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The German government has sacked the commander of the prestigious "KSK" special forces. Brigadier General Reinhard Guenzel wrote a letter of support to a politician who sparked outrage with comments widely interpreted as belittling the Holocaust. Guenzel told the conservative deputy, who compared the actions of Jews during the Russian revolution with those of the Nazis, "You are clearly expressing the view of the majority of our nation."

Defence Minister Peter Struck has now dismissed the 59-year-old general, saying he had damaged the country's image. Struck insisted: "This is about a lone, confused general who agreed with an even more confused statement made by a conservative member of parliament." Christian Democrat politician Martin Hohmann read the letter on national television over the weekend. He had previously apologised for saying Jews, like Germans, could be considered a race of perpetrators. Party bosses have condemned Hohmann's comments but stopped short of expelling him.

[Source: (once again) Euronews.net]

Quote:

Originally posted by Dreamer128:
Struck insisted: "This is about a lone, confused general who agreed with an even more confused statement made by a conservative member of parliament."

A lone, confused general? I wonder.
Maybe confused because he was stupid enough to write the letter. But not confused as in "he didn't mean what he was saying"
And I'm afraid he's not the only one thinking like that. :(

Well I have to admit that I am totally confused too. What exactly was the chastisement of the original MP for?

As I understood it, he stated that there were jewish elements in the Russian revolutionary execution squads. That statement is historically accurate.

He then went on to say that you <u>can't</u> describe jewish people as "a nation of perpetrators" simply because of this fact anymore than you can call German people a 'nation of perpetrators' as a result of their nazi driven holocaust.

So what exactly is the apology for - and why was the general sacked for supporting him?

They say the remarks made by the politician and agreed with by the general were widely perceived as belittling the Holocaust. Were they?

It may be a bit of overreaction of the ministry of defense, but then this is a very sensitive topic. Based on this letter nobody can say if he actually is antisemitic, however it was not a very diplomatic thing to write.

The speech starts as common German right-wing program and centers on:
+ showing extreme examples of welfare abuse, especially by immigrants
+ talking about the forgotten historical instances where Germans (and of course this is not talk about German jews) were the victims
+ critizising the overly exact studies and memorials Germans practice concerning the holocaust
+ putting the blame mostly on Hitler as a person and not on the German people
+ marking other nationalities as anti-semitic too by showing famous people with antisemitic views/works. One example in his speech is Henry Ford's book "The International Jew" (which was in fact not written by Henry Ford but only published by him as the collection of a series of articles that were printed in one of his newspapers based on the "protocols of Zion" documents about a Jewish world conspiration proven to be forged in the early 1920ies)
In the end however it gets clearly antisemitic:
The most critical passage in the speech however is when he starts talking about the involvement of Jews in the communist revolutions and suggests to mark the jews as the culprits of it like the Germans are made responsible for the Shoa. He then goes on comparing "Bolschewistic Jews" to Nazis because they both have "abandoned the religion they were raised with".

You can read it in whole (but only in German) here:
http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/mel...535644,00.html

The General's letter is a laudatio only and does in no way mention special passages of the speech:

Quote:

"Sehr geehrter Herr Abgeordneter,
für Ihren Vortrag zum Nationalfeiertag bedanke ich mich sehr herzlich. Eine ausgezeichnete Ansprache, wenn ich mir dieses Urteil erlauben darf, wie man sie mit diesem Mut zur Wahrheit und Klarheit in unserem Land nur noch sehr selten hört und liest. Und auch, wenn sich all diejenigen, die sich dieser Auffassung anschließen oder sie gar laut und deutlich artikulieren, von unserer veröffentlichten Meinung sofort in die rechtsradikale Ecke gestellt werden, können Sie sicher sein, dass Sie mit diesen Gedanken der Mehrheit unseres Volkes eindeutig aus der Seele sprechen. Ich hoffe, dass Sie sich durch Anwürfe aus dem vorwiegend linken Lager nicht beirren lassen und mutig weiterhin Kurs halten.
Mit einem herzlichen Gruß bin ich Ihr Reinhard Günzel, Brigadegeneral."

I'll take the time to translate roughly (I'm sorry but I can't do it for the speech):

Quote:

"Dear Member of Parliament,
I thank you very much for your lecture on [the] National Holiday. An exceptional speech, if I may say so, like you only hear or read with this courage for truth in our country seldomly. And even, if all these, who assent to this statement or even articulate it loud and clearly, are immediately flagged as right-wing radicals by our published opinions, you can be assured, that with this thoughts you do exactly express what the majority of our people feels. I hope, that you will not be mislead by reprovals from the mainly left side of the political spectrum and boldly steer your course.
With a heartily greeting
Yours Reinhard Günzel, Brigadegeneral."

[ 11-05-2003, 03:07 PM: Message edited by: Faceman ]

Hmmm. It would be interesting to see Gen Guenzel and Gen Boykin in the same room together with the media fielding them questions OR those two side by side giving their lecture. Just a thought. :D

Thanks for the clarification Faceman!