The Meaning of Hitler Movie Review

What is this title all about? Just what are filmmakers Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker saying they believe it takes to be a fascist, the Hitler, of this generation?
What they seem to be driving at is the fact that Hitler was just a man. Nazis were and are human. This being the case, what happened then, can and might happen again if we’re not careful. All it takes is someone who has the magnetism with a crowd that Adolph Hitler had… and a microphone to amplify his message to his adoring fans. Not to mention he’d need the inclination and ability to be a monster. When these things are in place, you can spread hate and division everywhere, which then blazes like a wildfire out of control.

Several people interviewed here mention that the forty-fifth president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, had shown some of the same attributes it takes to be a fascist. They still worry about what the future brings, in fact. Novelist Martin Amis (The Zone of Interest), who adds a lot to this film, comes out and says straight to the interviewer, referring to Hitler, “You may as well get onto his similarities with Trump.” 

The directors interview historians, professors, and psychiatrists who seem to be warning us that they’re seeing the rise of white nationalists across the globe. One offers that what happened in the past becoming our present as a genuine possibility. This is because the younger generation has never dealt with any significant war that has affected them directly. Nor have they witnessed the atrocities of a demagogue, though they could because everyone ignores the warning signs of them growing about them.

Nationalists are searching for enemies. Martin Sellner, an Austrian Identarian, says that what he and his group sees happening is “The Great Replacement.” They believe that within just a few years, immigrants will take over every western European nation. This is what they fear, and this is what they intend to stop. It’s through this type of thinking, paired with a passionate, dictatorial type orator, that we get something as brutal as the Holocaust. Well, the fact that no one steps up to rein it in is also key for an autocrat on the rise.

The film educates us on the well-known Holocaust denier David Irving, as well, in case we didn’t know such a man truly existed. He has said some awful things, which you’ll hear in the documentary.

He tries to sell people on the idea that Heinrich Himmler was responsible for the Holocaust and acted behind Hitler’s back. Of Jews, he says they inflate the numbers and says forget about Auschwitz because it’s unimportant.

How could 1.1 million people being murdered there be unimportant… and forgotten? It can’t be, and this is why the film was made and why everyone needs to view it.

Historian Deborah Lipstadt warns us of why social media and people like Irving are bad for the world. Even Mark Zuckerberg (co-founder and CEO of Facebook), who allows people to lie on his platform about what happened under Hitler, distorts the facts, and attempts to create a new reality. When this happens, who Hitler was and what people like him are capable of stops being feared. This is very dangerous. Hollywood plays a role in softening his image, as well. Why is it that Hitler’s death is never shown when what happened to his victims is always on full display? He’s portrayed only as an influential, decisive leader. This begins to normalize his behavior, where some have started to find it appealing.   

Historian Saul Friedlander suggests that they end their film at the Sobibór extermination camp, located in the forest of German-occupied Poland. It’s called an extermination camp instead of a concentration camp because its only purpose was to kill Jews. If you didn’t die on the train while you waited to be taken inside, you were gassed soon after being taken in. They know the number of people who died there is astronomical, but there could be more, so they still dig for evidence. The reason for this is because everything that happened there was destroyed. There are no photographs and no film. Speaking to the S.S. in 1943, Himmler said of the killings at Sobibór, “This is the page never to be written.” He wanted the atrocities performed there to be kept a secret. This is why they continue to search for more proof of what went on at the camp. Friedlander designates it as the “Unknowable Spot.”

At the end of the film, we see and hear people playing Neo-Nazi games online that feature Adolf Hitler. Those who participate in them love the attention his likeness affords them. However, at the same time, the shifting of Hitler’s character pays off for people who want to radicalize the masses. 

For an example of that, we see a girl, who marched at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, actually say about the past (as if it’s acceptable), “History isn’t pretty sometimes. People get slaughtered and killed.” People playing, sharing, and spreading discord, inaccuracy and suspicion are precisely what an autocrat needs to move ahead.

You won’t be surprised to see the film add some comments from our one-term president, Trump before it’s over. That said, I wish they had gotten into that even more instead of only hinting at it in passing.  Thankfully those interviewed make it clear who they thought Trump echoed in case anyone missed that point.