabler. He argues, movingly, that the salute wounded Germans’ sociability, connectedness and personal sovereignty, warping the holy human order.

A nation that’s forced to adopt inhuman gestures, in other words, is fated to oblige inhuman horrors: First hellos disappear, then morality.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/why-didn-t-nazis-high-five#comments Arts & Culture Adolf Hitler Nazis Third Reich Tilman Allert Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:02:39 -0400 Max Abelson 67238 at http://www.observer.com Wiesel’s Near-Abduction by Holocaust Deniers Weirdly Uncovered http://www.observer.com/node/36768 I think I may have missed something important in my initial take on the assault and attempted kidnap  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/36768#comments Arts & Culture Adolf Hitler George Romney Henry Ford Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:00:00 -0500 Ron Rosenbaum 36768 at http://www.observer.com Satan, Meet Norman http://www.observer.com/2007/satan-meet-norman The Castle in the Forest, by Norman Mailer. Random House, 477 pages, $27.95.    read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/2007/satan-meet-norman#comments Arts & Culture Adolf Hitler Asher Crispe Europe Norman Mailer Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500 Philip Weiss 36583 at http://www.observer.com My Assimilationist Christmas: 'This Too Survived Hitler' http://www.observer.com/node/33621 I spent Christmas Eve at two parties in LA hosted by Jews—friends of my gentile brother-in-law. Didn't plan it that way; just worked out that way.

The first party was all film industry. I asked the host's daughter about being Jewish and having a Christmas party and she laughed and said, "Yeah. Basically we do whatever's fun. Like we had an Easter egg roll." I liked her attitude. California. No baggage.

The next party was more interesting because there was a Holocaust survivor there. He grew up in a wealthy German family, then spent years in Theresienstadt. After the war, stateless, he said No to Palestine and came here. In the last few years he has been able to recover some of the family's actual property. The survivor's wife took me in the kitchen and showed me some china they had finally gotten back. "This too survived Hitler," she said, touching the beautiful Deco-styled plates.

It felt like a west coast dream. Attitudes are different out there, people are more open to new ideas. At New York parties, I get in fights about Jewishness. Not in L.A.

I sat with the wife for a while at dinner and talked about my issues. She explained that she was firmly secular. Religion is a negative force in society. Jewish identity was important to her, but worship was no real part of her children's lives, and she'd never tried to separate them from kids of other creeds. She was a little regretful about intermarriage but it wasn't like she could have stopped it. Hey, it's America. The Holocaust was not something they talked that much about. When I asked her about Israel, she said, "Israel is important." When I asked her to elaborate, she repeated that statement.

I went in to get Christmas cake and passed a pretty towheaded girl singing, "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel." It felt surreal to me.

One of the claims of Jewish parochialists is that Where Hitler failed, intermarriage is succeeding: eliminating the Jewish people. It may be an incorrect statement (the latest Forward reports that Jewish #s in the U.S. are up to between 6-7 million). But right or wrong on the #s, it's ugly. It's guilting Americans who are making free and wide cultural choices, saying they're betraying their people. And the answer of the Michael Steinhardts and Elliott Abrams is, Segregating youth. Segregating privileged youth, at that. Think of the little blonde girls who won't get to sing the dreidel song.]]> http://www.observer.com/node/33621#comments Adolf Hitler California Israel Los Angeles Wed, 27 Dec 2006 11:07:54 -0500 Observer Staff 33621 at http://www.observer.com Queen of the Muckrakers— And Champion Letter-Writer http://www.observer.com/node/36336 I remember an occasion in San Francisco, years ago, when the writer Tillie Olsen invited other women  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/36336#comments Arts & Culture Adolf Hitler Hillary Clinton Jessica Mitford Oakland Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500 Diane Johnson 36336 at http://www.observer.com Floored by Emo Flu, My Languor Soothed by Noir Guy Kerr http://www.observer.com/node/52849 I credit the “emo flu.” If I hadn’t been stricken by this strange affliction going around, I w  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/52849#comments Adolf Hitler Bernie Gunther Philip Kerr Philip Kerrs Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:00:00 -0500 Ron Rosenbaum 52849 at http://www.observer.com My (Docile) Generation http://www.observer.com/node/34910
moon11.jpg
Keith Moon.
When the late Keith Moon wasn't jokingly parading around in Hitler regalia, he could probably be found trashing one of the many hotels The Who stayed at. This weekend, The Times "Travel" section takes a look at the hard-living Moon--who "once nailed his room furniture to the ceiling"--along with members of Led Zeppelin, The Faces and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

So what are younger rock bands up to these days? Well, they're not exactly riding motorcycles through the Chateau Marmont.

When the Canadian band Metric opened for the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden earlier this year they stayed not at the Chelsea, but at the Hotel on Rivington, a sleek tower of glass on the Lower East Side, where rooms are $400 a night.

And touring with the Rolling Stones (of all bands) must have led to some wild nights. Or not.

The modern rock star appears to be more docile than his television-hurling predecessors. According to Mr. Mesh, the tour manager, the most asked-for hotel features are high-speed Internet and a workout room. "Fifteen years ago, having a hotel bar was very important," he said. "But it's changed. Fifteen years ago everybody was partying."

And for Southland, a rock band from L.A., partying comes with life on the road. But so does trying to get a bargain.

"Our new move is Priceline.com," said Jed Whedon, the band's singer. "We can stay in four-star hotels and we get really cheap deals."

Things they do look awful cold.

- Michael Calderone]]> http://www.observer.com/node/34910#comments Real Estate Adolf Hitler Chateau Marmont Hotel Keith Moon The Rolling Stones Mon, 10 Jul 2006 05:15:00 -0400 Observer Staff 34910 at http://www.observer.com For a Guilty Nation, Docu-Satire My Bad Profoundly Scorches http://www.observer.com/node/38886 Could it be that the public apology has become the iconic new literary art form of our times?  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/38886#comments Adolf Hitler Paul Slansky Richard Nixon Sun, 21 May 2006 20:00:00 -0400 Ron Rosenbaum 38886 at http://www.observer.com Three Worlds, One Book: Rieff Tries to Explain It All http://www.observer.com/node/38605 The form in which we most often encounter sociology is David Brooks or Malcolm Gladwell, taking us o  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/38605#comments Adolf Hitler Pablo Picasso Philip Rieff Sigmund Freud Sun, 26 Mar 2006 19:00:00 -0500 Richard Brookhiser 38605 at http://www.observer.com Precise Moral Judgments Blurred by War's Messiness http://www.observer.com/node/51981 In some contexts, the good, decent humanist approach seems more callous than sheer bloody-mindedness  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/51981#comments Arts & Culture A.C. Grayling Adolf Hitler Dresden Hiroshima Sun, 19 Mar 2006 19:00:00 -0500 Charles Taylor 51981 at http://www.observer.com