Mormons and the Nazis: Glenn Beck’s Purple Triangle Story

patheos.com ^ | May 5, 2014 | Warren Throckmorton

[Elsie]

Last week I wrote about Glenn Beck’s recent sermon at Liberty University. In that post, I pointed out that Beck referred to the colored cloth triangles that the Nazis made concentration camp inmates wear to identify the reason for imprisonment. The last triangle he displayed to his audience was a purple triangle...

[Elsie]

Why is it that '..the rest of the story...' contains so much needed data?

[Campion]

The term for “Jehovah’s Witness” auf Deutsch literally means “Bible student” or “Bible researcher,” hence Beck’s confusion.

[NTHockey]

>>Let me add that I am not saying I would have done any better than the Mormons or the Baptists. I would have wanted to protect my family and so I would have wanted to leave the country or do what I had to do to keep my family safe.<<

Not to defend Beck, but to point out the hypocrisy of criticizing the Mormons and Southern Baptists for doing EXACTLY what he would do.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Okay, so Beck played a little fast and loose with the data in regards to purple armbands and the Nazis. Okay, so LDS was trying to save their own skins during Hitler’s rein. Nowhere in this article does it say the Mormon church was actively participating in crimes with the Nazis. There are a lot of unclean hands concerning the Nazis. Have you ever heard of the rat line? The way in which a lot of Nazi’s got out of Germany to South America. And who assisted them along the rat line? Catholic priests, that’s who...

Are the Mormons and their history perfect? No. Is Glen Beck always perfect? No. However, lets not shoot one of our own which we (conservatives) seem to be pretty good at. The liberals stand to the bitter end with their leaders even if they are dropping their pants to interns in the oval office. We want to throw our leaders overboard because they fudge a little history or belong to a group (Mormons) that we don’t particularly care for. sheeesssh

[PGalt]

Very interesting history. Thanks for posting.

Collectives in general have a hard time rising up against national/state collectives, under whose umbrella of power they reside.

To break away from the powers that be (TPTB) would get your collective labelled as an internal enemy or terrorist group.

History/education BUMP!

[ConservativeMan55]

bump to that!

[verga]

And who assisted them along the rat line? Catholic priests, that’s who...

Do you have proof of this?

[wita]

sheeesssh

I’ll second that!

[Campion]

And who assisted them along the rat line? Catholic priests, that’s who...

Mostly one Catholic priest, Alois Hudal, who was shut down and disciplined when Rome found out about his activities.

And plenty of Catholics, priests and laity, suffered greatly at the hands of the Nazis. There were hundreds of priests imprisoned at Dachau alone.

(Just keeping both sides of the story alive.)

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

"And who assisted them along the rat line? Catholic priests, that’s who..."

And the United States.

[FourtySeven]

UPDATE: In response to reader comments, let me add that Baptists (Liberty University is a Baptist school) were about the same as the Mormons. Baptists lauded Hitler in the 1930s because Hitler didn’t drink or smoke and because the Nazis campaigned for family values. Beck’s grandstanding about resistance to fascism is pathetic when one considers the historical record of his religion and the religion of his audience.

For "the rest of the story".

[JAKraig]

It is hard to criticize those who follow the laws of their countries instead of going to a concentration camp to be tortured and starved.

Mormons are told to honor their governments and obey their laws. I notice that there are many, many so called conservatives who participate in Obamacare, Social Security, Medicare, etc. Is that any different than what the Mormons, Baptists, Catholics and others did during the war. At the same time that these German people were trying to survive in their country there were plenty of Catholics, Baptists and even Mormons joining the US Armed Services to Defeat the German Armies.

This article is a very poor attempt to impugn Glen Beck and the Mormons he belongs to. I personally am very impressed with Glenn Beck. He risks his substantial fortune on a new network to promote conservatism. He works hard to do what he thinks is good for the USA, I applaud him.

[SIRTRIS]

Correct you are! Looks like Beck uses Dan Rather’s crack research team.

[Jack Hydrazine]

You would think he would have a history scholar double check his work.

[Jack Hydrazine]

See my profile for links.

[elcid1970]

Hitler was also a vegetarian who loved to ridicule those who were not.

The only association I’ve heard about the words Nazi & Mormon concerns personal zealousness.

“Now, I’m not one of those Nazi Mormons!”

[Alex Murphy]

Okay, so Beck played a little fast and loose with the data in regards to purple armbands and the Nazis. Okay, so LDS was trying to save their own skins during Hitler’s rein. Nowhere in this article does it say the Mormon church was actively participating in crimes with the Nazis. There are a lot of unclean hands concerning the Nazis. Have you ever heard of the rat line? The way in which a lot of Nazi’s got out of Germany to South America. And who assisted them along the rat line? Catholic priests, that’s who...

PFL

[Utah Binger]

[verga]

See my profile for links

I am sorry I was not more clear. I am looking for real proof from legitimate sources, not conspiracy theory and innuendo.