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Taking Hitler off the menu |
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By Khaled Diab Was Belgian television justified in pulling an episode of a cooking
programme featuring Hitler's favourite dish? |
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November
2008 Although
I’m not particularly big on cookery programmes, we have been watching Plat Préféré, hosted
by Flemish celebrity chef Jeroen Meus, which features the favourite dishes of
famous people whose one common characteristic is that they all happen to be
dead. The
episodes on Freddie Mercury and Salvador Dali were fascinating, not so much
due to the food that was cooked, but more because of the intriguing insights
they afforded into these iconic figures’ lives. Last
week, we were surprised to learn that the following episode would feature not
an artist or an actor but Adolf Hitler, one of history’s most destructive
figures and one of the most horrendous mass murderers the world has ever
known. Although dismayed by the choice, I was looking forward to seeing how
the programme would approach Alas, I
never got to find out because – faced with outrage from some Jewish,
resistance and political prisoner groups – the Belgian television channel VRT
decided
to pull the episode which was due to air on Tuesday evening. “Everyone
who has lost a loved one to Nazi barbarity or the concentration camps felt
unsettled by [VRT] dedicating space to this,” said Francois De Coster,
president of the Union of Belgian Political Prisoners, last week. Michael Freilich of But I
wonder if the revelation that Hitler’s favourite dish was trout with butter
sauce would actually change any young person’s views of the man’s politics.
In fact, the suggestion is an insult to young people’s intelligence. Is
Freilich really suggesting that someone might switch off their TV after the
show and think: “Although he started a world war and killed millions of
people, Hitler ate trout, which makes him a regular bloke like us!” With the
exception of neo-Nazis, who will look favourably on Hitler no matter what, I
don’t think this show will make anyone think better of the Nazi leader. While I
appreciate that any programme that deals with Hitler or the Holocaust is
bound to trigger painful memories for those who suffered and their families,
I do not accept that this programme trivialises his bloody legacy. Of
course, a case can be made that the inclusion of Hitler among all the artists
and celebrities featured on the show was a bizarre decision, probably
conceived as a ratings-grabber, given the endless public and media interest
in the second world war and the Nazis. In fact, the broadcaster admitted
to having made a poor call by featuring the Nazi dictator in “a series in
which all other protagonists are famous in the positive sense of the word,
such as Roald Dahl and Jacques Brel”. Nevertheless,
thanks to the effective bid to dictate what we can or cannot watch, viewers
will never get the chance to make up their own minds about the
appropriateness of the programme. But based on the trailer, it would appear
that Jeroen Meus makes no attempts to whitewash history when he visits
Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest hideaway in “Speaking
as someone who almost didn’t exist because of Hitler, I don’t see an issue
with [a] television show discussing his favourite meal,” commented
one perplexed culinary blogger. “As a Jew, I find that the young chef did
nothing offensive at all, and can’t understand the mindset of those who are
raising a fuss,” agreed a poster. The fuss stirred up by this
programme reminds me, albeit it to a smaller scale, of the controversy
sparked by the German film Der Untergang a few
years ago because it explored Hitler’s humaneness – such as his love of dogs
and affection for Eva Braun – amid his madness. But does exploring the person and
personality of Hitler – and not depicting him exclusively as a dehumanised
monster – actually belittle the memory of his millions of victims and give
succour to extremists? At the time of Der Untergang, I found not: I emerged
from the cinema just as horrified by his actions but with greater insight
into the man behind them. Besides, there have been literally
thousands of books, TV documentaries and films that have explored the
minutest details of his life and political career. Max, a film starring John
Cusack, not only moves away from the Hitler-as-monster formula, but goes as
far as to depict the young Adolf as an artist and his friendship with a
Jewish art dealer. The film speculates about what
would have happened had the future Führer found more success as a painter
and, hence, stayed out of politics. Is the implication that, had circumstance
been different, Hitler may not have become a hateful, bitter and murderous
tyrant also sending out the “wrong signal”? It is my opinion that it is the
people who gagged this essentially harmless cookery programme who are sending
out the wrong signal by curbing freedom of expression and inquiry. As long as
they do not represent a danger to others, everyone has a right to express
themselves and, as I’ve argued before, even to offend. This
column appeared in The Guardian Unlimited’s Comment is Free section
on 29 October 2008. Read the related
discussion. ã2008 – Khaled Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this
website is the copyright of Khaled Diab. |
