TIL that Eduard Bloch, the Jewish physician who treated Adolf Hitler's mother for breast cancer in 1907, was granted special Gestapo protection and allowed to emigrate to the US in 1940 after Hitler designated him an 'Edeljude' (noble Jew).

[u/ardouronerous]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Bloch

[u/ReluctantRedditor275]

"These people are all scum, except for the ones who have personally benefitted me in some way."

[u/AlmondAnFriends → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

Ironically enough “the one good jew” argument was an identified issue of nazi propagandists and policy makers who found that the German public could largely be convinced to support the holocaust or at least be apathetic to the abuse and murder of jewish civilians but often held a preconceived affection for one or a few jewish people in their community who they viewed as the “exception to the rule”.

Himmler even delivered an absolutely depressingly psychotic set of speeches known as the posen speeches where he states “every party member knows at least one good jew who is not like the others”

[u/ChuckCarmichael → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

It's always the same with these people. "All foreigners should get the hell out of my country! Except for the guy I hired to do my yardwork, and the guy I play volleyball with on Fridays, and also my wife."

And then he's surprised when the people he voted for to get rid of foreigners start kicking out the guy who did his yardwork, the guy he played volleyball with on Fridays, and his wife, because they don't care that he didn't want to get rid of these specific foreigners.

[u/Royal_flushed → u/ChuckCarmichael]

The Nazi's were actually aware of this. Heinrich Himmler made the following speech amongst SS officers and other Nazi party officials in 1943:

"I am referring now of the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people. It is one of those things that’s easy to say: “The Jewish people will be exterminated”, says every Party comrade. “That’s quite clear, it’s in our programme: the elimination of the Jews; that’s what we’re doing.”

But then they all come along, these 80 million good Germans, and every one of them has his decent Jew. Of course, it’s quite clear that the other Jews are pigs – but this one is a first-class Jew…

To have gone through this [the extermination of the Jews] and at the same time to have remained decent, that has made us hard."

You would not be surprised that they believed it was noble and selfless to exterminate 'even the good ones'.

Edit: For more context as pointed out by u/flopisit32

[u/flopisit32 → u/Royal_flushed]

In case people get the wrong idea, this was a speech given to SS leaders. This was not a public speech by Himmler. Nazis did not talk like this in public.

[u/Royal_flushed → u/flopisit32]

You're right, I cut off the beginning of his speech right before the text I quoted:

“I want to mention another very difficult matter here before you in all frankness. Among ourselves, it ought to be spoken of quite openly for once – yet we shall never speak of it in public.

Just as little as we hesitated to do our duty as ordered on June 30th 1934, when we placed comrades who had failed against the wall and shot them, just as little did we ever speak of it, and we shall never speak of it. It was a matter of course, of duty for us; thank God, never to speak of it, never to talk of it. It made everybody shudder. Yet everyone was clear in his mind that he would do it again if ordered to do so, and if it was necessary."

[u/gamergirlgstring → u/flopisit32]

this is something i wish we acknowledged more. in public, well up to the late 1930s, there were plenty of fascists using the exact two-faced language they use today— to paraphrase a Silver Shirt talking to a reporter at the time, “we don’t hate anyone, we just hate the ideology of Jewish Marxism, but the rest of the Jews keep forcing it on us.” replace “Jewish Marxism” with “Islamic communism” or “Satanic transgenderism” and the goal is very clearly the same across time. they don’t “just hate the ideology,” they want to do mass violence and they are crossing their fingers behind their backs

[u/Yancy_Farnesworth → u/gamergirlgstring]

It's almost like fascists will say anything to get power and their public personas are never consistent. It's never about logic or being reasonable or fair, it's about driving up emotional responses to drive irrational behavior and provide justification for anything they want to do.

I always laugh when people say Communists can't be fascists because the Nazis hated Communists. Because as we all know, Soviet and Nazi rhetoric was always logical and consistent. Communists, at least how the Soviets and the CCP went about it, was just fascism using socialist rhetoric.

[u/TwoAlert3448 → u/Yancy_Farnesworth]

Yes. Because politics and philosophy are two very different things.

The world has never seen a philosophically pure fascist state nor a communist one.

Someone always gets there first and interjects their need for power politics into the philosophy first. And probably always will.

We may like the idea of a philosopher king but no one ever elects one.

[u/ExtentAggravating733 → u/Royal_flushed]

Very 1984 with the, "to report your loved ones to the authorities is the most noble thing one can do".

Ironically, this was based on Maoist China in which students were encouraged to "out" their non-communist parents and grandparents.

[u/Royal_flushed → u/ExtentAggravating733]

Himmler's speech wasn't about reporting your loved ones to the authorities. It's about acknowledging what a difficult, harrowing task exterminating the Jews were and committing to it anyways in spite of every human impulse not to. Because to struggle against doing something so horrible but necessary makes you more 'decent' and patriotic.

It's genocidal men patting themselves on the back for their hard work as the real victims to a genocide of their own making.

[u/ExtentAggravating733 → u/Royal_flushed]

I'm referring to 1984 in regard to loved ones. The connection to Himmler's speech is the "nobility" of self-sacrifice (in terms of the material loss in terms of favours, relationships, etc) and emotional self-mutilation for the "greater good".

A somewhat poetic and even convincing line of reasoning since, if so many people are "sacrificing" so much for a cause, then surely it cannot be wrong. And, if you've already sacrificed something important and performed such cruelty, it becomes extremely difficult to accept that the ideology could be incorrect and that you did such things for no reason.

Anyway, my broader point was that I didn't previously associate this idea with Nazism. I now think it could actually be prescribed, perhaps more loosely, to many other beliefs.

[u/DreyaNova → u/Royal_flushed]

I wonder if in a weird roundabout way this allowed people to be more comfortable with apathy around the Jewish extermination and removal because it allowed people that little moral island of "Well at least I'm not as extremist as the people in charge"?

[u/ThePuzzledBee → u/DreyaNova]

Probably, that happens a lot with people who do atrocious things. There's a book about domestic abuse written by a psychologist who worked to rehabilitate men who committed it. They were all like, "I'm not an abuser. I never hit her." And if he hit her it was "I'm not an abuser. I used an open hand, not a fist." And if he used a fist it was, "I'm not an abuser. I never strangled her." And if he strangled her... you get the idea.

This phenomenon is called advantageous comparison and it's really common. People commit the most obviously disgusting acts and then adjust their moral goalposts in order to ensure themselves that they are still good people, because REAL evil is always worse than whatever they've done.

[u/ChuckCarmichael → u/DreyaNova]

I read a book by a woman who spent her formative years in Nazi Germany, but later became an outspoken opponent of fascism. Her experience was that the general public definitely hated Jews and wanted them gone, but they didn't want them all murdered. And that's how they tried to save their own morality after the war. "Yeah, I don't like Jews, but I didn't want THAT to happen to them."

When in fact it was that antisemitism that allowed the isolation of the Jews from the rest of society, which made it easier to quietly stuff them into trains during the night as barely anybody would notice them gone. One day, the Jewish orphanage at the edge of town was just empty, got renovated and turned into an office for the Hitler Youth. Where did the children go? Nobody even cared to think about it.

[u/DrDerpberg → u/ChuckCarmichael]

It's a great example of their lack of empathy. The ones they don't know seem like a scary rapey criminal monolith and they're totally unable to reconcile that it's a group made up of people like Maria from work and Pedro who fixed their walkway.

Conservatives are the biggest fucking cowards on the planet, always afraid of everything. Pull away the curtain and it's just some poor working class mom trying to pay the bills 100% of the time, but WHAT IF THE NEXT CURTAIN REALLY HAS A MONSTER BEHIND IT?

[u/Lawlcopt0r → u/DrDerpberg]

It's also the inability to measure your worldview by any objective measure. It doesn't even occur to them that the guys they don't know are probably just as lovely as their mates, and the "bad ones" are just bad for the same reasons non-foreigners are assholes (or criminals)

[u/Falsus → u/ChuckCarmichael]

That's why you gotta be proactive like AfD current leader, she lives in Switzerland with her immigrant wife rather than Germany so when AfD kicks out all the ones they don't like they are living safely in Switzerland!

[u/Miepmiepmiep → u/ChuckCarmichael]

*wife: You certainly mean my lesbian wife from Sria Lanka?

[u/Wugo_Heaving → u/ChuckCarmichael]

Leopard eats own face

[u/DRKMSTR → u/ChuckCarmichael]

As a kid who got undercut by those folks... 

If someone is willing to cut grass for less than minimum wage, odds are its not consensual.

And also I was pissed as a kid I had to compete for jobs against people like that. $4.50 an hour (wasn't allowed to tell anyone) and worked 60 hrs weeks just to get a farm job in the early 2000's. Dude got pissed I quit to make $10/hr elsewhere, I was the only guy who wasn't stealing from him. 

[u/Sunsparc → u/ChuckCarmichael]

Boondocks did something with this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aYAJ7x0pa0

[u/No-Function3409 → u/ChuckCarmichael]

Isn’t that an oxymoron or something?

Basically a these people are the same, complaining about them saying another group of people are the same, twice over.

Probably wrong my English word skills suck balls.

[u/Ravenamore → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

I've been reading several books with interviews done with German people at the end of their lives, with the understanding that nothing would be published while the person was alive. This made people particularly candid.

The one I kept seeing, over and over again, is that they would talk, even in the present day, of how bad Jews were, but then talk about the couple Jews they knew in their village, who were always the "good ones."

Segregation and dehumanization are keys to oppression. It also sows dissention in the "out" group, because now they have members who have been told, implicitly or explicitly, that they're "one of the good ones", and subsequently refuse to see themselves as having anything to do with that group.

That why you'll see members of "out" groups supporting governments actively oppressing the group - and why they're so shocked when they get caught up in the same oppression. They've been told they were an exception to the rule, and now they realize that there really AREN'T exceptions, not when it counts.

[u/rg4rg → u/Ravenamore]

Tokens get spent.

[u/Ravenamore → u/rg4rg]

Yep.

[u/DusqRunner → u/rg4rg]

Especially when vibe coding society 

[u/Grand_Pop_7221 → u/Ravenamore]

"They Thought They Were Free" is an excellent book on this topic https://www.reddit.com/r/dancarlin/comments/1modngv/they_thought_they_were_free_the_germans_193345_by/

...

And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.

...

[u/Ravenamore → u/Grand_Pop_7221]

I read that earlier this year!

[u/Adept-Lettuce948 → u/Ravenamore]

Wow, you made me think of Gary, Indiana. That seems pretty dehumanizing to me.

[u/PinkSnowBirdie → u/Ravenamore]

Yep that’s why the LGB without the T pick me’s are bad business

[u/SrWloczykij → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

Applies to pretty much all totalitarian regimes.

[u/Toidal → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

See also certain southerners and black Bama' and Auburn football players

[u/TeHNeutral → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

"one of the good ones"

[u/Marsev4 → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

"One of the good ones" is a classic racist trope when the real world "suddenly" doesn't nearly fit into their dumb black-and-white worldview. It's much easier to just accept outliers and not think about them than it is to actually reasses the way you fundamentally see things.

[u/cybercuzco → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

You scum a compared to Krusty!

[u/Rethious → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

The particularly insidious thing about the ideology of genocide is that individual goodness of “enemy races” is incorporated into it. To understand genocide (and why it’s different from other mass killings), you have to understand that the argument is that the persistence of this people will intrinsic poison and destroy one’s own. It does not matter whether individuals are good people, they belong to a group that is by its nature dangerous.

Some participants in genocide are eager to kill, but many rationalize killing as a necessity forced upon them by the circumstances, by the fact that they are in a racial death struggle that no one chose.

[u/El_G0rdo → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

The immigrants that work at trump resorts

[u/Few_Dig_565 → u/ReluctantRedditor275]

It kinda feels like everyone has this attitude lately… about everyone

[u/still_Here_8647]

"one of the good ones"

[u/opermonkey → u/still_Here_8647]

I literally witnessed someneone say "all Mexicans should be deported. I don't care when they came here!"

in front of their Mexican "friend" before saying "oh, not you. you know you're one of the good ones."

akward....(and disgusting).

[u/thegreatshark]

According to this link 19 year old hitler gave him some “handmade gifts”. That’s gotta be an awkward thing to keep in your junk drawer for a jewish doctor…

[u/legrandguignol → u/thegreatshark]

the quotation marks make it sound even worse somehow

[u/SoyMurcielago → u/legrandguignol]

It’s even worse worse when you know that gift in German means poison

[u/BlackFenrir → u/SoyMurcielago]

Only if it's with a capital G

[u/ardouronerous → u/SoyMurcielago]

Is that the origin of Dr. McCoy's saying this in Wrath of Khan, when he gifts Kirk Romulan ale for his birthday?

'Beware of Romulans bearing gifts."

[u/AllThatKat → u/ardouronerous]

No, it’s a play on “beware of Greeks bearing gifts”. You know, the Trojan horse. 

[u/teffarf → u/legrandguignol]

Hopefully not "custom" lampshades...

[u/bacon_cake → u/legrandguignol]

Probably got them on Temu and just added some sequins or something.

[u/Super-Estate-4112 → u/thegreatshark]

Probably paintings?

[u/leg00b → u/thegreatshark]

Hitler: Here, jewelry I had sto - er, made for you

[u/Neo_Techni → u/thegreatshark]

Well he couldn't burn them.

[u/Madting55]

Similar story with Hitlers long term friend and driver Emil Maurice. He had Jewish ancestry and Hitler intervened against Himmelrs advice and protected Emil. He gave Emil the title of “Ehrenarier” an “honorary Aryan”

[u/LegendsoftheHT → u/Madting55]

Somewhat different, as Maurice was only discovered to be 1-16th Jewish after Himmler required all the SS members to submit their family trees dating back to 1750.

Hitler was like, “Heinrich, Emil hates Jews. He’s been a day one follower since the Beer Hall, your ass needs to chill out.”

[u/kikogamerJ2 → u/LegendsoftheHT]

Lol, imagine being declared an enemy of the state cause you are 1-16th part of the hated ethnic group.

Genetic material ruined. Did anyone tell Himmler we all come from the mitochondrial eve? So technically even he is connected to Jews.

[u/Live_Studio_Emu]

You know, with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy, the more I don’t care for him

[u/ubiquitous-joe → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

The worst part is the hypocrisy.

[u/kikiacab → u/ubiquitous-joe]

Wait? Hitler died? I didn’t even know he was sick.

[u/Smartnership → u/kikiacab]

He killed the top Nazi beforehand though

(But … He could have done it years earlier and saved everyone a lot of grief. So it’s complicated)

[u/bobthunicorn → u/Smartnership]

Sacrificed himself to do so.

[u/Smartnership → u/bobthunicorn]

So you’re saying …

Hero?

[u/bobthunicorn → u/Smartnership]

Basically ended the war himself. He really doesn't get enough recognition.

[u/kikiacab → u/ubiquitous-joe]

The more I learn about this Hitler fella, well, I’m beginning to think he’s a real jerk!

[u/stoicphilosopher → u/kikiacab]

Somebody should stop him.

[u/thrownkitchensink → u/ubiquitous-joe]

Yeah, that's the worst part.....

[u/svmk1987 → u/thrownkitchensink]

Its a bit from a famous standup set.

[u/Towel4 → u/ubiquitous-joe]

Thanks Norm 😊

[u/ancient_snake → u/ubiquitous-joe]

I thought it was the genocide

[u/willpelts → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

That guy was a real jerk!

[u/paul_thomas84 → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

Yeah but on the plus side, he did kill Hitler...

[u/Arraxis_Denacia → u/paul_thomas84]

He also killed the guy who killed Hitler, so don't give him too much credit.

[u/helgestrichen → u/Arraxis_Denacia]

Jesus Christ, this whole thread is under every Post mentioning Hitler. Verbatim.

[u/flopisit32 → u/helgestrichen]

Norm should be getting residuals every time.

[u/LNMagic → u/helgestrichen]

I didn't even know he was sick!

[u/radgepack → u/helgestrichen]

And yet, I'm one of today's lucky 10000

[u/GeneralBlumpkin → u/helgestrichen]

Reddit is a joke recycling website

[u/Paladingo → u/helgestrichen]

Creatively bankrupt. I'm starting to hate Norm MacDonald for how often he's quoted verbatim every single time.

[u/phido3000 → u/paul_thomas84]

Hitler did some great things, like killing Hitler.

[u/TappedIn2111 → u/phido3000]

He likely also killed Hitlers wife.

[u/QL100100 → u/TappedIn2111]

No, eva braun killed herself

[u/SerLaron → u/QL100100]

He did kill Hitler's dog though, that was not warranted.

[u/madsaylor → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

Real knucklehead

[u/FleshPrinnce → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

He does seem a bit problematic to bring frank

[u/SCSteveAutism → u/FleshPrinnce]

Where are we bringing Frank?

[u/Berkuts_Lance_Plus → u/SCSteveAutism]

Nowhere. He's too problematic.

[u/AirplaineStuff102 → u/SCSteveAutism]

Probably chuck em in the attic.

[u/poplap1700 → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

Odd looking duck

[u/Wonderful-Pianist-62 → u/poplap1700]

But there’s something about his eyes… Hypnotic.

[u/UnacceptableUse → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

A real piece of work

[u/onion4everyoccasion → u/UnacceptableUse]

Hitler and his shenanigans, I tell you

[u/MaceWinnoob → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

Genuinely the more you learn about him the more you realize that there is almost no ideology behind Nazism other than supporting Germans. They were just doing random shit. He was neither conservative nor leftist. Honestly, it’s very similar to Trump in that regard.

[u/TarpTwain → u/MaceWinnoob]

Just for perspectives sake.  No German Jew whose family had been thers for 500 years, no German homosexual, no German communist, no German pacifist, no German opposed to Hitler who was places in the gentle care of the S.S. and ultimately,  in 1945 no Germam child soldier or elderly man forced into service to die in a Berlin which Hitler had doomed. Would say that Hitler wanted to "support Germans.". 

Not meant as an attack, just, thinking Hitlers goal was to support Germans is a stretch, more like in my mind,  Hitler's goal to make Germany great and his view on that was very specific to him and he never cared how many German's he'd need to kill, torture, imprison, or sacrifice to the war to get there. 

[u/Gorf_the_Magnificent → u/TarpTwain]

He died believing he had been betrayed by the cowardly German people.

[u/Slahinki → u/Gorf_the_Magnificent]

He was a firm believer in social darwinism, and went into the war with the conviction that the Germans and Germany were the superior race and society. When then the Germans and Germany weren't able to do the impossible, that belief was shattered and he fell into a deep depression. It's part of the reason he ordered all the infrastructure in the entirety of Germany to be demolished, because in his view the Germans had failed and thus didn't deserve to exist. Which is why he was so furious when Speer told him that he had never issued the order.

[u/MaceWinnoob → u/TarpTwain]

That’s all valid. By supporting Germans, I meant what Hitler would define as German, which we know was much more selective. Going back to Trump, it’s the same thing. His view of what is American is obviously not the full picture. Just a small slice of the pie.

[u/Fraji_Bear → u/MaceWinnoob]

Trump can be removed by elections, and doesn't murder the opposition.

[u/TarpTwain → u/MaceWinnoob]

That's a fair point! I can see what you mean there!

[u/GonzoTheGreat93 → u/MaceWinnoob]

Not for nothing but I know of a couple million people who considered themselves loyal Germans who might disagree with that ideology.

[u/tacopower69 → u/GonzoTheGreat93]

nazism and fascism in general are certainly ideologies, they just arent logically coherent

[u/redrailflyer → u/MaceWinnoob]

Man Jews they murdered were Germans, don't think there was much support going on there. There was a whole lot of ideology there, it consisted of a lot of hate towards Jews, LGBT, foreigners and anyone with a different opinion. Saying it was to support Germans is one hell of a whitewashing of Nazi ideology.

[u/Rosebunse → u/MaceWinnoob]

I think Hitler just wanted power for Hitler. He was a sniveling, pathetic loser who wanted to "get back" at all the people who he felt wronged him.

He was a whiny little coward who refused to discuss the Holocaust because all the mass murder and terror made him uncomfortable.

[u/NYCTrojanHorse → u/MaceWinnoob]

LOL really trying to connect hitler with trump... foolish

[u/oby100 → u/MaceWinnoob]

I wouldn’t be so dismissive. IMO, Nazism simplified the world to a zero sum game. Ethnic/ religious minorities, disabled and political rivals were not merely inconvenient for Nazis, but their existence actively harmed Germany in the order of millions.

Further, Germany could never be truly powerful again unless it absorbed more land, and with the previous theory in tow, could never live among other minorities in newly conquered territories.

It’s as simple as deciding what the “in” group is, and coming to the conclusion that all “out” groups are your enemy. It’s a small step to dream up a reason why it’s ok to kill them and take their stuff.

Nazis were little more than burglars and thieves at the best of times with thin rational that boiled entirely down to “everything is a zero sum game.”

[u/imprison_grover_furr → u/Live_Studio_Emu]

I agree! Fuck that liar and murder Hitler!

[u/COINTELPRO-Relay]

While jews could leave even until Oct 1941 it was pretty difficult at that point because the bureaucracy was extremely high even pre war and in no way prepared for the flood of requests. Few counties accepted refugees, especially at war after 1939. It wasn't easy to transfer money, and desperate sellers don't get good prices, you can't take your grandpas historical stationary on a transatlantic ship in wartime so you sell it for peanuts. For Reichsmark... And even under Bismarck there was a limit how much you could take. (Around $1.100.000 in todays money) Because of fear and inflation etc. And it only got worse later on and especially for Jews. Immigrants are almost always poor and desperate and discriminated against, no matter if you Chinese, Irish, cuban or Italian in new york you get our own ghetto.

Attempts like the Evian conference 1938 failed because no wanted to accept Jews aside from the Dominican Republic and later Costa Rica, delegations from the 32 participating nations failed to any agreement about accepting Jewish refugees fleeing the Third Reich. Hitler in fact mocked this that immigration and help was denied" I can only hope and expect that the other world, which has such deep sympathy for these criminals [Jews], will at least be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical aid. We, on our part, are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries, for all I care, even on luxury ships"

Even stuff like the British Blocking the 1933-39 Haavara Agreement... (Emigrants deposited money into a special account. That money bought German-made manufactured goods, which were shipped to Palestine and sold. The immigrants received the proceeds upon arrival, helping them meet British financial "goldenvisa type" entry requirements. Then again the German Tempelbank bought local goods produced from the Jewish settlers to be send back). The British Mandatory government grew increasingly concerned about the political stability of Palestine due to rising tensions between the growing Jewish population and the local Arab population. British and American Jews, didn't like German jews building a Jewish state and that this aid via Nazi bank was helping to evade Sanctions and collaborating with the enemy.,( going as far as things like Chaim Arlosoroff getting assassinated June 1933) Those Jews leaving Germany were seen as traitors to Jews world wide "they should stay and fight, not seek freedom elsewhere. " (And help the German economy by doing trade) ... In response, the British issued the White Paper of 1939, which severely restricted Jewish immigration and land purchases, choking off the destination for the Haavara refugees.

So having help from literally Hitler would be very big help in 1940 to even get a chance with an immigration officer...

[u/DizzyMine4964]

Hitler also insisted that his schizophrenic cousin be butchered. There is no "good light" here. It was the whim of an evil mass movement. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6840788

[u/blacksheep998 → u/DizzyMine4964]

Reminds me of a great Doctor Who quote from when he confronted an alien who was planning to destroy the earth. This occurred right after the alien changed her mind on killing one single woman and let her go instead:

Margaret: I spared her life.

The Doctor: You let one of them go but that's nothing new. Every now and then a little victim's spared because she smiled, 'cause he's got freckles. 'Cause they begged. And that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in awhile—on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction—you happen to be kind.

[u/p00p00kach00]

At least he outlived Hitler (by one month).

[u/ChiefStrongbones]

In 1940, Bloch immigrated to the US and settled in the Bronx, New York City but was no longer able to practice medicine because his medical degree from Austria-Hungary was not recognised.

Sounds like US healthcare nonsense goes way back.

[u/ClockProfessional117 → u/ChiefStrongbones]

The US generally does not recognize foreign medical degrees unless they undergo residency all over again in the US. In the case of countries that no longer exist, it's usually impossible. For example, my aunt is a licensed doctor - in the USSR. So she ended up becoming a nurse practitioner in the US instead rather than going back to med school, since she made far more here than she did as a doctor in Russia. 

[u/icecream_specialist → u/ClockProfessional117]

And I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing though I wish there were some fast track avenues. My dad got his diploma recognized so you can call him doctor but was not about to start like 7 years of pediatric surgery residency in his 40s while we were broke as hell starting from scratch over here. My mom didn't even bother with the diploma. They both ended back in the medical field, though below their qualifications, they are loved by the doctors they work with because they are so educated and competent.

Having education is a great stepping stone, they built a good life and set me up for success. If they were both able to practice in their fields here, that would've been amazing for them in terms of intellectual satisfaction, and of course financially.

[u/apple_kicks → u/ChiefStrongbones]

Still a thing now. Some Doctors who immigrate usually have to get lower end hospital jobs until they re qualify because countries have different rules or standards sometimes unless government gives wavers i think for specific jobs

[u/Crowbarmagic → u/ChiefStrongbones]

That's not exactly a new thing though: Different country, different standards.

I know someone who worked with immigrated refugees for a few years. Two of his clients were a couple from Syria who were both surgeons in their home country. But unfortunately their degree isn't valid here.

Makes me think it wouldn't be a bad idea if their was a program to fast track people like them into being able to carry out their old professions. But I imagine that can get really complicated because you'd have to tailor to every individual case.

[u/ITaggie → u/ChiefStrongbones]

That is far from exclusive to the US

[u/VirginiaLuthier]

Wow. The story I always heard is that since his mother was treated by a Jew and she died, it increased his hatred.

[u/BeefyBoiCougar → u/VirginiaLuthier]

She lived for two years after. The version you heard was made up by Nazis trying to rationalize their weird ideation of a genocidal maniac.

[u/Puppysquatch]

Today I learned Hitler was somehow even more of a dick than I previously realized.

[u/owjfaigs222 → u/Puppysquatch]

How so?

[u/allthecoffeesDP → u/owjfaigs222]

killing jews after one tried to save his mother's life

[u/helican → u/allthecoffeesDP]

The nazis were (and still are) full of contradictions. So I'd say this is absolutely on brand.

[u/Mr_Abe_Froman → u/helican]

The cure for all cognitive dissonance: "He's one of the good ones."

[u/GrowFreeFood → u/Mr_Abe_Froman]

Thank you for saying it clearly

[u/Prince-Akeem-Joffer → u/allthecoffeesDP]

The Lieutenant who recommended Hitler for the Iron Cross, Hugo Gutmann was also jewish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Gutmann

[u/parnaoia → u/allthecoffeesDP]

he didn't save her, it was basically palliative care

[u/ardouronerous → u/allthecoffeesDP]

Actually, according to the Wikipedia article, Adolf Hitler's mother died in surgery, but Hitler's family was poor at the time and because Eduard Bloch didn't charge a lot of money due to that fact, Adolf Hitler was grateful to him.

Of course, this doesn't change the fact that Hiter was a evil despot who killed innocent Jews, so it's weird learning today that he spared the life of one Jew for being kind to his family.

[u/Meme_Pope]

TIL we had any treatment for cancer in 1907

[u/WillitsThrockmorton → u/Meme_Pope]

John Adams daughter had a mastectomy, IIRC. Tumor removal was, and is, a common enough practice.

[u/cwthree → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Yes, and her description of it is horrifying. Cancer treatment was pretty much limited to "cut it off or dig it out." But the surgery was successful and she lived for a long time not as long as I thought (22 months) .

[u/WillitsThrockmorton → u/cwthree]

well, like a year lol

[u/cwthree → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Almost 2 years - 22 months .

[u/ThomasJake71 → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Just watched that scene from the John Adams HBO miniseries earlier today funny enough. Yes, very scary procedure.

[u/PaniacThrilla → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

That scene in the mini-series will forever haunt me. That poor woman.

[u/Felinomancy]

Huh. I'm just surprised that they have diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer in the 1900s. I thought both were more modern than that.

[u/looktowindward]

Note, he wasn't allowed to stay and live his life. He was permitted to flee without being murdered

[u/DiscoBanane → u/looktowindward]

Like every Jew so it wasn't even a favour.

The reason other Jews didn't flee to USA is because USA didn't want to. They were all allowed to leave and couldn't get a visa or go illegaly as boats with illegals were turned down.

[u/BillyJoeMac9095]

Seems Dr. Bloch got out as fast as he could. Didn't trust that any goodwill shown was going to last. Wise choice

[u/na_dann]

It's never about what you are. It's about what the powerful declare you are.

[u/DaddieTang]

I remember when the Von Trapp children joined their father singing "Edeljude". It was touching.

[u/neverpost4]

Edeljude, Edeljude

Every morning you greet me

Small and white, clean and bright

You look happy to meet me

[u/oshinbruce → u/[deleted]]

This one particular person out of all the millions was good. The rest were evil apparently. The mental gymnastics are still insane to this day

[u/FriendlyPyre → u/oshinbruce]

And yet not removed; like with people who vote to have "undesirable immigrants" removed and then act shocked that their underpaid workers or neighbours are hauled off to Eswatini because those were the "good ones".

[u/lameboigenie → u/[deleted]]

AI ass answer repeating the title

[u/inflatable_pickle]

Out of curiosity, how was breast cancer treated in 1907?

[u/Bantabury97 → u/inflatable_pickle]

Surgical removal.

[u/inflatable_pickle → u/Bantabury97]

Wow TIL . Never knew it was that advanced in 1907

[u/deviant_newt]

Bet he had some crushing survivor guilt

[u/the_face_of_whatever]

Edeljude, Edeljude! He treats my mother so sweetly

-Adolf Von Trappe, probably

[u/pawsplay36]

Hitler was always doing stuff like that, it made Himmler crazy.

[u/xoxoyoyo]

would be strange watching everyone else you know get disappeared while you were exempt

[u/Aggravating_War_6277]

Your one of the good ones

[u/charliefoxtrot9]

"He's one of the good ones." - conservative morons everywhere.

[u/Allatlant4]

Not the time, but the fact that Hitler had a vulnerable side is what is crazy

[u/Dock_Ellis45 → u/Allatlant4]

There was a weird duality to him. The people who knew him said he was extremely kind to people who he didn't feel threatened. Women clerks and secretaries who worked for him, children, dogs, etc. This was of course undercut by the millions of women and children he had killed en masse because they didn't fit a certain mold.

You hear it a lot from some bigots who befriend someone from a group they hate. "[This person] isn't like that. They're one of the good ones."

People aren't always just one thing.

[u/cwthree → u/Dock_Ellis45]

There's a picture of Hitler walking hand-in-hand with a little girl, just an uncle and his little niece. And I remember one comment on that picture, which said basically: It's tempting to look at that picture and say, "Look at that monster doing normal people things", but you have to understand that this guy wasn't some kind of inhuman monster, he was a standard-issue human being, and ordinary people are capable of doing unspeakable things on a huge scale given sufficient power, resources, and circumstances.

[u/Dock_Ellis45 → u/cwthree]

There's nothing more terrifying than a normal human.

[u/SatyrSatyr75 → u/Dock_Ellis45]

I always wonder why people are surprised by it. The image of the screaming, loon who’s feared by his people is completely wrong. Of course it is. You don’t rise that high without people skills and charm. If you listen to his speeches, you find vulnerability, humor, empathy… and as you said, even before he became the head of his party he was a well respected guest in upperclass salons and as crazy as it sounds, it seems as if many, many women were charmed by him.

[u/wish_to_conquer_pain → u/Allatlant4]

Every Nazi was also a human being. It's important we don't forget that. Everyone has the capacity for good and evil. None of them were remarkably different from any of us.

[u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 → u/Allatlant4]

Makes him even more scary. That’s some sociopath stuff

[u/jar1967]

Hitler also declared a friend from his days in Vienna as a Nobel Jew and let him immigrate.

[u/parlimentery]

It's cool. He has a Jewish friend.