Massive change is afoot within Europe’s far right. Just as voters across 27 countries prepare to go to the polls in EU elections, a split over the German far right’s allegiance to the Third Reich is driving a realignment.
The far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European parliament last week expelled the entire Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction from its ranks after a furore involving the leading AfD candidate Maximiian Krah.
The unprecedented move, initiated by Marine Le Pen, was officially a reaction to remarks Krah made in an interview with an Italian newspaper. Asked if his demand that all Germans take pride in their forbears would include those who were in the SS, the Nazi’s main paramilitary force, Krah said that “not all SS were criminals”.
Agreed. You could make that argument perhaps for German civilians. And maybe even some of the Wehrmacht at a stretch. But the SS answered directly to the Nazi party and not the Army. They were the enforcers of Nazi ideology across Europe, and most were committed to Nazism. They knew what they were doing and carried out war crimes with enthusiasm.
Anyone who defends the SS in any shape or form is a very bad person.