On Being a Wiking. A Congressional candidate's choice of historical re-enactment..

[Lucky13]

If this isn't suitable in any way, or turn political, which I hope that it doesn't, feel free to remove Mods.....

A Congressional candidate's choice of historical re-enactment as a member of the SS leads to controversy. Military historian Rob Citino weighs in.

On Being a Wiking HistoryNet

 

[Maximowitz]

Tricky subject Jan. When the Waffen SS pops up as a subject I suddenly find the Celine Dion forum really interesting....

 

[JohnAnthony]

You know, I recently experienced something similar though on a much smaller scale. A friend of mine who isn't a modeler was surprised to find that I had kits of Third Reich aircraft in my stash. He wanted to know why I would "glorify" the Nazi war machine. I explained to him that purely as an aficionado of military history, the Nazi war machine was one of the most fascinating studies, and that study in no way implied any agreement on my part with Nazi philosophies. He found that difficult to understand.

As far as aspiring politicians go however, they should probably forgo donning the SS uniform. It will inevitably be percieved by some as condoning the Nazis and in politics, perception is ninety-nine per cent of the game.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I myself personally see nothing wrong with it from a historical point of view. Of course this is as long as the person does not sympathize with the ideology and the horrible things that occurred. I find it no different than anyone who does any kind of reenactment of any other historical military of any period of time for instance.

Of course I do think that a politician should probably stay away from such a thing, as JohnAnthony said above, perception is everything and your political opponents will use it against you.

 

[Maestro]

Well, I don't see anything wrong with collecting stuff linked to the Third Reich (model kits or other things)... Nor do I see anything wrong with war reenactment (although I personnally think it's kind of a weird hobby).

But I also understand why dressing up with a Swastika can leave some peoples... with a bad taste. Because since WWII, Swastika is linked with hate of other races. White supremacists even continued to use this symbol throughout the 80s/90s to spread their hate of other cultures.

So in short, I don't know what to think...