Playing SS
More than 2,000 survivors and relatives gathered in Paris on a recent day, in front of the Shoah Memorial Monument, to commemorate the memory of the 76,000 members of the French Jewish community sent to concentration camps during World War II.
The same weekend a group of Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht regulars were trying to take over Fort Washita, Oklahoma, from the GIs defending the place, another group of reenactors.
Reenacting has always been popular in the United States, from groups recreating battles from antiquity, to the ones specializing in the War of Independence or the Civil War. But a growing segment of reenactors' organizations are the ones specializing in World War II, which include Allies and Axis troops. When asked about the motivation to recreate units belonging to a corps associated with atrocities and massacres, the participants all have a standard answer along these lines: "We maintain a strict non-political orientation, we are interested in History and preserving the history of World War II." So for the participants, it is a hobby, not a political statement.
An expensive hobby, considering a basic uniform costs around two thousand dollars, without the required equipment or armament, to which the cost of participating in events and buying amunition must be added, as well as traveling expenses. Many participants have a background or a strong interest in history, and a marked admiration for the combat abilities of the SS. If the ultimate goal for some is to possess authentic equipment and uniforms, economics dictate for the majority to do business with the numerous dealers specializing in reproductions, from insignias to headgear, from clothing to boots to medals and weapons. And considering the abundance of dealers, most of them accessible on the Internet, the choice is only limited by the available financial resources.
If each group has its own bylaws, code of conduct and requirements to join, all adhere to a set of common rules: no one under 15 can join, an effort to portray a historically correct impression of the troops depicted, and none permits paramilitary, political or ideological activity by its members.
The reenactments usually include two levels of activity. A public one, where spectators are invited to watch a battle, ask questions and visit the quarters and encampments. And a tactical, closed to the public, where different units engage each other with a sophisticated degree of realism, and where the outcome is left to skills and experience. Unlike the public ones, where admitted rules call for a victory by the Allies.
The weekend of January 22-23 the German troops involved in the reenactment at Fort Washita included the 1.SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte, established in1978. A very popular unit, according to the 287,000 hits received by its website since it was set up in 1998. The Leibstandarte was the first Panzer SS division set up by the Nazis, and its historically correct full name is actually "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler".
What is somewhat popular in the United States is increasingly criticized and banned in Europe. Several German legislators, with supporters among the European Parliament, are calling for a Europe-wide ban on Nazi insignia following widespread outrage after Britain's Prince Harry showed up at a high-society party, wearing a swastika as part of a Nazi-era military costume. Such a ban already exists, with various degrees of enforcement, in several countries. But it is unlikely that a ban on Nazi symbols across the EU will happen, as many countries consider their display protected by democratic principles of free speech.
If it were to happen, it would mean an impossibility for European reenactors or visiting foreign troops to practice their hobby, and would make the gathering of necessary artifacts and equipment much more difficult. The solution may be to do what some are already doing: fly to the U.S. to take part in events protected by freedom of speech and support from a segment of the population. At the Fort Washita gathering, an SS reenactor came from his hometown of Jersey, Great Britain, bringing with him uniform, gear and equipment.
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