Freenations

Nazi Paratroop "Hymn" now used by Germany's Airborne forces

Report of 25 November 2003
Translated 26 November 2003

"WE ONLY KNOW ONE THING........

HAMBURG - After the discharge of a high ranking German soldier who supported a statement which embodied a Nazi stereotype of the Jews (see on this site NEWS Anti-Semitism, Nazism and Modern Germany) government and media are ignoring clues of similar incidents. To this day the Bundeswehr keeps alive traditions which go back to the National Socialist era. A former Lieutenant Colonel speaks of " a brown stench in the High Command" (Brown was the colour of Nazi Party uniforms)

"....WHEN GERMANY IS IN NEED...."

The Bundeswehr Leadership Academy is amongst the institutions which maintain contacts with suspected extremist organisations. This summer its commander gave a talk to the "State and Economic Political Association" , an organisation which has been banned from official contact with the army for two years because of "an overlap of personnel with extremist organisations". Among the former chairmen of the "Association" is a supporter of the British Holocaust denier, David Irving for whom he designed a commemorative volume. This man himself is in the Bundeswehr- as Brigadier General. He is known for his complaints against "allied re-education" (ie the post war de-nazification process and subsequent propogation of democratic values -ed)

"....TO FIGHT AND TO CONQUER..."

In the middle Nineties a well-known neo Nazi extremist gave a lecture in the Bundeswehr Leadership Academy on German nationalist propaganda in Russian Kaliningrad: "a theme which would make a democratically minded officer's hair stand on end", according to retired Lieutenant Colonel Helmuth Priess. Priess is prominent among a group of critical soldiers who are said to have close connections with German government circles. In spite of this
closeness, the retired Lieutenant Colonel reproaches those responsible in Berlin that they are ignoring an alarming development. "They deny that this stench exists in the officer corps of the Bundeswehr". His criticism shows that even military experts close to the government have cause for concern because their suspicions appear not to penetrate as far as Berlin.

"....AND TO DIE"

To this day, traditional characteristics of the Nazi army are cherished in the Bundeswehr which was formed in the Fifties with the help of former Wehrmacht soldiers. Many barracks still bear the names of Nazi commanders
who took leading parts in the aggressive wars and extermination campaigns of the German Reich. A hymn of Hitler's parachutists is retained as a living propaganda element from the Nazi occupants. The song ("Red is the sun") was composed in 1940 and is now used again in the foreign operations of today's Bundeswehr.
"We only know one thing, if Germany is in need, to fight and to conquer and to die."

1. Amongst others, the anti-militarist Social Democrat MP. Gernot Erler (Freiburg) belongs to the group "Darmstaedter Signal". Immediately after his party came to power, he changed into one of the most forceful advocates of Berlin's world-wide military expansion.

2. Above all the (Nazi) German parachute forces are famed for their aggressive operation against Crete.