Hans-Ulrich Rudel: War Honors
[Der Weg 1951-11] An original translation of "Die Kriegsauszeichnungen"
Title: War Honors [de: Die Kriegsauszeichnungen]
Author: Hans-Ulrich Rudel
“Der Weg” Issue: Year 05, Issue 11 (November 1951)
Page(s): 815
Dan Rouse’s Note(s):
Der Weg - El Sendero is a German and Spanish language magazine published by Dürer-Verlag in Buenos-Aires, Argentina by Germans with connections to the defeated Third Reich.
Der Weg ran monthly issues from 1947 to 1957, with official sanction from Juan Perón’s Government until his overthrow in September 1955.
See the Han-Ulrich Rudel Index for more details on his life and contributions to Der Weg.
Source Document(s):
[LINK] Scans of 1951 Der Weg Issues (archive.org)
War Honors
by Hans Ulrich Rudel
The year 1813 is engraved on one side of our Iron Cross, signifying its founding by Friedrich Wilhelm III on March 10, 1813. Its most recent renewal came in 1939 during the Third Reich, which adopted the swastika as its emblem, just as the crown once symbolized the monarchy. Thus, it is no surprise that the reverse side bears the year 1939 and this emblem. In the prisoner-of-war camps, we remained indifferent to repeated demands to cast aside these so-called "Nazi symbols"; the eyes of my comrades revealed only profound contempt for an adversary who showed no chivalry, no respect for what we had achieved.
Must we even stress that, to us, there are no such things as "Nazi emblems"? If the swastika is what they mean, it is merely a symbol for us, no different from the emblems other nations hold dear. Millions of our comrades fell at the front and at home bearing awards adorned with this symbol. Our fallen comrades bore these honors without shame—why should it be any different for us? Should we ever wear such awards again, they will be the very same ones our comrades carried to their deaths on the field of honor. As for "well-meaning changes"—perhaps they’d like to swap the swastika for a "bankrupt eagle"—we politely decline.
Furthermore, the world must surely concede that it was the Germany of 1939 that stood against Bolshevism to the point of self-sacrifice, while the Western powers have yet to prove they could defeat it as we might have, had they not betrayed us. We ask those gentlemen who constantly invoke the name of democracy:
"Did the Third Reich—now endlessly portrayed as a dictatorship and a cautionary tale—ever dare to take issue with the awards of the First World War, to ban or alter them?"
Let those gentlemen drafting changes to our awards today go ahead and do so; they’re paid for their efforts, and it matters little to us—not least because these individuals surely earned no honors themselves in the fight against Bolshevism. Where, then, could they possibly find the understanding for us? Half measures in this so-called moral rearmament will not sway us; we won’t be fooled by the small gesture they extend, for we know the fist still lurks behind it, ready to strike should we refuse to be the obedient tool of forces that now find it convenient to downplay their "anti-militaristic stance" and feign "patriotism" instead.
We front-line soldiers will not play the role they’ve scripted for us, nor will we let ourselves become bargaining chips. We are what we were, and we stand by our past, forged in the crucible of the Second World War. Our fight was against Bolshevism, which once again threatens to ravage the world—whether we battled it in the East or against its allies in the West makes no difference. If any soldier has the right to wear his awards with pride, it is the German who earned them in this fateful struggle. Whether certain gentlemen are fixated on the swastika or not changes nothing about that fact!
First, free our comrades still languishing in Allied concentration camps. Is it not an utter mockery that we even discuss the question of awards while those men sit in prison for their duty and bravery in the fight against Bolshevism? This very fact proves yet again that we are meant to be nothing more than bargaining chips. Our soldierly honor, our deep sense of camaraderie—they care little for these; no wonder, since they stand so far apart from us, infinitely distant, in a wholly different world!
Mosley’s press Euphorion Books