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(dramatic music)
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Two sig runes,
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the symbol for the Schutzstaffel, the SS.
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(dramatic music)
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It was rugged. It was aggressive.
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They stand for terror and depression,
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for the most serious crimes against humanity.
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What is so fascinating about that jagged S?
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(dramatic music)
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They had black pennants
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with a sig rune on them, I thought that was great.
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The runes supposedly have their origins
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among the Teutons, the people of the North,
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considered by the Nazis to be a superior race.
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The SS rune stands for Germanic culture,
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which the Nazis wanted to convey as part of their myth.
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But the symbol of the SS has,
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of all things, a Semitic origin.
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And those sig runes are still used today,
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for instance in popular music,
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in order to cause a sensation, and with right wing radicals.
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They sometimes use it in a modified form
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to avoid prosecution, but also present it unaltered.
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Today they're used to symbolize strength.
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It says we're prepared to use violence.
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So how should Germany
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deal with the old runes of the SS?
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Is a ban the correct approach?
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You can ban symbols, but the conviction
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itself has to come about through democratic means.
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The signs of evil,
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the work of an impoverished graphic designer.
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We go on the trail of the history of a dangerous symbol.
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(dramatic music)
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East Westphalia, the heartland of ancient Gamalia.
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It's a focus for delusions of race and native soil.
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The Externsteine, 40 meters high,
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became a Germanic sacred site.
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And Hermann, the Cherusk, became a symbol
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of the superiority of the German race.
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The Wewelsburg was of special interest to the Nazis.
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The Renaissance structure, once a Bishop's palace,
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simply needed the right history.
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And SS historians obliged.
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The Wewelsburg was declared
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to supposedly have ancient Germanic heritage.
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Immediately after visiting for the first time,
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SS Commander Heinrich Himmler
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made it the headquarters of his black order.
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The marshal new nobility, as Himmler called the SS,
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was to have a kind of Camelot here.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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{\an8}The SS considered itself
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{\an8}to be the avant-garde, and assumed that
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{\an8}the majority of Germans were not mature enough.
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That applied to their horrible racist policies,
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their murderous policies,
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as well as to their bizarre cultic ideas.
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Himmler's castle was only the beginning.
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The village of Wewelsburg was to be moved,
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and the castle complex was to provide space for
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an SS Academy, an elite school for the master race.
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Construction was set to start after the final victory.
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Himmler gradually expanded the power and size of the SS.
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Out of Adolph Hitler's household and security guards,
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Himmler created a state within a state.
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The SS took over control of the police,
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and the concentration camps.
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Later, it unleashed the Holocaust.
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Himmler, who was shy
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and very introverted was, if you will,
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{\an8}the ideal hand of a secret police
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{\an8}and operators of repression that operated covertly.
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The genocide began on the Eastern Front.
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a Memorial on the Northern outskirts of Kiev
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commemorates one of the worst SS crimes of 1941.
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In the ravine at Babi Yar,
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33,000 Jews were shot dead over two days.
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A survivor remembers.
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They had to lie face down on the bodies
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of the murdered, and wait for the shots from above.
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Then came the next group.
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Jews died for 36 hours.
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(contemplative music)
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The runes were the symbol
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uniting the perpetrators.
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They consider themselves guardians of blood purity.
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Ultimately, the SS would have 800,000 members.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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They were mobilized by propaganda
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{\an8}that states we are superior to the others.
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{\an8}But for that they need someone
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{\an8}who is unequivocally beneath them.
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And the antisemitic insanity, the world conspiracy theories,
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led to an explosion of violent excess.
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And within the framework of this dynamic,
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symbols like this help.
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Graphic artist, Walter Heck from the Rhineland
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develop the double rune in 1929.
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Later he wrote...
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The initial designs were unsuccessful,
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because I didn't like the soft lines of the customary S,
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which also did not at all correspond
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to the character of the Schutzstaffel.
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I had the idea of representing the two S's
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in the form of two lightning bolts.
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And so unconsciously, came upon the runes.
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It was the birth of the SS symbol.
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Heck himself was an SS First Lieutenant,
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and kept his head above water with casual labor.
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He got this assignment through Yusef Guray,
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the Director of Southern Rheinland.
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Considering the later significance of the SS runes,
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his payment was modest, just two and a half reichsmarks.
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(dramatic music)
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Walter Heck completely relinquished
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the rights to his design.
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Five years later,
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once Himmler had eliminated all of his rivals,
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the jagged lightning bolts came to signify
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the terror spread by the self-proclaimed Arian elite.
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Victor Klemperer, a journalist from a Jewish family,
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closely observed the signs of that time.
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He wrote...
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Long before the Nazi SS existed,
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you could see the symbols in red paint
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on transformer sheds with a warning below.
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Danger, high voltage.
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Here the jagged S was apparently
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a stylized image of a lightning bolt.
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Lightning, which in its energy storage and speed
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is such a beloved symbol of Nazism.
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So the SS characters could also be
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a pictorial expression of lightning.
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(dramatic music)
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(speaking in foreign language)
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{\an8}The SS rune has aggression in it.
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{\an8}In the it's designed, it stands for
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{\an8}the lightening bolts that it transmits,
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but also for the Germanic, which the national socialists
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wanted to convey in the form of myth.
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Runes were the written characters
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of the Germanic peoples.
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Starting around 200 AD, they were carved into wood or stone.
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They were used to inscribe objects, such as coins,
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gifts, burial objects, and memorials.
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(contemplative music)
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Many Germanic tribes had different runes.
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They stood for sounds and meanings, but also for numbers,
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and supposedly also contained magical energy.
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From the point of view of the cultivated Romans,
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the Teutons seemed backwards.
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(contemplative music)
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{\an8}The Teutons were barbarians,
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{\an8}and the ones who lacked a culture.
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{\an8}They were the primitives
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{\an8}who just scratched out a few things in runes.
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The Romans had long had
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a complex written language in which,
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like the Persians and Greeks,
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they wrote documents and literature.
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They looked down on the barbarians in the North,
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whom they considered to be simple savages.
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Today, only a few experts are truly familiar
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with the runic characters of the Germanic tribes.
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Professor Klaus Duwel from Goettingen provides
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an example of how the comparatively
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primitive writing can be interpreted.
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(contemplative music)
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(speaking in foreign language)
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This stone says,
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{\an8}King Sven had this stone set for Scarfee, his lead man.
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It reads up here, then down, up again, then down again.
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And he traveled far to the West,
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and died here near High Tabu.
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Historically, all Germanic languages
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come from the Proto-Germanic.
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That's supposedly the origin of the word
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runo or rune, which means secret.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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But researchers are still
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unsure about the origin of runes.
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Of the 6,500 runic inscriptions that have been found so far,
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several are based on an alphabet with 24 letters.
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They are related to other European writing.
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(contemplative music),
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Basically, there are four major theories
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that ascribed the runic writing system
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{\an8}to one of the Southern European alphabets.
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By the Greek, Latin, Etruscan, or,
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and that has been investigated again in the modern era,
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directly to Phoenician.
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(contemplative music)
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Whatever route runic writing took
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until it arrived among the peoples in the North,
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whether it came to the Teutons from the Etruscans,
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ancient Rome, or ancient Greece,
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it's origin is most likely Phoenecian.
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The cradle of all European written language,
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including Germanic runic scripts, lies in the Middle East
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in what is today Syria, Lebanon, and Israel,
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a small strip along the East coast of the Mediterranean sea.
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(dramatic music)
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The Phoenicians were a seafaring people
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who influenced the world of the Mediterranean for centuries.
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They belonged to the family of Semitic peoples,
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and considered themselves descendants of Abraham.
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(dramatic music)
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Did Heinrich Himmler,
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and his Germanic racists know all of that?
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Probably not, as the researchers of the 1930s
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still knew very little about the history of languages.
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So it is a cruel irony of fate that perpetrators
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of the Holocaust carried out that murderous campaigns
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while wearing insignia with Semitic roots.
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(dramatic music)
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But for scholars today,
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runes remain a worthwhile subject of research.
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Runes are exceptional,
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in that they have both a name and a meaning.
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This dual aspect of the runes
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{\an8}as letters and as symbols is unique.
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The M rune stands for the letter M,
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but also for the word for person.
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The S rune stands for the letter S,
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but also for the word for sun.
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The Teutons themselves could not explain
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where their graphic characters came from.
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They attributed magical powers to the characters,
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and told stories about their energy and power.
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A few literate people feared the characters power,
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and change their names.
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Klaus Duwel demonstrates using
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the example of a clothing clasp.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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The name of the person
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who made this inscription is hidden here.
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{\an8}So that it's magic would not work on him,
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{\an8}we suspect that he altered his name.
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He should be called Boriso, but what's written is Buyiso.
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(dramatic music)
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The runes have yet
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to reveal all of their secrets.
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Runology is characterized
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by a number of open questions.
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So basically there's a lot we don't yet know.
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{\an8}And that leads to lay people
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{\an8}and enthusiastic getting involved.
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That includes fantasists,
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like the so-called folkish movement.
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Aggressively antisemitic, this populous movement
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laid the groundwork in the late 19th century
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for that which was to come later.
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Guido von List was one of them.
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He believed in supernatural messages.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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{\an8}During an illness,
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{\an8}when he nearly went blind, Guido von List
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had an inspiration, an intuition, perhaps also a vision.
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And he said that showed him this runic alphabet.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Guido von List coined the term siegrune.
264
00:14:46,730 --> 00:14:48,863
It's a neologism by a charlatan.
265
00:14:51,470 --> 00:14:52,850
You can't completely deny
266
00:14:52,850 --> 00:14:55,480
that we're dealing with runic forms.
267
00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:58,710
But he combined these runic forms, and above all,
268
00:14:58,710 --> 00:15:02,610
changed them and gave them fake names by assigning the runes
269
00:15:02,610 --> 00:15:05,620
{\an8}designations that sounded like the real ones,
270
00:15:05,620 --> 00:15:06,920
{\an8}but were slightly changed.
271
00:15:09,450 --> 00:15:10,740
With Guido von List,
272
00:15:10,740 --> 00:15:12,760
terms that the Nazis end up adopting
273
00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:16,110
are mixed with crude ideas about Germanic culture.
274
00:15:16,110 --> 00:15:18,100
It's a mixture that was then turned against
275
00:15:18,100 --> 00:15:21,713
the supposed, root of all evil, against Jews.
276
00:15:26,140 --> 00:15:27,886
(speaking in foreign language)
277
00:15:27,886 --> 00:15:28,719
The folkish thinkers 19th century
278
00:15:29,570 --> 00:15:32,640
{\an8}undertook a racist, folkish reinterpretation
279
00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:35,070
{\an8}of the entire runic system.
280
00:15:35,070 --> 00:15:38,160
The Nazis incorporated it, because it fitted in
281
00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:40,463
very well with their so-called ideology.
282
00:15:44,710 --> 00:15:46,180
To that end, scholars at
283
00:15:46,180 --> 00:15:49,200
the University of Goettingen were brought into line.
284
00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:51,030
Starting in 1938,
285
00:15:51,030 --> 00:15:53,863
there was a dedicated Institute of Runology.
286
00:15:55,790 --> 00:15:57,720
The faculty were meant to provide proof
287
00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:00,380
for the belief at the core of the Nazi madness,
288
00:16:00,380 --> 00:16:02,823
the superiority of the Germanic race.
289
00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:09,020
They asserted that it wasn't
290
00:16:09,020 --> 00:16:10,580
{\an8}the Greeks, Romans, or Phoenicians
291
00:16:10,580 --> 00:16:12,990
{\an8}who invented written language, but the Teutons.
292
00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:17,620
Back in 1935, Himmler had created
293
00:16:17,620 --> 00:16:19,680
an ancestral heritage research team,
294
00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,270
to which he appointed dubious experts
295
00:16:22,270 --> 00:16:25,603
more motivated by ideology than serious scholarship.
296
00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:32,590
Many of them were esotericists and occultists.
297
00:16:32,590 --> 00:16:36,203
They dug, grave robbed, and reinterpreted.
298
00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:40,320
To them simple ornamentation
299
00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:43,060
was enough to prove an ideology.
300
00:16:43,060 --> 00:16:45,700
And if they couldn't find the proof they wanted,
301
00:16:45,700 --> 00:16:47,523
sometimes they helped it along.
302
00:16:50,290 --> 00:16:54,910
In 1938, Himmler sent his men to the roof of the world.
303
00:16:54,910 --> 00:16:57,623
They were meant to find traces of the Aryans in Tibet.
304
00:16:58,470 --> 00:17:01,420
Himmler imagined them as descendants of a civilization
305
00:17:01,420 --> 00:17:04,293
that survived the downfall of Atlantis in the Himalayas.
306
00:17:07,610 --> 00:17:10,080
The expedition found that the Tibetan nobility
307
00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:14,210
especially showed Aryan elements, and were certainly suited
308
00:17:14,210 --> 00:17:16,503
to be a partner people to the Germans.
309
00:17:22,975 --> 00:17:24,930
(speaking in foreign language)
310
00:17:24,930 --> 00:17:26,300
Of course, Himmler lived in part
311
00:17:26,300 --> 00:17:28,240
{\an8}in a fantasy world that was dominated
312
00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:31,870
{\an8}by those sorts of Germanic myths, and occult topics.
313
00:17:31,870 --> 00:17:33,760
But one mustn't overlook the fact that
314
00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:35,640
even with all these private hobbies,
315
00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:38,470
he by no means neglected the power political realities
316
00:17:38,470 --> 00:17:41,197
he had to deal with as SS Vice Fuhrer.
317
00:17:43,110 --> 00:17:45,850
The SS Vice Fuhrer loved to surround himself
318
00:17:45,850 --> 00:17:50,850
with willing henchman, those included Karl Maria Wiligut,
319
00:17:50,980 --> 00:17:54,837
an a cultist from Austria with supposed psychic abilities.
320
00:17:59,098 --> 00:18:00,520
Himmler believed that in Wiligut
321
00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,200
he had found a descendant of an ancient clan,
322
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:04,650
{\an8}in which ancient knowledge had been
323
00:18:04,650 --> 00:18:06,730
{\an8}handed down through the generations.
324
00:18:06,730 --> 00:18:09,200
{\an8}So when he dealt with him, and asked him questions
325
00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:11,330
he believed that he was thus able to communicate
326
00:18:11,330 --> 00:18:13,253
with the Germanic primeval world.
327
00:18:16,070 --> 00:18:18,090
The SS Brigadier General became
328
00:18:18,090 --> 00:18:20,593
Himmler's advisor for symbols and ceremonies.
329
00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:27,100
Wiligut was also able to work as a designer.
330
00:18:27,100 --> 00:18:29,883
The notorious skull ring was his creation.
331
00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:33,200
He also had the rendering removed from
332
00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,460
the outer walls of the Wewelsburg,
333
00:18:35,460 --> 00:18:37,963
in order to make it look more Germanic.
334
00:18:41,740 --> 00:18:46,520
But in 1939, Karl Maria Wiligut had to leave the SS.
335
00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:48,490
He had failed to reveal the fact that he was
336
00:18:48,490 --> 00:18:51,160
an escaped patient from an insane asylum.
337
00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:53,690
Nonetheless, Himmler continued to maintain
338
00:18:53,690 --> 00:18:55,193
a discreet contact with him.
339
00:19:00,230 --> 00:19:01,640
{\an8}The Nazis didn't care so much
340
00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:03,750
{\an8}about demonstrating a development.
341
00:19:03,750 --> 00:19:05,890
Rather they wanted to prove above all,
342
00:19:05,890 --> 00:19:08,673
that history was based on the permanence of races.
343
00:19:09,620 --> 00:19:12,393
Investigating the past was meant to prove
344
00:19:12,393 --> 00:19:14,743
that there is a superior race in human history.
345
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:19,910
The SS was meant to wage war,
346
00:19:19,910 --> 00:19:23,170
not only for the state, but for the Aryan race.
347
00:19:23,170 --> 00:19:26,680
That included especially fanatical frontline combat units,
348
00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,460
as well as task forces for killing Jews,
349
00:19:29,460 --> 00:19:32,457
and the units assigned to the death camps.
350
00:19:32,457 --> 00:19:35,207
(dramatic music)
351
00:19:36,430 --> 00:19:40,080
What they all had in common was the SS runes.
352
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,163
They were a form of identification.
353
00:19:43,260 --> 00:19:45,290
In his messages to the front,
354
00:19:45,290 --> 00:19:48,250
the leadership of the SS Senior District Southwest
355
00:19:48,250 --> 00:19:50,853
expressed his enthusiasm for the symbols.
356
00:19:52,500 --> 00:19:53,630
It's not for nothing that
357
00:19:53,630 --> 00:19:55,300
the sig runes on the black lapels
358
00:19:55,300 --> 00:19:57,890
of the Waffen SS seems so mysterious,
359
00:19:57,890 --> 00:20:00,430
and yet are so simple to interpret.
360
00:20:00,430 --> 00:20:03,803
Victory. Again and again, victory.
361
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:07,300
Soon, the double lightening bolts
362
00:20:07,300 --> 00:20:09,250
are given their own key on typewriters.
363
00:20:14,485 --> 00:20:16,480
The trademark of the supposed Nazi elite
364
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:18,780
is to be typed in a Germanic style,
365
00:20:18,780 --> 00:20:20,583
even in official documents.
366
00:20:25,900 --> 00:20:27,640
{\an8}The fact that the symbol of the SS,
367
00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:30,020
{\an8}the double sig rune was made a character
368
00:20:30,020 --> 00:20:32,023
on typewriters is unprecedented.
369
00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:35,520
The new key was also meant
370
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,210
to help make typing more efficient.
371
00:20:38,210 --> 00:20:40,700
Since the occupation of areas in the East,
372
00:20:40,700 --> 00:20:42,523
the bureaucracy had swelled.
373
00:20:43,410 --> 00:20:46,853
The runes of the SS became seen more commonly in Germany.
374
00:20:47,831 --> 00:20:50,400
(speaking in foreign language)
375
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:51,928
{\an8}People began to notice that apparently
376
00:20:51,928 --> 00:20:54,640
{\an8}those wearing this label were allowed to do things
377
00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,040
{\an8}that a government is normally not allowed to do.
378
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,250
And this label was in great demand.
379
00:21:02,250 --> 00:21:04,523
It represented power and advantages.
380
00:21:06,120 --> 00:21:08,033
There was also an opposite label,
381
00:21:10,905 --> 00:21:13,290
and that was the yellow Jewish badge.
382
00:21:13,290 --> 00:21:15,793
Those who had to wear that were nothing.
383
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:18,133
They had no power.
384
00:21:19,100 --> 00:21:21,203
They were vermin to be eliminated.
385
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:26,500
Victor Klemperer observed
386
00:21:26,500 --> 00:21:28,483
the coarsening of German society.
387
00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:30,713
He wrote...
388
00:21:33,660 --> 00:21:35,670
Today I asked myself again,
389
00:21:35,670 --> 00:21:37,963
which was the worst day for the Jews?
390
00:21:38,850 --> 00:21:42,150
September 19th, 1941.
391
00:21:42,150 --> 00:21:45,780
From that day on, they had to wear the yellow badge.
392
00:21:45,780 --> 00:21:47,440
Now that it's been introduced,
393
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:50,680
it doesn't matter anymore if Jewish homes are far apart,
394
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,610
or form their own neighborhood, because every Jew
395
00:21:53,610 --> 00:21:56,470
with a yellow star carries the ghetto with them,
396
00:21:56,470 --> 00:21:58,203
like a snail with its shell.
397
00:22:02,210 --> 00:22:04,060
Victor Klemperer, son of a rabbi
398
00:22:04,060 --> 00:22:07,360
survived the Nazi regime thanks to the help of his wife,
399
00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:09,833
considered Aryan in Nazi parlance.
400
00:22:13,885 --> 00:22:15,200
(dramatic music)
401
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:18,230
Gefreiter Joseph Growe put in a good word for the creator
402
00:22:18,230 --> 00:22:21,203
of the SS symbol, graphic artist Walter Heck.
403
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:25,770
Growe asked Himmler for some money
404
00:22:25,770 --> 00:22:28,050
for the impoverished designer, arguing that
405
00:22:28,050 --> 00:22:31,463
such a deserving comrade should not come away empty handed.
406
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:33,470
Growe wrote...
407
00:22:36,090 --> 00:22:37,560
Despite his plight,
408
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:39,915
Heck did not lay claim to any copyright,
409
00:22:39,915 --> 00:22:42,423
and agreed to a very small payment.
410
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,293
He got two and a half reichsmarks.
411
00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:49,740
It should be taken under consideration whether
412
00:22:49,740 --> 00:22:52,300
SS-Oberfuhrer, Walter Heck
413
00:22:52,300 --> 00:22:54,303
could not be accorded recognition.
414
00:22:56,125 --> 00:22:59,292
(contemplative music)
415
00:23:01,670 --> 00:23:02,780
SS Leader, Himmler
416
00:23:02,780 --> 00:23:04,660
wanted to show his gratitude.
417
00:23:04,660 --> 00:23:07,323
Four months later, he wrote to Walter Heck.
418
00:23:09,060 --> 00:23:10,380
Once the war is over,
419
00:23:10,380 --> 00:23:12,660
I intend to give you a single family house,
420
00:23:12,660 --> 00:23:16,143
with a garden, as a visible sign of my appreciation.
421
00:23:17,300 --> 00:23:19,550
However, I expect you to have already
422
00:23:19,550 --> 00:23:23,003
started a family by then, with at least two children.
423
00:23:26,980 --> 00:23:28,980
Shortly before that, Himmler had ordered
424
00:23:28,980 --> 00:23:31,620
his highest officers to Wewelsburg.
425
00:23:31,620 --> 00:23:33,790
He wants to prepare them for what was being called
426
00:23:33,790 --> 00:23:35,223
a struggle of annihilation.
427
00:23:36,481 --> 00:23:38,100
{\an8}(speaking in foreign language)
428
00:23:38,100 --> 00:23:39,380
{\an8}A few days before the start
429
00:23:39,380 --> 00:23:41,600
{\an8}of the Russia offensive, there was a meeting
430
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:44,760
at Wewelsburg of high ranking SS leaders,
431
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:46,990
who where be put in the mood, so to speak,
432
00:23:46,990 --> 00:23:50,253
for the imminent historic war against the Soviet Union.
433
00:23:51,180 --> 00:23:54,953
And that required a certain intimate atmosphere.
434
00:23:57,060 --> 00:23:59,500
Later, one of the SS officers would say
435
00:23:59,500 --> 00:24:01,770
that Himmler spoke of the decimation
436
00:24:01,770 --> 00:24:04,183
of the Slavic race by 30 million.
437
00:24:07,290 --> 00:24:10,192
For his speech, Himmler used a hall called the
438
00:24:10,192 --> 00:24:14,109
(speaking in foreign language)
439
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,510
Here, around the so-called black sun,
440
00:24:17,510 --> 00:24:19,460
The race fanatics forged their plans
441
00:24:19,460 --> 00:24:22,624
for the Third Reich, as Himmler imagined it.
442
00:24:22,624 --> 00:24:25,791
(contemplative music)
443
00:24:30,230 --> 00:24:32,170
This hall, designed by the SS during
444
00:24:32,170 --> 00:24:33,860
the remodeling of the Wewelsburg,
445
00:24:33,860 --> 00:24:37,310
today has special significance for neo-Nazis.
446
00:24:37,310 --> 00:24:40,840
In its black sun, they see 12 sig runes,
447
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,363
or three swastikas laid on top of each other.
448
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,310
Graphic designer, Andreas Koop
449
00:24:47,310 --> 00:24:49,660
studied the symbol extensively.
450
00:24:49,660 --> 00:24:53,413
Some see it as a black sun, others simply as a sun wheel.
451
00:24:57,600 --> 00:24:58,850
{\an8}The strength of this symbol
452
00:24:58,850 --> 00:25:00,490
{\an8}is that it leaves a lot of room
453
00:25:00,490 --> 00:25:02,390
{\an8}for interpretations like that.
454
00:25:02,390 --> 00:25:05,350
Everyone can see in it what he wants to see.
455
00:25:05,350 --> 00:25:07,700
But as with the SS rune itself,
456
00:25:07,700 --> 00:25:09,850
the design of the symbol is one thing.
457
00:25:09,850 --> 00:25:12,800
But the loading of it with meaning is something else again.
458
00:25:14,550 --> 00:25:16,130
Some of Himmler's esoterics
459
00:25:16,130 --> 00:25:18,110
believe the black sun produced the light
460
00:25:18,110 --> 00:25:20,393
from which the Proto-Aryans arose.
461
00:25:24,030 --> 00:25:26,900
Others see a connection with the Teutonic order,
462
00:25:26,900 --> 00:25:30,203
with the Nordic era saga, or even with King Arthur.
463
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,400
Right below the ornament is a hall with a decorated dome.
464
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:38,903
It feels like a crypt.
465
00:25:40,540 --> 00:25:41,373
To make it,
466
00:25:41,373 --> 00:25:45,280
several floors in the Wewelsburg's north tower were removed.
467
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,600
That kind of work was done by forced laborers
468
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,973
from the nearby Niederhagen concentration camp.
469
00:25:54,340 --> 00:25:55,430
It's still not clear
470
00:25:55,430 --> 00:25:57,680
what the domed hall was meant to be used for.
471
00:26:03,150 --> 00:26:04,960
{\an8}These occult symbols and rituals
472
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:06,430
{\an8}had great meaning for the SS,
473
00:26:06,430 --> 00:26:09,190
{\an8}when you consider the cohesion of the organization,
474
00:26:09,190 --> 00:26:12,177
and its differentiation from the rest of the world.
475
00:26:14,890 --> 00:26:17,080
Himmler's SS provided thousands
476
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:19,093
of perpetrators of the Holocaust.
477
00:26:21,220 --> 00:26:23,080
Many of them were motivated to kill
478
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:25,373
by a deep racist delusion.
479
00:26:29,670 --> 00:26:31,560
Hitler was aware of how valuable
480
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:34,283
his loyal Heinrich, as he called him, was.
481
00:26:35,690 --> 00:26:39,053
But he was suspicious of his fondness for the supernatural.
482
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:44,100
{\an8}There are very clear statements
483
00:26:44,100 --> 00:26:46,510
{\an8}from Hitler made in trusted company,
484
00:26:46,510 --> 00:26:49,710
where he considered this, as he called it, occult nonsense
485
00:26:49,710 --> 00:26:52,920
as advocated by Himmler to be out of the question,
486
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:55,420
and thought it was a very unfortunate development.
487
00:26:57,380 --> 00:26:59,630
In his culture speech at the party rally,
488
00:26:59,630 --> 00:27:01,940
he said decidedly that the Nazi party
489
00:27:01,940 --> 00:27:04,873
was not a cult movement, but a political movement.
490
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:09,300
At the Nuremberg rally in 1938,
491
00:27:09,300 --> 00:27:12,590
Hitler declared that the insinuation into the movement
492
00:27:12,590 --> 00:27:15,890
of mystically inclined occult explorers of the beyond,
493
00:27:15,890 --> 00:27:19,710
must not be tolerated, saying that national socialism
494
00:27:19,710 --> 00:27:22,680
was a cool doctrine of reality.
495
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:24,610
Hitler and the SS began wrestling
496
00:27:24,610 --> 00:27:26,563
over interpretational sovereignty.
497
00:27:27,410 --> 00:27:29,803
What do the signs of evil ready stand for?
498
00:27:31,020 --> 00:27:33,930
Back in May, 1933, the Nazi regime
499
00:27:33,930 --> 00:27:36,909
passed a law protecting national symbols.
500
00:27:36,909 --> 00:27:40,076
(contemplative music)
501
00:27:44,493 --> 00:27:46,090
(speaking in foreign language)
502
00:27:46,090 --> 00:27:47,550
{\an8}The Nazis had a greater awareness
503
00:27:47,550 --> 00:27:49,430
{\an8}that symbols were hugely important
504
00:27:49,430 --> 00:27:51,670
{\an8}for the cohesion of the organization.
505
00:27:51,670 --> 00:27:54,860
That must not be allowed to be sentimentalizes.
506
00:27:54,860 --> 00:27:56,880
That's why there was that early law
507
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:00,000
against the misuse of Nazi symbols.
508
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:01,660
There was a real industry that produced
509
00:28:01,660 --> 00:28:04,670
the most outlandish things, which of course tended
510
00:28:04,670 --> 00:28:07,433
to contribute to making those symbols look ridiculous.
511
00:28:11,270 --> 00:28:13,670
Christmas tree ornaments with Hitler's face,
512
00:28:13,670 --> 00:28:18,160
Nazi party boxes, and swastika clothing were banned.
513
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:20,100
The party alone was allowed to decide
514
00:28:20,100 --> 00:28:22,563
where and when its symbols would be used.
515
00:28:26,450 --> 00:28:28,980
The dictator learned from his opponents.
516
00:28:28,980 --> 00:28:30,920
In "Mein Kampf" he wrote...
517
00:28:35,210 --> 00:28:37,010
After the war, I experienced
518
00:28:37,010 --> 00:28:39,770
a mass Marxist rally in Berlin,
519
00:28:39,770 --> 00:28:42,233
in front of the Royal palace and guns.
520
00:28:43,860 --> 00:28:47,100
A sea of red flags, red armbands, and red flowers
521
00:28:47,100 --> 00:28:52,100
gave this rally, which was attended by about 120,000 people.
522
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:54,913
A tremendous appearance, purely superficially.
523
00:28:56,340 --> 00:28:59,240
I myself could sense and understand how easily
524
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,400
an ordinary man could succumb to the suggestive allure
525
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:04,763
of such a terrifically potent spectacle.
526
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,050
Nazism was supposed to exude
527
00:29:11,050 --> 00:29:13,127
a similarly potent allure.
528
00:29:15,310 --> 00:29:18,653
Nazi symbols decorated city centers on holidays.
529
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,433
The party marketed itself with flags and bunting.
530
00:29:30,300 --> 00:29:33,210
Eva Sternheim was a member of the league of German girls,
531
00:29:33,210 --> 00:29:35,603
and was thrilled by all the symbols.
532
00:29:37,453 --> 00:29:41,390
(speaking in foreign language)
533
00:29:41,390 --> 00:29:43,140
{\an8}I liked the sig runes.
534
00:29:43,140 --> 00:29:46,490
And I envied The Young Folk, the parallel organization
535
00:29:46,490 --> 00:29:49,883
to the Young Girls League, for boys ages 10 to 14.
536
00:29:51,620 --> 00:29:54,020
They had black pennants with a sig rune on them.
537
00:29:54,942 --> 00:29:56,290
And I thought that was great.
538
00:29:56,290 --> 00:29:58,650
So I stole a sig rune pennant,
539
00:29:58,650 --> 00:30:02,003
and appointed my Young Girls group with it.
540
00:30:03,323 --> 00:30:06,510
But that didn't go down so well with one of my rivals.
541
00:30:06,510 --> 00:30:07,343
And I got in trouble.
542
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:12,940
The Nazi signs and symbols
543
00:30:12,940 --> 00:30:15,530
seemed made for each other, homogeneous,
544
00:30:15,530 --> 00:30:17,903
as if they'd been created by an agency.
545
00:30:19,466 --> 00:30:22,216
(dramatic music)
546
00:30:25,226 --> 00:30:26,290
(speaking in foreign language)
547
00:30:26,290 --> 00:30:27,840
The color code the Nazis used
548
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,630
fed very well into their whole ideology.
549
00:30:30,630 --> 00:30:32,520
You have the brown, which stands for
550
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:36,400
the militaristic aspect for the SA, and the SS.
551
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:37,810
Then you have black, of course,
552
00:30:37,810 --> 00:30:39,550
which was later used for the SS,
553
00:30:39,550 --> 00:30:42,720
{\an8}and which exuded an incredible aggressiveness and brutality,
554
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:46,076
{\an8}especially in connection with the image of the skull.
555
00:30:46,076 --> 00:30:47,700
And you have the signal color of red,
556
00:30:47,700 --> 00:30:49,530
used along with a swastika,
557
00:30:49,530 --> 00:30:52,277
which has a great pithiness and recognizability.
558
00:30:53,182 --> 00:30:56,810
(dramatic music)
559
00:30:56,810 --> 00:30:59,003
It's an ensemble of terror.
560
00:31:02,110 --> 00:31:04,483
Nazi propaganda was aggressive.
561
00:31:08,330 --> 00:31:11,153
It was accusatory, and direct.
562
00:31:12,072 --> 00:31:14,905
(dramatic music)
563
00:31:19,928 --> 00:31:22,776
(speaking in foreign language)
564
00:31:22,776 --> 00:31:23,880
{\an8}The blatant, the loud,
565
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,690
{\an8}the openly propagandistic elements
566
00:31:26,690 --> 00:31:28,270
certainly helped this regime
567
00:31:28,270 --> 00:31:30,793
be very effective and efficient back then.
568
00:31:32,330 --> 00:31:35,870
Not least because before this, no one else in politics
569
00:31:35,870 --> 00:31:39,343
had used these mass media in such an intense way.
570
00:31:41,020 --> 00:31:42,900
So the effect on the population was,
571
00:31:42,900 --> 00:31:44,403
of course, especially intense.
572
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,255
But appearances are deceiving.
573
00:31:49,255 --> 00:31:51,360
The design of the Nazis, their signs and symbols
574
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:53,460
were not part of a unified strategy.
575
00:31:53,460 --> 00:31:55,773
What unified them was simply their style.
576
00:31:57,130 --> 00:32:00,290
Even font choices were ideologically determined.
577
00:32:00,290 --> 00:32:02,990
Gothic or fraktur were all the rage.
578
00:32:02,990 --> 00:32:05,863
They were considered Teutonic, German fonts.
579
00:32:07,815 --> 00:32:09,818
(speaking in foreign language)
580
00:32:09,818 --> 00:32:11,621
{\an8}Traditionally in those folkish circles,
581
00:32:11,621 --> 00:32:13,720
{\an8}there was the notion that the German or Aryan person
582
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:17,180
{\an8}also had to distinguish himself through a special font.
583
00:32:17,180 --> 00:32:18,860
So there was a real cult surrounding
584
00:32:18,860 --> 00:32:21,973
these fraktur typefaces, German typefaces.
585
00:32:23,580 --> 00:32:25,780
Official documents were printed in fraktur.
586
00:32:25,780 --> 00:32:28,860
And film posters use the old fashioned fonts.
587
00:32:28,860 --> 00:32:31,420
In 1937, Jewish owned publishers
588
00:32:31,420 --> 00:32:33,933
were forbidden from using Gothic typefaces.
589
00:32:37,380 --> 00:32:39,620
Designer Andreas Koop has studied
590
00:32:39,620 --> 00:32:41,523
the effect of fraktur type faces.
591
00:32:47,913 --> 00:32:48,980
(speaking in foreign language)
592
00:32:48,980 --> 00:32:50,640
Here, we have an original poster
593
00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:55,640
for a speech by Hitler in 1923, typeset in a fraktur font,
594
00:32:55,930 --> 00:32:59,950
a broken script, and next to it, redesigned.
595
00:32:59,950 --> 00:33:01,730
{\an8}I think you can clearly see here
596
00:33:01,730 --> 00:33:04,520
{\an8}what a great role the typeface plays.
597
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:07,113
A font could almost have a textual influence.
598
00:33:07,980 --> 00:33:10,800
I believe the message is clearly rich.
599
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,820
It simply has something focused, populist, not elitist.
600
00:33:14,820 --> 00:33:17,580
And if you compare it to this reconstruction of the poster,
601
00:33:17,580 --> 00:33:20,160
it's almost like a technical lecture.
602
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:21,730
It has a completely different feel,
603
00:33:21,730 --> 00:33:24,033
which does not correspond to that of Hitler.
604
00:33:26,710 --> 00:33:28,900
But from 1941, Hitler,
605
00:33:28,900 --> 00:33:33,070
along with Martin Bormann, suddenly espoused Roman type.
606
00:33:33,070 --> 00:33:37,193
It was an about face, away from the allegedly old Germanic.
607
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,280
Bormann issued a circular in which he polemically stated
608
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:47,750
that for him, fraktur was only made up of schwabacher
609
00:33:47,750 --> 00:33:50,850
Jewish letters, presumably a reference to the fact
610
00:33:50,850 --> 00:33:53,580
that Jewish publishers had earlier dealt in books
611
00:33:53,580 --> 00:33:56,333
printed with the schwabacher fraktur typeface.
612
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,110
{\an8}They came from the fraktur typeface,
613
00:34:02,110 --> 00:34:04,870
{\an8}which of course had a strongly Germanic heritage,
614
00:34:04,870 --> 00:34:07,300
and which was meant to demonstrate how important it was
615
00:34:07,300 --> 00:34:11,680
to the Nazis to carry on this Germanness and its tradition.
616
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:14,870
Later they switched to a more modern antiqua font,
617
00:34:14,870 --> 00:34:17,170
which was meant to symbolize, we are also
618
00:34:17,170 --> 00:34:20,283
a modern, progressive, and above all global movement.
619
00:34:24,328 --> 00:34:26,110
That was the point, expressing the idea
620
00:34:26,110 --> 00:34:28,920
to the people out there that the Nazis represented
621
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:32,080
a movement that would eventually conquer the world,
622
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:33,580
which luckily didn't happened.
623
00:34:35,630 --> 00:34:36,800
Hitler wanted to use
624
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,870
the new typeface as an ideological message.
625
00:34:39,870 --> 00:34:42,000
In 100 years, our language will be
626
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,460
the European language, he asserted in a speech.
627
00:34:45,460 --> 00:34:48,133
And the prerequisite for that was Roman type.
628
00:34:49,490 --> 00:34:50,450
It's understandable
629
00:34:50,450 --> 00:34:52,450
that Hitler preferred antigua.
630
00:34:52,450 --> 00:34:54,240
{\an8}This font, in capital letters,
631
00:34:54,240 --> 00:34:56,780
{\an8}ideally centered along the central axis,
632
00:34:56,780 --> 00:34:59,223
is the typographical expression of power.
633
00:35:05,170 --> 00:35:06,920
Fraktur typefaces had to disappear
634
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,140
from party pamphlets, newspapers, and announcements
635
00:35:10,140 --> 00:35:12,060
to be replaced by Roman type,
636
00:35:12,060 --> 00:35:13,993
the script of the ancient Romans.
637
00:35:17,010 --> 00:35:19,850
(speaking in foreign language)
638
00:35:19,850 --> 00:35:21,710
{\an8}The entire presence of the Nazis was,
639
00:35:21,710 --> 00:35:22,900
{\an8}of course, completely aimed
640
00:35:22,900 --> 00:35:25,453
{\an8}at preventing any kind of individuality.
641
00:35:26,420 --> 00:35:28,840
Essentially, you can say that democracy stands
642
00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:33,160
for colorfulness, and dictatorships stand for monotony.
643
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:36,360
That has a lot to do with the concept of humanity behind it,
644
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:40,120
meaning that they wanted to bring everyone into line,
645
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:41,793
in the truest sense of the word.
646
00:35:45,290 --> 00:35:47,750
With the memory of defeat still fresh,
647
00:35:47,750 --> 00:35:51,023
the Nazi regime adheres to its signs of evil.
648
00:35:53,730 --> 00:35:57,653
Under their impact, resistance is opposed with deadly rigor.
649
00:36:00,550 --> 00:36:02,123
Deserters are hanged.
650
00:36:03,300 --> 00:36:04,943
Prisoners are executed.
651
00:36:09,310 --> 00:36:11,660
Obedience until the bitter end.
652
00:36:11,660 --> 00:36:14,440
Many believed to the last in a final victory,
653
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:16,653
under the banner of the SS runes.
654
00:36:17,666 --> 00:36:20,704
(speaking in foreign language)
655
00:36:20,704 --> 00:36:22,900
{\an8}In our memory, they stand for Auschwitz,
656
00:36:22,900 --> 00:36:25,350
{\an8}for a time when there was no room for humanity,
657
00:36:25,350 --> 00:36:26,500
or at least in Germany.
658
00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:32,080
They stand for World War II, and for a totalitarian regime
659
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:35,023
that was unique in its ideological power of destruction.
660
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:38,450
And they stand for an entire country,
661
00:36:38,450 --> 00:36:41,483
and many people in that country who looked away.
662
00:36:45,302 --> 00:36:48,240
(dramatic music)
663
00:36:48,240 --> 00:36:49,440
After the surrender,
664
00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:53,260
hundreds of thousands of people were arrested by the allies.
665
00:36:53,260 --> 00:36:56,530
And suddenly the SS runes were revealing.
666
00:36:56,530 --> 00:36:59,563
The symbol of evil identified perpetrators.
667
00:37:00,836 --> 00:37:03,586
(dramatic music)
668
00:37:06,470 --> 00:37:09,430
Sometimes a tattoo indicating a blood group
669
00:37:09,430 --> 00:37:10,623
was the key evidence.
670
00:37:13,550 --> 00:37:16,460
Often simply belonging to Himmler's SS
671
00:37:16,460 --> 00:37:19,173
was enough for the victors as proof of guilt.
672
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,783
Some prisoners were executed immediately.
673
00:37:23,685 --> 00:37:24,518
(guns firing)
674
00:37:24,518 --> 00:37:25,853
Others were put on trial.
675
00:37:27,310 --> 00:37:28,950
For Eva Sternheim,
676
00:37:28,950 --> 00:37:31,993
the end of the war meant the end of her world.
677
00:37:32,919 --> 00:37:36,499
(speaking in foreign language)
678
00:37:36,499 --> 00:37:38,730
That scene, and the Vice Chancellor.
679
00:37:38,730 --> 00:37:42,030
Above was a big imperial eagle holding a laurel wreath
680
00:37:42,030 --> 00:37:44,403
in its talons, with a swastika on it.
681
00:37:45,701 --> 00:37:47,560
And that was blown up.
682
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:51,210
{\an8}That still really affects me, because that was the downfall.
683
00:37:51,210 --> 00:37:53,293
{\an8}It was all over, the end.
684
00:37:55,530 --> 00:37:56,570
Later, she reckoned
685
00:37:56,570 --> 00:37:58,750
with her own history, and with Germany's.
686
00:37:58,750 --> 00:38:00,860
The German title of her book means,
687
00:38:00,860 --> 00:38:03,251
was I the only one who cheered?
688
00:38:03,251 --> 00:38:06,001
(dramatic music)
689
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,800
In October of 1945, the allies passed a law forbidding
690
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:15,253
the Nazi party, and all its organizations, including the SS.
691
00:38:19,370 --> 00:38:22,110
The newly founded Federal Republic of Germany
692
00:38:22,110 --> 00:38:26,593
went one step further, penalizing the use of Nazi symbols.
693
00:38:33,316 --> 00:38:35,080
(speaking in foreign language)
694
00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:37,350
{\an8}After that massive phase of propaganda,
695
00:38:37,350 --> 00:38:40,770
{\an8}which really did permeate the entire German population,
696
00:38:40,770 --> 00:38:43,940
it was important to ban those symbols from public life,
697
00:38:43,940 --> 00:38:46,710
in order to expedite de-nazification,
698
00:38:46,710 --> 00:38:49,440
just as it was right to ban certain literature,
699
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:51,983
certain statements, in order to rebuild democracy.
700
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:59,010
But the fatal attraction has not gone away.
701
00:38:59,010 --> 00:39:01,520
The old symbols appear again and again,
702
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:02,980
whether out of ignorance,
703
00:39:02,980 --> 00:39:06,053
an assertion of convictions, or as a provocation.
704
00:39:10,930 --> 00:39:13,560
The rock band, Kiss, gained notoriety worldwide
705
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:18,240
by using the double lightning bolts, especially
706
00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:21,279
when the runes appeared at their concerts in Germany.
707
00:39:21,279 --> 00:39:24,446
(rock and roll music)
708
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:27,670
Of course, it leads to real conflicts
709
00:39:27,670 --> 00:39:31,050
when a foreign band uses SS runes in its name.
710
00:39:31,050 --> 00:39:33,590
{\an8}And this band sells albums here in Germany,
711
00:39:33,590 --> 00:39:37,010
or goes on tour here, and then comes into conflict
712
00:39:37,010 --> 00:39:39,293
with the peculiarities of German law.
713
00:39:42,470 --> 00:39:45,260
When lawyers and fans protested, the band's
714
00:39:45,260 --> 00:39:48,630
German record company offered to change Kiss's logo.
715
00:39:48,630 --> 00:39:52,543
Shortly thereafter the label announced in a statement...
716
00:39:52,543 --> 00:39:54,970
We would never dream of suspecting the band
717
00:39:54,970 --> 00:39:57,550
of glorifying Marxism because of their logo.
718
00:39:57,550 --> 00:39:59,370
We're pleased that the band's management
719
00:39:59,370 --> 00:40:00,963
has agreed to the change.
720
00:40:03,500 --> 00:40:05,670
So Kiss, with a double S runes,
721
00:40:05,670 --> 00:40:09,360
becomes Kiss without them, but only for a short time.
722
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:11,340
The band singer's insists it's not meant to be
723
00:40:11,340 --> 00:40:14,333
a Nazi symbol, since he himself is Jewish.
724
00:40:15,970 --> 00:40:18,553
(upbeat music)
725
00:40:19,890 --> 00:40:22,370
An incident from 2015 shows how sensitive
726
00:40:22,370 --> 00:40:24,483
many people are to these signs of evil.
727
00:40:25,370 --> 00:40:27,930
At Berlin's eternally unfinished new airport,
728
00:40:27,930 --> 00:40:29,710
already a public laughing stock,
729
00:40:29,710 --> 00:40:32,423
suddenly SS runes appeared on a wall.
730
00:40:33,315 --> 00:40:35,940
(upbeat music)
731
00:40:35,940 --> 00:40:38,240
They can especially be seen online,
732
00:40:38,240 --> 00:40:40,143
but rarely on the wall itself.
733
00:40:41,290 --> 00:40:43,720
Closer investigation reveals that fixtures
734
00:40:43,720 --> 00:40:46,360
for hanging advertising signs were casting
735
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:50,186
compromising shadows under certain lighting conditions.
736
00:40:50,186 --> 00:40:52,769
(upbeat music)
737
00:41:05,798 --> 00:41:08,520
{\an8}Once you find you have to seriously consider
738
00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:11,230
{\an8}whether there is someone deliberately behind the fact
739
00:41:11,230 --> 00:41:13,960
that whenever it's sunny, the main entrance
740
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:16,370
of the airport is covered in these runes,
741
00:41:16,370 --> 00:41:19,380
due to the way the shadows fall, then you need
742
00:41:19,380 --> 00:41:21,780
to take action simply to avoid misunderstanding.
743
00:41:25,070 --> 00:41:27,030
right wing extremists like to cause
744
00:41:27,030 --> 00:41:29,903
provocation using slightly altered symbols.
745
00:41:33,310 --> 00:41:36,573
They know exactly what is allowed, and what is not.
746
00:41:37,910 --> 00:41:39,870
Extremism and racism,
747
00:41:39,870 --> 00:41:43,363
signaled through slight variations of the old symbols.
748
00:41:45,870 --> 00:41:49,330
The inhuman messages of Heinrich Himmler and his henchmen
749
00:41:49,330 --> 00:41:51,983
are still behind these tattoos of the posters.
750
00:41:54,260 --> 00:41:57,260
And the black sun continues to be used
751
00:42:00,215 --> 00:42:02,710
(speaking in foreign language)
752
00:42:02,710 --> 00:42:03,680
{\an8}In this country,
753
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:07,373
{\an8}you were allowed to have, and to express extremist views.
754
00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:11,343
As painful as that might be, it's a part of our liberty.
755
00:42:12,890 --> 00:42:15,370
The line is drawn, either where other persons
756
00:42:15,370 --> 00:42:18,240
are disparaged, or where specifically
757
00:42:18,240 --> 00:42:21,873
outlawed organizations are promoted or advertised.
758
00:42:23,190 --> 00:42:25,613
And that does not apply to the black sun.
759
00:42:28,580 --> 00:42:29,860
The black sun falls
760
00:42:29,860 --> 00:42:32,470
through the cracks of German criminal law.
761
00:42:32,470 --> 00:42:35,180
It was not the symbol of a Nazi organization,
762
00:42:35,180 --> 00:42:36,933
so it has not been banned.
763
00:42:39,090 --> 00:42:42,810
12 runes, which the SS used for their purposes.
764
00:42:42,810 --> 00:42:46,640
Back then, as today, signaling right wing views,
765
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:49,433
and a threat to all who believed differently.
766
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:54,610
We Germans are a special case.
767
00:42:54,610 --> 00:42:57,640
{\an8}Germany is more than just the Federal Republic of Germany.
768
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,290
{\an8}And it isn't, we who are the wrong way drivers,
769
00:43:00,290 --> 00:43:02,210
but everyone else is a wrong way driver.
770
00:43:02,210 --> 00:43:04,213
And I'm showing these wrong way drivers.
771
00:43:05,055 --> 00:43:08,890
Watch out, bear in mind what this symbol once meant.
772
00:43:08,890 --> 00:43:11,700
And I who now where it, think it is right.
773
00:43:11,700 --> 00:43:13,660
I think it is wrong that Hitler was unable
774
00:43:13,660 --> 00:43:16,463
to complete the job, and now I'm here to do it.
775
00:43:18,042 --> 00:43:21,959
(speaking in foreign language)
776
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:25,830
So how should a nation of law
777
00:43:25,830 --> 00:43:28,243
deal with this sort of provocation?
778
00:43:30,820 --> 00:43:34,173
Can it combat dangerous views with the code of law?
779
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:42,290
Or does it require above all, courage,
780
00:43:42,290 --> 00:43:45,350
conviction, and fortitude in order
781
00:43:45,350 --> 00:43:47,683
to break the spell of the signs of evil?
782
00:43:49,350 --> 00:43:51,523
How watchful must democracy be?
783
00:43:53,367 --> 00:43:55,820
(speaking in foreign language)
784
00:43:55,820 --> 00:43:57,580
We are witnessing how people have
785
00:43:57,580 --> 00:44:01,250
no inhibitions to say things about other people that
786
00:44:01,250 --> 00:44:04,490
{\an8}at best are insulting, and at worst are formulated
787
00:44:04,490 --> 00:44:08,030
{\an8}with the energy of spiritual arson and violence.
788
00:44:08,030 --> 00:44:09,080
And we are seeing how
789
00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:11,473
the spiritual arson becomes real arson.
790
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:15,380
According to the law,
791
00:44:15,380 --> 00:44:18,990
only what is expressed publicly can be penalized.
792
00:44:18,990 --> 00:44:21,770
It was only when Neo-Nazi and NPD politician,
793
00:44:21,770 --> 00:44:23,820
Marcel Zech was photographed shirtless
794
00:44:23,820 --> 00:44:26,750
at a swimming pool that he became culpable.
795
00:44:26,750 --> 00:44:28,530
His back is tattooed with a slogan
796
00:44:28,530 --> 00:44:30,807
from the Birkenau Concentration Camp,
797
00:44:30,807 --> 00:44:32,957
"Everyone gets what he deserves."
798
00:44:35,626 --> 00:44:37,650
{\an8}(speaking in foreign language)
799
00:44:37,650 --> 00:44:39,040
{\an8}You may indeed have yourself
800
00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:41,490
{\an8}tattooed with Nazi symbols.
801
00:44:41,490 --> 00:44:44,073
But you are not allowed to display them publicly.
802
00:44:45,110 --> 00:44:47,830
Marcel Zech, who was seen at a swimming pool with
803
00:44:47,830 --> 00:44:51,333
a concentration camp tattoo was convicted of hate speech.
804
00:44:53,170 --> 00:44:56,840
Paragraph 130 of the criminal code also condemns
805
00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:59,500
denying, condoning, or making light of
806
00:44:59,500 --> 00:45:03,158
the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis.
807
00:45:03,158 --> 00:45:06,160
(speaking in foreign language)
808
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,450
Marcel Zech also lost his case on appeal.
809
00:45:09,450 --> 00:45:12,100
In November, 2016, he was sentenced
810
00:45:12,100 --> 00:45:14,223
to eight months in prison without parole.
811
00:45:15,498 --> 00:45:19,340
(contemplative music)
812
00:45:19,340 --> 00:45:22,660
Many right wing extremists want a society without tolerance,
813
00:45:22,660 --> 00:45:26,373
and without solidarity for the marginalized, like back then.
814
00:45:27,720 --> 00:45:30,980
They identify themselves through the clothes they wear.
815
00:45:30,980 --> 00:45:34,810
A favorite label of many radicals is Thor Steinar.
816
00:45:34,810 --> 00:45:37,977
(contemplative music)
817
00:45:39,769 --> 00:45:41,959
What set the Thor Steinar logo apart
818
00:45:41,959 --> 00:45:45,080
{\an8}was that it combined two runes that were
819
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:48,053
{\an8}widely known and familiar in Nazi circles.
820
00:45:50,250 --> 00:45:52,520
The company symbol consists of the S rune,
821
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:56,130
and the tiwaz rune, the Germanic symbol for battle.
822
00:45:56,130 --> 00:45:59,178
The label has been taken to court in Germany.
823
00:45:59,178 --> 00:46:00,570
(speaking in foreign language)
824
00:46:00,570 --> 00:46:02,120
Initially the court focused on
825
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:06,170
the individual components, the sig rune and the tiwaz rune.
826
00:46:06,170 --> 00:46:08,933
And they said both are unconstitutional symbols.
827
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:12,890
The label lost its first case,
828
00:46:12,890 --> 00:46:14,313
and then won on appeal.
829
00:46:17,242 --> 00:46:18,370
(speaking in foreign language)
830
00:46:18,370 --> 00:46:19,730
{\an8}When you take different symbols,
831
00:46:19,730 --> 00:46:23,590
{\an8}each of which is actionable on its own, and create
832
00:46:23,590 --> 00:46:27,338
a new symbol that has it's own optical content,
833
00:46:27,338 --> 00:46:30,010
and has never been used by a banned organization,
834
00:46:30,010 --> 00:46:32,973
then it truly does not have the elements of an offense.
835
00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:36,860
Until the court lifted its ban,
836
00:46:36,860 --> 00:46:39,550
the company briefly used a new logo.
837
00:46:39,550 --> 00:46:43,033
In the meantime, it has returned to the previous two runes.
838
00:46:49,590 --> 00:46:51,400
{\an8}These fashion labels are important
839
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:54,710
{\an8}for the right wing camp to project their views outwardly,
840
00:46:54,710 --> 00:46:56,510
and make themselves identifiable,
841
00:46:56,510 --> 00:46:59,510
while at the same time strengthening the community inwardly.
842
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:03,510
A small group from the state
843
00:47:03,510 --> 00:47:05,680
of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern uses humor
844
00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:08,320
to take aim at the right wing label.
845
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:11,580
Its owners have created the label Storch Heiner,
846
00:47:11,580 --> 00:47:15,150
Stork Heiner, an entire stork themed collection
847
00:47:15,150 --> 00:47:17,793
with similar designs to those of Thor Steinar.
848
00:47:18,740 --> 00:47:21,260
Sales of Storch Heiner products are donated
849
00:47:21,260 --> 00:47:24,023
to projects working against right wing extremists.
850
00:47:24,997 --> 00:47:27,497
(calm music)
851
00:47:30,918 --> 00:47:31,751
(speaking in foreign language)
852
00:47:31,751 --> 00:47:33,150
They're doing exactly that,
853
00:47:33,150 --> 00:47:36,270
which should distinguish a democratic state.
854
00:47:36,270 --> 00:47:39,340
{\an8}These initiatives work with words on the one hand,
855
00:47:39,340 --> 00:47:41,970
{\an8}but also with the distortion of the original symbols.
856
00:47:41,970 --> 00:47:45,610
In doing so, they make fun of the things the other side
857
00:47:45,610 --> 00:47:48,663
takes especially seriously, and wants to venerate.
858
00:47:52,134 --> 00:47:53,230
Thor Steinar took the parodists
859
00:47:53,230 --> 00:47:55,003
to court, and lost.
860
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:58,693
But how should Germany proceed?
861
00:48:03,070 --> 00:48:06,010
Some in the country think lifting the ban on Nazi symbols
862
00:48:06,010 --> 00:48:09,527
would make them less appealing as a gesture of rebellion.
863
00:48:09,527 --> 00:48:12,694
(contemplative music)
864
00:48:16,019 --> 00:48:17,634
{\an8}(speaking in foreign language)
865
00:48:17,634 --> 00:48:18,580
{\an8}'What signal would it send,
866
00:48:18,580 --> 00:48:20,480
{\an8}if these were no longer banned?
867
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:23,220
{\an8}The message would be spread that they were allowed.
868
00:48:23,220 --> 00:48:26,070
And if the symbolism were allowed, it would seem
869
00:48:26,070 --> 00:48:28,220
that there would no longer be anything questionable
870
00:48:28,220 --> 00:48:30,570
about the thoughts and convictions behind them.
871
00:48:34,605 --> 00:48:37,170
(speaking in foreign language)
872
00:48:37,170 --> 00:48:38,510
There are certain symbols
873
00:48:38,510 --> 00:48:40,768
{\an8}that can very easily be exploited.
874
00:48:40,768 --> 00:48:44,143
{\an8}That includes, of course, the symbols from the Nazi era.
875
00:48:45,270 --> 00:48:46,760
For some people they still have a great
876
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:50,440
identification potential, they still have appeal.
877
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:52,480
And that's why it is right to keep these symbols
878
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:55,100
out of the public eye as much as possible,
879
00:48:55,100 --> 00:48:56,680
so as not to encourage these people
880
00:48:56,680 --> 00:48:59,442
to fall prey to this ideology again.
881
00:48:59,442 --> 00:49:03,359
(speaking in foreign language)
882
00:49:04,670 --> 00:49:06,750
Combating the signs of evil
883
00:49:06,750 --> 00:49:08,800
is about more than just a right wing
884
00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:12,220
clothing label, or historical details.
885
00:49:12,220 --> 00:49:14,773
It's about liberty, and the future.
886
00:49:17,776 --> 00:49:18,609
(speaking in foreign language)
887
00:49:18,609 --> 00:49:20,330
The ban on using these symbols
888
00:49:20,330 --> 00:49:24,000
will surely be maintained for a long time to come.
889
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:25,950
As long as there are still people who suffered
890
00:49:25,950 --> 00:49:28,280
{\an8}under the Nazis, for instance people
891
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,780
{\an8}whose parents were killed back then,
892
00:49:30,780 --> 00:49:33,380
the sensitivity is so great
893
00:49:33,380 --> 00:49:35,680
that these symbols will continue to be banned.
894
00:49:37,616 --> 00:49:40,449
(dramatic music)
70870
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