We were all taught that in World War II it was the Germans, Japanese and Italians against the rest of the world — not so.
“The principal Axis countries forming the Tripartite alliance were Germany (including Austria), Italy (including Albania) and Japan (including Korea). They were supported by Slovakia, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Thailand, Manchukuo, Libya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Croatia.
There were Spanish volunteers who served in Russia. Also, some French, including those from Alsace Lorraine, who were incorporated into the Reich. All three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) had volunteers who supported the fascists. The Swedes supplied critical iron ore to Germany, and also allowed the transport of a German division via rail from Norway to Finland prior to the start of Barbarossa.”
Many countries were supporters of the Nazis, but did not officially provide troops. The Waffen SS (the Nazis Party’s private Army) had a corps of troops from the Islamic countries totaling more than 100,000 volunteers, recruited by Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was rabidly anti-Jewish, anti-British, anti-French and anti-American.
Why is this important? In truth is it is not, but a concern is the less-than-truthful history we are all taught. Years ago, I served with a man who denied the Holocaust; his point was that the number of Jews murdered in the death camps could not be true, as the rail system could not transport some 8 million Jews. He was correct, the number was later reduced to a mere 6 million.
A movement is growing, mostly in Europe but also in our nation, that will tell us the Fascists were not all that bad, and indeed their form of Democratic Socialism was a better form of government than most. Will this belief grow into a major problem in the next few years?
Probably not, but we need to remember that a large percent of the world in the 1920/30s, mostly the self-described educational elite, embraced the Fascists concept, mostly in its early days, as designed by Benito Mussolini, to include President Roosevelt, the King of England (Edward VIII), Franco in Spain and the leaders of over two dozen nations on five continents.
The Socialist nation trumpeted by the American left is Denmark. Denmark’s form of Socialism is a close match to the Fascists’ concept designed by Benito Mussolini in 1920/30s Italy and a precursor to the Nazi movement. Adolph Hitler referred to Mussolini as “my teacher.”
Socialists, true doctorial Socialists, will denounce love of country and love of a God as an opiate for the masses and a tool of the oppressors. Many American Socialists will hide their anti-Semitism as a dislike for Israel, not that a Fascist is necessarily anti-Semitic; some Fascist nations were no more or less anti-Semitic than our nation during the heyday of Fascism.
The concept of Fascism is simply Socialism that allows love of country and love of a God. We have been told things our entire lives that are not factual concerning Fascism. The problem is that as some use the inability of the German rail system to transport an inflated number Jews to death camps, to deny the Holocaust, some in the future will point to the errors in history to embrace Fascism/National Socialism. Folks lied about the Fascists, thus they can deny that National Socialism/Fascism was a bad form of government.
A strong movement is underway in the former Fascist nations to celebrate the service of their fathers and grandfathers in WWII. A distinction is made between SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) vs. the Waffen-SS fighting unit. The SS-TV operated the death camps, the Waffen SS had little to do with them.
We should not forget the leadership of the Fascist nations were the educational elite who pushed for the glories of a Socialist state. The media in Germany and other Fascist states self-censored, advocating for a Socialist utopia. Everyday folks voted in huge numbers (90% plus) to adopt Fascism.
Socialism never works, but the concept of Democratic Socialism is intoxicating; the popularity of Senator Bernie Sanders’ form of Democratic Socialism with our media and higher educational self-proclaimed elite is proof.
