@22Michelle Well, only since The "National Socialists" came to prominence in Germany, but that is chilling reading. I had no idea such orgnaisations would even exist in America. The Nazi High Command must have known about it, but I don't think the description mentions any known funding or other support from Berlin. Perhaps they thought it not necessary; and indeed it probably wasn't.
The photograph of the youngsters - in all their own, not their leaders', naivety - "remembering" the first German settlers on the continent made me think those settlers would be horrified if they could have known what would happen in their name.
I wonder what this organisation made of the many Germans who emigrated to the USA to escape the Nazis?
Or of the attacks on American merchant ships off the NE coast, by the U-boats - these as well as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the USA into WW2 to help Europe defeat the Axis.
That lightning-bolt symbol was also used, though in double form, as the SS insignia.
I was not being flippant in that opening. In the article headlines lower down are references not to Nazism as that did not previously exist, but to somewhat similar attitudes.
@ArishMell after the Berlin fall in WWII the USA relocated the actual German Nazis, to latin America, where they were very effective in the unknowable USA Chile coup, etc - they're not in the good guys narrative that actually is very Nazi and also mainstream.
@Roundandroundwego Oh, there is certainly no such thing as a "good" Nazi except among their own kind.
The USA moved them though? After helping destroy their regime? And later setting up the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, effectively a political kangaroo-court, which though best known for persecuting anyone it decided were "Communist", pursued Nazi sympathisers as well? So why would it even want to help the leading, German Nazi administrators escape justice?
Yes, I can see the USA trying to control South American nations for its own reasons; but using former High Command officers as you say, does not really stack up somehow. Unless the US Goverment of the time changed its strategic mind in the face of the new threat from the USSR....
Some of the leading Nazis did escape to other countries and of them, a number were later traced and arrested. Most of the High Command who survived the War were arrested, charged, tried at the Nuremburg Trials and either jailed or hanged. I think the last surviving of those was Rudolph Hess, who eventually died of old age in an East Berlin prison (in the 1970s?).
Since then even quite low-ranking Nazis such as former extermination-camp guards have been tried, found guilty and imprisoned in Germany. The most recent, and possibly the last, was a women now aged about ninety, who had been secretary to the commandant of one of these camps.
@ArishMell As regards ghe USA and the Nazis the truth lies in between, and is a rather grey area. It's known that the USA sought out and recruited scientists and engineers, such as Von Braun, that were seen as useful. Their "problematic" past was set aside. As for other high ranking Nazis there's evidence of collusion with the likes of the CIA. However, how much of this was official US policy and how much was decided at a lower level is difficult to unravel. There is the CIA policy of plausible deniability where people may know, but there's no evidence to prove thay knew. And we should also remember, though not condone, that Israel also recruited former Nazis in the post war years. How many is still disputed, but at least one, Walter Rauff, was involved in mass murder.
@22Michelle This illustrates just how compliocated and murky post-WW2 international politics was becoming, with the USSR, China and "The West", squaring up to each other, engaging in assorted plots and counter-plots, proxy wars and so on.
China was a bit more difficult. It and the USSR would likely have supported each other against NATO but had a difficult relationship that made the River Amur one of the most world's most fortified borders for a long time. Ironically the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation are now much friendlier to each other despite their ideologies now being much further apart.
It's likely we'll never know everything that happened and why, at governmental levels, in the wake of WW2. Even if all the documents are eventually published that may be far enough in the future for no-one who was involved to be still alive and able to corroborate, correct, deny or explain anything from personal experience.
Probably, people like Werner von Braun were regarded as sufficiently valuable for their past work to be set aside, though that was likely not by their own choice and wish anyway. No-one would have wanted the likes of Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler swanning around and possibly trying to keep their Nazi ideology alive, but at least their regime's ex-employees like von Braun could contribute usefully to their new homes.
Really, it all boils down to governments turning situations to best advantage; but sadly that sometimes means to worst disadvantage to other countries' citizens.
@ArishMell Russia and China were bedfellows for a period after WW2, but it didn't last. The Soviets were planning a nuclear strike in 1969, following the Zhenbao Island "incident", but wanted the USA to stand aside. They wouldn't guarantee that and so the strike was cancelled.
@22Michelle Thank you for explaining that. I wonder how many other Cold War close shaves there have been? The Cuban Missile Crisis is perhaps the best known, but there was also another when almost by luck a senior Soviet officer advised anti-ICBM radar operators to look again... at reflections from clouds.
