Nazi Christmas

There is a fascinating piece at The Independent this morning on a new exhibit at the National Socialism Documentation Centre, on what the Nazis bizarrely tried to do about Christmas.  (Jesus was Jewish, you see—a bit of a problem for the Third Reich.)

How about recasting Santa Claus as the Norse god Odin?  Of course, sub a swastika in for everywhere there was a star.  The coming of Jesus was replaced with the coming of Adolf Hitler—the “Savior Fürher.”  Hey, let’s bake some cakes in the shapes of SS and Iron Cross insignias!  Let’s rewrite “Silent Night” with nationalistic lyrics!

Go check it out.  Remember, this was just 70 years ago.

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