Robert Citino: On Being a Wiking
[Robert Citino is a history professor at the University of North Texas.]
In the words of that great screenwriter Cameron Crowe, I'm "almost famous."
Last week I was contacted by Joshua Green, Senior Editor at Atlantic Monthly. Seems there is a candidate running for Congress in northwestern Ohio who has been part of a Waffen-SS re-enactor group. Their aim, like that of re-enactors everywhere, was to "live history," in this case the history of the 5th SS Panzer Division, a multinational mechanized formation nicknamed "Wiking." Green wanted to know my thoughts about the Division and those who would re-enact it. I said some negative things, and I stick by them...
I'd like to remind my re-enactor friends, though, to beware of the company they keep. I don't personally have the re-enactor gene, but I have, over the years, been a member of another misunderstood community that has had to endure its share of mockery. I am a wargamer: board wargames, that is, the ones with hexagon maps and all those little cardboard counters. I own somewhere between 100 and a bazillion, from all the classic companies–Avalon Hill, SPI, GDW–as well as their numerous modern successors.
While I had a ball, especially back in graduate school when I actually had time to set up and play a monster game like Drang nach Osten, I can tell you one thing about those days. There was a fringe element in the hobby that worshiped the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, and, I sometimes suspected, Hitler himself. Ask anyone who was wargaming back in the 70's and 80's, and I'm sure they'll confirm what I'm saying. The number of wargames back in the day that seemed to be channeling the Wehrmacht on their box covers–usually with a cover image of a German army or SS officer in a heroic pose–was a topic discussed constantly in the wargaming press....
Read entire article at HistoryNet
In the words of that great screenwriter Cameron Crowe, I'm "almost famous."
Last week I was contacted by Joshua Green, Senior Editor at Atlantic Monthly. Seems there is a candidate running for Congress in northwestern Ohio who has been part of a Waffen-SS re-enactor group. Their aim, like that of re-enactors everywhere, was to "live history," in this case the history of the 5th SS Panzer Division, a multinational mechanized formation nicknamed "Wiking." Green wanted to know my thoughts about the Division and those who would re-enact it. I said some negative things, and I stick by them...
I'd like to remind my re-enactor friends, though, to beware of the company they keep. I don't personally have the re-enactor gene, but I have, over the years, been a member of another misunderstood community that has had to endure its share of mockery. I am a wargamer: board wargames, that is, the ones with hexagon maps and all those little cardboard counters. I own somewhere between 100 and a bazillion, from all the classic companies–Avalon Hill, SPI, GDW–as well as their numerous modern successors.
While I had a ball, especially back in graduate school when I actually had time to set up and play a monster game like Drang nach Osten, I can tell you one thing about those days. There was a fringe element in the hobby that worshiped the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, and, I sometimes suspected, Hitler himself. Ask anyone who was wargaming back in the 70's and 80's, and I'm sure they'll confirm what I'm saying. The number of wargames back in the day that seemed to be channeling the Wehrmacht on their box covers–usually with a cover image of a German army or SS officer in a heroic pose–was a topic discussed constantly in the wargaming press....