+1 to Greifbringer
The linked article … seems to mix content from variety of sources … on a number of remotely related topics with seemingly no understanding of the topic as a whole – so the end result is a rather confused lot.
Well said.
I can not understand, from the words that are in the article, what the author is trying to say.
The title of the article is:
Strange but True: Jews Fought For Germany in WWII
The introduction says:
Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center pressed Finnish President Sauli Niinistö to open an investigation concerning the role Finnish volunteers played in the Waffen-SS Wiking Division during World War II.
Ahem.
Does the author, anywhere in the whole article, tie these two issues together? Does he state, anywhere, with or without support, if there is even an accusation or suspicion that Jews fought in the SS Wiking Division?
Finnish Jews fought next to Germans in the attempt to save their country from invasion by the Soviets. … Many Finnish Jews were descended from Russian Jews that had lived in Finland before its independence from Russia following the Russian Revolution in 1917. These individuals now felt it was necessary to do their duty and prove they were true loyal Finns. … They didn't see themselves as allied with the Nazis but fighting for their country against Russia.
The dominant impression I get is that the author is suggesting there were Jews in the Finnish Army.
What's that got to do with SS Wiking?
Some fought together but the men who were placed in regiments with Germans were forced to keep their identities secret. A few German troops knew of their fellow soldiers' backgrounds but weren't particularly bothered by it and obeyed orders from Jewish officers without complaint.
This passage is quite confusing versus the other passages. It is left with almost no explanation. Is the author saying that Finnish Jews were fighting in the German Army? Or is the author saying that Finnish Army units were assigned to work with German units at even the Regimental level and below -- As in a Finnish Army battalion was assigned to work with the German Battalions in a German Army Regiment? And in these cases how/where did German Army soldiers come under the command of Finnish (Jewish) officers?
German patients were treated by Jewish doctors and nurses and made lasting friendships, as did many soldiers. Some Germans even accompanied Jewish soldiers to religious services in makeshift synagogues on the front lines. … Shopkeepers and citizens openly showed their contempt for German soldiers, something which would have resulted in their arrest and probable death in Poland or France.
HOW CAN AN AUTHOR WRITE LIKE THAT??? As Griefbringer says, it looks like passages from divergent sources pasted together with no thought about what they mean.
"We enjoyed bright, sunny and warm weather. Snow flurries delayed our flight."
Actually many Jews fought in the German Armed Forces in WWII.
This is not quite true. Depends on how you define Jew. There is evidence that some Jews assumed Aryan / Gentile identities to avoid Nazi persecution, and some of these did indeed wind up in the German military. But the numbers were pretty small.
The larger number were Mischlinge -- the half- and quarter-Jews. Very many did not consider themselves Jews. They were often raised Christian, and considered themselves Germans. It is not too surprising that they behaved in ways that other Germans behaved.
The most prominent example of a Mischling was Luftwaffe Field Marshall Erhard Milch. In the Jewish tradition one must have a Jewish mother to be a Jew. But German law said a Jewish father, or grandfather, was all that it took. Milch had a Jewish father.
Milch was not raised Jewish, he did not attend Jewish schools or religious or cultural events. He did not consider himself a Jew, and the Jewish community did not consider him as a Jew. But the Nuremburg Laws did. As the Nazi regime descended further into it's terrors, his position became dangerous. Eventually, to protect him and his siblings his mother swore out an affidavit that her own uncle had fathered all of her children. In Nazi Germany incest was more socially acceptable than Jewish blood.
-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)
