unguided tour

Rome, December 1976. Herbert Kappler, 70, SS colonel and chief of the Gestapo in Nazi occupied Italy, convicted war criminal diagnosed with terminal cancer is serving his sentence to lifetime imprisonment at Rome’s Celio Military Hospital where he will mostly likely die. The German government has repeatedly appealed for Kappler’s release on humanitarian grounds but so far Italy has rejected German demands. (more…)

Last night at MoMA, after a screening of “Das Reichsorchester,” a documentary about the role of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra during the Nazi era by German filmmaker Enrique Sánchez Lansch. He has come all the way from Berlin to take questions from the audience.

“Is this film meant as an apology?” an elderly lady wants to know. (more…)

follow-up on my post from January 23, 2010

While 90-year-old John (Ivan) Demjanjuk was flown in from the U.S. to face trial in Munich, 95-year-old Erich Steidtman, another Nazi war criminal, lives in the German town of Hannover — unchallenged and undisturbed. (more…)

The role of his life! A ghost, somewhere between dream and waking. A corpse, frozen into speechlessness.  The trial against John Demjanjuk exhibits for the world to see what has been daily routine in most German families since the end of World War II: silence. (more…)

This photograph of John (Iwan) Demjanjuk being wheeled into a German courtroom in Munich reminds me of my grandfather shortly before he died: an old man, ill and barely conscious; an old Nazi who lived a full life, had children, grandchildren, a nice house in the suburbs; a perpetrator who saw himself as victim; a typical “Mitläufer” who for fear of his and his family’s life joined the NSDAP,  avoided resistance,  hung a photograph of Hitler in his living room, and somehow forgot to take it down when the Nazis no longer officially ruled Germany — that’s how I remember my grandfather. (more…)

Charges have been dropped against German artist Ottmar Hörl accused of displaying Nazi symbols in public. Authorities were not amused by his installation of an array of silver and golden garden gnomes, their right arms raised in Hitler salute. (more…)

Many things are verboten in Germany. For example, publicly displaying symbols of Nazi organizations. The latest case of violation of this law has been reported from Nuremberg where a golden garden gnome performing the Heil Hitler salute was exhibited in the window of an art gallery. The gnome was created by German artist Ottmar Hörl who is now under investigation from the office of the public prosecutor. It’s art, Hörl defends himself. It’s verboten, the representatives of the law insist. (more…)

The prefix neo signifies “a new, revived or modified form of some doctrine, belief, practice, language, artistic style or designating those who advocate, adopt or use it.” (OED)
A neo-Nazi is thus someone who supports the revival and modification of Nazism or Nazi ideological principles, or propagates a modified form of Nazism. But did Nazism ever disappear? And how are neo-Nazis different from Nazis? (more…)