• rzz@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Can anybody explain to me what is up with Canada and a Nazi, I have been quite enjoying my rock for a couple of months.

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        That’s neither here nor there. The Canadian government’s complicity only implicates Canada and clears no one.

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            Just as there are such things as political prisoners, there are such things as political pardons. Judicial my ass; it was political.

            And just as before, whatever the politicians & pundits are raving is neither here nor there. The guy voluntarily joined the Waffen-SS Galicia Division.

            • deadlyduplicate@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Yeah he volunteered to to be solider, so what? Being a solider is not the same thing as being a war criminal and the burden of proof still applies. War is messy and it is entirely possible that this division committed atrocities that haven’t been proven but the mere possibility is not sufficient reason to label him a war criminal. You are de-meaning the term by doing so.

              Either you have specific evidence to support your charge or realize you are participating in sensationalism.

              • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                He didn’t volunteer to join the regular army and be a regular soldier, he volunteered to be a Waffen-SS paramilitary Nazi soldier, which is quite another thing.

    • ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      You are painting an overly simplified picture. Look up Günter Grass if you don’t believe me.

      TLDR: He non forcefully signed up for the SS, although disagreeing with the Nazis. Later he became a nobel prize winning author and member of the famous Group 47. In his publications he tries to get people to think for themselves - not exactly nazi doctrine.

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        Nazi apologia. It doesn’t matter how many books he wrote or how good they were.

        Here’s how I read it: His Nazi past wasn’t discovered until after receiving literary awards, which was embarrassing to the literati, so they tried to whitewash him.

        • ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          Go and actually read about him! He was never proud of being an SS member, but never made a secret about it (hard to do as a POW of the Americans).

      • Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com
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        11 months ago

        That smells like heey out of the 750.000 killing psychopaths, there were that one not absolutely bad person so let’s not judge them too hastily.

        SS scum should rot in a damp prison cell for 1.000 years and then another 1.000.

        • Kühe sind toll@feddit.de
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          11 months ago

          Rotting away in a cell isnt harsh enough. Google what the us Soldiers found in Dachau after freeing the Camp. That shit is disgusting.

        • ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          If people only would read history books and actually think about what they read… Instead it seems, most people around here just take their education from inglorious bastards.

      • Comment105@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        No.

        We should judge the ones who are left with extreme prejudice and they should desperately be explaining themselves and proving that they actually sabotaged the SS and Nazi empire from within, if they are to regain any humanity.

        • planish@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          We shouldn’t judge anyone with prejudice; that’s in the word. We must treat all people as humans; not doing that is a Nazi idea. We should treat signing up with the Nazis as evidence, and act accordingly to prevent Nazis from running around doing and saying Nazi things.

    • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Someone in the govt got a old Ukranian dude to speak to the parlement, and they all applauded him for fighting Russia in WW2, forgetting that the people who faught Russia in WW2 were the Nazis.

      They had accidentally invited a literal Nazi to speak, and applauded him for it.

      • spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        Canadian here. Minor correction: he didn’t speak, but he was invited as a Ukrainian “hero” by the speaker of the house (a member of the sitting elected party). He was applauded - twice - for his “service”. Including by Ukrainian president zelensky.

        The only ‘defense’ I can offer is that our prime minister had no input on the matter, and Hunka’s Nazi service came out after the fact. Canada does not support fascism or Nazism…

        But it’s a bad look, no matter how you cut it…

        • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          The only ‘defense’ I can offer is that our prime minister had no input on the matter, and Hunka’s Nazi service came out after the fact.

          Hunka granddaughter posted that he met Zelensky and Trudeau before.

      • RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz
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        11 months ago

        the people who faught Russia in WW2 were the Nazis.

        Not all of them though. Division of Poland and Winter War come to mind.

        • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          They said he was ukrainian who fought the Russians in ww2, that meant he fought as a nazi.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        It wasn’t acidental btw. His own granddaughter posted that he met with Zelensky and Trudeau before. Also he lived in Canada for long, all of them were one short inquiry of getting to know who he is, and that’s why they have assistants etc. Sure, the western politicians have mostly shit for brains, but not one of 300 people even said “wait a minute”.

  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    This shouldn’t be surprising given:

    https://www.jta.org/1997/06/05/global/canada-knowingly-admitted-ss-members-after-world-war-ii

    One of the ways of getting into Canada during the postwar period “was by showing the SS tattoo,” Canadian historian Irving Abella told “60 Minutes” interviewer Mike Wallace. “This proved that you were an anti-Communist.”

    The Canadian government hasn’t really changed. Some high up government officials are the children and grandchildren of Nazi war criminals: https://www.google.com/amp/s/ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/chrystia-freelands-granddad-was-indeed-a-nazi-collaborator-so-much-for-russian-disinformation/wcm/11196169-fd23-4643-94b4-08039235c595/amp/

          • PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            I’m sorry did you miss the part where that was Stalin actively bargaining with the Nazis to join the Axis in exchange for Turkey and Bulgaria?

            • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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              11 months ago

              Did you miss the part where France and England refused to join a defensive alliance with the USSR? And did appeasement with the nazis? And how denazification happened more in Eastern Europe than west Germany?

  • K0W4LSK1@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    As a Canadian this is totally embarrassing but atleast we don’t consider him a national hero like some nazis in America…