9 Things You Didn't Know About the Nazis

[anonman32]

Stealth bomber

This is one of the very few pictures ever taken of the secret stealth bomber project from Nazi Germany. It was one of the several revolutionary technological projects to be developed during WWII. It used a wooden frame (like plywood lol) which made it very hard for radar technology to pick up on it. The stealth bomber also makes use of jet engines which was unheard of for any airplane at the time.

A jet engine-powered plywood plane that goes faster than 1000 kilometers an hour...that's a new one for me.

Henry Ford receiving medals from Nazis

In this picture you see Henry Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the Order of the Eagle of Nazi Germany. The Grand Cross was a reward to foreign diplomats who were considered sympathetic to Nazism. This picture was taken in 1938.

Hitler had blue eyes

Many pictures of the Nazi German time period were digitized and colorized with expensive technology, but this picture has not been colorized. This picture is one of the very few color photos taken of Adolf Hitler where you can clearly see his blue eyes. In many black and white photos it appears that Hitler had brown eyes due to the nature of the photography technology at the time. But from this very rare actual color photo you can see that Hitler had actually blue eyes which is not commonly known.

American Nazi party

This is a picture of the American Nazi organization taken at Madison Square garden in 1939. Nazism was a bit more popular than people nowadays think it was.

Bosnian Islamic SS division

This is a picture of the Bosnian Islamic SS division praying. The Bosnian Islamic SS division was created to calm the unrest in Bosnia. The SS was not exclusively Aryan, not even German. it was a very multicultural paramilitary organization consisting of many divisions of many different ethnicities.

Man defying Nazism

Not all Germans agreed with Nazism. In this picture you can see an unknown man defying the authoritarian Nazi regime by not taking part in Nazism. Truly an act of civil disobedience to defy such an authoritarian regime because the Nazi salute was mandatory in Nazi Germany.

The Wehrmacht burying a RAF airman

This picture illustrates German soldiers burying a British pilot according to British customs. Nowadays it is often the said that the Wehrmacht was cruel and evil, but that is actually not true. They were not more evil or good than any other military.

Erwin Rommel wanted nothing to do with Nazism

He was the field marshal of the German military, meaning that he had achieved the highest possible rank that a person could ever achieve in the military. He was apolitical and he wanted nothing to do with the Nazi party. He was a respected and feared enemy. Once he received orders from Hitler to execute captured enemy soldiers but he ripped the orders apart claiming the orders were not clear due to a communications error.

His respect from the allied forces earned him the nickname Desert Fox as he was a formidable foe in the North African campaign. He was found to be part of a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and for this reason Hitler forced him to commit suicide by cyanide pill, in return his family would not be harmed. After his death Winston Churchill declared him a hero and friend of the allied forces for being such a respectful opponent and wanting to assassinate Hitler.

Finnish Nazis

This is a picture of Finnish Nazis walking by a destroyed Soviet tank. It was no secret that Stalin wanted to add Finland to the Soviet union as he had invaded Finland prior to WWII called the Winter War. Finland joined the the Nazis to remain independent from the Soviet union, and upon joining the Nazis the Allied forces gifted equipment and weapons to the Finnish Nazi forces to keep back the Soviet union. The objectives of Finland were successful and they remained independent.

Today, general education teaches us a simplified version of WWII. They teach us, Allied forces VS Nazis VS Soviet Union. But the Allied forces supporting the Finnish Nazi forces shows that the situation was way more complicated than many people today think it was.

[madhatters4]

cool list.

another thing that many don't know are the incredibly engineering and military feats. one massive one that stuck out to me in a documentary i watched recently. the Nazis developed and put into use the first hybrid engines. they had u-boats (submarines) that would run on gas but also switched to battery power and could go for up to about 4 hours underwater using the batteries. when they'd surface air from induction process would re-charge the batteries.

freakin awesome

sadly they were on the wrong side of history

[Blonde401]

Rommel was a fucking G. Absolutely love him, amazing military tactician and good guy. Just happened to be on the wrong side but he was a boss.

[anonman32]

Yeah he is my favorite.

[Blonde401]

Same. Him and the Duke of Wellington are my fav military tacticians

[Curmudgeon]

Sadly, there were many people in 1938 who still thought Hitler was someone with whom they could make a deal. Henry Ford was no different from Neville Chamberlain in that regard. And sometimes subtle anti-Semitic prejudice influenced that view.

In fairness, there were many Americans in 1939 who were not pro-Nazi but rather "Isolationist". America seemed to have nothing positive to show for its efforts in World War One, and all too many Americans wanted to just stay out of any further European wars.

[Righttobeararms83]

The Finns had Nazi party as did most European countries. The Finns fought against the Russians after being attacked by Russia in 1940, originally the French and Brittish were going to come to the aid of Finland against the Soviets after the Soviets had gotten into bed with Hitler for half of Poland and control of Estonia, latvia and Finland.
The SS short started recruiting from "Germanic" countries such as France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Norway but when they became short on recruits they started recruiting Arabs, cossacks etc.
The flying wing never flew and the Americans experimented with it but it only flew with fly by wire.

[Brokenheartedx]

The Germans and English put down their weapons on Christmas Day to play football with each other... another true fact

the Germans were scientifically advanced another fact that's not publically known..

They ruined themselves by the genocide that everything they could've achieved was brushed away.. their hospital treatments etc where far more adavanced than that of American and British... again they ruined it for themselves for the atrocities they caused

[Hydra6544]

That was world war 1.

[beccaboo2]

One thing I always found fascinating was that Hitler wanted to create an art museum (the Fuhrermuseum) from all of the artwork the Nazis had confiscated. A guy hell bent on annihilating millions of people was so obsessed with art. It's crazy.
Another interesting fact was that Hitler wanted to create a museum in Prague dedicated to the extermination of the Jewish people. It's one of the reasons the Nazis kept meticulous records of what they did. Today, that museum is the Jewish Museum in Prague.

[anonman32]

He firstly went to the art academy in Vienna but he was not allowed to enter so he went to sleep on the streets because he had only little money. Eventually with WWI he went into the military.

[beccaboo2]

Some say his art school rejection is one of the reasons he became the anti-semite that he was. It makes you wonder.

[anonman32]

Actually Heinrich Himmler was an anti semite from before he joined the SS and later the Nazi party itself. He hated Jews more than hitler did. Hitler had asked him not to put his driver in a concentration camp because he was hitlers friend, he was half jewish. Also one of the aryan beauty models was half jewish. Hitler just gave the yes word for the final solution but Himmler carried it all out, all how he wanted, he was the highest in command of the SS. Hitler never visited any concentration camp, but Himmler did. There are even pictures of Himmler in a staring competition with a prisoner in a concentration camp.

Himmler had formed himself a personal religion which he formed of aryan race superiority, antisemitism and norse mythology. He had implemented this in the SS. Hitler found it nonsense. All of the Nazi party was antisemite, though some more than others.

[mostwomenshouldstfu]

Hitler once said outside of the Aryan race, Muslims were the next group he identified with the most. (Islam golden age was mostly imported and appropriated, including art.)

[G-Daz]

The guy that's pictured defying the nazi regime is actually known. His wife was Jewish but he with her were shortly after placed in a gas chamber. Great take though.

Interestingly the nazi regime pushed fire eugenics. .. today the crazy left are actually pushing more towards that now with designer and same sex babies

[meatballs21]

That is August Landmesser and he was not executed. His Jewish wife was indeed taken to a death camp but Landmesser himself was conscripted into the army and killed in action.

[Azgeda]

The Horten-229 is an AMAZING piece of engineering.
It's a shame how the flying wing design isn't revitalized almost decades later after the germans have mastered it. So much german technological advancement was lost in the war.

[Righttobeararms83]

Did it not take fly by wire technology to make it fly like all unstable aeronautical designs?

[anonman32]

@Righttobeararms83 no, this plane has jet engines. It had to carry 1000 kgs of explosives at the speed of 1000 kmu with a range of 1000 kms.

[Righttobeararms83]

Yes but never flew and would have been uncontrollable by the technology of the time.

[Azgeda]

@Righttobeararms83
It actually DID flew but it crashed because of engine problems.
Early jet engines were not very reliable and considering the material shortage germany was facing at the time , the Horten was basically fighting for resources between the Arado and Me-262. The Me-262 got what little germany had left.
Politics.

[Righttobeararms83]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49
Probably too radical a design like northtops flying wing. Competing powers stopped its production

[OrdinaryGentleman]

Yup and the SS used to be a great regiment until it got stuck with back country hics, a mentally unstable leader (not hitler) Oskar Dirlewanger (rapist, torturer, all around not nice guy, with the absolute bloodiest reputation in the SS) and poachers as well as capital offenders.
36th Grenader Division gave the Nazi Warmachine the face it did have.

[Kelfuma]

Thanks for sharing. I think history should make a clearer distinction between "Nazi" as in a member of the Nazi party and just a regular soldier. Voters don't usually call themselves democrats or republican but they would say they support a certain party (from what I observed at least.) Most, I would guess, were just regular soldiers who were ordered by the Nazi party to go to war.

[redeyemindtricks]

The American thing is nuts. I was ready to call bullshit on that until I searched the image.
•_______•

I bet those guys felt... a little awkward 6 years later mahah

[Derpdeder]

There was a shitton of jews and Zionists in the Nazi party

images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/.../...03,200_.jpg

[SnowHearth]

The Luftwaffe members where the most honorable beings from all Wehrmacht, they were trained to treat humanely their enemies. And unlike the other branches, they didn't participate in many crimes against humanity.

[Azgeda]

The Luftwaffe has a straight code that forbids fighter pilots from shooting wounded or downed pilots..
Jagdgeschwader 27's commanding officer Gustav Rödel told his men “If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute, I will shoot you myself."
The story of Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident where a Luftwaffe BF109 accompanies a damaged B-17 flight out of German territory so they could return to the RAF base in England. Quite the story.

People keep on forgetting many soldiers within the Wehmart and Luftwaffe were drafted into the force against their will. A lot of them don't want a single thing to do with the Nazi Party or the SS.

But well , history is written by the victor and it's easier to paint in black and white.

[FallOutBoy2001]

@Azgeda "I will shoot you myself" damn

[Hydra6544]

@SnowHearth the Whermacht and the Luftwaffe were completely different because the Wehrmacht was the army the Luftwaffe was the Air Force and the Kreigsmarine was the navy and most of the soldiers fought because of nationalism not Nazisim.

[smahala1991]

I did know about the American Nazi Party and the German American Bund. Plus the rally they had in message. I had also heard Rommel hated Nazism. World War 2 and beyond is like my top subject in History

[JenSCDC]

Isn't it more accurate to say that the Finns allied themselves with _Germany_?

[anonman32]

Yeah you could say that.

[wankiam]

especially as the nazis did not ever call themselves nazi.

[Saoirse_Nua]

It is amazing how many of those facts I had heard passing mentions of before, the stealth bombers, American Nazi Party, Rommel defiance and Finnish Nazis.

[Anonymous]

Another thing people don't know about them - they never called themselves "Nazis", only their political opponents did. There's no such thing as "Nazism", it was called National Socialism.

[anonman32]

Nazi short for national socialism you know.

[Opinion Owner]

It is, but only their opponents used that word. They didn't call themselves Nazis. It's like calling communism commiism because some people call them "commies".

[anonman32]

Yeah thats true.

[CisScum]

I knew hitler had blue eyes because it would be hypocritical if he didn't considering he thought the "best" people in the world have them.

[Righttobeararms83]

Hitler's chauffeur was half Jewish.

[anonman32]

@Righttobeararms83 yeah i knew that.

[Righttobeararms83]

He had sex woth Hitler's girlfriend/niece

[Dred1614returns]

I actually knew about Rommel. He often participated in exercises with his men, believing that a commander should be as fit as the men he commands.

[anonman32]

Thats true, commanding from the front was his strategy.

[Righttobeararms83]

One of his strengths one of his weaknesses was that he believed logistics were the concern of others.

[Anonymous]

Nazi women were sexy as fuck. Serious. You'd have to be complete faggot to not want to implant your seed into the master race women.

[Curmudgeon]

And for more than a few Americans, the post war occupation is where their fathers or grandfathers met their mothers or grandmothers, rest their souls..

[Zorax]

Interesting Take, I knew about most of these things, well... everything except for number 7, but still, very cool facts.

[SlightlyCrazy]

History major reporting
All awesome stuff but you got one detail wrong
Hitler didn't force Rommel to take cyanide

[anonman32]

But it was assisted suicide wasn't it?

[SlightlyCrazy]

You see this is a tiny ass detail
Not trying to be a dick
Rommel was highly respected
All the other offenders were hung with piano wire so they're heads would come of
Hitler had each death taped to enjoy
Rommel was given options over his death do to his status and chose the cyanide himself

[anonman32]

Oh wow interesting detail.

[SlightlyCrazy]

Hell yea I love detials! Awesome take

[anonman32]

Thanks man.