Quote Originally Posted by Lakey View Post
The thing is I don't think a lot of the German companies that engaged in war time production had much choice. and a lot of the products were really well made, so the survival rate of guns and the like is quite good. I dont have any Nazi items in my collection, but I do kind of understand some peoples fascination with the period. Each to their own.
Hi Andy,

Whilest I agree to large extent, Mercedes are a special case, others were also quite keen, but obviously it suits the narrative for them to say they had no choice;

According to the book Mercedes In Peace and War, written by Bernard Bellon, the Daimler-Benz Company (makers of Mercedes cars) had a close relationship with the Third Reich. The official company line was that “Daimler-Benz supported the National Socialist regime only to an unavoidable extent for a company of its importance.” But after Daimler-Benz opened its archives in 1986, Bellon uncovered a wealth of information about Daimler-Benz’s military-industrial connection to the Nazi party.

“Leading managers of Daimler-Benz lent valuable assistance to the National Socialists before Hitler became Chancellor in 1933.” Daimler-Benz took out large advertisements in the Nazi newspaper Volkischer Beobachter known for its anti-Semitic propaganda. Once Hitler gained power, Daimler-Benz provided cars to party officials. Hitler typically rode in Mercedes vehicles and was a close friend with Jakob Werlin, associate director of Daimler-Benz. Hitler also owned a portfolio of Daimler-Benz stock administered by Werlin.

When the Nazis came to power they effectively destroyed the unions across Germany. They established a work force based on fear and intimidation that helped Daimler-Benz reduce labor costs and increase profit. In return, Daimler-Benz became the top armaments producer for the Nazis. Daimler-Benz built airplane motors, armored tanks, large trucks and gun barrels for the Mauser rifle. They also built a large section of a V-2 rocket.

Starting in 1941, Daimler-Benz began using Soviet and French POWs as forced labor. Those who refused to work were sent to concentration camps. By 1943, Daimler-Benz used thousands of Jewish concentration camp worker-slaves to build the weapons of the Nazi war machine. The prisoners “toiled eighteen hours a day, cowering under the lash, sleeping six to a dog kennel eight feet square, starving or freezing to death at the whim of their guards.”

In the final weeks of the war when it was clear that Germany would lose, Daimler-Benz shipped prisoners back to concentration camps where they’d be gassed. One group of female inmates at the Sachsenhausen camp survived when the camp’s gas chambers failed to function."

I don't get upset at seeing Nazi stuff in general, I think anyone who has flags and big swastikas etc. may be a bit strange, but in the past I have known people who had Nazi era weapons (I have shot a Police P08 and several Mausers with Waffeamt or SS stampings, you hardly can see them in actuality), the WW1 Imperial markings are huge in comparison. and they were just normal folk, and most weapons of that era were marked as were ours obviously if military issue.

What about re-enactors as well, you hardly ever see "normal" Heer, they always want to be in the SS it seems, as you say there is a huge interest in the WW2 period.

It's a terrible 25 years in quite recent history, made more stark by the surviving records on paper and film for all to see, so I understand why some folk get upset, but if you attach the crimes of monsters to inanimate objects, where do you draw the line, is Japanese stuff O.K.? (swords and yes airguns), or USA 19th cent. (Native Americans), Makarov's (Stalin killed far more than Hitler!).

ATB, Ed