Newlyweds Nick and Michaela Beardshaw just wanted to incorporate Nick’s love of WWII reenactment into their wedding. What they got was a BBC reporter calling them Nazis on an edition of BBC1’s Panorama shown last month. Sure, Michaela is a German native, and Nick did dress in the standard uniform of a Second World War German army doctor.
But, Nick claims, he’s not actually the Nazi sympathizer he was made out to be on the BBC. Guests at the ceremony represented various WWII participant nations, not just Germany, but viewers were not shown the guests dressed as British and US soldiers. And when viewers heard Deutschland Uber Alles playing during the ceremony, Nick says it’s because the BBC dubbed it over I’ll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time for added shock value.
[Nick] claims that when he realised what the programme was about he asked for the footage not to be used.
He denied he is sympathetic to Nazi beliefs or has any link with neo-Nazi groups and has complained to the BBC and broadcasting watchdog Ofcom about the programme.
While I can’t say I think Nick and Michaela made the wisest choice when deciding on their wedding theme, war reenactments do require that players representing both sides participate. Some folks play the Axis powers and some folks play the Allies — and Nick just happens to be a member of the Axis Forces Re-enactment Association. I do hope they get an apology from the reporter who misrepresented them because the show undoubtedly cast a shadow over their newlywed glow.
I like that the bride has that classic German wife look from the era. Very cool. Also, he’s a doctor for crying out loud and he wasn’t displaying a bold swastika armband from what I can see. BOOOOO to the BBC, BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
It all sounds very much like a lawsuit in the making.
As a WWII history NERD I must point out to the BBC (who should know better) that when the Nazi party took over Germany it was no different then the Republicans being in power here. (Well until they brought hell to earth)
If you were in the German army you were a soldier in the army. Just because the Nazi Party ran the country did not make everyone in the army a Nazi. The German army was SEPERATE from the Nazi’s. That is why the SS, Gestapo and other seperate organizations were created. They were created to carry out Hitler’s twisted vision. The SS horrifically slaughtered and tortured the Jews, Homosexuals, Political Dissitents, Gypsies, Russian Soldiers, Poles, Hungarians, Handicapped, ETC. The German Army fought the war. Not to say that the soldiers may not have held Nazi beliefs. In fact there were soldiers that disagreed with the Nazi Party (of course silently) but felt national pride and sought to fight for their country (despite the rulers). Just like General Lee in our Civil War who agreed with the North but was from the South and therefore felt a need to fight for his homeland. (Arlington Cemetary was begun during the Civil War on Lee’s property as punishment for this decision).
Now that I’ve bored everyone with a history lesson, dressing as a WWII German Soldier is gonna catch you some flack. But like Audrey pointed out he’s not sporting any swatiskas or SS Death Skulls, after all he didn’t get his wedding outfit at Wal Mart http://www.scott-o-rama.com/2006/11/14/wal-marts-nazi-t-shirt/
Thanks for that, ang — I can be forgiven for not knowing that. But the reporter for the BBC (who I should add has been a source of controversy in the past) should certainly have done his research! Shameful, really.
They both looked great, and the wedding was lovely. The dress is original that the bride altered slightly and added to with her Edelweiss theme. Us Bridesmaids wore traditional Austrian Dirndls and carried horseshoes with the little flowers woven through.
Thanks for the added details, Kate. I hope that the bride and groom aren’t too dismayed by this utterly odd incident!
As a German I have to say I’m pretty disgusted. It doesn’t matter if the uniform bears any SS runes – it’s the uniform of Hitlers army. I will never get why Nazis are considered to be so sexy in Great Britain – there is nothing sexy about the Holocaust and there is absolutely nothing that “was good under Hitler”. Nothing. Not even Fashion.
I’m not saying that we should forget that it ever happened, I’m totally fine with being the third generation post WW 2 and still feeling the wrath and the hatred of the world. I can totally live with that, it’s just. I can live with all the oh-so-funny jokes.
However, I will never be able to accept this kind of stupidity.
It’s tasteless, plain and simple.
(And it’s “Deutschland” not “Deuchtschland”).
Thanks for pointing out my spelling error, Entsetzlich — I feel like a real weenie, having attended Droste-Hülshoff-Gymnasium for part of my high school years. Of course, I am a horrid, messy speller on the best of days.
Nevermind, that happens when a language has too many consonants 🙂
I don’t have a problem with the wedding, as I know plenty of re-enactors, and LARPers, and I understand that you have to have people play both sides. But what were they thinking when they allowed the BBC to feature them? Did they really think that a groom dressed as a Nazi-era soldier would get a fair showing as a history buff? I guess they did, but wow, that was naive. It’s one thing to want to be on television, but that’s their wedding, and now it will always be colored by the bad memories of what happened with the BBC. It’s pretty much the same thing as the Bridezilla post–why would you allow yourself to be filmed for that? Yes, you’ll get some money or some days at a resort, but for the rest of your life your wedding memories will bring up “Bridezillas” rather than happy memories of your ceremony and reception.
Ugh, what a disaster to have hanging over your wedding. Well, it certainly would haven’t been my choice, but I have come across avid Civil War buffs and of course both sides are represented. It seems to me the reenactors are most interested in war strategy and the social customs of the time.
Doctors were some of the worst Nazis of that era, participating in the Third Reich’s plans of “purifying the race” by “euthanising” mentally challenged children, the mentally ill, and Jews, and experimenting on inmates in concentration camps. The medical profession was the most represented profession in the Nazi party. So commentator Audrey saying “he’s a doctor for crying out loud” is completely misinformed. (Read “The Nazi Doctors” to learn more history.)
I find myself completely agreeing with the BBC for once. If reenacting is so important to this man, why not get married dressed as Hitler? Idiot.
In addition may I point out that contrary to what ang says, the German army DEFINITELY helped and participated in the wartime genocide, including rounding Jews and others up, murdering the entire Jewish populations of villages, etc. It’s no use trying to separate the German people from the Nazi party; they all (or almost all) participated in the crime, either actively or by staying silent while their neighbors were rounded up.
And of course it goes without saying that your comparison of “the Nazi party taking over Germany” being “no different then the Republicans being in power here” is wrong, offensive and disgusting.
“It’s no use trying to separate the German people from the Nazi party”
I have to disagree somewhat with this point, Nora. My German family lived through WWII — while there were certainly many people actively participating in Nazi crimes or simply remaining silent, many people were too busy surviving to do either. My grandfather was just a child living with his siblings and their mother in a hole in a farming field covered by a wooden door they’d salvaged. Where was the father, and what was he doing? They had no idea. My grandmother’s story is similar.
Sounds melodramatic, but it’s true. Saying that all Germans were Nazis or had any power to counter the Nazi party is just as offensive as saying that all the citizens of X support Y, where X is Iraq, the US, or anywhere else. I can’t fault those Germans who did not stand up to the Nazi party because they knew they would be killed for doing so, and I honestly don’t know if I would have the strength to lay down my life for my ideals if I were living through the same horrors.
Nora to clarify my comment on the Nazi Party being in power is no different then the R being in power here. It was not a slam at R it was merely to point out that the Nazi’s were just a Political party. They were not the army, they were not all the people of Germany. Just because one policial party is in control does not mean every citizen then follows their agenda.
Also saying you can not seperate the people from the party (b/c of there sin of silence or inaction) is unfair. Hiding Jews was a one way ticket to the camps. Furthermore, using that standard the world is hard to seperate from the Nazi Party. The world was well aware of what was occuring and for the most part did nothing. The US was silent too. Afterall Japan, not death camps, forced us into the war.
I suggest everyone read a survivors story, (or at least watch Schindlers List) and the story of how the Nazi’s came to power b/c it is scary what behind the scenes political manuvering and the chipping away of rights leads too. (the Nazi’s passed laws taking away many rights like free speech, the right to bear arms, protection from illegal searches etc. all in the name of security) Then use those stories and make sure such things never happen again (Rwanda, Darfur, etc). So that we don’t have to choose between our lives and our ideals. Like Never teh Bride I don’t know if I would have hid my neighbors, risking certain death, or have tried to ignore the ash. But I do hope, to paraphrase Pastor Martin Niemöller, when they come for me that there are some left to speak up.
Ironically, you get this a lot – nobody really seems to have been at home in Germany during this time. Everybody was very busy keeping their mouths shut, there wasn’t much you could do if anything. My grandmother told me (a six year old, when the horrors of war took her) people used to split everything the Jews owned after they were taken, she made a point to never take anything and always despised the people who did. That may not sound much, and it isn’t, but she could despise you in a way that made hell look like a nice place. And this was what hell looked like.
Germans live with a lot of guilt, guilt for everything that happened and guilt for letting it happen, for not standing up.
My grandfather was 17 when he had to become a soldier. He was a mineseeker. One day he found one and was blinded. My grandmother fled from Silesia (now Poland) to Lower Saxony with a newborn baby and a blind man, mostly on foot.
Now, would I like to reenact this episode of history?
People need to lighten up, Personally I’m glad it was 2 heterosexuals getting married, as far as the anti nazi German post about spelling , you lost the war we will spell it any dammed way we want to. and while i am at it, the war was forced on the German people and from where I sit the National Socialists managed to hold out against incredible odds for 6 years, it seems to me that the current governments of Europe cant hold off a modern invasion when they are not even at war. How anyone in their right mind would sit back and support the destruction of their land by foreign invaders is something that 88% of the American People understand and 95% of our leaders dont.
…it always feels a little weird when the comments get political. But everyone is entitled to their opinion, I suppose.