Hitler's favorite little girl

[ronin]

Reading this article stopped me in my tracks this morning. The deadly madness of the sham which surrounded her life make this testimony all the more heart-rendering. I realize there are many stories of children who have and who do suffer. This little girl's grit is especially telling.

"Suffer the little children to come unto me,.." - Mark 10:14

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/book ... -girl.html

[Uncle $cam]

From the article...

I was horrified by the thought of this young girl, sensing the danger of the situation, sensing the dishonesty, the untrustworthiness of her parents and the other adults, but unable to share her fears with her unsuspecting younger siblings. I wanted to build up a picture of Helga's life before the family entered the bunker.

Tastes like snozzberries...

So really what this is saying is that this article and book is pure fiction based on perhaps relivant documents or diries, e.g, what he thinks a twelve year old thought and felt during a historic event. Sounds like BS. A Belief system as relivant as any other, only with the added bonus of imaginative entertainment for profit. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, however, people tend to forget that these type endevors are speculation, not emperical history. In this case, 'make believe' about the daughter, of, well, a 'make believe' master. Still, a fascinating read but only because of the ability to suspend the imagination or extend it? To escape reality or make it.

[Uncle $cam]

From the article...

I was horrified by the thought of this young girl, sensing the danger of the situation, sensing the dishonesty, the untrustworthiness of her parents and the other adults, but unable to share her fears with her unsuspecting younger siblings. I wanted to build up a picture of Helga's life before the family entered the bunker.

Tastes like snozzberries...

So really what this is saying is that this article and book is pure fiction based on perhaps relivant documents or diries, e.g, what he thinks a twelve year old thought and felt during a historic event. Sounds like BS. A Belief system as relivant as any other, only with the added bonus of imaginative entertainment for profit. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, however, people tend to forget that these type endevors are speculation, not emperical history. In this case, 'make believe' about the daughter, of, well, a 'make believe' master. Still, a fascinating read but only because of the ability to suspend the imagination or extend it? To escape reality or make it.

[compared2what?]

From the article...

I was horrified by the thought of this young girl, sensing the danger of the situation, sensing the dishonesty, the untrustworthiness of her parents and the other adults, but unable to share her fears with her unsuspecting younger siblings. I wanted to build up a picture of Helga's life before the family entered the bunker.

Tastes like snozzberries...

So really what this is saying is that this article and book is pure fiction based on perhaps relivant documents or diries, e.g, what he thinks a twelve year old thought and felt during a historic event. Sounds like BS. A Belief system as relivant as any other, only with the added bonus of imaginative entertainment for profit. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, however, people tend to forget that these type endevors are speculation, not emperical history. In this case, 'make believe' about the daughter, of, well, a 'make believe' master. Still, a fascinating read but only because of the ability to suspend the imagination or extend it? To escape reality or make it.

Well....Duly, respectfully and with no personal hostility express or implied:

To me, the novel (as an idea, anyway) sounds like a sensationalist and probably cryptically voyeuristic exercise in cryptically prurient sentimentality masquerading as morality. However, I haven't read it. So my opinion probably isn't as reliable as that of someone who as.

But I'm sure you're right that, at a minimum, it's pure-ish fiction. Because it's a novel.

The article linked to by ronin, on the other hand, neither tastes like snozzberries not sounds like BS by any measure I recognize.

It's primarily a historical bio-sketch, drawn from the contemporaneous and near-contemporaneous documentation of the events it describes, the reliability of which the reader can assess for him- or herself, since they're conveniently and responsibly cited by the author. It's also got a little run-of-the-mill newspaper-article gingerbread here and there. But not very much of it. And not anything beyond the usual and easily ignorable rhetorically conventional kind.

In short: The story linked in the OP might or might not strike every single person who reads it as a relivant/relevant endevor/endeavor, for sure. But it's certainly not speculative. Nor is it really any less empirical than any other work of historical biography, at least as far as I can see.

Therefore, I humbly and respectfully dissent.
_________________

Also: Thanks, ronin! I have a longstanding slightly-more-than-idle interest in the life and character of Magda Goebbels that I never remember to do anything about on my own initiative. (Because she was a friend of Diana Mitford -- aka Lady Oswald Moseley -- whom everyone adored, and who could therefore afford to pick her friends for their charms and graces and other merits.)

I'm very glad you posted.

[ronin]

You're welcome compared2what. Honestly for me, I read the article and bypassed the idea of the book that was being written (and it's merits, speculative or otherwise) and got sort of lost in the idea of what it would be like to be that little girl. Especially the last bit about the bruising. That's what made me post I guess. I know kids to be very intuitive into the lives of adults, especially seeing past our charades, regardless of the adults' intentions. It just struck me as so sad but at the same time so compelling in how her perception casts such a harsh, clear light on the actions of her parents and the rest of them. And not just the Nazi's. The told and untold suffering of children due to the actions/inaction of "grown ups", e.g. war, corruption, famine, etc., rings so clear and true and louder each generation (unfortunately, there is always more noise each generation to sufficiently cover up their cries?). That's why I also put in the quote from Mark. The children suffer and yet their view is from somewhere closer to heaven, sometimes increasing that suffering. Maybe that's why, at least in America, they try to hook the kids at a young age with things that don't help them grow, but definitely pull them away from their source prematurely.