GOP candidate tries to explain he wasn’t wearing a NAZI uniform, he was wearing an SS uniform

[kpete]

Sigh -- Tough Ground to Run on
Josh Marshall | October 14, 2010, 12:42PM

From Politico, Rich Iott's latest argument ...

*****"Rich Iott doesn't have an anti-Semitic bone in his body," said Parker, who sought to distinguish between a Nazi uniform and an SS uniform, which he said is what Iott is wearing in the now-famous image.

*****The Nazis were Adolf Hitler's party -- and became shorthand for the German military under his rule -- while the SS was an elite squadron of soldiers and law enforcers responsible for a variety of war crimes.

It wasn't a Nazi uniform. It was a uniform of the Nazi paramilitary force!

Next. It was a concentration camp, not a death camp!

#toughdistinctionstorunon
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/10/sigh_--_tough_ground_to_run_on.php

[WillParkinson]

1. They really need to take away his shovel...

Before he hits the earths core.

On second thought that might not be a bad idea.

[Richardo]

5. I'd suggest taking his shovel and giving him a backhoe.

It's way more efficient :D

[MrScorpio]

2. The SS were the Naziest of the Nazis

Who the fuck is he trying to fool... Himself?

[Deep13]

10. Especially the ones who actively assisted the Einsatzgruppen,...

the special task forces that traveled with an advancing army to round-up and kill Jews and other "undesirables."

[SteppingRazor]

14. They didn't assist the Einsatzgruppen ... they WERE the Einsatzgruppen.

Seriously, this is just unbelievable. Saying that you aren't dressing up as a Nazi but like an SS soldier is like saying I'm not from Milwaukee, I'm Jeffrey Dahmer.


:wtf:

[BootinUp]

20. lol nt

[Kber]

28. snarf

[MadMaddie]

3. Wow!

Seriously? WTF?

[Le Taz Hot]

4. Oh, well, then,

I feel so much better. :wtf:

[Barack_America]

6. Oh yes, the SS, that was the humanitarian wing of the Nazi military, wasn't it?

:eyes:

[Deep13]

7. What kind of person wears Nazi uniforms and celebrates Nazi triumphs for fun?

Answer: a Nazi.

[hobbit709]

8. The stupid is amazing.

Maybe he should look up the origins of the SS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel

[rurallib]

9. It ain't shit; it's manure!

If this guy is a student of history, he flunked the class badly.

[SteppingRazor]

11. But that's even worse!!

I mean, if he had been participating in WWII reenactments by dressing up as Joe Schmoe German soldier, that'd be one thing. (Still not the smartest thing for a would-be politician to do, but remotely understandable.) But he's dressing up in the uniform of the freaking Schutzstaffel! They were the worst of the worst, the soldiers who personally carried out wholesale massacres of innocent Jewish villagers across the Eastern front. They were the guys who had people dig their own mass graves before shooting them all in the back of their heads. They were the troops who guarded the death camps, for Chrissake!

[onehandle]

12. 'I'm not dressed as Hitler, I'm dressed as Charlie Chaplin.'

[kenny blankenship]

13. I'm no expert but I was pretty sure that the SS represented an "elite" cadre of Nazis in mil uniform

The SS was explicitly dedicated to principles of Aryan racial purity/supremacy and to the ideology of Fuhrerprinzip in ways that the Wehrmacht, as a preexisting military institution spanning both the Imperial period and the Republic, was not.

[Deep13]

18. Yes. There were the blackshirts and the Waffen SS.

The SS "blackshirts" were Hitler's personal henchmen. The Waffen SS was the actual fighting branch of the SS and was supposed to be an elite force. But yeah, the SS was for folks who found the regular Nazis a little too warm and fuzzy.

[NoPasaran]

21. And beyond that the "Wiking" Division was for foreigners who wanted to help

Wiking, as the name implies, was originally manned by "Aryan" Scandinavian volunteers eager to get in on the anti-Bolshevik crusade.

[Yupster]

23. Yes -- just to let an old history teacher go on for awhile

The Waffen SS were the fighting field forces of the SS.

The original three divisions were

1st SS Leibstandarte Adolph Hitler
2nd SS Das Reich
3rd SS Todtenkopf

were magnificant fighting units, probably the best in the world. They were made up of highly motivated soldiers in the best of physical shape. They were only used in the most key areas of big battles.

The fourth and fifth divisions

4th SS Polizei
5th SS Wiking
6th SS Nord

were also strong field fighting units

From the 7th SS Division Freiwilligen to the 38th SS Division Nibelungen, the rest of the units were a motley collection of mostly foreign units, sometimes real and awful and sometimes just there for propaganda purposes. There were many Germans who lived in Hungary, Rumania, Poland, even Russia and these units were a way for them to serve. There were ethnic minorities that Hitler exploited to keep down their hated neighbors. There were right wing Dutch, French, Danes who found a place in their national units of the SS. There were conquered nations trying to regain their freedom who fought with Hitler like the three Baltic States.

Here are a few of the notables.

13th SS Handschar was made up of Bosnian Muslims. It did such a good job of terrorizing the local Serbs that the Germans disbanded the division a year before the war ended. They wore a fez as part of their uniform.

14th SS Galizische was made up of Ukrainian nationalists who joined in hopes of being the Ukrainian National army after Hitler granted the Ukraine its independance.

15th SS Lettische 1 were Latvians who fought with the Germans on the Russian Front since Russia took them over before the war.

20th SS Estnische Same thing for Estonians.

21st SS Albanische Albanian Muslims who sought out Tito's rebels in Bosnia. German troops were too valuable and too needed in other places to be chasing rebels around the hills of Yugoslavia.

27th SS Langemarck Made up of Belgian volunteers.

30th SS Russische Made up of Russian POW volunteers. Maybe one of Hitler's biggest mistakes was never using or attempting to make use of the hundreds of thousands of anti-communist Russian prisoners he took. He could have possibly raised huge armies this way, but kept this group just for propaganda purposes. At ther end of the war, the Western Allies turtned these guys over to the Soviets where they were never seen again.

33rd SS Charlegmagne was made up of French volunteers. Ironically, this regiment (never reached divisional size) was annihilated while it defended the Reich Chancellory above Hitler's bunker in the last days of the war.

An interesting story.

[Deep13]

15. The important thing to remember is...

...a person can be a Nazi sympathizer to the point of dressing up in a Nazi uniform and celebrating Nazi victories and still be a Republican teabagger nominee for Congress.

[glitch]

17. This guy is just the most blatant. Who else believes they all have altars to Nazis in their closets?

Come on, you know Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove and Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and all the Bushes do, even Barb.

[Deep13]

19. Well, the tea party is plainly a fascist movement with a venire of populism...

...which fascist movements always have anyway.

When fascism comes to America is will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. The teabaggers are exhibit A.

[WinkyDink]

16. Ummm...memo to Iott; THE SS WERE THE WORST OF THE WORST.

[RaleighNCDUer]

22. Any German could be in the Wehrmacht.

To be in the SS you HAD to be a Nazi party member who took a personal oath to Hitler in person (or at least in a mass formation with Hitler presiding).

[BootinUp]

24. Did that apply to this Wiking division?

From what little I read or heard, it seems this was a division of foreigners. I am just curious to learn more.

edit: found this, can't vouch for its accuracy.
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Waffen-SS_foreign_volunteers_and_conscripts

[arbusto_baboso]

32. Yes, the SS had foreign-manned divisions, made up of racist fanatics...

from conquered nations (racist fanatics who were traitors and quislings, no less) and allies. There were SS formations comprised of Scandinavians, Dutch, Poles, Romanians, Hungarians and even disaffected soldiers of the British Empire from India.

Most of them were actually pretty ineffective, except for suppressing their own countrymen.

[Renew Deal]

25. This guy has handled this idiotically

He should have said "I like to participate in war re-enactments because I'm a history geek. I have participated in WW2, Civil War, and Revolutionary War reenactments. I have dressed up in various uniforms. It is a hobby. Obviously I find the actions of the NAZI's amongst the most heinous and barbaric in human history." That is all. That's also assuming that he also liked to dress as an American soldier in these re-enactments.

Instead he's playing these idiotic games about what is and isn't a nazi and trying to defend the "movement." It's just plain stupid.

[sufrommich]

26. I'm amazed his handlers haven't locked him in the basement

by now. I imagine them screaming "OMG,would you just shut up already!".

[Renew Deal]

27. These teabagger types don't have proper "handlers"

Their help is other looney teabaggers. That's partly why they don't know when to shut up.

[bobthedrummer]

29. Know Your BFEE and its current associates, K&R n/t

[jgraz]

30. Yeah... it was just a camp to ...um... help people concentrate

You know, give them some quiet time alone with their thoughts...


:eyes:

[LynneSin]

31. Seriously, just because these people have the IQ of a rock doesn't mean the rest of us do

SS is Nazi. Seriously, does he think we're stupid?

[SargeUNN]

33. shows he is full of it. I knew an SS officer

when I was stationed in Germany a German friend of mine introduced me to his father who had been an SS officer during WW2. Mr. Jochum and I had many talks and he told me his experiences and in the process told me a lot about Nazism and his time in a POW camp in California. He spent about 2 weeks in the camp and found he wasn't going to be tortured, that he was allowed to read and talk about what America stood for, and he told all he knew, denounced the Nazis and when he went back to Germany with dreams of his children one day becoming Americans. I think my friend could be in the USA today, but I have to wonder with the crap we have pulled in the last decade, if Mr. Jochum would think so highly of us today.

However to get back to the topic, yes the SS was Nazi and just a select group in the Nazi regime. His explanation is pure stupid.

[Scurrilous]

34. LOL

:thumbsup:

[RagAss]

35. Deranged Slapdick !

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. Oy gevalt

But keep digging

[SoCalDem]

37. Um..kind of like ..it wasn't a fireplace-log lighter..it was a flame thrower

keep trying, dude:rofl:

[HuckleB]

38. He punked himself. -eom-

[HuckleB]

39. He punked himself. -eom-

[Mendocino]

40. HWHV

How would Hitler Vote? Iott for CongreSS!

[Hannah Bell]

41. well, that's ok then. never mind. an SS uniform is an entirely different matter.