Hitler wax doll
Photo: AFP
In praise of vandalism
Uri Orbach says that in some cases, illegal act like beheading of Hitler doll is the right move
The news story that made my week was about a visitor to the new Madame Tussauds wax museum in Berlin who proceeded to behead the Hitler doll recently placed there.
Yes, just like that. Two police officers were deployed before that near the wax doll in order to prevent guests from being photographed with the fuehrer. Yet as it turned out, the surprise came from a completely different direction.
The act of beheading undertaken by the visitor is a severe offence according to the laws and regulations of Germany. It constitutes damage to the museum’s property, the vandalizing of a work of art, or a violation of some other clause in the law.
Yet in some cases, an illegal act, or even an act of vandalism, is precisely the kind of deed that is worth more than any phony and high minded statement regarding freedom of expression, artistic and historic documentation, and all sorts of other such hollow clichés.
New hobby of visitors who care
The Germans of course proceeded to remove the headless Hitler wax doll, and next week a decision will be taken on whether the doll, which required the work of 200 artists, will be placed at the museum again.
My only wish is that should this doll indeed be brought back to the museum, beheading this symbol of defilement would become the new hobby of visitors who care.
In some cases, the right amount of violence is a delightful act and the proper response to hypocritical folly. In some cases, when faced with evil and with the artistic display of evil, we need to see the basic instinct of disgust and protest emerging.
