It had to come. Following the spate of books, magazine articles and films seeking to portray Hitler in a “new light,” three young residents of Hamburg, reportedly helped by about 60 other people including “prominent musicians,” are bringing out a double LP album portraying “Der Fuehrer” as a rock opera star. The album will be released by a Cologne record company in September and U.S. and British companies are reportedly fighting to gain sole publication rights.
According to one of the producers, “We produced the opera mainly for the British and American markets, and used mainly Anglo-Saxon literature which treats Hitler as an occult phenomenon.” The venture is bound to intensify the debate going on in Germany on whether the current Hitler revival is beneficial or dangerous, especially for a largely-ignorant younger generation.
A study published yesterday by the influential weekly magazine, “Spiegel,” analyzed essays on Hitler by over 3000 high school students and found a “marked repetition of ignorance, incomplete or false knowledge (attempts to) excuse or approve (of Hitler’s actions) and a minimum of accurate knowledge or evaluation.”
Among the beliefs which emerged from the essays were: “I believe he was born in 1819”; “Adolf Hitler was an Italian”; “He labeled those who opposed him as Nazis, and sent the Nazis to the gas chambers”; “He allowed over 50,000 Jews to be murdered”; and, “He was responsible for the murder of about six million Jews and other political opponents.”
The liberal Socialist daily, “Frankfurter Rundschau,” said that in view of the Spiegel’s findings the producers of the rock opera laid themselves open to charges of irresponsibility. “They treat the Third Reich and its consequences as the product of an abortive spiritualist meeting.”
The first song, for example, describes a meeting between Hitler, Goebbels and Satan. The “evil spirit” takes possession of Hitler’s body and soul. Hitler no longer has a will of his own and sings: “I have received your message, Lord.” Other songs are titled “Magic Man, “King of the World,” and “Nightmare.”
The Rundschau report says the producers cannot be accused of concealing the crimes of the Hitler era since concentration camps, persecution of non-conformists, the burning of books and the war itself as exemplified by Stalingrad are all mentioned. “But these are all shrouded in a mysticism, which instead of enlightening people, may produce confusion and ignorance.” Noting that the text of the songs is similar to that of a successful recent musical about Eva Peron and the English rock opera “Tommy,” it concludes that the authors of the new work wanted to “jump on the bandwagon.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
