Erasing Hitler - How The Allies Cleansed Germany of Nazism
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- Опубліковано 18 лют 2022
- In this episode, we look at how the Allies banished Nazism in occupied Germany, removing swastikas from public buildings and uniforms, destroying Nazi monuments and changing street names, among many measures taken.
Dr. Mark Felton is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers 'Zero Night' and 'Castle of the Eagles', both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fe...
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Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the 'Comments' section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the 'Comments' section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.
Credits: UA-cam Creative Commons; WikiCommons; Google Commons; S. Kasten; A. Savin; Roger Wollstadt; The Atlantic; Yad Vashem.
Dr. Felton, here in Ireland yesterday I heard a particular intro music blaring from the history class down the hall. Your videos are so informative that they are being used in classrooms! Keep up the good work!
Mark Felton has helped me stir an interest in history, from my teenaged son.
I read some criticism, in the comment section of a recent video, but in my eyes, this channel is significant in both the preservation and awareness of our past.
Well Mick how's the afterlife after the irregulars got ya
@@jakethetool698 which video?
I watch your videos with my mom.. I'm 36 and she's 74 and we really enjoy them. Thanks
Based username. I just uploaded some Chieftains tunes, best ever Irish group imo. Please pardon the shilling and check it out if that's your sort of thing.
I was in the US Army, stationed in West Berlin as part of the Berlin Brigade from 1983 until 1987. One of the barracks used by our Combat Support Battalion had been a German barracks during the war and still had the rifle racks inbedded in the walls of the hallways. Over all the doorways were concrete German Eagles clutching swastikas, you could still see where the swastikas had been chiseled out of the eagles claws.
That’s not uncommon the British Army used lots of German army barracks I was in a ss barracks in Munster
Same in the British sector, all of our lockers in the workshops had swastikas stamped on the back.
The old Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg has two eagles on the front gate, here too you can see where the swastika has been removed from their claws.
Pretend de-nazification in the west. At same time people who put Hitler in power were pardoned, like Krupp and other industrialists. Companies like Rhinemetal would soon return to their trade. And myth of clean Whermacht was forged.
@@ivanmonahhov2314 I suppose the clean Wehrmacht myth was a bit necessary in order to build a new army for Germany, the Bundeswehr. Or at least, the allies saw it that way.
I remember as a kid in the 70s my dad and I couldn't get enough of WW2 documentaries. They were all black and white and the narrator was usually a British guy. When I first saw a Dr Felton video on UA-cam I thought for sure it was from my past. Well done, sir. You cover more material than I've ever seen in my life on WW2.
I think you're referring to The World at War, which was usually narrated by Laurence Olivier.
@@tomloft2000 that was one of them!
Stephan, yeah the Brits DO like to gloat and windbag about taking down Nazi Germany and pecking them to death in documentaries. They only talk trash because they "won". And by nature, the Brits DO love the sound of their own snooty stuffy melodramatic voices.
Here is a short story of my German relatives who were farmers in Kaunas, Lithuania. Two great uncles who were in there 60s were drafted in volksshturm with their hunting rifles and despite the dire situation on the front they still felt to do their duty as per my Grandmother. After Red army reoccupied the area one surviving great uncle was arrested and probably shot. Their farm was confiscated.
good
@@user-dc9oq2pr6v swine
@@gregoryz6545 mad bro?
@@gregoryz6545 Batlofascist malding
Lee Brucke did they do it to protect their family
I came to Germany in early 1972 and stayed until early 1978. I only ever found one swastika during that whole time. It was on a belt buckle at a drum school. The front of the belt buckle was crudely covered up with molten lead, but you could clearly see the eagle and swastika reverse stamped on the back. I quickly discovered that the topic of WW2 was strictly taboo. A lot of people over 40 seemed miserable and bitter to me. That was my humble observation and experience.
I think you will find more Israeli Jews who like Hitler than people in Germany.
Germany has really enught of this guy from Autstria.
@@Halbi1987 This statement is at least problematic. There are still people here in germany who aren't against Hitler, his Ideas or Nazism in general. But, the general public really doesnt want anybody like that.
No wonder. They were smashed twice in a little over thirty years.
In casual conversation I happened to quote the first words of the Nazi-era national anthem in front of my buddy's German girlfriend and she had a fit.
My brother-in-law used to live and work very near the site of one of the dam busters' raids. They have a small museum/memorial located there paying tribute to all those that died in the raids. Inside there was a small cinema that played documentaries on a loop of the attacks and resulting devastation on the area and the people. My sister and her husband (both English with basic understanding of German) went in to see it and watched the films. They said they felt incredibly self conscious after the glares they received when they spoke in English. Apparently the locals in that particular area have a huge hatred of us Brits for the death and destruction caused by the raids. They probably have a point, but so do countless millions around the world that have a similar hatred for the Germans for many reasons.
It would be interesting if he did a section on German embassies at the end of the war and what happened to them and which one was the last to lower the swastika plus what happened to their diplomatic staff .
That WOULD be fascinating.
Short story. The declaration of unconditional surrender signed by Germany included a section stating Germany would hand over all state business - domestic as well as foreign - to the Allies. German Embassies situated in countries that were at war with Germany were already dissolved, their staff taken into custody. This process was now repeated in neutral countries as well. Embassy staff was then released and deported back to Germany throughout the following years. After Germany regained the ability to represent itself internationally, most of the old Embassies were actually returned to either of the two German states - often times with an almost unchanged core staff moving back in.
They auctioned off all of the belongings in the embassy in London, I believe after the war .
@@Exodon2020 Europa: the last battle
What happened with the embassy in Moscow?
My grandfather was in Germany until nearly the end of 1945. He said it was kinda funny that as the war ended, NOBODY was a Nazi. He told me my dad and brother when we got older a little, but he saw things that nobody should ever see, and hopefully nobody will ever see again! He also said there is no way that the average German didn't know about the death camps. Even if you couldn't see them, you could smell them for miles around. He said he would never forget that smell. Thanks for the content
"It was real in my mind."
@@winstonwolf5706 Yeah, I call bullshit on OP's story.
I am curious which death camp your grandfather was talking about? You said your grandfather was in Germany but the death camps were in Poland.
@Wyliecoy0te I'm sorry to tell you there were some camps in Germany and all American service men over there were ordered to go se them.
@@dwight3555well there is some truth to the fact that the average German definitely knew about all the camps, atrocities committed by the NS Regime
I find WW2 stories really interesting, yet post-WW2 stories have been my favourite ever since I discovered them
True
As late as the mid 1970's here in South Louisiana, steel oxygen bottles from the local welding supply of a German owned company were stamped into the metal with an emblem that looked like a square with a plus (+) sign in the middle or a four pane window. I asked the welding supply truck driver what the emblem meant and he said the oxygen bottles had been manufactured in Germany before the war and that the emblems were originally swastikas. After the war, the swastikas were defaced by taking a square metal stamp and positioning over the swastika to make it look like a window. Every once in a while, I found an oxygen bottle with the swastika still intact that hadn't been defaced yet.
Probably worth good money to a collector.
@@raypurchase801 Everyone thought that, but you were the one who had to say it!
@@jonhelmer8591 That's my good deed for today.
I’ll take one buddy 👍🏻 no but really I will
To find who rules over you.....
I don’t think the Hitler Youth crowd could ever be de-nazified. My mom was friends with a German immigrant in Chicago who was former Hitler youth. For the rest of his life he always expressed his undying love for Hitler.
In fact, he knew a sizable group of other likeminded German immigrants in the city who’d gather annually at a German owned restaurant to celebrate their Fuhrur’s birthday. As far as I’m aware, this went on at least through the early 1990s.
I unfortunately share a birthday with Hitler
@@therealspeedwagon1451 Only one, birthday?
Long Beach, CA. Immigrant Nazis were still celebrating ShikleGrubers bday in the late 1980s. It was called Carls Little Bavaria off of 4th St. Near the Jewish ghetto of Belmont Shore (Oh the irony). Disgusting place had a nice shuffleboard table but they made the mistake of referring to a Black friend of ours with a German slur he replied in perfect German that they could all screw Grubers mother. We continued to take their money at the shuffleboard table for a few years. We didn't accept Deutschmarks.
As hard as it is to say, growing up and knowing nothing else other than Hitler's tyranny and enduring Nazi brainwashing from such a young age it was impossible to fully de-nazify the generation who came of age in the 20s, 30s, and 40s.
@@therealspeedwagon1451 Don't be sad :-( You also share your birthday with French Emperor Napoléon III, Italian painter Botticelli, George Takei & Andy Serkis :-)
Similar story after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Several years ago, some German friends told me that many senior municipal authority officials in the new unified Germany had previously held similarly senior positions of authority in the old East German agencies (municipal, police and surveillance/secret police). After the fall of the Wall, there was an embargo against any reprisals against any officials of the old East German regime but this meant that many deep resentments had to remain buried and this has been an unspoken scar on the modern German psyche which can only heal with the gradual demise of all those Germans affected by or involved with the old regime.
Most of germany adminstarion on the west were former nazis , something like 70 % of the judiciary in the 70’s were former party members. Thats why so few war criminals were sentenced
Love these documentaries and your channel. My grandfather was a paratrooper in the 82nd airborne division in WWII. 1943-1956. He was injured twice but never gave up. He brought home a German pistol, which he would never talk about.
Your grandfather stole property that wasn’t his. ✅
@@E_Clampus_Vitusit was probably a nazi’s, it doesn’t matter
10 years ago, I was teaching at a university in Germany. One of my students knew an old lady who had a portrait of Hitler in her home. Also, I knew someone who had a wardrobe from the late 1930s. Inside was the maker's label complete with a swastika. Lots of things escaped the purge, I am sure.
@@janee7995 Good old days???
@@BichaelStevens I guess being on the losing end of the most devastating war in human history is their idea of the Good old days. I can't imagine what their idea of a bad time is, though.
@@Cyberspine bad times is, what we live through now and back in 2008.
Just because the good old days didn't have the right ending.
oh they did, but these are tiny things, in truth removing symbols can work a bit but in the end
well
race blaming movements didn't start or end with the nazis
@@Cyberspine hang on now- I wouldn’t rush to take obvious troll bait so quickly. I’d bet you a small fortune that “Ja Nee” is not German and after 70 years since the end of the war, someone spewing that variety of anti-Semitism is far more likely to be American. I’m American and I have no doubt about what I just said.
Here in Norway my family owns an old hunting cabin in the mountains. During the occupation the germans would go around the mountains inspecting cabins for resistance activity and then carve swastikas in all the cabins they'd been. In ours its carved into the side of the bunk bed. Also my grandpa has an old mauser rifle the germans left behind that has a swastika incised and he still uses it for hunting with no issues, I guess you can't beat german engineering.
That's cool
@@tommykirk3403 Don’t ever disrespect German Engineering again or u know what will happen
Thats very cool. Where in norway is this Cabin?
Yea the Germans made a treaty with fallen angels for technology. That's why the the tech is so good.
That sounds sick (except the swastika part)
Excellent content and presentation, as usual!
The title is hilarious.
The Allies did not cleanse Germany of anything, as you cannot remove an ideology from the mind of adults.
It's simply that Germans accepted being defeated and moving on. They are a pragmatic people. It doesn't mean that things such as racial beliefs did not remain entrenched.
I wonder how many former Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and Kreigsmarine personnel hid away their uniforms for posterity sake?
In Brasil we got a joke: "was your father a electrician? Because I think I've find his work uniform..." Related to Nazi escapees that went here.
My guess is that it was likely very few of them. The vast majority of them probably just wanted to put the war behind them and move on with their lives.
If you look at video footage from after the surrender of Berlin it was quite common for Whermact soldiers that either surrendered or coming out of hiding to don their old uniforms. The SS on the other hand tried to ditch their uniforms asap.
Only a handful, at least after 1955. When they brought back the German Army (the modern Bundeswehr) and the Luftwaffe, many that were not war criminals or Nazi Party members were brought back to be officers, or simply to build up the forces. Dr. Felton has done a couple of videos on this actually. The SS folks, well...that's another story.
@@silvadossantos6803 that joke has spread on the internet
For a long time there were Nazi items scattered through my family. Among other things, a copy of "Mein Kampf", a Hitler bust, and a Nazi party pin. The latter two were eventually handed over to a museum, when my grandparents passed away. The book sits on my parents bookshelf in the attic, as a reminder. Burning books or destroying them by any other means still has, and should always have, a very negative feel to it.
I recommend trying to get of a translation because if it's an original then having an unaltered version would provide some historical Clarity. It's impossible now even with the alleged accurate version
My German ancestors came to Canada in the 19th century, but I'm sure my cousins in Germany probably have some stuff from the Nazi era.
@🐻 Polaris Pleiades 🌟 If you don't care about historical "feelings", then you don't care about history repeating itself. Burning any book is an intellectual atrocity, in my opinion.
@🐻 Polaris Pleiades 🌟 oh, shut your fluffering gob...
The allies burnt more books than the Nazis did
They weren't cleansed, they were given positions
Ir was the only option, like they said they couldn’t have a disease neighbor! That’s what cause WWII in first place after WWI
One of the best felton videos and that's saying something!!
I was stationed in Schweinfurt during the last decade. I passed under some of that iconography everyday. Felt odd sleeping in former Nazi barracks. Thanks for another stellar video, Dr. Felton!
Were you stationed on main post Ledward? I was stationed on Conn from the end of 95'-Jan 97'. My first 2.5 years, I was stationed at Darby Kaserne in Fürth/Nuremberg before moving up to Schweinfurt.
@@fluffyusa Yeah, I was on Ledward. I was the last medic assigned to the post health clinic as the base was being decommissioned. It was a ghost town the last few months. Conn was shut down except for a store and some offices prior to that. Great base but now I think it's used for refuge halfway housing.
You would be honored there.
What made you fell odd to sleep there ? It was some buildings where +70y ago German soldiers were stationed, that's it - fear of ghosts ?
Anybody know what Schweinfurt means??.......... pig crossing
My family (Here in England) had German P.O.W.s working for them on the farm. As a boy I asked my dad what it was like to work with "The Nazis" and he just smiled and said "Nazis? what Nazis, believe me they gave us the impression that they were glad to be out of it!" Another farming story. The allies reached the Claas combine factory and one of the first things they did was 'steal' one of their trailed Combine Harvesters and ship it back to The UK . This of course broke the hearts of the factory owners that were convinced that those 'Nasty Englanders' were going to take it to pieces then copy it and build them here. What they actually did was take it on some British farms for evaluation and when they saw what a damn good combine it was compared with anything we were turning out at the time they went back to Germany and helped to get the factory back into production again. Unsurprisingly quite a few of them got exported to The UK . Even now the most popular combine sold here is The Claas.
are they also pleased to surrender their country and women to "migrants"
Thank you. I wanted to know this for the last few years and this is the only video that explains
Very interesting breakdown cheers Mark
I would like to see a good comparison between the de-nazification of Germany and the anti-Baath policies of post-Saddam Iraq. The Coalition really seemed to take the wrong lessons from postwar Germany.
The Coalition didn't. The British and others tried to persuade the Americans that Iraq wouldn't simply become America's fifty-first state. The British in particular offered detailed plans on how to transition Iraq post conflict.
But, the Neo-Cons thought they knew it all. Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and others.
They were to blame and I don't know that any one of them ever had the humility to apologise to the families of the fallen, in particular. They are a completely worthless bunch of hubristic BS artists.
You've made the understatement of the year! Well done!
Post war Iraq and Germany are two different worlds. After Saddam and the Ba'ath were ousted Iraq fell into a sectarian war. The US shouldn't of disbanded the Iraqi army as it caused mass unemployment for the Sunni population many would join insurgent groups. Also the way the Sunni population was treated by the new Shia government caused the rise of Isis and such.
I agree 100% and I was there in the early part of the Iraq war (OIF1 and OIF2). The coalition, especially the parts controlled by the Bushites like Paul Bremmer, Wolfowitz and their ilk, were a 24/7 disaster. There was no plan - the joke was it was written in lipstick on a cocktail napkin.
If you asked, none of these "planners" had even heard of the Marshall plan and yet here they were in their fancy suits, acting like self important rock stars and they were clueless af.
They declared the Baath party to be evil and so was the government. Local commanders would allow the civilians to loot and destroy government buildings, stripping the tiles out of the floor, copper wiring from the walls, stealing food supplies, valuable art works and etc. They had this idea that if we get rid of any and all government, including the buildings, the people would instantly become more free and civilized.
Instead, looting, chaos, anarchy, murder and kidnapping set in.
For instance: We were paying the Iraqi Army to essentially sit in their barracks on their hands.
Anyway, one of the Bush fanatics found out and Bremmer had all funding stopped. IED attacks (by these former Iraqi Army Soldiers) were the immediate response and a lot of good American Soldiers were killed because of that.
Many of the Baathists only joined the party to get a good job and they got put in charge of things like power plants, water pumping, sewage plants and etc. - we had to fire all these people and replace them with whoever we could find.
Big Army had no mission other than to look for and pick fights that didn't exist which became a self fulfilling prophecy. They would call in artillery and air strikes on buildings because someone shot at us from one of them (the bad guys would shoot a few rounds and disappear KNOWING we would blow up the neighborhood which was a huge recruiting tool for their side).
It was a disaster that kept getting worse - anyone who dared tell the Bushites that their plan was bullsh*t (they actually had no plan, they were in fantasy or reactionary mode constantly) was reprimanded and often they would do the exact opposite out of spite.
In short they forgot every lesson we learned at the end of WW2 and it cost us a lot of blood and treasure to re-invent that wheel.
Agreed👍
9:10 Reminds me of a quote from West German Chancellor Adenauer: "One does not throw out dirty water as long as one doesn't have any clean water.", referring to Hans Globke, one of his officials who was a prominent lawmaker in Nazi times.
Chancellor Adenauer fortunately was the right man for the job at the time, in those days who was not a Nazi. He even went to Moscow to secure the release of as many German POWs as he could after Stalin's death though he naturally hated the Soviets communist regime. His biography here is worth a look.
@@semsemeini7905 You clearly do not understand the meaning of the quote above. This practical thinking was also repeatedly mentioned in the clip you just watched and by and large allied, especially US, policy to get Germany back on its feet. To be clear, Adenauer was completely free of being under the suspicion of having any sympathy for the NS regime - its why the allies supported his bid for becoming the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was hardly a hypocrite, he was pragmatic.
But they do throw away heavy water, it seems. Germany is disabling its nuclear power plants even though it is still reliant on fossil fuels.
@@Ganiscol Maybe Adenauer was not just squeaky-clean politically but also a "sleeper" for the Nazi regime. In the early '50s he campaigned for the release of jailed war-criminal Martin Sandberger, a well-connected (in German society) former S.S. mass-murderer who'd already been sentenced to death (he lived to age 98). A million or so other German war-criminals were also let-off or freed by 1958. Something similar happened in Japan.
...or Hermann Abs, a Nazi banker who escaped trial in the West but who was wanted by the Russians.
this was a great piece Mr Felton
Excellent episode! I studied World War 2 history in great detail as a student. But somehow it never occurred to me to ask how such a huge movement and philosophy such as Nazism could possibly be removed from a nation's psyche overnight. We dont ask enough questions today. You have given excellent overview. I wonder if it were to happen again today, how would it be done any differently
Nazis went to CIA
If Nazism was "removed from a nation's psyche" where did the neo-Nazis in Germany come form? The symbols were removed however killing an idea is near impossible.
@@rogerjohnson8707It was removed from German society and the nations psyche, just because some people happened to still support Nazism doesn’t change that fact.
The communists are the real enemies. Always have been.
I was a Military Policeman that occasionally patrolled out of Armstrong Brks adjacent to Buedingen, FRG. As a new patrol sergeant, I rode with a SPC showing me the US officer's club inside the town. He pointed to the white painted grill work around the front windows. Swastikas adorned the iron on all four sides. It was too much money to replace the grills so they stayed in place. This was Autumn of 89.
Lies again? Nazri Germany Hello Tushy
Couldn't they have soldered something to the swastikas to cover them up?
My father was in a similar situation in Japan, at the end of the war. He said he had been told that the general thinking was that the occupation was going to be a long haul. He had been told that it would be about a generation (20 years or so) before the thinking of the people would even begin to change. I am sure the thinking in Europe was along similar lines. However, in Japan there wasn't really a Russian presence that had to be dealt with at the same time. So, perhaps his job was a little easier. Most that were alive back then are in their 90's and their influence isn't what it once was.
both the Japanese and the Germans had to be indoctrinated to believe that their people of the wartime era were evil.....u can see it today in the gutless weak soy boys calling themselves men...the allies did a good job and your countries are now to be absorbed into the coming new ... wuld order
@@WillyEckaslike It's unbelievable how brainwashed the average German is.
The people here barely have an ounce of free will left.
I'm pretty sure that the only country that has it worse is China. This comparison says a lot about the utterly broken spirit of german people.
@@SH_Hof Confused by that comment, have a free thinking German in my Family (she married a British Diplomat), and worked with one who was a Student in the UK in the 1980s as a translater, have lots of contact with German Engineers and (mostly Calvanistic thinking) church members in Spain, have worked in both an international company with Germans that are educated to a PhD level , and with other clerical ones, and with three art creatives and art historians from various parts of Germany. In so far as they exclude the interwar period from their thinking far more than I do (dont mention the war ! ), because they look forward, not back.
My father was on occupation duty after the war as well, and he told me they had no problems with the Japanese people and got along with them very well. Many of the guys on occupation duty actually felt sorry for the Japanese civilians who being lied to by the militarist government really had no idea what was going on until the B-29's showed up.
Sometimes I think the occupying troops did a better job than they thought they did. Ever see that Japanese cooking show "Iron Chef?" They did a Chistmas show, complete with scenes of downtown Tokyo lit up for Christmas time! Unbelieveable!
The difference is Germany owned up to its Nazi past fully but Japan never did. In fact, most younger Japanese are not taught much about WWII in schools and some Japanese text books even paint US as the aggressor. Yasukuni shrine for the Japanese war dead, where known Japanese war criminals are honored is still being visited by the prime minister every year. I can’t imagine the existence of the EU if the German chancellor still visits a temple where Hitler is being honored.
My grandfather was a USAAF quartermaster put in charge of a neighborhood in postwar Bremen. Civilians would come to him to requisition fuel and supplies, etc. He could not find a Nazi anywhere… “ Me?…Nazi? No, I never even heard of ‘em.” He could find not one.
Always interesting, thank you.
In the fall of 1968 I traveled to Munich from Perugia, Italy, where I had been studying the Italian language at a school for foreigners that had been started by Mussolini. I was joined there by the Japanese young lady I had been dating and when she arrived at the Munich train station she was approached by a man who asked if she was Japanese. When she said yes, he told her: "Next time we do it without the Italians."
@J You should pay more attention to the impact which that tiny nation had on the world and still does. There's a reason the atomic bomb was used there rather than anywhere else.
@J Well, Japan were victors in the 1st World War. Together with the Italians. :-)
@@artytomparis ....very few white people?
Ah the germans, losing 2 world wars but still asking for a third round of punishment.
Apparently, Napoleon used to say about the Italians: "Dress 'em up in blue, dress 'em up in yellow, they always run off." :)
It would be interesting to see this same process used in Japan after the War. My dad was part of the American Army of occupation. He talked to an old Japanese man in a small northern town in September 1945. This man told my dad that his government had lied to him about how bad the Americans were.
There was nothing equivalent to the Nazi party in Japan; closest similarity is Communist parties, and they stressed class hatred instead of racial purity, even if the leaders were anti-semites. Japan instead was militaristic, and that was pretty well stamped out after the surrender.
Every country lied about the enemy. Look at US (and probably British) propaganda showing Japanese as buck-toothed myopic rats.
Dr Felton has a few interesting videos on Japan during this period. The changes imposed by the Allies in Japan had to be more fundamental in many ways, as Japan's issues were in many ways based on its Imperial/feudal character rather than the result of mistakes made by the Allies post WW1 as in Germany. Recognising the rights of women, and the concept of de-deifying the Emperor were major changes.
Did they really believe their Emperor was divine?
There was no de-Imperialism (anti-Emperor Hirohito) in Japan. Prosecution of war criminals was half-hearted at best. Very few war criminals were brought to justice. Hirohito escaped any prosecution. At most, the Americans confiscated and destroyed all swords. This, again, is another crime against humanity and a crime against antiquity. The American criminals made no difference between wartime swords and bayonets and centuries-old antique Samarai swords. The latter belong in museums as artifacts of Japan's pre-modern history.
Read "Embracing Defeat" an excellent source on this very subject. Fascinating book
Thank you, Dr. Felton.
You could’ve gone into way more depth on this, maybe even made a series and explored things like the big companies that profited from Nazism during the war that stayed in a great position afterwards like IBM for example or all the companies that remained after IG Farben was split up and how most of the people running that company ended up running the 6 smaller companies anyway! Great video but I find this part super interesting, like I understand needing to let a few nazis that had the skills still work but did the Allies go far enough when trying to fix things after the war or did they turn a blind eye due to ties to American business like IBM or Ford?
You do it I’ll watch
There is an entire book released on it finally this year titled "Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties", it's very good. It has been an open secret for a while now, Gareth Jones (the Welsh Journalist) who traveled to Germany in the early 30s and produced some excellent and highly underrated objective journalistic work on this early period of the Nazis also wrote briefly about this. He was the first to note and I believe confirm that the German industrialists supported AH to offset the communists. AH was in a lot of debt, so he also took on their support to pay it off. That support came with a demand to crush the Strasserite faction in his party, which he promptly did.
@@TroubledTrooper that’s some good news if true, I’ll be looking forward to this book being released thanks for letting me know!
Read about John McCloy and co.: the fascist-friendly U.S. elite saw to it that their German (and even Jap) counterparts got off lightly. All the liitle people's sacrifices of lives and opportunities were betrayed.
The Arms of Krupp is a great book about this issue.
One day in the 1990s I was looking at a Biedermeier bookcase probably imported to the US after reunification. On the inside of the glazed door frame was a burned mark "Pol Pras Dessau" (Police HQ Dessau) above an eagle on a wreathed swastika. Surprised at its survival, I mentioned it to the seller who said she hadn't even noticed it.
The village I grew up in (central Germany) had some symbols on the pillars of some farmsteads. They were engraved, but very broken. Only when I was 16 I realised those were Swasticas destroyed by the allies.
I can also remember some metal objects I found in the woods. they were so rusted you couldnt identify what they were, but Im sure they were rank insignia some soldiers threw away to hide their ranks before beeing captured.
These woods were heavily bombarded back in the day and the area is spread with craters. We also found a human bone once. gave us a scare. it was a real news hustle. We never found out whos bone it was though.
I can also remember a tale that the big metal Swastika at the Maschsee in Hannover never was removed, but simply toppled over. It still lies at the bottom of the lake.
On my first trip to the Far East, I remember my surprise at seeing swastikas in the countryside. They were tomb markers commonly used in Buddhist burials.
@@raphaelklaussen1951 Hitler co-opted the symbol from a symbol of good luck to the symbol for the Aryan race. Asian Sauwastikas are left-facing or counter-clockwise whereas the Nazi Swastika is right-facing or clockwise. In Hindu the left facing one is a symbol for the Sun whereas the right-facing symbol is a symbol of night. The symbol in either incarnation is itself many thousands of years old and indeed far older than National Socialism. Like 10,000 BCE old.
@@alvinoflys7504 Now they have to come up with an updated version for the upcoming Trump tyranny, starting in 2024.
Here in London, lots of people now have red swastikas painted on their front doors... in the Hindu neighbourhoods.
@@raphaelklaussen1951 ...YOU LOUSY CREEPS JUST CAN'T LEAVE BAD ENOUGH ALONE-(!)
Wonderful program.
3:49 the worst look to have in Germany in 1945 lol...
LMAO
3:50 is, but yeah
I was watching a interview with the German band Amon Düül II and one of the members was saying that their teachers at school while not promoting National Socialism where still obliviously supporters of National Socialism but as Mark said Germany needed teachers
"Yeti" is a fantastic record.
@@beandipcartography One of the great "Krautrock" albums up there with Neu 2
Mark Felton is an absolute gem!
His videos are both fascinating and mesmerizing.
Thank you so much Dr. Felton!
very interesting. I'd like to hear a comparison of Germany post-war ideological cleansing with what happened in Italy and Japan. I've heard that Japan had a very different path, they turned to pacifism, but I've never heard about how Italy dealt with its fascist past.
At 3:50, I'd always wondered why the insignia was gone from German uniforms in these cases immediately after the war (whereas not for Japanese POWs). Interesting that you had the same observations I'd wondered about for years, in that even awards and WW1 awards had bene removed...
Where does your pfp come from
Thank you, Mark. It goes to show that the fight did not end with the last bullet fired.
Wow it had been years I havent seen your videos, still amazingly captivating! I think you had 40k subs when I found your channel
Sad they blew the historic places...imagine walking in the bunker..where ww2 ended..chills.🥲
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
@@l337pwnagewhoa that’s super deep bro.
@@singed8853 not really, but it is well known and simple enough for most people to understand.
But what of AH’s cat Peter?He liked to sit on his lap and purr!Was this cat brought to account?
This was highly interesting, my father was a 17 yr. old german soldier in 1945 & he told us about going thru the demobilization process. He also would talk about the nazi insignia being quickly removed.
And what about his ideology after he had already been brainwashed by the nazis?
That's fascinating! What are some interesting stories he told you?
He was a Nazi then
If you have more stories we would be delighted to read.
Idk why but I found this difficult to watch for some reason
This is a very factual account of the post war rebuild of Germany. Although hard to hear, some difficult decisions had to be made.
Ideals are luxury, necessity is primal
@@yousarrname3051 Surely the eradication of an ideology is ideological -- not "primal necessity".
@@Vingul ideals and ideology are very different things
@@yousarrname3051 Not at all. An ideology is a collection of ideals. Primal necessity is water, food and warmth.
Like trials for Germans with No representations
Several years ago a local attorney and judge passed away who had been a member of the US Army JAG in post war Germany tasked with assessment and de-nazification of the German judiciary. As noted in this video, over 90% of judges had been members of the nazi party. After extensive reviews of their legal decisions, personal interviews, and background investigations, it was concluded that most of the judiciary became members of the party not for idealogical reasons but to maintain the ability for normal professional advancement in their work. Those who did not become members of the party were relegated to miniscule career dead-end jobs such as minor traffic ticket resolution, organization and filing of routine court and legal paperwork, etc. The fellow I mention happened to be Jewish and in interviews noted it was not hard to get people to join a political party when not doing so had signifcant ramifications. Its how totalitarion regimes get everyone in society to fall in line.
Great video i loved it :)
Denazification never ended. Not even 10 years ago, a place named after Hindenburg was renamed in my hometown. That was, because he made Hitler chancellor. And now there are still discussions about certain street names. A group tried to rename the Generalfeldmarschall-Rommel-Kaserne. That would have alienated the British allies, who hold him to this day in high regards.
There's this Progressive Ideology that if we erase the parts of history "they're" uncomfortable with, that everything will be just right for their Utopia (and Myopic) views.
As if erasing the nasty parts of history means it never happened.
The reality is that if we ignore the history, we're more likely to repeat it.
Sick people who erase history.
Thank you Mark for all the hard work you put in the research for the videos.
You are a great historian sir!!
Ahhh, love that award-winning stock music (as used in the game Bastion).
I live in the Ruhr-Valley and in one of the city's here I can point out at least two German Eagles, both of them coincidentally on post offices, or what once were post offices build by the Nazis. (at least that's what I think as both buildings are in this typical arcitecture the Nazis used) One of them is directly on the building on the left side across the central station of Essen.
There are several in Dortmund too, saw the one at the Finance Office a few times when i worked a few weeks in Dortmund.
There is also one in Berlin too
Wasn’t The German Eagle a symbol that dates back before the days of Nazi Germany though?
@@twm0904 yes but it was stylised a certain way from the imperial and the current federal eagle.
@@andyrob3259 ah ok
This is exactly the reason why German WW2 militaria is so rare, populair and very collectable.
I have collected WW2 German millitaria myself.
And it's worth quite a lot money.
Was hast du so?
Very true.
All I have is an EK 2 iron cross from ww1, but I'd assume they're much more common than ww2 objects of the same rank.
@@RTS___ Abzeigen, Helme, Dolche, aber keine Schusswaffen
@@opoxious1592 most soldiers on the winning side, took souvenirs from the losing side, spoils of war the winning side says and looting if on the losing side. That's history for you
God that music, gets me every time. Its like fate knocking on my chest.
It's interesting to view the difference in facial expression of the Nazi Wehrmacht captives by the Allies versus the Russians.
Why are you surprised? you think the soviets are so happy about the germans genociding more than 20million civillians and 8~million soldiers?
Thank you for keeping this much needed history facts alive. This channel has become one of the most reliable sources of information regarding WW2.
From the eyes of the victor
Destroying everything isn’t going to make it go away
No, but breaking Nazis and taking their stuff is supposed to be a pass time for Americans, at least.
It is an ideology. One simply can't kill an ideology. You can only weaken it. Isıs is gone but what about its ideology?
This history casts a shadow on our times. In the US we are seeing a resurgence of the horrible ideas of the nazi’s. The arrogance and hatred are back.
There are also Hachenkreuz (Swastika) shaped buildings, only apparent from Planes flying overhead.
The photo at 3:47 and the man who is on the front row, far right is one of my family friends father Michael Paul who was Romanian who fought at Starlingrad and ended up joining the SS only because he wanted better medical care and finally surrendering in Italy 1945 before being sent by ship to the UK. That photo is taken at Barton Road POW Camp in Ely Cambridgeshire and is of the Camp Band. I had the pleasure of reading his whole life story which he had typed out in 1969
What was the criteria for joining the SS rather than the German Army ?
@@highpath4776 I’m not 100% sure, because he was a part of the Romanian-German army in Stalingrad and he had confirmed kills which he got a medal for, maybe that helped to get into the SS
@@highpath4776 The Waffen SS were all volunteers, meeting certain physical requirements.
Desperate men will join anything. You only need to keep pushing, to create people like us. If such a man joined for good healthcare, he would have gotten it. But of course, their ideologies destruction was done in by the capitalists the painter warned us about…..
In time, the new age will grow too confident, and new power will take it over, but with those of NS at the helm.
@@highpath4776 Height, Hair and Eye Colour (More So earlier in the war), and you had to prove you weren't Jewish by providing your ancestry.
Another well-researched, informative and refreshing product, Dr. Felton!! Love your work!! Keep ‘em coming! 👍🏾❤️
3:49 THERE HE IS!! how did he slip under the radar like that??
at 2:47 you see lines with hooks/nooses hanging behind the desk. What is that?
"Stripped of all rank, privileges and titles, the emperor has other plans for you.." -Caesar II (game over script)
Set free and lived their lives
@@DaveSCameron not the important ones lol
I was a U.S. Army officer stationed in Baumholder, Germany. In the officers club (was a Nazi officers club before captured) there is a large men's restroom with probably 25 urinals from floor to about chest high. At the top of each urinal embedded into the porcelain each has a metal swastika about the size of a 50 cent piece. Would have to destroy the porcelain to get them ou. I wonder if they are still there?
Could you piss that high?
Maybe they were sending message leaving them on the urinals?
wow...amazing....
Not related directly to the subject at hand, but this comment made me think of a funny row of urinals I saw once where each one had a little bee in the porcelain at just the right spot to direct the stream into the drain. Seems that subconsciously guys will tend to aim for the bee and it would reduce splashing onto the rims and the floor.
Some of the old coal fired and steam generated power plants in america still have steam fittings and valves with a swastika embossed on them which wa a foundry mark for good luck before the Nazi's came into power.
What an incredibly interesting video
In the mid 80's, my Dutch punk rock band would tour Germany extensively, and before our gigs, we'd go have dinner in random local restaurants ("gaststubes") closest to the venue and it happened occasionally we'd hear men singing "wir sind die schwarzen soldaten" an other military songs in German language which is understandable to Dutch speakers. We spoke German alright, enough to communicate, and after having a gander out of curiosity, sure enough there's a bunch of grandpas. Like a dozen of them. One has an eye missing, the other has only half an arm, the next only had one leg. Stuff like that. We're like Okay, so we figure you gentlemen are veterans...In the Waffen-SS, fought in the East... ? And sure enough, that was the case. These grandpas weren't none the least ashamed of it either. One guy even told me "The only thing I'm ashamed of is that we lost the war.".
You ungrateful slug! Thank the German soldiers who battled so valiantly to stop the communist Soviet invasion of Europe.
Read "Germany's War" by John Wear.
They were good soldiers.
As a Dutch Guy i remember that song being sung in Dutch
Wij zijn de zwarte soldaten
Good for them they have no reason to be ashamed just because they were over powered.
I was stationed in Berlin 1990-1992 at Wavell barracks in Spandau where the guardroom showed the remains of a large eagle and swastika chisselled away. One day at the gates an elderly German gentleman asked to be allowed into the camp, as he'd been in the 57th Infantry regiment stationed there before and during the war, having served in Poland, France and the Eastern front as a 37mm PAK gunner, wounded 3 times. On leaving, he thanked me and apologised for what they had done in the war.
I served there for a while, not long after you. If I recall it was a rectangular column by the door to the guardroom. Not just the swastika, but the entire eagle had been defaced. I revisited Berlin in 2019, prior to Covid. I was a little sad to see the place appeared to be moth balled.
@@simonjames2873 yes, on Google an original photo can be found. And the round column with carvings, quality designed brks.
Hi neighbour. I was posted in Brooke Bks, West Berlin 1987-9. You just missed out on the battle of Berlin, in 1988. This was an all out war between the KOSB (Brooke) and Kings Regiment (Wavell) in a drunken skirmish in the joint NAAFI area. It even made headlines in The Sun newspaper.
A couple of days later, when very, very drunk - me (a corporal) and my mate (a jock/private) decided to raid the King's Officers Mess. It was about 0200hrs and we walked right in. Nobody challenged us. We preceded to walk along a corridor, removing all the art work of 17th and 18th Century Manchester and Liverpool Regimental history.
I woke up the next day with a pile of pictures in my room and no idea how they got there. However, my memory was sharpened when Part One Orders of that day mentioned stolen artwork. I did think of just getting rid of the evidence - but, my conscience got the better of me. I placed all the pictures in a black bin liner and dropped it off at the stairs of the King's Officers Mess at 0300hrs a couple of days later. I didn't ever get a 'thank you'. I loved my time in Berlin.
@@winnywin lol, I remember filmfootage of people throwing chairs through the Naafi windows. Great posting indeed!
Sounds like rewriting history. Strange. Wonder who would want to do that?
I wonder what they would think knowing what the world would look like after 80 years
Denaziification is one of the most fascinating periods of German history, I'd love more content about it since it's rarely taught in schools or discussed in the media Stateside
Operation "paperclip"
Because it failed.
Read H’s book
the GOP is banning books about nazis and their crimes against humanity, so I wouldn’t hold your breathe about denazification being introduced into any curriculum anytime soon. (Then again, the USA still allows for the confederate flag to be flown in stark contrast to Germany and the nazi imagery, and hundreds of confederate war memorials still stand, so it’s very clear the United States hasn’t given much of a shit about deradicalizing it’s own population)
@@jamescarter7882 The importation of scientists for the military & scientific institutions in the US has nothing to do with denazification in Germany.
Just when I thought I knew everything about WW II, Mr. Felton drops amazing new angles and information. Thank you, sir!
Doctor Felton. 😉
Learn to read books and dont always listen to UA-camrs. you may read this book. A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt
You can locate Mr. Felton by following and picking up all the dropped angles.
He presents a lot of disinformation and data doctoring too. Especially when this activity fuels anti-Russian agenda.
Dr. Felton reads your comment and says, "Hold my beer".
Good thing we did quite a cleanse of our own before the allied pigs arrived.
Meanwhile in the US, people fight to keep up the statues.
I don't think history should be destroyed.
My grandma had a small wood stove that was made in the US inside there was a cast iron swastika. When i was young i only knew of the swastika being used by the nazis later finding out it is a ancient symbol. Im guessing the stove must of been early 1900s.
My grandparents’ house, built in 1899, had a kitchen floor with a pattern of little swastikas. My grandfather said the floor was laid in the late teens and had nothing to do with National Socialism. My brother removed the floor when he remodeled the kitchen in the early 1980s.
5:47 I wonder how many of the swords in this pile got "lost" in a soldier's duffle bag on the way to get melted down, and are instead in collections in the USA now. Victorious soldiers always take souvenirs, and weapons are usually the most popular items.
My great aunt had a Luger, a swastika flag signed by American troops, and a few other WW2 things worth a lot. A bunch of Mexicans who she hired to fix her roof stole all of them and were never to be seen again.
@@nothanks830 damn that’s rough. My grandfather’s Japanese officer’s sword got stolen by his cousin and pawned to buy drugs.
My granddad in Denmark was first a volunteer Nazi and fought briefly on the east front, then turned to the resistance after 1943-44 and "fought" against the Germans then (no confirmed liquidations known but stole gas and made life harder for them).
After the war and while he was alive, I never heard of the Nazi time of his life, just the resistance part, but he had a LOT of memorabilia in his workshop basement, where he prefered to work alone. 5 rifles, 1 suppressor, 2 handguns, 2 revolvers and misc German insignia stuff they left behind when they went home in 1945.
@@nothanks830 There are only two good types of Nazi flags. Ones that are burning, and ones that were captured during the war (preferably with the phrase "may this flag never fly again" or similar written on it). And the only reason the second are any good is because they represent an Allied victory.
A pity this never happened with Stalinism in Russia. Now the Stalinists and Communists are back, in part goaded by our bad foreign policy which insisted on treating them as enemies and expanding NATO right up to their borders while deliberately excluding them. We basically treated Russia the way the Allies treated Germany after WW1, heaping on the fuel of resentment that Hitler would light up.
They say they're erased but in human history they always come back, with a rebranded name.
Many services and utilities that were run by the private sector here in the US were government-run in Germany, and had been for decades, so it goes without saying that when the Nazis became the government they were the ones on charge of railroads, electric power, gas supply, telephones, telegraph, radio broadcasting, public transportation, and so on.
You didn't have to join the Nazi party to keep your job with any of the above, but if you wanted to "move up the ladder" being a party member didn't hurt, and almost certainly helped. So many joined the party strictly due to self interest, not because they had any real love for the party itself.
The sense I got from the video is the Allies were aware of this, and seemed okay with people who sincerely renounced the party, especially if they weren't in political or military roles. There were some that didn't renounce it though, or who's sincerity was questionable - those are the ones the Allies had to debate what to do with, where de-Nazification and maintaining functional infrastructure were at odds.
Kinda like China with them all being members of the communist party to get anywhere
You had to be a member of the Nazi party after 1936 for certain government positions.
The questionable ones were the ones with gold party badges that showed they were members before October 1933.
@@mp-st6cc or like in Britain today. When you go for government jobs. You say write or think out loud, anything right wing. You will not get the job. Even saying something on social media. Can get you arrested. Even company's go through their workers socia media accounts. They don't like what you write or say, you can be fired. I think we need de nazification here too
@@martinleifnymark7432 or union membership in many fields in the U.S.
The allies had to be pragmatic to keep things moving. It was completely opposite when the Americans rolled into Iraq and removed the Bathh party members on every level. That was one of the big drivers of the insurgency there.
It gave some high-profile people a good reason to rise up against US occupation, but that's far from the only one. After WW2, Germany had been at war for almost 6 years, 6 Million Germans died, every major city was destroyed, so were industrial facilities, infrastructure and pretty much anything required for a modern country to function. The Germans were left entirely devoid of any fighting spirit, to the point of village communities actively opposing those who wished to continue fighting. This weariness was one of the main reasons the Werwolf insurgency never took hold and was reduced to a bunch of Nazi fanatics before it could even fully take off.
Not to mention leaving the Iraqi army out to dry.
The US under Paul Bremer really screwed up in Iraq.
Not the same circumstances. Patton was obsessed with the Communists, and wanted the German government and military to stay in place to fight them. He was advocating an invasion of Russia. Yes, he was bonkers at the end. There is evidence he wanted to even pardon the worst of the Nazis.
@@davidlynch9049 I get what your saying but Patton wasn’t representative of all of them.
In the Iraq situation you had Iran on the border. Then the void created led to the creation of ISIS and all the problems that brought.
There was a real lack of foresight and common sense regarding Iraq. You remove the existing structure then there is always a void.
For example Gehlen’s intelligence network in Germany. Essentially unchanged and questionable looking back but also kind of essential looking back.
What is so suspect about the Luftwaffe guy? It was a regular branch of the armed forces
EUROPA, THE LAST BATTLE. 10 part WW2 history, from the German perspective. A MUST!!!!
Exactly what I needed on a hungover Saturday morning.
Cheers Mark. Have a nice weekend.
A dose of Felton cures any ailment. It's currently being studied by scientists
@Leo the Anglo-Filipino hello from Canada!
Cheers from Michigan! I’m 2 hours away from Windsor
You should do this type of video on Imperial Japan.
You should get reading John Dowers and Edward Russells books 📚
Nothing happend in Japan, end of story. Even the perpetrators of the Nanking massacres were not punished.
agreed
@@MrKakibuy well they were nuked.
@@MrKakibuy I was reading an extremely detailed account of Nanking which described how the original commanding general who had tried to reign in the behavior of the troops was recalled and replaced for just that reason, being replaced with officers who would turn a blind eye to it. After the war he ended up taking the fall for the crimes he tried to stop and was executed by the allies. Those above him who were truly guilty and covering their own asses even claimed that he had been removed from Nanking because he was allowing the troops to commit atrocities when in fact he was removed for holding them back and protecting civilians.
2:41 are those nooses hanging on the wall?
Never underestimate the power of symbolism.
This is such an interesting topic! Thank you Professor!
My Dad was twenty years old when the war ended for him in Frankfurt. He was a sergeant in the US army. He “liberated”three shotguns(JP Sauer) and shipped them home to Michigan. I still have two of them.
You know you can just say he took them. It's war, there's nothing wrong in any of it. Looting, killing, taking women. If your on the winning side of course.
Its man let loose.
Liberate 🤔
Very cool!
02:41 Are those nooses in the background?????
It's my understanding that even now in some places...you can see where they tried removing the swat symbol but you can actually kinda still see it. It's creepy as AF
Notification gang rise up!
Thank you for the fantastic upload as always Dr. Felton!
Hi Dr. Felton. Great job as usual. I've been wondering if you will be doing more war stories on the British Empire? I really enjoyed your stories about Tibet, Crimea, and the Opium wars. Just asking. Thanks - T.R.
Destroying the swords was a good move. You can do a lot with a sword or two.
Funny how they didn't 'De-Imperialize' Japan . . . Even despite the fact the Japanese was almost assuredly responsible for FAR more death and misery than the Germans, and the Japanese were literally hell bent on dominating 1/3rd of the entire world if not more whereas Germany didn't even want war with the Western Allies ffs . . .
I spent a good year or so in germany, every now and then in some smaller towns you can still see some symbolism from the old gov't. Its not common but some of the older buildings will have carvings or small imagery