Quick Historical Comparison between Political Correctness and Nazi Philosophy

By Hammerhead

I was reading through Antony Beevors outstanding World War Two history Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942-1943 the other day and I came across a passage I wanted to share with you that I feel reflects the current trend of “Political Correctness” that seems to be rampant in our society as of late. This terrible trend appears to have two very nasty defining characteristics as near as I can tell:

• Seeking to “rename” a person, place or thing just because than name is not socially, politically or historically acceptable.
• Seeking to “blot” out or “Remove from the public eye” the history of a person, place or thing because it is not socially, politically or historically acceptable. The succesful campaign to take down the Confederate Battle Standard from the South Carolina statehouse is a great example.

Keeping these definitions in mind, read this passage from Beevor’s book describing how Hitler and the Nazi’s, after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, looked at “Slavs” (Slavs are the largest Indo-European ethno-linguistic group in Europe. They live in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. They speak the Indo-European Slavic languages, and share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds) who were having to be forced to serve in the German Army after either being captured or surrendering to German forces. During the battle for Stalingrad, German manpower suffered severely due to the horrific casualties the Germans were taking both from the Soviet Military and the Soviet winters.

“Hitler loathed Untermensch (Slavs in German uniforms) so they had to REDEFINED as “Cossacks”, who were considered “racially acceptable”. This reflected the fundamental disagreement between the Nazi hierarchy, obsessed with the total subjugation of the Slavs, and professional Army officers who believed that their only hope was to act as “liberators” of Russia from Communism. As Early as autumn of 1941, German Army Intelligence had come to the conclusion that the Wermacht could not possibly win Russia unless it turned the invasion into another civil war.” (from Chapter 11, pp.185)

A while back, I wrote a short piece titled “Damnatio Memoriae” where I pointed out it was the Romans who started this nasty practice of erasing people from the histories because they were “unacceptable”; now it seems another totalitarian regime, the Nazi’s, can be quoted as doing the same.

I guess the only question remains, as the author Jacon Heilbrunn ask in his excellent piece I re-blogged recently entitled “Political Correctness Goes to War on American History”

“Where will the impulse to purge the past of its sins end? Should Washington, DC, named after a slave owner, adopt a new title? Should the Jefferson memorial be torn down?”

The Answer, of course America is an Un-equivocal NO!! 

Stay Alert, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!