Riffrandal " Because the Gypsies, Poles, Russians,etc don't control the media.... "


LMAO.  Too bad people still think like that.

95th foot, I agree, Stalin was a total mad man. It is now estimated that from the start of the Great Purge, Russo-Finnish war, to the end of hostilities with Japan and Ukrainian (U.S. backed) partisans in 1948, the Russians lost around [b]71 million.[/b]

I read Mein Kampf.  All I could think was that it was the ravings of a mad man.  He never should have come to power, he should have rotted in the luney bin or jail.  The result was two mad med slaughtering the population of Europe and as much of the rest of the world as they could. Two equally evil governments slugging it out, who ever won, was still as evil as the looser.

Acctually I was being more sarcastic when I made the comment about when the items are destroyed it would mean my stuff is worth more.

My thought process, was that it is stupid to destroy it.  I have very little "Nazi" stuff.  A great deal of German army stuff.  In destroying these items, they are destroying their own history, as well of that of one of the most important events in world history. I can understand how a camp survivor would do it, but I would think they would want it as a reminder to others.  Especially to the holocost denyers.  I really have no interest in making money off this. I will never sell my stuff.

I will tell you why the facination with the Germans.  I do WWII re-enacting on the German side. (Regular army, not SS)  The facination comes from [b]WAR TIME[/b] propaganda.  It was simply so effective, that the idea of German  power & invincability still stick in peoples minds.

The thought of the unstopable German army still comes through in most TV shows you see.  It is the idea that the Americans slew the mighty dragon while riding in like a knight in shining armor.

If Goebles were still alive, he would be happy. The SOB created an image of power that still stands almost 60 years after the fall of the Reich.

I, and many like me are facinated by the tactics, and the totally different style of warfare involved.  The accomplishments of the German army will probaly never be repeated, the history, and fact behind it, once looked into, is very involved and interesting to many people.

Then you have the idiots, but i only know of a few in the hobby who are the "88" types, and they keep it quiet.

We have a local unit that we fight with sometimes that has a few members who are a little on the shady side.

I bought a new canteen once, and he told me it would show up on my credit card "as a local compamy called 88 enterprises".  I looked into that and found that they were the local chapter of W.A.R. (White Aryan resisiance)  I was F*cking pissed. I refused to fight with them eversince in any battle.

Around here we mostly have SS units.  Their idea of tactics is to charge the G.I.s shooting from the hip. They know little about tactics, and are in it because they can say - Look at me, I'm elite.

We train using the proper tactics, and when done right, we have found that few G.I. units can stop us.  The trick is - to get it right.  Thus the interest in the history, and the feeling of being involved in something long ago.

We have a guy that does Italain, and Hungarian impressions as well. He does a great job.  I am no that deticated to different impressions. I absolutely refuse to do Russain, although I absolutely love fighting them.  Those guys are great.

Oberschuetze, it's funny you mention the ubiquitous SS aspect to WW2 reenactment. I know, as a [url=http://www.najecki.com/40thfoot/40index.html]RevWar Redcoat reenactor[/url], several people who are in RevWar Hessian units ([url=http://www.vondonop.org]Von Donop's[/url] is the best) and they have dealt with the shadow hanging over recreating any sort of German soldier in any time period, that emanates from WW2 and from WW2 Ger. SS reenactors. People will ask them, while they are dressed as Hessian 18th cent. soldiers if they are Nazis, if they are Aryan Brotherhood members, etc. They get pretty sick of it. I saw a drunk tourist do the Hitlergruss to one at an event...to his credit, the reenactor rolled his eyes and turned away.

Oddly enough, some of them ARE WW2 German reenactors, and some (more) are WW1 German reenactors. These guys prefer doing the latter, since they can play with (more) modern gear, yet not have to deal officially with "the Hitler thing".

Re Italian reenactors, at Kirby Hall, a huge timeline event set up every summer by English Heritage in northern England, there was a re-created Italian WW2 paratrooper unit, "Folgore", who looked pretty authentic to me, right down to that characteristic cammo they used on the jump smocks.

I give people credit for their thick skins they must have when reenacting WW2, but I'm glad that you guys aren't blinded by the light of the SS-Kriegsheld, as so many of the ill-informed "88"s (a new term to me) seem to be.

PS: at Kirby Hall, 1999, there was a 1940 Dutch Army infantry unit, complete with one guy dressed up as a bailed-out, smoke-blackened German flier marching at gunpoint, with his hands on his head! These Dutch guys were indeed Dutch, and wore original uniforms, complete with those odd helmets and puttees!