Myths and archetypes in cinema - the case of Ernest Udet

Many central archetypes operate in the individual psyche and society: the feminine-masculine, the evil, the almighty hero, and the Sacrifice Savior. The archetypes operate in the woman's psyche as in the man's psyche. As reality becomes more complex, the need for archetypes becomes more important.

Cinema is a place where the myth clearly stands out. We need heroes to identify with, and film actors sometimes become a model for human lives. Famous actors are like cultural archetypes. They guide us over time as a stable mythological model, where they are more important than the various characters they replace on screen.

Many actors, because their personality is built around the persona of the actor and not around their true self, fail to form a strong enough personality. The imaginary may also cause the actor over-pride and arrogance. In many cases, the adoption of the character of the false hero is very easy, for the actor and the fans, but the disillusionment is very difficult. This is also because commercial cinema underestimates the depiction of grim reality.

Ernest Udet was an example of such a star. He, too, was endowed with a personality that was not strong enough in relation to the persona of his actor. In many cases, the adoption of the character of the false hero is very easy, for the actor and the fans, but the disillusionment is very difficult. The original myth that is appropriate for comparison in the context of the Nazi regime is the legend of Daedalus and Icarus.

Modern cinema deals extensively with archetypal-mythological models of male-female relationships. The anime and the animus strive in these films to connect into one complete being. In every culture we will find that the myth revolves around opposing pairs, which are binary pairs like life-death, man-god, heaven-earth, blessing-curse and more. The inclusion of opposites is the key to individuation, the wholeness of the self, which is the goal of every individual.

The archetype of the opposing duo has deep roots in popular and military culture: the brotherhood of the warrior duo, the warrior bond with his weapon, and the brotherhood of the unit and the nation. The nature of close ties is flexible. In Udet's case, he was in competition with Herman Goering for the role of squadron commander and failed. Later, during his Nazi career as a senior general, he was in a contest, in which he also lost, against Erhard Milch, for his proximity to Goering and control of the Ministry of Aviation.

Each archetype also receive a negative aspect, which may take over. The magic of evil is a magnet for filmmakers. In the mountain movies, in which Ernest Udet got his fame as a hero pilot, the captives must be rescued at almost any cost. In the face of demonic evil forces one must embark on an active and collective struggle of survival. If at the same time the protagonist manages to maintain a photographic and human brotherhood, and inner forces develop in him, the journey is an initiation into life.

An archetypal duo associated with evil, and an important component of the fighter pilot myth, is the "hunter and prey". Richthofen described in detail his teenage experiences as a cavalryman and hunter, as the primary basis for his flying skills and military leadership. Herman Goering was filmed as a proud pilot alongside a plane he shot down. Hunting is proof of masculinity. It legitimize the abandonment of the sacred connection to others. It encourages a violent mentality. Hunting is also an expression of the ability to disengage from religion.

The military hero embodies the best qualities that the younger generation seeks to instill. The warriors were a focal point of admiration in every generation, in their lives and deaths. Their qualities were focused on one character, who was an exemplary public and a savior, and took on a mythical character. A particularly revered hero is a superhero, omnipotent, with superhuman powers. Behind the character of the superhero is the personality of the magician archetype, powerful, omnipotent, and with a variety of appearances. A situation in which the "I" identifies with the archetype of the magician creates something that does not belong to him. It's inflating the self beyond its dimensions. Man becomes in his own eyes a supreme man. Archetypes have intense and non-personal energetic power. The temptation to be drawn into identification with the magician's personality is inversely related to self-confidence, ego power, and self-awareness.

Germany's famous aircraft squadron in the First World War was nicknamed the "Flying Circus". Its pilots were among the elite of German officers, who adhered to military and moral code, which was expressed in strict adherence to military norms and integrity. Many of them came from the ranks of the German nobility. Richthofen belonged to a noble family with Prussian military heritage. The flying circus officers were unable to put on the wizard mask. The aura of the superhero did not suit them. The trickster archetype suited. The cunning clown, who is a part of magician archetype, was suitable for their image in the general population.

The German society in crisis needed a leader to connect the character of the trickster to the character of the hero. This was Adolf Hitler, who understood his role well. The former corporal was able to inflate his ego without being blamed. This attracted to him and to the Nazi movement all the shadow forces, which are expressed in an aspiration for honor, control, superiority, competition and power, and are characterized by exploitation and deception. The parallel between Hitler and the archetypal magician figure exists in the context of other archetypal figures, such as the almighty hero, the trickster clown, the hunter and the hunted, and the Sacrifice Savior. All are popular in the German folk tradition.

One of the dangers of being the magician archetype is narcissistic, arrogant and forceful arrogance. Goering's pompous figure, Hess' lust for control flying to Britain on his own, and Udet's debauchery were all expressions of this. As long as the hero has no other way to deal with life, he needs his grandiosity. But the magician denies his feelings, and operates in primitive mechanisms of denial and division. He therefore avoids the integration of real emotions, and a real adaptation to reality. As a person he is superficial and lonely. He is connected to technology as compensation. He is a technological hero. He is stuck in a kind of adolescence. His personality is characterized by immature idealization, and immature faith in the future, from which idealism and over-boldness that know no bounds may develop.

The comic books with the blatant graphic illustrations are one of the important sources for the super heroes of the movies. For example, Batman and Superman were heroes of comic books before becoming heroes of movie series. Today's superheroes began as illustrations, and received most of their grandiose design and power in cinema. Ernest Odet was a gifted cartoonist. Carl Ritter, the important Nazi filmmaker and agitator who made nearly a hundred films, and was also a fighter pilot and flight instructor, started as the owner of a graphics studio. Hitler was a painter, and his graphic ambitions were the source of his spiritual power.

A major motif that characterizes comic book characters like Superman, Spiderman and Batman, is that they have super-virtuoso powers. Their abilities express the urge to break free from the limitations of human existence and take off beyond them. The mythical motif of supernatural flight expresses it. The desire for super natural flight pushed humanity on its path to evolution. Aviation joined this desire. Early commentators used the mythological legend of Daedalus and Icarus as a metaphor for describing its achievements. The Nazi's miracle weapons, on which they hung their hopes, after the great failures of the Luftwaffe, were also mostly aviation: the jet, the rocket interceptor, the cruise missile, the ballistic missile, the long-range bomber, and more. The "bad guys", the Allies, had flying abilities that turned out to be even more powerful. As such, they challenged the Nazis even more.

One can look at superheroes from the perspective of a narcissistic disorder. Of lack in parental love, which creates a bond in creating a relationship and empathy for other and reinforces a sense of insecurity, seeking compensation in a fantasy about. Modern consumer and impersonal society encourages this fantasy by fierce achievement competition. The impulse is not an authentic inner fulfillment, but a victory over the other, who is sometimes also endowed with the same superpower. As a result of this extremism, the bad guys are utter villains. The grandiose urge may excite all evil forces in the psyche. 

One of the other dangers of the magician archetype is over-narcissistic, arrogant and forceful pride. As long as the hero has no other way to deal with life, he needs his grandiosity. But the magician denies his feelings, and operates in primitive mechanisms of denial and division. He therefore avoids the integration of real emotions and a real adaptation to reality. As a person he is superficial and lonely. He is connected to technology as compensation. He is a technological hero. He is stuck in adolescence. His personality is characterized by immature idealization and immature faith in the future, from which idealism and over-boldness that know no bounds may develop. Evil Hitler, Goering's pompous figure, Hess' lust for control who flew to Britain on his own, and Udet's debauchery, were all manifestations of this.

The negative hero is a double of the positive hero. They wear masks, which hide their true identity. They run away from painful emotions and translate them into an urge for revenge. The Nazis wore masks. They hid, for example, the rearmament of the army and the re-establishment of the Luftwaffe, as much as they could. They deceived the leaders and peoples of Czechoslovakia and Austria and conquered their countries. The Holocaust took place under the guise of fraud, when the victims were allegedly sent to labor camps, and up to the last minute did not really believe that this was their end.

The evil hero is a double of the good hero, as in the split of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", which is one of the descriptions of Nazi society. The cognitive ability to sharpen contradictions is the base for creating symbols. Every archetypal element in human life is double-faced. Each archetype also receive opposite aspect, which may take over. In many mythical stories, the source of evil is the clinging to a particular object as the sole source of satisfaction from the ego's desires. In the "Ring of the Nibelungs" myth, for example, the ring allows him to be enslaved to greed, and is therefore eventually thrown back into the waters of the Rhine. In other stories, the source of evil is the unbearable, governmental, parental or communal hierarchy.

The magic of evil is a magnet for filmmakers. The evil theme in Ernest Udet's films is that of the egocentric desires. In all the mountain films, the protagonists' feelings regarding the rescue of their loved ones, who are trapped in the storm, are described in detail. The answer is the same in all movies: rescue the trapped, even at the cost of sacrificing life. In the face of demonic evil forces one must embark on an active and collective struggle of survival. If at the same time the protagonist manages to maintain his humanity and positive inner forces are developed in him, the journey is an initiation to life.

The Nazis, in the name of this opposing egocentric desires, became addicted to the forces of control and power. They preferred the mythical principle over human existence. They set out on a crusade into heaven, which was also a crusade against the infidels in their faith. Therefore in Udet's case, the evil ego from which he was freed in the movies reappeared in his failed private life.

The Comics magazines are  an important source of the movies' mythological heroes. For example, Batman and Superman were heroes of comic books before becoming heroes in movies. . The comic book heroes draw power from small, rejected animals, which have a hidden power: a spider for Spiderman, and a bat for Batman. The identification with a weak and mysterious animal allows for a metamorphosis in the hero's soul.

A small animal with metamorphic power is the bird. The young generation of Germany in the Weimar Republic developed state-of-the-art gliders and flying techniques which imitated the flight of birds. They discovered, among other things, the hot air thermals, which birds use to soar in circles. In this way the gliders broke many distance records during the 1920s. Otto Lilienthal, the Jewish pilot who built gliders with wings that mimic the wings of a bird, was immortalized in a magnificent burial shrine.

In fairy tales miraculous events take place that save the heroes. The rescuer can be an external figure, but at the same time the statement comes true: "God helps those who help themselves." Moreover, the path is often more important than the goal. The messages around embarking on a journey are complex. It is difficult to know whether the master is a deceiver who intended to plunge the hero into the abyss, or whether the fall is a way to mobilize mental resources. It is faith and effort that bring salvation. The Red Baron, and the silver aerobatic plane that Udet brought from the United States, were such guides. It was impossible to argue with the Nazi fantasy, because it was part of their ability to survive.

The journey with the guide leads to the theme of the Sacrifice Savior. The myth of the victim is ancient, and has many meanings, both positive and negative. It involves the sacrificial archetype. When a person sacrifices himself, there is an identity between him and the world, and this is the key to a new consciousness. Often self-sacrifice comes as compensation for the sin of pride.

The spirit of sacrifice is one of the qualities of fighter pilots, and it was nurtured by the Nazi regime. Death while flying, in battle or as a result of a technical malfunction, or human error, often occurred at the beginning of the aviation era. The pilots were therefore perceived as sacrificing their lives voluntarily, as Sacrifice Saviors. Richthofen's death made him a myth. The official denial of Ernest Udet's suicide was sweeping, and it was reported that he died in a flight accident. Hitler and Goebbels committed suicide with a cyanide pill. So did Goering at the end of the Nuremberg trial. They have all voluntarily sacrificed themselves. 

Since the Savior Sacrifice motif is a powerful archetype, it emanates from the self even without conscious intention. The shape of the airplane resembles the cross of Christ, which is a major source of self-sacrifice. The Germans were only a few months away from completing the development of their wonder weapons, when a turning point occurred in the war that led to their defeat. The German people were driven, at the very end, by a powerful unconsciousness.

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Karl Ritter's Filmography During the Nazi Regime

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Superheroes, Star Wars movies and aviation culture in the 20th century

The fighters have been a focal point of admiration for every generation, in their lives and deaths. Their qualities were focused on a single character who was exemplary to the public and the savior, and received a mythical character. A particularly revered hero is a super-omnipotent superhero with superhuman powers. The superheroes have undergone a transformation process throughout history, created because they belonged to the popular culture of their time, which had a characteristic emphasis, and used the technological means at its disposal. The characters of ancient superheroes, from the Bible and Greek mythology, became knights on horses in medieval societies. The early heroes of the early twentieth century were aviation pioneers and fighter pilots. Superheroes in the colorful comic booklets were very popular in the United States during the interwar period. After World War II, with the development of space flights, and at the same time as television viewing, the superheroes were identified with the first spacecraft pilots, such as Gagarin and Armstrong. In the early 2000s, the superheroes underwent another transformation, with the development of computing technologies, and now appear mainly in Marvel films. As reality became more complex, the need for archetypes became more important. Cinema, as a multidisciplinary and multidimensional medium, is a place where most of the myth appears, as both cinema and myth appeal to as broad a common denominator as possible.

The periodic transition between different types of characters is not sharp, and there is an overlap between them, as well as sub-genres that are characteristic of the interim periods and situations where no clear superhero characterization has taken place, or when a different characterization is needed. For example, in the 1930s, dictatorial political leaders, such as Hitler and Stalin, enjoyed a superhero image. Following the political crises in the 1960s in the United States, during and after the Vietnam War, superheroes such as Rambo, who were more human and represented personal and social protest, appeared on the movie screen. At the other end of the arc of superheroes are the simple real men who survived unbelievable hardships, led by Holocaust survivors. The survival motif is central to popular culture, but only dozens of films have been made about real survival journeys, as opposed to the countless works of fiction. Much research has been done on Holocaust survivors, but their image has not yet been created as superheroes. Their personal stories blended into the overall myth of Holocaust and Revival of Israel.

The "Star Wars" film series is based on the pattern of superheroes in the stories of mythology, as developed by Professor Campbell, the renowned expert on myth theory. "Star Wars" may be his most well-known legacy left behind. Within this film series, nine sequels have emerged, which are the canon of the series as a feature epic. The first movie in the series came out in 1977, and the last one in the end of 2019. It's about 40 years, then. The series gained unprecedented popularity. It was defined as redefining cinema, as it created an imaginary universe full of details. It has acquired millions of fans on the level of religious believers, and is recognized in almost every home across the globe. Some claim it have changed the world. It is an escapist replacement for the complexity of the race to space, which is one of the characteristics of modern life and central in every country.

The nine-movie canon consists of three trilogies, which represent the parts of the human soul and its evolution, according to Id, Ego, Super Ego. The Disney-owned franchise company also develops it through spin-off films, unique complexes at Disneyworld sites, and as a merchandise that includes computer games, books, comic books, clothing and toys. In this way, the brand reaches every soul in the way that is most appropriate, according to the latest branding and marketing approaches.

Professor Joseph Campbell has been a major source of inspiration for the series creator, George Lucas, and they also formed a personal friendship. Campbell's main book is "The Hero with Thousand Faces ." This book presents the defining characteristics of the superhero figure, who are kept behind many embodiments in different cultures and eras. The Star Wars movie series is entirely based on this theory. The films include a gallery of typical archetypal mythological characters, such as the superhero character, the mentor, the distressed maid, the trickster, the evil hero, the omnipotent magician, and the like. At the same time, the superhero in the series is going on a journey, known in terminology as "The Hero's Journey". This journey includes many stages of development, which are well characterized by the stories of superheroes of all cultures.

Because in much of the twentieth century, the superhero character was identified with pioneer pilots of airplanes and spaceships, two of the star heroes of "Star Wars," Han Solo; the trickster who is Luke Skywalker's faithful friend, and his son Ben, who became an evil hero by the name of Kylo Ran and the successor of Darth and Wader, are of central importance. The importance of the transformations undergone by Han and Ben Solo is also linked to the importance of the dream of flying to the development of the soul. Aviation ability has been identified, from the dawn of humanity, as a characteristic of gods. Han's "Millenium Falcon" spacecraft is the fastest in the galaxy, and it is the object most identified with the series, with the exception of Luke Skywalker's Light Sword. Harrison Ford, who plays Han Solo in the series, is a superstar of Hollywood, and portrayed another superhero character created by George Lucas, Indiana Jones.

Filmmaker Hans Bertram created several aviation films in Nazi Germany. During World War I, some of the most successful fighter pilots were soon promoted to become communicated icons of valor, warriors who donned the national spirit of the war. This was particularly evident in Germany, in the form of the Flying Circus pilots and their commander Richthofen. They became national icons, with a prominent presence in film and print, and in all circles of society. Between the two world wars, aviation films were constantly reinforced, helping to shape contemporary thinking about aviation development. Aviation achievements envisioned a new, stronger and more disciplined German Reich capable of dealing with multiple industrial claims and joining the twentieth-century imperial competition. The memory of World War I was built through the myth of the war experience, which legitimized it by changing the real-life picture. The main image engraved in the collective memory of this war, to this day, is that of the gallant fighter pilot. The distinct symbol of totalitarian and mythical modernism in Nazi Germany was the airplane. Not the airplane per se, but its connections, not the pilot per se but the concepts it entails, were the focus of attention. They served as a means of liberating revolutionary burdens of the past.

In Nazi Germany, the superheroes of American comic booklets were not popular, nor were other superheroes of this style. The Nazis saw themselves as a supreme race, according to the "Superman" model designed by Nietzsche, their official philosopher. The popular superheroes were characters from German folklore and history, such as in Richard Wagner's operas, and from the aviation world, whose heroes were considered to embody the "Suprmman". Bertram was among them. He was part of the famous Pilots Gallery, with Charles Lindberg at the top, who became superheroes in the world media. In 1927, Lindberg crossed the Atlantic alone by airplane. On his return he was honored as king, and millions came to a parade in his honor in New York.

In May 1932 Hans Bertram set out with a friend from Germany to a flight around the world. They had a forced landing in a desert in Australia, and undergone a two-month survival journey, with extensive media coverage on the search for them. He returned to Germany in April 1933, after a year of great upheaval in Germany as well, during which the Nazis came to power. He wrote his story in a book, which became a bestseller with seven million copies in Nazi Germany. He then moved on to writing screenplays and directing films. The story of his survival journey in Australia overlaps with the mythical ''Hero Journey'' that NAzi Germany needed at that time. This is in light of its plot, its exposure in the media, and its connection to the motifs of ''survival'' "superman" adopted by the Nazi regime. Bertram is probably the only pilot in Nazi Germany to have completed a "Hero's Journey," and who has written a non war-propaganda book on the subject. His most famous film is "The Baptism of Fire," a full-length documentary from 1940 about the campaign in Poland, which was characterized by devastating German bombings from the air.

The images of aviation and pilots on television and cinema in the State of Israel involve the military dependence on the air force, which created here the myth of the "best air force in the world". This myth is also rooted in Israel's relations with the United States, which include American popular culture. Therefore, it is interesting to see how major television events, such as the first flight to the moon or the crash of the Columbia Space Shuttle, and ''Star War'' movies, have affected Israeli society. At the same time, it is interesting to review the films that deal with the Israeli Air Force and their impact.

Air transport has become central today. The issue is complicated, in part because, unlike maritime and land transportation, which are the cradle of civilization, aviation is a new dimension. Important, capital-intensive development projects in aviation may shape the fate of a nation. But they are largely startups, which have a very high percentage of failure. Two examples of this are the attempt to land the Israeli spacecraft "Genesis" on the moon, and the development of the "Lavi" aircraft.

The need for heroes in the aviation field is motivated, besides the race for space and the race to develop new aircraft, also by the need to develop the infrastructure of airports, which have become civilization centers due to the airports cities around them. The airports of cities have replaced the maritime port cities, which until recently were the centers of the human race.The "Terminal" theme is well-developed in the Star Wars series. Its many forms, together with the gallery of figures appearing in it, present an alternative order to the constant chaos experienced by passengers today. This chaos, resulting from the routine of the experience, runs counter to the flight aura that existed until World War II.

Another important connection between superhero films and modern-day reality is that these films, in many cases, show sections of a world on the verge of destruction, usually as a result of the invention of new weapons by the forces of evil. The Holocaust worldview in these films overlaps with the  Jewish Holocaust survivors worldview, whose world was also destroyed. The good ending in these films, when usually the good people beat the bad guys, is a therapeutic move. The general destruction worldview is also close to everyday reality, as politicians regularly warn of a disaster that could result from enemy attacks, usually from the air. That is why every citizen takes to himself the images of the imminent destruction, as seen in the superhero films, for the promotion of his personal affairs. Those who have experienced the devastation to the truth, such as the Holocaust survivors, are usually left behind in the race to fulfill their dreams.

The main negative aspect of the development of air power is the many wars that have been decided by it, such as the Vietnam War and the Yom Kippur War. In addition, airborne terrorism has become an integral part of daily life. Its climax was in the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in September 2001. We are witnessing it today in cyber threats, the incessant rocket launches toward Israel, and the passengers and baggage checks before flights. Serious aerial accidents are an integral part of reality, from the era of early aviation to the present.

One of the results of the importance of aviation to human existence in all strata is that the discourse on aviation has become an unconscious part of everyday discourse and is difficult to isolate. Therefore, it is important to see if the awareness to the issue in Israel does not diminish the understanding of the relationship between the Holocaust and aviation. This connection was expressed by the fact that senior Nazi pilots, who were crowned superheroes, played a major part in the final solution planning. A multifaceted aviation culture is evolving nowadays, in the face of the reality imposed on us like a mountain. The Star Wars series does not provide a complete set of tools for understanding the world of flying and aviation, but the complexity it presents is certainly a progression, as opposed to the stalwart approach to the topic so far in popular culture.

Yiddish and the Holocaust

Conversation about the Holocaust after a Yiddish concert in Central park, New York, between three people from the audience, in June 2018.

From the Enlightenment to Romanticism periods following the invention of the flying balloon

The Enlightenment period which dominated Europe in the 18th century sought to define the world under empiric thought, in search of clarity and objectivity. During this period the modern science was developed. The basis for the development of the natural sciences was the work of social thinkers of the 17th century, who described the human being, on empirical principles, as someone who aspires for freedom, education, equality and toleration. These principles led to writing of the first encyclopedia in France, the flourishing of science and industry in this state and the rise of the bourgeoisie. 

The most significant technological achievement of the period, remarkably corresponds with the social ideas, was the invention of the flying balloon in 1783. It was developed simultaneosly in two different scientific-technological directions, a combination unmatched even nowdays in its originality. The flying balloon soaring by hot air was invented by the Montgolfier brothers. The flying balloon soaring by hydrogen gas was invented, a few months later, thanks to the scientist Lavoisier ability to produce this gas industrially. 

The flying balloon is considered, along with the wheel and the print, one of the ten major technological inventions in the history of mankind. The first impression of the giant silk balloon, colorfully painted, which was flown by the Montgolfier brothers for the first time over Paris in the fall of 1783 was immense. The impression of the much more effective hydrogen baloon, who flew for days and hundreds of miles, was beyond imagination. Everyone could now rise upto the sky and watch the world from above. The result was that the people revolt against the corrupt monarchy. But in the absence of proper cultural background social chaos took place, in the form of the bloody French Revolution.

During the chaos of the French Revolution it was Napoleon, an ambitious artillery officer who was among the first to use observation balloons for artillery purposes, who tried to impose political order in Europe, but without success. The wars he conducted caused political reaction that lasted a hundred years. This clumsy political development corresponded remarkably with the flying baloon technological development. The Reaction period of all the 19th century can be paralleled, by its nature of simple conservativity, to the simple reaction which is needed to creates the hot air or hydrogen.

The flying balloon started to be in use for  military intelligence, but especially when anchored to the ground to prevent the loss of observers and expensive equipment. After many successful flights in France, the balloon got attention in America and was used in the Civil War by the North for observations. It was one of the decisive factors of the victory over the South. Science fiction writers like Jules Verne described flying balloons with engines, but during the 19th century it remained at the mercy of the winds and therefore of limited use.

During the 19th century, in parallel with the Reaction period, the French Revolution sent ideological waves at Central Europe and shocked the Enlightenment ideas. In Germany in particular, a romantic period with its own uniqueness changed the way of thinking and affected the climate of thought. The Romantic period sought to break the limits of thought in favor of emotional values, undefined yearning and desire for the endless and unrealistic love. It was realized through belief in struggle and pathos. The Romanticism period was parallel to the central human desire at that time to fight the winds and navigate successfully in the sky.
This combination of Romanticism and Reactionism will be the backwind for Hitler.

Aviation importance to Germany

In the hundred years which passed from late 18th century up to late 19th century there have been sharp ideological and political transformations in Europe. They can be described as a transition from the Enlightenment period to the Romanticism period. These changes occurred in correlatation with the rapid technological developments, particulary in aviation. It was the transformation from the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution. From God revealed out of cycles of fertility and growth to God who is revealed out of the machines. In aviation, this transformation was manifested through the development of the flying baloon, which its era of dominating the skies is paralel to the era of Romanticism.

The flying baloon, and later on the airship and airplane, were revolutionary inventions that science did not predict. They were created by technical ingenuity of practical men. There was not a proper preparation of society for them. During the 19th century flying balloons created new paths and destinies. Human beings soared to the skies of God realms and earth’s gravity was unchained. Human boundaries and limits have been redefined, creating a revolution of worldview. But instead of adopting the positive ideas of the French Revolution, Europe got regressed into reactionary monarchies during the 19th century.

In early 20th century there were more ideological changes that came with the invention of the airship and airplane. Romanticism was replaced with Modernism. The universal ideas of the French Revolution were converted into extreme nationalism. Man was released gradually from traditional conceptions about flight, which were always involved with wings of the birds and replaced it with new concepts, were high fixed speed became the supreme value. At the same time aviation was transformed, in an era of modern and total states where national defense became the ultimate goal, not just to a symbol of progress, but also to a symbol of unity and national victory. In the aviation dictatorships of the first half of the 20th century, Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan and Italy, the airplane was kind of a religious icon, a new form of religious fanaticism. It was identical with the spiritual flight.

During the second half of the 20th century Modernism gave way to Post Modernism . During this period the missile replaced the airplane as ruler of the skies. The armed balistic missille, controlled at the touch of a button which can eliminate humanity, brought people to cynical worldview centered on themselves.

The spread of Romanticism movement, contributed to a new political world view among the Germans, who lived until the late 19th century in small kingdoms ruled from towering hilltop castles and fought each other. The natural desire was to unite under one roof. In the second half of the 19th century they started a process of consolidating the small German states into one big state, called the Second Reich. The process came to an end only after Hitler's rise to power, when all police forces were consolidated into one central police controlled by the SS. Second Reich was the period in which Germany has moved from Romanticism to Modernism. German Modernism had a militarist face, according to the German political tradition. Below are few key concepts to describe the period:

Pan German - During the Second Reich many German citizens joined a romantic movement with broad popular definitions, the Pan German, which had irrational belief in anything that was 'Germany'. Pan German organizations were vocal and influential, with political pressure groups who often made declarations of intent and mobilized public support. They advocated modern paganism with alternatives to the established religions using appropriate rituals and texts.

Bismarck - Otto von Bismarck, the giant in body and spirit, was the Iron Chancellor of the Second Reich who began to unite the German states gradually under the control of Prussia, the great and powerful kingdom from the north.

The process created Germany as a constitutional monarchy. The emperor was an influential icon, who united all corners of the nation. Actual control was in the hands of Bismarck. But after the death of Bismarck there was not a political leader of stature to counterweight the emperor. As a result, Germany was dominated in the early 20th century by capricious and powerful emperor with few skills to manage huge modern state.

The Second Reich was characterized by a conservative and dominant central government. Bismarck used three main components for establishing its policies: modernization, imperialism, and militarism.

Modernization - Rapid industrialization and modernization took place, aided by the great migration of population from villages to cities. Smoking tall chimneys of factories were popular icon of this period. Modernization took place in recognition of the fact that the real political power is still in the hands of the aristocrats, despite the greater importance of manufacturers.

Imperialism - Bismarck understood the value of the colonies as an addition and as a unifying factor. One of his arguments was that Great Britain's international standing has limited the economic growth of Germany and threatened its security, because economic survival depends on the availability of foreign markets. German imperialism promised the masses of all the social spectrum limitless possibilities in overseas countries. German imperialism was spread especially across the borders of Germany, and the neighboring states became part of its sphere of influence.

Militarism - Imperialism demanded strong army, which was already an essential component of the centralized regime of Bismarck. In the past the powerful army of Prussia gave her a world reputation of great importance. But Prussia didn’t have non-European colonial tradition. Now, it had the momentum to take advantage of a full military potential. the imperialist and militaristic mindset united and inflamed the aristocracy, industrialists and the public and contributed to waves of intense nationalism.

Due to all these reasons and more, united Germany developed aviation with great enthusiasm. Later it would even be nicknamed a 'nation of aviators'. Biographies of Germany’s aviation pioneers shows just how great was their enthusiasm and contribution to the development of aviation in the world. It is equally possible to see how wrong choices made throughout their way shaped the destiny for their homeland and consequently how much it tempted the state to control the decision-making process on the issue, instead of letting free competition.

Otto Lilienthal was a German engineer of Jewish origin, a pioneer of aviation and world's most famous aviator during late 19th century. Lilienthal did much to promote aviation and was the first man who designed and built a glider that could carry a person. Lilienthal was attracted from the begining to the idea of flying through the imitation of the structure and movement of the wings of the birds, since this idea cdominated the perception of aviation in Europe from ancient times to Leonardo Da-Vinci. His brother Gustav continued this line of thought after his untimely death in an aerial accident and tried intensively, until the 1930th, to built a big airplane with waving wings, long after the airplane with fixed wings and propeller became a sole ruler of the skies.

In the late 19th century the Germans developed another air transport mode which and much more efficient, the airship. This was elongated flying balloon wuth a rigid frame and driven by motors, thus allowing movement not only by the grace of the winds. The airship too was invented by a Jew, David Schwartz, but was named after the key figure who developed and promoted it in Germany, Count Zeppelin, and after him all airships became known just as Zeppelins. Despite the initial enthusiasm, it was a huge machine and therefore very expensive, cumbersome and vulnerable, especially due to the use of flamable hydrogen gas to create lift capacity. Airship development was not possible through private enterprise alone. It needed the support of the German people, eager to finance and stimulate these air pioneers. After the first airship crashed and discouraged the inventors, it was the turn of businessmen and politicians who sold the dream to the masses. Thanks to the public's financial support and  enthusiasm, aviation enthusiasts won the idea of count Zeppelin to produce more and more airships and to make them, eventually, the major strategic weapon during World War I. It was despite the rapid development of airplane technology.

The airplane was invented in the United States and Germany imported the technological innovation while focusing on the airship. Germany was then in the mid of its rapid modernizm, colonialism and militarism and therefore the airplane created an internal conflict. There was an intense incentive to adopt imported technologies at the expense of local technologies, but at a huge price for the national pride.

Aviation Industry in Germany was developed from zero to be a najor part of the economy within few years. It was developed not just as an integral part of technological development, in  process similar to that of many other modern states. In Germany, during the first part of 20th century, instead of being integrated organically, it took the leading position of the economy, society and politics. Development and independence of any state are directly dependent on its means of transport and this is one more important reason why in Germany the airship, and later the airplane, were of absolute importance. Germany is a country isolated by natural barriers: the Alps in the south, the Baltic and the North Sea in the north and the Rhine river in the west. Intuitively, the advanced state developed air mindedness few steps higher and further. It became the combined icon of mobility, unity, modernizm, colonialism, militarism and nationalism altogether.

Otto Lilienthal

During the development of aviation there has always been a sharp difference between 'experts' and 'prophets'. Experts were the experienced ones from the inside and were skeptical about the possibility of rapid development of aviation. When excited reporters asked Orville Wright about his predictions about the development of aviation he said that "prophecy is not my vocation”. The Wright brothers lived in a reality of everyday practical experience, of primarily small and gradual improvements in the area. When other aviation pioneers were asked to the prophecy, each one gave very careful predictions. Prophets, compared with the experts, were romantic visionaries who came from outside. Some of them were intellectuals, writers and poets, and some communication professionals, businessmen, politicians, and the public at large, who were all very enthusiastic about the new medium. Everybody composed countless phrases and tried various projects.

The biographies of the aviation pioneers of Germany shows just how great was their enthusiasm and contribution to the development of world aviation. It is equally possible to see how their wrong choices change the destiny for their homeland, and so as a result how much Germany was enslaved to dominate the decision-making process on the issue. Prominent among them is Otto Lilienthal's biography.

In the heart of the phenomenon of mind there is a true verticality. This verticality is not empty rhetoric. It is a principle of order, a law which governs the mind fabric - a scale along which the individual can experience various degrees of distinguished insights. Mental life, all the clever and delicate feelings, hopes and fears, all the moral forces which are involved in the future of the individual, have vertical differential in the mathematical meaning of the word. If we want to know really how emotions evolve, the first thing to do is to determine the extent to which they make us heavier or lighter. The positive or negative vertical differential indicates well the impact and purpose of emotions on the mind. Of all the metaphors, the metaphors of height, lift, depth, sedimentation and fall, are accepted and agreed above all else. Nothing explain them but they explain everything. These metaphors have an extraordinary power: they control the dialectic of enthusiasm and despair. Vertical boldness is so vital, so clear - its superiority can not be denied - that the mind can not turn away from recognizing its direct and immediate meaning.

Gaston Bashelard writes in the second chapter of his book 'Air and Dreams’ that the wings that are not visible are those that fly as far. The mind doesn’t feels quick affection to birds flying in the sky. Their flight movement creates immediate abstraction and a stunning dynamic image which is perfect, full and complete. The reason for this fast and complete impression is the beauty of the dynamic image. This abstraction leads us to the flowless flight that we experience without formal images during dreams, which is reduced to a full joy and a whole impression of lightness. This abstract flight itself is used as an axis. Around it the many images of our daily existence are gathered. The reason birds attract our attention is not their colors. Their main beauty is their flight. This flight is a base for the dynamic imagination. In the reality of dynamic imagination flying create a unique colour. The vision becomes at once the memory of our dreams and a passion for a reward that God promised us. We are envious of the bird’s part in the univers and we associate wings with what we love, because we feel instinctively that in the domain of joy and bless our bodies will move in space like a bird in the air. Bird Psychology creates a super natural ideal which associates the reality we experienced with a dream. Man, according to this ideal, will become a super bird which, far from this world, will fly among the infinite worlds to its real environment, the land of air. In folklore tales and the romantic creation as well we find many imaginative descriptions, direct and indirect, of flight. the bird, graceful and light, reflects images of love, youth, sweetness and purity. These features are, in fact, primary mental realities. We associate so many features to the birds that cross the sky during the day because we experience through our imagination a joyous flight, one that creates in us youth impression. This is also because the dreamy flight is usually also pure sensuality.

The bird, created to live in the air, the purest and most mysterious element, is inevitably the shape of the final creation, the supreme and most independent shape. The wing, an integral part of flying, bestows noble and ideal perfection to almost all realities. Our soul, escaping from the earthly existence which draws us down to the bottom of this earth, will transform into a magnificent body, easier and faster than of any bird. The role of the natural wing is to float up and carry what is heavy to where the gods stay. More than anything else belonging to the body, it is a partner of the divine nature. By its material power, this partnership provides a very practical significance to the abstract partnership. As the saying goes:''I never loved someone without associating wings to the love”. Therefore it is immediately clear that human wings are a barrier. Whether the artist has designed them large or small, sagging or swinging, ruffled or smooth, they remain motionless for our mind. Imagination is unable to make the link. The image, the winged statue, is static. The wings are a symbol of flying to satisfy allegorical tradition and reason, but we have to look somewhere else for different dynamic hints.

Only indirect processes allow the best solution for the problem of presenting the idea of wings to the human mind. Imagination creates an immediate connection between the purity of the air and the movement of the wings. Bird's body is made ​​from the air surrounding her and her life are made from ​​the movement that carries her on and on. All the feelings that we encounter in everyday life are refined, as they eventually channeled, to the flight experience reality in the creative imagination. Therefore ‘flight of ideas’ is not just allegory and a worn phrase but the true movement of birds’ abstract wings. The changing of the shape of the wings in the air is actually the hidden engine of all human spirituality, its DNA code.

Otto Lilienthal [1848-1896] was a German engineer of Jewish origin, aviation pioneer and the world's most famous Aviator in the late 19th century. Lilienthal did a lot to promote aviation and was the first person who designed and built a glider that could carry a person in the air. Based on researches he conducted on the flight of birds he wrote a book on Aeronautics, published in 1889, which was used later by the Wright brothers. One of his major discoveries was that he showed the advantages of a curved wing against a flat wing. For his flights Lilienthal constructed in Berlin an artificial hill that he built with his own money. Within five years he had produced a commercial model of glider for amateurs. His gliders hovered for hundreds of meters and for few seconds, yet it was an almost unprecedented achievement in human history.

Lilienthal thought of birds flying in the wind in the perspective of Birds Psychology and not just as the model for human aviation. He was attracted to the idea of flights through imitation of the structure and movement of the birds’ wings because this idea dominated the perception of European aviation from ancient ages to Leonardo Da-Vinci. His observations on the flight of birds, especially flying storks, reinforced his conclusion that the bird is the one that should be a model for human aviation. He attributed great importance to the complexity of wings movements and argued not to give up their imitation, because it means losing all hope of flying. He argued, consequently, that the flight is primarily a personal matter and can be defined as ‘the way a person is flying in any direction he wants, by an installation attached to his body, of which the use requires personal skill’. However, despite his confidence in his way, Lilienthal asked not see in his achievements more then what they were. The photographs showed him hovering in the sky and created the impression that the problem of human flight was solved, but he stated that he is in the same place of a child who tries to imitate adult actions. Lilienthal's aviation career indeed lasted only few years:

1893 - Lilienthal built his artificial hill on the outskirts of Berlin and started to perform his flights, some of them to a distance of 250 meters. The same year he began building few models of gliders and a flying machine with motor-driven flapping wings. Over hundreds of attempts, which he documented with photographs, he could gradually improve the results of duration, height, and distance.

1894 - He started serial commercial production of simple and efficientl glider, but sold only few units.

1895 - He received visits of famous aviation pioneers, Langley from United States and Zocovsky from Russia.

1896 - He continued experimenting with new models. On 9 August 1896 he crashed after more than 2500 flights and was killed at the age of 48. The crash that caused his death happened after he lost control during a standard glider’s flight, as a result of a strong and unexpected side wind gust.

Lilienthal wrote and lectured a lot about his inventions. He published articles in scientific and popular journals. He became one of the most famous icons of the late 19th century. He photographed consistency his flights by professional photographers and the images combined the innovation of photojournalism with the innovation of his flights. Lilienthal was received with the same degree of enthusiasm among the scientific community and the public alike and his lectures about interesting experiments received applause. Lilienthal said that it is impossible to invent the art of flight in the same way gunpowder was invented, because theory has not much room for this occupation and only actual experiments are meaningful. This is correct even for our days, when advanced wind tunnels and computer technologies are in use.

Nowdays Lilienthal is known as the first successful aviation pioneer in history. His pioneering research on birds’ wings surfaces make him one of the founders of Aerodynamic science and created the foundation for concepts that are used today. His research and his flights from 1891 to 1896 led to the invention of the motorized aircraft which flew successfully for the first time in 1903.

Flights in gliders with birds-like wings is one of the primary experiences documented in human culture. Since dawn of civilization people have tried to imitate the flight of birds by building hand-made wings. The legend in Greek mythology about Daedalus and Icarus is just one testament of many, since in almost all cultures of the world there are similar legends about people who tried to imitate the flight of birds by tying wings and flapping them with the arms’ muscles. It is possible that the winged angels figures are religious evidence for it. The legend of Daedalus and Icarus illustrates how big was the gap between the will and the ability. Muscles strength required for a bird’s flight is huge relative to the strength of human arms muscles. In addition, a bird's wing is very aerodynamic, a result of an evolution of tens of millions of years and until now it could not be properly duplicated by modern science. A prominent example of human failure in this area is the attempts of Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century. Leonardo worked for many years on drawing the structure of the wings of birds and studied their movement in air currents. Later he drew glider models based mainly on imitating the movement of their wings and possibly even built some of them. But analysis of the plans shows that they did not have any chance to take off.

Therefore the enterprise of Lilienthal is of enormous importance. The Jewish tailor’s son from Germany - Poland border town was, at the end of the 19th century, the first man who managed to partially mimic birds gliding. Lilienthal researched well the structure of the birds’ wings and the way they fly. He built rigid non-flapping wings, harnessed them to his body and jumped with them against the wind from a hill he constructed. Lilienthal used knowledge and technology that were known to human civilization thousands of years before his time. Research observations of birds in flight were made ​​by scholars of all ancient civilizations. His use for gliders’ construction of light wooden beams and strong silk fabric also was common in the ancient world. Yet there was not in the ancient world, medieval and modern times, a genius who planned and executed what Lilienthal did.

The legend of Daedalus and Icarus is a useful and common paradigm among aviation historians, which describes the many victims that development of aviation demanded, from its beginnings to the present. Lilienthal is known for number of maxims. One is: "Aircraft design is nothing, building it is something, but it's all to fly it’. His second important maxim is about flight risks: ‘It requires sacrifice’. German nationalists used this phrase repeatedly to highlight the achievements of German aviation through commemoration of the victims it demanded, in war and peace alike, during the crusade towards the sky that the Nazis had carried out in the 1930th, inspired by Nietzsche.

The biography of Otto Lilienthal is connected to that of his brother Gustav Lilienthal [1849-1933]. The two brothers worked together their entire lives on technical, social and cultural projects in addition to aviation, some are of great importance to this days. During his lifetime, based on his trusted gliders, Otto tried to add to them the possibility of flapping wings using a small and efficient engine which they developed. The results were not encouraging, but Gustav kept the attempts intensely until the 1930th and built a big airplane with flapping wings which could not ever takeoff, long even after the aircraft with fixed wings and propeller had become the sole dominator of the skies. This mistake was very common since not only the movement of the wings of the bird was considered as an essential component for creating the lift for flight, but wings flapping was perceived also as an essential element of the soul, just like the leaves on trees. 'Flight of Ideas’ is not just a worn allegory but an abstract truth. The changing shape of the wings in the air is actually the hidden engine of all human spirituality.

Another Jewish personality who expressed human anxiety about overcoming gravity not in a completely natural way was Theodor Hertzel. In 1896 Hertzel wrote a story called 'Airship’ about a man who invented an aircraft, one of the biggest dreams of his time, but destroys it with his own hands because of his understanding that this invention may be used in the future as a distructive tool for wars. This prediction was original in Hertzel's time, since the majority of mankind regarded the aircraft as an instrument which will bring peace to the world. It is possible also that this prediction was in the root of Hertzel’s Zionism. Hertzel wrote in 1896: “The earth floats in mid-air. Perhaps similarly I can found and stabilize the Jewish state without a firm support. The secret lies in the motion. I beleive that dirigible airship will somehow be invented on this principle”.

We can, in a poetic way, learn about the enormous impact of birds’ wings flapping on human thinking also from the theory of relativity by Albert Einstein: The birds ability to overcome gravity can be described in his terms as ‘energy which is invested in constant, fast and endless movement and create chain reaction’.

Sigmund Freud too was probably influenced by Otto Lilienthal in his research of human sexuality and the Oedipus complex in particular. Flight and sensuality are bound together in the reality of dreams and in this respect Lilienthal was clearly a phallic figure.

Most serious studies about the personality of Adolf Hitler claim that he suffered from psychological development complexes. No doubt, in view of the historical facts, that Hitler projected from his personal troubles to the politics of modern Germany and he probebly regarded the Jewish aviation pioneers as part of these problems and therefore a legitimate reason for antisimitism, in light of the airplane invention by the Wright Brothers and Germany’s defeat in World War One.

The Wright brothers have stated that Lilienthal was an influential figure on their way to the revolutionary design of the aircraft with fixed wings, although their invention was a huge leap and unconventional scientific and cultural breakthrough. They came to Germany in 1909, as part of a European tour which aroused tremendous interest and made ​​them the world's most famous people. The Europeans, unlike the Americans who rejected at first the invention of the airplane, quickly adopted the new invention because of their general interest in aviation. This interest was largely thanks to Lilienthal and David Shwartz, whose development of aviation engine for airships surely contributed to the Wright Brothers.

The Invention of the fixed-wing aircraft with propeller is a significant cultural landmark, which manifested the transition from Romanticism to Modernism. Futurism was artistic and social movement that started in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century and continues today. It was largely Italian, but there were parallel movements also in Russia, England and many other countries. Futurism turned to the feelings of modern man and his experiences of mass production, the media, and advanced transportation and communication systems, from the airplane to the phone, from the cinema to fast food. These are all expressions of modernity which changed necessarily the perception of all daily life and therefore alter the modes of expression of the poet and painter. The airplane’s invention had created a chain reaction: Aviation was the most valued subject for the Italian Futurist artists. Italian Fascism was inspired directly by Futurism and German Nazism was inspired directly by that Fascism. So it was ideologically and in all political, social and military actions.

Aviation historian Richard Hallion

Richard Hallion is eminent historian of aviation and one of the founders and curaters of Air and Space Museum in Washington, which has the largest number of visitors in the world. Hallion wrote many books, among them "Taking Flight" which deals with the development of aviation from dawn to present. Hallion is among the few historians who thinks that the invention of the airplane is particularly important and determines that the airplane completely changed the face of reality. But Hallion does not attribute to the development of aviation the same importance granted to it in "Holocaust and Aviation", as the most influential factor in shaping modern history. The reason for this, among other things, is that he does not use the concepts of Aerial Awarness and Aerial Conciousness.

Central role in the overall approach of researcing the airplane phenomenon is the use of the terms Aerial Awarness and Aerial Conciousness.

The term Aerial Awarness was created by researchers to explain the initial enthusiasm of the American people for the flying machine. In addition historians began to use the term to describe the nation's interest, of groups or individuals, in any aviation related subject. The term originally referred to the flight enthusiasm of flying machines, but its use also refers to all the traditions and symbols that make up the approach to the subject and the diversified practices of it.

The term Aerial Conciousness means wise use of aerial propoganda to create a complete world view. In other words, this is a unique culture based on the concepts of aviation.

Hallion consequently does not use the term Aerial Dictatorship. In the first half of the twentieth century four dictatorships were established based on Aerial Conciousness: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet Union and Imperial Japan. In these countries the airplane was more than just a flying machine. While statesmen from Western powers saw the airplane only as key technology component and a measure of progress, dictatorships of aviation attributed to it also symbolism as the precursor to national pride.

Another important aviation historian, Peter Fritzsche, author of "Germany - a Nation of Pilots”, which parts of it are the basis of few chapters in “Holocaust and Aviation”, discusses the development of German Aerial Conciousness before the rise of the Nazis. He too sees aviation as very important phenomenon, but secondary to the complex social factors that have shaped the history of the 20th century. It may be that the book was a bold intellectual experience for him and he abandoned it as advancing in academic career.

Peter Fritzsche is missing the use of the term Flying Psychology, developed by the philosopher Gaston Bashelard. Aerial phenomenon provides general guidelines which are basic important psychological principles. Experiences of taking of, rising, height, lift, floating, hovering, depth, landing, sinking, fall and so on are the experiences that sum up the human mind above anything else. Nothing explain them but they explain everything. More simply, if a person wants to live and feel them and above all to compare them, he realizes that they have an initial quality and they are more natural than all the others.

Richard Hellion deals in the first part of his book with the dawn of flight dream in humanity, as a process of spiritual purification and scientific investigation. He describes flying legends in ancient cultures, the impact of birds on the Greek and Roman civilizations, the consciousness of the spiritual flight in early Christianity and Islam, and the insistence of individuals in the Middle Ages on aviation experiences with meager means. Then he moves to the beginning of the modern ages, with the invention of gunpowder that also led to the development of military use of rockets, and he ends with the description of the scientific conflicts in early industrial revolution era regarding the proper way by which one can bring a person into the sky.

The second part of Hellion's book is devoted to the invention of the balloon and airship. An important chapter deals with the 'Magnificent Year' of 1783 when the balloon was invented. First floated, in the same year and same city - Paris, balloons which soared by hot air or using hydrogen, in competition greatly resembling race into space of nowadays. Each of the inventions had advantages and disadvantages and they both together forever changed the face of society. Hellion describes the effect of the inventions of the balloon on Paris fashion, but he is not connecting the balloon to the French Revolution which began in 1789 and started one of the most important processes in human history which heralded the era of the modern democratic state. The Flying Psychology of Gaston Bashelard explains well how single technological invention was able to influence in such significant way French society and the whole world.

Hellion finishes his book, which deals primarily with the development of the aircraft at the beginning of the twentieth century with a major part devoted to the Wright Brothers, with an epilogue about the events of 11 September 2001, when a number of airliners that terrorists had kidnapped crashed on major buildings in the United States. The damage and the relative ease with which terrorists were able to act led to worsening security regulations, and a simultaneous decrease in the number of passengers in airplanes. Spectacular airplanes in the sky suddenly became scaring.

September 11, 2001 events are a direct continuation of the Nazi worldview. A similar concern was the head of the public agenda even before World War II. Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the early 1930th said that the man in the street has to realize that there is no place where the strategic bomber is not able to get and it is better if the airplane had not been invented, but it is now mandatory to incorporate it in religious values.

Hellion states that like all technological inventions, whether the aircraft is good or bad depends on who use it and briefly reviews other periods in the 20th century when the airplane was described as precursor of human solidarity on the one hand, but was used as a weapon in destructive wars. He focuses on Nazi Germany and quotes the last lines from the diary of Joseph Goebbels, written in Hitler's bunker in Berlin shortly before their suicides, in which he wrote that the issue of helplessness against air superiority of Allied bombers which constantly bombarded German soil was repeated on and on in his last conversations with Hitler.

Hellion, like the rest of aviation historians, hardly applies in his book to the contribution of Nazi Germany to the development of modern aviation. Aviation achievements were the mainstay of the regime but they contradicted all his evil deeds. In addition, Hellion may wish to emphasize the contribution of his homeland to the development of aviation and space technologies. The process worked out by the Nazi political leadership, which combined the construction of the world's most sophisticated airplanes with the establishing the mechanism for genocides  of innocent folks, is described in detail in “Holocaust and Aviation” only. It was a process of trial and error of integrated ideology and technology, where the sense of Nazi racial superiority intensified together with their aerial superiority and their need of jenocides intensified as their air superiority declined.

The moral aspect which occurs as by itself let “Holocaust and Aviation” be a poetic and healing research for the soul, contrary to Holocaust studies of the academic establishment, which focuses on conventional explanations and therefore it is still a 'black hole' for them. Aviation is the cornerstone of Israel's security and this gap created social crisis that results in deep social fracture. Holocaust rememberance is incomplete.

The author of these lines grew up as a teenager in the 1960th and experienced the Yom Kippur War. It formed the stimulus for a mental turnaround that led to writing “Holocaust and Aviation” on the foundation of his parents' memories, who were holocaust survivors, memories which he recorded and edited. This multi-year process was done while watching the awakening of public interest in the Holocaust as the clear gap between everyday life of post-modern era to questions of history and future became obvious.

The Many international crises occurred after significant breakthrough in aviation development in the 20th century raise the question of what will be, in the foreseeable future, major developments in aviation. There are four different directions of development, each of which bestows on the other:

a. Space is gaining maximum public attention and the people of planet earth will gradually reach more meaningful and distant places through powerful missiles and large spaceships, mostly unmanned.

B. Automatic unmanned airplanes with elaborate guidance technology will replace mankind in the celestial wilderness. The drones rapidly replace manned military aircraft and the process has huge influence on civil aviation.

C. Personal aviation, in which each person will own an aircraft, will grow immensly in scope. Recreational aviation is very popular nowdays, after it become affordable and available to all. But the big push will be to bring important means of advanced propulsion and guidance to solve the range, navigation and landing problems in 3D reality.

D. Economic aviation using the floating principle, which takes advantage of the air cushion created between the airplane's wings and the ground when flying only a few feet above it, will replace traditional shipping routes and will bring development to remote sea shores.