Fuhrer furor

IN his Dec. 17 article “The Monster in ‘Max,’ ” a movie about Adolf Hitler, Patrick Goldstein quotes Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League as saying, “Why the need or desire to make this monster human? Why trivialize the judgment of history by focusing on his childhood and adolescence?”

Much as Foxman may deny the fact, Hitler was a complex human being. The need to acknowledge that fact derives from the need to understand how a person could acquire power in a modern nation. To pretend that such an understanding is not worthwhile is dangerous.

I assume that Foxman is sophisticated enough to realize that because one seeks such understanding does not make one sympathetic toward Hitler. Indeed, understanding the complexity of his character makes one better able to comprehend what evil is. If Hitler is a one-dimensional character, then one’s understanding of evil is trivialized.

Arch Miller

Arcadia