Nothing says Christmas like a serial killer
Rick Klaw • November 7th, 2007 @ 11:04 am • Uncategorized
BERLIN (Reuters) – A German advent calendar for children has become a hot seller since word got out it has a picture of a notorious serial killer on it.
The cartoon calendar shows Fritz Haarmann, who murdered 24 young men and boys in the 1920s, lurking under a tree with a hatchet next to the door for December 1. Below him, Santa Claus hands out presents to children in a festive-looking Hanover.
Continued…
November 7, 2007 at 6:53 pm
When I was a child, there was a rather macabre song about “Haarmann and his axe” which was passed on from child to child on the schoolyard, more than fifty years after the Fritz Haarmann was executed. If children still know that song today, they will have heard of Fritz Haarmann anyway, if only as a sort of Bogeyman figure. And if not, they probably won’t get the reference in the advent calendar, which seems to be designed primarily with adults in mind anyway, as children won’t recognize most of the people.
Besides, the newspaper that broke the story, Bild, is a notorious scandal rag anyway. They probably picked on the advent calendar, because it was a slow news day.
November 19, 2007 at 9:17 am
Hard to believe Christmas is already around the corner. I am ready for some Thanksgiving turkey though.