Is Humanising Hitler Problematic?

The history of Hitler and the Nazi regime is well known and documented throughout the world. Hitler seemed to be a complicated man meaning that documentation and re-enactments of him in film and other texts throw up complications of how to portray him.  Hitler the man or Hitler the murderer?  In recent years films such as Downfall (Hirschbiegel, 2004) humanise Hitler showing a story based on true events. The film Downfall shows Hitler in his last few days of power alongside showing scenes of him with his wife. Showing scenes such as this make him a relatable character, loving his family and going through struggles at work. It is argued that this is problematic; an article featured in the Guardian from an acclaimed Hitler biographer posed the question "Wasn't there the danger, in seeing Hitler as a human being, of losing sight of his intrinsic evil and monstrous, demonic nature, even of arousing sympathy for him?" (Kershaw, 2004).

  However, previous to films such as Downfall where the audience are almost made to sympathise with Hitler there have been many comedic versions of Hitler where we are made to laugh at him. This also seems to trivialise all the terrible things he has done as we as an audience are now finding comedic relief in him and smiling at his face instead of being filled with hate, anger or sorrow. A famous example of this is The Charlie Chaplin movie The Great Dictator (Chaplin, 1940) where Chaplin famously wears a costume very similar to Hitler himself and performances a speech in classical Hitler style to great laughs from audiences. As Roger Ebert writes however this portal of Hitler was not well received after the full extent of Hitler’s actions came to light “As it was, the film's mockery of Hitler got it banned in Spain, Italy and neutral Ireland.” (Ebert, 2007). This is where humanising Hitler becomes problematic it can offend people to the extent that the movie must be banned. However it can be argued that to this day we satire Hitler even more with photo shopped pictures of him and even jokes in televisions shows such as The Simpsons but we are conditioned to not be offended by this to the same extent anymore.

Haase purposes that “There is a fear that by personalizing and psychologizing Hitler – or other Nazi figures of prominent stature – one starts to explain them as people, and hence starts to explain ‘away’ the ultimate evil inherent in their ideology and actions.” (Haase, 2007) This is a perfect explanation of why humanising Hitler can be so problematic, once people can sympathise and relate to someone they can to start to make excuses for them and justify their mistakes. This is not to say that due to these representations of Hitler everyone will excuse Hitler for all he has done but the representation of him may sway peoples view on him even if only for the duration of the movie.

Works Cited

Chaplin, C. (Director). (1940). The Great Dictator [Motion Picture].

Ebert, R. (2007, september 27). The Great Dictator . Retrieved november 19, 2014, from Roger Ebert : http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-great-dictator-1940

Haase, C. (2007). Ready for his close-up? Representing Hitler in Der Untergang (Downfall, 2004). Studies in European Cinema, 3, 191.

Hirschbiegel, O. (Director). (2004). Downfall [Motion Picture].

Kershaw, I. (2004, september 17). The human Hitler. Retrieved novemeber 10, 2014, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/sep/17/germany