Update, 24th July 2014



I think I can now safely assume that it's a generational thing. There's been a rather heated argument with an older female reviewer of this book, and I figured I'd ask my grandparents about their opinions on the book. My grandmother was born in 1937 in northern Germany, my grandfather 1933, equally in nothern Germany. As my grandpa was at that point old enough, he had had to join the Deutsche Jugend(German Youth - the group you entered before you entered the Hitler-Jugend).

Update, 24th July 2014



I think I can now safely assume that it's a generational thing. There's been a rather heated argument with an older female reviewer of this book, and I figured I'd ask my grandparents about their opinions on the book. My grandmother was born in 1937 in northern Germany, my grandfather 1933, equally in nothern Germany. As my grandpa was at that point old enough, he had had to join the Deutsche Jugend(German Youth - the group you entered before you entered the Hitler-Jugend). They send me a letter, and I will directly translate what my grandma wrote:



"[...] I am sorry, but I couldn't warm myself up to the book, albeit being amused sometimes. I can imagine that it's like that for anyone who comes back into our world after 66 years.

The arguments about certain people in our country have disgusted me so much, that I have not ended the book(A/N: I assume my grammy links the character's opinion with the author's opinion; I hope most of you don't make that mistake)

Then grandpa read it and, well, you see in the addition what he thinks about it.

I am born in 1937 and know the story only by having it told to me, for which I am grateful.

I hope that you forget it soon, and that you can engage yourself with nicer subjects."



Well, yeah... not really, eh? :'D And now for my grandpa's thoughts(It's so cute, he even added a subject title at the beginning. Ah, old people xD).



"This book seems to be written for the generation who were grandma's parents. The doings of the Gröfaz(Gröfaz = Größter Führer/Feldherr aller Zeiten; Greatest leader of all time(Gröfaz is ironically used, mostly. At least I never heard anyone not using it for mocking purposes, and it's fun, yeah)) Adolf Hitler was in the time of 1924 - 1945.

The book is written humorously in some passages, but only understandable if one shoves the gruesome events during the leadership of the Nazis aside.(A/N: Grandpa's opinion; obviously, I disagree)

This, in turn, insults in the most awful way that part of the people who were directly or indirectly affected by the unimaginable schemes. Even today there are survivors who can report on this convincingly. I am convinced that this book at best had never been written; or after heavy editing measures, in many parts separated, serve as a cabaret draft."



Granted, those are only two more older people whose opinion I know now, but granted, for one I could not have asked my other grandparents, because one is dead and both have been to young to remember anything(born in the 40s), and for second I can't just walk around asking older people to read this book, and if I did so with my landlady I'm not so sure if that would end well...

It stays, however, that of three older people who have come across this book, one dismissed it almost instantaneously, and the other two tried to read it and gave up somewhere midway through. And, also, they have given almost the same reasons as to why they did so. Which I understand, really, since, yeah, that generation is far more likely to be so opposed even towards a satire.

But that brings up what is, in my mind, so important with the author and many of the readers: We are not from that generation.

We are younger. We only know about the events by history lessons, because no, people don't talk about it in their families. I grew up without knowing that a man named Hitler ever existed, had it not been for school lessons I wouldn't have known. Which again brings up a point: We need to STOP the silence. We need to adress those issues. The wounds have mostly healed, the current young generation is far enough apart from this history to still feel connected to it, and therefore to feel the duty to think about it, while being far enough apart from it to not have the emotional ballast of the older generation.

We are now. We are reflecting on ourselves. And we are not silent.



... sorry, grams. ^^'



******



This is a very difficult book. As much as I would like to give it a humorous review - I can't.



So, let's start from the beginning. What do we know about the plot? Hitler wakes up in modern Berlin, in the summer of 2011, is quite confused at first, but, as he so proudly points out(Repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly), he's the kind of guy who's so focused on achieving his goal that he ignores the fact that 1. he oughta be dead 2. he traveled through time. He goes on exploring the new world - and gets a career on TV.



Now, the very premise of this work does turn many people off immediately, I have seen that quite often, both in private discussions and reviews, but also in interviews, commentaries by journalists and in one german talk-show. The question many people ask is this: Is this book pro-Hitler? It often is paired with another question: Is the author a Nazi?



01. "Is this book pro-Hitler?":



If you've read the blurb you could say "Maybe". If you've read the book, you should say "No!". Because it's very, very direct in that aspect. In fact, it's so direct that the very fact that Hitler is not a cuddly neighbours dog jumps in your face with rocket-speed and breaks your nose.

Don't be mistaken: It is not impossible that this work brings across the wrong message. But mind you, this needs something to already be there in the reader: Pro-Nazi sentiments. Anti-semitism. Racism. Ignorance towards logic and empathy. Still: That is not the fault of the author. Also, those cases are the minority. I am not making this up, pretty much every reaction towards this book can be categorised in two ways. 1: "Oh God, it's Hitler, I hate it!" or 2: "This is satire, criticism and a well-deserved warning against Nazi ideology!"

What I essentially want to say is this: If it so happens that someone gets the wrong idea, then that's not the author's fault, simply because he made it so apparent that you should not like the protagonist.



Let's take a closer look. So, there are jokes involved. There's humour in many things Hitler does and gets confronted with. Try to cut that all out - nobody would read it. Seriously, Vermes managed to grasp Hitler's style so wonderfully, it could be Hitler himself writing, were it not for the lesson in it. Have you, dear reader(And I know you're reading this!), ever tried to read "Mein Kampf"? I tried. I failed. It's just unendurable. No kidding, a law textbook reads like a children's book compared to that. The sane mind cannot endure Hitlers very own book for longer than a paragraph. Trust me, I tried.

Does the humour in this book make Hitler look good? It doesn't make him look bad, I assure you - until he says something misogynistic, racist or anti-semitic right after that.

An example: There's a point where Hitler complains about the overloading of electronical devices, e.g. mobile phones, with unneeded crap that leaves the young people pressing their noses against the screens so much thousands of them get knocked over by cars. His comment: "It will be this one of my first plans to forbid these telephone devices, actually to only allow them for elements of sub-races or maybe even order those to use them. Those can lie for days on the major streets of Berlin like dead hedgehogs, that's at least a practical advantage."

Do you notice that he doesn't pay any thought or emotion to the lives of people he deems unworthy? Do you notice that he talks about teenagers being killed by cars because of his order, and that he's fine with that? Yes? So why do you complain?

Hey, be all against Hitler the way you want, if you so choose to avoid anything that portrays him in less than the light of the psychopath you think he was, that's your choice. But for the love of sanity, look at what the author does. Yes, he portrays Hitler like a human being, like a person very close to the original. But that's exactly the thing: That's what makes it so evident that Hitler was thinking and doing bad things!

I mean, come on, would you view any protagonist who promotes the organized extermination of specific human races as something worth doing as positive? Yes? Please think again.

It's not that this Hitler says the bad things. That's obvious and it doesn't go away just because he makes some funny jokes(Most of those actually more related to the time travel than anything else). It's that the people around this Hitler hear those things and don't do anything about it! Why, yes, there are people who stand up against him. Those are either the politically over-correct types or modern Nazis. The first because they're concernced, the latter because they think he's making fun of their Führer(When actually they're already good at making themselves ridiculous). Others are in general charmed by his, as they think, satirical portrayal of the dead Austrian. So much that they fail to notice his misogyny. His racism. His anti-semitism. Which is a pretty accurate portrayal of our society(Speaking of Germany here, but if you're from the US you should also check your views on those topics, just to be sure. There's an easy test for misogyny: Do you think that a woman is guilty if she get's molested or raped? Then yes, you're misogynistic.). Misogyny nowadays? Not discussed! Dismissed! Always a part of some conspiracy against politicians! Yes, that's idiotic. And racism? Good heavens, no, we don't even talk about that, how could we be racist? How? How? ... or maybe we just are? And don't even get me started in anti-semitism, that deserves a whole school subject.

Back to Hitler(This one just sounds so weird...): What's left to say? Not much, actually. There's still the issue that not everything Hitler says is wrong: There are problems in modern Germany. There is a horrible waste of resources. There are the unemployed who are calmed with money by "social care", when all the economy wants the government to do is taking care of those peoples ability to buy their products. Those problems exist, they are facts. The queation is if you want to believe Hitler when he ascribes them to jewish or communistic conspiracies, or if you actually want to use your sanity. But that's entirely up to you, reader. I suggest you go and see for yourself what you think about this Hitler. Maybe, just maybe, it helps you to grasp the feeling of just how dangerous that man was.



Before I forget it, let's quickly look at the second question I have quoted above: 02. "Is the author a Nazi?"



Judging by interviews with Vermes, I'd say: No. He deliberately wrote this as a satire, to show the dangers of Hitlers thoughts and the ignorance towards those coming from anyone else than Hitler himself(Or just the one who's regarded as someone else).

But, of course, people can lie. So, what does the book say?

Hey, book, is your author a Nazi?

Book: "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

Sorry, book, I just had to.

With all I have stated above, does anyone really think it's possible that the author of this particular book is a Nazi? Can you really think that someone who shows how Hitler would be very willing to exterminate at least a few millions of our fellow citizens who are of foreign descent, that someone who warns us to be careful for our fellow human beings, all of our fellow human beings, that someone like this is a Nazi? Yes? Well, then I can't help you and you should really check in with your doctor just to be sure. Because facts are facts and some things are so obvious facts that it's very bothersome to not be able to see those.



Well, I think I'm kind of done here. If it so happens that I want to add anything, I'll put a note at the top of the review that informs you of any changes that have been made. If anyone wants to add a comment: Feel free to do so, I'd love to hear other thoughts on this book and my review.



And just because I can't resist:



Die Krankenschwester kommt herein: "Ich wollte nur kurz nach dem Rechten sehen."

Hitler: "Dem geht's gut."



And in English(Free translation by myself, so sorry if it's not so funny as the original):

Nurse enters the toom: "I just wanted to look if everything's allright."

Hitler: "Yes, I'm all right."