WWII question

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

William L. Shirer calls the Nazis 'armed intellectuals'.

Pete

They rounded up and killed intellectuals, Pete.

[piece-itpete]

That disagreed with them! Of course they did that to anyone.

Interesting Bob. Not too surprising though. Try one of his books on them though, he's pretty good.

Pete

[nailer]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

William L. Shirer calls the Nazis 'armed intellectuals'.

Pete

He also referred to them as gangsters.

[nailer]

Originally Posted by finnbow

They rounded up and killed intellectuals, Pete.

In Good, Viggo Mortensen plays an intellectual who became a Nazi.

[piece-itpete]

I can think of many appropriate things to call them, for sure.

Pete

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

That disagreed with them! Of course they did that to anyone.

Interesting Bob. Not too surprising though. Try one of his books on them though, he's pretty good.

Pete

I read 'The Rise and Fall..." decades ago. No argument that he's a good writer bro. His "I went from bad to Hearst' quote had me chuckling. Fuckin' Hearst was a despicable sumbitch, so much so that when we drove past his castle
on the California coast recently, I had to give him the obligatory 'one finger salute'.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

That disagreed with them! Of course they did that to anyone.

They focused on exterminating minorities, gays and intellectuals. I guess the target of the Far Right's animus hasn't changed much in the past 75 years.

[piece-itpete]

Well that escalated quickly

And a rare mistake on my part It WASN"T Shirer, it was Konrad Heiden. Feel free to beat me brutally. As I have only read one of his books it MUST be at least mentioned in: 'Der Führer – Hitler's Rise to Power'.

But he said it elsewhere apparently, here's a quote: "... thousands of youthful, ex-Army officers were streaming back from defeat to poverty and unemployment in the Weimar Republic. They were "armed intellectuals," war-hardened products of Germany's prewar universities. They became an army of the armed bohemians, of heroes and murderers by conviction. ..."

http://harpercrusade.blogspot.com/20...ued-armed.html

Pete

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by nailer

In Good, Viggo Mortensen plays an intellectual who became a Nazi.

I would say that Mortensen plays an intellectual who was targeted and co-opted by the Nazis. They gave him rank and privileges in return for his help with the pretense that Nazism had intellectual support.

It's an illustration of the lengths the Nazis went to, and their success at, corrupting German society in general. In general, evil people feel the very existence of good people to be a rebuke, and they try to make them evil too. They then can sooth themselves with the thought that those who think themselves morally superior actually are not.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Well that escalated quickly

And a rare mistake on my part It WASN"T Shirer, it was Konrad Heiden. Feel free to beat me brutally. As I have only read one of his books it MUST be at least mentioned in: 'Der Führer – Hitler's Rise to Power'.

But he said it elsewhere apparently, here's a quote: "... thousands of youthful, ex-Army officers were streaming back from defeat to poverty and unemployment in the Weimar Republic. They were "armed intellectuals," war-hardened products of Germany's prewar universities. They became an army of the armed bohemians, of heroes and murderers by conviction. ..."

http://harpercrusade.blogspot.com/20...ued-armed.html

Pete

Sounds like a description of some members of the 'freikorps' militia-type units that were active immediately after WWI. They provided models for the SA. Some we rightwing, some were leftwing. None were Nazi, as the nazis didn't exist yet.