Is it wrong to collect Nazi memorabilia?

A row has blown up over an officer at a human rights group that monitors Israel. He is accused of collecting “Nazi memorabilia”. But is it unacceptable to collect material from the Third Reich?

BBC News article

Personally, I think that it is OK, within reason. It is important to get away from the instinctive reaction that ‘Nazi equals wrong, therefore we should forget it ever happened’. That kind of attitude allows the past to happen again, and means that we learn nothing. Even more reason to pick apart what happened between 1939 and 1945.

The sad thing is, a lot of far-right leaning people do tend to collect memorabilia from Nazi Germany. As a result, anyone who is interested in German military history can be seen as a fascist, when sometimes this is far from the case. In the same vein, if you state that the Germans, for the most part had far superior weapons, or that they were first class soldiers, you can get pilloried. While it might be tempting to think that these were the men who fought and killed our ancestors, plenty of young German men fought and died too. War is a human experience, and death makes no distinction between the uniforms that young men wear.

German uniforms and equipment, i feel, represent one side of a war that is very important to remember. Apart from the politics, and the reasons that we were fighting, millions of young men fought and died, and if looking at what they wore and how they lived means that what happened to them is remembered, then thats great. As in most wars, the average soldiers probably had more in common with each other than they did with their own generals. Even allowing for propaganda and indoctrination, my feeling is that most average german soldiers were lukewarm at best to Nazi policy. Also, looking at the insignia, the uniforms, the magazines, the doctrine, tells us how Nazism came to be and caused such grief. If you want to stop evil, then you have to get inside its mind and find out how it works.

History has often been associated with ‘the truth’. Realistically, the closest to any kind of truth that we can ever get is to find out a persons idea of the truth as they see it, from what they know, at any given time. Therefore, within reason, we should respect people’s thoughts, even if we do not agree with them ourselves. People outside this include Holocaust deniers, or any other people who falsify evidence to fit in with what they want people to think. See the truth as it happened, or at least as far as you can. Pretending that something did not happen does not solve anything.

But back to collecting. Personally, I would draw the line at anything from concentration camps, annything that promotes anti-semitism, or anything that is morally wrong in any other way. And if you’re going to put it up as some kind of shrine, then thats maybe a bit disturbing. Also, some things belong in a museum rather than on a bookshelf in my bedroom, where more people can see them.

Joseph Stebbing – Mayor of Southampton

Joseph Rankin Stebbing

Aside from military history, I also specialise in local and maritime history. For my undergraduate dissertation at University, I worked on a biographical study of George Stebbing, a nautical instrument maker who lived and worked in Portsmouth between around 1800 and 1847. A fascinating character he certainly was, with all kinds of interesting connections, links and stories.

But arguably more interesting was his son Joseph Rankin Stebbing, born in 1809. Named after John Rankin, an acquaintance of his father and a local dock builder who built the dry dock where HMS Victory now resides, Joseph moved to Southampton early in his life, and set up an opticians and nautical instrument makers business.

But his importance did not end there. He rapidly became involved in local politics, becoming a councillor, Alderman and finally Lord Mayor of Southampton shortly before his death. He was also the founder and first President of the Southampton Chamber of Commerce, and a prominent freemason. He led the campaign to develop Southampton’s modern commercial docks as we know them today. Owning a significant amount of property, and involved in all manner of deals, campaigns and developments, he was at the centre of virtually everything that happened in the town. If anyone could be described as the father of modern Southampton, Joseph Rankin Stebbing must surely be that man.

But while on the outside he had a veneer of municial grandeur, his personal life was somewhat shady. Remaining a bachelor until his late 50’s, he married Mary Creed, inexplicably in Bermondsey, London. They had had two sons before being married, and both of these sons were cleverly hidden elsewhere when censuses were taken. But even more interestingly, It appears that in the 1871 census, a certain Agnes S. Early lived next door to the Stebbing’s. In later censuses, the S. was extended to Stebbing. It appears that the most esteemed man in Southampton’s modern history had an illegitimate child shortly before his death, with a teenage girl living next door.

Joseph Stebbing in later life

65 years ago today – the 1st day

Paras onboard a Dakota on their way to Arnhem

The 17th of September, 1944 dawned as a pleasant late summers day, in both England and Holland.

The men of the 1st Allied Airborne Army alloted to jump into action waited for a cancellation, as had happened so often in previous months. As none came, they could go about their preparations in a leisurely manner, thanks to the civilized late morning take-off time. Kit was assembled, breakfast partaken of and the men were driven to their airfields. Veterans later commented that the day had the feel of an exercise, even down to the YMCA tea and cake canteens.

Operation Market Garden was, and to this day remains, the largest airborne operation ever mounted. Even so, there were only enough transport aircraft to land around two-thirds of the 1st British Airborne Division. Most of the British Paratroopers were carried in C47 Dakota’s of the US Army Air Force, taking off from airfields in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. The 1st Parachute Brigade was to land around the village of Wolfheze, and march into Arnhem on foot and capture the Bridge, preceded by a coup-de-main of the Reconnaisance Squadron, mounted in Jeeps. The 1st Airlanding Brigade, landing in Gliders, were detailed to land north of the Railway line near Wolfheze, and to hold the drop zones for the rest of the units landing on the second and third days. This dispersal of the Division meant a serious weakening of the thrust into Arnhem. Also landing on the first day were the Divisional Headquarters, the Light Artilley Regiment, and other support troops.

Paras Landing among Horsa Gliders

After a relatively peaceful flight, with few losses, the British landed around Wolfheze. After some slight delays forming up, the Battalions set off on foot. Almost straight away, however, things began to go wrong. The reconnaisance squadron jeeps were badly shot up on an ambush as soon as they started. 2 of the Battalions met heavy opposition on the outskirts of the town, from an SS Panzer unit that had been training. Only John Frost’s 2nd Parachute Battalion, with elements of other units, reached the Bridge.

Apart from Frost’s Battalion, there seems to have been a lack of urgency on the part of many of the troops. General Urquhart went ahead to try and instill some speed in the advance, and was separated from his HQ overnight. This, added to inadequate radios, led to a breakdown in communication. Only a small fraction of the Division had reached the Bridge, but it was not time to panic. Yet.

60 miles south, XXX Corps began their advance out of the bridgehead with a massive artillery barrage. However, as soon as the tanks started to advance, a number of them were knocked out, horribly exposed on the single road. RAF ground attack craft were called in to bombard German positions. By nightfall, the Guards were some miles short of Eindhoven. Ostensibly they had been ordered to take it easy, as the bridge at Son was destroyed. But this should have been all the more reason to rush, as time would be needed to bring up engineers and bridging equipment and repair the Bridge. If XXX Corps needed to do the 60 miles to Arnhem in 2 days, stopping after less than 10 miles on the first night does suggest that the Guards did not quite understand the need for urgency.

Even at this early stage, as night fell on the first day, the pages of a catalogue of errors were coming together.