Issued on: 09/01/2022 - 10:44Modified: 09/01/2022 - 10:42

Poznan (Poland) (AFP) Curators combing through a vast historic archive of Freemasonry in Europe amassed by the Nazis in their wartime anti-Masonic purge say they believe there are still secrets to be unearthed.

From insight into women's Masonic lodges to the musical scores used in closed ceremonies, the trove -- housed in an old university library in western Poland -- has already shed light on a little known history.

But more work remains to be done to fully examine all the 80,000 items that date from the 17th century to the pre-World War II period.

"It is one of the biggest Masonic archives in Europe," said curator Iuliana Grazynska, who has just started working on dozens of boxes of papers within it that have not yet been properly categorised.

"It still holds mysteries," she told AFP, of the collection which curators began going through decades ago and is held at the UAM library in the city of Poznan.

Initially tolerated by the Nazis, Freemasons became the subject of regime conspiracy theories in the 1930s, seen as liberal intellectuals whose secretive circles could become centres of opposition.

Lodges were broken up and their members imprisoned and killed both in Germany and elsewhere as Nazi troops advanced during WWII.

The collection was put together under the orders of top Nazi henchman and SS chief Heinrich Himmler and is composed of many smaller archives from European Masonic lodges that were seized by the Nazis.

It is seen by researchers as a precious repository of the history of the day-to-day activities of lodges across Europe, ranging from the menus for celebrations to educational texts.

- 'Mine of information' -

Fine prints, copies of speeches and membership lists of Masonic lodges in Germany and beyond feature in the archive. Some documents still bear Nazi stamps.

"The Nazis hated the Freemasons," Andrzej Karpowicz, who managed the collection for three decades, told AFP.

Nazi ideology, he said, was inherently "anti-Masonic" because of its anti-intellectual, anti-elite tendencies.

The library puts some select items on show, including the first edition of the earliest Masonic constitution written in 1723, six years after the first lodge was created in England.

"It's one of our proudest possessions," Grazynska said.

The oldest documents in the collection are prints from the 17th century relating to the Rosicrucians -- an esoteric spiritual movement seen as a precursor to the Freemasons whose symbol was a crucifix with a rose at its centre.

During the war as Allied bombing intensified, the collection was moved from Germany for safekeeping and broken up into three parts -- two were taken to what is now Poland and one to the Czech Republic.

The section left in the town of Slawa Slaska in Poland was seized by Polish authorities in 1945, while the others were taken by the Red Army.

In 1959, the Polish Masonic collection was formally established as an archive and curators began studying it -- at that time, Freemasonry was banned in the country under Communism.

The collection is open to researchers and other visitors, who have included representatives of German Masonic lodges wanting to recover their pre-war history.

It is "a mine of information in which you can dig at will," said Karpowicz.

2022 AFP

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Archive amassed by Nazis sheds light on Masonic history - FRANCE 24

World War II is the backdrop for Quentin Tarantinos stylized revenge fantasy, shot by Robert Richardson, ASC.At top, the tense discussion between a desperate father and a cruel Gestapoofficer (Denis Mnochet and ChristophWaltz).

Unit photography by Francois Duhamel, SMPSP

During a press conference at this years [2009] Cannes Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino maintained, I am not an American filmmaker. I make movies for the planet Earth. The director and his crew were at the festival for the world premiere of his latest creation, Inglourious Basterds, whose intentionally misspelled title is the first of many twists from a production that combines a European milieu with its earthling auteurs stylized sensibilities.

The World War II saga was shot mostly atStudio Babelsberg near Berlin, with an international cast that includes Brad Pitt, Mlanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, and Christoph Waltz. One of Tarantinos innovations was to allow the characters to speak in their native tongues; the subtitled film skips easily from French to English to German, and the mastery of foreign languages, the subtlety of accents, and even body language are all important plot points.

Inglouriousmarks the third collaboration between Tarantino and Robert Richardson, ASC followingKill Bill: Vol. I(ACOct. 03) andVol. II.Prior to teaming with Tarantino, Richardson shot 11 films for Oliver Stone before establishing an ongoing rapport with Martin Scorsese (for whom he recently shot the forthcoming thrillerShutter Island). Richardson has won two Academy Awards forJFK(ACFeb. 92) and The Aviator (ACJan. 05) and notched three other Oscar nominations, and he has been nominated for eight ASC Awards. [He was honored with the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.]

The story unfolds as a series of chapters that weave three subplots united by one very bad guy, Gestapo Col. Hans Landa (Waltz). In an opening that evokes Spaghetti Westerns, Landa and his posse of Nazis drop in on a French farmer and his family. While soldiers and the family wait outside, Landa methodically asks the farmer increasingly pointed questions about the whereabouts of missing Jewish neighbors during a cat-and-mouse sequence that builds inexorably to violence.

After Landa kills her family, Shosanna (Laurent) escapes to Paris, where she runs a movie theater and meets top Nazi brass. When Shosanna learns that her theater has been chosen for the VIP premiere of a Nazi propaganda film, she sees an opportunity for revenge.

Elsewhere in France, a unit of Jewish-American soldiers, led by hillbilly Aldo Raine (Pitt), lurks behind enemy lines terrorizing Nazis with the threat of mutilation, scalpings and executions by baseball bat. Tales of these Basterds eventually reach Hitler, who throws a fit.

Meanwhile, in London, the British high command hatches a plot to blow up the movie premiere. German-speaking agents are sent to a cellar tavern called La Louisiane, where they meet with a glamorous German actress (Kruger) who is actually a British secret agent. In a lengthy scene, the agents exchange pleasantries with a party of drunken German soldiers, and then with a suspicious Gestapo officer, before engaging in a climactic shootout.

As always with Tarantinos films, Basterds is rife with cinematic references. Indeed, much of the action takes place inside the movie theater during the projection of a black-and-white film-within-a-film directed by Eli Roth; the production even arranged for lead actress Laurent to learn how to run a film projector. The final sequence gathers its main characters at the big movie premiere, leading to a spectacular, surprising conclusion followed by an ironic epilogue.

In discussing Tarantinos approach to moviemaking, Richardson agrees that the director qualifies as a film purist. Richardsons longtime camera assistant, Gregor Tavenner, concurs, noting that Tarantino eschews the video village found on most contemporary sets. The only video monitor on the set is the small one on the camera, says Tavenner. During takes, Tarantino stays next to the camera, near the actors. If there is a dolly move, he climbs along for the ride, looking at the actors and glancing at the small Transvideo monitor on the camera to check the framing.

Tarantino favors shooting with a single camera, going against the trend for two cameras, which often necessitates lighting and staging compromises. You get such a handcrafted movie, Tavenner enthuses. The actors know theyre going to do a lot of setups because its only one camera, but they get to perfect their craft. The camera rolls for as many takes as necessary to perfect each shot, and its a real joy and a pleasure.

Tavenner explains that the director enforces a quiet set: Quentin creates a beautiful environment for the actors to perform in. The crew is trained to be so respectful. Tarantino bans cellphones from his set; a security person at the door collects all such devices. Tavenner recalls a tense moment when producer Harvey Weinstein came to visit the set and the guard asked for his phone. There was a moments pause, but Weinstein finally handed it over and nodded to his assistant, who then handed over four more. Everybody cheered, Tavenner recalls with a chuckle.

Richardsons longtime gaffer, Ian Kincaid, describes another Tarantino tradition on the set: every 100 cans of exposed film are celebrated on the spot with a glass of champagne for each crew member. Quentin is very gracious. Hell say, Hey, everybody gather round. Lets celebrate another 100 rolls! even if its 11 in the morning. During production, Tarantino also arranged for evening crew screenings of features he personally selected.

Part of the period style of Inglourious Basterds is created via dolly and crane movements. In a way, says Tavenner, its a classic style. Theres maybe one Steadicam shot in the whole film. A Technocrane was used sparingly (once to sweep across the audience in the movie theater), but the bulk of the crane shots were done with Richardson riding a one-person crane made by Grip Factory Munich, allowing for more organic, less automated movements than a remote head would produce. I often use a crane as a dolly when the space allows, because it allows for greater movement, the cinematographer notes. I can also do a tracking shot without seeing the dolly track in frame.

Inglourious was shot with Panavision anamorphic Primo and G-Series lenses, as well as the companys new anamorphic zooms and a Panavised Cooke. The Primos held up the best in terms of overall resolution, Tavenner asserts. You have a sweet spot between T2.8 and T4. If you can close those lenses down a stop, you gain quality that is well worth it.

Richardson explains that Tarantinos propensity for wide-angle lenses and centered framing give the film a contemporary, original feel. I could have shot the movie with just the 35, 40 and 50mm, he says. Thats not what you would do on an old-fashioned movie, though; this lensing is more modern.

Quentin and I will have these interesting little battles while Im composing a shot, Richardson continues. I naturally move to one side or the other, especially when shooting anamorphic, whereas Quentin enjoys dead-center framing. For singles in particular, were just cutting dead-center framing from one side to the other, with the actors looking just past the barrel of the lens.

Part of the distinctive look of Inglourious Basterds stems from its disregard for pure naturalism and lighting motivation, which also contributes to its impressionistic period feel. For example, the look of the opening scene in the farmhouse is defined by hot, hard daylight that shines down onto a table, bouncing to illuminate the two characters. Although one can imagine a skylight above the table, there is no clear motivation for the farmhouse lighting. I dont believe there always needs to be a motivation for a light, says Richardson. Sometimes you have to light for what you feel the sequence is.

He explains that he avoided a source-y approach to the scene (i.e., having the main source come through the windows) in part because this would have put a lot more light on the background. Here you feel the daylight on their faces but the background is relatively dark. The room was tiny and the source was isolating them in that small space. He points out that the table bounce is also adapted to the action of the scene: Landa fills out his paperwork, while the farmer has a tendency to look down. I felt it was important to have light in their eyes and to always have that bright spot available to the iris if so desired, he says. The toplight source also gave the actors the opportunity to play with the light by moving in and out of the shadows, and it enabled Tarantinos camera staging, which involved several wide-angle dolly moves around the table. When the camera started on one side and ended on the other, there were very few places to get a light in, Richardson observes.

The cinematographer would often add a soft fill light during the scene, and he felt free to adjust the direction of the top keylight from shot to shot.When I had the opportunity, I would add a level of bounce, and I would move the toplight to one side or the other to help the dark side move toward camera. I prefer to have the face lit from the opposite side not backlit, but and I want the dark side toward my lens as often as possible; theres something I like aesthetically about that choice. Im willing to flip a key in a sequence to accommodate that.

Tarantino told Richardson he wanted to see the landscape through the windows of the farmhouse, which required the quick changing of ND gels on the windows to adjust for the changing weather outside. Kincaid notes, Wed sometimes have to bring the light way up inside to balance with the exterior view. All of the scenes sources were daylight-balanced HMIs, and inside, the main overhead source comprised Par 1.2Ks rigged in an attic above the table. Most of the lights were gelled with CTO to lend the daylight a slight warmth.

Large sources outside provided some soft light and an occasional touch of hard light inside. These external sources included 18K Arrimax HMIs on turtle stands bounced up on big muslin frames, a 12K Par through the door, and a 6K Par through a window to create a small spot of sunlight on the wall.

Kincaid confirms that there was no lighting whatsoever, not even a passive bounce, during the 100' tracking shot of Shosanna running away in profile at the end of the sequence. Achieving this shot was simply a matter of choosing the right moment to film against the naturally soft backlight of the northern sky.

Filming began on location at a farmhouse in northern Germany with an initial plan to capture mostly exterior shots before moving to a soundstage for the interiors. But Tarantino quickly decided to start shooting the dialogue inside the house before continuing to shoot the same scene on the Babelsberg stages near Berlin, creating a challenge in terms of lighting continuity because the location and stage footage had to cut together seamlessly throughout the 25-minute sequence. To maintain continuity, the location lighting was duplicated in Babelsberg, and Richardson decided to use HMIs on the soundstage, which we never do, says Kincaid. For the windows, Richardson used greenscreened plates when necessary, or painted backdrops masked with black net when the windows were less present in the frame.

The roomy soundstage allowed for bigger bounce fills than the location, but the principle was the same: muzz and muzz. Kincaid explains that Richardson eschews plastic diffusion or bouncing material like beadboards or Griffolyn in favor of cotton muslin or real silk. A muzz and muzz soft source involves hard lights bounced off muslin and then diffused through muslin again. The sides of the setup are covered with black material to prevent spill, creating a pie-shaped, soft light box. Richardson explains his affinity for muslin by noting it has a more natural feel on the skin. I dont feel as many highlights coming back, whereas plastic materials give a shine off of makeup or skin.

Richardson claims that the muslin-bounced diffusion lends a unique quality to the soft source. Its the quality of the wrap of the light. I dont feel the shadow of the source. I enjoy the way the light moves across the face. Because the soft light has to be cut and flagged, the cinematographer usually tries to obtain the largest possible diffusion surface for the location. For example, when Pitts character interrogates a Nazi in the ravine scene, the bounce is a 12-by, but for tight interiors, the cinematographer will sometimes just staple a 4' piece of muslin bounce to the wall.

For a few scenes in Inglourious, Richardson uses a passive bounce as a key. A 12K provides most of the lighting for a brief but memorable scene in which Shosanna wields a hatchet and threatens a film developer positioned on a table. The hard source backlights Shosanna and her accomplice and then bounces off the table to provide a soft key on her face. The lighting is completed by a practical above and a 12K positioned on a Condor outside a window.

A similarly elegant use of hard light and bounce can be seen toward the end of the film when a smitten German soldier barges into the projection booth and confronts Shosanna at the doorway. Shosanna is backlit by a 20K positioned farther back on the set, and the soldier acts as her moving bounce: a strip of muslin was pinned to him off-camera. Depending on how close she moves to him, Richardson comments, there is a movement [in the light] and a lighter and darker quality on her face. A hint of red bounce also comes from Shosannas red dress. On the reverse shot, a similar setup lights the German, with a 12K bouncing off of the red dress. Other backlights were added to extend this effect once the actors move further inside the booth.

Richardson used a mixture of hard and soft sources for a beautiful scene on the top floor of the theater. As Shosanna prepares for the fateful premiere by applying her makeup, a 20K shines in through a circular window to provide a searing backlight. In front of the mirror, her face is keyed by a warm, soft source com prising a cluster of small, tungsten golf ball bulbs dimmed way down and diffused through muslin. Kincaid explains, The muslin lends a creamy feel to her skin. When were shooting a beautiful woman, well go muzz-muzz. Generally, the front is bleached muslin and the back is unbleached. Unbleached muslin has a tighter weave; its a nice, rough surface, so it has no sheen. Its a bit erratic, but it softens the light, and then the bleached muslin in front unifies it.

Kincaid reveals that Richardson often uses rows of dimmed tungsten bulbs with diffusion to create soft sources that can fit in tight places. On this film, we used soft frosted bulbs on wires, bunched in balls, attached to squares of wood and even draped around the camera, says the gaffer. A variation of this technique was applied for a scene in which Shosanna is whisked off to meet Goebbels in a swanky French restaurant. Their encounter was shot in a private dining room at Berlins Einstein Cafe. Rows of tungsten bulbs were suspended from the low ceiling and diffused with muslin to create a soft top source, which was supplemented by several Chinese lanterns and a Par can throwing a pool of hard light down onto the tablecloth. Kincaid notes that Richardson frequently uses lightweight Par cans. You can cluster them, and we use them for accent lights, for narrow backlight, and often for bouncing, he says.

The long scene in the La Louisiane tavern posed one of the shows biggest lighting challenges. Ten characters meet around two small tables in the cramped basement bar. The three British agents try to talk their way out of the tavern, leaving one table of drunken Germans and then accepting a round of drinks with a suspicious Gestapo officer. The tension rises until the scene explodes in a shootout.

The tavern set had very low ceilings and little room in which to maneuver. Richardson deadpans, For all intents and purposes, it was a practical location built on a stage. Kincaid adds, We said to ourselves, Okay, this is like the trailer scene in Kill Bill.

Quentin wants to create the feeling that nobodys getting out of here easily. Complicating matters further, the actors frequently move from seated to standing positions.

After trying and rejecting inframe practicals as too cluttered, the crew attached rows of tungsten bulbs to the ceiling, adding two layers of muslin beneath them to create a soft base light. The headroom was so tight that the bottom layer of muslin had to be removed when actors stood. Richardson then decided to add Par can toplights and bounced backlights as the shots progressed, reflecting the scenes mounting tension. Slowly, as the scene evolved, I moved from the soft top and started adding hard lights off the table to increase the contrast. I also began bringing in soft backlights to separate actors from the background. I just felt this need to do it as I went along, but I tried not to do it in an obvious manner so the audience wouldnt be aware of it.

Although the transition is subtle, Richardson confesses that he wondered at the time whether altering the light was a gigantic error. Kincaid concedes, We were very busy in there; every setup was a new challenge. We have a saying, though: Pressure makes diamonds.

When the shootout starts, the lighting changes dramatically, with beams of hard light shining through the smoke and gunfire. Tarantino punctuates the scene with a few of his signature snap-zooms into Germans firing their weapons. The timing of the shootout feels realistically rapid, without the extensive high-speed work that has become a convention in contemporary action films. The lighting for the dramatic climax in the movie theater involved a series of 6K and 9K Maxi-Brutes hung from the ceiling with black skirts and silk frames. A fire effect was created mostly with real fire generated by an extensive network of gas pipes, supplemented by red gels on the Maxis.

Richardson did the digital intermediate for Basterds at EFilm with colorist Yvan Lucas, and the colorist says he did the color correction the old-fashioned way, starting from the qualities Tarantino and Richardson liked in the workprint made by Arri Munich during shooting. While he was timing the tavern scene, Lucas recalls, Bob said, Yvan, I know you come from film, so youre going to match the faces, right? Youre not going to do it like the video timers, who match the backgrounds? His point was that faces are what jump out at you, and that was the big idea of the film: to work the old-fashioned way, by matching faces, and then seeing what we could do with the backgrounds if there were any problems.

Asked how Richardsons penchant for strong hard light impacts the digital grade, Lucas notes that he sometimes uses Richardsons highlights to find the timing of a shot. Ill often start with the faces, but I can also find my density value in relation to the strong highlight. Its like a visual reference that shows me where I have to place the shot. If the white is too bright, its not very pretty. By adding density, the white remains very overexposed and very strong, but it gets more body. In fact, there is very little choice in timing. There is one value thats really right. Often when Bob sees what Ive prepared for him, he doesnt ask for density changes because Im already where he wants to be.

Bob has a very particular way of lighting a face its very chiseled, Lucas continues. That allows me to go to a density value I would never dare use on another film. There is a gradation in the grays of the shadows that I can work with. His lighting allows me to go to a darker and very interesting density value without smothering the blacks. For example, the colorist adds, referring to the scene in which Shosanna stands at the window before applying her makeup, because the backlight is very strong, there is detail in the blacks. Although she is in the shadows, her face is delineated. When you add density, you see the cheekbones... but with this gradation. Its very beautiful, and its due to the very hard light.

Reflecting on his work, Richardson muses, When Im shooting, I dont sense the passage of time. I start and finish the sequence, and I dont recall the majority of what takes place in between unless I have a tremendous problem or Im trying to rectify something in the middle of the sequence. Nothing exists except for that moment. The closest thing to it is when I jumped out of an airplane and parachuted to the ground. I dont recall anything after jumping ... until my chute opened.

2.40:1 Anamorphic 35mm Panaflex Millennium; Arri 435 Panavision Primo, G-Series lenses Kodak Vision2 200T5217, Vision3 500T 5219 Digital Intermediate Printed on Fuji Eterna-CP 3513D

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Inglourious Basterds: A Nazi's Worst Nightmare - The American Society of Cinematographers - American Cinematographer

The easiest way to respond to the ethics of doctors, nurses, and health care in the Third Reich is to dismiss what happened as the product of fringe practitioners getting permission from, or being forced by, fanatical ideological leaders to undertake manifestly bad science upon hated minorities.

Unfortunately, a huge volume of scholarship, beginning with my book, When Medicine Went Mad, shows this story is utterly false.

Doctors and scientists were not dragged into Nazism from the fringe. Leading theorists and distinguished doctors enthusiastically fueled the racism that Hitler and his cronies molded into their fascism. This applied biology led to the euthanasia machine that was medicine in Germany during the 1930s and 40s.

Sound science, according to the standards of the day, drove lethal experiments supported by the German armed forces to find answers to hypothermia, decompression, typhoid, typhus, burns, and many other wartime issues.

Mainstream German medicine had an ethic that justified horrific experimentssterilization and genocidal euthanasiaas necessary health measures.

What is more startling, albeit less analyzed, is the huge emphasis the Nazi government placed on public health, with an eye toward cancer prevention. The preeminent historian of the Nazi orientation to prevention and health promotion, Robert Proctor, has established that Nazi Germany was decades ahead of other countries in promoting health reforms that we today regard as progressive and socially responsible.

Nazi scientists were the first to definitively link lung cancer and cigarette smoking, aggressively promoted a healthy diet, and urged control of chemical exposures. They also created eugenic breeding programs to infuse health through optimal gene flow into the German population or Volk.

What is more startling, albeit less analyzed, is the huge emphasis the Nazi government placed on public health, with an eye toward cancer prevention.

Much of todays battle against COVID is managed under the rubric of public health in the USA and other nations. And this means shifting focus from individual patients and their choices to community and population interventions, often with the power of government to encourage or enforce them.

Critics often embrace individual choice over community duties and some even invoke Nazism, communism, or other forms of totalitarianism to protest efforts to require or mandate community-oriented behavior.

On Jan. 31 through Feb. 1, NYU medical ethics, along with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, will hold the first annual Sedley Holocaust and Medicine Symposium.

This years event will examine the ways in which racism shaped and continues to influence health care and public health from the Nazi era to today.

The meeting this year is all virtual (using Zoom), free, and open to the public. But you must preregister for what promises to be an important and timely event. The agenda is posted here, and the registration link is here.

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Symposium focuses on racism in health care and public healthfrom Nazi medicine to COVID and cancer - The Cancer Letter

Karl Burghard Bangert is one of four men being charged for hate speech and gun violations.PHOTO:YouTube

A so-called Nazi druid who allegedly denied the Holocaust and called for the murder of Jews went on trial in Germany on Friday, charged with sedition and violation of gun laws.

Karl Burghard Bangert, a bearded, longhaired 71-year-old who styles himself as a mystical Celtic druid under the alias Burgos von Buchonia, is facing trial along with three other men, who are all considered to be right-wing extremists by German security services.

The four defendants, who are all allegedly Reichsbrger (citizens of the Reich) members of Germanys anti-establishment, sovereign citizen conspiracy movement, who believe the government is illegitimate are charged with illegally hoarding an arsenal of weapons, ammunition and explosives between 2015 and 2017, when they were raided by authorities.

Prosecutors say the group were preppers, seeking to arm themselves ahead of the imminent collapse of society; according to reports, Bangert sought to set up an armed compound with other like-minded people, where they would survive after the fall of the state.

Among the weapons recovered in the raids were a flamethrower, a semi-automatic self-loading pistol, and self-made single-shot handguns.

Bangert is also charged with sedition over a series of social media posts in which he denied the Holocaust, called for the murder of Jews, and incited hatred against refugees, according to prosecutors.

He appeared in Mannheim district court wearing a shirt with a Celtic logo and a necklace of what appeared to be pagan charms.

Bangert is a former insurance agent who, after reinventing himself as a druid, developed a modest profile in local media for his eccentric appearance. According to DW, in a TV news segment that aired on Bavarias state broadcaster in 2008, the self-styled druid claimed he was born 2,500 years ago, and raised by his uncle, the great wizard Merlin," after his mother died in childbirth.

He was known to give guided tours of the Rhone region, and perform New Age ceremonies, said Nicholas Potter, a far-right expert at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation in Berlin.

But along with the belief in New Age spiritualism, he also harboured vehemently racist views including the virulent antisemitic, conspiracy-driven worldview that Jews have been waging a secret war against the German people for centuries, said Potter.

Jan Rathje, a far-right expert at the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy, said that Bangert presented himself on the one hand as a druid and on the other as a far-right and antisemitic resistance fighter - especially via social media.

There, he spreads hatred against Jews, migrants, journalists, and politicians, he said, adding that his group believed in the racist "Great Replacement" myth. He added that the group had been mobilised to try to set up his armed compound at the height of the panic over migration into Europe around 2015.

While New Age and far-right beliefs might seem unlikely bedfellows, extremism experts say that there is a long tradition of esoteric far-right conspiracy beliefs in Germany.

Back in the imperial era, certain esoteric groups and the [ethnonationalist] Vlkisch movement were linked by their anti-modern, racist, and antisemitic ideas, said Rathje.

These included the belief that there was a hierarchical natural order to the world that was threatened by liberalism, socialism, democracy, science, and minority rights.

Nazi ideology contained a pronounced esoteric strand, and new age movements continue to play a role on the far-right fringe to this day, said Potter.

Nazi ideology was a bizarre potpourri of Nordic myths, Indian symbolism and occult rituals. Fast-forward to the last few decades and the esoteric world has proved a fertile soil for conspiracy narratives such as the Reichsbrger movement, he said.

Both adopt an anti-authoritarian and anti-state mindset that challenges the established view of the world, be it regarding medicine, politics or the media.

He said the connections between new age and far-right ideology had become particularly visible during the pandemic, with the rise of the COVID-denying Querdenken (lateral thinkers) conspiracy movement, which united neo-Nazi hooligans with people from the new age, spiritual and wellness spheres.

An esoteric worldview that denies the existence of COVID and the effectiveness of vaccines has been able to unite yoga teachers, Reichsbrger and Nazi skinheads in their goal of wanting to overthrow the state, which they frame as a dictatorship, he said.

READ: New agers and wellness influencers are falling for far-right COVID conspiracies

The trial has been adjourned until April.

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Nazi Druid Accused of Hoarding Weapons to Prepare for Societys Collapse - VICE

Editorial Boardreaders are familiar with my obsession with political time or how one party and its ideas prevail with a majority of Americans for four or five decades before falling into a period of transition, after which the other party and its ideas prevail.

But most don't know why I'm obsessed. I'll tell you. It's because I have been feeling hopeless. I hate feeling hopeless. Knowing that history isn't static knowing that it moves in recurring cycles rather than in a straight line with a beginning and an end well, that gives me hope. It gives me hope to know, good or bad, nothing stays the same.

These "paradigms" have been for more than a year a regular subject of discussion between me andJay Weixelbaum. He's a writer and business historian who's producing a streaming mini-series about the time a Nazi spy joined US businessmen to toast the fall of France in a Manhattan hotel while a Jewish FBI agent investigated.

Jay's project is calledA Nazi on Wall Street. (You candonate to the cause here.) During our conversation, he explained why he believes we are moving into a new paradigm and how the choices made in the 1940s seem to mirror choices being made in the 2020s. We could have turned fully fascist back then. Let's hope we don't do that now.

READ:Prominent QAnon anti-vaxxer who called for Anthony Fauci's execution dies of COVID-19

In a recent thread, you said the J6 insurrection was a watershed moment between "paradigms." Can you explain what you mean by "paradigms." What does J6 have to do with them?

A "paradigm shift" describes a major change in our lives. The term "status quo" describes a time when we have a shared understanding about how politics work, how economics work and how culture works. When a paradigm shift happens, the status quo changes.

Paradigm shifts can take many years, and my belief is that we know we're in one when it's not just scholars pointing this out but when everyone sees it and feels it. January 6 was a moment like that.

Many historians have observed that the Republican Party had been in the business of rejecting democratic ideals since the passage of the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s. They were unwilling to share democracy with people they deemed were less than them.

Watergate was part of this. The 2000 election and the 2016 election were other watershed moments of the GOP's slide toward a full rejection of American democracy. I see J6 as a culmination.

Can you characterize the paradigm we are leaving and perhaps the one we are entering?

Paradigms are a buildup of chaos in our political, economic and social systems, as unresolved problems feed off each other. In chaotic periods, even small events can have enormous impact. We're right in the middle of the shift, so it's hard to see where we are going.

The reason I'm adapting my research on American businessmen working with Nazis in 1940 into astreaming mini-seriesis because in 1940, it really wasn't clear which way things were going. That was a paradigm shift, too.

READ:Cult survivor explains how Trump 'weaponizes' the 'us vs. them' tactics of a 'cult leader'

We grow up with stories about a triumphant America that won World War II, but in 1940, it wasn't at all clear how history was going to play out. I want American audiences to understand that, especially as we inevitably look back and reflect on our current moment,

Just as 2020 was a crucial year. I believe 2022 will also decide our fates for the next era, however long it will be. Democrats in Congress are beginning the process of altering the filibuster to pass voting rights legislationthis week, which is a direct response to GOP legislatures passing laws to throw out millions of votes they may happen to dislike. Democratic leaders call this a "continuation of January 6."

That's crucial, and we don't know how this will play out.

Another big, unpredictable factor is the pandemic. I think future historians (provided humanity survives) will debate how covid helped push the previous president out of power, particularly his lack of ability to address it effectively.

A third major factor is the midterms. Yes, the previous status quo predicts the party holding the White House to take losses. But if we are headed toward a new status quo, the rules may no longer apply.

Corporate donations to GOP House candidates is about half of what it was. And gerrymandering, while still a major threat to democracy, hasn't played out as badly as it could have after the 2020 census.

Also, depending on how the Supreme Court rules on reproductive choice, this may dramatically affect turnout.

So there's still a bunch of unknowns that could have a major impact in this critical turning point.

When did this start? With the white backlash against civil rights?

The civil rights era and feminism in particular, as well as a hostility to the New Deal, animated the right. They built up religious and allegedly libertarian factions in the 1970s that coalesced in the "Reagan Revolution," which could then be escalated for four decades.

History is always events leading to and from each other. There are certainly antecedents in the 1920s and 1930s GOP. It was taking money from literal Nazi spies in order to try to sweep FDR out of power.

Our government knew this was happening. There was an intense and often unseen struggle to fight back against this Nazi-American rightwing coalition.

Is this the 1940s fork in the road you were talking about?

Yes, precisely. Like with other paradigm shifts, there were years of building to this point, and years of aftermath. Nazi spies were operating in the US in the 1930s. The FBI was tasked with tracking them down. Meanwhile, US companies had businesses operating within Nazi Germany.

Beyond these lesser known activities, rightwing groups and personalities espoused the Nazi cause to millions of Americans. Many Americans found this ideology enticing. It's easy to blame immigrants for problems; many Americans believed the US should stay out of European affairs; some Americans were sympathetic to Germany post-World War I. The radio priest, Charles Coughlin, broadcast these views to millions. He was kind of the Rush Limbaugh of his day.

Nazi influence in the US culminated with a huge march and rally in New York City in 1939. Thousands gathered in Madison Square Garden to listen to blatantly fascist speeches under the banners of George Washington adorned with swastikas.

In 1940, FDR gave a fresh directive to hunt down Nazis. The FBI built a secret spy headquarters inside the 30 Rock building to spy on Nazi activities worldwide, but especially in South America where they could get raw materials a war machine needs to be effective.

Without recapping the story of WWII, FDR was reelected, despite Nazi groups funneling money into Charles Lindbergh's campaign. FDR started providing aid to Britain and preparing for war against fascism. Thus, the paradigm shift started to turn on the events of 1940.

The president pinned blame for J6 on Trump. No sitting president in my lifetime came within an inch of calling his predecessor a traitor. That seems like an indicator of paradigm shifting no?

Absolutely. I don't think we've seen anything like this since at least the Civil War. The evidence is so overwhelming, I think Biden was on safe political ground to take off the gloves.

It's also important to point out that fascist violence often starts with the war on the truth. Biden was making a clear point to push back on fascist lies.

I'd call the Republicans' sabotage of pandemic recovery a form of fascist violence, but that's just me.

I think that's also a fair observation. Fascism is unsustainable as a form of government. It's inherently irrational and destructive. It's an extreme form of populism based on emotions feelings of grievance, more specifically. That's an inherently unstable foundation to attempt to run a society.

Economies need stability. Political regimes need economic stability to stay viable long-term. But fascists don't care about the long term. They care about feeding grievance addictions. They build policy around that.

Perhaps this ties into your observation about "civil war." It would take sacrifice of an order that most people would reject.

Exactly. I think the potential for violence and destruction is great. But I don't see that as long term, because people won't tolerate a consumer economy being interrupted so drastically by violence and disruption.

Scholars of Nazi Germany saw this. Just below their fake bravado, the Nazis were terrified about economic problems. We'll never know how the Nazi regime might have worked if it hadn't made foolish military choices, but it's pretty clear that things were quite unstable.

I think the Republican Party has been able to lean toward anti-democracy and fascism precisely, because it still rested on a liberal democratic order. Take that away and it's a new status quo

Agree. It's parasitic.

Yes! Fascism is a parasite on liberal democracy, but it can kill its host. Then all bets are off on how long it will survive.

What would tell you the coming midterms are different from previous midterms?

Preserving democracy is a key policy issue. It will be a particular policy point discussed in numerous midterm campaigns. Typically it's healthcare, guns, climate, etc. Democracy as policy is a new norm.

Telling people that they need to vote now or they won't be able to depend on the vote in the future is pretty drastic and I'd argue a new development. We saw it in 2020. It'll be here for 2022.

More:

The disturbing parallels between the 2020s and 1940s in the U.S. - Salon

Austria, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, long cast itself as a victim after being annexed by Nazi Germany. Only in the past three decades has the country begun to examine seriously its role in the Holocaust.

Cut to 2022 and an exhibition in Austria's capital.

A woven swastika tapestry, Nazi flags, and paintings of German military officers from World War II.

In Vienna Museum MUSA, these Nazi themed-pieces are aiming to shed light on the politics of art under the Third Reich, one of the latest ways in which Vienna is seeking to address its complicated war-era past.

The exhibit's curators are hoping their research will help in that process but they have been careful not to give the artworks too much of an "aura".

The exhibition called "Vienna Falls in Line. The Politics of Art under National Socialism" is part of a broader trend of reconciling with an ugly chapter of Austrian history.

Austria had a Jewish population of 200,000 before Nazi Germany annexed the country in 1938. More than 65,000 of them were killed in the Holocaust, which exterminated six million Jews.

Instead of being displayed on the museum's large walls, the works are packed into just two rooms, as if in a warehouse.

"This can't be like other exhibitions in the classical sense... it had to be broken up," says curator Ingrid Holzschuh.

"Under this (Nazi) art policy, institutions and artists were promoted, and of course, after 1945 they also significantly participated in the art policy and above all institutions, which also continued to work. In order to understand these things, it is essential to include the period of National Socialism in art history."

The show came about after four years of research by Holzschuh and fellow curator Sabine Plakolm-Forsthuber, who combed through the membership files of 3,000 artists who officially belonged to the Reich's artistic association after the Nazi annexation.

The artists were all carefully vetted and closely watched, Jewish artists were barred.

Under the regime, Viennese artists who did not comply with the new rules were forced to flee or murdered in concentration camps, according to the show's catalogue.

This exhibition is not the only way the city is confronting its complex wartime legacy.

Vienna recently said it would launch an art competition to contextualise a statue of the anti-Semitic former mayor Karl Lueger who inspired Hitler, which has been defaced several times.

The city has also re-assessed street names honouring anti-Semitic or otherwise tainted historical figures -- most recently galvanised by the Black Lives Matter movement and protests around historical monuments.

The exhibition runs until Apr 24, 2022.

Link:

Vienna examines its WWII legacy with exhibition of Nazi art - Euronews

A month after leaving Siberia, Alina and Olga reached Tallinn. The city was bedlam. Six months earlier, the Nazis had been bombing it. Now the Germans were in control and the Allies pummelled the city with their new allies, the Soviets.

The Nazis had mined the harbour to make sure no one could get in or out but behind drawn curtains, deals were being struck with families desperate to escape. Stefan found a fisherman who agreed to help them get to Sweden.

The fishing boat left at 2am. It wove in and out of sunken destroyers and from the sea, my mum watched the cathedral lit up by sudden flashes of Allied bombs exploding. Olga clutched Alinas arm and smiled broadly. Alina never forgot that smile.

Alina could not get over the fact that her father wasnt waiting for them in Sweden when they arrived. She blamed her mother and they stayed out of each others way Olga turned her tarot cards alone, Alina played hide and seek with other children who had made it to Sweden from all over Europe.

The Swedish hospital was one of her happiest times. She was allowed to build dens and explore, free of danger, but it did not last long.

One morning Olga woke bolt upright. Were leaving. Pack your clothes.

Olga had no idea what had happened to her [other three] children. Her choice now was brutal: stay safe in Sweden, or risk both their lives to find Kazhik, Juta and Pavel.

I asked my mother how she felt about this. We had safety for the first time in Sweden and I was happy. She decided to go to Warsaw because she felt guilty about leaving my brothers and sister behind Well, what about me?

Olga had no trouble finding a smuggler. The plan was to go from Sandhammaren in southern Sweden and cross to the Danish island of Bornholm, where they would be handed to another guide. There was one problem. The sea had frozen over and they would need dogs to pull them across. Some areas were thick with ice but others were too thin for a sled; they could fall through and drown.

The first half of the journey was uneventful but as the sled approached Bornholm, Olga became anxious. It was not the deserted stop-off point that their smuggler Orhan had led them to believe but a heavily fortified Nazi stronghold. Searchlights criss-crossed the ice.

Orhan told Olga to remain calm. But Orhan had miscalculated their route. They were on the south side, near the Luftwaffe runway, the most heavily defended part of Bornholm. It was a massive cock-up.

Orhan pulled a white bed sheet out of a rucksack and they began tracking by foot across the ice. It was so cold, Alina could no longer feel her limbs. When the wind dropped there was silence. Then they heard the plane.

It was a distant, tinny sound at first, but as it approached, its engine grew louder. It was a Luftwaffe reconnaissance light aircraft, out on a scout. Its searchlight shone directly on to the ice, which acted like a mirror, the single light becoming a thousand searchlights, each refracting off the surface. It was the most terrifying moment of Alinas life.

As the plane approached the searchlight became impossible to hide from; my mum urinated in her pants. In a single balletic flourish, Orhan threw the white sheet over all three of them, so fast, my mum didnt know it had even happened.

One moment they were exposed on the ice waiting to be shot at, the next lying flat on the ground with a sheet over them.

The reconnaissance plane was firing uncreatively in regular 10-second bursts. As it flew overhead, it was so fast and low that the sheet lifted. But the moment they were revealed, the pilot climbed steeply away.

When they reached Poland, Olga and Alina crossed a country they scarcely recognised. My mum had seen mutilated bodies in Siberia, but not on this scale.

They lay piled against the side of the road of towns mixed in with the black, oily snow or stood against crucifixes in fields. Murdered by the Gestapo for collaborating with the resistance, or the other way round.

On a bright February morning, Olga and Alina finally arrived in Warsaw. Alina had not seen her brothers and sister for three years.

What if theyre not here? she whispered nervously.

They are, Olga said. The tarot cards had foretold it.

She pressed the ivory doorbell of their second-floor apartment.

Klo to jest? [Who is it?] said a voice it was Kazhik.

Matka [Mother], Olga replied.

In the kitchen they all embraced. Olga sat on the chair, weeping. Pavel put his arm around her. Kazhik told Alina a joke and pinched her cheek. She was just happy they were back together.

Read more here:

My mother has dementia but can still remember the Nazi doctor who gave her 'medicine' at Auschwitz - Telegraph.co.uk

The UK government has made a final call for claims for compensation for those who had property confiscated during World War II.

For more than 20 years the Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel (EPCAP) has been compensating individuals whose assets were confiscated by the UK government where they had suffered Nazi persecution. The Panel also oversee the Baltic States Scheme.

Today, the government is launching a consultation on a final date for closure of the schemes, which have provided over 25 million of compensation over the course of their operation.

To date, EPCAP has considered more than 1200 applications for compensation, but in recent years the numbers of claims submitted has fallen substantially. Other comparable compensation schemes across Europe concluded their operations many years ago.

Those who have received compensation under the scheme have included a non-Jewish doctor who risked his life to help Jewish colleagues and was forced to flee his home, the family of an art collector who perished in the Holocaust, while his collection was sold off for profit, and Jewish people who fled from France to South America.

The government will now consult on a final date for claims to be submitted, with a provisional date set for 9 September 2022, pending response to the consultation. Potential claimants will be able to lodge claims throughout the consultation period.

Business Minister Paul Scully said:

These schemes, universally recognised as among the most generous to operate worldwide, have offered hundreds of people rightful compensation for the horrors they faced during the Second World War, at the hands of Nazis and other totalitarian oppressors.

The Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel have done amazing work in the past 2 decades or so, but the scheme is now drawing to a natural conclusion. I would urge anyone who has yet to make their claim to do so now, to ensure everyone receives the compensation they are entitled to.

EPCAP Panel Chair Arthur Harverd said:

The EPCAP Scheme has been a vitally important UK government initiative, providing the families of those who suffered Nazi persecution with a sense that at long last justice has been done, the suffering endured by their forebears has been recognised and closure achieved.

Panel colleagues have worked tirelessly in evaluating the details of every claim and we are thankful for the support of successive ministers and officials at BEIS and the dedicated assistance of the members of the EPCAP Secretariat in support of the scheme.

The overwhelming majority of the original owners of the assets concerned have of course now died and very few new claims are being received. We therefore believe that this is an appropriate time to consult on closing the schemes, while allowing for new claims still to be received up to the date of actual closure.

During the period of the Second World War the UK government confiscated assets in British territories owned by residents of enemy countries, including the former Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan and countries occupied by them, under the Trading with the Enemy Act 1939.

There are 2 schemes administered by the Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel:

Individuals who believe that they or a direct relation may have held or deposited assets in the UK that were then confiscated by the UK government are encouraged to make their claim to EPCAP. Both Schemes are administered by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Any individuals or organisations who would like to respond to the consultation for a final date for the EPCAP scheme can do so.

See more here:

Last call for claims to scheme compensating victims of Nazis for property confiscated in WWII - GOV.UK

MMA fighter Radek Roual was recently barred from competing in Czech organization Oktagon MMA due to his visible neo-Nazi tattoos.

Roual was scheduled to make his MMA debut against Nikolas Krivk in a last-minute booking, but the bout was called off when officials noticed a depiction of Adolf Hitler tattooed on Rouals right hand. Additionally, Roual had a tattoo of an SS (Schutzstaffel) officer, which was a corps of political soldiers of the Nazi party.

Oktagon MMA promoter Ondej Novotnaddressed his reaction when he observed Rouals controversial body art.

This doesnt exist for you come up to us and look like this, Novotntold idnes.cz. We have it in the contract, we could give him a fine. Even on the chest, he has (apparently the cap of an SS officer, the skull could also refer to the Death Skull Unit of the SS organization responsible for managing the extermination camps). Whatsoever! We didnt study what it looked like, nor did the photographers and cameramen notice. No one had talked about it before We didnt know about it, certainly not.

Roual did not deny the presence of neo-Nazi tattoos on his person, but he chalked it up to bad decisions made during a naive, desperate, and vulnerable stage of his life.

I grew up in a problematic community of people that gave rise to this tattoo, he explained. At that time, I did not know what to do with life, I was young and this tattoo was stupid. Later, I started doing martial arts, which led me to a completely different life and view of the world. I have more tattoos that I regret, Ill gradually re-tattoo them all.

Novotn rejected this explanation when it was told to him directly from Roual.

He explained it to me, adds Novotn. I told him he was crazy. Im not a tattoo expert, but how long can it take to re-tattoo this? Two days? Its nice that he basically distanced himself from it, I trust him and Im able to understand everything, but this is not and it can be done faster.

Rouals gym Muay Thai Brno also issued a statement on the matter, which addressed the matter of having the tattoos removed.

Radek and I have been dealing with the situation and the tattoo removal, which, according to his words, originated years ago in youthful indiscretion, has been ordered for a long time with a deadline for January. However, the offer for the match came at the last minute, before its removal.

Our gym is unequivocally against manifestations of any racial or other discrimination and intolerance. We meet people of all nationalities and skin colors, we cooperate with various non-profit organizations, including those dedicated to working with minorities. At the same time, we also lend a helping hand to those who can learn from their mistakes and mistakes.

Roual remains 0-0 as an MMA fighter and is 0-1 as a kickboxer. His tale shares similarities with the story of UFC flyweight Andrea Lees ex-coach and estranged husband, Donny Aaron, who also has neo-Nazi tattoos.

At the time, Lee defended Aarons character in the middle of the controversy; yet, Aaron stated that he would not get the tattoos removed. Lee and Aaron are no longer together after Aaron was charged with domestic battery abuse against Lee.

What are your thoughts on this story?

Here is the original post:

MMA Fighter Barred From Competing In Organization Due To Nazi Tattoos - MMA News

No one doesnt know what a swastika means. Thats a sentence I never imagined Id be shouting in the opening days of 2022. And yet, there I was, arguing with two relatives about the Nazi flag currently displayed on my cousins bedroom wall.

They had found out about the flag quite by accident, walking in to say hi on a recent visit to his parents (with whom he lives.) And they were disturbingly blase about the whole thing. Thats not to say they were thrilled there were even a little upset but on the whole agreed with each other that it isnt a big deal. He doesnt know what it means, they kept insisting, calling him a sweet kid who just doesnt know better. He is in his thirties, and he lives in the United States.

That white America including my own family still does not see the danger its hateful sons and daughters pose to the Republic is deeply concerning. A year ago today, radicalized Americans at least some of them white nationalists stormed the Capitol in Washington DC an attempt to overthrow our democratically elected government. The irony of this conversation happening so close to the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection was not lost on me.

Yet it is worth noting that the stereotype of racists and white nationalists as ignorant working-class kids, some led astray because they dont know better the same stereotype my own relatives tried to use to deflect blame from my Nazi flag-displaying relation is wholly wrong. Americans have in their minds the image of a bunch of roughnecks with rifles holed up in compounds like Ruby Ridge when they imagine extremism. The research tells us that thats a mistake.

As Alexandra Minna Stern, a professor at the University of Michigan, writes in her book Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate, todays alt-right is more international, suited-up, and image-conscious than its predecessors. And according to Shannon Foley-Martinez a former white supremacist who now helps others escape hate many of those drawn to the movement are highly curious and intelligent, often grappling with major political questions. A very large percentage of people, particularly young people [who get radicalized] actually want to deeply engage with and grapple with big ideas. And a lot of times, that is part of their pathway in that need and desire was not being met anywhere else, she told PublicSource last year.

Looking at last years insurrection, many of those arrested came not from working-class families like my own, but from the so-called upper middle class. They include a realtor from Tennessee, a loan officer from Texas, and a CEO from Illinois. Richard Spencer the father of the modern alt-right and a self-described white nationalist has a masters degree from the University of Chicago. Donald Trump regularly touts his own Ivy League education. These are hardly hillbillies.

The white power structure of America has never been upheld by the working class, though certainly they played their part, often as the violent foot-soldiers of the movement. White Citizens Councils throughout the South upheld Jim Crow in the 1950s and 1960s, pumping money and political might into upholding segregation.

This is part of what made integrating Ole Miss a nickname for the University of Mississippi which is not a diminutive of the states name, but rather a nickname for a plantation mistress such a major battle of the civil rights movement. The school, though academically middling, served as a finishing school for the white aristocracy of Mississippi. It wasnt just any college; it was where future (white) leaders were sent to be trained to take their place as the men who ran Mississippi. Admitting Black students was as good as surrendering the future, and white Mississippi was not about to do that without a fight. Indeed, two men were killed in a riot when a Black man named James Meredith tried to register.

Even the Ku Klux Klan, which through much of the past half-century has been thought of as consisting of poor white trash, was founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest, a successful slaveholder and planter who was also a Confederate general. Yes, working-class Americans may serve as the foot-soldiers today just as they did during the civil war but they only do so in service to the true wielders of political power.

That is not an excuse for those who follow such poisonous ideologies though I certainly believe my other relatives thought it was. My distant cousin is a young man alone in his room, they reason, who cant even afford a place of his own in the foothills of the Appalachians. He is hardly Donald Trump, who is a much larger risk to national security. What harm can he really do with his isolated swastika?

And on that they may be right. But Timothy McVeigh was an itinerant young man who sold racist novels at gun shows before he blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City. We all have agency over our own thoughts and actions, and my cousin like every white supremacist before him has the agency over his.

That doesnt mean the decision is always straightforward. The reasons people gravitate towards white nationalism are varied and complex. Foley-Martinez says she and others like her have unprocessed trauma which contributes to their radicalization. Certainly, alienation and the desire for a sense of community and belonging are known to attract people to everything from gangs to the Klan. Yet not everyone who is traumatized or lonely ends up with a swastika hanging in their room. And certainly not every lonely and traumatized person attempts to violently overthrow the American government.

Every person who stormed the Capitol a year ago had family who loved them, who thought they were sweet kids who didnt know better. Ashli Babbitts grandfather called her an excellent patriot. People who knew Roseanne Boyland, the woman who had a heart attack and died that day while joining the insurrection, described her as a sweet girl. Ignoring those who join in with dangerous movements, however much we love them, is a luxury we can no longer afford.

We know now that both Ashli Babbitt and Roseanne Boyland showed signs of radicalization before January 6. Both were known adherents to the QAnon lie, with Babbitt wearing a T-shirt saying We are Q to an earlier event. Their families were aware of their beliefs, too: Boylands begged her not to attend the Stop the Steal rally that turned into a riot.

Its hard to say what would have happened had Boyland heeded their warnings. Perhaps she would have realized shed been sold a bill of lies. Or perhaps she would have continued down the radicalization rabbit hole. Well never know.

Similarly, I dont know what to do about my relative. Hes a distant cousin I do not know well weve only met once or twice so intervening will likely do no good. Ideally, a gently challenging conversation would be broached by those close to him. But they seem blind, perhaps wilfully, to the danger he is in and the danger he represents.

Go here to read the rest:

A year after the Capitol riot, my cousin has a Nazi flag on his bedroom wall - The Independent

This comes in response to accusations of the glorification of Nazism in the country. Thousands of far-right activists held a torch-lit march in Kiev to mark the birthday of a controversial Adolf Hitler collaborator, Stepan Bandera.

Reacting to the march, a top Russian legislator called for a pan-European response.

In a Telegram post, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin condemned the actions of the far-right, calling them "unacceptable".

He said: It is unacceptable when, in the 21st century, Nazi leaders are glorified again, those who organized atrocities, were Nazi collaborators, burned villages to the ground, killed elderly people, women, children and babies."

He called on Brussels to join forces with Russia in condemning the movement, even threatening Ukraine with sanctions.

He said: What is happening in Ukraine must be condemned by the European Parliament, PACE [the Council of Europe] and the OSCE PA.

"Its leadership must be held accountable for the promotion of nationalism, sanctions must be imposed, everything must be done to stop its resurgence in Europe.

He added that the country is increasingly sliding toward a state based on a nationalist ideology", promising to raise the issue with European lawmakers during upcoming inter-parliamentary meetings.

This comes amid simmering tensions between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow amassed tens of thousands of troops along its border.

READ MORE:Putin outsmart EU with new gas deal to pump 'same amount' to China

The OUN carried out thousands of murders, many of whom were civilians, during a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, killing as many as 100,000 people over the course of two years.

However, Mr Bandera's legacy has triggered a mixed response from Ukrainian governments in recent years.

In 2010, Mr Bandera was named a "Hero of Ukraine" by outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko but he was later stripped of the title in 2011 under President Viktor Yanukovych.

And when President Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, Kiev's City Council renamed the citys Moscow Avenue Stepan Bandera Avenue, to mark the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine.

Israel also hit out at Kiev's nationalist march, calling it "insulting".

In a Facebook post, Israel's Embassy said: "The glorification of those who supported Nazi ideology insults the memory of the victims of Holocaust in Ukraine."

See the article here:

Putin demands EU joins forces with Russia in severe Nazi crackdown in Ukraine - Daily Express