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Posted on 01/22/2003 5:42:44 PM PST by SJackson
I hadn`t planned on attending a Nazi march, but I have to admit I was intrigued when I was on the campus of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and was handed a flyer that announced an anti-Nazi demonstration to protest a planned Nazi march on the Goetheplatz on November 30.
Finally, I said to myself, here are some of those mythical Germans I keep hearing about who are so opposed to the resurgence of National Socialism. And I have to admit that there was a certain morbid fascination to the possibility of seeing evil incarnate up close and personal. Oh, heck, I’m just gonna admit it: The thought of a riot breaking out and having the chance to kick a Nazi where the sun don`t shine was just too good to pass up.
Now for a little background information. In October there was a photographic exhibit in Munich that dealt with the Wehrmacht (the army of the Third Reich) during World War II. The Nazis claimed that the exhibit slandered the memory of the Germans who fought in the war, and they organized a march to protest the exhibition.
Anti-Nazis then organized and prevented the Nazis from completing their march on the exhibition hall. The Nazis sued and got a court to order the Bavarian government to provide police protection for a new march which was then rescheduled for Saturday, November 30. The anti-Nazis, in turn, began to organize their protest.
Day Of Many Ironies
Fast forward to 10:30 a.m., November 30, 2002. I’m standing in the back of a large crowd in front of the Feldherrnhalle on the Odeonsplatz in Munich.
The setting is particularly apropos because this is the site where Hitler’s beer hall putsch of 1923 came to an abrupt and bloody end. The organizational rally for the anti-Nazi protest is just beginning. And a more loathsome group of people is hard to imagine.
One of the many ironies of the day was that, before the speeches began, the protesters were entertained by heavy metal music blasting out of loudspeakers at something approaching the threshold of pain.
The irony stems from the fact that the Nazi movement in Germany today is largely funded through sales of heavy metal CDS and concert tickets, with many of the top German metal bands being produced by people who are members of the Nazis and other far-right political organizations.
If you thought that the anti-Nazis would be emphasizing the good aspects of German culture -- like maybe Beethoven -- you thought wrong. As the day wore on, the ironies and the similarities between the Nazis and the anti-Nazi protesters would increase exponentially.
As it neared the time for the speeches to begin, one was most startled by what was missing; namely, any symbol of resistance to totalitarianism. There wasn`t a German Bundesrepublik flag or an American Stars and Stripes to be seen anywhere. No image of Konrad Adenauer, the Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Mann or any other of the few Germans who actually opposed Hitler during the time of the Third Reich.
There were, however, a lot of Soviet and Cuban flags, and images of Che Guevara appeared everywhere. There were flags of the DKP (German Communist Party), the PDS (the so-called Party of Democratic Socialism -- that is, the successors to the East German Communist Party) and various and sundry socialist and lunatic left-wing fringe organizations.
Most of the literature being handed out didn`t seem to have much to do with the rise of Nazism in Germany, but was instead directed against American and British nationalism, arrogance and imperialism. Indeed, it seemed that the anti-Nazis were most worried about America defeating Muslim terrorism.
Anti-Israel, Anti-U.S.
Also conspicuously absent were any signs of solidarity with Jews or the State of Israel -- you know, the original victims of the Nazis. And here is where the Nazis and the anti-Nazi protesters found their greatest point of convergence: They both hate Israel with a passion. Indeed, anti-Semitism is the only political belief in Germany that outpaces anti- Americanism in its virulence and intensity.
A junior high school boy walks by wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with a swastika with a line through it. The lettering below the logo read “F...k Your Nationality.” It`s in English because the people the anti-Nazi protesters are really protesting against are Americans.
Germans of all political stripes despise America because Americans are nationalistic -- we`re proud that we stand for the American principles of freedom, justice and the rule of law, and also because we`re not Germans.
It is typical of German arrogance to believe that, since German nationalism resulted in two world wars and the Holocaust, no one should be allowed to express national pride. Of course, Germans have never been able to figure out that rooting vociferously for the American hockey team at the Olympics is a far cry from perpetrating the deliberate murder of six million people. But I digress.
A man hands me a postcard with a photograph of Sophie and Hans Scholl on it. The Scholl siblings were students at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and were executed for their participation in the White Rose Movement. The postcard reads: “Resistance today. We in Munich have good models.”
Now, I’m all for honoring the bravery of the Scholls, who, along with the circle of people associated with Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, were among the infinitesimal number of Germans who resisted Nazi rule. But the sad truth of the matter is that Sophie and Hans Scholl`s sacrifice was all for naught. The anti- Nazi pamphlets they distributed had zero effect on Nazi power and their solitary protest did not inspire anyone else to take up the cause of resistance.
The Scholls, however, are always trotted out by revisionists as examples of a vast German resistance to Hitler, just like that non- existent vast French resistance our Gallic friends would like you to believe in. And the faculty, students and alumni of Ludwig Maximilian University try to present the Scholls in such a way as to make the case that LMU was a hotbed of resistance to the Third Reich.
In reality, LMU was the proving ground of the Nazi movement. The systematic amalgamation of anti-Semitism, theories of the superiority of the German people, and the geopolitical movement to acquire Lebensraum was a product of the intellectual environment of Ludwig Maximilian University in the 1920`s.
Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering and Rudolf Hess all took classes at LMU after World War I. Indeed, Hess was working on a graduate degree under the supervision of Professor Karl Haushofer, the chief architect of the concept of Lebensraum.
The LMU student body was overwhelmingly pro-Nazi. LMU student body President Baldur von Schirach later became head of the Hitler Youth and subsequently was one of the Nuremberg Trial defendants who received a prison sentence for his crimes.
Now we come to the speeches. There was all the usual socialist claptrap and self- congratulatory posturing. Everyone was being so brave by protesting the Nazis. Yeah -- just like actors accepting their Oscars who praise their fellow actors for their “bravery” in wearing red ribbons on their Armani tuxes and designer original gowns in order to protest the spread of AIDS.
The crowd, comprised of mostly young pinkos experiencing an endless bad hair day, seemed to be more interested in drinking beer than in listening to the speeches.
A very overweight man wearing a reproduction of a death camp inmate’s striped uniform droned on for what seemed an eternity. Although it was difficult to hear what he was saying, he appeared to be a union official making the point that the greatest calamity that befell the Jews at Dachau was the denial by the Nazis of their right to collective bargaining.
On To The Goetheplatz
Mercifully, the speeches finally came to an end, and the crowd began to file into the subway for the short trip to the Goetheplatz where the Nazis would be marching.
On arrival at the Goetheplatz it was immediately clear that the police were fully in control of the situation. I proceeded to a vantage point at the corner of Lindwurmstrasse and
Stielerstrasse.
Both sides of the street were completely lined with riot police wearing full Kevlar armor. Police cars and armored personnel carriers also lined the street. The Bavarian police handled the situation with the utmost professionalism and efficiency, and they deserve praise for their adept handling of a truly ridiculous situation.
Finally, the Nazis began to march. There were about 40 of them, some carrying banners (“Komm zu uns” -- “Come to us”) and some surrounding a car equipped with loudspeakers.
The anti-Nazis started screaming and blowing whistles. The Nazis turned up the volume. People of both sides flipped each other off. Some of the anti-Nazis seemed to be more interested in screaming at the police than in protesting against the Nazis.
Suddenly, some of the members of the crowd started to chase a girl who was then surrounded by police for her own protection. I asked several persons why the crowd was chasing her, and the consensus was that she was upset at the crowd for making so much noise.
The march and its protest continued for several blocks until the procession reached the Goetheplatz. All in all, 1,500 riot police were protecting less than 100 Nazis from somewhere between 800 and 1,000 anti-Nazis.
Suckers For Totalitarianism
Thirty five persons were arrested, a lot of taxpayer money was wasted and the Nazis got more publicity than they could have ever imagined. But in the end it was nothing more than a march by of bunch of idiots who embrace a totalitarian ideology that was being protested by a bunch of morons who embrace another totalitarian ideology.
Germans, it seems, are suckers for any totalitarian ideology. And therein lies the problem with today`s Germany. Germans may have been forced by America and her allies to abandon Nazism, but true democracy has yet to take firm root in the German psyche.
There wasn`t a dime’s bit of difference between the Nazis and the anti-Nazis at the November 30 march in Munich. It was just a watered-down version of the old Nazi- Bolshevik street fighting that occurred all throughout the years of the Weimar Republic.
It is doubtful whether the Germans will ever embrace true democracy, true capitalism or true liberty. All three of those concepts require an emphasis on the individual -- something that Germans, who are nothing if not cradle socialists, find to be absolutely abhorrent.
Deep in their heart of hearts, the German Volk long for those goose-stepping days of yore. It doesn`t really make any difference if the uniform shirts they wear are brown or red, just as long as they all think alike, look alike and march to the beat of a single drummer.
(Copyright ZCPortal.com)
William Grim is an American writer living in Germany. He can be reached at wgrim@myrealbox.com. Read more about him at The Official William E. Grim Website (williamegrim.tripod.com).
"People who hate America hate humanity."
--Andrew Sullivan
The only way to do that is to go on Hajj.
Grim at his anti-German idiocy again.
Most Germans (or French, or anyone else) didn't "hate" or "protest" or "resist" the Nazi's, because the Nazi's didn't bother them or disturb their life. That's how most people behave, including Americans. Most Germans (and French, since Grim has now taken to defaming them also for their behavior under occupation), had little or no interaction with the Nazi government. What interaction they did have was generally limited to the state education system, and the military during the later part of the war only. Less than 1/4th of the country benefitted in any way directly from anything the Nazi regime did in the social/cultural sphere. Most people simply were not involed because they were too busy living their own lives.
Its amazing how this Grim idiot takes 1500 nutballs in a city of 1.5 million and attributes to the 1.5 million the idiocy of the 1500.
One can see similar Nazi-Commie street riots in the US. Does this make all Americans apathetic anti-Democratic suckers for totalitarianism?
And as has become usual here, a hate screed is posted against the German Nation as a whole and praised, that would never be tolerated if similar things were said about blacks or Jews or other minorities.
Just trying to conjure up a mental image of this fat boy gave me a headache.
I will assume your stupidity is a result of your immaturity.
Your statement presupposes that the Jewish population of Germany (or France, though I know of Frenchmen who both hated and protested, with malice, the Nazis) were not, of course German, or French. Or do you contend they weren't bothered either.
AM, just a courtesy ping.
Hey, the trains ran on time, I hear.
Of your own free will, you engage in discourse with mental midgets. Make you a what?
Incorrect Chuckles.
Vernon Wayne Howell was given AMPLE airtime (his demands, early on) on 50,000 watt KRLD radio station in Texas for his message AFTER WHICH he was going to surrender himself adn the others.
He did not. Instead, he selfishly dug in and created an Armageddon situation - verily, he and his henchman lit the fires in the buidling! There is *no* arguement from the experts on this point (only pounds of rhetoric from uber-patriot sites in order to sell books, videos and subscriptions).
All in all, 1,500 riot police were protecting less than 100 Nazis from somewhere between 800 and 1,000 anti-Nazis.This sounds like a typical Klan march with the usual anti-Klan demonstrators also in attendance ...
These modern-day wannabe nazis should be forced to relocate to Iraq or Zimbabwe so they can live under the type of government they worship. They are stupid and cruel.
They simply do not get any choice politically in these matters, for the most part. Especially in France, all of the politicians are cut from the same elite cloth, and have little in common with most of the population. Britain and Germany are more and more adhering to this model.
Since 95%+ of the population was left alone, it had little reason to "resist". Its difficult to resist opression when you are not being oppressed.
Germany did show signs of enormous mass resistance on two occasions when Nazi adminstrators attempted to remove crucifixes from the schools. The hew and cry this created was more than enough demonstration to the regime to stick to persecuting the commies and Jews and stay away from the beliefs and actions of the mass of the people.
Hitler was popular because he left most people in Germany alone, and yet most people's lives improved dramatically prior to the last 4 years of the war. Obviously the Jews are to be expected to have a different perspective on all this, but their views should hardly be used to castigate the Germans as moral cowards.
The Allies were not able to ever diminish Hitler's popularity later because their "techniques" of prosecuting the war included saturation fire bombing of cities and towns and villages, strafing farmers working in their fields, and proposing genocidal "peace" solutions like the Kaufmann sterilization plan and the Morgenthau pastoralization plan. People like to yak on about how horrible Hitler was in bombing Warsaw, Rotterdam, and Coventry, where a few hundreds were killed in air raids. The Nazis never built heavy bombers like the Allies, because their technique for fighting the war did not involve the indiscriminate mass killing of tens and hundreds of thousands of civilians by incindiary bombs. Or the mass rape of all women from 8 to 80, as the Russians would do. And Herr Goebbels was simply overjoyed to get stuff like the Kaufmann sterilization plan dropped in his lap to use as propaganda to keep the fighting spirit up.
Lets look at the choices being offered the average German. Hitler - support me and fight or get a short trip to the concentration camp. Allies - watch out for the bombs ... and if you survive, we are coming to slice off your manhood and rape your women.
Gosh, what a difficult choice! You are surprised there was no resistance? No support for the Allies?
The Luftwaffe began bombing Poliosh cities the first day of the war. Likewise, the Luftwaffe bombed out Rotterdam at the begining of the Low Countries Campaign. This had the wonderfull effect omessing up allied lines of communications because civilians began to flee cities.
While we are at it, perhaps you forgot about teh Blitz?
I will admit that Germany had few heavy bombers. The Condor was used for Naval Recon and bombing, while the Urals Bomber program failed.
While I am no fan of Night bombing of the Brits and Germans, the Americans tried to target cities in daylight.
In hundreds of bombing raids during the Blitz, the Germans killed about 50,000 Londoners. Around 900 Dutch were killed in the Nazi raid on Rotterdam. A few thousands were killed in the bombings of Warsaw and Belgrade. More people were killed in ONE fire bombing raid on the small city of Wurzburg than in Rotterdam and Warsaw combined.
The British killed 50,000 in Hamburg in ONE fire-bombing raid in 1943. The British and Americans together killed 235,000+ in Dresden in 2/1945 when it was obvious to all the war was over (we'll never have a complete count - that is where the Germans stopped counting). And of course, we also incinerated Nagasaki and Hiroshima with an atomic bomb, and fire bombed Japanese cities like Osaka and Tokyo as well.
Who would you conclude was targetting civilians?
The Allies were forced into this barbaric warfare methodology because they refused to offer reasonable terms for ending the war. They readily admitted after the war that the bombing campaign had been totally ineffective both in that it did NOT decimate industrial production (Germany had its highest production figures in 1944, despite the country having been laid waste), and it BOOSTED morale and resistance, especially when combined with the threats of rape, sterilization, and theft, which were promised the Germans as extra bonuses when they unconditionally surrendered.
As I noted, what kind of choice did we offer any German resistance - you give up and lay down your arms and let us take over and do whatever we want, or we kill you. And we don't care if you overthrow Hitler or not, we are still going to come in and give it to you good and hard.
The bombings of Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and Belgrade were not cited as war crimes at the one sided war crimes trial in Nuremburg (one sided because only the crimes of one side were prosecuted, while the other side which included the barbaric and lying communists pretended it had no crimes). Its difficult to figure out though where in the Geneva Convention, it would allow for the bombing of harmless walled medieval towns like Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber (flattened in early 1945), or the strafing of farmers in their fields, and the shooting of refugees, as was done when the American fighter pilots would run out of other things to shoot at. It sure takes a big brave man to shoot farmers and their cows, and children riding bicycles in the countryside, and homeless people walking along the roads.
If you want to say you are on a crusade for good, you must act good. Otherwise, you become a big hypocrite like the crusaders against the Muslims around AD 1100 who got sidetracked into slaughtering Jews and attacking Byzantium. History is not going to remember the Allies very kindly in WWII in terms of their methodology of prosecuting the war versus their proclaimed rhetoric. We cannot see that now, because we are still too close.
Oh, my. Thanks for pointing that out: It was 66,031,600.
My kingdom for a comma!
..... Who would you conclude was targetting civilians?
Everyone did. Civilans, communications, electricty, population centers were all deemed part of military industrial complexes. Given teh degree of militarization, this was correct. Of course killing civilians so that they could not work at factories was a disgusting proposition for all sides.
The Allies were forced into this barbaric warfare methodology because they refused to offer reasonable terms for ending the war. They readily admitted after the war that the bombing campaign had been totally ineffective both in that it did NOT decimate industrial production (Germany had its highest production figures in 1944, despite the country having been laid waste), and it BOOSTED morale and resistance, especially when combined with the threats of rape, sterilization, and theft, which were promised the Germans as extra bonuses when they unconditionally surrendered.
The Americans and British did none of these things. I make no attempt to apologize for the actions of the Red Army. They raped every femal from 8-80 when they conquered a city. Afterwards it was looted.
As I noted, what kind of choice did we offer any German resistance - you give up and lay down your arms and let us take over and do whatever we want, or we kill you. And we don't care if you overthrow Hitler or not, we are still going to come in and give it to you good and hard.
Excuse me, but there were plenty of attempts to kill Hitler by all sides in the hope of ending the war.
The bombings of Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and Belgrade were not cited as war crimes at the one sided war crimes trial in Nuremburg (one sided because only the crimes of one side were prosecuted, while the other side which included the barbaric and lying communists pretended it had no crimes)
I agree that the inclusion of the Soviets int he prosecution made Nuremburg a farce. Still everyone agreed taht bombing campaigns were not war crimes.
), or the strafing of farmers in their fields, and the shooting of refugees, as was done when the American fighter pilots would run out of other things to shoot at. It sure takes a big brave man to shoot farmers and their cows, and children riding bicycles in the countryside, and homeless people walking along the roads.
Of course the airmen new that they were attacking civilians?
Come on. Trains were used to transport troops. They were a vital part of German mobilization.
If you want to say you are on a crusade for good, you must act good. Otherwise, you become a big hypocrite like the crusaders against the Muslims around AD 1100 who got sidetracked into slaughtering Jews and attacking Byzantium.
I've never understood the logic of decimating the Rhineland Jews in the First Crusade. However, the killing of people in captured cities was standard, if retarded, proceedure.
The attack on Byzantium was for pilage, not religion.
History is not going to remember the Allies very kindly in WWII in terms of their methodology of prosecuting the war versus their proclaimed rhetoric. We cannot see that now, because we are still too close.
I think historians will differentiate between the Russians and everyone else.
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