History needs to be rewritten: Apparently, Hitler was quite the stud. I personally know at least four people who claim to be Der Führer’s grandson – or daughter. They may not be exactly LATFH-fodder, but they’re hipsters, no doubt.
When they’re not busy with some kind of ‘project,’ be it a fashion label or an art space, or running around in used wedding dresses, they twitter and tumbler and blog – mostly outrageous things about rape and racism and the Holocaust. Let’s call them the Hitlerifik Twitkidz. They’re no Nazis. They just pretend to be.
One of the breakout stars of the scene calls herself Ada Blitzkrieg, her real name is somewhat less urgent. She recently got name-checked on Indie rap-star Prinz Pi’s new album, twice. She mostly tweets very funny jokes about reality TV, yo’momma, trash culture and what she refers to as “’stereotypes’ – vandalizing “Jew cemeteries,” the weather being very “Schindler’s List” and setting Riefenstahl movies to Eurodance. She has a Menorah, visible in some YouTube-clips, though she’s not Jewish and doesn’t really know any Jews.
Blowing up cliches till they lose meaning – maybe. Is it funny? Dunno. Ada seems okay with it: “I just want to make a name for myself and make some money,” she states. And there is some humility to the whole thing as well (even if it is a bit ‘I was just following orders’). Really, it’s hard to be mad at someone who tweets “I give money to that bum cause his face reminds me of my pussy” to thousands of people.
Still: The flood gates are open. Marcel Wichmann aka uarrr is a young designer and illustrator from Hamburg. Some minor memes can be traced back to him, and he’s successful at selling T-shirts. He also seems to be a smug asshole who has made a habit of calling Black people “negroes.” He also came up with the term “HoLOLcaust” and the idea to call flowers “Gas-Me-Nots.” But, don’t feel uncomfortable fellow yids: He is a victim too – because, well you know, “He uses an iPhone and some people don’t like that.”
You can probably hear worse (and funnier) things any given night in the UCB Theater, I know. But without a real, visible Jewish or Black community in Berlin (or Germany, for that matter) to speak of, they mock those without a voice or a face. This ironic ‘conversation’ stops being a dialogue and just becomes bullying.
For me, one of the few Jews living in Berlin, I have to say screw this getting comfortable with history BS. Does ‘Satire spares no one’ really apply when the people that you satirize are either dead and buried or just trying to get the fuck by?
That’s what I wanna ask. And then I remember what country I live in, and just sigh. Anyway. I have some The Sarah Silverman Program episodes to catch up on.
First, I love you, but let’s keep this to ourselves because a) I’m married and b) I’m a Jew from East Berlin so we’re probably long lost cousins (and if we are, please for the love of G-d respond to this because I am actually trying to find my Berlin family who survived).
Second, since you were actually born in Germany you might be able to speak to the issue of desensitization much better than I could. To elaborate, whenever I have spent time in Germany I’ve met college students who feel that the Holocaust has been thrown in their faces. I went on a study abroad trip last May to Bavaria. When it came time for us to go to Flossenburg with German students, hardly any came because they had already gone to concentration camps and were “burnt out.” I, too, am burnt out on what the Holocaust has done to my family but I can’t opt not to be a part of it the way they can. Do you think that there is any value in saying that they are totally desensitized and need a break from Holocaust-y things? Or, are these two just total dicks?
And seriously I would love to find out if we are related. You can e-mail me at yeahohahhh at gmail dot com.
hoLOLcaust? clASSy.
@ Amira – One could probably make an argument for Holocaust jokes being an “engagement” with the subject as well, but I don’t buy it, not in this case. It’s trying to be as outrageous as possible, combined with some very ugly traces of actual prejudices. It’s that tone of “Well, none of those people will ever read it, so fuck it and go all out” that really bugs me.
And the “burning out” part is far too complex for me to answer here. Let’s just say: “Enough already! We know!” is a very comfortable thing to say, even if it’s not true.
Please, don’t go pointing fingers and spreading false rumors.
It’s just wrong to say there is no visible black or jewish community in Berlin. Within 5 mins by bike from Rosenthaler Platz are at least 3 Jewish synagoges or Gemeindezentren. If you hang out at Arkona Platz at the end of the market day, you can see the Jewish Orthodox families walking to Bernauer Strasse Synagoge. There’s a huge Synagoge on Oranienburgerstrasse and around the corner another Synagoge. Go to Charlottenburg to on Sundays and visit the Gospel Church – hundreds of blacks. If you walk along Kastanienallee on Sunday or go to Mauerpark, you see even more.
It’s nice to have an opinion and to be able to voice it, but your opinion in this article sounds a bit uninformed and biased.
@ Karin: It would be wrong to just talk about urban geography or mere numbers. I was talking about presence outside of religious contexts, about cultural and political institutions and organisations with true standing. “Brothers Keepers” tried to be one, though it didn’t out turn so well. And we all know how people feel about the Zentralrat – wrongly, I think, but still.
I see your point thought. We just might have different definitions of “presence”.
@Karin Fraum- Really? you have some actual synagogues (synagoge is incorrect, if you are going to write in English learn to spell)? And you hav some actual black people too? Wow! You have no idea how racist your comments sound. They are right up there with “some of my best friends are black.” Go back to school and learn about the Holocaust, you racist, because there is nothing to LOL about it.
@Karin-and the black people attend the Gospel Church? How quaint! Do you actually know any Jews or black people? If you did you wouldn’t talk the way you do. You clearly have no diversity where you live, otherwise you wouldn’t be so insensitive.
I think the real issue here is that we see what happens to a culture’s collective sense of humor when they exterminate their best comedians.
When we screen Punk Jews in Berlin lets invite these assholes. I promise they wont leave the same way they came in.
@Karin Fraum – There are actually thousands of synagogues all OVER Europe and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, a lot of their congregants were exterminated or chased out. Their presence is meaningless in this context without a vibrant, “present” community, to use Fabian’s term.
this is stupid and wrong.i hope they all die the same way as their piece of shit ancestor.with a gun in their mouth very young.im not even jewish and this pisses me off.we dropped the bomb on the wrong fuckin country.
@Tori – Really? So Karin is a racist for pointing out the mere fact that contrary to popular belief there actually are Jews and Blacks in Berlin. But you don’t feel any discomfort at all in telling her to “learn to spell if you want to write in English”? Lovely, dear. It is touching to see you role-modelling tolerance at such an advanced level. And of course Karin couldn’t possibly know any Jews or Blacks or be jewish or black herself – g-d forbid – because everyone knows that in ugly Germany there’s no such thing as diversity. Boy, am I glad how you live up to the stereotype of an educated Jew?
I would not worry about these kids even if they look sick. There are so many Jew haters in the world so few more kids will no tip the current scale. What I am worried about are Jews who hate Jews or work against the state of Israel. This includes certified idiots from J-Street or a useful idiot like Noam Chomsky and associates and all the anarchists, many of which are in Israel, who disguise themselves under the title of human rights.
@Zookman – Shit, I hope you’ll invite *me* to the screening!
Hey I think these idiots are more responding to the fact that their country is all about free speech with one exception. When you make an exception like that, teenagers being teenagers will do their darndest to fuck with it, you know? I’m not excusing them but I think (think) I see what is motivating them.
@Daniel: These are not teenagers. They’re well into their twenties.
You ever listen to Loveline? They had a segment called Florida or Germany where they’d describe some fucked up news story usually involving sex or cannibalism or farm animals and the callers would try and guess… Germany or Florida? So, that’s how I’m going to make sense of this.
ada blitzkrieg, uarr et al.: the
usual young exhibitionistic assholes…duh!
but berlin “without a visible black or yiddish community: you must be kidding…
the usual jewish whiner….
I guess Charlie Chaplin was a Nazi too.
This is sad.
and charlie chaplin was making fun of hitler not of the victims……….
@TORI -What’s wrong with you?
(and “hav” is incorrect, if you are going to write in English learn to spell)
How about “Twazis”?
[…] bisschen eigenartig mutet es also schon an, wenn sich der junge Berliner Autor Fabian Wolff im Blog des großartigen New Yorker Juden-Magazins “Heeb” besorgt über den postmodernen Umgang junger Berliner mit dem Hakenkreuz […]