Remnant of "Red Scare" repealed.

[MisterCairo]

that little American flag sticker on the back of your Toyota won't get you into heaven, either.

My Toyota was made in Illinois.

I live in Ontario.

Do I get to go to heaven, even if there is no flag on the back? I do not "do" bumper stickers of any description...

 

[tonyb]

My Toyota was made in Illinois.

I live in Ontario.

Do I get to go to heaven, even if there is no flag on the back? I do not "do" bumper stickers of any description...

I see the backs of cars plastered with more than a sticker or two, no matter the messages thereon, and I say to myself, "Glad I don't live next door to this person."

 

[BlueTrain]

My conclusion is that they first of all believe in bumper stickers.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Of all people, it was Oliver Cromwell who said "Every man says 'God is on my side.' God must say 'Who is on my side?'"

And what's the quote attributed to Napoleon? "God fights on the side with the best artillery."

 

[LizzieMaine]

I will admit to having a "Workers Unite!" sticker on the tailgate of my Subaru. It's the only way I can tell it apart from all of the other rusting silver Subarus in the parking lot.

 

[tonyb]

I will admit to having a "Workers Unite!" sticker on the tailgate of my Subaru. It's the only way I can tell it apart from all of the other rusting silver Subarus in the parking lot.

I am tempted to have plain black-on-white stickers printed reading "GENERIC PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAM."

 

[Stearmen]

My Toyota was made in Illinois.

I live in Ontario.

Do I get to go to heaven, even if there is no flag on the back? I do not "do" bumper stickers of any description...

My 2016 Tacoma was built in Texas. It has just over 7,000 miles on it and is in the shop again, this time to have the entire rear end replaced! The biggest irony, I complained that I can't be without a truck for over a month, so they gave me a brand new Dodge Ram to drive.

 

[Edward]

Here's another 18th Century Prussian item, resurrected by the Third Reich:

THe Nazis did have a habit of ruibning all kinds of cool-looking stuff for everyone else, didn't they?

And what's the quote attributed to Napoleon? "God fights on the side with the best artillery."

Ha! Good one.

I am tempted to have plain black-on-white stickers printed reading "GENERIC PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAM."

"I hate your favourite band" was always a good one, though myself I favour "My God can beat up Your God".

 

[BlueTrain]

The German officer wearing the busby is Von Mackensen, who lived to be 95. He liked wearing his old uniforms long after he was retired. The poster may have been referring to the Iron Cross, which has been a favorite motif among several groups, and is in fact still a German army symbol. The Death's Head is also still in use by the British armored regiment, the Queen's Royal Lancers.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

The German officer wearing the busby is Von Mackensen, who lived to be 95. He liked wearing his old uniforms long after he was retired. The poster may have been referring to the Iron Cross, which has been a favorite motif among several groups, and is in fact still a German army symbol. The Death's Head is also still in use by the British armored regiment, the Queen's Royal Lancers.

The poster was referring to the large "Jolly Roger" on the hat, revived in the 1930's in smaller form as the cap badge of the S.S.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The German officer wearing the busby is Von Mackensen, who lived to be 95. He liked wearing his old uniforms long after he was retired. The poster may have been referring to the Iron Cross, which has been a favorite motif among several groups, and is in fact still a German army symbol. The Death's Head is also still in use by the British armored regiment, the Queen's Royal Lancers.

He's wearing the hussar's busby (that fur hat ). Hussars were originally 15th century Hungarians: lancer and light cav that quickly earned a reputation for daring attacks, and the fad spread to several nations. The death's head was more or less a standard emblem for them.

Note that the 1933-1945 German use of it was not limited to the SS (Waffen and Allgemeine): Panzer personnel of the Heer (army) also employed the symbol.

 

[BlueTrain]

It was curious the way the German Army appropriated several symbols that previously had no particularly evil connotations and made the theirs. For example, not only was the swastika an ancient American Indian symbol, it had even been used as a vehicle emblem by some British units in the 1920s. The iron cross was an old German emblem going back to the Middle Ages and it is still used as a vehicle emblem in the German army today. During WWII, though, it had a different form, with straight arms instead of the flaring arms. It was altered right away after the war started because the original white cross made a good aiming point. Also, British armored units between the wars wore black uniforms but ceased wearing them because the German armored units also wore them, as did the S.S. Incidentally, the arm of service color for armor in the German army then and now as used as a backing and piping on uniforms and trimmings is: pink.

 

[MisterCairo]

For example, not only was the swastika an ancient American Indian symbol,

Wrong Indians. It is from the Indian sub-continent.

The Travellers Hotel building in Ladysmith, Vancouver Island, British Columbia gets its picture taken a lot (we have visited it and photographed it several times) for obvious reasons (construction of course pre-dated the rise of the Nazis):

 

[LizzieMaine]

American Indians did use the swastika, however -- it was so common that it became, in the early years of the 20th Century a generic "Indian symbol" used on toys and trinkets of various types. The shoulder insignia of the 45th Infantry Divison was originally a swastika, reflecting the fact that quite a few Native Americans served in that unit, and that it was based in the former "Indian Territory." The swastika logo continued to represent the 45th until it was changed to an abstract thunderbird symbol in 1939.

 

[BlueTrain]

It's interesting that the swastikas on the building are arranged symmetrically, with the arms going clock-wise on one side and counterclockwise (or anti-clockwise) on the other side. That must have provoked some interesting comments during the war.

The Finns also used the swastika, chiefly on vehicles, but the arms were rounded, creating a sort of pinwheel effect. They were allies of Germany during the war but ironically received war aid from the United States and Great Britain.

 

[DocCasualty]

It's interesting that the swastikas on the building are arranged symmetrically, with the arms going clock-wise on one side and counterclockwise (or anti-clockwise) on the other side. That must have provoked some interesting comments during the war.

The Finns also used the swastika, chiefly on vehicles, but the arms were rounded, creating a sort of pinwheel effect. They were allies of Germany during the war but ironically received war aid from the United States and Great Britain.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows. Initially as the Finns were under attack from the USSR they appealed to the Allied Powers for aid but, that fell on deaf ears. Subsequently as a matter of survival they aligned themselves with the Axis powers.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Axis alliance goes a bit deeper than that. The Finnish Patriotic People's Movement was a Fascist-oriented political party that attracted a small but aggressive following in Finland during the 1930s -- they held eight percent of seats in the Finnish parliament after the 1936 election, promoting a nationalist anti-Soviet and anti-Swedish platform. Their platform influenced the wider Finnish government before, during, and after the Winter War, and finally gained sufficient influence to push Finland firmly into the Axis camp.

 

[DocCasualty]

The Axis alliance goes a bit deeper than that. The Finnish Patriotic People's Movement was a Fascist-oriented political party that attracted a small but aggressive following in Finland during the 1930s -- they held eight percent of seats in the Finnish parliament after the 1936 election, promoting a nationalist anti-Soviet and anti-Swedish platform. Their platform influenced the wider Finnish government before, during, and after the Winter War, and finally gained sufficient influence to push Finland firmly into the Axis camp.

That's an interesting take on it. The FPPM was always a minority party and in the next election only captured four percent of the seats in parliament. After the USSR attacked Finland the anti-Soviet sentiment was an obvious upshot, validating in some minds no doubt that the FPPM may have been correct, but how could any of the Finns not have been anti-Soviet at that point?

No, the Finns alliance with the Axis was born out of necessity. Since the Allies included the USSR, the UK and eventually the US ignored the Finns' pleas for help. To my knowledge, the Finns never denied what they did in joining the Axis and in fact paid dearly in war reparations, satisfying that debt years ago. To say they were firmly in the Axis camp belies the fact of what they chose not to do while a participant with the Nazia, including their non-persecution of Finnish Jews, keeping the Finnish army out of the German command structure and not allowing them to launch against Leningrad through Finland.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I wouldn't say that the Finnish authorities kept their hands entirely clean. The Finnish State Police's cooperation with the Einsatzcommando Finnland in the ideological "cleansing" of Murmansk caught up hundreds of Jewish prisoners in its net. And Finnish handling of Soviet POWs bears investigation as well.

 

[DocCasualty]

I wouldn't say that the Finnish authorities kept their hands entirely clean. The Finnish State Police's cooperation with the Einsatzcommando Finnland in the ideological "cleansing" of Murmansk caught up hundreds of Jewish prisoners in its net. And Finnish handling of Soviet POWs bears investigation as well.

Well any wrongdoing is indeed that, wrong. However, their overall handling of the Jews hardly suggests they were complicit in Jewish extermination. For instance,

Germany's ambassador to Helsinki Wipert von Blücher concluded in a report to Hitler that Finns would not endanger their citizens of Jewish origin in any situation.[13] According to historian Henrik Meinander, this was realistically accepted by Hitler.[13] Yad Vashem records that 22 Finnish Jews died in the Holocaust, all fighting for the Finnish Army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Finland

Jews fought and died in the Finnish army both in the Winter War and the Continuation War. They were given time off for the Sabbath and Jewish Holy Days. They even had a field synagogue.

Suffice it to say, Finland was a very unique situation in WWII.