IDSG Bonus Ep5 Downfall (2004)

Once again, you our lovely backers get exclusive access to a new bonus episode of IDSG on 2004's Downfall about Hitler's last days (it's the source of the YouTube 'Hitler gets angry' meme).

Content Warnings

Show Notes:

Downfall at Wikipedia

Traudl Junge at Wikipedia

Hitler Downfall Parody Memes

Ian Kershaw on Downfall

• Does it help us to understand Hitler any better? My own feeling is that, brilliant though the portrayal is, it does not. It is hard to see how it could - or, indeed, what great enlightenment it would bring if we did know him better (whatever that means). Would we then have a clearer grasp of his hold over the German people, or why so many intelligent individuals in positions of authority were prepared to put his wishes into practice? At any rate, no amount of intuitive acting is likely to make him any more intelligible to audiences which cannot possibly enter his warped mentality. His life has been scrutinised as scarcely no one else’s, but an inner core is still unfathomable. Hitler will always remain in some senses an enigma.

Christian Berkel at Wikipedia

• Bartender “Eric” in Inglourious Basterds, Ernst-Günther Schenck in Downfall.

Alfred Zech at Wikipedia

AP History 2019 Exam Questions

• Not even a mention of WWII.

The Massaging of History by David Cesarani and Peter Longerich https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/apr/07/germany.secondworldwar

"The film Downfall relies on memoirs written by Hitler's allies to distance themselves from Nazism"