This picture gives me mixed feeling. It shows how unclear the perception of the situation was for our parents.

We could make use of this lesson about today situation... How many dictators currently actives in the world ?

François, you're probably right in having mixed feelings. Maybe my "very cool" isn't very appropriate. I do agree with you that it's quite interesting to see this because it does show how many people, at least when this magazine came out, still thought Hitler was "cool".

I think that my (unconscious and stupid) question was:

If my parents would have read this at that time (before the war), what would have been their feeling ?

After all, our governements were still negotiating with him around that time. And no information was available to the public about the concentration camps.

Francois, you're dead wrong. As early as (and to name just one publication) 1933 a "Braunbuch" was published in Basel. You find there a list of 45 KZ's (page 274) including already Dachau with 5000 inmates.The whole KZ population was estimated to be 45 000 to 50 000. Of course no Jews yet (just comunists, anarchists, lefties, bums ecc) and no exterminations. But torture,killings.The usual nazistuff.

Joi, I am glad that you have retracted your comment about the article being "very cool". At the time that this article was printed, my Great Grandpa had had the sense to see the writing on the wall and leave from Germany to England. It is because of this that unlike millions of Jews - he survived and I am here today. Many others probably were taken in by the "genteel" image portrayed by this magazine.

Hi

I'm the friend of Tom Coates who found this, scanned it, and has since got into a bit of a scrap with Homes and Gardens.

Just so you know: I'm also Jewish, so no great fan of the Fuhrer, but thought it was important that as many people as possible see this.

When you realise that even Hitler had his fans in the UK, as late as 1938 (and indeed much later), it makes you realise that very few issues will ever be completely clear cut at the time.

There will always be someone plausible and intelligent to argue for the bad guy: whether it's Pinochet, South Africa under Apartheid, Stalin or Ceaucescu - to name but a few.

I'm going to take the scans down. Technically, I would imagine they are in breach of copyright: although as I'm not making any money from them, and I'm not depriving Homes and Gardens of any money, and as no-one else can really make any money from them...I feel that a more enlightened media owner might have let it go.

In the meantime...I know a few sites have already taken the scans without my permission (before there were any copyright issues). Unfortunately, some of those are from right wing extremists/ historical revisionists. I hope they have/ will some more enlightened homes.

History has many shades and colors, we should want to shine as much light as possible on all elements of history, good and evil. How will we ever be able to develop any true sense of judgement when we are afraid to face or discuss the past.

You have come across a great find. It reflects on the politics, the media, and the collusion with evil that goes on everyday. I would ignore BH&G lawyers. The more they press the issue, the more press it will bring them. Given its age, I doubt they have a leg to stand on.

Here is a great link I discovered today, that was written in 1933. Very illuminating. I don't think anyone should be getting a free pass on this type of information. It needs to be shouted from the mountain tops.

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html#c1

Some fallout: Guardian Unlimited | Online | At home with the Fuhrer

lindemann: Not only the gentiles. My grandfather, a Rabbi and Auschwitz survivor, rarely spoke about "that time", but he once told me about the reasons, he and a lot of my family were taken with Hitler and his rule. Under Hitler, he told me, he felt safe for quite some time. Hitler created work programs, that literally cleaned the streets of dirt and beggars. He strengthened the police force, which, initially, also secured the schtetl, my family lived in, and reduced crime significantly. He outlawed guns, predominantly owned by aristocrats, who delighted themselves in a perverse "game" during which they went "Jew-hunting". And, lastly, he hated Stalin, a man who had already begun to intern and execute Jews in the Soviet Union.

My family had a chance to immigrate to Britain in 1933, and was literally talked out of it by family members in the US who thought Hitler was cool, and my Grandfather who never thought, the whole thing would turn out the way, it did. Anti-semitism and the murder of Jews was quite wide-spread in the world, back then, and leaving the relative security of the schtetl to move in with the Gentiles was something not every Jew wanted to do. Don't forget, also, that the resentments, back then, were mutual. Jews disliked gentiles and would have nothing to do with them, while non-Jews found a great scape-goat in the reclusive, and generally as xenophobic as them, Jews.

Articles like the Home and Garden one showed Hitler as a man who valued art and style, something that appealed to the intellectuals who resented the simplistic and non-artsy world post-WWOne. And the Jewish population of Germany was undoubtedly better educated than most other Germans. All in all, it is important to understand why the Holocaust happened, and why Hitler commandeered so much respect and even love across the world, even in the US, and even amongst Jews.

Lastly, this is an article on Hitler. Not the Holocaust. To reduce the reign of the Nazi party to the Holocaust is a disservice to those who fought against Nazi Germany, and those who died during those years.

lindemann: Not only the gentiles. My grandfather, a Rabbi and Auschwitz survivor, rarely spoke about "that time", but he once told me about the reasons, he and a lot of my family were taken with Hitler and his rule. Under Hitler, he told me, he felt safe for quite some time. Hitler created work programs, that literally cleaned the streets of dirt and beggars. He strengthened the police force, which, initially, also secured the schtetl, my family lived in, and reduced crime significantly. He outlawed guns, predominantly owned by aristocrats, who delighted themselves in a perverse "game" during which they went "Jew-hunting". And, lastly, he hated Stalin, a man who had already begun to intern and execute Jews in the Soviet Union.

My family had a chance to immigrate to Britain in 1933, and was literally talked out of it by family members in the US who thought Hitler was cool, and my Grandfather who never thought, the whole thing would turn out the way, it did. Anti-semitism and the murder of Jews was quite wide-spread in the world, back then, and leaving the relative security of the schtetl to move in with the Gentiles was something not every Jew wanted to do. Don't forget, also, that the resentments, back then, were mutual. Jews disliked gentiles and would have nothing to do with them, while non-Jews found a great scape-goat in the reclusive, and generally as xenophobic as them, Jews.

Articles like the Home and Garden one showed Hitler as a man who valued art and style, something that appealed to the intellectuals who resented the simplistic and non-artsy world post-WWOne. And the Jewish population of Germany was undoubtedly better educated than most other Germans. All in all, it is important to understand why the Holocaust happened, and why Hitler commandeered so much respect and even love across the world, even in the US, and even amongst Jews.

Lastly, this is an article on Hitler. Not the Holocaust. To reduce the reign of the Nazi party to the Holocaust is a disservice to those who fought against Nazi Germany, and those who died during those years.

This actually is a post for Peter Gruits, I'd actually like to find out who you are, as I'm conducting family research from the states and you seem to have the same last names as I do. If anyone happens to have Mr. Gruits' e-mail I would be most grateful to be put in touch with him.

Hi Christopher;

I know who Peter Gruits is. He's my father's first cousin. I'm originally from the Detroit area. I would be willing to bet we are related in some fashion because it's my understanding that we are the only family in the US with the last name of Gruits...but I'd be amazed to talk to you.

You're welcome to email me. Tracy Gruits: curryinmo@aol.com