MatthewOct 26, 2024
Jonathan Kamens 86 47

Posting this tonight for no particular reason:

"Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed.

That word is 'Nazi.' Nobody cares about their motives anymore."
- @JuliusGoat

Oct 26, 2024 at 2:23amWeb
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Oct 28, 2024
Guess I struck a nerve.
Show threadtbehrens✡️Oct 28, 2024
@jik Some Nazis, however, insisted afterwards, that they were only „Mitläufer“.
Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDOct 26, 2024
@jik @JuliusGoat Timely repeat. Also, as a born Dutchman, bringing up that the Dutch have a tradition of liquidating Nazi collaborators (i.e., 'Nazis'). Just adding to the conversation, for no particular reason.
Show threadsedjeOct 26, 2024
@jik @JuliusGoat While I agree with your sentiment, I do think historians care a lot about motives. Speculating about how and why people behaved as they did in the past is crucial to understanding why events happened. Which is in turn helpful if you want to explain or even alter the present.
Show threadHorst Albermann 🇪🇺🇩🇪Oct 26, 2024

@jik @JuliusGoat In fact, there is a German word for these people: Mitläufer.

The English name will depend on who wins in the end. The Spanish, for example, are considered brutal colonizers. Strangely enough, the 'peaceful settlers' were much more successful in eliminating the indigenous population. Our historiography is like a pair of glasses with heavily tinted lenses.

Show threadtessaraktOct 26, 2024
@h_albermann @jik @JuliusGoat The English word (as used in the English version of Control Council Directive No. 38, dated 12 October 1946, Offical Gazette of the Control Council for Germany Number 11, 31 October 1946 (source: https://portal.dnb.de/bookviewer/view/1026627257#page/184/mode/1up ) is "Followers". However, they are a category separate from "Profiteers".
DNB Bookviewer

Show threadgavinisdie Oct 26, 2024
@jik @JuliusGoat we did not punish the Nazis hard enough, I think we should have put all members of the Nazi Party and willing supporters of the Nazi War Effort to death
Show threadKennethOct 26, 2024

@gavinisdie @jik @JuliusGoat
Interestingly each Allied sector ran its own denazification program; there were levels of Nazi long before Operation Paperclip .

One would imagine that the French and the Soviets were the most thorough.

Show threadLstn2urmama 🇨🇦Oct 27, 2024
@gavinisdie @jik @JuliusGoat Nazi are still being found and put to Trial almost 80 yrs later regardless of age ...
Show threadGeorgeOct 26, 2024
@jik The same can be said about people who call themselves MAGA Republicans. Mindless drones incapable of reading the signs of authoritarianism and danger to the Republic, just so they can have a cushier life. Lazy and scared of change, cowards who think the past is always better. The past will never come back, politics are fluid and always changing, so get a grip.
Show threadrefraction Oct 26, 2024
@jik Germans would also do the same now and not call themselves Nazis cause it's not the NSDAP this time after all.
Show threadLudwig FranzenOct 26, 2024
@jik @JuliusGoat I’ve been looking for that one. Thank you.
Show threadClaudio Zizza 🦜Oct 26, 2024
@jik @JuliusGoat Even those who would be able to fix their problems didn't care.
Show threadThis is HellOct 26, 2024
@jik @JuliusGoat @gruber 💯💯💯
Show threadGenstart🏳️‍🌈Oct 27, 2024
@jik
And today, German politicians are saying that the concerns of people who vote for the Nazi party AfD must be taken seriously. Instead of supporting the resistance against these Nazis and protecting their minorities from their violence. They would rather implement political demands in anticipatory obedience that these right-wing extremist arseholes put forward years ago and thus feed the beast.
@JuliusGoat