History lesson behind Goering’s XXL undies
Right to keep grim mementoes
THERE was shock and outrage when Hermann Goering’s silk underpants were among Nazi knickknacks auctioned in Germany, and not just because they were XXL.
Many feel such memorabilia should be incinerated, preferably with the remains of the late Reichmarschall still inside.
This is not a view to which I subscribe.
While I appreciate the Third Reich’s second in command’s undies are not up there with the Pyramids, the Parthenon or even Parliament, they are still part of history.
Connection
And however despicable the events they represent we should preserve them to help us learn lessons for the future.
You never know, a century from now some enterprising psychologist might use Goering’s bloomers as evidence of a connection between an XXL bottom and being a genocidal maniac.
The Met Police hang on to trivial items in Scotland Yard’s Black Museum, too, like Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs’ Old Spice aftershave.
There are also gruesome exhibits like the gallstones of one of Acid Bath Murderer John Haigh’s victims which failed to dissolve and the cooking pots House of Horrors killer Dennis Nilsen used to boil human body parts.
Ghastly though they are, they should be kept.
Too much of the past has been destroyed by people who didn’t like what it represented.
Islamic State is busy erasing the history of Syria and Iraq, blowing up magnificent sites future generations will now never see.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes, two of the world’s seven ancient wonders, went long ago because someone objected to them.
We’d have a better idea of the Christian heritage which made Western civilisation if 85 per cent of gospels, epistles and other early documents known to have existed hadn’t been lost, trashed, or suppressed.
Understanding our past helps us to understand ourselves.
The evening before polling day Brexiteers typecast themselves as clinging to the past by endlessly blaring out “There’ll always be an England” outside my office window at the Commons.
There will. And my worry is that now it might be the one Vera Lynn sang about 70-odd years ago.
I’m fond of history and I like looking at the past we’ve preserved. I’m less keen on living in it.