The title of this blog comes from a Gaelic expression -"putting on the poor mouth"-which means to exaggerate the direness of one's situation in order to gain time or favour from creditors.
17 July 2011
Ecclestone not implicated in aryan sex doll scandal
Adolf Hitler ordered the Nazis to develop sex dolls to send to his troops being ravaged by disease after sleeping with French women, it's been revealed.
The synthetic 'comforters' were made from silicone and designed to stop soldiers being laid low with syphilis.
Smaller than life-size, the so-called ‘gynoids’ were to be targeted at the men most at temptation from a ‘quick adventure’ with a French prostitute.
The World War Two project began in 1940 after SS chief Henrich Himmler wrote: ‘The greatest danger in Paris is the widespread and uncontrolled presence of whores, picking up clients in bars, dance halls, and other places. "It is our duty to prevent soldiers from risking their health just for the sake of a quick adventure."
Initially, the Hungarian actress Kathe von Nagy was asked if the doll could be modelled on her, but she refused. Instead the look of the Aryan doll with blonde bob hair and blue eyes was left bland so soldiers could apply their own fantasy.
The dolls were apparently trialled in Nazi-occupied Jersey at the German barracks in St Hellier. After being refined, Himmler was so impressed he immediately ordered 50 of them.
However, at the beginning of 1942 he changed his mind and the whole project was axed and any evidence was destroyed in the Allied bombing of Dresden.
Author Graeme Donald has uncovered the secretive ‘Borghild Project’ while researching the history of the Barbie doll - which was based on a post-war German sex doll toy.
The story came from German sculptor Arthur Rink, one of the men on the team which designed the doll at the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit.
The tale is included in Donald's book, Mussolini's Barber, a compilation of bizarre stories connected with the biggest events of history.
03 July 2007
Wagner bored everyone?
I always thought that the Nazis would cheerfully listen to Wagner day in, day out stopping only for lunch and to annex the Sudetenland. But according to a new book (the Wagner Clan) by Jonathan Carr, Wagner actually became much less popular during Hitler's rule. Apparently, Germans much preferred the likes of Carmen and Madame Butterfly. According to Carr, while Hitler himself was obsessed Wagner the party faithful were not had to be dragged kicking and screaming to performances. "We are all told that the Germans poured into opera houses to listen to Wagner as soon as Hitler came to power. The opposite is true."
Most Nazis were bored silly at the prospect of watching five-hour-long epics in which, frequently, little happens. At the 1933 gala performance of Die Meistersinger so few turned up that a furious Hitler sent patrols to drag party members out of beer gardens and brothels, according to Speer. Meanwhile, during one performance of Tristan and Isolde, Junge recalled a member of Hitler's group dropping off and having to be rescued before collapsing over the railings of the box they were in. His rescuer had himself been asleep for most of the performance!
The author has analysed the operas performed in Germany in the 1930s. In the 1932-33 season Carmen was the most performed opera in Germany, with Weber's Der Freischütz in second place. Four Wagner operas were placed next. By 1938-39 however, the highest ranked Wagner opera - Lohengrin - achieved only 12th place. It is true, though, that Wagner's music was used at key moments in the Nazi regime. The Ride of the Valkyries was broadcast to accompany reports on German air attacks, Siegfrieds Tod from Götterdammerung would be heard on German wirelesses to announce important deaths - including Hitler's own. And the overture from Rienzi was often heard on ceremonial occasions.
Hitler's personal obsession with the composer was, perhaps, partly to do with his identification with Wagner the man: he saw him as a lonely figure who had battled against the odds to achieve greatness. And as a man who clearly understood the power of spectacle he was, according to Carr, fascinated by the "nuts and bolts of the staging" of the operas.
My favourite songs normally start with “ONETOOTHREEFOR” and a buzz saw guitar riff. I am thus an utter philistine where opera is concerned and , I thus have no idea whether Carr’s views hold water or not... The idea of an opera that starts at breakfast and goes on until well after last orders fills me with dread... I would not be surprised if anyone else, including Nazis, felt the same......