This isn’t one of the times where you can claim it’s like finding the wolfsangel in the crest of an old forester family.
Just for the record: It’s not just some ancient thing you might find somewhere. It’s in active use in German heraldry, family crests, insignia of hunter organisations, etc. It’s a (by now outlawed because cruel) weapon to hunt wolves and foxes. Literally means “wolf rod”, “rod” here in the sense of fishing rod, one side of it would be hung up in a tree, while the part with barbs was equipped with a lure. Have a picture of a reconstruction (just the steel, not the gruesome details).
Semiotically I’d say it’s connected to protection, feistiness, because wolves scary monsters and shit (which really isn’t the case but that’s another can of worms). But consider your run of the mill peasant seeing that thing in a noble crest or such and saying “yep they’re keeping us safe”.
Every German one, two, and five cent coin has oak leaves on it. Same for the D-Mark. Germany is the successor state of Nazi Germany. The SS used oak leaves in insignia. Is the Bundesbank a Nazi organisation? Germany as a whole?
If a Nazi organization uses a symbol (any symbol) as a Nazi dogwhistle, and the government comes in, claims to have cleaned house but keeps the name and that symbol, do you not think that raises some red flags? Does it not make you consider the distinct possibility that they’re not doing a thorough job and just slapping a new coat of paint on the kubelwagon?
I have no reason to believe they weren’t thorough. Have you? Aside from assuming they weren’t thorough by not getting rid of the Wolfsangel. These kinds of insignia aren’t just changed will-nilly, there were a significant number of non-Nazis already in Azov who might’ve liked it, it is not considered to be a Nazi symbol in public Ukrainian perception (though it’s not a common heraldic theme, either, it’s simply “some fancy shape”). They did get rid of the black sun, that one is plain and simply indefensible.
dissolving it […] moving the men and material into other units or forming a new regiment
Ukraine is at war. By pulling regiments apart and reconstituting them you severely fuck with their fighting efficiency: Effective operations require trust in your comrades, requires knowing your comrades, how they will react in what situation, it requires prolonged periods of joint training.
In peace times, sure, that’d be the right thing to do. But Ukraine doesn’t have that luxury. Azov has been fighting Russian invaders since 2014, without pause. For quite a while it was the only regiment really fighting because the Ukrainian army was in complete shambles thanks to hybrid Russian warfare fucking with it. You don’t just dissolve your most experienced force while they’re keeping the enemy from running you over.
and a command structure that’s entirely comprised of army personnel.
…it’s not an army unit, but paramilitary police.
The biggest indicator for me, really, of the denazification working is swathes of Nazis simply packing their stuff and leaving. Why the fuck would they have done that if they had buddies in the interior ministry “only removing the black sun but turning a blind eye to the rest”?
I’m just gonna get it out of the way up front: equating oak leaves and a symbol with, once again, its own ADL entry and many pictures of Nazis using it in tattoos, emblems and patches is absurd and can only be interpreted as providing cover and defense for nazis. Stop defending nazis.
I do have reason to believe they’re just throwing a new coat of paint on the kubelwagon: they’re at war and they want command and control of the Nazi regiment!
You said it yourself, they didn’t do the right thing because they want the Nazis fighting for them.
They didn’t denazify anything and we can both look and see by the symbols and name they used!
equating oak leaves and a symbol with, once again, its own ADL entry
I keep bringing up those examples because you don’t seem to get the point that the thing is not a Swastika. But let me come up with another example, and as the ADL is not really the best source here let’s take the actual authority on the matter, the Bundesverfassungsschutz. Page 26, section 2.13, the Freiheitliche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, featuring its abbreviation “FAP” (sic) inside a cogwheel.
Does that mean that users of the Rust programming logo are now Nazis because letter in cogwheel?
And I can already anticipate the objection: The Rust community didn’t start out as a Nazi org. But then on the flipside Azov got denazified. If Rust did start out as a Nazi org, would we have to get rid of the cogwheel? Or does it get a pass because you can see it used in, among other places, socialist emblems?
You said it yourself, they didn’t do the right thing because they want the Nazis fighting for them.
I didn’t say that. In peace times it would have been the right thing, but Ukraine isn’t at peace, and not dissolving the regiment is necessitated by the war whether the reformed Azov ended up with 80% or 20% Nazis. (According to the Ukrainian state is was something like 20%, and not the really hardcore ones. Presumably also includes Strasserites and all kinds of stuff).
I do have reason to believe they’re just throwing a new coat of paint on the kubelwagon: they’re at war and they want command and control of the Nazi regiment!
Then why go through (enough) denazification to have swathes of Nazis leave?
Also, I see nothing wrong whatsoever with Nazis dying on the front. I fundamentally oppose them running through the streets intimidating people or worse, I oppose them in any legislative capacity, but I don’t mind them holding back an invader. What’s there to loose? They survive and we’re not worse off than before, they die, well, then that’s that.
Or, put differently: Would you support sending them to the front as a penalty battalion?
Bonus: The Verfassungschutz pdf, page 38, section 2.35. The fuckers appropriated the Antifa flags of all things. If you simply outlaw everything they’re using and everything that looks like something they’re using they’re going to appropriate absolutely everything to deny it to us. I wonder if the ADL will copy that one into their list, they’re not always known for having the best of takes.
And while I’m at it, page 82, translated:
The Wolfsangel was an identifying feature of the youth organisation “Junge Front” (JF), which was banned in 1982. Its use in connection with a banned organisation is punishable by law. Independent uses, e.g. in town and club coats of arms are not punishable.
1982. It took the symbol that long to even land on the list, presumably because only then did Nazis stumble across it while looking through SS division logos.
You hear that everybody? The Nazi regiment can keep using their hate symbol! Yeah, because they denazified. How can we tell they denazified? They said so. Those are the rules. Who made the rules? The Germans, why? No we can’t trust the ADL. Who says? A German. No, they’re not on one of the .de instances, why?
