The book “J’étais le pilote de Hitler” tells a true story that was originally published in 1957. The 2020 French edition, presented and annotated by Claude Quétel, improves our understanding of Hans Baur, one of the founders of Lufthansa in 1926, Hitler‘s personal pilot, but also a high-ranking Nazi SS officer and a close friend of the Führer.
The information offered by Hans Baur is of great interest. Early in Hans Baur’s career, the pilots doing what he did were called aviation pioneers. At the time, planes contained virtually no air navigation instruments that could assist a pilot flying in difficult weather conditions. The Alps are tricky to fly through in good weather, so it gets a lot more challenging in bad weather and in a poorly equipped plane. If we add the freezing conditions, engine failures, cabins that are not heated and that are not equipped with devices providing supplemental oxygen to pilots, then there are flightsthat would be considered something like an “exploit”. This aspect of the book is therefore very interesting.
I also liked all of Hans Baur’s anecdotes about Hitler’s demands on him. Being a pilot for the Führer was no small task. Hitler had very high expectations regarding the performance and the punctuality of his personal pilot, and the latter certainly demonstrated extraordinary abilities to satisfy his superior.
Where we have to be wary is that we are still dealing with an SS pilot, who was a member of the Nazi organization before Hitler took power. We have to question his personal values and what he voluntarily neglected in his book. The regular massacres carried out during Barbarossa Operation in Russia, or the elimination of six million Jews, are not discussed, as the SS pilot maintains he was never involved in politics. He carried passengers without asking questions, but he had chosen Nazism as a political movement. When you are invited to Hitler’s table on a daily basis and are therefore part of his inner circle, it is clear that the Nazi represented by Hans Baur is speaking about more than piloting.
The experience in Russian prisons is described as inhuman by Hans Baur, who has been there ten years. He talks about the transport of German prisoners in cattle cars, very bad food, etc. But I couldn’t help but wonder what planet he lived on to denounce his condition as a prisoner while ignoring the treatment the Germans imposed on the Russians and all the people who were deported and massacred. The Einsatzgruppen were not altar boys. Moreover, Claude Quétel also questioned this remark from Hans Baur, adding that “although very harsh, the living and working conditions in the Soviet camps have nothing to do – as we sometimes read – with those of the German concentration camps.”(p.381).
There are also some inaccuracies and sometimes falsehoods that Claude Quétel does not hesitate to point out. Sometimes these are trivial errors resulting from poor memory. However, other important facts are downright inaccurate. As in this passage where Baur says that Hitler decided to attack Russia four weeks before the start of the war, which is not true. The conquest of the East and of more living space is specifically enunciated in Mein Kampfand is spoken of in a book written while Hitler was in prison in 1923 following a failed coup.
Conclusion
The book « J’étais le pilote de Hitler » is a very interesting book, one more about Nazi Germany. The history of Germany is fascinating and complex, from the time of the Holy Roman Empire to the present day. But it seems that it will always be the twelve years of the Nazi period that will achieve more success in bookstores.
Have a good read!
Click on the link for other books on war in my blog.
“The Psychopath Test” is a very interesting book for those who want to demystify what lies behind the term “psychopath” or “sociopath”. The author also writes about what leads to a medical misdiagnosis of a mental illness in a person. Despite the fact that writing on psychopaths is a serious task, the text is written with a bit of humor and derision, the author often putting forward his own insecurities and neurosis.
Although the book’s main theme is about psychopathy, the spectrum of subjects is quite large and all the stories are interesting, if not surprising. Numerous cases that have made the news throughout the years are brought back to memory, but with new details that allow a deeper understanding.
Jon Ronson’s “The Psychopath Test” Book Cover
Misdiagnosis
It is quite surprising to realize how easy it is to make mistakes in the diagnosis of mental illnesses. There are also several mental illnesses that can be attributed to individuals who do not have a behavior that is considered as strictly “normal” in our society. But since what is standard and acceptable vary throughout the years and societies, it seems obvious that a mental illness can be attributed to a person who is not really sick.
It is quite troubling to realize that mental illnesses will be attributed to children while the particular symptoms of those illnesses are known to become apparent only when a person becomes an adolescent or adult.
Faking madness to avoid prison time is not particularly wise…
The author shows how different personal interpretations by all kinds of “specialists” on the multiple criteria used to diagnose several mental illnesses sometimes result in a person being sent wrongly to a mental institution where she will be heavily medicated for a very long period.
A particularly interesting story is that of a man who faked madness after having committed a violent crime in order to avoid being sent to jail, thinking that he would instead be sent to a psychiatric institution where life is relatively comfortable. He was sent, like he wanted, to a psychiatric institution, but not the one he expected. He spent more than twelve years at Broadmoor, in England, an institution where serial killers and pedophiles are imprisoned.
In his case, the Robert Hare’s list was used. This is a list which is used to determine if a person is a psychopath. His luck turned when the “specialists” considered that he met most of the criteria on the list. He then had to fight for years to prove that he was victim of a wrong interpretation…
Some particularly weird psychotherapy sessions
The author mentions some of the weird experiments that went on to heal patients, experiments that were destined to fail before they even started. For example, the reader learns of psychotherapies where the patients were nude and under LSD influence. Another experiment involved criminals who had to heal each other: they could not stay away and distant from each other as they were taped together, like this serial killer of three children in Toronto who was taped to a car thief…
The negative effects of psychopaths that are highly placed in society
The author tries to verify, using the Robert Hare’s list, if it is true that psychopaths are ruling the world. He admits he partially failed. This seems reasonable since there is about 1% of the population that is composed of psychopaths, and that percentage grows to 3% with politicians and corporate leaders. So, from 3% to 100%, it seems obvious that this was a tall order to start with.
The author quotes one of his sources, Essi Viding, who studies psychopaths: “Psychopaths don’t change. The best you can hope for is that they’ll eventually get too old and lazy to be bothered to offend. And they can seem impressive. Charismatic. People are dazzled. So, yeah, the real trouble starts when one makes it big in mainstream society” (p.60)
Active psychopaths on the stock market can be as dangerous as psychopaths that are serial killers. As Robert Hare writes it: “Serial killers ruin families. Corporate and political and religious psychopaths ruin economies. They ruin societies” (p.112)
“The Psychopath Test” book back cover by author Jon Ronson
The twenty-point Hare PCL-R Checklist to establish if somebody is a psychopath
Here is a summary of the twenty points included in the Robert Hare’s Checklist. If a person scores 30 or more out of 40, she is considered as a psychopath:
1. Glibness/superficial charm 2. Grandiose sense of self-worth 3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom 4. Pathological lying 5. Conning/manipulative 6. Lack of remorse or guilt 7. Shallow affect 8. Callous/lack of empathy 9. Parasitic lifestyle 10. Poor behavioral controls 11. Promiscuous sexual behavior 12. Early behavior problems 13. Lack of realistic long-term goals 14. Impulsivity 15. Irresponsibility 16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions 17. Many short-term marital relationships 18. Juvenile delinquency 19. Revocation of conditional release 20. Criminal versatility
The twenty-point Hare PCL-R Checklist applied to a candidate of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, during the 2016 American Presidential elections
At the time I am reading “The Psychopath Test”, American television is reporting on a daily basis the whereabouts of the American candidates competing to lead the Republican Party for the 2016 American Presidential elections. Every day, I am hearing reporters and political analysts complain about the behavior (point 10) and irresponsible speeches (point 15) of one of the candidate, Donald Trump.
On several occasions, what that candidate has said has been found to be inexact when verified (point 4). I regularly notice his impulsivity when faced with unforeseen events or contradictions (point 14).
Moreover, he refuses to accept responsibility for his actions or words (point 16), does not seem to regret anything which makes any excuses pretty hard to formulate clearly (point 6). According to several well-known and respected political analysts, his long-term goals as to what he would realize if he was elected President of the United States are not realistic (point 13).
Similarly, his lack of empathy towards millions of American citizens is regularly making the news (point 8). He sometimes refers to himself at the third person, continually putting forward his own self-worth (point 2). I did not spend more time researching other connections with the remaining points in the checklist; I leave it to you. CNN nonetheless took the time, in September 2016, to mention some details on the personal life of Mr Trump and if I believe what is said, then points 11 and 17 would also apply here. Having no experience in psychoanalysis, I used the Robert Hare checklist for fun only and no serious conclusion should be drawn here.
The psychopath Emmanuel (Toto) Constant and Haiti
Talking of American politics, the reader discovers Emmanuel (Toto) Constant and the consequences of his actions for Haiti. He is a mass murderer, psychopath, who was working for the CIA in Haiti. He was released from jail when he implied that he would reveal secrets on the American foreign policy in Haiti. Emmanuel Constant “profoundly altered Haitian society for three years, set it spiraling frantically in the wrong direction, destroying the lives of thousands, tainting hundreds of thousands more.” (p.129)
Reality TV and selected mental illnesses
The author also develops the reality TV theme, where guests face each other and fight aggressively, verbally or even physically. He interviewed a person who was in charge of finding the appropriate guests for each program. He learned that the candidates were chosen according to the type of drugs they were taking to stabilize their mental illness. This is not done without making some mistakes and he learned that a member of a family killed herself because she felt guilty about the way she behaved in preparation for the TV program.
Are you a psychopath?
Are you a psychopath? “If you’re beginning to feel worried that you may be a psychopath, if you recognize some of those traits in yourself, if you’re feeling a creeping anxiety about it, that means you are not one” (p.114). The psychopath has no emotions about his own situation: he is not sad about it, does not question himself as to his situation no more than is he happy to be classified as a psychopath.
The financial interests of huge pharmaceutical companies
Obviously, huge financial interests are at play when it comes to prescribing medication to millions of patients susceptible to be diagnosed with a specific mental illness: the role and pressure exerted by pharmaceutical companies are rightly raised in the book:” There are obviously a lot of very ill people out there. But there are also people in the middle, getting overlabeled, becoming more than a big splurge of madness in the minds of the people who benefit from it” (p.267)
Some personal comments
On few occasions, the author’s reasoning surprised me. For example, he founds abnormal to take the time to write articles on a blog since there is no pay to be expected. Should I assume that every act of creativity in society has to be done in exchange for money, otherwise it makes no sense? In another chapter where there is a mention of the 9/11 attacks, he writes: “9/11 obviously wasn’t an inside job”. The word “obviously” replaces what should be an appropriate research on the subject since half of the American population still has unanswered questions about those attacks.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, here is quote that, I think, best resumes the author’s thoughts: “There is no evidence that we’ve been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things” (p.271).
