Documentary Review: 'The Meaning of Hitler'

In less than a decade firsthand accounts of the holocaust, the most horrific and terrifying crime in human history, will be gone. Those who were there when Hitler murdered six million Jewish people now on average are in their 80s and 90s. They are sadly not long for this world and the history they take with them in their passing is some of the most important historical events in our collective history.

The new documentary The Meaning of Hitler from the directing husband and wife duo Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein provides a chilling realization as to how important these first hand accounts of the real life tragedy of the holocaut truly are. With fascism and nationalism taking root again across the globe, the tactics of lie, deny, and mislead, tactics pioneered by Hitler and his 3rd Reich, are making a major comeback.

The Meaning of Hitler is a highly conceptual documentary that uses and exposes the tools of documentary filmmaking to create a dizzying and informative picture of where we stand in this young century and the battle to preserve history. The film is at times formless and yet as the filmmakers use the tools of the documentary trade to expose fascism and shine light on the darkest attempts to obfuscate history, the method behind their approach becomes clear.

The Meaning of Hitler begins artfully with a person on a train reading a book that changes from one moment to another, varying histories of the Nazis and Hitler pass before we settle on a 1978 book by historian Sebastian Haffner called The Meaning of Hitler. Haffner’s book provides a particular structure to the documentary, using Haffner’s book to deconstruct the myths behind Hitler, recalling his legend building and then tearing that legend down with facts.

The documentary crew travels all over Europe to expose lies about Hitler that were and are intended to burnish his legend and craft the myth about Hitler that he used to propel himself to power. People have an idea of who Hitler was before he became Germany’s leader but as Hitler rose to power he began to hide aspects of his life before leadership thus creating a myth where he seemed to rise to power out of some divine designation. The Meaning of Hitler puts back several key pieces of Hitler’s past in order to remind you that he was human, a cruel and sadistic human, but a human being nevertheless.

The Meaning of Hitler also parses popular culture to show depictions of Hitler and how culture further punctured the myth of Hitler while also, unintentionally, in most cases, polished the story of Hitler into one that can still be easily manipulated today. A great example is one provided by one historian who calls out the number of film depictions of Hitler’s death by suicide. There have been numerous examples of Hitler’s death depicted and yet in each example the camera leaves the room before Hitler actually pulls the trigger. Meanwhile, as Hitler is given the seeming dignity of privacy, the literally naked suffering of Jewish people in concentration camps is shown freely in numerous Hollywood and international features.

The most challenging part of The Meaning of Hitler is the choice to personify those that aim to lie about Hitler. The filmmakers, in an effort to shine the light in all areas of modern Hitler discussion and demagoguery give time to the hateful British author Christopher Irving, a virulent racist who has made it his bizarre mission to blame Hitler’s subordinates as responsible for the murder of Jewish people in World War 2. The filmmakers take pains to remind us that Irving has lost in court over his claims regarding the holocaust and how he’s changed from Holocaust denier to trying to push his notion of Hitler heroically trying to stop the holocaust conducted by his Third Reich under his nose.

Irving’s presence is skin crawling and while I understand including him in order to repeatedly allow him to demonstrate his worst qualities, he’s quick to joke about Jewish people, especially when he forgets that his microphone is still on, but it is no less difficult to have to listen to Irving spout his foolish lies. As mentioned before, Irving lost in court trying to prove his lies about the holocaust and The Meaning of Hitler smartly features Deborah Lipstadt, the woman who humiliated Irving in court and whose stalwart dedication to the truth caused his lawsuit against her thrown out of court.

Lipstadt however, and many of the historians featured in The Meaning of Hitler, share one inescapable aspect, age. Those who have dedicated their lives to preserving the history of World War 2 and the holocaust and the death of more than SIX MILLION Jewish people in the span of six years at most, are growing older and as technology expands, the truth that these historians dedicated their lives to is being upended by pop culture depictions of Hitler and the holocaust and our glib determination to compare anything we find unacceptable to Hitler.

In the noisy age of the internet, the fascist and the nationalist hide in plain sight. They are on social media platforms, they are streaming on Twitch and hosting on YouTube channels. Like Hitler they hide their more monstrous traits behind obfuscating lies about loving their country or wanting to protect their country from outsiders. They hide in plain sight in Poland where a day dedicated to the liberation of that country from Hitler’s rule has morphed into a celebration of nationalism and provided cover for fascists to claim the day as their own.

Far right influencers on social media are regurgitating lies about the Holocaust while they stream video games. And, all the while, a generation of historians are slowly dying off and with them, history becomes more and more vulnerable to corruption. It’s not just a far right problem though as those on the left who insist on making glib parallels between Hitler and Trump do as much damage to the cause as they do good in exposing Trump. Yes, there is no question Trump uses the tactics of fascism and nationalism to further his power, his assault on the truth in the past four years is unquestionably a tactic of the Nazi propagandists.

But repeatedly roping Hitler and Trump together is problematic as it threatens to diminish what Hitler did and bring it down to the level of philosophy and politics. People disagree with Trump but what Hitler did is not something that can be merely disagreed with. The murder of more than six million Jewish people and countless millions more is far too important, far too despicable and criminal to be compared with a mere demagogue. The Meaning of Hitler poignantly makes this point in different ways which I will leave you to discover.

The Meaning of Hitler is available for streaming rental as of August 28th, 2021. If you are further interested in this topic, pair The Meaning of Hitler with the equally absorbing and essential documentary, Final Account which captures the story of Hitler and the holocaust from the last living generation of Germans who were residents of Germany and some who were members of the SS, the Hitler Youth and other organizations bathed in the shame wrought by Hitler and his ghastly crimes. Final Account is available to stream as of September 2nd, 2021.