Thread: Nazi blades

Originally Posted by prodigy

My grandma is one of the last few living to experience nazi Germany firsthand. She was in the Hitler youth, and recalls it being a lot of fun. It was all a part to brainwash the children. They would play games, sports, sing songs etc. Disturbing really, just glad she turned out to be amazing! It's true though, the normal people not involved with Hitler and his party were unaware of his agenda until it was too late.

My Godfather (born 1931) was in the Hitler Youth as well. As were all of his friends at the time. Important to bear that in mind when people are damned for having been in that movement. They were kids. It wasn't their choice. It's remarkable how much some people can come through and still emerge as good people.

Another great on topic read is a book called Ordinary Men. It documents a Polish (I think I am recalling correctly) unit that was convinced to do some truly horrific things. A tough read not for the faint of heart..but an important reminder that you must always question and evaluate what you are doing when being "ordered". Following others blinding can be a truly terrible idea. I picked it up during a tour of the Holocaust Museum in Dallas...a very moving experience.

You all want to see my Hitler razor again? (sorry!)

I have a German WW2 razor, part of history. Not ashamed of it. I also volunteer at the World Memorial Project, which helps jewish people try and track down what happened to their parents/ grandparents and other family members that disappeared in the Nazi killing machine.

Originally Posted by S0LITARYS0LDIER

Where we goin' with this Bobby?

Just saying don't ever be so cock sure it could not happen today all over again in these modern politically correct times. Hate is still a popular idea politically. You brought it up.

Bob

Originally Posted by Cangooner

(sorry - can't resist...)

Yup, one of the most frightening things about the rise of the NSDAP was the ease with which they slithered into power, concentrated supreme power in the hands of one man, and then went on from there. In many ways it was so banal and gradual that many people didn't realize what had happened until it was far too late to do anything about it. This speaks to many issues raised by this thread, particularly the value of preserving the symbols and artifacts of the past - however hateful and hurtful - in order to preserve our collective memories and hopefully prevent such developments in the future. But as Bob noted in many countries the FAR right is on the rise again, and many moderate, and by 'moderate' I simply mean 'not extreme', people are worryingly complacent about them. From friends casually sharing posts on Facebook from the EDL, BNP, and UKIP (apologies but as someone who lived in the UK for six years, my examples are all from there) without thinking about what their over-simplified memes are actually saying and how they contribute to the spread of the casual racism, scape-goating, and xenophobia that marks extreme movements, to governments implementing laws based on division and fear of the 'other', it is possible to note more and more similarities to our present time and those past times when extreme movements came to power.

Anyway... the rise of the NSDAP is an absolutely fascinating subject and is one of my favourites to teach. Lots to sink one's teeth into.

I think I'll be keeping that in mind when I vote next week.

Bob

I haven't read the whole thread so this may have been suggested already. I'm not so sure these are the real deal(eagle and helmet inlays). I haven't seen many German razors with 3D inlays and they seem to be poorly done. If they were genuine I would think think they would have nazi designs made with the usual inlay materials. These really just look like some dude got little nazi knickknacks, carved out some scale material and glued them in.

FWW:
There were razors made in Ithaca, NY with the Swastika on the scales and they were done before the NSDAP.
It was a fairly popular motif over the previous years and not only in Germany. I have only seen one and, drat, I did not buy t for the accumulation.
~Richard

Someone asked for online courses? Yad Vashem has them.

As for the razor, ask yourself this: Would you like to own a cushion with a filling made from human hair? Or a lamp with a lamp shade made from human skin? If no, why would you want this thing? And yes, it's a forgery.

It's interesting how emotional people get when they see nazi symbols. Imperial Japanese flags don't seem to upset the average American and their conduct was every bit as vile as the nazis. We nuked two cities full of civilians and don't think of Hiroshima or Nagasaki when we see the Stars and Stripes. But nazi symbols really get under our skin in a very powerful way. Unfortunately we don't seem to learn from our past. People are being systematically exterminated at this very minute while the world looks the other way.