Blaze Up

Someone has burned down Hitler's retreat in the mountains, hopefully with less unfortunate consequences than when a certain Dutch dimwit set fire to the Reichstag. Most of Hitler's architectural legacy long ago succumbed to Bomber Command and the denazification process; but the Eagle's Nest was preserved as a monument to the "insanity of the régime," which seems to have made about as much moral difference as one would expect. Presumably the site's inaccessibility amid the Bavarian heights prevented its becoming a shrine to anything beyond historical complacency and holy commerce; its destruction will serve as yet one more gratuitous reminder that there is no lesson so elevated that it can't eventually go up in smoke.