VA Reverses Course, Will Remove Headstones with Nazi Symbols

| June 11, 2020

Let’s eradicate any historical reference to Nazi Germany.  Burn any books published by them.  Re-write the history of the entire event to our own liking.

In a reversal, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced late Monday that it had begun the process removing the headstones of three German POWs from World War II bearing Nazi symbols from two VA national cemeteries.

The VA had initially said it could not remove the headstones under the National Historic Preservation Act, but VA Secretary Robert Wilkie on Monday acknowledged the unusual circumstances in this case.

Three German POW headstones bearing Nazi symbols will be removed from two veterans cemeteries.

In what appears to be a move right out of the Fascist-Nazi handbook of the 1940’s loons like  Mikey Weinstein demand the removal of historical grave markers because they are offensive.

Why the U.S. government has not moved to declare Mikey Weinstein a vexatious litigant is beyond me.

Vexatious litigation is a legal action which is brought solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or maybe the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter which is otherwise a meritorious cause of action.

“It is understandably upsetting to our veterans and their families to see Nazi inscriptions near those who gave their lives for this nation,” he said in a statement. “That’s why VA will initiate the process required to replace these POW headstones.”

Two of the German POW headstones are at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in Texas, and one is at Fort Douglas Post Cemetery in Utah. Both cemeteries were used to inter the unclaimed remains of enemy troops following World War II.

Most of the headstones of foreign troops list only names and dates of death, but the three in question have a swastika in the center of an iron cross, and an inscription in German stating, “He died far from his home for the Führer, people and fatherland.”

The presence of the headstones and demands for their removal were first made by Mikey Weinstein, chairman of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

On May 19, he told Military.com that the symbols and the inscriptions “must be eradicated and eradicated now. This is completely and totally wrong.”

In Monday’s release VA said a section of the National Historic Preservation Act allowed a process to begin on “how to replace these headstones with historically accurate markers that do not include the Nazi swastika and German text.”

No,  veterans and their families are not upset by these markers.  A few ultra-sensitive busybodies will come forward with claims of being offended by just about anything you can think of.  Destroying historical reference to the cause of an entire World War is not a good thing.

The web site that Mikey Weinstein uses to promote his nonsense declared that I was Anti-Semitic years ago.  They have a history of spewing those kinds of false accusations towards others.  I do not discriminate against people because of the language they happen to speak.  Semitic is defined as relating to the peoples who speak Semitic languages, especially Hebrew and Arabic.  I do take issue with those who express bad ideas and or exercise bad actions.

I do not believe that any ethnic group of people is born genetically superior to any other group.  I think that kind of belief is actually one of the main reasons World War 2 happened in the first place.  Weinstein is Jewish.  Jews are defined as people who were chosen by a God as “his” people.  The rest of humankind is a lesser form of humanity.  I strongly disagree with that ideology.  I do not support the genital mutilation of children.   I can go on and on.

I have nothing against people because they speak Hebrew or Arabic. The Nazis were not a superior race and neither are Jews.  Weinstein seems to find offensive things everywhere,  so do I.  He is among them.

Those who forget are condemned to repeat.

 

Source: VA Reverses Course, Will Remove Headstones with Nazi Symbols | Military.com

Category: Dumbass Bullshit, Exploitation, Historical, Religion

41 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Roh-Dog

Oh FFS!
I don’t see anyone tryin to hand back our; rocket program, interstates, medicines, nuke tech, jet engines (even tho technically the Brits were first, the Natsoniceguys did it better), etc.
Let the past go or you can not be grateful for where you is (and there’s the rub, ain’t it?)

26Limabeans

I may have to rethink being buried in a National Cemetery.
Hell, might as well disinter my mom and dad.
Bury them in a private lot that I own and direct my entire
estate to perpetuity of care for them and me.

David

As a resident of Texas, I am offended that the flag of the slaughterers at the Alamo is allowed to fly… no more Mexican flags allowed! Same logic…

Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH B Woodman

NAZI symbols? What NAZI symbols? The swastika? Or the Iron Cross?
I’m not seeing the swastika on the headstone pictured above.
And the Iron Cross pre-dates Hitler and the NAZIs by over 100 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Cross
So, besides Little Mikey Whiney having his panties in a twist over…………what? I’m not seeing a problem with any symbols carved into German WWII POW headstones.
But I do have a problem with Little Mikey’s perpetual victimhood, and the VA’s perpetual caving, both of which apparently don’t know their history.
I prepfer to think of these men buried here as “honorable foe”, who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, who did the best they could with what they had, and behaved honorably once caught.
GROUP
AT-TEN-TION
PRE-SENT ARMS
OR-DER ARMS
AT EASE
DISMISSED

SGT Ted

There’s a swastika at the center of the IC. It’s barely visible in the picture.

Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH B Woodman

Ah. TY. I missed it.
But my last statement still stands.
DO. NOT. TOUCH. Or I will break fingers.

26Limabeans

Smoke em if ya got em..

SSG (ret) Whiskey Tango

I know the graves in one of these VA cemeteries. Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City. During both World Wars there were many POW camps in the Salt Lake City area and a few died of illness and farming accidents. Sixteen German Wermacht soldiers were murdered by an American soldier who opened fire on them with a machine gun.

These sixteen are the tombstones in question. They all occupy a small section of the Fort Douglas Cemetery and every year the German Air Force detachment at Hill AFB lays a wreath on their graves. They were who they were. Removing their tombstones will never change that.

Dave Hardin

That is an amazing story. Do you have links to anything about the murder of those POW’s ?

Hack Stone
OldSoldier54

Great. The ol’ insanity defense. This is sickening.

SSG (ret) Whiskey Tango

The camp is actually still there on the outskirts of Salina. Somebody boards horses there now.

5th/77th FA

Thanks for the linky Hack Stone. Did not know of this. Nowadays, there would be lawsuits because a nut job was allowed to be in the military. I did know of this POW Camp in Atlanta NE from an article in Nebraska Life Magazine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Atlanta

26Limabeans

Did not know of this. How awful life can be.
It is history. Leave it be.

just lurkin

“every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

George Orwell, 1984

Roh-Dog

Nauseating,
To the core.

Lthrnck1775

Never did I expect to see a mashup of:

1984
Animal Farm
Idiocracy

… happen right before my eyes… WTF is going on?

Stand by to repel boarders!!

Lthrnck1775 Out!

rgr769

Who knew George Orwell was a latter day Nostradamus and that Gropey Joe would be the real life version of the President in “Idiocracy,” if he is elected.

E-4 Mafia 4 Life

Idiocracy is a favorite documentary of mine.

5th/77th FA

When the massive assaults on all things Confederate started back in the 90s I made the prediction that those monuments were just the beginnings and the plucking of the low hanging fruit. I further stated that ALL War Memorials were next, including the US Flag. Man I hate it when I’m right sometimes.

Honorable foe indeed. Let these men rest in peace and let these markers be a lesson for future generations of the sacrifices made to give them the ability to live freely in the greatest Republic the world has ever seen.

My Father and several uncles fought against the Germans in WWII. Grandfathers and Grand Uncles fought them in WWI. Other ancestors fought the German Immigrants that Marx sent over in the 1860s that became cannon fodder for “The Butcher” Grant. Still other ancestors fought the Hessians in the Rev War. Odd that in this lifetime I spent a tour of duty in the state of Hesse, FRG. Enjoyed the company of many Germans, ‘specially frauleins, got along with, and served with…Honorably.

gitarcarver

If the tombstones are “historical objects” that the VA is charged with maintaining and preserving, what gives them the right to violate that law?

If the people of the day and age who were fighting and losing brother, fathers, sons, other relatives and friends to the Nazis were okay with the headstones, we should not look back and try to interpret their decisions through our “outraged” eyes.

Friend

Cemeteries in Europe have graves with the Iron Cross for German Soldiers killed in action and in the Netherlands are still maintained by citizens who lost family during the war.
Headstones are to honor the dead…leave it ALONE.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

That assclown Weinstein gives non-believers everywhere a bad name…

These guys were Nazis for fuck’s sake.

Putting that on their headstones simply identifies what they were at the time of their death.

Anyone too stupid to understand that simple concept should be questioned as to their mental competence.

We are really becoming a nation of candy assed fucktards upset at all manner of imagined slights.

rgr769

Uh, these Wehrmacht soldiers were not likely Nazis. Only a small percentage of the population belonged to the National Workers’ Socialist Party. The only actual soldiers who were all party members were the Waffen SS, as party membership was mandatory for most SS formations.

To placate the vile Mikey and his ilk, the VA could have simply chiseled out the swastika in the middle of the Maltese Cross which has been a German insignia since before WWI.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

rgr769 or they could have just told Mikey to fuck right off.

As you point out they themselves might not have been Nazis, but that’s who they were fighting for and that’s the reality of their war effort.

The truth isn’t offensive, it’s just the truth. If people find the truth offensive they aren’t fit to be part of the tumult of liberty.

rgr769

I wholeheartedly agree.

If those that actually fought the Nazi empire and the family members of those who died in the fight over 75 years ago haven’t objected to these headstones, why should Mikey Ratstein and his clueless dipshits have a say.

Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH B Woodman

“These guys were Nazis for fuck’s sake.”
Not too sure about that. My understanding is that many of these soldiers (especially the lower & middle grades) were draftees, conscripts & volunteers, but not necessarily members of the NAZI political party.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

Point taken, but identifying who they fought for and what their nation’s politics were at the time isn’t offensive it’s just a fact.

Stacy0311

So since we buried POWs and respected the traditions of their military, we can’t be offended if our future opponents (hypothetical) just toss our POWs in a ditch when they die?

On a related note, I have an old map of Camp Swift Texas that shows 3 POW cemeteries. They are all on private land now. I wonder how many of them have similar markers

Mason

^This^

We honored those who served their country and died in doing so. Put the symbol of their nation. It’s the right and honorable thing to do.

Now we’re dishonoring them with this revisionist history.

USMC Steve

If they are on private land, that cum bubble Weinstein cannot do shit about that. I bet that would piss him off royally.

Green Thumb

Odd that they are offended as they probably never set foot in the cemetery.

Dave Hardin

Yep

5th/77th FA

Slightly off topic, but here’s another thing that “they” are offended by;

https://www.foxnews.com/us/uncle-sam-billboard-in-washington-state-called-racist-targeted-for-removal-reports

Ex-PH2

“… they are made uncomfortable by this sign…”

Define “uncomfortable”, please. Are they squirming and scratching themselves inappropriately?

Just tryin’ to understand here how some people can be offended by just about anything. I’m offended that THEY are offended. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to look at it, do they?

OldSoldier54

Whoever made that decision should be fired. ASAP

11B-Mailclerk

Remember when some Leftoids derided Taliban and Islamic State actions to erase local history?

Vanilla ISIS is an -apt- name for their paramilitary wing(nuts).

E-4 Mafia 4 Life

I think Lille Mikey is not a person of faith and Jew in name only.
Like Obam’allah, he worships himself although would not turn down a free membership to the same bath house as Barry.
41% of Jews in Israel are secular.
Not sure about US stats.
“Secular Jews make up 41.4% of the Jewish population, followed by the Traditional Jews accounting for 38.5% of the population, with the remaining 20% populated by the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox.”
-Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism_in_Israel

USMC Steve

We made a couple of trips to Israel before and after Desert Storm. The Israelis we talked to said they could not by and large stand American Jews. Far too liberal for them, among other deficiencies. Schumer’s name came up prominently.

Fyrfighter

” Weinstein seems to find offensive things everywhere, so do I. He is among them.”.. That being the case, can’t you / we demand that his worthless ass be removed from our presence?

Commissar

This seems unnecessary.

Could just alter the stone.

Or leave it as is.

The damn swastika is more a mark of shame at this point anyway.