Can the name Hitler ever be neutral?
Three cheers for the principled cake-makers of Holland Township, New Jersey, for refusing to waste their icing sugar writing Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler on a birthday cake. Little Adolf Hitler Campbell was apparently given his name because, as his brain-challenged father explained, no one else in the world would have it. And he can't see what the fuss is about: "Other kids get their cake," he complained. "I get a hard time. It's not fair to my children. How can a name be offensive?"
Maybe this'll give you a clue, Mr Campbell. Here's the account of the other Adolf Hitler's birthday celebrations in April, 1939. Along with the ghastly plywood swastikas and papier mache eagles, processions of SS cadets and the wearers of the infamous Blood Order, comes a telling little quote from Goebbels:
In a speech to the people broadcast this evening from all German stations the Minister of Propaganda, Dr Goebbels, said that there was no one on the globe who could remain indifferent to the name "Hitler." For some that name meant hope, faith, and future, for others it was the object of distorted hate, base lies, and cowardly calumny ...
Remains to be seen if nominative determinism - the idea that there is a link between people's names and their occupation (read Comment Central's ten examples) - will pay out in little Adolf's case, but with a sister called Aryan Nation you can bet his parents are hoping.
History doesn't relate whether big Hitler got a cake, but he was sung to sleep by the choir of his own SS bodyguard from the courtyard of the Chancery.
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