7 November 2018
He was responsible (click here) for sending six million Jews to their deaths. But where little Rosa Bernile Nienau was concerned, Adolf Hitler seemed blind to his own warped ideology.
This astonishing photograph shows the smiling Nazi leader embracing the young Jewish girl - who referred to him as 'Uncle Hitler' and became known as his 'sweetheart' - at his Alpine retreat.
Personally inscribed by Hitler, the photograph was taken in the summer of 1933 at the Berghof - just six years before the outbreak of the Second World War....
1933: Rise of Adolf Hitler (click here)With the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazi Party took control of Germany. In October, German delegates walked out of disarmament talks in Geneva and Nazi Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. In October, at an international legal conference in Madrid, Raphael Lemkin (who later coined the word “genocide” ) proposed legal measures to protect groups. His proposal did not receive support....
The flower in the picture is Edelweiss. The flower was made famous decades later in a song from the Sound of Music.
Leontopodium alpinum (click here)
Hitler's official photographer embellished all that was precious about life to create a welcoming image to "der Fuhrer."
Edelweiss is strictly protected (click here) and may not be picked. It usually grows in limestone soil in mountain landscapes, on steep blue grass slopes and hills. Since Edelweiss often lives together with the alpine aster, it is easy to find when one focuses on finding the beautiful violet flowers with the yellow centres. Edelweiss is able to live on alpine meadows and can be recognised from a distance, because the flower often takes on a silver sheen in the light.
Edelweiss as a survivor artist
Edelweiss covered by dense hair. Thousands of tiny air bubbles collect in the fine hairs. They protect the flower from drying out and moreover from freezing. These air bubbles are the reason sunlight makes the Edelweiss appear illuminated. This sheen is also a signal for honey-seeking insects. The tiny hairs also protect the plants from harmful UV rays thanks to their unusual qualities....
This is a performance by Captain Georg von Trapp, a retired Austrian naval captain, and widower in a scene from "The Sound of Music." He was to be absorbed into the ranks of the Nazis. Shortly, after this performance, he, his family of children and their governess escaped preventing their involvement with the rising tide of hatred. Of course, in this scene, he would sing an endearing song to make him appear sympathetic to all that was Nazi. These performances by the von Trapp family enabled their escape.
The "Sound of Music" was first a play before it became a film. It was based in a real story, although romanticized a bit.
Between 1929 and 1939, (click here) Georg and Maria had three children together, as well as Georg's own seven children.
But it was the collapse of the bank holding the family's finances that was the spur behind their success as touring singing act, to Georg's embarrassment.
Anti-Nazi, the family did indeed flee Austria when the Nazi party sought to recruit Georg to the German navy. But they did not walk across the mountains to Switzerland — a journey of some 200 miles. Rather, they caught a train to Italy and then on to the United States. Their Austrian home became Heinrich Himmler's headquarters....
