RE Post #21:
Historically, campaigns in the name of such national political movements as anti-(insert religious or racial belief
du jour), anti-bolsehvism, anti-zionism, anti-communism, anti-socialism, etc, have often led to such political expedience and pragmatic necessity, and have made for some strange bedfellows amongst those seeking to carry out their grandiose, hate inspired plans during brief periods of overlapping similarity of purpose.
The Grand Mufti was a
stooge whose use by Hitler as a propaganda tool (like Lord HaHa, Axis Sally and others) to enflame the Muslim world against the Jews, Zionists, and bolshevists is well documented.
For anyone familiar with the wide variety of and reasoning behind the Nazi's so-called
'Foreign Legions,' the photos used by the
AtlasShrugs blog are of but some of the various ethnic volunteers from the Eastern territories who manned the Russian, Cossack, and Ukrainian volunteer units led by German cadre to fight the communists (bolshevists) on the
OstFront - Eastern, yes, but few were actually Muslims. And Germany's long-standing ties with Turkey were a given at the time. Expedient, temporary manpower with an in-grained sense of anti-whateverism was a necessity for the Nazis in their anti-bolshevist (and, as a part of that campaign, anti-zionist) '
crusade' (a term they used frequently and with great nationalistic success) to save the Aryan race. As such, it doesn't take much imagination to understand the implications of where that crusade would have eventually gone if the Axis powers had been successful in their endeavors.
The
fez wearing 13th
Handschar-Kroatische WSSDiv (Croatians and Bosnian Muslims with German cadre) was formed for a similar reason - their near-term use of the long-standing ethnic hatreds to be found amongst the various Balkans nationalities against their traditional regional enemies for the Nazi cause. What was presented publicly as a united brotherhood of national socialistic membership joined in the common cause of defeating world bolshevism (and zionism) in convoluted Nazi propaganda and what was actually the reality of the situation were two different matters.
As far as a so-called
'spade movement' adopted by the Nazis - such symbolism within the Germanic culture has as much to do with the historical lore of its
peasant uprisings (primarily farmers armed with pitchforks, rakes, scythes, shovels) in the 16thC as with anything claimed by a self-aggrandizing Islamic stooge. Such symbolism (visual and historical) was a strong and important part of the Nazi propaganda machine, as well as a way to organize and prepare a nationalized labor force (physically, structurally, mentally) which would later prove itself easily converted to a national military force - drilling with spades and drilling with rifles is an easy transition. In Germany, the myth of the peasant farmer is as powerful a symbol of the common man and his 'salt of the Earth values' as it is here in America (or was in the former Soviet Union, Maoist China, DRVN, etc). As to the value of an organized national labor force, the CCC proved of equal benefit to our needs during the same period of history - although the purpose and goals of our nation's leadership were much different than those of the national socialists.
Auschwitz - much like Dachau and initially very different from the extermination camps located further East along the Bug River - was a show camp and primarily a model for a forced labor/training camp until the war's encroachment began forcing the closure of those singular purpose extermination camps and the Nazi time-line for
Die Endlösung being pushed forward. Auschwitz then became the
de facto primary (although not sole) organ of systematized mass extermination until it, too, was forced to be abandoned. Giving someone like the Grand Mufti a set of blueprints for Auschwitz, the model of KL efficiency, can mean any number of things depending upon why and how they were presented, and what they contained.
People should read Will Eisner's "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to understand the question you've presented. Remember - there are Christians who still preach the idea of Judaism as being responsible for the crucifiction of their savior.
Superficial similarities, such as the perception of and an admiration for a group's ability to focus itself on a singularity of purpose, sure, but the deeper disimilarities - for the Nazis, deeply rooted in Nordic myth and Christian ideology, history, and culture - which were not given the opportunity to play themselves out (thank gawd) make the arguments being presented an arguably weaker and recklessly dangerous ploy on the part of anyone looking to understand the matter(s) at hand and seeking a reasonable resolution to the current issues we're facing.
The deck of cards used by politicians of any ilk to gain support of their '
visions' - the race card, the religious card, the good old days card, the blame card, the brighter future if only card, the economic disparity card, the patriotic card, the immigrant card, the cultural identity card, etc - seems a universal reality to me no matter one's ideological upbringing.
However, that is MOO and YMMV - and so it goes...
Richard's $.02
