you know i made a really good observation

[abaris]

The best observation about America at any time would have been the "non olet" philosophy. Money doesn't stink, as long as someone's making a profit. There were a number of American companies doing business with Nazi Germany well into the war.

General Motors for example was the mother company of the German brand "Opel", which in turn provided the standard truck for the German army. There was of course Ford, operating out of Cologne. IBM of course provided punch card systems, making the job easier for the administrators of the Holocaust. And there was the CocaCola company, which arguably didn't do much for the war effort. But the first cable the German management sent to the mother company after the war was over, read "send accountant".

Apart from fertilising the fields for anti semitism over the centuries, Christianity actually didn't play that large a role in the decisions made by the Nazi leaders. They considered themselves deists, not Theists. Hitler stayed in the Catholic church, but in private he talked about his plans to dismantle the churches for good after the war was won. Himmler wanted to establish a whole new religion for his SS. They were required to call themselves "gottgläubig", which roughly translates into deist. And of course, he found his way to religious persecution, which he then claimed happened in the US today. Well, religious people have been persecuted in Nazi Germany. Not for their religion, but for standing up against Hitler's regime. Being part of a certain believe - apart from the jews of course - didn't earn you persecution. Some religious people, pastors and priests included, found it in their heart to stand up and their interpretation of their believes has played a role. But emphasis on some. But communists also stood up against the regime and their believe system played a role in that too.

The role of religion in Nazi Germany is a very complicated issue. You could write books about it, in fact there have been many books written about it. What I notice is, that the American media tends to simplify the matter. Liberal media outlets tend to say, they were all christians and I've heard the argument made often times that the standard belt buckle of the German army read "Gott mit uns" (god with us). Well, that's true, but it had a very long tradition dating back to the 19th century. The SS belt buckle for example read "Meine Ehre heißt Treue" (my honor is loyalty), which eerily resembles "semper fi". So, going by belt buckle alone, can I make the argument, that American Marines uphold the same tradition of mindless obedience?

The conservative media on the other hand and many conservative politicians talk about the Nazis being atheists, which is equally untrue. I've just watched a clip where Rick Santorum pulled another Nazi comparism out of his ass. Of course, again garnered with the loss of religious believes in Germany - untrue - over 90 percent of Germans indentified themselves as Christians at the time.