wrote in message
...
Even in the Netherlands in the mid 50's, any plastic model-kit of German
aircraft had decals with the swatika missing.
At the time it was explained to me that the symbol might be "offensive" to
some people. Go figure..

The swastika was missing all the way through the '80s. I don't recall
exactly when the ban was lifted, but only now they are slowly appearing here
and there.
You may not realise where the offense came from. It came from two distinct
events: the large percentage of Dutch jews that never returned from nazi
hospitality (outranked only by the Polish percentage), and the fact that a
very large portion of the country was starved by the german occupation after
the Dutch initiated a railroad strike after "market-Garden" (the notorious
failure of the Arnhem air-assault). The nazis stepped up their
terror-campaign, holding more razzias, and killing 100 resistance members
and deporting all men from the town of Putten to slave labour camps (the
town itself was set ablaze) in revenge for the attempted assasination of the
head of the SD. In addition to this, the coalmines were now on the "wrong"
side of the frontline, so not only food was missing, but heating as well. As
any service-member who served in the Ardennes can tell you, 1944-1945 was
the coldest winter in a very long time. In spite of food-help from Sweden
and Switzerland/IRC (which saved thousands of lives), the situation became
so bad that US and RAF bombercrews were flying to the western provinces with
food instead of bombs during the final days of the war (operations
"Manna"(RAF) and Chowhound (USAF).
Read about that on http://users.interstroom.nl/~heijink/ and you will
understand why the swastika is (to this day) considered to be offensive.

Ron
--
Non urinat in ventum