The «Waffen SS Incident»: Shocking But Not Surprising
In which Rat looks back to the Nuremberg Trials
«What a difference 70+ years can make!» people exclaim, referring to the last Friday’s events in the Canadian Parliament where standing ovations were given to a Waffen SS veteran. Alas, wrong. All these years have made little difference. If there’s any novelty to the events of September 22, it’s one of degree, not the essence.
does a good job relating the details of the incident:…which I’m not going to duplicate.
Since Friday, a number of remarkable events have happened, like the resignation of the speaker of Canadian Parliament, Anthony Rota, or awkward attempts of ADL to avoid getting involved. Those also have been reported by others, far better than I could.
We will take a look into history instead.
Efforts to excuse Waffen SS didn’t start last Friday.
They didn’t start in 2022 when anyone who ever fought against Russians was suddenly the «good guy».
They didn’t start in 2014 either.
They didn’t start in 1990…2013 when processions of Waffen SS veterans in Eastern European countries were met at best with occasional fake surprise from left-wing media – «what? Nazis? again?»
(On a side note: referring to some 70+ or 80+-year old guys, many of them with canes, walking down the street as «marching» is probably wrong. Words, they used to have meanings.)
Efforts to exonerate Waffen SS, or at least parts thereof, didn’t start during the Cold War.
They started when Nuremberg Trials weren’t even over yet.
Already in 1946, some of the Estonian and Latvian former Waffen SS soldiers were recruited for guard duties at Nuremberg.
They did quite a good job in guarding their former employers.
[I]t was decided that Latvian and Estonian former Waffen SS Soldiers would be formed into companies and placed in guard and security positions at the War Crime Tribunal at Nuremberg. Eventually these men were commended for their loyalty and dedication while working as guards and in security positions.
[Historum] How Waffen SS Soldiers became Guards at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials starting in 1946
77 years later, we can’t tell if this was a spontaneous ad hoc decision or part of a plan. Probably both. Brits certainly had plans regarding German prisoners of war (think Operation Unthinkable – pun intended), quite likely Americans had some, too.
I’ve been careful not to call Waffen SS prisoners of war «Nazis». Most of them were forcibly conscripted 18…20 year old guys without much ideology. Some took part in war crimes, some didn’t. There’s clearly nothing to celebrate though.
The reason I wasted about five minutes of your time is simple: please stop being surprised. There is nothing new under the sun.