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 For decades it was taboo in Germany to focus on
Hitler, although that has begun to change with films such as the
2004 "Downfall", chronicling the dictator's last days, and an
exhibition about him in 2010.
The exhibition "Hitler - how could it happen" is set in a bunker
in Berlin that was used by civilians during World War Two
bombing raids - close to the bunker where Hitler lived while
Berlin was being bombed and which is not accessible to the
public.
It examines Hitler's life from his childhood in Austria and time
as a painter to his experience as a soldier during World War One
and his subsequent rise to power. Other exhibits focus on
concentration camps, pogroms and the Holocaust that killed 6
million Jews.
It ends with a controversial reconstruction of the bunker room
where Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945 - replete with
grandfather clock, floral sofa and an oxygen tank. The exhibit
is behind glass and is monitored by camera, with visitors
forbidden to take photographs.
Exhibition curator Wieland Giebel, 67, said he had been accused
of "Hitler Disney" for putting the room on show. But he defended
the decision, saying the exhibition focused on the crimes
carried out by Hitler's regime, adding: "This room is where the
crimes ended, where everything ended, so that's why we're
showing it."
He said he had been asking how World War Two and the Holocaust
came about ever since playing in the rubble of post-war Germany
as a child, and said the exhibition attempted to answer that
question.
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 "After World War One a lot of Germans felt humiliated due to the
Versailles Treaty," Giebel said, referring to the accord signed
in 1919 that forced defeated Germany to make massive reparation
payments.
"At the same time there was anti-Semitism in Europe and not just
in Germany ... and Hitler built on this anti-Semitism and what
people called the 'shameful peace of Versailles' and used those
two issues to mobilize people," he added.
Giebel, who has a personal interest in the topic because one of his
grandfathers was part of a firing squad while the other hid a Jew,
said he also wanted the exhibition to show how quickly a democracy
could be abolished and make clear that undemocratic movements needed
to be nipped in the bud.
He said the exhibition showed some Germans became Nazis as they
stood to gain personally when the property of Jews was expropriated,
while others were attracted to the Nazis because they were unhappy
about the Versailles Treaty and "followed Hitler because he promised
to make Germany great again".
The exhibition, which features photographs, Hitler's drawings, films
portraying his marriage to longtime companion Eva Braun, and a model
of Hitler's bunker, has attracted around 20,000 visitors since
opening two months ago.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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