A story today about the trial of some Holocaust-denying British bishop reminded me of the anti-Nazi laws in Germany. Discouraging Nazism is probably a good thing, so long as they don’t create a backlash with stupid policy that makes it seem rebellious and anti-authoritarian and stuff. That’s why the fact that the Nazi salute is illegal has always made me laugh to myself a little: because the Nazi salute is really just sticking one’s right arm up and out, like anyone might do in any number of non-Nazi-related circumstances.
So, let’s say you’re a foreigner in Germany for a business trip. When you stick your arm/hand out to hail a cab (as opposed to heil a Hitler), do the police assume it’s a Nazi salute and jump on you and beat you up with nightsticks? And what about if you’re at the train station to meet your friend? When you raise your arm to get his or her attention, do the police there think you’re trying to espouse Nazism and tackle you and repeatedly pound you with tonfas? There are literally countless instances where you might need to do that kind of thing with your arm in normal, everyday, non-fascist life, and they could all apparently get you into trouble over there!
So perhaps I’m being a bit extreme here, but you get my drift. It is possible for someone to be completely ignorant of the whole illegality-of-raising-your-arm thing in Germany, and when they want to ask a question in a college class, they simply raise their arm, and: pounce! The cops apprehend them with a vengeance, battering them with truncheons! And it’s even possible that someday there will be a big crowd in the street somewhere in Germany, and it will be because some upstart neo-Nazis are trying to make trouble and hold a rally or whatever; so if you’re trying to meet someone on the street, or you simply see someone you know out there on the other side of the street, will you raise your arm to wave at them, and then the police will assume you’re part of this neo-Nazi scum and assault you? Because that’s the kind of repressive behavior that could actually lead to a neo-Nazi movement, so I hope they’re aware of that, and they don’t simply assume everyone is a Nazi every time they raise their right arm for whatever reason.
I guess what I’m saying is this: I hope context is considered when arresting people for supposedly making a Nazi salute in Germany, because anyone could accidentally make one at any time without even realizing it, as it’s such an ubiquitous utilitarian arm gesture for many purposes, none of which happen to have anything to do with Nazis! So if they arrest people for doing it, I hope they’re at least actually Nazis they’re arresting, even though I hope there aren’t any more Nazis anywhere anymore anyway.
Here’s the story, just so you won’t think I was making it up just as an excuse to talk about Nazis:
