Sensible Erection | Hitler vs. Hitler

Thursday, 2 August 2012

quote [ Everybody in the world today must answer to himself which cause they will serve. ]

William Patrick Hitler, nephew of the more famous Hitler, writes to President Roosevelt after being denied entry to the U.S. Armed Forces.

Interesting letter. Not so much for what it says in print, but for what it says about choosing your own legacy, even when your name has been so tainted. I actually met a woman whose last name was Hitler, but it was a brief work-related meeting so I never got a chance to ask her about it.

[by papango@3:10amGMT] [+10 Interesting]

Comments

pleaides said @ 3:38am GMT on 2nd Aug
Ah, saw this last night on the 'letters of note' twitter feed. Bloody amazing.

sanepride said @ 3:41am GMT on 2nd Aug
Interesting Wikipedia entry. Especially the account of his years in early Nazi Germany, trying to capitalize on his famous uncle.

pleaides said @ 4:01am GMT on 2nd Aug
From the wiki;

"According to a story circulating after his enlistment, when he went to the draft office and introduced himself, the recruiting officer supposedly replied, "Glad to see you, Hitler. My name's Hess."

Heh

papango said @ 4:08am GMT on 2nd Aug
It's the ambiguity of him that makes him so interesting. He could have just laid low in the US, he wouldn't have been drafted, he could have changed his name and walked away from his past, but he chose not to.

sanepride said @ 5:26am GMT on 2nd Aug
True, though his motivation seems to have been personal, not political. He was just mad at his uncle for not giving him a cushy enough job. It makes him kind of a jerk...or at least he would be if his uncle weren't, y'know, Hitler.

papango said @ 6:45am GMT on 2nd Aug [Score:3 Insightful]
One of my great uncles volunteered for the army under a false name and went to war to get away from his wife and his kids and his debt. We have no idea what happened to him. My grandfather lied about his age and went for the adventure. Pure motives can be hard to find.

GordonGuano said @ 7:20am GMT on 2nd Aug
"Pure motives can be hard to find."

So, so true, as long as we aren't talking about boobies.

papango said @ 7:51am GMT on 2nd Aug [Score:2 Funny]
I believe in you, Guano; your boobies are pure.

Supreme_Coconut said @ 1:38am GMT on 3rd Aug

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 1:37pm GMT on 2nd Aug
My Grandfather and a couple of my uncles lied about their age to enlist.

My Grandfather was a vet of both the Boer and the Great war. He would have been around 60 in 1939. He was rejected. One of my uncles did enlist at 16, joining his older brothers. The 15 year old had to wait two years and didn't go overseas till 1944. Out of 12 children, including 3 girls, all but one (my mother) joined the army or navy. My mother was rejected because of stomach problems and she was employed in a strategic industry....wait for it....wait for it......she worked for a tobacco company.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 1:32pm GMT on 2nd Aug
Either that or he was a british agent

drewski3420 said @ 5:40am GMT on 2nd Aug
This is an excellent site. I highly recommend.

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 7:41am GMT on 2nd Aug [Score:1 Informative]
So does SE.

damnit said @ 7:30am GMT on 2nd Aug

herra turpa said @ 10:03am GMT on 2nd Aug

spazm said @ 10:07am GMT on 2nd Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
Brainwashing at its finest. Very classy.

schatten00777 said @ 10:39am GMT on 2nd Aug
You have to get them when they're young. It lasts longer that way.

Bodnoirbabe said @ 2:39pm GMT on 2nd Aug
Yeah, I guess 10 years is enough time to have learned valuable life lessons that shape your political leanings and not just spout the things you've heard your parents say over and over.

THIS KID FOR PRESIDENT!

EPT said @ 3:47am GMT on 3rd Aug
It's hilarious that the first point is about people not working... like a 6-year-old works (and with that axe, no less).

BergZ said @ 12:13am GMT on 3rd Aug
He'll be insufferable for the next few years and then, like all the other "Jonathan Krohn"s, he'll end up disillusioned with politics entirely.

cyrano said @ 3:19am GMT on 3rd Aug
He'll be devoted to attention he's getting from this shtick till he goes to college, sucks his first cock and spends the next decade to two giving talks about what it was like growing up repressed, abused and ignorant.

That or he'll climb a tower with a rifle. It's a coin toss, really.

midden said @ 12:17pm GMT on 2nd Aug
I suspect there were plenty of non-Christians opposed to Hitler Sr., too. Just look at the Gurkhas.

X said @ 12:41pm GMT on 2nd Aug
I hear the jews didn't much like him, either.

paul_austin0816 said @ 3:38pm GMT on 2nd Aug [Score:2 Underrated]
One thing is for sure, the art of letter writing is dead.

GordonGuano said @ 5:02pm GMT on 2nd Aug
lol wtf r u tlkn abt

selfimportant said @ 2:18am GMT on 3rd Aug
Hobo News is the newspaper source of the choosiest I presume

papango said @ 2:23am GMT on 3rd Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
The choosiest homeless migrant workers. This was an age when being poor wasn't a character flaw.

selfimportant said @ 2:24am GMT on 3rd Aug
Uh