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UK: Photos prompt call for Nazi ban
Guardian ^ | 01/16/05 | Antony Barnett

Posted on 01/15/2005 5:34:38 PM PST by Pikamax

Photos prompt call for Nazi ban

Antony Barnett Sunday January 16, 2005 The Observer

The senior military chief who runs Sandhurst, Britain's elite army officer training academy, has been forced to apologise after a photograph was published showing officer cadets dressed as Nazis. Pictures taken at Sandhurst and published in yesterday's Daily Mail show several officers wearing Nazi uniforms and swastikas. One photo shows an officer cadet making a Hitler salute.

The photographs are hugely embarrassing for the army, coming in the week when Prince Harry was photographed at a party in a Nazi fancy dress costume, with a swastika on his arm. Harry is due to join Sandhurst to train as an officer later this year.

The furore over Harry's costume has continued to reverberate around the world, with German politicians calling for other European countries to follow Germany's law in banning Nazi insignia.

Markus Soeder, general secretary of Germany's Christian Socialist Union opposition, said: 'In a Europe grounded in peace and freedom there should be no place for Nazi symbols. They should be banned throughout Europe, as they are with good reason in Germany.'

At Sandhurst, the academy's commandant Major General Andrew Ritchie said he 'deeply regretted' any offence that may have been caused by the picture of the officer cadets.

He said: 'I believe these photographs were taken in the mid to later 90s at a fancy-dress parade. The parade is similar to a rag week stunt and is organised by the cadets at the end of their tough, year-long training.'

Ritchie said that in 2002 guidelines were put in place at Sandhurst to stop such behaviour. 'The policy today is very clear,' said Ritchie. 'These photographs do not reflect the high standards of duty and service instilled in the cadets during their training and subsequently demonstrated in their careers as officers in the British army.' Despite Ritchie's apology, the photo has offended some in the Jewish community. Lord Janner said: 'For future leaders to put on Nazi uniforms even for fun is incongruous, unacceptable and disrespectful to those who lost their lives.'

As well as officer cadets dressed as Nazis, others are pictured with their faces blackened and wearing Afro-wigs.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 01/15/2005 5:34:38 PM PST by Pikamax
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To: Pikamax

Can the world get a life?...or are we all doomed to be girlie men and burly girls?


2 posted on 01/15/2005 5:36:42 PM PST by Cornpone ((Aging Warrior))
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To: Cornpone

Just great... a Nazi ban 64 years after their Defeat. So, we'll have to just wait another 61 years for a Islamofascist ban.


3 posted on 01/15/2005 5:40:13 PM PST by C210N
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To: Pikamax

Harry's Great Uncle was a nazi sympethizer(sp?).


4 posted on 01/15/2005 5:40:49 PM PST by zzen01
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To: Pikamax
The furore over Harry's costume has continued to reverberate in and because of the media around the world,
5 posted on 01/15/2005 5:43:37 PM PST by steveo (Member: Fathers Against Rude Television)
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To: Pikamax
As well as officer cadets dressed as Nazis, others are pictured with their faces blackened and wearing Afro-wigs.

As the old Brit saying goes: In for a penny, in for a pound.

6 posted on 01/15/2005 5:44:28 PM PST by XXXXX88XXXXX
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To: Pikamax
No great surprise here, people. Imagine GWB had a son who was photographed wearing a swastika. You might actually witness a civil war.

The media has its agenda, but sometimes it gets lucky, as in this event.
7 posted on 01/15/2005 5:47:06 PM PST by fo0hzy
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To: Pikamax
Geez you'd think Harry killed someone they way this is being carried on.
8 posted on 01/15/2005 5:50:07 PM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: CzarNicky

Harry deserves whatever he gets. There should be no reason to turn any Nazi uniform items into acceptable social costumes.

Anyone apologizing for his behavior or excusing it as a press overreaction should get to make a visit with him to the concentration camps as a reminder of what a Nazi really was.


9 posted on 01/15/2005 6:00:46 PM PST by Arkie2
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To: Pikamax
"Ritchie said that in 2002 guidelines were put in place at Sandhurst to stop such behaviour. 'The policy today is very clear,' said Ritchie. 'These photographs do not reflect the high standards of duty and service instilled in the cadets during their training and subsequently demonstrated in their careers as officers in the British army.' Despite Ritchie's apology, the photo has offended some in the Jewish community. Lord Janner said: 'For future leaders to put on Nazi uniforms even for fun is incongruous, unacceptable and disrespectful to those who lost their lives.'"

I wonder if the stray fleeting hint of a thought has crossed "LJ's" brain that it is perfectly acceptable to "think" it is humorous to portray white male heads of households as bumbling dimwitted buffoons. Just as it is "outrageous, offensive, degrading and shocking" to poke a bit of fun at history in the form of costumes, wigs and black face. The reason for both is the same.

. . . . . . . . . Z E R O . . . . . . .

That's right, nothing. No reason whatsoever other than some fake fabricated "shock and outrage" which will sell news papers and provide airtime fodder for blabbermouth talking heads on Tee-Vee and a not-too-subtle left leaning of the mid-stream media to mentally condition the masses in communist based pee-cee.

10 posted on 01/15/2005 6:03:57 PM PST by TLI ( . . . ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA . . . . . .)
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To: Pikamax

File under "What were they thinking?". Too bad that file's overflowing already.


11 posted on 01/15/2005 6:07:23 PM PST by Christopher Lincoln
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To: TLI

So you're in favor of military cadets parading around as Nazis?


12 posted on 01/15/2005 6:09:57 PM PST by Arkie2
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To: Pikamax
Markus Soeder, general secretary of Germany's Christian Socialist Union opposition, said: 'In a Europe grounded in peace and freedom there should be no place for Nazi symbols. They should be banned throughout Europe, as they are with good reason in Germany.'

Herr Soeder added, "we are dedicated to tolerance, diversity, and inclusiveness. We only don't tolerate those people, ideas, and things we dislike." *********************************

If Europe really were grounded in "peace and freedom" there would be no need to ban any symbols; people would just naturally shun them.

Saddly, they don't seem to have the same sense of horror or outrage for red armbands & flags; or for hammers and sickles.

Without even counting Africa, Southeast Asia, or China, anyone have any figures comparing death totals for Communism's various pogroms, purges, and deaths via "reeducation" vs Nazi & Fascist murders, not to include actual combat deaths?

Or is that an unfair question, since Lenin, Stalin, et al had about a 20 year head start on Hitler; and got to continue for about another 40 years?

13 posted on 01/15/2005 6:11:39 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (The world needs more horses, and fewer Jackasses!)
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To: Pikamax
"The furore over Harry's costume has continued to reverberate around the world"

Should read: The "Fuerer" over.............{;>)

14 posted on 01/15/2005 6:13:16 PM PST by Iam1ru1-2
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To: ApplegateRanch

None of waht you said is any excuse for apologia for Nazi sympathies. I'm disgusted by what I'm reading on this thread.


15 posted on 01/15/2005 6:14:41 PM PST by Arkie2
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does anyone really care?

the jihad terrorist make the nazi look like a bunch of girl scouts when it comes to ruthless killings.

you would also think the liberal press would be all for the nazis being thier joyfull support of the jihadist.

16 posted on 01/15/2005 6:20:08 PM PST by postaldave (ACLU = Anti-Christian, Liberal, and Un-American.)
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To: Arkie2

So am I.

There is no excuse for dressing like a Nazi or to put on black-face (why would that even be funny). The mentality of the person who would find amusement in donning either "costume" is questionable.


17 posted on 01/15/2005 6:21:13 PM PST by gingerky
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To: postaldave

I know you don't: 1) believe that but instead are just trying to make a point, or 2) you're a product of a public education and are not aware of Nazi history. Which is it?


18 posted on 01/15/2005 6:24:39 PM PST by Arkie2
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To: postaldave
Somehow 60 years from now I suspect there will be people getting worked up when someone wears a burka to a costume party.
19 posted on 01/15/2005 6:29:04 PM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: Arkie2

I too, have been dismayed at the "oh, its no big thing" attitude on postings on this issue.I'm very upset about it, because of the 'cluelessness"of those wearing these symbols.

The real tragedy is that an overwheling majority of todays's young people,whether British or American, do not really know what the Nazi's were and would probably have no idea of the Holocuast or of the Soviet or Chinese Pograms. Harry is just not that unique. I'm not surprised about Sandhurst either...here the tragedy is that these bigoted and hatefilled feelings still are prevalent in Europe, now even with acting out on them.


20 posted on 01/15/2005 6:33:13 PM PST by Recovering Ex-hippie
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