Adolf Like MeIs it too soon?

Rich Cohen writes in Vanity Fair about his experience walking around with a Hitler moustache in Becoming Adolf. He concludes:

I wore the mustache for about a week. It preceded me into stores and hung in the air after I exited. It sat on my face as I slept. I was Hitler in my dreams. I went to the Jewish Museum. I went to Zabar’s. I went to the Met. I went to the modern wing. I said, “All of this art is decadent.” I stood on the corner of 82nd and Fifth. I stared into space. When you stare into space with a Toothbrush mustache, you are glowering. You can’t help it. You’re looking into crowds. You’re looking at the names on the census that end in “-berg” and “-stein” while thinking, How do we get all these Juden onto trains? But in the end, my project, in its broader aims, was a failure. Because no matter how long, or how casually, or how sarcastically I wore the mustache, it still belonged to Hitler. You cannot claim it, or own it, or clean it as a drug lord cleans money. Because it’s too dirty. Because it’s soaked up too much history. It’s his, and, as far as I’m concerned, he can keep it. When you wear the Toothbrush mustache, you are wearing the worst story in the world right under your nose.

Usually I’d write something smarmy, but all I can think of is a resounding “Duh!” To make up for the lack of content in this post, allow me to present you with a related video clip wherein a young Jewish couple contemplates naming their new baby “Adolf.” The clip is titled “Naming the Baby” but it should be called “How not to name your Baby.”

Enjoy. Shabbat Shalom.

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About the author

ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

2 Comments

  • Subtitle: Why not to do alc while preggers..

    A little while ago I got a book titled ‘No Name’; it’s a guide on how not to name a child; it contains some pretty interesting stats on the popularity, hence overusedness, of first names as well as some amusing tongue-in-cheek comments on the social stigmata some names may attribute to a child.

  • This was hilarious! Best part: “Che….Like the tshirt?” Haha! Ending was funny too 🙂