Reenactors demonised?

[Amadscientist]

Really, this is kind of sad to watch. If you are out of the loop a candidate for congress is being vilified for his reenactment costume and his membership in an online group that does NOT accept members who follow the politics and ideology of those they reenact.

Is this fair? Has this happened to you?

I figured THIS was the place to ask........

 

[Sigma-LS]

Sorry I saw this in the Replica Costume forum and immediately thought you were looking for Confederates with horns and batwings.

But in all seriousness, wearing QUALITY costumes even at Halloween parties is looked at by a good percentage of the population as strange. That's not even getting into SCA or Historical Reenactments or cons or whatnot.

Hell, my own parents despise all that and they are pretty good open-minded people. I'm just lucky that my girlfriend loves it.

 

[Amadscientist]

Sorry I saw this in the Replica Costume forum and immediately thought you were looking for Confederates with horns and batwings.

But in all seriousness, wearing QUALITY costumes even at Halloween parties is looked at by a good percentage of the population as strange. That's not even getting into SCA or Historical Reenactments or cons or whatnot.

Hell, my own parents despise all that and they are pretty good open-minded people. I'm just lucky that my girlfriend loves it.

I think the horned reenactors are with the Rman troup. Pan I think. LOL!

 

[javelin7369]

I honestly think it is being taken out of context, there are some nutjobs that envy the Nazi's but this was part of a re-enacting group. I use to be a re-enactor for a fort in Ohio called Fort Meigs. We never thought the people posing as the British held the belief that the US should be a colony of the UK. The main job for re-enacting is to show people history, to educate kids and adults about what happened. I think that people that are complaining that he was dressed up as a nazi are short sited and don't understand what re-enacting is. Just my two cents.

 

[Rotwang]

Several years ago there was a group of SS reenactors at the Salute Wargames show in London. I can understand that some reenactors are in for the full immersion and get down to incredible detail, but in this case I personally felt they might be pushing it by selling mugs of Hitler (modern mugs, not the period variety) and having very young children wearing BDM and Hitlerjugend outfits.

A lot of visiting wargamers were incensed about this and there was a mild media storm and then a while later the BBC showed that at least some members were clearly far-right (BNP and all that) as far as politics was concerned.

I'm not saying all of them were nazis, but I find it hard to believe that an organisation like that wouldn't draw people of that ilk and be willing or even able to put in extensive background checks to weed them out.

Besides, the SS makes people nervous, but would there have been such a huff if they were parading around in NKVD uniforms, or were a Red Khmer group ?

Reenactment groups around the WWII-modern period were under close scrutiny in Belgium and there was always a police presence or an unmarked car with somebody taking photographs at rallies and events. And while their membership included anything from high-ranking military and police officers and people who were simply motoring enthusiasts looking for something different, there was a small group of guys who had learned to skydive, were certified divers and would often travel to places like South Africa and ended up spending quite some time in Yugoslavia during the various wars ...

 

[Art Andrews]

First, want to step in and remind people not to turn this into a political issue.

Second, my personal opinion is that the ONLY reason this IS an "issue" is political in nature. Politics bring out the worst in people and makes people (on both sides) go after each other for reasons that have little to do with anything in the real world. The fact that someone dresses up like a Nazi for reenactment purposes or for general costuming, or even for collecting doesn't automatically make them a sympathizer to the Nazi belief system, but it makes for great headlines!

In reenactments, someone has to play the bad guy. Here on this site, it seems MOST of us LIKE to play the bad guy... just look at how many stormtroopers there are compared to how many rebel troopers there are. While an ignorant public might gasp at this story due to an ultra-politically correct media spoonfeeding them everything they should believe, I would like to think that most rational people would see this for what it is, yet another desperate political ploy to make something out of nothing.

 

[Amadscientist]

Re: Re Enactors demonised?

I have been costuming since I was a kid. In high school I created skits for our school pep rally. One skit we decided on was based on Hogan's Heroes but involved me dressing as Adolf Hitler and portraying the rival schools principal capturing an escaping student and the teacher/guard was Sargent Schultz. I had also created an amateur film making club at the local community center. I wanted to remake our own version of Hogan's Heroes. Well....I got pulled into the counselor's office with a sit down with her and the principal who was concerned with my interest in Nazi costumes. Once the explanation was given he actually allowed the skit, but I decided not to do the movie. But I still know how to make a replica military cap of any kind now because I was building these costumes from scratch and fabricated everything myself from fabric, cardboard, wire hanger etc.

It seems sometimes when it has to do with nazis there is too much concern with costume interest. Ah, doesn't matter. I moved on to Rocky Horror and it wasn't any more accepted in 1978 then the nazi costumes I was making. LOL! No...seriously.

 

[Bossk]

I doubt this would have ever happened if the gentleman had sticked to American Civil War reenacting. But in ths day and age, if your political opponent discovers you dress up in SS uniforms, of course they will use it against you.

I agree this does not make you a Nazi. Most people who play WWII Germans are not politically motivated, but are impressed/fascinated with the minutia and 'cool look' of German uniforms and equipment. Now if he could have just limited this to the German "look" of Star Wars Stormtroopers, he might have been ridiculed, but not reviled, as he is now.

But as a previous poster stated, there are indeed 'Nazi reenactors" who have openly demonstrated a love of Nazi ideology, and for this reason alone, anyone who reenacts the WWII German military is bound to have it 'haunt' them someday.