Hitler’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ turn up in a dead Russian soldier’s attic

[Ikutiera]

Adolf Hitler, the most notorious champion of Richard Wagner and “racially pure” German music, banished Jewish and Russian musicians from the concert halls of the Third Reich — but apparently listened secretly to their work.

New light has been shed on the Nazi leader’s musical tastes by the discovery of what are said to be a hundred of his gramophone records found in the attic of a former Soviet intelligence officer, Lev Besymenski.


“There were classical recordings, performed by the best orchestras of Europe and Germany with the best soloists of the age,” Mr Besymenski said in a document explaining how the records came into his possession.


Source

[Errigal]

Hitler was a complex guy.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Errigal

Hitler was a complex guy.

It's pity that at least Eva didn't survive, she could have told us much more.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Plethon

It's pity that at least Eva didn't survive, she could have told us much more.

I would say there were quite a few people who survived the war to give their account of Hitler. In any case these lowbrow articles have nothing to do with finding the truth; they are just softcore Hitler-fetish pornography.

Even so, two of the comments from readers are worth repeating:

Hitler never considered the Russians 'subhuman' as a whole. This vicious language was used as propaganda to motivate German soldiers to be more hateful and aggressive towards the Communist giant. Hitler's view was that the Russians were basically Aryans, but racially 'contaminated' by Mongol invasions. Russian intellectuals like Tchaikovsky were considered by Hitler to be part of the 'pure Aryan' racial aristocracy in Russia. Hitler even recognised talent in Jews, and had strongly praised Mahler's conducting of Wagner operas when he lived in Vienna.


Mark La Vardera, Reading, Berkshire

Hardly surprising:
1. The Nazis - with Hitler's full knowledge - assisted with the departure to Palestine of between 10-20,000 German Jews - whose money in German was converted into goods which were sent to Palestine. Approximately $20 million (in 1930's value) was moved from Germany to Israel which assisted in the construction of some factories etc. This departure of the Jews was in large measure stopped by the British who stopped all immigration to Palestine in 1938 - nevertheless apparently continued up until 1940. Therefore Hitler would have been perfectly aware that Huberman had created the orchestra. It is well known that most Jews did not want to leave either Germany or Poland for the wilds of Palestine where they would be lodged in tents. They refused the offers of the Nazis to resettle elsewhere. They paid the price as is well known.

George, Paris

The readers also noticed the Times article repeatedly mis-spelt the German word for "leader". We really do live in an Idiocracy.

[I-Bleed-Russian]

20th Century history is a massive array of information in itself.

The Nazis used propaganda to take hold of the people and promote their causes.

However most of the elite Nazis didn't actually believe the bullshit they were preaching, Hitler never actually believed the Jews were responsible for all the troubles of the German people, some but never the entity.

You kidding me? Sure a lot of the lower ranking Nazis may have bought in but it was a ploy, nothing more.

The Nazis like many dictatorships before used scape goats to turn heads another way from more disturbing issues at hand.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by I-Bleed-Russian

20th Century history is a massive array of information in itself.

The Nazis used propaganda to take hold of the people and promote their causes.

However most of the elite Nazis didn't actually believe the bullshit they were preaching, Hitler never actually believed the Jews were responsible for all the troubles of the German people, some but never the entity.

You kidding me? Sure a lot of the lower ranking Nazis may have bought in but it was a ploy, nothing more.

The Nazis like many dictatorships before used scape goats to turn heads another way from more disturbing issues at hand.

This is a typical communist intellectual battlehorse.

Hitler's germany was peaceful and his economic miracle quickly brought germany out of the quagmire of the socialist Weimar Republic's nightmare economics, all dominated by anglo - french - US rapacious policy of pillaging Germany's economic resources.

The victorious Allies (with the noble exception of my country, it must be said) procedeed to ransack Germany much in the way it was done to your country under Yeltsin, or worst.

Hitler put an end to this and this remains its greatest merit, which must be distinguished from his later disgraced stalinist policy towards that peoples of Europe he wanted to subjugate.

[I-Bleed-Russian]

Yeah I am neautral when it comes to Nazis, I just look at the facts, trying to find solid fact, not bias, reason why I don't touch U.S. textbooks lol.