Visit MinnieApolis's column >>

MINNIEAPOLIS

FYI - Go to vote-smart.org for voting records of candidates
Add To Watchlist
Articles Posted: 309; Links Seeded: 1921
Member Since: 5/2007Last Seen: 2/09/2010

Swastikas and Tinsel: How the Nazis Stole Christmas

advertisement

More than 30 years after Rita Breuer first began collecting Christmas knickknacks, selected objects from the family collection have gone on show at the National Socialism Documentation Center in Cologne. The exhibition focuses on how the Nazis misused Christmas for their own foul purposes and tried to turn it into a "Germanic" winter solstice festival.

Published to:

What's this?
Who's leading the conversation?
This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.
3.4
{"commentId":10667565,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

It seems so strange that they deliberately tried to have a Christmas without Christ, without that little Jewish baby born in a manger. But now everything is so secularized here and globally regarding this very religious holiday, that it no longer really shocks us.

But the legacy of the Nazi Christmas is more long-lasting than might be suspected. The Nazi-era version of the traditional Christmas carol "Es ist für uns eine Zeit angekommen" ("Unto us a time has come") is still sung in Germany today, for example. "The Nazis took out the references to Jesus and made it into a song about walking through the snow," Breuer says.
{"commentId":10667565,"threadId":"723875","contentId":"3499294","authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}
  • 2 votes
Reply#1 - Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:58 PM EST
{"commentId":10693678,"authorDomain":"pennid"}

Politicians of any era are always willing to twist anything to their dogma. Most people will not allow the Christian version of Christmas to be twisted, thus the traditional celebration has survived all these years.

{"commentId":10693678,"threadId":"723875","contentId":"3499294","authorDomain":"pennid"}
  • 1 vote
Reply#2 - Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:44 PM EST
{"commentId":10703152,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

Yet oddly enough, PenniD, the secularization of the holiday begun by the Nazis has continued at an accelerated pace since WWII. You might think the Nazis won, in this case.

{"commentId":10703152,"threadId":"723875","contentId":"3499294","authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}
  • 1 vote
Reply#3 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 1:25 PM EST
{"canLink":false,"threadId":"723875","isPrivate":false}
Leave a Comment:
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead.
As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.
{"threadId":"723875","contentId":"3499294"}
Start TrackingStart Tracking
Stop TrackingStop Tracking