Is this a sinister pastime? Or is it just cosplay with more swastikas? WATCH NEXT: A French entrepreneur is offering “anti-jihadist training” in Poland - bit.ly/2vrTV84
VICE there are thousands upon thousands reenactment groups(not counting Air soft , paintball) from Moscow to Vancouver & Manila that do events like this. Seriously get the fuck out into the world and actually cover news
Congratulations VICE! You managed to show a laughable shitty reenactment performance (you were in the UK, so what was expected to begin with?" Next time go to a normal reenactment in Middle Europe, like Slovakia, with actual experts and reenactment groups, not one where they will dress up any random guy as an american, with soviet partizans, armed with a lee-enfield. This shit would not be tolerated at normal reenactments.
When you call the entire German armed forces at the end, "genocidal murderers", I think you loose credibility. If you took the time to realize that the Wehrmacht were (for the most part) nationalistic men serving their country, you can see why these reenactors take offense to you calling them Nazi's. Furthermore, "Nazi" is just a derogatory term for National Socialist. If you called the average German Soldier a Nazi, he'd probably beat you up. I understand the negative connotation surrounding the SS, and it isn't far fetched. However, for the sake of history, I think removing the SS entirely from all reenacting groups for sake of political correctness, is a terrible idea. To cast such a negative light on people trying to preserve history is doing a disservice to them, as well as those who they are trying to honor.
VICE Considering Britain's own militaristic imperialism of the world with a special acknowledgement to the enslavement and killing of the peoples of Africa, India, and China I don't think any Briton has a right to criticize the Third Reich . And don't go putting a timetable on events from the past, the moment you start doing that you start giving a pass to those atrocious acts done by this party or that !
@loudatyourdoor The most common rule is that you'll get thrown out if you show any nazi beliefs, either at a unit level or otherwise. They just want to reenact history, and keep the politics out.
@loudatyourdoor is it political if we reenact napoleonic battles? Nope, it isn't. It isn't political either when ww2 documentaries are made, this also applies to ww2 reenactment since WW2 reenactments are just how the battles play out
@loudatyourdoor war is political, but i fail to see how reenacting an event is political. It's like saying a history book is political, it shows us past politics, but the book, just like the reenacting, isn't political
Plus the gunfights, the interaction, that's Airsoft reanactment, it would be insane to see a big team trench warfare match with whistles blowing and people storming
This seem cool but the helmet from the thumbnail used to be an aerial warfare not a landbased troop If they just put the SS insignia it would be look much accurate
Basically this dude: “Are you a nazi?” “No.” “Are you sure?” “Yes I’m sure.” “Okay, I understand. But are you sure you’re sure?” “Yes I’m sure.” “Oh, okay. So are you a nazi?”
It’s actually stupid how this guy who knows nothing whatsoever about history gets to call these people nazis and spread lies and misinformation about them and not get fired.
This guy shouldn't lose his job for wearing a German uniform, he should lose his job for having the single worst most biased reporting I have ever seen
@@namastedikka2985 yes we do have them still today on our unit flags contrary to popular belief. We took these airforce flags back in 1955 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelia_Air_Command
I have grown up in the US going to re-enactments my whole life and it is extremely frowned upon to the point that people will be blacklisted from organizations if they try to politicize things or join groups for political reasons... especially the Confederate and Reich units. I am certain it is no different in Britain and the re-enactors probably told this "reporter" as much and Vice just conveniently left it out to fit a narrative.
By the way I've never had the opportunity to go to a reenactment I'm assuming you've been to a civil war reenactment how was that? I did a detailed report about the south when I was in high school and particularly about general Lee so I find it quite interesting but that doesn't mean I want to have slaves ya know
@@noname7187 What does being a liberal have to do with literally anything he said, I think VICE is one of the worst and most misinformed news agencies out there, the vast majority of his claims are unfounded and have no evidence or really almost any argument to back them up, the only thing I could say is like I said in my other comment some units do legitimately believe in Naziism but they're so rare and ostracized that it's unfair to treat everyone doing it as a Nazi, he is indeed lying through his teeth most of the time to cater to a certain audience so he may perpetuate their echo chamber, especially in a time so "Nazi Heavy" as this where everyone gets called a Nazi if you disagree with someone politically.
@@Slash766no vice probably only fired him because they were facing the consequences, and I’m not 100% sure that he was the only one who supported this video at vice.
Most likely they lied their asses off the entire time and the organization that let them come and film had NO IDEA that this was going to be a smear campaign against what they do. Probably why they don't mention a group name these guys are with because they'd probably have sued VICE for defamation and won millions.
The nicht nice Guy sorry but we’re talking about reenactors not actual SS. Waffen SS soldiers were ideological tools of the national socialist party. Completely different. The SS committed horrendous crimes and are rightfully condemned as monsters. These guys are just reenactors.
As a german myself I was very offended by the message of this video. Here we learn about WW2 all the time because we feel a great national shame for what we did (Of course not speaking for every german). But we would never come to generalize all the people in the Wehrmacht as Nazis... Do you even know what the difference between the SS and Wehrmacht was? Do you know that people who where not Nazis but regular german civilians in the Wehrmacht were also killed? Now... Of course im not saying that in any way or form, the war or any war for that matter is justified but to generalize all million human beings into just a bunch of villains?????
He's literally talking with people who are specifically defending the SS, so I don't know why you're asking about the difference between the SS and Wehrmacht like that's relevant
Wehrmacht is a regular German armed forces. SS is a soldiers that directly take order from you know who, basically political soldiers, or loyalist forces (loyal to certain someone not Germany). So yeah, it's different. Then again it would be asking too much from this reporter to look up that fact. They just want to score some brownie points not reporting facts, like your usual leftist
@@robrotron2084 He is not, and the difference is relevant. When in the video are they ever specifically saying: "The SS was good"??? Theyre trying to convey the whole time that theyre not nazis. And sure lets say reinacting german soldiers during ww2 isnt ok. They still never said they were defending the SS, sorry your point doesnt hold up. Think before you write.
As a reenactor, who portrays many American-Soviet-German sides it’s a personal attack and major insult on the hobby. The fact he insults the German reenactors but doesn’t even think to critique the Soviet with the monstrosities they committed. It’s all for fun and a hobby we as reenactors enjoy. Vice should be ashamed of themselves!
VICE and their filthy Journalists should be silenced and eliminated and it should be ruled out as "suicide". China does a great job on that so why dont we??
@@orangesel9338 Compared to Germany, Russia and Japan they weren't that bad but still not good. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_liberation_of_France en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Germany en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Japan en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mutilation_of_Japanese_war_dead
Bring back old vice where they actually reported on controversial topics without an obvious bias not harassing some lads who care about military history.
"I'm wasting a nice spring day by dressing up like a dickhead." This dude literally just disrespected not only the reenactors, but the men who wore that exact uniform.
Yeah people seem to forget that the average german soldier has nothing to do with a concentration camp and jews. Also people seem to forget there were tons of valid reasons for Germany to go to war prior to ww2. Unfair payments for the prior war for example rendering the country crushed economically. In my opinion our actions after WW1 really caused Germany to go to war.
@@user-dd9dh9kw5c Victoria bastard children is the cause. ww1 i call The Family Schism. Britain Russia France Germany they were all related. Nicolas II and king George V can be mistaken as twins but are cousins.
@@user-dd9dh9kw5c Blame France for the "Treaty of Versailles". They're the ones that wanted to punish Germany more harshly for ww1 and said that the Treaty treated them "too leniently".
ive always thought of war reenactments as a way to pay respects to the wars by immersing yourself in what happened and taking a look back to the lives of the brave soldiers who placed their lifes on the line
Problem is we really don't know all that much about what REALLY happened to regular grunts in ANY war other than a few isolated incidents where those guys spoke or wrote about it and even those are up for debate if there are contradictory statements.
Vice tends to shift from reporter to reporter in terms of quality, a similar video on Americans who re-enact the Vietnam War was done very well, and much of their legitimate news (Not human interest) reporting from active war zones like Iraq and Crimia is very well done.
I knew for a fact vice was dead once it sold. They stopped doing actual dangerous or important journalism and instead started doing stupid pieces like this.
You should be ashamed of this Vice. It's clearly a group of people who love military history wanting to play it out.The presenter is just rude to them for no reason. This should be removed.
@@lololololololol He wasn't saying they should ban it, it's like me saying I don't like the color purple. Not saying I wanna ban it, just that I don't like it. Also these assholes are pretty one sided from time to time but they do make some good content on some topics non political
I do Soviet reenacting and this double standard is too common. I've been to events where SS impressions are banned, but you can have a photo of Stalin and hammer and sickle flag publicly displayed and no one says anything. Seriously people, either accept that it's a reenactment and don't object to anything or be offended by all the bad guys.
I think this " journalist" was a vulgar buffoon. Reenacting can draw an odd one from time to time. Be it playing a Brit, Russian, German, Marine, Japanese or other. One constant throughout all of it is that no radical ideology or politics are welcomed, and they will be quickly asked not to participate. I think the journalist may be cut of the same cloth in not being able to differentiate reality from reenacting. Then again, kids who don't understand something and may be a little frightened pick fun as a defense. It's the cooler thing to do besides learn or accept.
Wait, didn't the host say right at the beginning that they weren't Nazis? Why is everyone white knighting on behalf of these guys? They're grown, educated men with a hobby they know is weird.
kissfan7 well actually because of such heavy marxist indoctrinations in university these days it has degraded alot of people down to the status of sheeps and cucks considering all this safe space, special pronoun trigger warning mumbo jumbo that only over grown children could actually make relevant in modern society. Another point is that because of all this brainwashing some people wouldnt be capable of understanding that people wearing swastikas in historical reanactments arent actually nazis so typicaly a lefty propaganda outlet like vice has to keep reassuring its hive minded viewers that which is really dum dum.
“he’s a 65 year old ex army bloke” bruh crazy how i’m not even half a minute in and it already feels as if the guy reporting is mentally on par with my little brother
Stop attacking a group of people and their pastime and fire your disrespectful reporter who can't tell the difference between the Wehrmacht and the SS, a political view and a form of entertainment,.
@@anthonydownes2286 What's the point? Are you just pointing out that there were paratroopers in the video too? Or was there some other meaning you were trying to get across that isn't very clear?
Jesus Christ not really, I mean you could but I don’t have a issue with the ENLISTED AND NCO group I can’t emphasize that enough. As the Wehrmacht did commit war crimes on a smaller scale. However saying that does that mean ever Soviet soldier was bad? Or Japanese? Of course not.
4 роки тому
_ Sleepz yeah I know, I never try and say every one of anything is bad.
1: spending time OUTSIDE 2: walking = exercise = bad 3: carrying HEAVY old rifles all day is more excersize 4: doing thing IRL is harder then in a videogame 5: he didn't want to be a Nazi so they went out of thier way to accommodate him... 6: they didn't have to give him a gun or uniform, they could have just been "oh you're a battlefield reporter, u get no uniform" and been done with him Day just TOTTALY wasted
@@ernstschloss8794 Does terrorism, the murder of civilians and POW's qualify as bad for you? I'm not defending what the german side did, I'm saying that war crime, is still, a war crime, independent of ideology, purpose or means. One side doing war crimes doesn't justify, morally or factually the other side doing the same. In war, there are no "good guys", just victims, psychopaths(which sometimes are victims too) and everything in between.
@@HansChucrute88 I say violence leads to violence. And I fucking hate liberal crybabies and hypocrites judging both the nazis and their enemies as equals, as there was not one side attacking and one deffending. Also, I'd love to see the result of politely asking the nazis to leave. I agree, War and it's crimes are independent of ideology. Thus, try asking the Red Army to restraint itself after recovering inch by inch of soviet soil and finding out what the germans had done there. Or even more so, the Partisans ( for it was THEIR VERY OWN familys, farms and villages being pillaged, raped and burnt) "Yeah comrades, but it's not the germans, Ohh no! just the nazis. Besides, it's not proper socialist to hate everyone" Good luck on that one too. "You reap what you sow".
In albania partisans were the good guys.But the leader of them started a dictatorship after the war.But still we thank them for liberating our country from germans and italians.
Ernst Schloss well the partisans were fighting to free their country but they sometimes would be extreme. The are cases of Americans having to liberate German POWs from French partisans since they were know to execute prisoners on mass.
Colton Seems you have forgotten that it’s a fact the Americans sent fighter pilots for Air support on the eastern front and did get into dog fights with the Russians over Russia same with the British don’t be so ignorant now
First of all there “reenactments.” Not actual nazis as the name implies Second of all how do you reenact a war without an enemy?? Especially World War 2
Yeah, it's like what are they gonna do? Take the Swatikas off, but otherwise use Kar98ks, MP40s, and other German equipment, German tactics and everything else? Then they're just hiding the fact that they are pretending to be Nazis.
Its not even about the Crimes in Reenactment, its about showing historical relevant conflicts. Its not like they show the execution of american soldiers or jewish childs as a screenplay or something.
@@herrbear3049 to be fair the germans did the exact thing went they went into russia so retribution? and the allies to though the latter to a lesser extent so ehhh good guys in war is a a more of a lesser of the evils concept ngl
I know this is an old video, but since these types of topics are becoming more present today in 2022, I want to say as a descendent of Jewish people, some of which have suffered in the war, I love reenactments. I think history is fun and I at one point wanted to participate in a reenactment on the Germans side because of how cool the hobby looks.
Go ahead and do it. German is kinda expensive if you want to do it right (and not like these FARBs in the video), but it is fun. Also I have the feeling a few Jews on the German side would really help take away from the stereotypes we reenactors face. And honestly I would find it hilarious to have an Event on a jewish holiday and have a whole company of wehrmacht soldiers celebrate channuka or the like
They enjoy reenacting. They love history, and don't deny it like so many others. REENACTING as a German soldier is way different from AGREEING with the Nazis. It's a hobby. It's not meant to be political in any way.
Abensberg He most likely meant Leningrad. Das Reich sometimes take part in a re-enactment outside st Petersburg of the siege of Leningrad. Gets broadcast on Russian tv apparently. Supposedly it’s quite a big event. There’s a whole defensive line that’s still left over from the war that they use and everything
The Einsatzgruppen traveled with the 6th army and they are SS as for Das Reich it never fought in Stalingrad the closest the division got was the battle of kursk. Below is a list of all major operations the division fought in. Battle of France 1940 Operation Barbarossa Operation Typhoon Battle of Kursk Operation Overlord Battle of the Bulge
As someone who's been looking to get into german reenactments, this is incredibly disrespectful to that community, the people who portray the Germans are not even close to being nazis, they're people just like anyone else reenacting the Americans or British that love history, and being offended at someone's love for history or showing people the true sight of what war was like is a fun hobby and a great way to learn. How are you going to teach people about history, especially in this era, if everyone who does german reenactments is labeled as a "Nazi"? Reenactments wouldn't be historical or a hobby, they would just be a political mess. Do your research.
@@Airstrip1TV How do people still think that's true? You have the internet you can fact check anything before you say it... please stop spreading this false info.
ThePainterr Cough..helping to support the lying of history for there own political interests and for the Zionist interests for the creation of Israel. Making up atrocities and hypocritically doing the atrocities they made up...cough.
Courts Griner *cough* angry American because they're raised as if their the best and they need no concern for other people's lives until one small thing happens or is said about their country, then they want to kill everybody and take over the world to take all the resources so shut up for once *cough*
Journo: u r friendly Nazis reenactor: we are not Nazis journo: u r play as Nazi reenactor: we r German army not SS journo: BuT WhY ArE YoU PlAyInG As NaZi ThO
Like, the Wehrmacht itself did terrible things as well as the SS - they were not absolved from blame. But remember that 65% of Germans didn’t vote Nazi. Most conscripts weren’t Nazis - and just by sheer force of numbers, most German soldiers weren’t horrific people.
Joseph Dockemeyer sry auto correct... actually how did that get in the auto correct dictionary like that, that’s not the correct form of spelling either...
@Chicha 17 "Nazi" was actually used because non German speaking people couldn't say Nationalsozialismus. My Great-Uncle was Erich "Bubi" Hartmann, the famous WWII flying ace. You can find him on Wikipedia and see videos about him here on UA-cam. My Great-Grandfather was Josef Hartmann and he waa a Colonel in the Wehrmacht. He owned an Import/Export company in Berlin before and after the war. One of my relatives worked for Deimler-Benz while they made Panzers for the war. My Great-Great-Grandfather was a general to the Czar of Russia and the family owned a large estate in Ukraine. I was born in France and live in the States.
well the hammer and sickle has been used by plenty of people who aren't tankies. the swastika on the other hand really does have a bad connotation. even anti nazi stuff with a swastika can draw flak. as a left wing anarchist i think these guys are having fun but some of them do seem to use a few dog whistles. really can't blame the hobby on that though. overall i think generally the hammer and sickle is just less seen as a genocidal thing, especially since the more recent uses are either relating to a more advanced Soviet union or movements detached from them altogether.
The hammer and sickle were responsible for more death, oppression, and starvation than the swastika, the swastika's meaning is a horrible meaning, while the hammer and sickle's meaning is about a failed system that can't work. Both are bad symbols, and both are genocidal symbols aswell.
@@jaywilliams720 Did you ever actually read a history book before typing this comment? lol the hammer and sickle has what, around 60-90 million more deaths under its belt than the swastika does? My god man pls do research before saying something so blatantly misinformed. Also the swastika was used long before the nazis
@@ryman1933 the maths there is simply wrong. you can't attribute all deaths under a regime to the political system which it operates under. that's the method the black book uses to calculate it's deaths. there's plenty of material disproving those death figures. if you are to count all deaths under a regime as a direct cause of its ideology then in fact capitalism kills more than the soviet union ever did every year. global starvation exists for a reason, could it be inefficient distribution of resources??? lastly, nazis explicitly wanted to genocide a race of people, the soviets did not. big difference
I'm Mexican and I love WW2 history, if they asked me to put on a German soldier uniform I'd do it as quick as I'd put on an American soldier uniform. Seems fun and educational.
I agree. It’s also very educational and fascinating to dress as the bad buys. The best way to understand evil is to put yourself in their shoes. I see no difference between this and playing a video game, watching a movie, or reading a book. It’s just pure fun and interesting if you enjoy this type of stuff
A few months ago I went for my first reenactment "training" as a Wermarcht DAK soldier, and it was one of the best experiences I've had. It's all about the history and respect. No politics
Dustin MacDonald actually i can find plenty of videos of people dressing up as taliban in afghan themed airsoft "mil sim" events. None are trying to glorify, its just a hobby for history buffs/ military collecters. I dissagree that slapping on a uniform is some sort of a acceptence of their crimes.. your putting on a costume, not adopting an ideology.
Dustin MacDonald i bet you havent read history. Should we go on about american uniform about the american bombers dropping fire and gas bombs on civillian cities because it was a order. Or the two nukes
This is just the European version of the American civil war reannactments, and no one blinks an eye at that. Look I'm not a nazi sympathiser but these lads are just history and military buffs.
Saoirse Ryan you know what's funny tho in America we have Americans who don't look at the south as the bad guys in that war but that's our problem I'm sure most European agree nazi were the bad guys
Im European and jesus do i hate when people make it like all the germans were "origin of evil" Like sure the Nazi and most of SS generals were some fucked up people but some people still say that even werchmacht is bad also. Idk but i have huge respect for werchmacht and even some SS regiments. Also the fact that they helped us Finns kick some soviet ass makes me atleast appreciate them because they helped us.
"I wasted a nice spring day by dressing up like a dickhead". Well done Vice. Have a condescending reporter that has no respect for history nor the people that do, vilify the hobby under the illusion of journalism. This entire video was nothing but trashing reenactors and their hobby. Its clear that this guy had no intention of painting them other than closet neo-nazis. Its unbelievable that videos like this can get passed without any sort of vetting.
I agree with you otherwise but the reenactors were also very much responsible for portraying themselves as closet neo-nazis. Examples: saying "the SS wasn't that bad" followed by historical revisionism and also, later in the video one of them refused to properly distance himself from the ideology and instead tried to steer the conversation away from the political aspect of it. It's not hard to just say something like "I absolutely reject Nazism, I am only roleplaying as a WW2 German soldier for reasons related to historical interest (and maybe also throw in an acknowledgement of the Nazis' genocidal crimes)" but they chose not to. I'm not sure to what extent the documentary was edited to hide staunch anti-Nazi statements from the reenactors, but judging only by what I know is in the documentary, the reenactors are themselves at fault too for promoting this bad image of themselves.
@anonymous-cq7wj I will acknowledge that some SS reenactors are bad influences. Some may hold that ideology, but often are edgy teens that want to be different and offensive. However, in my experience in reenacting WWI and WW2, every German reenactor I've met (including myself) does not hold that ideology nor condones anyone that does. No, its not hard to denounce Nazism in a single sentence, but when I'm asked to do so every 5 seconds, it gets annoying. I'd rather people assume that I don't and just wanted to partake in a reenactment. (Never going to happen but I can dream) This video clearly edited in a way to paint the reenactors negatively and I wouldn't be surprised if they did denounce it and they "forgot" to include it. Also small note, every faction committed all sorts of attrocities and not just Germans. The way you phrased it implied that no one else did. I think its silly to hold germany on the pedestal of evil when Japan, the Soviets, British, French and yes, America committed evil acts. I dont expect someone to throw on a WW2 uniform and have to immediately denounce the attrocities of said faction.
@@joecottone7556 then why did they say they didn't have any specific ideological disconnect to the people they were acting as/"the SS weren't that bad"
“In a culture as unforgiving and easy to offend as ours…” Ironic that the guy saying this is the same guy crying over the fact that reenactments exist.
WW2 Reenactments without the Germans would be like a Star Wars movie without the Empire/Separatists. It would suck without it & completely ruin the point of it existing.
My great grandfather was a German soldier in ww2. He was an amazing person and taught me so much about life and this guy is absolutely heartbreaking to watch. those "evil men" were soldiers, they didn't have the option. My great Grandfather lost the battle with COVID19 a few weeks ago 😥😥😥 I couldn't stand what this man was saying
@@aidanlutz8106 he was most likely drafted. Most German soldiers were not ideological recruits. They had to serve, they had families. Don’t assume he was some anti semite or anything.
@@40s60sMilitaria And I don’t assume you were an anti-Semite, that idea is really just idiotic. In war, it’s hard to see the morals of people, you have the overview of retrospect. World War 2 was a confusing hell, which changed people during or after the war, for better or worse.
Tbh seems like the kind of person that would try too hard to be funny (whilst thinking they’re then funniest person there) but then just come off as annoying and attention seeking
This is pathetic. We had a similar thing happen here in the UK about 15-20 years ago where a TV show called Panorama tried to make out that historical reenactors were all racists and neo-nazis, particularly the ones in WWI+II and viking/saxon societies. The journalist was even trying to goade a guy in an SS uniform into saying something, but the guy turned around and said something along the lines of "I know what you're trying to do, and it's not going to work, my ancestors were Jewish, now go away." Frankly this guy's attitude towards reenactors is despicable and outright disrespectful, and as a former reenactor myself I found this deeply offensive. We do it out of a love of history and making sure history stays alive and memorable. Because if we allow history to be forgotten we can never learn from it. Also he goes around making all these accussations against the guys in German uniforms, but doesn't bat an eyelid at the woman in a Soviet Red Army uniform, who committed attrocities that rival those of the Germans.
So do you film your reenactments or? If not how is your larping going to help history as a whole for the general population to not be forgotten other than helping yourself to not forget it? It's just as much as a selfish individualistic hobby as any other. But then again history has always kinda mostly been more individualistic then we like to admit. The vast majority of people get very little trickled down truths once the wars are over, especially from the trenches. The war veterans don't talk and are actually complicit in keeping secrets. And the government releases the sanitised version once the dust settles.
@@LB-uo7xy Sometimes local media would turn up to events, or on very rare occassions, we'd be approached to appear as extras in documentaries or movies. Hell, in the decades before the society I was in began to focus more on authenticity, they even got jobs as extras for the opening battle scene in 'Highlander'. But no, a huge part of historical re-enactment is in educating the public as much as entertaining them. So we would set up tents, set up things like making jewelry from pewter, making chainmail, making fishing nets, or even just a guy sat cleaning the weapons. We would do a combination of "living history", where we would teach the public what life was like at the time and show them what a travelling warcamp would have been like, and we would also do combat displays twice a day. Later we would do archery too, which I remember quite well, as I was often one of the moving targets. But the point is, by teaching them what it was like, they could in turn walk away with a better understanding and knowledge, maybe look into history more deeply themselves, share the information they learned with others. Because ultimately that's how history is remembered, through stories and experiences shared and passed on to others.
To be fair it was Fox News and their fans that got the Taliban changed to Opfor in Medal of Honor Tier 1 and Six Days in Fallujah cancelled for over a decade.
its not about wanting to be a nazi, its about having an interest in the history and equipment and having fun, i personally like airsoft, i use an AK74 replica and go out as a cold war soviet soldier, and im from Canada, that doesnt mean im a communist or anything, AKs and old cold war gear is just cool to me, just like a lot of ww2 enthusiasts, the German equipment in a lot of ways was far superior to our equipment in the day, and the engineering behind everything is very interesting
the big thing a lot of people seem to forget, is the German army, and the German people are not Nazis, Nazis, or the Nationalist Socialist Party, are the political group, not the army, which was called the Wehrmacht, most soldiers in the military, including some SS groups, were conscripted, and forced there by threat of harm to them and they're family, the SS was also larger than just people like the Gestapo, I'm not 100% on this, but I'm fairly certain the Sturmtroopers were also a part of the SS and they were the equivalent to let's say the US Army Rangers, they were shock troopers of a special forces back ground. Most people today are forgetting a lot despite the whole "Never Forget" ideology. Nazis have absolutely nothing to do with these people here re-enacting Wehrmacht units, the legitimate average joes, as you said "Cogs in a machine" as are most soldiers from any country unfortunately, the guys re-enacting the SS unit, i understand the people of that unit in history have committed terrible crimes, but these people haven't. Like that guy said this unit was the first unit into Stalingrad, that is huge historical significance considering the battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the war with the Eastern front which led to a Russian advance all the way to Berlin to end the second world war. To someone who isn't interested in this stuff particularly I understand why a lot of these opinions are said about this, but also as someone who doesn't have these interests I don't blame you for being jaded against the idea of it, and anyone who hasn't thought about how it could be viewed negatively is lying lol, however, if you were to research this more you would see that with this history of what really happened these people aren't pretending to be Nazis, they're just playing army in the woods, except now they can afford cooler sticks lol the other side to this, is you not wanting to be a German in a ww2 re-enactment 1 makes sense, and 2, is more commonly the thought process, so if everyone shared the same view of that, everyone would be fighting on the allied side as what ever GI they want right? In this case you were a paratrooper from the 101st Airborne regiment, probably the most famous unit from ww2, if everyone is an American GI, who would you fight against? if everyone had the same interest there wouldn't be anyone pretending to be Germans for you to shoot at right? Growing up in North America I was subject to all of our equipment at family days and even when I was an army cadet I got trained on the C7 rifle, I know lots about our stuff, that's why I personally started collecting Soviet stuff, because its different and I get to learn about something new
Totus Tuus They don’t apply the same logic to Soviets and Japan because they’re american and education in america isn’t that great Edit: also because they’re probably weebs
@@floytron5924 look up the whole communist russia history of raping, torturing, burning, genocides and massacre of innocent people Hilter about 20 million DEAD stalin 60 million Plus DEAD - probably 100 million exiled and lives ruined Women who refused to denounced their god were sent to the gulags for hard labor and regularly raped. If they somehow survived, they were be forced to exile and never return to their families.
born free Yeah everyone knows what they did, it’s shoved down our throats. My point is that there is no innocence army, every single country has committed war crimes. Wonder how many Americans know of their own war crimes.
I like VIce but this was one of the worst they did. They saw many Political things and too many inaccuracies. For example, he says that wearing a swastika means the same in every language. That just speaks about him as a character that he clearly does not know the History. If you go to a Buddhist country they will not see the swastika as a horrible symbol. They see it as a religious symbol they love and use. Also, I am a reenactor myself. In WW2 I reenact as Norwegian Military. I fight against German and even SS reenactors. The SS reenactors are great and having a cup of coff3e with them you find out that the 2iC of the SS troops is one of the most anti-Nazi people you can meet. He is even a bit extreme when it comes to being against it in my opinion. Point is you are portraying these guys like Nazis when they are just Reenactors. Reenactment does not have political views involved get out of here.
Dude I think u need to check the icon first, Buddhist Symbol and Nazi swastika are not exactly the same thing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika Maybe Nazi swastika idea is coming from Buddhist Symbol. But they're not the same thing.
@@AlbertAdamsLincoln what do you mean? If you mean the shape of the symbol itself it's the same even with the colours. However a black swastika on a red background is different as far as I know but this is irrelevant it's still a swastika. He said the swastika means the same thing universal, something I explained it does not. Again even if you take a Nazi swastika and show it to Buddhist monks they will not know of it being a Nazi, racist, hate symbol (I literally did this to Bhutanese monks) they will thing it's their perception of a swastika.
@@AlbertAdamsLincoln Again it's irrelevant he said a swastika universally means the same in every language which I explained it does not. And again the turned angled one has also been used for thousands of years it is also apparent when if you show a swastika even the nazi one with a red background, for example, the armband they will not understand and connect it with nazism they will just see their version of a swastika. Again it's still a swastika and saying it means the same in every language is just wrong. Either way, this video is just a man trying to somehow blame reenactors for being nazis when that is not the case and it is so blatantly stupid that even he himself reflects on it in his video about it perhaps not being that way. Its an insult to an entire community which is shown by comments and dislikes.
"It's always political when you're wearing a swastika, and in every language that means the same thing". Actually the swastika has been used by various Asian religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, for thousands of years, so for people of those religons it means something completely different.
Swastika is basically just a good luck symbol, has been part of European culture for thousands of years, still a big part of Asian culture, sure it was used by bad guys, but they also used eagles, does that mean eagles are bad? they used the colour green! By god! Green is a nazi colour!
“I’m wasting a nice spring day dressed as a ding head” idk guy it doesn’t look like you go outside anyways, this is probably the most exercise he’s gotten in a few years.
I love that i have not seen a dingle positive comment on here. Vice thinks we are a bunch of idiots, who would get offended over a war reenactment. Whos supposed to be the bad guys? Its a reenactment, you need both sides of the battle for that.
I love the response from all the history lovers so passionate about correcting the wrong claims. The history community will always be a comfortable home to come back to, love talking history with others. Never deny a chance to learn and realize new ideas.
that's absolutely tarded, Hitlers goal was to socialize the people. This involved fanaticizing the army too. They were all happy nazis commiting war crimes while winning, but when they began to lose they quickly changed their tune
Heinrich Himmler are you stupid or just deflecting? Hes saying you have the user name of a notorious nazi and propagating the myth that nazi germanys army was innocent. Hes making the connection of a nazi apologist defending the nazi army
@@AssassinIsAfk I went to school in the UK and did loads of Russian history, 1917 through to the Cold War. Depends on the school, they do have some freedom in selecting what to teach from a larger range of topics.
Because Russia was good! If you ignore the mass rapes, slaughtering "collaborators"(people living in USSR territories who surrendered to the Germans), mass destruction of anywhere between Moscow & Berlin, genocides their own citizens in Western Ukraine for being economically prosperous, sends people to death camps across Russia for sneezing against communism. But it's okay because fascism bad.
These reenactors aren't and neither are journalists. Our country would not be what it is today if it weren't for unbiased hardworking journalists fighting for justice (not insinuating that this guy is one of them).
Condescendingly talking to an actor with a swastika on his hat and then talking totally normal to another actor with a hammer on sickle on her hat is the most hilarious thing in this whole video
Never ever judge a topic if you don’t know a single thing about it they’re simply reenacting history just because it has a swastika does not mean you need to immediately start criticizing them
Is this a sinister pastime? Or is it just cosplay with more swastikas?
WATCH NEXT: A French entrepreneur is offering “anti-jihadist training” in Poland - bit.ly/2vrTV84
VICE there are thousands upon thousands reenactment groups(not counting Air soft , paintball) from Moscow to Vancouver & Manila that do events like this. Seriously get the fuck out into the world and actually cover news
Congratulations VICE! You managed to show a laughable shitty reenactment performance (you were in the UK, so what was expected to begin with?"
Next time go to a normal reenactment in Middle Europe, like Slovakia, with actual experts and reenactment groups, not one where they will dress up any random guy as an american, with soviet partizans, armed with a lee-enfield. This shit would not be tolerated at normal reenactments.
When you call the entire German armed forces at the end, "genocidal murderers", I think you loose credibility. If you took the time to realize that the Wehrmacht were (for the most part) nationalistic men serving their country, you can see why these reenactors take offense to you calling them Nazi's. Furthermore, "Nazi" is just a derogatory term for National Socialist. If you called the average German Soldier a Nazi, he'd probably beat you up. I understand the negative connotation surrounding the SS, and it isn't far fetched. However, for the sake of history, I think removing the SS entirely from all reenacting groups for sake of political correctness, is a terrible idea. To cast such a negative light on people trying to preserve history is doing a disservice to them, as well as those who they are trying to honor.
VICE Considering Britain's own militaristic imperialism of the world with a special acknowledgement to the enslavement and killing of the peoples of Africa, India, and China I don't think any Briton has a right to criticize the Third Reich . And don't go putting a timetable on events from the past, the moment you start doing that you start giving a pass to those atrocious acts done by this party or that !
Not to mention fucking Communism and the fact that Mao Zedong's face is still on money.
They made a huge mistake making this video.. Never judge if you don't know a single thing about the topic you're talking about.
I agree with you. Glad to see my favorite YT reenactment channel here :)
Love your channel man! Glad to see you here on this awful video.
chad moment
Hey, nice to see an expert give his two cents
Boy am I glad to see you here!
“It’s always political” is the most bs statement of ww2 re-enactment I’ve ever heard.
Thats how they think, they try to spin a political narrative on everything. It's sickening and a tactic of manipulation.
@loudatyourdoor The most common rule is that you'll get thrown out if you show any nazi beliefs, either at a unit level or otherwise. They just want to reenact history, and keep the politics out.
@loudatyourdoor is it political if we reenact napoleonic battles? Nope, it isn't. It isn't political either when ww2 documentaries are made, this also applies to ww2 reenactment since WW2 reenactments are just how the battles play out
@loudatyourdoor war is political, but i fail to see how reenacting an event is political. It's like saying a history book is political, it shows us past politics, but the book, just like the reenacting, isn't political
@loudatyourdoor what makes a book more objective? Just like a reenactment, it is ment to portray what the author/actor interprets of the events.
They aren't reenacting to be evil Nazis, they are reenacting because they love history.
Plus the gunfights, the interaction, that's Airsoft reanactment, it would be insane to see a big team trench warfare match with whistles blowing and people storming
@Edward Cardona *gasp* he said something neutral-positive about germany cancel him! #notmypresident #hillary2020
This seem cool but the helmet from the thumbnail used to be an aerial warfare not a landbased troop
If they just put the SS insignia it would be look much accurate
They still dont have to reenact SS. They could just as well be wehrmacht
@@granola661 you mean heer?
Basically this dude:
“Are you a nazi?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes I’m sure.”
“Okay, I understand. But are you sure you’re sure?”
“Yes I’m sure.”
“Oh, okay. So are you a nazi?”
patrick to man ray when he dropped his wallet
It’s actually stupid how this guy who knows nothing whatsoever about history gets to call these people nazis and spread lies and misinformation about them and not get fired.
He lost his job after this video was released lol
@@mrkiiprototype2938 bruh .. probaply because vice couldnt accept that they were wrong
Letsss gooooooooo
@@WW3Polak look up vice news thinks wwii reenactors are nazi on yt. The creator mentions he lost his job.
mrkiiprototype what a tool lol
This guy shouldn't lose his job for wearing a German uniform, he should lose his job for having the single worst most biased reporting I have ever seen
Incompetency at ones job is a valid reason, but then again you can't just lay off your whole company *cough 5% laid off so far
PC people becoming Reporters will be the end of us all
Fun Fact, he did actually lose his job after making this! I guess Vice noticed the backlash and wanted to save face
Will Girvan the entire company is like this, they are thick in the damn heads
Agent Ohio THATS FUCKING AMAZING! VICE should just go fucking belly up because they are such a left sided pos company
"In every language a swastika is about politics". This man hasn't been to Asia.
Finland either.
Oh boy if this "man" would see Finnish airforce units *current* flags he would flip out
@@KoteDarasuum Well they dont have them anymore :/
@@namastedikka2985 yes we do have them still today on our unit flags contrary to popular belief. We took these airforce flags back in 1955 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelia_Air_Command
@@KoteDarasuum it was changed 3 days ago without any statement
I have grown up in the US going to re-enactments my whole life and it is extremely frowned upon to the point that people will be blacklisted from organizations if they try to politicize things or join groups for political reasons... especially the Confederate and Reich units. I am certain it is no different in Britain and the re-enactors probably told this "reporter" as much and Vice just conveniently left it out to fit a narrative.
Yeah this is part of the reason why vice went out of business or at least went bankrupt
I used to really like they're reporting but it's fallin off
By the way I've never had the opportunity to go to a reenactment I'm assuming you've been to a civil war reenactment how was that? I did a detailed report about the south when I was in high school and particularly about general Lee so I find it quite interesting but that doesn't mean I want to have slaves ya know
Imagine losing your job because you participated on the wrong side of a historical reenactment
He should lose his job
No he shouldn't
@@gorguts5537 why not, He's just spouting lies
@@noname7187 absolutely not, I am a reenactor though and I am on the German side and I know they aren't Nazis. Nor am I.
@@noname7187 What does being a liberal have to do with literally anything he said, I think VICE is one of the worst and most misinformed news agencies out there, the vast majority of his claims are unfounded and have no evidence or really almost any argument to back them up, the only thing I could say is like I said in my other comment some units do legitimately believe in Naziism but they're so rare and ostracized that it's unfair to treat everyone doing it as a Nazi, he is indeed lying through his teeth most of the time to cater to a certain audience so he may perpetuate their echo chamber, especially in a time so "Nazi Heavy" as this where everyone gets called a Nazi if you disagree with someone politically.
These reenactors were kind enough to allow the reporter to join them. The way he repays them is by calling them Nazis, monsters, and horrible people.
And just mocking them and being absolutely disgusting and vile. Guy should lose his job for this unacceptable garbage.
Next time in a reenactment, just try to ignore these shits. They just want money
@@CT-hr9nk thankfully, he actually got fired after making this documentary. It’s good to see people like that face karma for their actions
@@Slash766no vice probably only fired him because they were facing the consequences, and I’m not 100% sure that he was the only one who supported this video at vice.
Most likely they lied their asses off the entire time and the organization that let them come and film had NO IDEA that this was going to be a smear campaign against what they do.
Probably why they don't mention a group name these guys are with because they'd probably have sued VICE for defamation and won millions.
“He had a problem with me calling them nazis.”
Yeah non nazis tend to hate being called nazis.
I hate how they don't realize Nazi was a political party. It's like saying Democrat soldiers instead of US soldier.
Cougar Davis and what’s nazi short for? National Socialist. But most people who throw the term nazi around liberally never use the correct name.
I hate how they call the S.S. Monsters. Because my great grandfather was definitely not a monster
The nicht nice Guy sorry but we’re talking about reenactors not actual SS. Waffen SS soldiers were ideological tools of the national socialist party. Completely different. The SS committed horrendous crimes and are rightfully condemned as monsters. These guys are just reenactors.
Exactly I agree
As a german myself I was very offended by the message of this video. Here we learn about WW2 all the time because we feel a great national shame for what we did (Of course not speaking for every german). But we would never come to generalize all the people in the Wehrmacht as Nazis...
Do you even know what the difference between the SS and Wehrmacht was?
Do you know that people who where not Nazis but regular german civilians in the Wehrmacht were also killed?
Now... Of course im not saying that in any way or form, the war or any war for that matter is justified but to generalize all million human beings into just a bunch of villains?????
He's literally talking with people who are specifically defending the SS, so I don't know why you're asking about the difference between the SS and Wehrmacht like that's relevant
@@robrotron2084 even when he's speaking directly to the reenactors in a derogatory manner?
Wehrmacht is a regular German armed forces. SS is a soldiers that directly take order from you know who, basically political soldiers, or loyalist forces (loyal to certain someone not Germany).
So yeah, it's different. Then again it would be asking too much from this reporter to look up that fact. They just want to score some brownie points not reporting facts, like your usual leftist
@@novanoir8309 true.
@@robrotron2084 He is not, and the difference is relevant.
When in the video are they ever specifically saying: "The SS was good"??? Theyre trying to convey the whole time that theyre not nazis. And sure lets say reinacting german soldiers during ww2 isnt ok.
They still never said they were defending the SS, sorry your point doesnt hold up.
Think before you write.
This reporter knows nothing about history
Apparently neither do any of the people dressed up in nazi uniforms
@Chicha 17 sure they are
@@hardcoreallstar "nazi" uniforms ?:DDDDDDDDDD what a uneducated fuck
@@hardcoreallstar go home!
@@polygonalfortress no you go home YOLO 0430
This is like someone getting mad at other people for wanting to play terrorists in Counter Strike
HAH right on the button
Alfredo Re this is hilariously true, AKs all the way
Yep
*Is auto-balanced to terrorists during a casual game.*
The 40 pounds of C4 that magically materialised in my car trunk:
fun fact, osama bin laden had counter strike on his hard drive so there is a chance someone played against bin laden on counter strike
Being offended by a reenactment is like being offended by a history book. Vice should remove this video and fire this ignorant reporter.
I agree
But they are offended by history books...
Why would they fire him? They are the ones who sent him out to do this.
Misanthropic Servitor of Mars If you send a guy to buy you bread but you find out he bought you cheap hot dog bread you would be pissed
it's like being offended when you play as the nazi's on call of duty
"Self-proclaimed history buffs" is a bold statement coming from a self-proclaimed journalist.
Now that’s funny
"There's too much waiting around"
Never let this man be a sniper.
Never let him be a soldier in any capacity, he's so fat he'll eat the unit's entire cover out of boredom
@@JohnsonTheSecond XD
@paul its true
@@JohnsonTheSecond He'd fit a good Franz Neuhausen
Snipers, who wait in the same spot for weeks or months:
*Laughs* “you fucking idiot!”
Ummm...whats the problem here? In america we do civil war reenactments...dont think this is any different...
Yeah I agree...it is all weird!
@@TBFSJjunior it's not weird some people just enjoy reenacting
Jakob Schulze dang let people do what they want especially since they’re not hurting anybody
It is different still no problem.
Ssshhhhh keep your voice down or else they'll make a video calling Confederate renactors white supremacists.
People like this are the reason why as kids we weren't able to use sticks as guns
Typical cat the re-enactors or vice?
Bro Facts
@@KNNY_-sp6kq vice
Typical cat ye
holyshit yeah or play "violent videogames"
as a person with an IQ above 30, i'm surprised this actually got published
As a reenactor, who portrays many American-Soviet-German sides it’s a personal attack and major insult on the hobby. The fact he insults the German reenactors but doesn’t even think to critique the Soviet with the monstrosities they committed. It’s all for fun and a hobby we as reenactors enjoy. Vice should be ashamed of themselves!
He didn't say anything about the Americans as well
VICE and their filthy Journalists should be silenced and eliminated and it should be ruled out as "suicide". China does a great job on that so why dont we??
@@mosesImmanuel-sc6zy americans weren't that bad in ww2 tbh, other wars it's a different story.
That's because vice looks at topics with the brainpower and maturity of a 2nd grader
@@orangesel9338 Compared to Germany, Russia and Japan they weren't that bad but still not good.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_liberation_of_France
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Germany
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Japan
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mutilation_of_Japanese_war_dead
Bring back old vice where they actually reported on controversial topics without an obvious bias not harassing some lads who care about military history.
@Crishai X because they know a large mass of the population willfully believes anything if they can google it. whether they be facts or lies
this isn't harassment
They really ran out of ideas didn't they
Harassing people that willingly allowed him to film and play with them?
Isn't that a bit if a stretch?
Well constantly calling them nazis when they're not is at least very disrespectful
"I'm wasting a nice spring day by dressing up like a dickhead."
This dude literally just disrespected not only the reenactors, but the men who wore that exact uniform.
Yeah people seem to forget that the average german soldier has nothing to do with a concentration camp and jews. Also people seem to forget there were tons of valid reasons for Germany to go to war prior to ww2. Unfair payments for the prior war for example rendering the country crushed economically. In my opinion our actions after WW1 really caused Germany to go to war.
@@user-dd9dh9kw5c Victoria bastard children is the cause. ww1 i call The Family Schism. Britain Russia France Germany they were all related. Nicolas II and king George V can be mistaken as twins but are cousins.
@@user-dd9dh9kw5c Blame France for the "Treaty of Versailles". They're the ones that wanted to punish Germany more harshly for ww1 and said that the Treaty treated them "too leniently".
@@Become-Eggplant we did a oopsy
@@Become-Eggplant Not harshly enough if you ask me but that's a different topic
ive always thought of war reenactments as a way to pay respects to the wars by immersing yourself in what happened and taking a look back to the lives of the brave soldiers who placed their lifes on the line
Problem is we really don't know all that much about what REALLY happened to regular grunts in ANY war other than a few isolated incidents where those guys spoke or wrote about it and even those are up for debate if there are contradictory statements.
No matter the country or the topic, Vice will always put the most unlikable and uncharismatic journalists, reporters, and interviewers in the field.
And thats why i love vice
Vice tends to shift from reporter to reporter in terms of quality, a similar video on Americans who re-enact the Vietnam War was done very well, and much of their legitimate news (Not human interest) reporting from active war zones like Iraq and Crimia is very well done.
Ben Anderson is a great man, check him out
Which works 🤣🤣
I knew for a fact vice was dead once it sold. They stopped doing actual dangerous or important journalism and instead started doing stupid pieces like this.
Since cancel culture is so prevalent right now, I would just like to state that if I could cancel one thing on the Internet, it would be VICE
sign me up
Probably every major media outlet like vox and every other one that has just kept going down hill.
Imagine Baggins God that interview is so fucking brain dead he is fine with a Soviet soldier but not a Wehrmacht
@@magicman3163 he'd like to be a Soviet soldier probably
Its a shame they used to make some fantastic content
“Oh you reenact ww2 as a Soviet soldier?
“Yeah”
“So your a communist?”
Tankies???!!!
You should be ashamed of this Vice. It's clearly a group of people who love military history wanting to play it out.The presenter is just rude to them for no reason. This should be removed.
Joel Dorne
So you want censorship?
No, no need to remove it, but its still one sided, but we all knew that was coming the second we saw it was vice
Thomas Giblin
So you want to ban one sided journalism? What about freedom of speech?
Guten Tag mein Name ist Freedom of speech is bullshit when degeneracy like this is released.
@@lololololololol He wasn't saying they should ban it, it's like me saying I don't like the color purple. Not saying I wanna ban it, just that I don't like it. Also these assholes are pretty one sided from time to time but they do make some good content on some topics non political
North Korean news isn't as biased as this was.
North Korea actually makes more informational news than this
Damn
@@jakartagamer6188 that's just kind of sad
@PanzLevz yeah I high,y doubt that. Why are you neck beard nazis so cringey...geez
@@ms.bunniesarecute2287 Just because you doubt something doesn’t make that something any less true lmao.
I guess I’m a nAzI and an ArYaN pUrIsT for playing as the Germans in War Thunder.
Same 😂
And I’m a capitalist billionare because I play the Americans
I’m a baguette for playing French
See you in Hague then.
sorry man i am a stalinist for playing as the ussr in hoi4 and aoc2 D;
I dressed as a vampire once for Halloween. Now I'm never allowed to be in a church again in my life. 😥
VICE always hires some biased tools.
Vice is the tool bin that only has a left side
They are run by biased tools
Miss old days when their CEO with mf balls of steel making good content about warlord, terrorist, etc
@@adamhielt1945 ahh the good ol days of vice.
*Abu hajar!!!*
Didn't hear any gripes about the Russians. I wonder...
Shhhhhhh, wouldn't wanna upset the anti America circle jerks... they don't like it when people have an opinion.
@The_Jaguar_ Knight Honestly, I've seen Soviet reenactors take far more flak then any German reenactors.
I do Soviet reenacting and this double standard is too common. I've been to events where SS impressions are banned, but you can have a photo of Stalin and hammer and sickle flag publicly displayed and no one says anything. Seriously people, either accept that it's a reenactment and don't object to anything or be offended by all the bad guys.
The prince of Nigeria *remove the glass and black hat* I.. agree
I think this " journalist" was a vulgar buffoon.
Reenacting can draw an odd one from time to time. Be it playing a Brit, Russian, German, Marine, Japanese or other.
One constant throughout all of it is that no radical ideology or politics are welcomed, and they will be quickly asked not to participate.
I think the journalist may be cut of the same cloth in not being able to differentiate reality from reenacting.
Then again, kids who don't understand something and may be a little frightened pick fun as a defense.
It's the cooler thing to do besides learn or accept.
O shit the historical reenactors aren't nazis? Thank you Vice I wouldn't have figured that out without you.
This ^
Wait, didn't the host say right at the beginning that they weren't Nazis?
Why is everyone white knighting on behalf of these guys? They're grown, educated men with a hobby they know is weird.
O ya baby I like it when you're angry. Haha who cares man. Haha i straw manned your ass and got you to write a paragraph trying to defend yourself
Are you actually laughing at your computer? Because that's weird.
When was the last time your dad said he loved you?
kissfan7 well actually because of such heavy marxist indoctrinations in university these days it has degraded alot of people down to the status of sheeps and cucks considering all this safe space, special pronoun trigger warning mumbo jumbo that only over grown children could actually make relevant in modern society. Another point is that because of all this brainwashing some people wouldnt be capable of understanding that people wearing swastikas in historical reanactments arent actually nazis so typicaly a lefty propaganda outlet like vice has to keep reassuring its hive minded viewers that which is really dum dum.
“he’s a 65 year old ex army bloke” bruh crazy how i’m not even half a minute in and it already feels as if the guy reporting is mentally on par with my little brother
Stop attacking a group of people and their pastime and fire your disrespectful reporter who can't tell the difference between the Wehrmacht and the SS, a political view and a form of entertainment,.
In all fairness some of the guys in the video are playing Fallschrimjägers.
Anthony Downes ok and? They were paratroopers I don’t get what you are trying to say the were luftwaffe.
@@anthonydownes2286 What's the point? Are you just pointing out that there were paratroopers in the video too? Or was there some other meaning you were trying to get across that isn't very clear?
Jesus Christ not really, I mean you could but I don’t have a issue with the ENLISTED AND NCO group I can’t emphasize that enough. As the Wehrmacht did commit war crimes on a smaller scale. However saying that does that mean ever Soviet soldier was bad? Or Japanese? Of course not.
_ Sleepz yeah I know, I never try and say every one of anything is bad.
There was a soviet soldier there,does she represent Stalin?
she represents potatos
Gage Larkin GLORIOUS POTATOS FOR FATHERLAND
They do. And you just called them Soviets rather than Russians. Pretty much the same as saying Nazi rather than German.
@@MrCmon113 The soviet union was a state, and thus, they are soviets. But I agree on the nazi thing, no one is calling US soldiers democrats.
This is like being offended at a history book
I wanted to like, but the number of likes is perfect...
Theanimatronix hAHaHaAHa 69 is sooo funny
Shut up
fUcKiNg BoOk
Reenactments don't teach history dumbasses
Most people are offended by history now days
“Self proclaimed history buffs” is a rich statement coming from self proclaimed journalists.
"wasting a nice spring day" how, youre actually outside for once?
HexxyEEE I'm sure he would prefer to play Xbox
Yeah, that fat idiot reporter. Get of his fat ass and get some fresh air.
1: spending time OUTSIDE
2: walking = exercise = bad
3: carrying HEAVY old rifles all day is more excersize
4: doing thing IRL is harder then in a videogame
5: he didn't want to be a Nazi so they went out of thier way to accommodate him...
6: they didn't have to give him a gun or uniform, they could have just been "oh you're a battlefield reporter, u get no uniform" and been done with him
Day just TOTTALY wasted
@@chriscary4074 Wtf is your comment? I really don't understand what you typed. Proofread before you post.
@@ve6009 all the reason the fat kids day is ruined, work on your reading comprehension skills
And he talks like partisan and soviet did nothing bad
Ahh, please, go ahead and enlight me about what the Partisans did wich was "bad".
@@ernstschloss8794 Does terrorism, the murder of civilians and POW's qualify as bad for you?
I'm not defending what the german side did, I'm saying that war crime, is still, a war crime, independent of ideology, purpose or means. One side doing war crimes doesn't justify, morally or factually the other side doing the same. In war, there are no "good guys", just victims, psychopaths(which sometimes are victims too) and everything in between.
@@HansChucrute88 I say violence leads to violence. And I fucking hate liberal crybabies and hypocrites judging both the nazis and their enemies as equals, as there was not one side attacking and one deffending. Also, I'd love to see the result of politely asking the nazis to leave. I agree, War and it's crimes are independent of ideology. Thus, try asking the Red Army to restraint itself after recovering inch by inch of soviet soil and finding out what the germans had done there. Or even more so, the Partisans ( for it was THEIR VERY OWN familys, farms and villages being pillaged, raped and burnt) "Yeah comrades, but it's not the germans, Ohh no! just the nazis. Besides, it's not proper socialist to hate everyone" Good luck on that one too. "You reap what you sow".
In albania partisans were the good guys.But the leader of them started a dictatorship after the war.But still we thank them for liberating our country from germans and italians.
Ernst Schloss well the partisans were fighting to free their country but they sometimes would be extreme. The are cases of Americans having to liberate German POWs from French partisans since they were know to execute prisoners on mass.
An American GI wouldn't carry a Lee Enfield. Re enactment fail.
Louis Burke or be on the Eastern Front for that matter, farby fat fuck.
Cyber Stein Okay, but how would a No4 Mk1 Lee Enfield end up on the Eastern Front in the hands of an American soldier?
That annoyed me too lol
Colton Seems you have forgotten that it’s a fact the Americans sent fighter pilots for Air support on the eastern front and did get into dog fights with the Russians over Russia same with the British don’t be so ignorant now
I saw that two said nothing
17:43 You guys are the friendliest nazis I ever met “we are not nazis.” Bro that man is a fucking g.
This is a joke right? Is Vice just professionally offended by everything?
Allahcuckbar next they'll be after your profile name
First of all there “reenactments.” Not actual nazis as the name implies
Second of all how do you reenact a war without an enemy?? Especially World War 2
Yeah, it's like what are they gonna do? Take the Swatikas off, but otherwise use Kar98ks, MP40s, and other German equipment, German tactics and everything else? Then they're just hiding the fact that they are pretending to be Nazis.
That’s the thing. Not everyone can be the good guy, some has to be the bad guy.
@@Draftspike "bad guys"
@@tommykirk3403 you're delusional to think you even knew what I was implying.
1:21 If they sent him to join the reenactors why would they fire him for being a German?
Infantry Films because he thinks he will be thought of differently at his job
You are expecting too high of an intelligence from the ape.
Because he does not understand what context is.
The virgin vice reporter vs the Chad German reenactor.
People: * are making sure that historical crimes won't be forgotten*
Vice: *yOu arE nAZis*
Its not even about the Crimes in Reenactment, its about showing historical relevant conflicts.
Its not like they show the execution of american soldiers or jewish childs as a screenplay or something.
@@Intrepid17011 most of reenactments are just documentations.
@@magnuscritikaleak5045 True, Live Action Documentarys.
10:32 Notice how they don’t criticize the Russian Soldier but they’d criticize the German Soldiers.
Listen to how he calls a soviet soldier "team mate." Lol.
Edit: As an 'American' soldier.
Ofc, next week in VICE= Why real communism will work (and why Mao's purges were beneficial for humanity in the end")
When you ignore how the soviets looted and raped as they went through Germany and treat them like the good guys
@@herrbear3049 to be fair the germans did the exact thing went they went into russia so retribution? and the allies to though the latter to a lesser extent so ehhh good guys in war is a a more of a lesser of the evils concept ngl
Kevin Tan they did loot and commit war crimes like killing civilians and prisoners but raping was seen as a major crime and was severely punished
Reporter: has zero clue of anything he’s talking about
And is just downright idiotic. He calls the Luftwaffe the SS. And wore a US uniform on the eastern front.
lol historical inaccuracy go brrrrrrrrrrrrr
@@WiseMysticalTree7 He explained why he wore that uniform you idiot.
@@HUNKunit and why is that exactly?
I know this is an old video, but since these types of topics are becoming more present today in 2022, I want to say as a descendent of Jewish people, some of which have suffered in the war, I love reenactments. I think history is fun and I at one point wanted to participate in a reenactment on the Germans side because of how cool the hobby looks.
Go ahead and do it. German is kinda expensive if you want to do it right (and not like these FARBs in the video), but it is fun. Also I have the feeling a few Jews on the German side would really help take away from the stereotypes we reenactors face. And honestly I would find it hilarious to have an Event on a jewish holiday and have a whole company of wehrmacht soldiers celebrate channuka or the like
2 years ago and still more dislikes, maybe thats why you shouldn't try to paint a bunch of dudes who enjoy historical reenactments as nazis 🤣
They enjoy reenacting. They love history, and don't deny it like so many others.
REENACTING as a German soldier is way different from AGREEING with the Nazis.
It's a hobby. It's not meant to be political in any way.
Rookield he also ignored soviet/Japanese re-enactors who did just as much if not more than the Wehrmacht
YT removed my dislike so I came back and added it
I'm pretty sure this guy printed a certificate off the internet saying he was a journalist and Vice was like, "Looks good to me".
He’s a “self proclaimed journalist “
I love the way he cares about the Nazis but not the Soviet uniforms
Nah vice is just garbage in general
Friend of mine did something similar when he went to teach English in Japan lol.
"das Reich" and stalingrad?
no dude... there was never any SS unit near stalingrad
a reenactor should know that
Abensberg He most likely meant Leningrad. Das Reich sometimes take part in a re-enactment outside st Petersburg of the siege of Leningrad. Gets broadcast on Russian tv apparently. Supposedly it’s quite a big event. There’s a whole defensive line that’s still left over from the war that they use and everything
Abensberg there were soldiers of the ss polizei division in an airfield in stalingrad
@@riccardobrusaferri7614 Can you verify that?
franklinnose i’ve read some reports and some forums about this and there were Also people after the war Who catched in Stalingrad some ss relics
The Einsatzgruppen traveled with the 6th army and they are SS as for Das Reich it never fought in Stalingrad the closest the division got was the battle of kursk. Below is a list of all major operations the division fought in.
Battle of France 1940
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Typhoon
Battle of Kursk
Operation Overlord
Battle of the Bulge
As someone who's been looking to get into german reenactments, this is incredibly disrespectful to that community, the people who portray the Germans are not even close to being nazis, they're people just like anyone else reenacting the Americans or British that love history, and being offended at someone's love for history or showing people the true sight of what war was like is a fun hobby and a great way to learn. How are you going to teach people about history, especially in this era, if everyone who does german reenactments is labeled as a "Nazi"? Reenactments wouldn't be historical or a hobby, they would just be a political mess.
Do your research.
At this point “self proclaimed history nerds” are literally calling every german soldier a nazi. Bro what is happening to this generation…
This guy should be fired for failing at reporting
They can get sued for defamation and they should
he was fired
@@syndicate4417 oh blyat, really?
@@syndicate4417 really? hahaha. u have a link for that?
I would like to join this group and Dress up as a SS NCO.
Man, their uniforms are so cool, thank you Hugo Boss.
Andrew Feurig that’s true Mr Boss did design their uniforms
Airstrip One TV, no it isn’t. He and his company only manufactured them.
@@Airstrip1TV How do people still think that's true? You have the internet you can fact check anything before you say it... please stop spreading this false info.
You can't just become an NCO. You actually have to start out as a private.
@@aaroncampbell2180 yup your right if you want to be an nco you have to start as an SS-Mann
Let me rather play an American because...uuuhhhh..... they didn't commit any atrocities ...ever...pinky promise....not......lmao
soviet walks up to him and he doesn't bat an eye...well he does, but because she's a women.
*cough* dresden bombings *cough*
Cough *rape of an estimated 11,000 to 190,000 people in Europe in ww2* cough
ThePainterr Cough..helping to support the lying of history for there own political interests and for the Zionist interests for the creation of Israel. Making up atrocities and hypocritically doing the atrocities they made up...cough.
Courts Griner *cough* angry American because they're raised as if their the best and they need no concern for other people's lives until one small thing happens or is said about their country, then they want to kill everybody and take over the world to take all the resources so shut up for once *cough*
"Self-proclaimed history buffs" Really ironic coming from a self-proclaimed journalist
Journo: u r friendly Nazis
reenactor: we are not Nazis
journo: u r play as Nazi
reenactor: we r German army not SS
journo: BuT WhY ArE YoU PlAyInG As NaZi ThO
Like, the Wehrmacht itself did terrible things as well as the SS - they were not absolved from blame. But remember that 65% of Germans didn’t vote Nazi. Most conscripts weren’t Nazis - and just by sheer force of numbers, most German soldiers weren’t horrific people.
The heer and the waffen SS also never got along with eachother
That reminded me of the wallet scene from spongebob 😂
@@yashiorist3642 unless it’s committing war crimes, then they are in the same boat
@@West_Coast_Mainline True, but i think the Waffen SS commited more crimes than the Heer
Literally there is nothing wrong with reenacting, its not like your assembling real Kampfgruppes and fucking storming towns and killing everyone.
Einzatsgruppen reenactment
With live rounds
@@bloodyhell8201 Jesus christ. Not gonna lie the live rounds part had me gasping for air, but on second thought let's go ahead and not do that.
@@averyp.9315 I look vaguely Asian. Gonna get me an Imperial Japanese uniform and rape some Chinese villages. You in?
Dislike because you assumed that all Germans fighting in WW2 were Nazis.
Yes
Exactly!
@@josecolon2717 You should know, the acronym is "Nazi"; not "Natzi". If you study WWII, please learn that. Jeez.
Joseph Dockemeyer sry auto correct... actually how did that get in the auto correct dictionary like that, that’s not the correct form of spelling either...
@Chicha 17 "Nazi" was actually used because non German speaking people couldn't say Nationalsozialismus. My Great-Uncle was Erich "Bubi" Hartmann, the famous WWII flying ace. You can find him on Wikipedia and see videos about him here on UA-cam. My Great-Grandfather was Josef Hartmann and he waa a Colonel in the Wehrmacht. He owned an Import/Export company in Berlin before and after the war. One of my relatives worked for Deimler-Benz while they made Panzers for the war. My Great-Great-Grandfather was a general to the Czar of Russia and the family owned a large estate in Ukraine. I was born in France and live in the States.
"Self-proclaimed history buffs" sounds like a rather bold statement for a self-proclaimed journalist.
This is the worst reporter I’ve seen in my life, and I’ve seen many.
hey, don't generalise normal german soldiers as monsters
This is the political machinations of Left Wing fanatics.
@@MrSeekerOfPeace are you referring to my comment or the video?
@@tommasoguandalini2256 video. He's supporting you
@@fr1dge350 Thanks... sometimes I have trouble understanding what people are talking about, seeing as my english is pretty terrible.
Hey a fellow Beatles fan history buff
20:05 "And in every language that (swastika) means the same thing"
Swastikas in India: 😕
Swastikas in finland: 😕
Fun facts the 45th infantry division a American division had a swastika on their division patch and then well kind of the Nazi situation happened
Swastikas in Vietnam: 😕
@@KeystoneRecce ikr
@@sirpotato9371 fun fact: Finland still uses the swastika on airforce ceremonial flag.
I know it's been 5 years, but I am seriously wandering if this guy got fired for this report or not
I'm pretty sure he did get fired for this one
So he dosent mind the woman with the hammer and sickle but gets butt hurt over a swastika
well the hammer and sickle has been used by plenty of people who aren't tankies. the swastika on the other hand really does have a bad connotation. even anti nazi stuff with a swastika can draw flak. as a left wing anarchist i think these guys are having fun but some of them do seem to use a few dog whistles. really can't blame the hobby on that though. overall i think generally the hammer and sickle is just less seen as a genocidal thing, especially since the more recent uses are either relating to a more advanced Soviet union or movements detached from them altogether.
The hammer and sickle were responsible for more death, oppression, and starvation than the swastika, the swastika's meaning is a horrible meaning, while the hammer and sickle's meaning is about a failed system that can't work. Both are bad symbols, and both are genocidal symbols aswell.
Jay Williams Order 227
@@jaywilliams720 Did you ever actually read a history book before typing this comment? lol the hammer and sickle has what, around 60-90 million more deaths under its belt than the swastika does? My god man pls do research before saying something so blatantly misinformed. Also the swastika was used long before the nazis
@@ryman1933 the maths there is simply wrong. you can't attribute all deaths under a regime to the political system which it operates under. that's the method the black book uses to calculate it's deaths. there's plenty of material disproving those death figures. if you are to count all deaths under a regime as a direct cause of its ideology then in fact capitalism kills more than the soviet union ever did every year. global starvation exists for a reason, could it be inefficient distribution of resources??? lastly, nazis explicitly wanted to genocide a race of people, the soviets did not. big difference
I'm Mexican and I love WW2 history, if they asked me to put on a German soldier uniform I'd do it as quick as I'd put on an American soldier uniform. Seems fun and educational.
based
I agree. It’s also very educational and fascinating to dress as the bad buys. The best way to understand evil is to put yourself in their shoes. I see no difference between this and playing a video game, watching a movie, or reading a book. It’s just pure fun and interesting if you enjoy this type of stuff
Hell, id do it. Honestly its just for fun not to offend anyone.
Yes Tom. The same here.
Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann I always wanted to play as a ss or as a the 101 airborne but I’m 13 so I can’t :(
I would love to reenact, I actually met a guy the other day and he does it and loves it
@@DrSpoon-iu4hs If you are lucky you can participate in Airsoft events that reenact old campaigns. Some just require you have an adult with you.
I saw many Vice reports, but where is the journalism here?
A few months ago I went for my first reenactment "training" as a Wermarcht DAK soldier, and it was one of the best experiences I've had. It's all about the history and respect. No politics
what exactly did they do? followed orders from their chain of command without question....?
sound familiar to you?
Dustin MacDonald actually i can find plenty of videos of people dressing up as taliban in afghan themed airsoft "mil sim" events. None are trying to glorify, its just a hobby for history buffs/ military collecters. I dissagree that slapping on a uniform is some sort of a acceptence of their crimes.. your putting on a costume, not adopting an ideology.
please do not ever spread your genes sir
Dustin MacDonald i bet you havent read history. Should we go on about american uniform about the american bombers dropping fire and gas bombs on civillian cities because it was a order. Or the two nukes
even if it was related to politics, you can learn
Wow , vice really knows nothing about world war two do they?
This is just the European version of the American civil war reannactments, and no one blinks an eye at that. Look I'm not a nazi sympathiser but these lads are just history and military buffs.
Saoirse Ryan you know what's funny tho in America we have Americans who don't look at the south as the bad guys in that war but that's our problem I'm sure most European agree nazi were the bad guys
ya a bud i follow on ig was doin this last weekend .in America .mostly German. ww1 i believe.
Vice's lame and laughable attempt at vilifying historic reenactors is at best pathetic.
Only in eastern Europe and the UK. Everywhere else it's frowned upon.
Im European and jesus do i hate when people make it like all the germans were "origin of evil" Like sure the Nazi and most of SS generals were some fucked up people but some people still say that even werchmacht is bad also. Idk but i have huge respect for werchmacht and even some SS regiments. Also the fact that they helped us Finns kick some soviet ass makes me atleast appreciate them because they helped us.
“Embodiment of all evil”
Did y’all forget about Britain in Africa?!?
Or name an European country!
Even the U.S. isn’t spared from this.
Slovakia.
Even the us? Boi america endorsed in slavery hella longer than britain, infact Britain activly assigned fleets to prevent slavery
One country in Europe.... OH NO, THE HORRORS OF SAN MARINO AND ITS HISTORY! NEVER AGAIN.
And Japan
@Otto Ernst Lindemann and King leapold in the congo
"I wasted a nice spring day by dressing up like a dickhead". Well done Vice. Have a condescending reporter that has no respect for history nor the people that do, vilify the hobby under the illusion of journalism. This entire video was nothing but trashing reenactors and their hobby. Its clear that this guy had no intention of painting them other than closet neo-nazis. Its unbelievable that videos like this can get passed without any sort of vetting.
I agree with you otherwise but the reenactors were also very much responsible for portraying themselves as closet neo-nazis. Examples: saying "the SS wasn't that bad" followed by historical revisionism and also, later in the video one of them refused to properly distance himself from the ideology and instead tried to steer the conversation away from the political aspect of it. It's not hard to just say something like "I absolutely reject Nazism, I am only roleplaying as a WW2 German soldier for reasons related to historical interest (and maybe also throw in an acknowledgement of the Nazis' genocidal crimes)" but they chose not to. I'm not sure to what extent the documentary was edited to hide staunch anti-Nazi statements from the reenactors, but judging only by what I know is in the documentary, the reenactors are themselves at fault too for promoting this bad image of themselves.
@anonymous-cq7wj I will acknowledge that some SS reenactors are bad influences. Some may hold that ideology, but often are edgy teens that want to be different and offensive. However, in my experience in reenacting WWI and WW2, every German reenactor I've met (including myself) does not hold that ideology nor condones anyone that does. No, its not hard to denounce Nazism in a single sentence, but when I'm asked to do so every 5 seconds, it gets annoying. I'd rather people assume that I don't and just wanted to partake in a reenactment. (Never going to happen but I can dream) This video clearly edited in a way to paint the reenactors negatively and I wouldn't be surprised if they did denounce it and they "forgot" to include it. Also small note, every faction committed all sorts of attrocities and not just Germans. The way you phrased it implied that no one else did. I think its silly to hold germany on the pedestal of evil when Japan, the Soviets, British, French and yes, America committed evil acts. I dont expect someone to throw on a WW2 uniform and have to immediately denounce the attrocities of said faction.
@@joecottone7556 then why did they say they didn't have any specific ideological disconnect to the people they were acting as/"the SS weren't that bad"
"Those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it"
But we now shouldn't kill Jewish, but idiots, who say the reenactors are nazis
Those who don't ignore it are cursed to watch helplessly as everybody else repeats it.
“In a culture as unforgiving and easy to offend as ours…”
Ironic that the guy saying this is the same guy crying over the fact that reenactments exist.
WW2 Reenactments without the Germans would be like a Star Wars movie without the Empire/Separatists. It would suck without it & completely ruin the point of it existing.
“History’s most reviled monsters”
Stalin and the Japanese would like to have a word with you
Louis what?
Maoist china has entered the chat
Laughs in Japanese
@@gabrielmaddern6070
Genghiz Khan
Americans
Notice how he critisizes the SS and Wermacht uniforms but not the Soviet ones.
Yeah fr
My great grandfather was a German soldier in ww2. He was an amazing person and taught me so much about life and this guy is absolutely heartbreaking to watch. those "evil men" were soldiers, they didn't have the option. My great Grandfather lost the battle with COVID19 a few weeks ago 😥😥😥 I couldn't stand what this man was saying
I am so sorry for your loss. To your Great Grandfather " Ruhe in Frieden Kamerad. Gott segne dich ".
I am sorry for your loss.
One question though, was your grandfather drafted into the Wehrmacht or did he do it because he was chanting “death to Jews” all the time?
@@aidanlutz8106 he was most likely drafted. Most German soldiers were not ideological recruits. They had to serve, they had families. Don’t assume he was some anti semite or anything.
@@40s60sMilitaria And I don’t assume you were an anti-Semite, that idea is really just idiotic. In war, it’s hard to see the morals of people, you have the overview of retrospect. World War 2 was a confusing hell, which changed people during or after the war, for better or worse.
this shows that anyone can be a journalists and that you dont need to be good at a job to do one
This reporter is such a soyboy lol
Agreed
He even looks like one
vice is filled with soyboy journalists
Tbh seems like the kind of person that would try too hard to be funny (whilst thinking they’re then funniest person there) but then just come off as annoying and attention seeking
i think you mean the reporter is such a HERETIC!
This is pathetic.
We had a similar thing happen here in the UK about 15-20 years ago where a TV show called Panorama tried to make out that historical reenactors were all racists and neo-nazis, particularly the ones in WWI+II and viking/saxon societies. The journalist was even trying to goade a guy in an SS uniform into saying something, but the guy turned around and said something along the lines of "I know what you're trying to do, and it's not going to work, my ancestors were Jewish, now go away."
Frankly this guy's attitude towards reenactors is despicable and outright disrespectful, and as a former reenactor myself I found this deeply offensive. We do it out of a love of history and making sure history stays alive and memorable. Because if we allow history to be forgotten we can never learn from it. Also he goes around making all these accussations against the guys in German uniforms, but doesn't bat an eyelid at the woman in a Soviet Red Army uniform, who committed attrocities that rival those of the Germans.
So do you film your reenactments or?
If not how is your larping going to help history as a whole for the general population to not be forgotten other than helping yourself to not forget it?
It's just as much as a selfish individualistic hobby as any other.
But then again history has always kinda mostly been more individualistic then we like to admit.
The vast majority of people get very little trickled down truths once the wars are over, especially from the trenches.
The war veterans don't talk and are actually complicit in keeping secrets.
And the government releases the sanitised version once the dust settles.
@@LB-uo7xy Sometimes local media would turn up to events, or on very rare occassions, we'd be approached to appear as extras in documentaries or movies. Hell, in the decades before the society I was in began to focus more on authenticity, they even got jobs as extras for the opening battle scene in 'Highlander'.
But no, a huge part of historical re-enactment is in educating the public as much as entertaining them. So we would set up tents, set up things like making jewelry from pewter, making chainmail, making fishing nets, or even just a guy sat cleaning the weapons.
We would do a combination of "living history", where we would teach the public what life was like at the time and show them what a travelling warcamp would have been like, and we would also do combat displays twice a day. Later we would do archery too, which I remember quite well, as I was often one of the moving targets.
But the point is, by teaching them what it was like, they could in turn walk away with a better understanding and knowledge, maybe look into history more deeply themselves, share the information they learned with others.
Because ultimately that's how history is remembered, through stories and experiences shared and passed on to others.
@@LB-uo7xy What are you talking about, man?
Imagine if this guy made a ww2 video game there'd be no axis only allies shooting at a tree line for like 30 minutes
He was probably the one responsible for “Your team vs. Enemy team”
@@AmphiStuG cod vanguard
WW2: tree wars*
*Not accurate to ww2
To be fair it was Fox News and their fans that got the Taliban changed to Opfor in Medal of Honor Tier 1 and Six Days in Fallujah cancelled for over a decade.
its not about wanting to be a nazi, its about having an interest in the history and equipment and having fun, i personally like airsoft, i use an AK74 replica and go out as a cold war soviet soldier, and im from Canada, that doesnt mean im a communist or anything, AKs and old cold war gear is just cool to me, just like a lot of ww2 enthusiasts, the German equipment in a lot of ways was far superior to our equipment in the day, and the engineering behind everything is very interesting
i definitely understand how this could look to some people, but its honestly just a hobby, its all about being fun and educational
the big thing a lot of people seem to forget, is the German army, and the German people are not Nazis, Nazis, or the Nationalist Socialist Party, are the political group, not the army, which was called the Wehrmacht, most soldiers in the military, including some SS groups, were conscripted, and forced there by threat of harm to them and they're family, the SS was also larger than just people like the Gestapo, I'm not 100% on this, but I'm fairly certain the Sturmtroopers were also a part of the SS and they were the equivalent to let's say the US Army Rangers, they were shock troopers of a special forces back ground. Most people today are forgetting a lot despite the whole "Never Forget" ideology. Nazis have absolutely nothing to do with these people here re-enacting Wehrmacht units, the legitimate average joes, as you said "Cogs in a machine" as are most soldiers from any country unfortunately, the guys re-enacting the SS unit, i understand the people of that unit in history have committed terrible crimes, but these people haven't. Like that guy said this unit was the first unit into Stalingrad, that is huge historical significance considering the battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the war with the Eastern front which led to a Russian advance all the way to Berlin to end the second world war. To someone who isn't interested in this stuff particularly I understand why a lot of these opinions are said about this, but also as someone who doesn't have these interests I don't blame you for being jaded against the idea of it, and anyone who hasn't thought about how it could be viewed negatively is lying lol, however, if you were to research this more you would see that with this history of what really happened these people aren't pretending to be Nazis, they're just playing army in the woods, except now they can afford cooler sticks lol the other side to this, is you not wanting to be a German in a ww2 re-enactment 1 makes sense, and 2, is more commonly the thought process, so if everyone shared the same view of that, everyone would be fighting on the allied side as what ever GI they want right? In this case you were a paratrooper from the 101st Airborne regiment, probably the most famous unit from ww2, if everyone is an American GI, who would you fight against? if everyone had the same interest there wouldn't be anyone pretending to be Germans for you to shoot at right? Growing up in North America I was subject to all of our equipment at family days and even when I was an army cadet I got trained on the C7 rifle, I know lots about our stuff, that's why I personally started collecting Soviet stuff, because its different and I get to learn about something new
German drafted soldiers: “The genocidal maniacs of history”
The Japanese and Russian troops that slaughtered civilians: “Am I a joke to you?”
Let's not act like the wehrmacht is innocent
@@isak4238 Look up My Lai Massacre
Totus Tuus They don’t apply the same logic to Soviets and Japan because they’re american and education in america isn’t that great
Edit: also because they’re probably weebs
@@floytron5924 look up the whole communist russia history of raping, torturing, burning, genocides and massacre of innocent people
Hilter about 20 million DEAD
stalin 60 million Plus DEAD - probably 100 million exiled and lives ruined
Women who refused to denounced their god were sent to the gulags for hard labor and regularly raped. If they somehow survived, they were be forced to exile and never return to their families.
born free Yeah everyone knows what they did, it’s shoved down our throats. My point is that there is no innocence army, every single country has committed war crimes. Wonder how many Americans know of their own war crimes.
I like VIce but this was one of the worst they did. They saw many Political things and too many inaccuracies. For example, he says that wearing a swastika means the same in every language. That just speaks about him as a character that he clearly does not know the History. If you go to a Buddhist country they will not see the swastika as a horrible symbol. They see it as a religious symbol they love and use.
Also, I am a reenactor myself. In WW2 I reenact as Norwegian Military. I fight against German and even SS reenactors. The SS reenactors are great and having a cup of coff3e with them you find out that the 2iC of the SS troops is one of the most anti-Nazi people you can meet. He is even a bit extreme when it comes to being against it in my opinion. Point is you are portraying these guys like Nazis when they are just Reenactors. Reenactment does not have political views involved get out of here.
Your correct!
Dude I think u need to check the icon first, Buddhist Symbol and Nazi swastika are not exactly the same thing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
Maybe Nazi swastika idea is coming from Buddhist Symbol. But they're not the same thing.
@@AlbertAdamsLincoln what do you mean? If you mean the shape of the symbol itself it's the same even with the colours. However a black swastika on a red background is different as far as I know but this is irrelevant it's still a swastika. He said the swastika means the same thing universal, something I explained it does not. Again even if you take a Nazi swastika and show it to Buddhist monks they will not know of it being a Nazi, racist, hate symbol (I literally did this to Bhutanese monks) they will thing it's their perception of a swastika.
@@trollpikken6907 What I mean is they still have little difference, just look the angle both icon portrayed.
@@AlbertAdamsLincoln Again it's irrelevant he said a swastika universally means the same in every language which I explained it does not. And again the turned angled one has also been used for thousands of years it is also apparent when if you show a swastika even the nazi one with a red background, for example, the armband they will not understand and connect it with nazism they will just see their version of a swastika. Again it's still a swastika and saying it means the same in every language is just wrong. Either way, this video is just a man trying to somehow blame reenactors for being nazis when that is not the case and it is so blatantly stupid that even he himself reflects on it in his video about it perhaps not being that way. Its an insult to an entire community which is shown by comments and dislikes.
"It's always political when you're wearing a swastika, and in every language that means the same thing". Actually the swastika has been used by various Asian religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, for thousands of years, so for people of those religons it means something completely different.
Exactly
An american unit in the infantry had a swastika part of their patch, changed during ww2. This guy is a little ignorant prick
@@Smitherrrrs 100% correct!
Swastika is basically just a good luck symbol, has been part of European culture for thousands of years, still a big part of Asian culture, sure it was used by bad guys, but they also used eagles, does that mean eagles are bad? they used the colour green! By god! Green is a nazi colour!
and does it even matter. Do they not understand the meaning of reenactment. Like wtf.
“I’m wasting a nice spring day dressed as a ding head” idk guy it doesn’t look like you go outside anyways, this is probably the most exercise he’s gotten in a few years.
Could be seen from the way he tried to load his rifle up
I love that i have not seen a dingle positive comment on here. Vice thinks we are a bunch of idiots, who would get offended over a war reenactment. Whos supposed to be the bad guys? Its a reenactment, you need both sides of the battle for that.
I love the response from all the history lovers so passionate about correcting the wrong claims. The history community will always be a comfortable home to come back to, love talking history with others. Never deny a chance to learn and realize new ideas.
This reporter knows nothing about history, he can't even tell the difference between SS and Wehrmacht
that's absolutely tarded, Hitlers goal was to socialize the people. This involved fanaticizing the army too. They were all happy nazis commiting war crimes while winning, but when they began to lose they quickly changed their tune
?
Imagine calling yourself "Heinrich Himmler" and propagating the innocent Wehrmacht myth.
Wehrmacht? Himmler was the leader of the SS
Heinrich Himmler are you stupid or just deflecting?
Hes saying you have the user name of a notorious nazi and propagating the myth that nazi germanys army was innocent.
Hes making the connection of a nazi apologist defending the nazi army
I love how he sees a Russian and thinks nothing about it
He hasn't learned about WW2 yet. That's grade 10, and he dropped out in grade 9.
@@AssassinIsAfk I went to school in the UK and did loads of Russian history, 1917 through to the Cold War. Depends on the school, they do have some freedom in selecting what to teach from a larger range of topics.
Because Russia was good! If you ignore the mass rapes, slaughtering "collaborators"(people living in USSR territories who surrendered to the Germans), mass destruction of anywhere between Moscow & Berlin, genocides their own citizens in Western Ukraine for being economically prosperous, sends people to death camps across Russia for sneezing against communism. But it's okay because fascism bad.
"let's write about reenactment"
"Sure but I don't know anything about them. Should we do research?"
"Nah just call them Nazis"
>the embodiment of all evil
Nah, that would be journalists.
These reenactors aren't and neither are journalists. Our country would not be what it is today if it weren't for unbiased hardworking journalists fighting for justice (not insinuating that this guy is one of them).
Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh...
The only good journalists are unbiased ones
Hi Joseph Goebbels
How dare these journalists asking questions! My right wing bubble must not be disturbed!
Condescendingly talking to an actor with a swastika on his hat and then talking totally normal to another actor with a hammer on sickle on her hat is the most hilarious thing in this whole video
largely banned in the community how are you gonna do a ww2 reenactement without japanese or germans?
They aren't even banned, like, anywhere except 2 places caved into public pressure
Never ever judge a topic if you don’t know a single thing about it they’re simply reenacting history just because it has a swastika does not mean you need to immediately start criticizing them