Hitler and Stalin: Roots of Evil (2002) User Reviews

Fact and Conjecture.

[rmax304823 · 4/10 · 2 November 2014]

I couldn't watch this all the way through, so these comments apply only to the first half hour or so.

There is no quarrel with the general facts surrounding the childhood and adulthood of Hitler and Stalin, who get about equal treatment. We know where they were born, who their parents were, what their interests were like, their experiences in the war, and so forth. We can find those objective facts anywhere among the many documentaries dealing with each figure.

But, in addition to the narration, there are a number of talking heads who don't know what they're talking about. As a psychologist, I was surprised that the History Channel would allow such pompous speculation to ruin what is otherwise a decent documentary.

It's pretty bad. The Heads would have to reach for "pop psychology" until their joints creaked. They don't even use vernacular terms like "paranoia" or "Napoleonic complex." Instead, Stalin is described as having an "enemy complex." And of course they were both beaten by their fathers -- just as you and I were.

I don't object to these interpretations because they're not professional. I object to them because they're simple-minded and misleading. The narrator and biographers might as well attribute Stalin's and Hitler's personalities to some yet undiscovered flaw in their DNA, because there's no evidence for that either.

There are some perceptive documentaries available on both figures, and some respectable books. This is just not a reliable source.

Good psychohistorical study

[evening1 · 5/10 · 22 May 2022]

Stalin and Hitler had much more in common than being two of the 20th century's most brutal dictators and mass murderers -- both had deprived childhoods, violent fathers, adoring mothers, problematic relationships with women, and paranoid personalities.

This sumptuously illustrated documentary, one of the many aired often during the wee hours on the upstart Newsmax channel, offers many insights into the ruthless killers of scores of millions of warriors and civilians alike.

I found myself looking up dozens of Wikipedia entries as I followed the narrative of this film, which, although chock-full of facts, inexplicably lacks identifiers for any of its talking heads.

Along the way we learn about such interesting personages as Hitler's paternal grandmother -- Hitler wondered whether a Jew had fathered her child -- his tragic niece Geli, and his suicidal lover Eva Braun, whom Hitler once described as the ideal German woman - - "cute, cuddly, naive."

On Stalin's side there were such intriguing characters as Vladimir Bekhterev, who fatefully diagnosed Stalin as a paranoid, and the strongman's eldest legitimate child, Yacov, captured during the brutal Battle of Stalingrad and ultimately to die in Germany's Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

A fascinating element that resonates here is the documentary's examination of how Stalin not only had his enemies eliminated, but also did away with any reference to them in history books or photographs.

Forewarned is forearmed.