"Ron" wrote in
:


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

It is also to notice that the swastika was not a "Hochheitszeichen" It
was not the cockarde for Germany (that was the Balkenkreuz) but it was a
sign from the nazi-party and what it stood for.

Having said that, I will not spend 3 weeks detailing a 1/48th scale
messereschmitt cockpit for historical and technical accuracy and then
omit the swastika on the tail fin.
And I also build russian fighters with their red stars. Eventhough what
Stalin did under that star (to millions of his own people) during and
after the war.
Same goes for the Japanese meatball.

my 2 ct.

Cheers,

Dennis Loep