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Oliver Stone’s Hitler ‘empathy’

Oliver Stone is deranged,” Rabbi Schmuley Boteach said yesterday after hearing Stone’s words on Adolf Hitler. The director, an amigo of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, said of the Fuhrer during a press junket promoting his 10-hour “Secret History of America” for Showtime: “Hitler is an easy scapegoat . . . We can’t judge people as only bad or good. [Hitler] is the product of a series of actions . . . People in America don’t know the connection between WWI and WWII.” Boteach countered, “Hitler was evil incarnate, an insatiable, bloodthirsty monster. Stone should be ashamed of himself.” The Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman said, “This is Oliver Stone doing Oliver Stone, which is to put everything on its head to make an impact and to make money.” Stone also said, “I’ve been able to walk in [Soviet butcher Josef] Stalin’s shoes and Hitler’s shoes, to understand their point of view. You cannot approach history unless you have empathy for the person you may hate.”