Rich Iott Defends Nazis He Dresses Up As: 'They Were Doing What They Thought Was Right' AC360

[RamboLiberal]

Ohio Congressional candidate Rich Iott got grilled by Anderson Cooper last night on his rather unusual hobby of dressing up as a member of the 5th SS Wiking Panzer Division, a unit in the German army during World War II.

Iott defended the members of the unit, who he said "wanted to fight what they saw as a bigger threat to them than Germany," so they joined up with the Nazis to fight the eastern front of the war against Soviet forces. "I don't think we can sit here and judge that today. We weren't there the time they made those decisions," he said.

Iott called "what happened in Germany during the second World War one of "the low points in human history," but defended the Wiking Division when Cooper referred to them as collaborators: "I don't know that I would put that label on them. They were doing what they thought was right for their country. And they were going out and fighting what they thought was a bigger, you know, a bigger evil."

Iott also contended that "this particular unit was one that was never charged with war crimes," though Cooper pointed out that one member was recently charged with the murder of 58 Jews. Iott replied: "The war on the eastern front was extremely brutal on both sides. Nobody was lily-white, that's for sure. Horrible things that happened on both sides."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/rich-iott-defends-nazis-he-dresses-up-as-they-were-doing-what-they-thought-was-right-video.php?ref=fpa

[Blue_Tires]

1. he finished up by saying that the confederates had a 'noble' cause

and that the slaves were happy, grateful and loyal to their benevolent masters

[spanone]

2. fuck the moron

[lillypaddle]

3. Is this guy for real?

Yeah, guess he is. Bummer.

[Xipe Totec]

4. They Were Doing What They Thought Was Reich

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I get the side of re-creating history

a lot of people do it. Hell, we PLAY miniatures games, and yes that includes a vanilla flavor German Army for Flames of War, with a very large Russian Force and a largish American Force. Yes both of them need somebody to fight, ok.

There is a reason though why while the other two have markings, the Germans have just national markings and numbers on them...

And those doing recreation would get no shrift from me, or mostly no shrift, if they were recreating a Wermacht Unit, see that about having somebody to "fight," but a unit that is well known for war crimes?

[WCGreen]

18. I totally agree with you on this on...

recreation is one thing, but embracing a Unit with ties to war crimes is ignorantly callous at best and malicious indifference at it's worse.

[SpiralHawk]

6. Freaking Fascist RepuliBaggers (R) are a shameful anti-American cabal

Holy Fascist Crap...

[tanyev]

7. Lots of atrocities have been committed by people doing what they thought was right.

Doesn't mean they were right.

[Canuckistanian]

17. Nor does it mean we should emulate them

If these people are so interested in "history", why don't they don Japanese uniforms and simulate the Bataan Death march?

They seem awfully 'selective' in their choice of armies and uniforms.

[louis-t]

8. Ah, the old 'both sides do it/did it' argument.

:eyes:

[CJCRANE]

9. Kaptain Klueless...

Word of advice: never defend Nazis (if you want to be politically credible).

[Monk06]

10. "The Jews didn't have it bad in Auschwitz. The ovens were just for garbage disposal" - Rich Iott

Iott is one step away from being a holocaust denier.

[Diclotican]

21. Monk06

Monk06

And this person want to be sited in your Senate?. How ignorant, or outright STUPID is that man... He can not be serious, if he claim that, all evidence from they who survived, and the guards who was arrested after the war ended, could tell allmoust the same thing from every corner of The 3th Reich... That thousands, every weeks was disposed off, by burning them to ashes and then used a fertilizer at farms... (yes they was used as fertilizer, thousands, maye ten of ten of thousands was disposed off that way).. And no one asked where all the ashes was coming from - becouse it was a open secret what happend in the camps.. Not the killing, but that SS disposed of dead by burning their bodys to ashes was not excactly a secret.. As it have been doing since Dachau was opened in 1933-34... And Dachau was one of the "schools" where new and improved tools to kill everyone the german masters was not willing to live anymore...

I hope he wil NEVER got anynear the US Senate.. He is just so stupid, so arrogant about history, and should be shunned by everyone with a decent mind...

But, Im afraid it wil be worse, before it got better over there, to many americans are not excactly knowlegde about the rest of the war, and have some wierd wiews about World War two..

Diclotican

[Monk06]

22. If Iott had dressed up in an SS uniform in Canada and said what he said

he'd be in court charged with a hate crime and
if he was an immigrant he'd be deported on conviction
like that dipshit Ernst Zundel. In addition, his Jew hating
"free speech activist" lawyer Doug Cristie should have been
disbarred.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm4vKhZ1nkM

[RainDog]

11. guess what, Idiot? your side lost. The fascists lost

the socialists won.

that's why Western Europe is doing so much better by its citizens these days than the U.S. - because the socialists won.

Russia and the U.S. beat the fascists, you scum bag. Idiot is, basically, siding against the U.S. in its historical role - and anyone who votes for him is voting for this same scumbag ideology.

This is the ugly truth in America. If you vote for conservatives, you are voting with fascists.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. The scary part

Is not that he admires Nazis, it's that the teabaggers will still by and large vote for him. They don't care.

[Scurrilous]

13. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Shallah Kali]

14. Who were those patriotic nazi's fighting?

Election Choice: Nazi Re-enactor (Republican) v. Sponsor of the WW II Memorial (Democrat)
http://www.thenation.com/blog/155309/now-heres-2010-election-choice-nazi-reenactor-versus-champion-anti-fascist-resistance

Wojciechowski was a Polish Cavalry Platoon Commander on September 1, 1939, when the Nazis invaded Poland. After the defeat of the Polish forces, Wojciechowski’s joined the partisan resistance, was arrested, tortured by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Auschwitz.

snip

He settled in Toledo, where his daughter attended Catholic school with a young girl named Marcy Kaptur.

Kaptur grew up to be the congresswoman from Toledo, and she has made it her personal mission to celebrate the legacy of the anti-fascist resistance during World War II. She did so as part of a broader focus on remembering the struggle against the Nazis, which saw the congresswoman lead a seventeen-year campaign to create the the National World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Last year, Kaptur and Wojciechowski, aged 95, arranged to travel to Poland for what the congresswoman described as a celebration of "the ideal of liberty knows no geo-political boundaries."

[NoPasaran]

15. And Jeffrey Dahmer just had the munchies

[Motown_Johnny]

16. even if that were true... didn't he know that what they did was wrong???

[TexasObserver]

19. When you're in a hole, stop digging! And take off the Nazi uniform, too!!

What an idiot.

[Jefferson23]

20. Personally, I think it's good on one level that this bigot can't cloak his

hatred very well..he is so damn obvious. On the other hand, what a pitiful commentary
he has any supporters at all.

[Rex]

23. We weren't there and can't therefore judge them based on their actions?

Fuck that Puke Nazi bastard.

[WinkyDink]

24. We can't judge?! Uh, that "both sides" argument FAILS EPICALLY from ca. 1939.

[myrna minx]

25. OMG -

words fail me.

[Raschel]

26. Grizzlies and Nazis and Witches - OH MY!

[AnnieBW]

27. Maybe he was auditioning for "The Producers"?

As Adolph Elizabeth Hitler?

[felix_numinous]

28. Deeply disturbing.

I take these people very seriously.

[brendan120678]

29. Idiot. I'm proud of my Nordic heritage...

but I certainly wouldn't go around praising any Nazi connections they may have had.