New exhibit has museum crying: "Ich bin kein Nazi!"

Friday will mark the opening of an exhibit dedicated solely to history's largest villain, Adolf Hitler, at the Berlin German Historical Museum. The purpose of the exhibit is to explain just how the cult of personality translated into Hitler's rise to power in Germany, including how churches so readily fell in line with the fuhrer. Although it seems logical to those living in the US, this is the first exhibit of its kind in Germany. The nation has banned numerous symbols of Nazism, including the salute, swastikas, and Mein Kampf, to prevent an almost cult-like following of Hitler from developing. As such, the museum's exhibit lacks "objects Hitler might himself have touched." This exhibit has taken more than six years of planning. As for displays of Hitler's image, there is a strategically placed cabinet containing busts of Hitler. The reasoning behind the placement, as chief curator Professor Hans-Ulrich Thamer explains, is that "we've placed these particularly carefully so that no one can easily pose next to them." Germany, once a nation trying to repress its past, is now making a positive step forward in acknowledging its past.

-Caleb B. Ray