News Analysis: How a modern fascination with Nazi evil fuels a thriving Hitler industry

Here is the scale model of Adolf Hitler in a Mercedes saluting from the rear seat for £30. Then there is the postcard carrying his signature for £5, and a gleaming bronze bust available for £100. That is not to mention the 95 feature films and 1,651 books on Der Führer.

For anyone with even the mildest interest in the German despot, it takes only the briefest trip into cyberspace to reveal the sheer scale and diversity of a resurgent and global Hitler industry. From biographies read by millions to a stream of documentaries and dramas; from a repellent internet trade in memorabilia ­ such as his hair ­ to tour companies offering Hitler holidays, fascination with the driving force behind the Holocaust is at an unprecedented level.

Such is the interest that the Government's schools watchdog issued a warning yesterday, reported by The Independent, that pupils' understanding of history was being imperilled by a "Hitlerisation" of teaching of the past in schools.

A report by Ofsted, which expressed concern that secondary pupils were repeatedly studying Hitler is part of a wider debate about the nature of Britain's enduring obsession. Those concerned at the ubiquity of the Third Reich in the history classroom ­ and beyond to the nation's bookshops and living rooms ­ fear it stunts understanding of other periods and leads to an unhealthy personality cult.

On the opposite side of the argument there are those who point to the monstrosity of the Nazi regime and its leader, arguing that it is difficult to run out of important issues relating to Hitler to highlight to the wider population.

Karen Pollock, director of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "There is no harm in revisiting the subject of Hitler in schools and beyond as long as it is revisited from a different angle each time.

"The important thing with Hitler is that you do not demonise him or detach him as a human being ­ the Nazi regime and the Holocaust was about other individuals and other ordinary people who were capable of extreme deeds. It is an understanding that has many applications in our society."

The battle to turn Hitler from a cartoon villain into a nuanced historical figure is, for many, at the heart of the debate.

Experts in this field of "Hitlerography" point to the early 1990s and German reunification as the beginning of Britain's new interest in Hitler, driven by genuine interest in German history and a more jingoistic fear about nascent Teutonic expansionism.

Certainly, the market and appetite for products has expanded dramatically. A rash of new books, led by the top-selling biography written by Professor Sir Ian Kershaw, has helped drive book sales on the Second World War to unprecedented levels.

According to figures published by Nielsen BookScan, a data-monitoring company, the number of hardback books on the subject sold between 1998 and 2000 more than doubled to 337,000. The number of paperback sales is estimated at several million. Amazon, the internet bookseller, offers 1,651 titles featuring Hitler in the title ­ the vast majority are biographies and academic works on the Third Reich.

The right-wing historian Andrew Roberts, who this month publishes a work contrasting the leadership styles of Hitler and Winston Churchill, said that the Nazi leader attracts most interest among anAnglo-American readership.

"He lived within the lifetimes of many Britons and remains the purest example of human evil we have in history. People want to understand why the nation that produced Beethoven and Goethe also produced Adolf Hitler," he said.

Running alongside the book sales is a renewed interest from the broadcasting world. The American network CBS announced plans last year for a mini-series on Hitler's early years, based on the first volume of Sir Ian's biography.

Filming for the drama, which stars the British actor Robert Carlyle as Hitler and Stockard Channing as his mother, is to begin this spring.

The BBC had a similar £10m project with Rupert Murdoch's Fox Studios but dropped the idea after protests from anti-Nazi groups in America.

A vigorous trade also exists in Hitler memorabilia. The trade, distasteful to many, is almost entirely based on the internet, allowing retailers from America to Italy to ply their wares internationally.

Among the items easily available yesterday was a scale model of Hitler's Nazi party Mercedes being sold with the following marketing spiel: "Comes fully assembled with bulletproof glass, two party standards and authentic looking miniature Hitler complete with moustache and Iron Cross giving his famous salute."

Auction houses and some websites have sought to clamp down on the trade. It is illegal in France and Germany. Sotheby's is among leading auctioneers refusing to sell personal belongings of Hitler or his henchmen. The internet portal Yahoo! was cleared by a Paris court last week of condoning crimes against humanity when its auction sites were used to sell "Hitlerabilia" two years ago. It has since banned the sale of such items, including replica canisters of Zyklon B poison gas.

But the trade continues. The auction website ebay was yesterday selling a bust of Hitler for £110 and two lots of Hitler postcards, one from 1939 showing him in uniform with the legend "Our Führer". Available elsewhere were $22 (£14) replicas of Hitler's dogtag as a member of a Bavarian infantry regiment in the First World War. In 2001, a German website offered "individual hairs from the Führer's head" at £700 a go.

Helen Haste, professor of psychology at Bath University, said: "People can become obsessed by very powerful men, particularly people who themselves lack any power. But also it is something that it is in the culture ­ every country has its heroes and villains. The villains are those who we have vanquished in battle or in economic competition. Unfortunately, it is also a very simplistic idea that perpetuates stereotypes."

Companies advertising on the internet even offer holidays visiting sites in Munich and trips to the Eagle's Nest, the Nazi leader's fortress in the Bavarian Alps.

For Germans, long bemused by Britain's fixation with Hitler and the Second World War, it is symptomatic of a view of the conflict that concentrates more on military glories than its inhuman depravities.

Professor Peter Longerich, a German academic who directs the Institute of Holocaust Studies at Royal Holloway College in London, said: "The British view tends to concentrate on things like the Blitz and the battle in the desert. It is militaristic. In Germany, where there is a similar obsession with the war, it is focused on the savagery of the eastern front and how the Holocaust was perpetuated."

History for sale

Winston Churchill: There are some 485 books on him in print and memorabilia ranges from Life magazine covers to replica cigars. His descendants are fighting a legal battle with a stairlift company that is using his image to sell its products.

George Washington: The first American president, below, is the focus of a brisk trade. Recent auction lots include a replica "life-mask" of his face from 1785 and a gold frame containing three strands of hair. He is the subject of 771 books.

Joseph Stalin: The Soviet tyrant is the subject of 682 books and a hot trade in artefacts. They include pocket watches and signed photographs. His native Georgian town of Gori sells a brand of Stalin champagne in its Stalin museum.

Mao Zedong: Mementoes from his Cultural Revolution era are particularly sought after by newly enriched Chinese buyers. An auction by Sotheby's two years ago featured a pair of ping-pong paddles to mark a visit by President Nixon in 1971. There are just 87 books published on him.

Napoleon Bonaparte: There is a brisk trade in documents signed by the French emperor, right. Letters signed by Bonaparte regularly fetch £500, along with locks of his hair. There are 524 books published on him.