Hitler has only got one... globe

Saw this news item today, Hitler's desk globe was auctioned off to an American entrepreneur - according to this Ha'aretz article a Jewish guy at that - for over $100,000. The seller was 91 year old American World War II vet John Barsamian, who says he found it in the ruins of the dictator's "Eagle's Nest," surprisingly unharmed.

I'm always amazed at how WWII seems to have been an extended lootfest, with soldiers on both sides making off with a wide variety of goods. I've often wondered about the logistics of getting this stuff home. Do you walk around a bombed out Germany holding Hitler's globe under one arm for months, or hit up your buddy who does mail call and say, "Hey, I have this globe here I picked up, I know resources are a bit stretched what with the war and all, but would you mind..?"

My first thought, though, was "Haven't we already seen Hitler's globe?"


That footage, of course, was from The Great Dictator, the 1940 film in which premature anti-fascist Charlie Chaplin played both a slight parody of Hitler and a look-alike Jewish barber who is tormented by his policies. The story leaves us with the barber, through a series of wacky events, taking the dictator's place at a major rally. The speech the barber reluctantly gives is one of the more famous in film history, and clearly shows Chaplin's socialist leanings.