I HAVE just returned from the excellent We Have Ways Fest hosted by James Holland and Al Murray, where I met not only some of my excellent Substack subscribers, but also saw many old friends and new. My most onerous task over the weekend was to help judge the Horrendous Hawaiian Shirt Competition, which was won by Paul Hicks for this truly horrific effort featuring a stetson- and cravat-wearing cat riding a shark vomiting a rainbow. Apparently he found the offending item simply by entering ‘shit shirt’ on Amazon, and for that stroke of genius, he walked off with the Golden Avocado.
However, the one truly tasteless thing I was delighted not to see anybody wearing was an SS uniform. Although there were plenty of reenactors at the fest, not one was sporting the telltale lightning runes on a collar tab, or wearing a cap complete with a death’s head. Indeed, the nearest thing to anything SS was a replica Sd.Kfz. 251 armoured personnel carrier with an SS numberplate, which didn’t seem too offensive. In addition, I don’t think I saw a single wartime German uniform during the entire event.
Five years ago, the situation was very different, and at many history festivals there would have been several – often, let’s be honest, quite portly – men walking around dressed as a members of the SS. If anybody remarked that perhaps wearing such uniforms was tasteless, or perhaps even downright offensive, the stock response was that all sides of the conflict needed to be portrayed, and that by not having Waffen-SS troops as part of the reenacting community, history was somehow being ‘airbrushed’. And no, the justification would continue, simply wearing an SS uniform did not actually make one a Nazi, and that complaining about it was somehow an expression of political correctness gone mad.
The problem with this response is that nobody really bought it. Of all the myriad uniforms worn in the Second World War, why were those of the SS so popular? Or for that matter, any of the branches of the Nazis’ armed forces? Never mind that there is a difference between an SS uniform and an army uniform, because many people really can’t spot it, and take offence at all German uniforms of the period. The suspicion was – and remains – that people who like dressing up in Nazi uniforms are basically a bit strange and inadequate at best, and actual Nazis at worst.
Even if that is unfair, the problem is that wearing such uniforms does cause offence, and outweighs whatever slight historical value that is provided by seeing what an SS soldier looked like at first hand. This is not to deny that reenactors can teach us valuable lessons about what life was like for the fighting man – as I discussed with Paul Bavill – but I’m not entirely certain that having men walking around festivals dressed as Nazi troops provides historians or festival-goers with anything useful, and is actually hugely counter-productive.
There is a place for Nazi uniforms, and that is on mannequins in museums. There, they can be contextualised and explained, and because they are not animated by present day human beings, the offensiveness is removed.
On reflection, perhaps a museum might also be a good place for Phil’s shirt. Either there, or landfill, along with so many thankfully redundant replica Nazi uniforms.
As I may have said before. I’m baffled why anyone would dress up in an SS uniform or frankly a uniform from the Luftwaffe or the Heer. The work of Victoria Taylor, Philip Blood, and Waitman Beorn has exposed the cleanliness myth of both.
Why anyone would want to "re-enact" being a member of the SS escapes me. Dress up as an SS officer, what do you "re-enact"? I've attended some excellent living history events over the years (mainly connected with my favourite military history period, the Napoleonic Wars) and learned a lot from the re-enactors. A very nice man from a Guards re-enactment group showed me how to make/fill cartridges for a Brown Bess in their camp in the garden of Hougoumont as they were preping for the 2005 re-enactment of Waterloo. I've had a go at throwing an axe with some Vikings. Eaten Anglo-Saxon porridge. And fired a matchlock musket (as well as the afore mentioned Brown Bess). All fun for me. But just sitting listening or talking to re-enactors about their kit, how they actually do "rough it" under canvas, and explaining the production and use of everything from their headgear to their cooking arrangements is fascinating. One of my best friends was a very active re-enactor of the US Civil War when younger. And the amount of time he spent making his kit was amazing. He gave it up for wife, kids and mortgage. But, and here there is a direct connect with the SS question, he started to feel uncomfortable marching about dressed as a Confederate private. And this was long, long before the controversy over Confederate statues etc. I do recall asking him why Confederate rather than Union. He was starry eyed about the "elan" of the ANV. We had a rather heated conversation (after a good dinner) as to why he, whose politics were/are on the left, and who served as a union rep alongside me, should spend time and money celebrating the defence of chattel slavery. He couldn't answer. I don't say I changed his mind (and he still has all his kit) but I may have helped him along. So, what do SS re-enactors do? Here is a demonstration of a "special action" conducted in a Ukrainian forest in 1942? Next performance of raising the Warsaw Ghetto at 3pm. Get there early so the kids get a good view? Try our cattle truck simulator with a REAL selection process at the end. Will you make the cut? Of course, I'm being ridiculous, but no more than those who dress as the men (and women) of the SS. And as for other German/Axis uniforms? Well, their hands weren't clean either. So, a total ban? Or would that be too far? A few years back we had the perennial calls to boycott Hugo Boss clothing and other products because he "designed" the SS uniform. Another friend of mine was much in favour. Thing is, he has driven volkswagens for as long as I have known him, and one of his prize possessions is a very flash coffee maker made by Krupp. When I pointed this out, he didn't get it. But, to get back to the subject in hand, there really is no place for SS uniforms at living history events, but we must ensure that the weak in the head who think there is, don't win a victory via the back door by expunging the evil acts of that organisation from such events.