Posted on 02/26/2006 9:04:49 PM PST by jb6
On February 24, Estonia celebrated 88th anniversary of its Declaration on Independence. A military parade was held in Tallin, the capital of Estonia. The parade was received by Estonian President Arnold Ruutel, Commander of the Defense Forces Tarmo Kouts ran the parade, Chief Chaplain of the Defense Forces Col. Tonis Nõmmik held a public worship.
On the photo published by REGNUM one of the parade participators, a member of people's volunteer corps is pictured.
According to REGNUM information, officials have given no commentaries, whether a swastika-shaped earring is an obligatory part of the Estonian volunteer corps uniform.
BTTT
Curious, is the neo-Nazi fetish in Eastern Europe and Russia white supremacy based or nationalism? Is there an affinity for Hitler?
It's the enemy-of-my-enemy principle that seems to be in play here. Hitler was a monster. Stalin was a monster. Pick your monster.
In Russia it is based on ignorance and pure stupidity. In Ukraine (that's western Ukraine) is based on former service to Hitler and the decendents of those Ukrainian (western) SS troops with groups like UNA-UNSO.
Estonia volunteered 160,000 troops to Hitler, including several divisions to the Waffen SS. More then any other nation, per capita, in the SS, to include Germany.
I'm not sure what the fashion vogue is representing in this instance. We were in Estonia last year and they people seemed to be very pleased with their new found freedom and proud of it. To us the enthusiasm was genuine and crossed all generational lines.
With that said, we certainly did not see any people of color, we only saw Christian Churches and they seemd very Westernized culturally, especially the younger generation.
The only thing I can conclude is that the Nazi thing may represent that they don't want no fricking Muslims in their Country.
Just based on what my gut reaction is to the situtation.
ping
No, it represents the 160,000 Estonians who served in the Wehremacht and the Waffen SS. It represents yearly government sponsored parades for the SS, with the heads of government giving praise to these "veterans".
Russia's reaction... Let's return to the USSR!!!
Estonia was a fascist dictatorship before the Soviets annexed it. When the Nazis arrived they simply reverted to their old form of government.
Wow, another insightful comment. Care to back this one up with facts? Care to back any of them up with facts? Ever?
goes back further than that ... the Eastonia of WWII era was a pro-Nazi facist state, and there is a long history of anti-semitism that has continued to this day.
The Estonian SS Legion was first tasked with massacring the Jews of Riga. They did it so well that Hitler sent them the Jews of Berlin for similar treatment.
Estonia is a US ally in Iraq, while Russia sided with Saddam in Iraq and now sides with the Ayatollahs.
If this is why Estonia is independent, let the Russians tread down of them again. Whether it's fashion, SS nostalgia, or lack of a sufficient gene pool, there can be no appreciation for this kind of subhuman behavior. I guess I can add Estonian to Ireland and France as "pure trash" races of people...
That's because: 1. There are very few Jews left. and 2. Most of those Jews left are on the side of the Russians.
Estonia isn't a nazi country, but it's useful for Soviet apologists who pine for their lost beloved Soviet Union to attack those nations which escaped communism's evil grip and use the old favorite Soviet epithet "fascist." It's no coincidence that the same commies who call President Bush a fascist also say the same thing about our allies in the Coalition of the Willing.
You guys all missed it so far...
Notice the girl with the Swastika earings is also carrying an Israeli Galil?
Tell me that Estonia or any E European nation has a shortage of AK47s...
Maybe they just have a thing against Russia and that means the Nazis are their friends and the Jews make a better AK?
Either way, it's strange that Nazi's would carry a Jewish made rifle.
Your typical ad honium attack when you can not disprove the facts presented. You attack people and that's all you can do. Typical.
It's no coincidence that the same commies who call President Bush a fascist also say the same thing about our allies in the Coalition of the Willing.
So, now you've accused me of being a commie, again with ZERO proof, just like when you slandered me as being an anti-semite, an anti-catholic, an anti-protestant, and about a dozen other anti-s. Again, with your typical of zero proof.
Now disprove the facts that Estonia supports the Nazi culture and that the government pays for yearly pro-SS parades.
We'll be waiting, as usual, for some facts. But instead we'll just get name calling, as usual.
If memory serves me correctly, it isn't a Galil but a R4 made by a company in South Africa. An R4 is basically a copy of the Galil though.
Look at the earrings. Is this the Nazi Swastika? (The arms are different, aren't they?)
No, it's the same.
The Estonian hakenkreuz predates nazism and is a national symbol as it is also in neighboring Finland. It's not a nazi swastika.
This is what you're claiming it is:
This is what she's wearing:
Nice excuse it's very significant for practitioners of the old faiths. As is the shape of the arms themselves.
What's disgusting is your Al Sharpton-like Race-baiting and smearing of a whole nation as nazis.
Keep talking, keep talking. Keep making excuses for this despicable behavior.
But TGJ is also right, too. The symbol does not automatically denote Nazism.
Thanks to both of you for answering.
Ahh, the 64th Anniversary. Best justification you could come up with? Figures. Fact is simply this: everyone associates the Swastika with what it stood for and to allow someone in any kind of defense force to wear it, in a nation where the government yearly sponsors parades for SS veterans speaks volumes.
Out side of idolizing any soviet/socialist/nazi leader (all are Marxists) is idiotic, Che was a crappy revolutionary who lost every revolution he started (all two of them) so he was just a plain old loser on all aspects/levels.
Nazi symbols at parades = bad, communist symbols at parades = good. Glad you could straighten that out.
In your opinion, does a Confederate flag automatically denote racism?
Actually the Estonian usage of the Swatika pre-dates Naziism and even pre-dates the entry of Jews to Europe -- the Swastika/the HakenKreuz/the Hooked Cross is an ancient Aryanic symbol that is found even pre-dating Christ. It is in regular use in the Baltic lands and in India (Hinduism) due to that reason alone. The Nazis perverted this symbol which was supposed to be a symbol of goodness and nobility.
It is also used in Buddhism and is the symbol of the Falun Gong in China.
note that the Swaztika in Estonia pre-dates Naziism and the 20th century by nearly 2 millenia -- it is an Aryanic symbol, strangely enough, one of goodness. It was perverted by the Nazis who wanted to prove that their Germans were pure Aryans when in reality they were and are amongst the most diverse
If the government conducted parades for former slave owners and this was a "defense" unit, then yes. Consider the facts of what's going on in Estonia. When men in sheets burn a cross do you automatically consider it a Klan rally?
Quite right -- jb6, I do support you when the West demonizes Russia for no reason bar USSR memories, but here YOU are demonizing another nation for the wrong reason.
YES!
Rehabilitation of fascism in Estonia
Since 1991 after the formation of Estonia as an independent state ex-Estonian fascists conduct annual rallies and marches of the veterans SS.
As well as in Riga this meeting is carried out with the sanction of the official authorities. The representatives of the Estonian authorities participate in the action and congratulate former soldiers and officers SS with this event. The majority of the veterans were rewarded by iron crosses of Fascist Germany. The only difference is that in Tallinn "the triumph" is celebrated not in spring, but in the middle of summer.
The Estonian Legion SS was formed on the order of Adolf Hitler in 1942 and since January 1944 is more known as the 20-th Division SS. The Estonian Legion was remanned by the local fascists. They, when the German army had come to Estonia, organized Jewish pogroms. On October 25, 1941 Walter Stahlecker, SS-Brigadier General and Major General of the Police, reported that extermination of the Jews in the Baltic states was conducted by police and forces of self-defense and had a nature of "self-cleaning". "The report on the number of executed" and a map with the indication of places of the execution were sent to Berlin. By January 1942 all Jewish population of Estonia was exterminated.
The Nazis planed to use the Estonian fascists in realization of the "Wannsee protocol" - the project of wiping out of 11 million Jews on occupied territories by the Fascist Germany. Not accidentally the territory of Estonia was selected as a place for 140 camps of death, where prisoners from many countries of Europe were contained. Some of them specialized on Jews only. The Estonian fascists have managed "to modernize" a procedure of getting "an economic effect" from destruction of people. If in Osvencim special commands extracted golden crowns and removed golden rings from dead bodies, the Estonian "rationalizes" pulled out golden teeth of the victims with the help of pliers on the edge of graves before their execution.
In 1944 Estonian fascists in the composition of the 20-th Division SS fought against the Soviet Army near Narva.
In 1992, on the Day of Independence of Estonian Republic, the Minister of Defense invested former fighters of the Estonian legion SS with military crosses and memorable medals established by the ministry. Openly, on the state level, the words of confession and gratitude were said to those who served in the Division SS under the general command of Himler.
On the 11-th of July, 1998 after the solemn meeting the former fascists went to the military units to give the lessons of history to young soldiers and officers of the Estonian armed forces.
Today Estonian fascists represent themselves "as the noble fighters for the freedom of Estonia". But the word-combination "the struggle for freedom" can not stand near the swastika and two horrible letters "SS".
An annual meeting in Tallin’s Hirve Park to mark the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which resulted in the annexation of the Baltic states into the USSR, turned antisemitic, according to an August 24, 2004 report by the Russian Jewish web site Jewish.ru. Speakers at the August 19, 2004 rally demanded that Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center, apologize for stating that some Estonians participated in the Holocaust.
“If not, we will be forced to reassess our up to now friendly attitude towards Jews living in Estonia,” one of the speakers warned.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s efforts to expose Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian war criminals who collaborated with the Nazis in the mass murder of Jews during World War II have led to a fierce counter-reaction from some Baltic nationalists in all three states. Mr. Zuroff is routinely vilified in some Baltic media organs, including some mainstream publications.
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Russkiy Natsional’niy Soyuz
Natsional’naya Bol’shevistkaya Partiya
Sevyerniy Alliyans
By Andrew Osborn
Published: 26 May 2004
Estonia has been accused of fuelling anti-Semitism and glorifying Nazism after a memorial was erected there to a colonel in the Waffen SS who is alleged to have the blood of thousands of people on his hands.
Estonia has been accused of fuelling anti-Semitism and glorifying Nazism after a memorial was erected there to a colonel in the Waffen SS who is alleged to have the blood of thousands of people on his hands.
Ok, so what's your point? Yes, these are Russian Nazis, yes these are idiots of the first order and no, unlike Estonia, they are not propped up by the government.
Bad analogy. If the swastika was a national emblem pre-Nazi and now seen a symbol of nationalism, then it akin to the flag of the Confederacy, not of Klansman.
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