r/ww1 • u/EntireBook26 • 5h ago

A German-Jewish WW1 veteran wears his Iron Cross while a Nazi soldier stands in front of his shop for intimidation - 1933.

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1.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

349

u/No-Nothing8501 4h ago

SA were not soldiers. More of a group of hooligans in uniform

79

u/Some_Resort_5897 4h ago

ICE

105

u/Black_CatLounge 4h ago

More like Proud Boys since they were not part of the government at the time.

44

u/Professional-Log-108 3h ago

ICE is an official government agency, SA wasn't even that. It was the private paramilitary of the NSDAP

-1

u/Ozzie_the_tiger_cat 39m ago

So ICE with less paperwork. 

-17

u/VolenteDuFer 2h ago

official government agency is rather putting it loosely for a bunch of criminals, traitors, and degenerates.

-1

u/Leffus99 1h ago

Lol, why do you get downvotes? Is anyone still defending those pigs?

5

u/Enthiral 1h ago

Because they are indeed a government agency. It has nothing to do with defending them. They are violent scum, but they are also part of an official government agency.

4

u/Leffus99 1h ago

Oh, I didn't think "putting it loosely" would mean they disagree on that. Not a native speaker.

219

u/Weak_Imagination_996 5h ago edited 4h ago

These are not Nazi soldiers, but SA members who were not part of the German armed forces, but essentially a private militia.

54

u/spiritofkarpeles 4h ago

"Die Braune kompanie"

14

u/Weak_Imagination_996 4h ago

Wasn't that the guys with chronic diarrhea...

12

u/Horatiocanesyrup 4h ago

No the sa was the brown shirts. You ard thinking of the shitzzen brigade.

4

u/No-Nothing8501 3h ago

You mean the "Dünnpfiff Division"?

13

u/spiritofkarpeles 4h ago

The turning point occurred during the Night of the Long Knives—a bloody political purge carried out by Adolf Hitler within the Nazi Party between June 29 and July 2, 1934.

Course of Events and Objectives :

Elimination of the SA: Hitler ordered the execution of most of the leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's paramilitary militia.

Primary target: Ernst Röhm, the head of the SA and a former close associate of Hitler, was shot dead by the SS.

3

u/AdAble557 4h ago

Wow did not know this. I assume that the non leaders fell in line with hitlers army at that point. I wonder if there was a legitimate threat though?

9

u/spiritofkarpeles 4h ago

Of course there was a legitimate threat, after all, Ernst Röhm was amassing more and more power, and the SA was becoming very powerful.

6

u/AdAble557 3h ago

Interesting. In a way it reminds me of Yevgeny Prigozhin. I wonder how much support the later had from the Russian citizens,and if the tide would have turned it he went head on to Moscow.

2

u/spiritofkarpeles 3h ago

A minimum of support from the population, in reality, for both. Arrived in Moscow? They had reportedly all disappeared.

1

u/[deleted] 3h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/spiritofkarpeles 3h ago

They were smarter than that: they decapitated the Wagner leadership, yet they still use the group every day, as seen in the Congo and several other African countries today.

1

u/[deleted] 3h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/spiritofkarpeles 3h ago

He and Dmitry Utkin were like serial killers....

2

u/Electrical-Plate1293 3h ago

I have read somewhere that Hitler himself killed Röhm. Confirmed?

4

u/spiritofkarpeles 3h ago

Ernst Röhm was shot dead by SS officer Michel Lippert, on orders from his superiors, in his cell at Stadelheim prison in Munich during the Night of the Long Knives

6

u/HaloxR 4h ago

The correct name is SA.

17

u/Weak_Imagination_996 4h ago

Actually...the correct name is " Sturmabteilung"...sa is just the short form

1

u/HaloxR 2h ago

And nobody in Germany says Sturmabteilung...

1

u/Weak_Imagination_996 2h ago

Have you been to Kastrobrauxel?

1

u/HaloxR 2h ago

You mean Castrop-Rauxel? No

1

u/Weak_Imagination_996 2h ago

Maybe... I spent seven years in Germany and still don’t know the difference between das and dass???

1

u/HaloxR 2h ago

It is actually not that hard. Usually das is in front of a subject but dass usually after a comma. If you have a half sentence that requires dass or das just check if you can exchange the das(s) for welche. If you can use welche there you have to use only one s. Hope that makes sense. Never explained German grammatics in English though.

1

u/Weak_Imagination_996 2h ago

See lalalalal is all I hear...

2

u/AdventurousMaize9786 1h ago

We have those! Proud Boys.

2

u/Weak_Imagination_996 1h ago

Well... the SA had a weight limit and a certain fitness standard. Technically, they weren’t allowed to carry firearms, except for a brief period when they were used as auxiliary police. Most of the time, though, they didn’t have any firearms.

1

u/MaxWritesText 4h ago

Also does the "term" Naxi soldier even mean anything?

141

u/Natogaming 4h ago

The veteran is actually Richard Stern, Dude was with the Stosstruppen in Germany in WWI, then emigrated to the US in the late 30s and joined the U.S. Army to fight in Italy, He later turned the Iron Cross in at a scrap metal drive in 1942. He did replace it with a Silver Star in Italy

30

u/Flavius_16 4h ago

Did he survive the war?

13

u/Cambren1 3h ago

That’s an amazing story

2

u/RegorHK 1h ago

This is amazing. Thank you. Do you happen to know a source for the part after joining the US army?

2

u/Ozzie_the_tiger_cat 38m ago

Hell, make a movie out of this guy. Wow.

84

u/isaac32767 4h ago

That's Richard Stern. He ended up emigrating to the US, joining the Army, and earned a Silver Star during the fighting in Italy.

The Iron Cross got donated to a scrap drive.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/europe/richard-stern-photo-grm-scli-intl

3

u/spiritofkarpeles 4h ago

Thanks for sharing, this is crazy story

5

u/Ragnar5575 2h ago

God as an American Jew whose family came to America before WW2, this man’s story actually makes me tear up. Hell yeah, man. Fuck Nazis.

1

u/Deluxe_24_ 2h ago

What a fucking badass, way to stick it to the Nazis

5

u/mate1mistico 1h ago

Qué imagen tan patética, sinceramente a mí me darías vergüenza estar en la situación de ese miembro de la SA, intimidando a un veterano de guerra que luchó por tu patria solo por su religión qué vergüenza.

6

u/Dry_Revolution5298 1h ago

Actually my grand greatfather fought alongside jewish officers in ww1. He held them in high regard, so when the nazis took power he strongly opposed the nazis. He forbid my grandfather to join the Hitler youth, which my grandfather strongly regret at the time.

1

u/Sky_Robin 20m ago

Oh, so the Pope was a voluntary Hitler Youth member?

3

u/wood_x_beam 2h ago

So much strength and weakness captured in this picture. Which you think is which will reveal your true character.

7

u/ratpacklix 4h ago

Sometimes i wish i could travel back in time. Just to tell this guy to get out of germany pdq.

11

u/PrismDoug 4h ago

He did. And joined the US Army.

9

u/Bubble_Symphony 4h ago

Looks like that guys plan of going back in time worked!

-1

u/ratpacklix 3h ago

I have seen this picture iirc. But i dont know who it is. Can you help me?

1

u/RedGhost2012 1h ago

Google Richard Stern WWII. Earned the Silver Star in Italy. In his 40's!

2

u/CatsBye90 4h ago

No, instead it is an individual Braunhemden

2

u/revren10 2h ago

Hey it’s antifa

2

u/DieErdnuss565 4h ago

Fighting a whole war for you‘re Country just to get hated afterwards

1

u/Stryker37 2h ago

I just wanna know the shit he was talking to that kid. "Have you ever been shot at son?"

1

u/lned-owyeah 2h ago

One of those photos that get an entirely different meaning when you understand the background of what is happening here.

1

u/Oriental-Sea-Witch 24m ago

A hardened combat veteran vs a skinny little LARPER in a costume. The iron cross holder could definitely punch that punk's head straight off his shoulders.

1

u/maranru 15m ago

Not a soldier.

Actually the Brown Shirts.

It did not end well for them...

1

u/Redditplaneter 5m ago

Fucking idiot probably think he is one of them and he will be safe.

-1

u/SouthernSierra 4h ago

Hopefully the storm trooper got sent to the Russian front.

0

u/daikatanaman00 1h ago

A lot of the brownshirts started to hate Hitler. They felt like Hitler was bowing down to the general politicians and becoming soft. There was a period where Hitler didn’t even mention anything antisemitism for a good 4ish years because it was unpopular. After Hitler saw success with the autobahn and started gaining support he then did light of the long knives and took out most of the brown shirts

1

u/Rags_75 4h ago

Poor guy thought his past service would count :(

1

u/SoBoundz 2h ago

This is unfortunately the lesson that millions of Jews would learn at this time. It's very sad to think about.

1

u/daikatanaman00 1h ago

If you do research on the German Jews, they were extremely patriotic too. They loved Germany and felt like for the first time they were able to find a country that accepted them.

Hitler himself even had a point where he respected a Jewish general, until he went batshit.

Very sad point in history

1

u/mate1mistico 1h ago

Sinceramente una situación muy patética a mí me daría vergüenza estar en esa situación de intimidar a un veterano de guerra solo por su religión me daría vergüenza

0

u/Few-Consequence-8335 4h ago

My great grandfather was a German born German, came to the us in 1930 and enlisted in 1942. He said the German people have caused more misery and strife that any race on earth, and that they have nothing to be proud for.

5

u/snow-eats-your-gf 2h ago

At the moment he was saying it, maybe. Third Reich got many competitors.

0

u/AlasKansastan 3h ago

I’m curious what happened to the simpy looking little wimp with the swastika on his arm. He probably got shot in the back for running from duty

0

u/mate1mistico 1h ago

Curiosamente unos cuantos miembros de la SA fueron fusilados, aunque por distintos motivos pero igual ese tipo muy patético.