SS Reenactor makes national news

[DennyB]

Has anyone seen where a man from Ohio is running for Congress and pictures of him with some other reenactors wearing Waffen SS uniforms have been made public. Without letting this get politicial, I might say that anyone with an eye for getting into national politics, you might want to only portray American.
This will probably cost this man the election.

[steve wilko]

Why???

Yes DennyB you are probably right. But WHY does society now judge a mans worth by his past time interests? To me the ss was just an elite fighting force within the Wehrmacht much like the British SAS or the US Rangers within their respective forces..... it is sad that the stigma of the camps overshadowed every other thing they, the ss, did on the field of battle. That is just my humble thought.

[Jean-Loup]

The second you run for politics, or start playing with the big boys, you can expect all your past garbage to sudenly explode publicaly, and for even more garbage about you to be invented. What happened to Marc on this forum is a good example.
Also, I remember when Schwartznegger decided to run for electons, all of a sudden cases of sexual harassement were filed against him, for events that had occured dozens of years earlier.

Parading as an SS soldier if you are planing a political life is NOT a good idea.

JL

[militaria.no]

Parading as an SS soldier if you are planing a political life is NOT a good idea.

JL

What about the RAF guy? He might have a chance

[besslein]

this ss boys looks like friewilligen from east europe i like the look of the guy on right

[juoneen]

They said it was a bonding thing he did with his son, and after the son lost interest several years ago (3) he quit. Just because you re-inact, doesn't mean you are in the nazi party. If he was in the American Nazi party, that's a different story. He was also in the viking division, and have a website online. (5th ss). The story was boring actually.

[Gene T]

Reenactors tend to have a nuanced view of the soldiers they portray, and are seldom (if ever) motivated by extreme ideology.

There is no nuance in politics during election season, and everything is viewed within an ideological context, the more extreme the better, even if it means to invent one where there is none before.

It is not a left or right thing; it is just the way the game is played.

Iott is incredibly naive if he thinks the topic can be discussed rationally. Even if he manages to somehow win his seat, he will be severely marginalized. No one in Congress will touch him with a ten foot pole, much less to be seen with him in the same picture.


Gene T

[crowback]

reenactors

I think the guy in the RAF uniform is German.

Anyway, it is big news here in Ohio. One has to wonder, why pick an SS unit to reenact ? Even people well educated in WW2 history still have mixed opinions on the SS and their "legacy."

[equinehat]

The BBC just did a piece on this subject, called weekend Nazis. they went in undercover to Englands largest reinactment and when the guys got to drinking the racial slurs came out. Nword this and that, Jews, and more. There is more than a few that many no subscribe to the full view but has sympathy thats for sure. Steve, saying the SS was just and elite fighting force is not going to be a good sell. You can not compare the army rangers with the Wikings, which Iott was reinacting that killed Hungarian Jews. You can try but I would not even attempt it if I were you. To many people it is like saying lets reinact a rape of a child just for history. I am not trying to take sides but its a hard sell. I keep my collection under the table and when I have to have someone in the house it goes under the bed. I collect because of history but I would never try to make others understand, because I know they could not. I was at a gun show and talking to one of the reinactors and they took my photo for their news paper. I was ticked. I don't want my face next to an SS officer no mater what the exccuse. JMO.

[John-M]

CNN link

For those who are interested...

Interesting to observe the media spin:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/1...-re-enactment/

[steve wilko]

Reenactors

JMO. All I want to say is wrongs where done on all sides during the war......To the victors the spoils. With the Waffen SS Yes some where involved in the camps and other involved in war crimes but others also performed to that elite status. Unfortunately most people only see the "camps" in the Waffen SS history. Regards Steve.

[DennyB]

The man in the RAF uniform is Mike Bollow, the man who organized "ReenactorFest" in the Chicago area. I have known him for years.
I wonder if this congressional candidate had portrayed a Heer Landser would his hobby been accepted differently?

[crowback]

Heer

Doubtful if the media would have ignored the Heer portrayal but it would have been easier to explain a Heer impression. And I was joking about the RAF man being a German.

quote=DennyB;4265845]The man in the RAF uniform is Mike Bollow, the man who organized "ReenactorFest" in the Chicago area. I have known him for years.
I wonder if this congressional candidate had portrayed a Heer Landser would his hobby been accepted differently?[/quote]

[LarryHW.]

Missing the point

1. The fact is that the SS was the military arm of the Nazi party and the Nazi regime's ultimate shield and sword. SS members were fully indoctrinated.

2. The website describing this guy's reenactor unit presented a glorified history of the particular unit, carefully omitting the crimes it was involved in.

3. To say that there was more to the Waffen SS than their atrocities is like saying that, other than the Iceburg, the Titanic had a fine journey. The Waffen SS engaged in a variety of war crimes and mass executions. The "distinction" some try to draw between the Waffen SS and other SS units is a distinction without a difference.

4. To compare the Waffen SS to other western "elite" military units is to show a stunning ignorance of history. People making these comments should at least try to learn the facts before posting on what is meant to be a forum for serious and educated discussion.

5. If the best someone can come up with is that "...there was wrong done on all sides during the war" they are, in effect, defending the SS by inferring that they did nothing worse than what everyone else did. It is time to start reading a few decent and respected books on WWII and Nazi Germany, and I don't mean those by fiction writer David Irving. We should expect better from Austrialia's education system.

JMO. All I want to say is wrongs where done on all sides during the war......To the victors the spoils. With the Waffen SS Yes some where involved in the camps and other involved in war crimes but others also performed to that elite status. Unfortunately most people only see the "camps" in the Waffen SS history. Regards Steve.

[DennyB]

I have seen people's reaction to seeing reenactors wearing the uniform of the Waffen SS at air shows and guns shows, many are disgusted. I don't think WW2 reenacting will be accepted as a normal hobby by the public as long as Waffen SS are portrayed.
This may seem unfair and trying to deprive someone of their God-given right to wear whatever they want to but this is simply my opinion. If reenactors are truly wanting to historically correct portray a German soldier, they need to do an impression of a Heer infantryman, there were about 10 times more of them than there were Waffen SS.
The general public that has a basic knowledge of WW2 will equate the Waffen SS with concentration camps and atrocities, that is how it will be.