Posted on 01/23/2003 11:27:11 AM PST by freepatriot32
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Parents of more than 100 Danish scouts were outraged over a game of tag at a scout camp in which children acted as Jews wearing yellow Stars of David and tried to escape from adults pretending to be Nazis.
The group of about 160 scouts, aged 11-14, included a dozen teenagers from the Danish-speaking minority in northern Germany. The school yard was turned into a concentration camp with swastikas on the windows.
"I was shocked," Johanna Christiansen, a German woman, told the Ekstra Bladet newspaper on Thursday.
"It's wrong to expose children to this," said Christiansen, whose two daughters took part.
The local branch of the Danish Christian FDF scout organization organized the game last weekend at the Kongeaadal school, 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Copenhagen.
Jes Imer of the local FDF chapter told the tabloid B.T. that they "may have crossed the line this time with a night game where Nazis chase Jews."
The school yard included a sign with the German words "Arbeit macht frei," or "Work will set you free," the infamous inscription over the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
"I don't know whether I should apologize," Imer told B.T., adding "I didn't want the game to hurt anyone."
None of those involved could be reached for further comment
No, it is a cheap shot smear on your part.
Yes, I know. Most European nations contributed to different divisions of the Waffen SS. They also tried to recruit American and British POWs with very poor results. Personally, I don't care what their motives were. IMO, they collaborated with their enemies while the Germans occupied their home countries. And I'm smearing their motives? A traitor is a traitor, motive or not...
True. However, Germans were ultimately not fighting against Russian Marxism. Their goal was to colonize European Russia and to exterminate or deport the existing the Slavic population.
Such an obsolete game! They should have acted as Jews trying to escape children pretending to be Palestinian suicide bombers.....
True. However, Germans were ultimately not fighting against Russian Marxism. Their goal was to colonize European Russia and to exterminate or deport the existing the Slavic population.
The "ultimately" approach puts far too heavy a burden on those who were fighting against Marxist Communists wherever they found them and falls into the "wisdom of hindsight" category rather than objective analysis. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, at least during THIS battle.
Life immitates art.
South Park, two-three weeks ago, the kids were sent to a Liberal reducation camp, which was run by Nazi Like liberals trying to make sure the kids were sufficiently tolerant of diversity.
Are we sure that Yahoo did not get this from the Onion?
Yes, I know. Most European nations contributed to different divisions of the Waffen SS. IMO, they collaborated with their enemies while the Germans occupied their home countries. And I'm smearing their motives? A traitor is a traitor, motive or not...
Who did more good for their nation it was under German occupation, the one who sat home and spent the war hiding and avoiding, or the one who joined the Germans to fight on the Russian front in order to hopefully keep the FAR WORSE Russians from their borders? Think about it. It is not complicated.
No, it's not complicated at all. Instead of joining the Danish resistance (who, you may recall, were fighting against the occupying Germans), 10,000 Danes chose to collaborate and fight FOR those very same invaders. Last time I checked, the Soviets never invaded and occupied Denmark, did they? But you seem to think that the Soviets actually posed a greater threat at the time. No offense, but perhaps you are the one who should spend a little more time thinking about this one...
No, it's not complicated at all. Instead of joining the Danish resistance (who, you may recall, were fighting against the occupying Germans), 10,000 Danes chose to collaborate and fight FOR those very same invaders. Last time I checked, the Soviets never invaded and occupied Denmark, did they? But you seem to think that the Soviets actually posed a greater threat at the time. No offense, but perhaps you are the one who should spend a little more time thinking about this one...
Please don't twist my words or intent.
Of course the Russians didn't invade Denmark or any of the Scandinavian countries. But the threat was very real and to suggest they didn't have Scandinavian intentions is to be blind to well documented history.
In what is perhaps the simplest and most obvious illustrative example, assume you are a patriotic Swede in the 1930s, looking eastward at "Russia". You have seen several decades of chaos beginning with the Bolsheviks (I assume we don't have to go into the history of Bolshevism and their Marxist roots and expansionist proclivities here). You have no doubt they want to sweep westward to the sea, taking Finland, Sweden and Norway with them into their Communist world, and Denmark is right on the way to northern Germany.
The most elementary review of European history of that time would reveal the state of the Swedish panic at the thought of being overrun by Russia. It played heavily into their assumption of a "neutral" status during the war, (much as I disapprove of that decision).
The Communist thread to Sweden also played into their decision to supply Germany with high quality steel from the mines in northern Sweden, both directly by sea, and over the mountains by rail to the captured port at Narvik, Norway. It was these steel shipping routes which we tried to block and Germany tried to keep open with our navies. Norways strategic location along with the heavy water plant, and to protect against English invasion is why Germany was in Norway to begin with. The didn't go there just to conquer the country. In the process, it tied up a third of a million German troops who luxuriated in Norway for the duration, far away from any real fighting.
So what are your options as a budding Swedish patriot? You cannot join your own military as it not actively fighting the Russians (here I ignore some small contrary history.) You could go to England and join up, however you have never been there, getting there from Sweden is extremely difficult, you really don't know how to go about doing it, and you don't speak English anyway. The same problems exist with joining the Americans, the French (spare us), and the rest of the Allies. One obvious and logical route to patriotism is to join a group of your buddies who are joining a special German contigent of Swedes who will be placed on the Russian front to fight the Commie b@$tards. In the light of prevailing circumstance there is nothing subversive about that.
From this example you can go to similar but less straightforward examples of the Norwegians, Danes, and escapees from other European countries who joined the Germans to fight the Commies.
Again, what was the greater threat to Denmark around 1943: Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union?
Again, you persist in ignoring the content of my messages and playing your own silly tune. Better that you stick to bumper stickers where thought is not required. Goodbye.
That's fine; I actually didn't expect you to answer. I'll finish it for you.
Obviously, the Nazis were a much greater threat than the Soviets, as they happened to be occupying their country. Yet, instead of fighting the occupying Nazi forces, 10,000 Danes chose to fight for the Nazis, not against them. That, IMO, makes them traitors. If you disagree, fine, but you are clearly wrong.
Nah, the Soviets in 1943 were still the MUCH larger threat to the Danes for the very reason they were already occupied by the Nazis and had been for years. There was no more downside at that point, and within the broader scope of the war aside from the inconvience of short food supplies and wartime conditions the Danes didn't have it relatively all that bad. The Nazis wanted them as friends, but it was also clear the Nazis were in big trouble and would probably not win the war.
However the Russian bear was proving to be powerful and unbelieveably cruel. Many of it's Generals and other leaders were right out of the Jewish Bolshevik movement. To switch from Nazis to Russian Communists was not appealing.
That depended on your ethnic backround. If you were of a race the nazis considered untermenschen then the Nazis were a bigger threat. For an "Aryan" Nordic race like the Danes then Bolshevism was a bigger threat. The Danes saved their jewish population before they could be rounded up they were all taken via boat to Sweden( with the accomadation of the Kriegsmarine, German navy was basically entirely staffed by old fashioned royalist officiers with little Nazi sympathies the boat patrols let the jews pass). They however did not want the Russians to overrun Germany before the Americans arrived because it would likely mean Russian occupation and communism for Denmark. Thats why they decided to support Germany in the East. It should be remembered both sides on the Eastern front were evil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.